Sunday, December 6, 2009

“A potter exploring buddhist philosophy through ceramic art - Economic Times” plus 4 more

“A potter exploring buddhist philosophy through ceramic art - Economic Times” plus 4 more

A potter exploring buddhist philosophy through ceramic art - Economic Times

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 10:57 AM PST

Art is a cunning beast. A humble teapot can become an elusive elixir. In a series of teapots that spell the play of clay and the illustrious power of design, Vineet Kacker's 15 teapots created as a commission, echo the individual character of a teapot in conjunction with the vast history of ceramic teapots. Teapots can be seen in cultures all over the world, differing by the many variations in cultural and geographical conditions. In these, Vineet creates a vessel of dulcet tones, the teapot, in its classy and sophisticated form in which he is able to twist, add and manipulate to reflect his own personal style.

An uninitiated Vineet in the art of studio pottery arrived, by pure chance, at the Andretta Pottery in 1989. The one-month exposure made him give his architectural degree a go by to head south to work with Ray Meeker at the Golden Bridge Pottery in Pondicherry. And the wheel has been turning in his favour since then.

The Jing teapots are all glazed with a single smooth matte white glaze, but the landscape-y textures are highlighted by the use of an ochre slip under the white glaze. Certain elements are then picked up in liquid gold lustre, and applied in a separate firing. "In my work techniques always follow the ideation process," says Vineet, "In the Jing teapots I opted for a white matte glaze as the interior of the restaurant already had a lot of colour, and the entire array of teapot sculptures had to hold together as one. It went with the simple, the subtle as underlined in Taoist thought, and the landscape lines refer to earth, water as Tao is often called the natural or water-course way."

Of course, one look at the oriental orchestrations, and they seem to signify a subtle play of intent and historical innuendo. "The inspiration for these sculptural teapots comes from two contrasting philosophies to come out of China – that of Tao, as outlined by the ancient philosopher and mystic Lao Tzu in Tao Te Ching; and that of Mao, as outlined by Mao Tse Tung, popularly known as Chairman Mao says Vineet.

However, the vessel is the primal 'canvas' for him. In one pair, he creates a concentric circle, adds four spouts at different parallels and places the little deity on top. The satin cream contrasts with the gold swathed spouts-perhaps this allows him also the widest latitude in juxtaposing the many contexts. He also brings home the notion that the teapot is a universally recognised object, with strong associations to domesticity and gentility.
In this work and in many others, his exploration of form, irrespective of function, has led to what may be a mutant peculiar to our time — the teapot that is intended to hold the eyes' attention rather than tea.

"I like the idea of using the Teapot form, referencing almost all Asian clay traditions, in a non-functional and sculptural way as a vehicle for the import of my ideas on the notion of duality." pertains Vineet. "Life is a harmony of contradictory impulses — the material and the spiritual, the profane and the sacred, darkness and light...and in the current context Tao and Mao," he adds.

When asked how long it took to create the pots from the seed of thought Vineet says: "About three months, including conceptualising, presenting sketches to the client, doing full scale drawings for the entire array, working out and testing glazes and lustres, making molds and adapting the existing techniques, and finally making the pieces, slow drying and firing or the works culminating in the installation on site."

The drift from functional to technical is intriguing. Clay is a fairly technical medium, and at the beginning of one's journey as a ceramist the technical aspects seem all important. Working on the potter's wheel naturally lends itself to making functional vessels. However, at a certain point when one has reasonably mastered the techniques involved, the attention shifts to what is being made, why is it being made, is it relevant to who the maker is and what he/she wants to say as an artist.

"That's at a personal level," states Vineet," but within the urban social context there is no tradition in India for glazed stoneware functional pottery. Consequently, it's had to ascribe value to hand made functional ceramics and economic survival as a functional studio potter is challenging. On the other hand, the contemporary Indian studio potter is unencumbered by tradition and free to reinvent himself as a ceramic artist. Moreover no separate galleries of note exist for ceramists, so they share the same gallery infrastructure as the fine artists...who further assist them to explore clay in a sculptural aspect, and "content" becomes as important as "materiality".

