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| Moon, River, Phoenix Roger Smith 2011 Click on image to see the larger version |
In celebration of this year's Moon-cake Festival I have used wooden molds as the inspiration for this print.
Monday, 12 September 2011
Today's Print - Moon,River,Phoenix
In celebration of this year's Moon-cake Festival I have used wooden molds as the inspiration for this print.
Pee Power - The Answer To Nuclear Energy
Image by MrTopher via FlickrAccording to a recent article in Wired magazine, urine can be put to good use for generating power. A better option for power generation than nuclear perhaps?It's just a pity that Iran is not building bovine reactors rather than their nuclear equivalent.
Singapore might also consider having a few cows in pasture to cut down on its energy costs.
According to Rachel Zurer in the latest issue of Wired, urine it can be used as an energy source for hydrogen fuel cells:
“Each molecule of urine, has double the hydrogen atoms of a water molecule and holds on to them less tightly. That means the atoms are easier to split off, promising a cheaper and more efficient source of hydrogen gas that H2O.”
Ohio University Professor Geradine Botte says that the urine from just one cow contains enough energy supply hot water for 19 houses.
So perhaps we can also save the geothermal capabilities of Rotorua at the same time by using "Pee Power"?
Sunday, 11 September 2011
Premonitions?
A decade ago on September 11th. I arrived at my office in AUT and learnt of the news of the Twin Tower tragedy.
Its imagery remains with me still as does other seminal events such as the assassination of then President Kennedy and man walking on the moon for the first time.
Earlier generations had their own memory imprints; the declaration of war, Pearl Harbour, the airship Hindenburg disaster and the Holocaust amongst them.
In 1985, the wife of one of my best friends suffered a terrible accident when the mini car her husband slipped off a jack as she was underneath, holding a brake lining. Two things I remember vividly from this episode which left her facially disfigured but thankfully alive.
The first was my friend telling me how he somehow was imbued with 'supernatural' strength at the time and lifted the car from her unaided, in one movement. The second is that I painted a small shroud-like study in which I portrayed a devastated space, as my emotional response to what had happened.
It was not a great painting - rough and deliberately crude in its intensity and muslin drapery. What I could never understand is the intuition that led me to include two towers as the central motif, viewed across an expanse of water?
On the afternoon of September 11th, 2001 I looked again at the image stored on my hard disk drive and wondered whether it was pure coincidence that I had produced this work featuring a city I had never visited, with its dark twin towers featured and a fiery sky? Or was it a premonition of events to come?
Its imagery remains with me still as does other seminal events such as the assassination of then President Kennedy and man walking on the moon for the first time.
Earlier generations had their own memory imprints; the declaration of war, Pearl Harbour, the airship Hindenburg disaster and the Holocaust amongst them.
In 1985, the wife of one of my best friends suffered a terrible accident when the mini car her husband slipped off a jack as she was underneath, holding a brake lining. Two things I remember vividly from this episode which left her facially disfigured but thankfully alive.
The first was my friend telling me how he somehow was imbued with 'supernatural' strength at the time and lifted the car from her unaided, in one movement. The second is that I painted a small shroud-like study in which I portrayed a devastated space, as my emotional response to what had happened.
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| Study - 1985 Roger Smith - mixed media on board |
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