Dr JAVED iQBAL kHAN Representing Educational NGOs praising the work of Muslim Funds at seminar on “Role of MMFOs in Socio-Economic and educational development of society” organised jointly by MUSLIM FUND NAJIBABAD & AMMFO ON 27 TH FEB 2011 AT GHALIB ACADEMY DELHI
Khwaja M Shahid- Director- Institute of Secretarial Training & Management- speaking at seminar held at Ghalib Academy, Hazrat Nizamuddin delhi on 27-02-2011. The Seminar was organised by MUSLIM FUND NAJIBABAD & AMMFO. He praised the effort and work done by Minority Micro Finance Organisations and suggested to adhere and adjust to regulatory laws of the Govt and to enhance the level of training of the work force to achieve greater efficiency levels.
Khwaja M Shahid- Director- Institute of Secretarial Training & Management- speaking at seminar held at Ghalib Academy, Hazrat Nizamuddin delhi on 27-02-2011. The Seminar was organised by MUSLIM FUND NAJIBABAD & AMMFO. He praised the effort and work done by Minority Micro Finance Organisations and suggested to adhere and adjust to regulatory laws of the Govt and to enhance the level of training of the work force to achieve greater efficiency levels.
[ By Delana in Art & Design, Nature & Ecosystems, News & Politics. ]
If our consumerism were a living, breathing creature, what would it look like? A group of environmentalists in Slovenia picture our growing consumerist culture as a scary monster with tentacles that reach out to envelop the world. This giant sculpture in the town of Ljubljana represents the waste problems and consumerism that threaten to overtake the planet.
The group collected more than 40,000 plastic bags and 7,500 used plastic cups from all over the town. Collecting from individuals, kindergartens, primary schools, high schools, school faculty and even picking up trash from the street, the environmentalists amassed this huge collection and then set to work turning it into the scary (yet sort of adorable) face of consumerism.
The waste monster’s shape soon took form and its tentacles began to spread all throughout the town. Its message is clear: the curse of our modern culture is the mounds of garbage we leave behind. If we are not vigilant, the waste will continue to multiply and overtake the world.
The monster feeds on laziness and environmental irresponsibility, growing and continuously stretching its tentacles ever further. The sculpture is called The Tackle of the Tentacle and it is the work of The Miha Artnak.
According to the group, the monster has grown acclimated to its environment and that makes it even more dangerous. It continues to thrive and will eventually replace humans in the food chain if we do not become aware of the problem and work to solve it. The monster itself may be cute, but its message is serious. The reaching, wandering tentacles are a novel and very tangible way of getting that message out to everyone in this town and beyond.
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www.ted.com What do you think of people in poverty? Maybe what Jessica Jackley once did “they” need “our” help, in the form of a few coins in a jar. The co-founder of Kiva.org talks about how her attitude changed — and how her work with microloans has brought new power to people who live on a few dollars a day.
[ By Steph in Art & Design, Tricks & Hacks. ]
Like a plague, it’s always there: present in virtually every package we receive, not to mention every landfill known to man, where it will remain for hundreds if not thousands of years. But though styrofoam is designed to be disposable, some artists are flouting that convention and using it as an unexpectedly versatile medium in projects ranging from towering robots to entire retail stores. These 16 styrofoam art projects by 9 artists recycle the ubiquitous white foam into objects that transcend the transience of the material.
A formula 1 car, a series of towering white robots surrounded by their miniatures – what can’t Michael Salter, a professor of digital arts at the University of Oregon, make out of styrofoam? Salter recycles used styrofoam packaging to craft his creations, and often uses the native form to create shapes rather than carving.
The first thing you may be tempted to ask upon viewing this all-styrofoam couch by Kwangho Lee is, ‘Why?” But, really, why not? It may not be the softest or best-looking material around, but heck, at least you’d float if your house ever flooded. Of course, this piece isn’t actually meant for use in the home – it’s art, and was part of a series called ‘Lifelike Design’. Lee also created sculptural lamp shades that resemble giant gobs of white paint.
Installation artist Tara Donovan finds inspiration in the most mundane of materials, from toothpicks and drinking straws to paper plates and styrofoam cups. With the latter, Donovan created an undulating aerial landscape reminiscent of a cloud.
It’s perhaps the world’s least eco-friendly personal vehicle – rendered, fittingly perhaps, in a decidedly un-green material. Andrew Junge carved this life-sized replica of a Hummer while an artist-in-residence at San Francisco’s garbage dump, where he was able to salvage and repurpose all the styrofoam needed for the sculpture.
“I wish to examine and re-contextualize found objects and materials, to invest them with new life, and to sanctify – or at least acknowledge their presence in the world,” Junge explains in his artist’s statement. “Or perhaps, more accurately, to acknowledge my presence as these materials’ temporary curator, archivist and re-purposer.”
They’ve cradled stereos, iPads, flat-screen televisions and toasters, and now these styrofoam pieces – which come in practically every shape imaginable – grace the walls of galleries, illuminated in futuristic-looking displays. Artist Jason Rogenes gives these scraps of trash new life with installations that hang from the ceiling like miniature space ships.
