Puzzle Jug

Puzzle jug with inscriptions

A puzzle jug is a puzzle in the form of a jug. The challenge is to drink the contents without spilling, which, because the neck of the jug is perforated, is impossible to do conventionally. Usually on the jug there are inscriptions like Come drink of me and merry be or Come drink your fill, but do not spill.

Puzzle jugs of varying quality were popular in homes and taverns, especially during the 18th and 19th centuries.

@ More about Puzzle Jug

Quicksilver porosimetry

Quicksilver porosimetry is an analytical technique used to determine various quantifiable aspects of a material's porous nature, such as pore diameter, total pore volume, surface area, and bulkand absolute densities.
The technique involves the intrusion of a non-wetting liquid (often mercury) at high pressure into a material through the use of a porosimeter. The pore size can be determined based on the external pressure needed to force the liquid into a pore against the opposing force of the liquid's surface tension.

Michelangelo vs Leonardo

Tondo Doni, Michelangelo, 1508

Vergine con il bambino e Sant'Anna, Leonardo

Michelangelo believed that painting should approach the sculpture. His painting technique can be described as statuesque. The subjects of his paintings are well defined and appears impermeables.
Leonardo, instead, thought the painting would approach the reality, and because between one thing and another there is never absolute void, the figures were to fade and lose one another and with the background, so porous.

Le Corbusier, Notre Dame du Haut

Generally, the churches are closed, impenetrable, as if wishing to become detached from reality.
Notre Dame du Haut is instead characterized by its porosity, its relationship with the outside and light.
All the coverage does not rest directly on the walls but on short pillars drowned in the wall thereof. In this way, looking at the ceiling from the inside, you feel a shaft of light that penetrates the walls and the canopy of concrete. The light is also used by dozens of openings in many different forms. Louvers, windows and blinds that determine evocative lighting effects enhanced by the contrast between the white plaster and gray dirt of cement.

Inside view

@ Learn more about Notre Dame du Haut

@ View photos

Sunscreen

Sunscreen is able to absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn. To absorb UV radiation sunscreens contain organic or inorganic particulate governed to about 90% by absorption and 10% by scattering of UV light. In addition, many sunscreens are waterproof, to keep the effect while swimming.
Many sunscreens do not block UVA radiation, which does not cause sunburn but can increase the rate of melanoma. Additionally, sunscreens block UVB, and if used consistently this can cause a deficiency of vitamin D.

@B View advertising of Extreme Waterproof

Baggage scanner

Scanned image of a luggage bag

To increase security at airports, all baggage is scanned by X-rays with a procedure similar to that of radiography. So you can also pass through what you cannot see with human eyes only.

@B Learn how Radiography works

The family man

Sometimes an hermetic character can quickly become in one open and caring.
This is what happens to the protagonist of A Family Man who sees what could have been had he made a different decision thirteen years ago. At the end, the protagonists concludes that living a quiet family life is preferable to achieving success and wealth at work.
@ Read the whole story

Tullgren funnel

A Tullgren funnel, also known as Berlese funnel, is an apparatus used to extract living organisms from samples of soil. The Tullgren funnel works by creating a temperature gradient over the sample, such that mobile organisms will move away from the warmer temperatures, and fall into a collecting vessel where they perish, and are preserved for examination. Animals escaping from the dessiccation of the litter descend through a filter into a preservative liquid in a receptacle.

Diode

A diode is a two-terminal electronic component that conducts electric current in only one direction. Usually it is a crystalline piece of semiconductor material connected to two electrical terminals.
The most common function of a diode is to allow an electric current to pass in one direction while blocking current in the opposite direction, and is used to convert alternating current to direct current, and to extract modulation from radio signals in radio receivers.

Diode electric symbol

Albedo

Albedo, or reflection coefficient, is the diffuse reflectivity or reflecting power of a surface. It is defined as the ratio of reflected radiation from the surface to incident radiation upon it. Being a dimensionless fraction, it may also be expressed as a percentage, and is measured on a scale from zero for no reflecting power of a perfectly black surface, to 1 for perfect reflection of a white surface.