The teapot is a form that has intrigued artists and collectors for centuries; it apparently inspires inexhaustible variations on the relationships of spouts, handles and lids. Its asymmetrical parts lend themselves to imaginative postures that suggest personalities and attitudes. This expressive potential is realised in this Jing series.

That means clay as a material has the capacity to reassert such connections. Derived from the earth, it becomes a conduit between the potter's creative spirit and the audience. What ensues is aesthetic push, and quietude of tranquillity. They invite a 'second reading', an engagement with contemplation - the silence of the tea ceremony, perhaps in praise of shadows that were.

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Transition, transparency, integration and migration fit Nike’s form ... - SourceSecurity.com

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 06:25 AM PST

The Nike Experience

You are at the right place, but absent from view are glass-on-glass high-rises compacted together over the typical concrete and asphalt corporate terrain.  But then, this is anything but typical.  You are about to enter the hallowed halls of one of sport's holiest sites.  You have arrived at Nike World Headquarters (WHQ). 

The 185-acre campus sprawls out in front of you and the size and complexity is staggering.  Everything would have to be custom-designed to reflect a perfect balance of form and function, application and aesthetics.  Nike requires that every facet of their operation exhibit the same distinctive architectural philosophy that has made them an international mega-brand.  Nike WHQ is divided into North and South Campuses occupying 75 acres, comprised of 11 buildings mostly built in the 1990s designed to accommodate 2,000 employees.  Nike grew at an exceptional rate during the 90s employing an additional 3,500 employees located within a 10-mile radius of the WHQ.  Nike decided to centralize a majority of the off-site activities onto the campus; so in 1997, they expanded another 110-acres at the north end of the existing campus.

Nike's Security Operations

The frequent presence of high-profile sports celebrities and the periodic unannounced visits of sightseers who mistake Nike's beautifully landscaped front entrance for a public picnic area are only a couple of Nike's unique security concerns.  "Nike is very large and open," said Tim Frawley, assistant security manager for Nike WHQ.  "People come and go 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Many employees work non-traditional hours, so we don't close any of the buildings ever.  We often have employees leave with bags full of prototype product in the dead of the night to catch a red-eye flight to a marketing presentation the next morning.   A comprehensive access control system along with a staff-intensive security operation is the only way we can provide Nike with the secure yet open environment it demands."

Nike had an existing Westinghouse access control system installed on the South Campus in the early 90s.  Although, the system provided Nike with the access control solution they needed, it relies on proprietary technology, including coaxial cabling and card/reader protocols that limit Nike's ability to integrate the new card access technologies that became available in the mid-90s.

When the requirements for access control on the new North Campus were discussed, Nike®'s project managers agreed that it must feature an open architecture to allow them to migrate to new technologies in the future without having to install a totally new system.  They also decided that the North Campus system must be compatible with the proprietary Westinghouse system in use on the South Campus.  While it was clear that the integration of a new open system with an older proprietary system would save Nike an enormous amount of money, how to accomplish the marriage of the two systems was not as obvious.

HID®'s MultiProx® controller provides a physical link between the proprietary coaxial cable wiring used by the Westinghouse system and provides a standard Wiegand output.  By eliminating the need for rewiring, the MultiProx will save Nike about 35 to 40 percent in retrofit cabling costs.  MultiProx also makes it possible to use HID readers to read the more expensive, Westinghouse 1050 cards and HID's popular and economical ISOProx® proximity access cards.  This additional benefit saved Nike the expense of reading each of their 6,000 cardholders while offering a clear migration path away from the costly, proprietary cards to a single card for all access points on both the North and South Campuses.

Huser, a local Integrator, reviewed Nike's security specification and designed a system using the HID MultiProx controller, cards and readers as well as Hirsch's Model 8 controllers and Match reader interfaces.  In addition to providing Nike with a competitively priced system that addressed each of the requirements, they accounted for aesthetic issues as well.  Huser installed the readers in 3-foot-tall square metal posts positioned at the entrance to the access points in each building.   While the metal tower reader stations looked very slick and matched the architectural style of the buildings, they also interfered with the radio frequency signals emitted by the readers greatly reducing card read range.  Huser contacted HID and was advised how to adjust the voltage to each reader through the MultiProx controller to achieve the maximum read range.  Problem solved.