The entire interior of a pop-up Richard Chai store in New York City was crafted from massive blocks of styrofoam by Brooklyn-based design firm Snarkitecture. After spending hours carving texture and niches from the blocks with a heated wire, the team achieved a result that calls to mind an ice hotel. While the styrofoam used wasn’t post-consumer, it was recycled afterwards, returned to the manufacturer and made into rigid-foam insulation panels.
Princess Peach sorrowfully cradles Mario’s dead body in this parody of Michelangelo’s super-serious Pieta, carved from polystyrene by artist Kordian Lewandowski. The modern material is a fitting contrast to marble for this video-game-based scene.
Can styrofoam have beauty in its own right, even when it’s not molded or carved to look like something else? Korean sculptor Sungsoo Kim translates the shapes of discarded styrofoam packing materials into colorful glass, giving them an aesthetic value that is only noticeable because of the change in material from something cheap and unwanted to a more ‘valid’ artist’s medium.
“In my work with Styrofoam, I try to find something concealed in it. The explicit purpose of this material is to protect products while they are in transit. As such, this material has a vital role in the economic machine, but ultimately it becomes trash. Its only value is conferred to it by the market value of the product it protects. That value is lost as soon as the product it protects is removed. The depreciation is astronomical from a consumer-commodity standpoint, but I think there is still something valuable in it, that the packaging has value as an object itself. My work of recycling packing Styrofoam is then to seek the ‘value’ which is unseen in its material reality.”
Some artists working in styrofoam try to make their creations look as if they’re carved of marble, but sculptor Fabio Viale has the opposite intent. His ‘styrofoam’ sculptures actually are made of marble, given a pearly texture that makes it appear much softer than it really is.
(Thanks in part to Natural Architecture from the Princeton Architectural Press)
Land art is at the heart of history and the human experience, from primitive cave drawings to ancient stone h…
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[ By Marc in Art & Design. ]
Hunter Stabler is an extraordinary papercutter who has elevated the craft to new levels. With a Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, Hunter was well educated in the skills necessary to pursue his art. Though he specialized in painting, his career has taken a different turn.
Hunter Stabler’s work combines incredibly intricate details into complicated larger works. It’s easy to get lost in the details of his work, though the big picture ends up telling its own marvelous story.
Hunter Stabler’s work is always beautiful, but its form sometimes has a function, as the clock example well demonstrates. Whether one admires Hunter’s work for its aesthetics, or the incredible skill it showcases, his work can be found in shows across the country.
Intricacy is Hunter Stabler’s bread and butter. His work contains layers of complex styling and repetitive cuts that turn his works into a maze. A close view is stunning, as the finer details come to light.
While the details of Hunter’s work is the real meat of his effort, it wouldn’t mean anything if the bigger picture wasn’t noteworthy as well. Part of the fun of Hunter Stabler’s papercuts come from the fact that they can be admired on every level – from the big picture down to the smallest detail.
Hunter Stabler proves the point that any material, combined with enough skill and vision, can be turned into something wonderful. The use of unconventional materials in innovative ways is one of the greatest features of the newest generation of artists who don’t let any boundaries prevent them from showcasing their vision.
(Thanks in part to Natural Architecture from the Princeton Architectural Press)
Land art is at the heart of history and the human experience, from primitive cave drawings to ancient stone h…
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I’m Alex Villarreal with the VOA Special English Economics Report, from voaspecialenglish.com | http Microfinance is a fast-growing part of the financial industry in many developing countries. Micro lenders give small loans to poor people to start or expand businesses. Microcredit offers a chance to improve lives and reduce poverty. But officials in Andhra Pradesh, in southern India, are investigating whether debt collections are linked to a series of suicides among borrowers. Reddi Subrahmanyam is a rural development official in that state. He says many of these deaths happened immediately after the recovery agents of the microfinance institutions either visited the house or did something insulting.Reports of corruption and abuses have led to emergency measures in Andhra Pradesh to ban some collection methods. These rules also aim to limit costly fees and high interest rates on loans. The Asian Development Bank says microfinance institutions in the Asia-Pacific area charge interest of thirty to seventy percent a year. Charges can be even higher when other costs are added. But micro lenders also face higher operating costs compared to traditional lenders. Groups like the Asian Development Bank oppose limits on interest rates because of these high business costs.Economist Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize in two thousand six for his work with microfinance. In the nineteen seventies he started what became the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. Grameen says it charges twenty …
[ By Steph in Art & Design, Geography & Travel. ]
They’re beautiful and sinister, jutting up out of the landscape with a deceptive peace when inactive, but hiding the threat of death and destruction just beneath the surface. Perhaps it’s that element of danger that makes architects and artists hot for volcano-inspired architecture, giving that distinct sloping form to stadiums, power plants, resorts and enormous self-contained cities all over the world.
It’s easy to see why the njiric + arhiteki’s design for this civic arena, housed in an artificial hill made from rubber and paint sprayed onto sheets of corrugated aluminum, has been nicknamed ‘blue volcano’. Conceived for the city of Zagreb in Croatia, the design even features a solar-power-harvesting ‘cloud’ that floats above it, displaying game scores and other information. The cloud also protects the stadium from rain and snow, eliminating the need for a dome.
