Narthex

Nartex of a Patriarchate Monastery in Serbia

The narthex of a church is the entrance or lobby area, located at the end of the nave, at the far end from the church's main altar. Traditionally the narthex was a part of the church building, but was not considered part of the church proper. It was either an indoor area separated from the nave by a screen or rail, or an external structure such as a porch.
Narthex works like a filter, allowing those not eligible for admittance into the general congregation to hear and partake in the service.

Pantheon oculus

Pantheon, Rome, 126 AD

The Pantheon is a building in Rome, commissioned by Marcus Agrippa as atemple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD. The building is circular with a portico, under a coffered, concrete dome, with a central opening to the sky, called Oculus. 

Inside the Pantheon

The oculus at the dome's apex and the entry door are the only sources of light in the interior. Throughout the day, the light from the oculus moves around this space in a sort of reverse sundial effect. The oculus also serves as a cooling and ventilation method. When the rain is lighter, the temperature difference between the interior and the exterior of the Pantheon origins an air draught that comes out trough the oculus don't allowing rain to enter. Naturally, during storms, a drainage system below the floor handles the rain that falls through the oculus.

Oculus shadow on the dome

@ View panorama from the inside of the Pantheon

Proverbi

Piccola spugna ritiene acqua.

Chi cade nell'acqua è forza che si bagni. (Giovanni Verga)

Non mi curo dell'acqua che non bagna.

L'amore passa sette muri.

Le mura, per quanto forti, non possono impedire il volo del pensiero.

Impara l'arte e mettila da parte.

Chi va con lo zoppo impara a zoppicare

Bevi del buon vino e lascia andare l'acqua al mulino.

I danari van via come l'acqua benedetta.

Dove non va acqua ci vuol la zappa.

A combatter con il fango, che si vinca o che si perda, sempre ci si infanga.

Chi ara terra bagnata, per tre anni l'ha dissipata.

Osmotic membrane

Osmosis is the movement of water molecules across a selectively-permeable membrane down a water potential gradient. It is a physical process in which a solvent moves, without input of energy, across a semipermeable membrane (permeable to the solvent, but not the solute) separating two solutions of different concentrations. Osmosis releases energy, and can be made to do work.
Osmosis is important in biological systems, as many biological membranes are semipermeable. In general, these membranes are impermeable to organic solutes with large molecules. Permeability may depend on solubility properties, charge, or chemistry, as well as solute size. Osmosis provides the primary means by which water is transported into and out of cells.

Shot of a computer simulation of the process of osmosis

Filter press

The filter press is an industrial machine used to drain the sludge by solid-liquid separation processes. In other words, the filter-system is a reduction in volume of liquids that are in suspended solids.
The filter consists of a series of plates or dishes (plate) alternating with canvas (frame) that adhere to one form to another room, where the panel is formed of dried mud. The mud is pumped at high pressure inside the filter. The solid phase is retained in the spaces between the plates and frames and filter out the liquid phase, low in suspended solids. The subsequent recovery of the solid phase takes place with the opening of the filter, when the sludge have filled the gap.

@ Watch how a Filter press works

Büchner funnel

A Büchner funnel is a piece of laboratory equipment used in suction filtration. It is traditionally made of porcelain, but glass and plastic funnels are also available. On top of the funnel-shaped part there is a cylinder with a perforated plate separating it from the funnel.
The filtration material, usually filter paper, is placed on the plate, and the filter paper is moistened with a solvent to prevent initial leakage. The liquid to be filtered is poured into the cylinder and drawn through the perforated plate by vacuum suction.
The main advantage in using this type of filtration is that it proceeds much more quickly (several orders of magnitude) than simply allowing the solvent to drain through the filter medium via the force of gravity.

 

Submarine submersion

Sometimes even the objects that appear instinctively extremely waterproof, need a porous parts to interface with the outside.
For general submersion or surfacing, submarines use the forward and aft tanks, called Main Ballast Tanks or MBTs, which are filled with water to submerge, or filled with air to surface. Under submerged conditions, MBTs generally remain flooded, which simplifies their design, and on many submarines these tanks are a section of interhull space. For more precise and quick control of depth, submarines use smaller Depth Control Tanks or DCTs. The amount of water in depth control tanks can be controlled either to reflect changes in outside conditions or change depth. Depth control tanks can be located either near the submarine's center of gravity, or separated along the submarine body to prevent affecting trim.