Transparency of transition to the cardholders was another requirement.  "The benefit of the end user is my primary concern," said Frawley.  "I wanted a seamless transition without disrupting the card holders' ability to access the buildings and areas they needed.  Nike gave us a great deal of latitude in designing and implementing a system that would accomplish this."   With the HID/Hirsch retrofit package, we were able to provide access to each new building without disrupting the normal access rights of cardholders on either campus.  If the determination is made to change technologies on the South Campus, we would retrofit one building at a time, usually at night so as not to compromise building accessibility during peak hours.  We would replace the existing controllers and readers with the HID/Hirsch system.  The cardholders would arrive the next morning with full accessibility, unaware that anything had changed.  Frawley explains, "So far, we are getting no response from the technology change on the North Campus at all - which is exactly what I wanted.  And while my end users are unaware of this new technology, the HID/Hirsch system gives me the ability to upgrade the functionality of their cards as new technologies become available."

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Home Spirituality Philosophy Hashem: The Name - Aish

Posted: 05 Dec 2009 11:44 PM PST

If you spend time around observant Jews, you probably know that Hashem, literally "The Name," is a common way to refer to God. Why do people use this appellation?

True, on one hand it is forbidden to pronounce the actual four-letter name of God (Yud Heh Vav Hey). But a deeper reason for saying "Hashem" is because that is the essence of our relationship with God. To explain:

Nobody walks around calling themselves by their own name. I don't say, "Jon is going to eat breakfast and then Jon will go to work." Rather I would say, "I'm going to eat breakfast and then I'll go to work." The only people who talk about themselves in the third person (and get away with it) are egocentric athletes, politicians, etc. Even in English we call it "third person" -- not first, not even second, but third. It suggests a distancing from an intimate relationship.

A handle is not the essence.

A name essentially only exists for the benefit of the outsider. People don't identify themselves by their names -- that's why names are also called "handles." As in, your AIM or Google-chat handle. (Anyone remember CB radios?) A handle is something outside the very essence of the thing, but exists so that other people can hold it. A coffee mug has a handle -- not to contain the coffee (the mug's real purpose), but so that you can have a relationship with the mug which allows you to partake in its coffee.

Human beings are no different. We don't have a big relationship between our identity and our name, but other people do. An indication of this is how we can meet someone that shares our name, and have a very clear separation between us and them. I have a very good friend named Jon. In fact, when I think of the name Jon, I don't think of myself. I think of him!

Finite World

So why do we say "Hashem?" If names are there to help those who say it and not the person or object being named, then why don't we call God by His true name (YKVK)? Why the distant appellation, "The Name"?

The name you choose to call someone by indicates the relationship you have with them. Knowing God is infinite should humble us and remind us of the endless limitations we have as humans. The four-letter name of God (YKVK) that is written in our prayers is never pronounced phonetically because that name represents the infinite aspect of God which is beyond human comprehension. That name is really a combination of three Hebrew words: Haya, Hoveh and Yeheyeh – past, present, and future. The idea isn't just that God was is and always will be, but that He transcends time. In other words, God exists in the past, present and future -- simultaneously.

Being stuck in a finite world, this is something we cannot fully comprehend, but the concept of God being Infinite is something so powerful and humbling that just saying "Hashem" (The Name) helps us do two things: One, it evokes awe by reminding us of the infinity of God as reflected in the four-letter Name; and two, it distances us from this concept to remind us of our own limitations.

Reminding ourselves of our own limitations is a great thing. It brings us to rely on that which does not have limitations, namely God. Healthy dependence is a great way to build a relationship which, after all, is the essence of our job here on Earth -- to forge a relationship with the Creator.

Intimacy through Names

Imagine a city in the middle of a war. The dirt flying in the air. Missiles overhead. Everything in chaos. The smell of chemicals permeating the thick fog that has become the sky and civilians running through the streets in confusion, in panic -- a living nightmare. A doctor runs across the blood stained streets looking for people he can help, wounds he can heal just enough to get people back on their feet so they can keep running, keep living. He tends to a man bleeding from a piece of shrapnel, when he suddenly hears someone call out, "Doctor."

