...Quorncorde

Yeah you know like soon you will have cars that run on shrooms and all like you can grow them on the dashboard or in the glove compartment or so and when the cops stop you just say "man, you see I'm growing the shroom to keep going man, keep going!" and they will pat you on the back and say "well done, son, responsible" and off you go shrooooomin in your mushroomobile and you wont be afraid to state "man, I got the fungus on me". Good times!

Perhaps the USAF should have a good look around at some of the recycling technologies they already have in the US. There is a company called Global Resource Corp that zaps plastics and things like old tyres in a large microwave to produce a high calorific content diesel and a good percentage of pure carbon black (soot). Shortly we could see America processing the Springfield tyre fire to propell their airforce whilst spreading the the sooty by product on their allotments.

Oh ffs, leave the fossil fuels where they are. Finish of the Integral Fast Reactor and we'll solve the nuclear waste issue, the energy for the developing world and rogue states (ie Iran) issue and the nuclear weapon disposal problem. I'm so sick of government facilitated corporate profiteering.

I thought the US military stopped using mushrooms (amongst other things) for any purpose after Vietnam...

MikeC

Biofuel is people!!

IMHO, Problem with that is, coal oil requires cooking the coal at very high temperatures, so it costs a lot of it's energy to produce.

That energy has to come from somewhere, either from regular oil, coal powered stations, or Nuclear, but whichever way it's an incredibly wasteful energy source. It's not a bio fuel, it's an environmental disaster fuel.

I reckon they didn't find as much oil as they hoped in Iraq:

http://www.brookings.edu/views/op-ed/fellows/luft20030512.htm

Also Tom Dispatch had an article on the oil crunch the Pentagon is faces:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174810

badger badger badger badger mushroom mushroom powered killing machine!!!

Badger badger!

The oil-from-coal stuff does seem like a case of Great Free Enterprise looking for large handouts and guaranteed markets.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=AC3B3CD6-E7F2-99DF-35CEAC00EA3535A2&sc=I100322

You *could* bake the coal into jetfuel using other renewable energy sources like hydro or solar thermal, so keeping the fast jets flying on coal derivatives doesn't *have* to involve burning *even* more fossil fuels than keeping them flying on petroleum derivatives, but on the whole I'm not optimistic...

are the way forward, I tell you. Banks of them down each side of the C130, jarhead banging a drum to get the volunteers from gitmo pulling together. Perhaps a little assistance from levitating geckoes with a negative refractive index?

"In the event of another war, those costs could double again," said Wynne.

Well, this is like a radical suggestion and all, but you could maybe consider, like, y'know , not starting any more fucking wars. Dipshit.

The Germans used coal as a synthetic fuel in WW2.

Wonder if Mr A Hitler has a Patent in the US?

If $10 on a barrel of oil costs the USAF $600 Million dollars and oil is roughly $70 a barrel that means the USAF spends $4.2 Billion dollars a year on oil.....no wonder they had to invade iraq!

ooohh, Snake!!

"the mushroleum fuel project might actually put the Pentagon out of a job, as the need to keep the Middle East stable and exporting oil disappeared"

The US economy relies upon the arms industry to prop up the economy - wars are the easiest way for them to subsidise the economy and appear strong. The US cannot afford to stop warmongering. The focus would just shift from oil producing nations to nuclear nations or nations "suspected" of producing chemical weapons. For a superpower to maintain its position it needs an enemy - previously we've had fascism (Germany) and communism (Russia, China) and now we're on terrorism (every country that trades oil in €s instead of $s). Already the US has started the propaganda campaign against China, a nation that will soon surpass the US.

The US has already lost its position as a world superpower... it just doesn't know it yet.

Oh good, now the US will be able to but a cost benefit analysis together for why it should wage war on the rest of the world - because it's cheaper than it used to be.....

Funniest comment I've seen for a while..!! ;¬)

I'm going to convert my loft into a mushroom farm, it'll make me a fortune, I tell you.

Mind you, I wonder what country is the number one mushroom producer... that'll be the next to be 'liberated'.