These are unlike any volcanoes you’ve ever seen – or any buildings, for that matter. MAD Architects wanted to give the Taiwanese city of Taichung a world-class architectural landmark that honors the natural landscape of the region, and the crater-like Taichung Convention Center delivers in an eccentric and unexpected way. The interconnected system of buildings is covered in a high-tech pleated ‘skin’ that provides air flow and reduces energy consumption.
With a design as severe as the desert landscape that surrounds it, this house almost looks like a spaceship perched atop a volcano. Built in 1968 in Newberry Springs, California, two hours east of Los Angeles, the Volcano House has been called a ‘modernist masterpiece’ and was, according to the Los Angeles Times, “envisioned to resemble the information center at the construction site of the nuclear generating plant in San Onofre.” The 60-acre estate is currently on the market for $750,000.
From a distance, it seems as if a dangerous eruption is underway: a gargantuan white cloud hovers over the mouth of a volcano. But get closer and it becomes clear that this is no ordinary volcano. Estadio Chivas in Guadalajara, Mexico features green walls made of sloped parkland, and can hold 45,000 spectators. It will take another two years for greenery to grow in so that the effect is complete.
OFIS Architecture’s All-Seasons Tent Tower concept features two cylindrical structures covered in a shaded net-like mesh that supports greenery in the summertime. But unusual as it is, the mesh isn’t what makes these towers special: a system of concrete cores and composite columns within the towers make them earthquake-resistant, an important consideration in quake-prone Armenia.
Unlike all those ‘bad volcanoes’ that erupt violently and cause plenty of problems – like Mt. Vesuvius, just a few miles away – this ‘good volcano’ has nothing but positive things to bring to the community. That is, if you like the design. Vulcano Buono blends in with the Italian landscape, and unlike many similar designs, it’s not just for sports and special events. Designed by Renzo Piano, Vulcano Buono houses a shopping mall, outdoor theater, restaurants, and a hotel. The green ‘roof’ that forms the walls of the volcanic structure supports more than 2,500 plants.
Crystal Island, a massive tent-like structure conceived as a city within itself, will be the world’s largest building – if it’s ever built, that is. Foster + Partners envisions Crystal Island as a solar- and wind-powered community packed with 900 apartments, 3000 hotel rooms, an international school for 500 students, theaters, a sports complex and more all in a 1500-foot-tall structure with a footprint five times larger than that of the Pentagon building in the U.S. Construction has been delayed due to the state of the economy.
Built on a reclaimed brownfield along the Tees River, the BEI-Teessidee biomass power plant by Thomas Heatherwick will rise from the industrial landscape like a modern man-made volcano. The power station, which will produce fuel from palm kernel shells, will be covered in vertical greenery to give this barren area an organic-looking focal point.
Behind a wall made of volcanic rock on the fourth-largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, there’s a startlingly beautiful secret: a hidden lagoon full of blind albino crabs that can’t be found anywhere else in the world . Jameos del Agua was formed when the ceiling of a volcanic tunnel, formed by eruptions of the Corona volcano three to four thousand years ago, collapsed into itself. Now a tourist attraction, Jameos del Agua features a swimming pool, an auditorium, gardens, restaurants and night clubs.
Since the 1970s, James Turrell has been crafting a highly unusual work of art: a system of chambers and tunnels inside the Roden Crater, an extinct volcano northeast of Flagstaff, Arizona. It’s not scheduled to open to the public until 2011, but speculation about the work has reached a fever pitch among art critics and collectors. The work is shrouded in secret, but the few who have visited say that it highlights aspects of the crater and its natural environment, like the stars in the sky and the subtle sounds of the desert.
It juts out of the landscape and into the clouds, covered in grass, butterflies flitting about – but it’s no naturally-occurring mountain. It’s a high-density housing development, or a …
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Be not angry that you cannot make others as you wish them to be, since you cannot make yourself as you wish to be. ~Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ, c.1420
You’ve got a lot of choices. If getting out of bed in the morning is a chore and you’re not smiling on a regular basis, try another choice. ~Steven D. Woodhull
What saves a man is to take a step. Then another step. It is always the same step, but you have to take it. ~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars, 1939, translated from French by Lewis Galantière
Remember, if you’re headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns! ~Allison Gappa Bottke
Anyone can carry his burden, however hard, until nightfall. Anyone can do his work, however hard, for one day. Anyone can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, till the sun goes down. And this is all life really means. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree. ~Jim Rohn
In what you say of another, apply the test of kindness, necessity and truth, and let nothing pass your lips without a 2/3 majority. ~Liz Armbruster
See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little. ~Pope John XXIII
Give thanks for what you are now, and keep fighting for what you want to be tomorrow. ~Fernanda Miramontes-Landeros
You will turn over many a futile new leaf till you learn we must all write on scratched-out pages. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic’s Notebook, 1960
Now that it’s all over, what did you really do yesterday that’s worth mentioning? ~Coleman Cox
Be kind to your shadow. ~Rebecca Lawless
Robert Louis Stevenson
Beth