A short distance away he sees the woman calling out. She is hurt and in need of immediate attention. But as soon as he runs toward her, he hears another voice: "David!" He looks over to see his neighbor on the ground with a serious injury. No sooner than two steps into the neighbor's direction, a small voice pierces through the sweaty air and whispers, "Dad." The doctor is paralyzed for a moment before looking for his son amidst the rubble.

"Hashem" is the Jewish people's way of saying Dad.

To most people, the man in the story was an anonymous person running around the streets -- until someone saw him performing a medical act. Then he became "Doctor." To his neighbor, however, he was "David," a name that suggests an attachment that forced him to care just a little bit more. And when he heard "Dad" come through the thick fog, he was paralyzed.

This is the power of a name. It defines the relationship we have with the person and forces us to treat them in a particular way.

"Hashem" is the Jewish people's way of saying Dad. Dad is not the person's legal name, it's not their Hebrew name, it's not their business title. It's shorthand. It's a way to say that we, as Jews, have a nickname for You, God. It's a nickname that suggests both intimacy and respect, like the appellation "Dad." It's a way to tell your father that you love him, but that you still understand he's the father, he's in charge.

Likewise with Hashem: We love You and feel close to You. And at the same time recognize our distance and Who is really in charge.

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The bar's open. - Army.com

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 01:20 PM PST

So I'm still sick...and mom has tried almost everything now...she even did this strange home remedy for coughs last night...****y mustard and Tabasco sauce mixed together, put on a cloth and then put on your chest (over your lungs and neck) and then use a heating pad to warm it up. For a while it was ok...I just felt like i was marinating and the smell was fine....but soon the Tabasco started getting really hot and smelled funky...and then i realized i forgot to take my dog tag off, and the chain got burned from the heating pad! as in, it was scorched and it smells funky! i had to throw it out (now i have no chain for my dog tag ) and i'm still coughing really bad

anyone else have and "home remedies" that'll help with this cough? I'm already drinking tons of tea with honey....

and I have to do a podcast of my teaching philosophy...and, well, my voice is weird from this cough...keeps coming and going...so this isn't good!

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Home Spirituality Philosophy Big Families: Desired or Undesirable? - Aish

Posted: 06 Dec 2009 12:42 AM PST

Living in the exotic Old City of Jerusalem, and needing to make ends meet by renting out our guest room, I have hosted many young, accomplished American women travelers as my boarders. Over herb tea in my kitchen, some have wanted to talk about Eastern religions, some about Israeli politics, and some about feminist issues.

One young woman confided in me her shock and dismay at discovering that most religious families have half a dozen children, and some a full dozen! To her, this was a flagrant violation of her most cherished ideal of zero population growth.

"How can anyone who cares about the future of the planet go about brazenly overpopulating it like this?" she asked me with a combination of disbelief and pique. "I can understand such disregard for the problems of overpopulation in uneducated women living in third world countries, women who have never heard of birth control. But in the religious community here, I've been meeting educated, modern women who make a positive ideal out of large families. Why are so many apparently intelligent women filling up their already cramped apartments and emptying their already depleted pocketbooks in an energetic effort to produce large families?"

Having married a month short of my 39th birthday, I felt blessed to have two children -- one born when I was 41, another when I was 46. I certainly was not qualified to expound on the merits or demerits of large families. So I arranged for my vexed boarder to meet with one of my teachers from a Jerusalem women's college, an articulate mother of eleven children. Their encounter took place across my kitchen table.

Q: Given the dire state of overpopulation in the world, isn't it socially irresponsible to give birth to eleven children?

A: It's very easy to attribute all the things that are wrong with the world to external causes. But what's really wrong with the world is violence, avarice, and callousness. All of the problems in the world could be solved if there were good people. It's a qualitative, not a quantitative, issue. The problem isn't that there are too many people. The problem is that there are not enough good, caring people.

If you see the world in purely physical terms, then the more people, the less each one gets.

If you see the world in purely physical terms, then of course, the larger the population, the less resources are available to each person; each one gets a smaller sliver of the pie. But if you see the world in spiritual terms -- that the planet is here to provide a setting for souls to learn and grow, and that each soul who comes into this world has a unique mission and shines a unique light -- then the more people, the more light.

