If Sam Mahon ever asks if you want a cup of coffee, say, "I think I'd rather have tea." Mahon is a sculptor in Wellington, New Zealand, who recently polished off a likeness of Nick Smith, the country's environment minister. Mahon's medium was dried cow manure from an organic dairy farm. The Associated Press story about the Nick Smith bust didn't go into much detail about the artist's method except to say that he first ground his medium in a coffee grinder.

     Mahon's starting point with the piece was his belief that Smith isn't doing enough to reduce dairy farm pollution. Mahon listed his artwork on TradeMe, a New Zealand auction web site. The item drew a torrent of comments, and a spirited bidding war. "Boxerlady" earned the right to put Nick Smith's head on her mantle with a winning bid of $3,080 of New Zealand's dollars, or $2,200 US.
     According to Mahon, he mixed the manure with resin and polished it with beeswax so it looks like bronze. It doesn't smell and should last forever, he said. And it's hollow. Which he says is fitting.
     Smith took the "tribute" with good humor, but called it crap art. And the picture that accompanies this posting? Yep. That's the straight poop on Nick Smith.
     And about that coffee grinder....
     A bidder asked Mahon if he still uses it for its intended purpose. Here's what he said:
     "yes. But we live in an old flour mill, and tainted coffee is small beans to the fact that we have a resident rat population who seem to think they are paying the rates. One walked past two nights ago while i was watching Friends. He was shuffling a bar of soap across the floor. I asked my partner if she would mind terribly if i shot him (the rifle is always close at hand:You know, dairy farmers; Ku Klux Klan) She said no, that it would wake the baby. Tainted coffee? No big deal."

     One way to deal with climate change could be to plant more crops, according to a study by researchers from Purdue University and the universities of Colorado and Maryland. According to their report, conversion to agriculture results in cooling, while conversin from agriculture generally results in warming. Urbanization and conversion to bare soild have the largest warming impacts. Their report is summarized in the current edition of Lancaster Farming.
      Waterbeds for cows? Next thing you know they'll be watching reruns of "HappyDays."
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vw5Gko78Y0