A submarine technical section

@ Watch this fanny video to better understand laws that involve submarine submersion

Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde (1920)

Agfa waterproof camera old commercial

Vintage Timex Commercial

Tarmacdry

TarmacDry is an asphalt porous paving system that takes control of rain management by working with nature.
It is designed to capture rain and surface water before either storing it for recycling, releasing it immediately into the sub-grade or performing a controlled release into the existing drainage.

PATENT: Permeable Paving System, Timothy Robert Lowe, 2006

@ Visit TarmacDry official website
@ Know more about TarmacDry research at Coventry University

Sea of Skin

Timberland Advert

Timberland Commerical

Moses crosses the Red Sea

Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen. And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic, clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, "Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.

Book of Exodus 14:21-25

Extreme Waterproof

Sunscreen Hawaiian Tropic by Grey Group Chile

@ Read more about Hawaiian Tropic advertising

Water in nets

Our luck, my friend, is like water in a net: pull the net and feel swollen, and when you pulled it, on the ground there is nothing.

Lev Nikolaevic Tolstoj (1828-1910)

Vapor and water trasmission rate

Moisture vapor transmission rate (MVTR), also water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), is a measure of the passage of water vapor through a substance. The conditions under which the measurement is made has a considerable influence on the result.

There are various techniques to measure MVTR, ranging from gravimetric techniques that measure the gain or loss of moisture by mass, to highly sophisticated instrumental techniques that in some designs can measure extremely low transmission rates.

A Typical MVTR measuring machine

Porosity

Used in geology, hydrogeology, soil science, and building science, the porosity of a porous medium (such as rock or sediment) describes the fraction of void space in the material, where the void may contain, for example, air or water. It is defined by the ratio:

Φ= Vv/Vt

where VV is the volume of void-space (such as fluids) and VT is the total or bulk volume of material, including the solid and void components. Both the mathematical symbols φ and n are used to denote porosity.

Porosity is a fraction between 0 and 1 or a percent term, typically ranging from less than 0.01 for solid granite to more than 0.5 for peat and clay.

Adam Sturtevant, Porous Orchestra

Adam Sturtevant is a young, multi-disciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, New York. He has performed as a drummer around the world with dozens of different artists, including St. Vincent, Via Audio, and Sufjan Stevens. Adam Sturtevant's Porous Orchestra is a seven-part suite, mixing chamber music with minimalism and jazz, composed and recorded in 2005.

@ Listen preview of Porous Orchestra
@ Listen Adam Sturtevant interview

The Spongebob SquarePants Movie

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie is a 2004 animated film based on the Nickelodeon television series SpongeBob SquarePants, released on November 19, 2004.
The film's protagonist, as in the TV series, is SpongeBob SquarePants, who goes on a quest with Patrick Star on a quest to save King Neptune's crown and rescue Bikini Bottom from the evil clutches of Plankton. 

@ Watch the movie trailer

Condensation Cube - Hans Haacke

Condenstation Cube, 1963-65

An early exploration of systems and processes, both natural and institutional. In the discourse of institutional critique, the piece may be read as criticism against the closed system of the museum or gallery which attempts to control and contain.

Hans Haacke’s Condensation Cube (1963-65) is a hermetically sealed, clear acrylic plexiglass box, thirty centimeters on the side that holds about one centimeter or so of water. Condensation collects against the inner surface of the plexiglass forming vertical streaks on the inside. How the condensation is created can be explained in the following way: Air can hold only a limited amount of water vapor and when that limit or dew point (a law of nature, which applies to all bodies of air all over the world) is reached, condensation occurs. In almost all art museums, the temperature is set at a cool 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which means that at a relative humidity of about 45 percent (the standard in most museums), the dew point is at 42 degrees. Because plexiglass is a bad thermal insulator, the air temperature inside the Cube is the same as the temperature on the outside, namely 65 degrees. But since the humidity is close to 100 percent, the dew point is much higher, and is, in fact, about 65 degrees, precisely the temperature of the plexiglass.

Lovers are waterproof - Herman Düne

Waterproof 1999

Director: Barry Berman

Writer: Barry Berman


Movie trailer



Burt Reynolds is Eli, an aging, limping Jewish shopkeeper in D.C. when he is suddenly robbed at gunpoint by a ten-year-old boy and two thugs who put him up to it. The gun goes off and Eli is injured. By coincidence, the young boy's mother is driving by in her cab, she sees her son and begins a cleanup effort. She basically kidnaps Eli and takes everyone down to Louisiana to her hometown which she hasn't visited since she was a teenager.