The issue really is: Do more children bring more light or more darkness? The answer is: It depends on how they are raised and what they are raised towards.

Certainly, the amount of spiritual light in the world is increased by the presence of more good people. Conversely, producing just two children whose basic self-definition is as materialists and consumers, using a disproportionate amount of the world's resources for their physical satisfaction, may deplete the world more than it benefits the world.

Q: If this is indeed the goal of your community, then we should find numerous examples of adults who are significantly helping the world. Is this in fact true?

A: I can tell you about my own family. Of my children who have reached adulthood -- all are in the helping professions. Two of my daughters and one of my sons are teachers. My second daughter directs a special education facility. Another daughter stays at home to raise her children, but volunteers a tremendous amount of time and energy finding good foster homes for children in emergency situations. My second son is still studying, but devotes a lot of time to outreach programs, reaching out to his fellow Jews in order to improve the spiritual quality of their lives, usually without remuneration. My next son is finishing his term of service in the Israeli army, and also gives classes in the evening to youth. By the way, my family is in no way exceptional.

Q: It cannot be that in a family of over ten children that each child gets the attention from the parents -- in terms of time and energy -- that a child from a smaller family gets. Given that, aren't you depriving your children of the attention they need to develop optimally? And aren't you also depriving them of the enrichments which, let's face it, only money can buy?

A: When you talk about time and energy -- as with any other resource, you have to ask how much is required to achieve your goal. If your goal is to heat a house for 24 hours, and you can heat that house with fifty gallons of oil, you wouldn't need to worry about supplying that house with a hundred gallons of oil per day.

One way to gauge if parents are giving their children enough attention is to look at those children as adults.

One way to gauge if parents are giving their children enough time and attention to produce well-adjusted, secure, reasonably happy, and altruistic adults, is to look at those children when they reach adulthood. If the children are well-adjusted, secure, happy, and altruistic, then whatever amount of time and attention the parents gave them was apparently enough.

Is it accurate to say that children who grow up in small families are happier? More secure? More altruistic? I certainly doubt it.

I have friends with one or two children who tell me that it's a major problem in their neighborhood of a very few children to find a friend for their child to play with every afternoon. And if the friend rejects their child, as can often happen with children, their child's whole self-image crumbles. In large families, where there's always a playmate a couple years older or younger, the problem of making friends does not assume such importance.

The same is true about enrichments which cost money, such as lots of educational toys, computer programs, art lessons, etc. I could argue that these are replacements for having a set of live-in playmates. A brother or sister is a constant source of stimulation, which needs no batteries, never performs an illegal operation (well, not the computer kind, anyway), and teaches a lot about interpersonal relationships.

If you would interview the children of large families, and ask them, "Would you rather have more toys, or another brother or sister? Would you rather have your parents or your siblings sit down and play dominoes with you?" the answers might surprise you.

Q: But doesn't a lot of the security in large families come from the older children raising the younger children? Is this fair to the older children, especially the first daughter, who often has to shoulder much of the responsibility for her younger siblings?

A: There's a metaphysical rule in Judaism that, in terms of material things, the more you give, the less you have, while, in terms of spirituality, the more you give, the more you are. It may be accurate that the older children share the burden of raising their younger siblings, but this often gives them a stronger sense of self-confidence, achievement, and the ability to deal with life.

Older children who help raise younger siblings are more self-confident and able to deal better with life.

If you actually spent time with a large family, I think you would be impressed at how much joy there is. Of course, every family has their share of squabbles. But, in general, I see a lot of security, sharing, mutual inter-dependence, and laughter in my family and other large families I know.

Q: What about the women themselves? From the time you gave birth to your first child, at age 19, and for the next thirty years, you've had to work incredibly hard at keeping house, raising children, holding down a part-time job, not to mention fulfilling your other obligations. Didn't you ever feel like having a little time for yourself?

A: Certainly the main part of my life has been spent raising my family. If you're comparing me to career women or mothers of small families, the crucial question is: "Is a particular woman's occupation satisfying to her, and does it develop her or leave her time for self-development?"

