Yes, ceramic knives are the "new thing," but that doesn't make them superior. The problem with ceramic knives is that you can never sharpen them, and, as mentioned in the comments, they may chip. Don't get a ceramic chef's knife or paring knife; the answer to your question is zero.
If you really want a ceramic knife, then buy a ceramic bread knife, although you won't be getting any extra performance for the money.
Ceramic blade mandolines, however, are great. The ceramic blade will be sharper and hold the edge longer than a steel mandoline, and since you don't sharpen a mandoline anyway, it doesn't matter that ceramic doesn't sharpen.
Note, a separate, and good, question would be "what knives do I need?" The answer is it depends, but I concur that you should not buy a "set" of knives.
It depends on how much rice you're trying to cook. I rarely cook more than a few cups at a time, and I don't use a special pot for it (clad steel, though). Once the water comes to a boil, turn down to low, leave it for about 15 minutes (covered!), turn it off, wait another 15 minutes or so (still covered), and you're done.
If you're cooking a lot of rice at a time, a thick/heavy pot (enameled cast iron, or just a heavy clad steel pot) will help hold a low temperature without scorching the bottom of the rice.
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It's a pastry blender, less commonly also called a pastry cutter or dough blender. The primary use is cutting (mixing) solid fat into flour to make pastry dough.
Another common variety has stiff wires instead of the metal strips yours has.
That kind also works fine for pastry dough, but likely won't work as well for your alternative use on clumpy powders; it'll tend to flex out of the way a bit, especially if the clumps are hard.