The kidnapping takes a very unique twist as Eli finds some comforts living with the mother's mother, brothers and grandfather. The grandfather, played by Whitman Mayo ("Grady" from Sanford & Son), is a scene-stealer every time he is on the screen. He concocts a remedy for Eli's gunwound made of spider legs, he says. That plus Eli has to watch nine consecutive sunrises and he'll be all healed up.

This is a beautiful tale wonderfully told. No special camera angles, very little violence, just people dealing with people. I agree with the other people posting that the Christian message is a little heavy-handed, but the rest of the story is a welcome break from the usual Hollywood style.

I rate this movie 10 out of 10. It is at once serious and funny. No matter what mood you're in, you'll probably like it, as long as you can get past the "go to church and that will make you a good person" stuff.

Gore-tex patent

Gore-Tex is a waterproof/breathable fabric, used in a wide variety of applications such as high performance fabrics, medical implants, filter media, insulation for wires and cables, gaskets, and sealants.
The simplest sort of rain wear is a two layer sandwich. The outer layer is typically nylon or polyester and provides strength. The inner one is a thin, porous fluoropolymer membrane in Teflon.

This membrane had about 1.4 billion pores per square centimeter. Each pore is approximately 1/20.000 the size of a water droplet, making it impenetrable to liquid water while still allowing the smaller sized water vapour molecules to pass through.

PATENTS:

Porous form of Polytetrafluoroethylene, Robert Gore, 1976

Waterproof laminate, Robert Gore, Rowena Taylor, Samuel Allen, 1980

Spongebob SquarePants

SpongeBob SquarePants (often referred to simply as SpongeBob) is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of SpongeBob, a submarine sponge, and his various friends in the underwater city "Bikini Bottom.

One recent re-interpretation of Spongebob strips

The basis for SpongeBob SquarePants was formed by Hillenburg in 1984 while teaching and studying marine biology at the Ocean Institute in Dana Point, California, where he wrote the comic strip The Intertidal Zone, which starred various anthropomorphic forms of sea life, many of which would evolve into SpongeBob SquarePants characters.

@W/P Go to The Spongebob SquarePants Movie

@ Visit the official site of SpongeBob SquarePants

Clay

Clays exhibit plasticity when mixed with water in certain proportions. When dry, clay becomes firm and when fired in a kiln, permanent physical and chemical reactions occur. These reactions, among other changes, cause the clay to be converted into a ceramic material.

Because of these properties, clay is used for making pottery items, both utilitarian and decorative. Different types of clay give different properties and different colors, from a dull gray to a deep orange-red.

Clay, being relatively impermeable to water, is also used where natural seals are needed, such as in the cores of dams, or as a barrier in landfills against toxic seepage

Recent studies have investigated clay's absorption capacities in various applications, such as the removal of heavy metals from waste water and air purification.

@ Click here to discover the wonders of Richard Ginori's clay

Legend of Paka'a

Next test is an abstract of the Hawaiian legend of Paka'a, where it's explained the role of different stones in Hawaiian ancient culture:

To secure a god to preside over games, large stones were selected and wrapped in tapa, and ceremonies were performed over such a stone in the heiau. If the owner of the god was unsuccesful more than once or twice, the stone god was thrown away.
Rocks have sex: the solid rock, culumnar in shape, is male; the porous rock, loaf-shaped or split by a hollow, is female.
Chiefs and priests worshiped these rocks and poured awa over them as representatives of the god. If a stone of each sex was selected, a small pebble would be found beside them which increased in size and was finally taken to the heiau to be made a god.

Hawaiian mythology, Volume 1940, Part 1, Martha Warren Beckwith,Vassar College

@ Read the whole passage

Cork

Cork is composed of suberin, a hydrophobic substance, and because of its impermeability, buoyancy, elasticity, and fire resistance, it is used in a variety of products.

Cork's elasticity combined with its near-impermeability makes it suitable as a material for bottle stoppers, especially for wine bottles.

Sometimes a wine can have an unpleasant aroma (oftentimes caused by hydrogen sulfide, a byproduct of the fermentation process) that is completely trapped inside a screw-capped bottle. A cork, porous by nature, might let the unwanted aroma leak out.

       
                           

Know more about the importance of a good crop

Indiana Pipps