Craig Dunn Clark on sun 23 nov 03
fire marshall
OK, Chris, time to come on out into the open if the prof is really the
fire hazard you say he is. This is not a laughing matter.If the nitwit has
done what you say he has done with the blessing of the chair and the dean
then they are equally imcompetent and the damage needs to be contained as
quickly as possible. THe damage that I am speaking of is the type that will
be caused by a real to life building and life devouring fire.
While you and your classmates argue back and forth, the kiln gets fired
again, the banding around the chimney fails and the fire department will
come to the rescue.
Unfortunately, everytime a fireman heads into a burning building his
life is at risk. That is the question that is paramount here. Report the
situation to the firemarshal. Do it tommorrow. You have already broadcast
this info all over cyberspace. If there is indeed a fire, and the record is
checked (as it will be) there is a digital trail of what you have said.
Attorneys (the personal injury type) have gone after far less.
I have not ever disagreed with Snail on anything. As far as I'm
concerned she walks on water when it comes to giving out advice. She knows
far more than I..............However, on this one I think she is out in left
field (if you are giving us an accurate picture of things and not just being
an over anxious or angst ridden undergrad.) Don't give the new guy a year to
cause another fire. Folks may really get hurt. Call the bloody fire
marshall. You can probably even do it anonomously. CHeck with the city.
As to evenness of firing, it sounds like the problem is in the folks
doing the firing. We had a twenty year old, 60 cubic foot Alpine updraft
that was coming apart and I learned to fire it evenly before rebuilding it.
It's all in the length of the flame and getting the part of the kiln that
fires cool ahead of the rest early in the game.
Rant Over
Craig Dunn Clark
619 East 11 1/2 st
Houston, Texas 77008
(713)861-2083
mudman@hal-pc.org
----- Original Message -----
From: "wayneinkeywest"
To:
Sent: Sunday, November 23, 2003 9:05 AM
Subject: Re: Replacement proffessors and venting
> Chris:
> The most obvious solution I can think of:
> Let this moron die on his sword. Stop offering advice, stop arguing, do
> some tongue biting. Do what you need to do, finish your degree, and let
the
> chips fall where they may. I know, it's a bitter pill to swallow.
>
> If he wants to burn down the department, let him. Unfortunately, this
means
> that some students (the ones who don't know enough to question, or are too
> lazy to care) will be affected, but that's not your problem either.
> Incompetence is never recognised by other incompetents, only by those who
> know.
>
> He will be found out eventually.
> Wayne Seidl
>
>
> > Ok I need to vent. I've mentioned before that my old ceramics professor
> > retired. Well they rplaced him at the beginning of summer with a guy who
> > while having been in eramics (supposedly) for 20 years, has absolutely
no
> > clue what he is doing, yet is condescending towards students who try and
> fix
> > his screw ups. I'll give you an example:
> >
> > We have a 20 year old gas kiln that is in sad shape. It doesn't reduce
> > properly anymore, has very uneven firing (bottom hits cone 11 while the
> top
> > cone 9 is still standing perfectly straight.) Anyway, our main workstudy
> who
> > fired the kiln graduated and the two we have now are undertrained and a
> bit
> > spacey so their gonna mess up when firing the kiln. Well they have
> repeated
> > overfired the kiln it seems at this new professors instructions. They
> don't
> > shut off the kiln until the middle shelf reaches cone 10, but by the
time
> > this happens, the bottom cone 11 guard cone has been laying flat a
while.
> No
> > telling what cone the kiln has actually been hitting.
> >
> > Anyway the obvious happens after consistently overfiring a kiln, our
> > insulation breaks down, and our chimney cracks, setting the roof on
fire.
> It
> > was a minor fire and was put out soon enough but the kiln has to be
fixed.
> >
> > So, to give you an example of what were having to deal with, the
> "professor"
> > decides to replace the insulation (good idea) with Kaowool only rated to
> > 2300F, because it's cheaper by half, so that can begin firing to cone 10
> > again (Oh that's brilliant, lets see, insulation-2300, cone 10 2350, oh
> yeah
> > that will work marvelessly if you like kilns made from glass that is. So
> > after a week of arguing and showing info, he finallly decides that maybe
> > 2400 rating is better, bearing in mind they always over fire. So another
> > week of telling him he is going to mess up the kiln and he _)finally_
> orders
> > 2600 insulation _after_ I have a talk with the department head. So,
> > insulation problem solved, now how to fix the chimney.
> >
> > Our department head thought we should hire a mason trained in kiln
> chimneys
> > to fix the kiln. Thank the gods right? WRONG! Our brilliant
_experienced_
> > professor convinces the department head he can save the school money by
> > repairing the chimney which is cracked all over the place. His solution,
> > place _aluminum_ band around the chimney at 1 foot intervals to hold it
> > together and contain the heat. He claims he was told that the aluminum
> would
> > not melt until 2900F regardless of the fact that aluminum melts at 1220F
> and
> > is an _excellent_ conductor of heat.Now I know the external temp of the
> > chimney would not possible reach 1220F, or our rafters would ignite
> > regularly, butthe aluminum is banded around cracks and their could be
> cracks
> > resulting in localized melts. But the guy will not bend on this, he
swears
> > thathe was told this wouyld not melt, and it must be a different kind of
> > aluminum (it's not an alloy I checked). He claims that this is a better
> fix
> > than paying a mason, becasue brick (firebrick) chimneys are "merely
> cosmetic"
> >
> > Now my question is, is it justifiable homicide to strangle this guy?
> Surely
> > their is some provision for cases such as these (just kidding).
Seriously,
> > This guy is driving me nuts. On top of all this, he doesn't know some of
> the
> > most rudementary aspects of throwing. He was going to give his advanced
> > class demos on off the hump and sectional throwing, and he had to look
it
> up
> > in the book because he'd never done it before and didn't know how.
> > Fortunately I'm passed the stage where I have lessons so I'm not
worrried
> > abbout that part for my sake, but all the incoming students are being
> > cheated of a goog education by this charlaton.
> >
> > And I can't complain to anybody on campus for three reasons. One, he is
a
> > friend of most of the faculty and they believe he doing his job and I'm
> > overreacting. Two, it'll get back to him, and my grades are subjective
at
> > this stage and I _need_ to be able to get into grad school. And three,
> They
> > can't hire anyone else because we are in a hiring freeze, and they would
> > have to shut the program down, losing the school its right to grant
BFAs,
> > and keeping me from finishing my degree.
> >
> > So, I'm venting, sorry for the rant, but I'm going nuts. I can't
transfer
> > because my wife and I are only one year from finishing and can't afford
to
> > move now and then again when we got to grad school (hopfully I will get
in
> > to Syracuse University _hopefully_)
> >
> > Anyone have any productive ideas besides proffessorcide?
> >
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Chris Clyburn
>
>
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