I can't imagine an occupation which is anywhere nearly as satisfying as building people. Could building bridges, designing clothes, constructing advertising campaigns ... could any of these be as personally satisfying as building human beings? Now of course, I could have been a social worker or a psychologist, who also are involved with people, but there my commitment would have been short-term. Isn't a long-term commitment to particular people more satisfying than a revolving door-clientele?

Let's say I had chosen to become a psychologist instead of a mother of a large family. The question remains: Would there be time for other interests? The answer is also the same: It would be difficult, but if I wanted to fit into my schedule an exercise routine, a hobby, or an occasional outing with a friend, I could. No one with a career pursues her own interests all day every day. And neither do I.

Q: You must admit to some level of physical exhaustion. Waking up in the middle of the night to nurse a baby for years, or even decades, on end must take its toll.

A: Exhaustion is a real issue. And the fact is, again, that many other careers demand a tremendous expenditure of energy and time. One doesn't stop brain surgery in the middle to play a round of tennis (hopefully, that is).

This is an issue that has to be dealt with through prioritization. Of course, taking care of oneself is as important as taking care of someone else. No matter what comes up in the afternoons, I give myself a nap from 2 o'clock to 3:30. Everyone in the family knows that mother is resting during that time, and no one dares disturb me. This is a matter of discipline.

A mother of a large family will work herself into exhaustion if she doesn't learn how to prioritize.

Many women fail in this discipline. They feel the need for a nap, but then the phone rings, and they can't resist answering it. Or the baby falls asleep, and instead of jumping into bed that minute, and getting a solid two hours' nap, they decide to "just" do the dishes and "just" fold the laundry, and before they know it, their two hours have disappeared.

Women also have to learn not to sacrifice their rest on the altar of their self-image. In the above example, the mother might feel less of a homemaker if her husband comes home to a sink full of dirty dishes, or the laundry remains unfolded. But, so what? That's what I mean by "prioritization."

Q: Do you have household help?

A: I always had household help, because I work out of the house during the morning hours. I'm a teacher -- this is for me a secondary career which I engage in for my own fulfillment. Most of what I earn goes to pay for household help. I don't believe that the mother has to be the one who washes the dishes and folds the laundry.

Q: But you do believe that the mother has to be the one to raise the children. By working outside the home, aren't you hiring someone else to raise your children?

A: In Israel, children go to government preschools from the age of three. It's true that I did leave my toddlers in the morning hours with hired help. But I carefully chose someone whose career was to take care of children, and I paid her a third or more of what I made. In fact, the woman who worked for us for twenty years was regarded like a member of our family. She was an older, childless woman, who treated my children like the grandchildren she never had. I paid her a significant portion of my earnings, far more than the going rate, because I considered top-quality childcare a priority. I considered my children an investment worthy of her.

Q: In almost all countries where people have large families, the government ends up giving large doles to support the children. I understand that the Israeli government gives quite generous child allowances. Isn't this an unfair drain on the taxpayers?

A: The child allowances here are not what most people would consider "quite generous." They amount to around $100 per child, so no family actually lives off the government grant. I would like to point out something about the government's intent. The Israeli government realizes that its greatest resource is people. Israel is not Texas nor Montana. We do not have oil, mineable ore, or miles of rolling fields of grain from sea to shining sea. If Israel is going to succeed, we need highly motivated, able people. Nobody can provide the state with this manpower without having them.

Q: In all honesty, during the years when you were producing children at a rate of one every two years, didn't you feel like a baby machine?

A: I certainly did sometimes feel like I was involved in a cycle of meaningful work that wasn't always spontaneous or exciting, but I would say that this is true in every career. A doctor seeing her fourth earache of the day does not feel the same excitement and inspiration as when performing her first heart surgery. A professor marking the 37th freshman paper on Hamlet may also find it tedious.

I think that the concept of careers outside the home has been overly glamorized. Every career has its monotonous components. And every career has its peak moments of inspiration and creativity. Motherhood is second to none in the frequency of such moments. In all honesty, how could producing a book or a computer program be anywhere nearly as gratifying as producing a human being?

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