Someone oughta explain that mushrooms don't really work the same way as they do in Super Mario.

Wow! There was so much to comment on in this article. Oh don't fret - I'll keep it short.

Here's a thought: If the USAF consumes 80% of the US military's fuel does that mean that the United States will have to be constantly flying its planes over foreign lands - forever - so that the US can assure continuity of fuel supply so that it can keep its planes constantly flying over etc., etc.?

Here's another: The Senators and Congresspeople from Oklahoma must be doing something really, really right to get this contract for their fuel-from-coal buddies. I wonder how those Okie pols are at bridge appropriations (just in case)?

I'm off the forest to pick some fuel......

Fuel from mushrooms?

But aren't mushrooms about 80% water?

"Alternatively, of course, the West would merely find itself embroiled in new wars, fighting for control of the rich mushroom fields or algae lakes of some other region. "

I'm afraid this one dooms our dear region of Bretagne ... It's been so chocked full of algae for so long, due to the insane number of pigs farms, that it will soon be an attractive target.

...Super Mario is the way of the future.

Soon the Airforce can eat mushrooms to power-up!

My pleasure. I think I'll try recording it in my best Rory Cochrane / Slater voice.

"...mushroleum? mushroline?..."

Fungas?

Would the Air Force make their fuel from Fly Agaric?

If they made the fuel from yeasts, could the Israeli Air Force fly during Pesach?

Inquiring minds want to know!

DARPA isn't trying hard enough. The germans had a plane in WW2 that ran directly on a coal-powered ramjet... the Lippisch P13a. But they did lose after all...

Hopefully the world doesn't all change to nuclear power, otherwise Australia will need to be "liberated". (About 50% of the world's readily accesible Uraniukm supply is in Australia, with a very large part of that in one site in South Australia, along with a large amount of gold and other metals.)

"Biofuel is people!!"

Good. There are way too many people already.

when she talked about the smoking gun being a mushroom cloud!

with all these "alternative" fuels apparently on the horizon, its a wonder we need to worry about the oil situation at all...

Hurry up Mr Fusion!!!

so then we can worry about the helium3 situation instead.

its a good job were friendly with the russi- oh... wait... :S

That would be *very* efficient; the Killbots could continuously refuel as they reap their deadly harvest.

... Just don't tell the lizard people or the ROTM will be upon us. (Please keep it under your hat like a tiny monkey).

Mushroom Car w- Dashboard Shrooms

Not a bad idea either... who needs airbags?

Actually, the "Fischer-Tropsch" synthetic fuel process has been in large scale commercial production for at least 40 years. It was commercialised by Sasol, the South African Oil company using the vast coal reserves of that country and has utilised as a blend since apartheid times.

Like the Southern African developed technology pioneered over 30 years ago for protecting light weight vehicles from mines and IED's during the Rhodesian/South Africa struggles, and now being used to develop hummer substitutes for the US Force in Iraq, it now seems that the Pentagon is again getting all excite about "new" tecnology that in fact has already existed for years.

If it's not a US or Israeli invention forget it!!

Which is why they US rarely mentions that the AV8 Harrier version used by the US Marines and the T-36?(BAE Hawk) trainer used by the US Navy were actually British licensed technologies.

for saving the planet, Paul Stamets has been doing some amazing research into the use of fungi for regenerating toxin riddled land, and for regenerating logging forests.

His work is in my opinion some of the most ground breaking scientific study going on today, he actually produces results, not theorised situations dreamed up in some university lab somewhere.

But thinking along the lines of the Simpsons and Homer with the ethanol powered car (One for you, one for me.... ;)) a mushroom powered car sure would make the journey an interesting one.

Looks like NickJ and Merkin are on the same shrooms as amanfromMars ...

Wow, and I thought the BUFFs smoked enough running on JP4. I'm guessing they won't change the fuel for the Aurora, since it runs on, oops, never mind.

I'd hate to see how their B-52 bomber turns out... maybe it'll grow twice as large!

If they get flower-fuel, then it can launch fireballs at it's target!