Albedo global map

The Greenhouse effect

The greenhouse effect is a process by which thermal radiation from a planetary surface is absorbed by atmospheric greenhouse gases, and is re-radiated in all directions. Since part of this re-radiation is back towards the surface, energy is transferred to the surface and the lower atmosphere. This is because the atmospheric gases, virtually transparent to solar radiation, absorb infrared radiated from the Earth. As a result, the temperature there is higher than it would be if direct heating by solar radiation were the only warming mechanism.

The growing presence of greenhouse gases are endangering the Earth

@ More about Global Warming

Conceptual Map

To Filter

    To Flow                                                     To Protect

Waterproof/
Porous

    To Refuse                                                  To Absorb

To Assimil

Click to explore single actions

To Flow

Water under the Bridge

River Delta                                                   Infiltration

To Flow

Tarmacdry                                                           Diode

Luminiferous Aether

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To Assimil

A Family Man                                 

                                                    Fallingwater House

To Assimil

Greenhouse effect                                              Chi va con lo zoppo

Condensation Cube

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To Refuse

Albedo

Spiral Jetty                                                          Diode

To Refuse

Mosè                                                   Pantheon Oculus

Watch

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To Absorb

Nappy

Infiltration                                                          X-Ray

To Absorb

Sanitary Napkin                                          Black Body

Chirpò spheres

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To Protect

Dream Catcher

Fencing Mask                                               Timberland

To Protect

Gore-tex                                                          Camera

Sunscreen

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To Filter

Drain is just for Rain

                                                                        Narthex

 Magritte

To Filter

Audio Filter                                        Buchner Funnel

Filter Press

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Groundwater

Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil pore spaces and in the fractures of rock formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water. Groundwater is recharged from the surface naturally; natural discharge often occurs at springs and seeps, and can form oases or wetlands.
Groundwater aren't confined only to the Earth: some landforms observed on Mars may have been influenced by groundwater.

Probable groundwater on Mars

Confined Aquifer

An aquifer is a layer of soft rock, like limestone or sandstone, that absorbs water from an inlet path. Porous stone is confined between impermeable rocks or clay. This keeps the pressure high, so when the water finds an outlet,it overcomes gravity and goes up instead of down without the need for pumping. In this case is the presence of an artesian well.
The Great Artesian Basin is the largest and deepest artesian basin in the world, occupying 23% of the Australian continent.

Great Artesian Basin

Magritte, La Condition Humaine

In front of a window seen from inside a room, I placed a painting representing exactly that portion of the landscape covered by the painting. Thus, the tree in the picture hid the tree behind it, outside the room.

Renè Magritte, 1933

Then paintings may include both impermeable, because they hide what is behind, that porous, because the concealed portion coincides with the image painted.

La Condition Humaine I (1933)

La Condition Humaine II (1935)

The Promenades of Euclid (1955)

@ Go to the official website of Magritte Foundation

Semiconductor

A semiconductor polymer

A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity due to electron flow intermediate in magnitude between that of a conductor and an insulator. Semiconductor materials are the foundation of modern electronics.
Common semiconducting materials are crystalline solids, but amorphous and liquid semiconductors are known. The electronic properties and the conductivity of a semiconductor can be changed in a controlled manner by adding very small quantities of other elements, called “dopants”, to the intrinsic material. But temperature also can cause rapid variation of conductivity.

@B Do you know what a Diode is?

@ Learn more about Electrical conductivity

Infiltration Rate

Infiltration is the process by which water on the ground surface enters the soil. Infiltration rate in soil science is a measure of the rate at which soil is able to absorb rainfall or irrigation. It is measured in inches per hour or millimeters per hour. The rate decreases as the soil becomes saturated. If the precipitation rate exceeds the infiltration rate, runoff will usually occur unless there is some physical barrier. It is related to the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the near-surface soil. The rate of infiltration can be measured using an infiltrometer.

Double Ring Infiltrometer

PATENT: Automatic Recording Infiltrometer, Almond D. Bull, 1949

Suez Canal

Sometimes what appears to be impermeable, can suddenly become permeable. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 created the first salt-water passage between the Mediterranean and Red seas. It allows water transportation between Europe and Asia without navigating around Africa, through an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt. It contains no locks: seawater flows freely through the canal. In general, the Canal north of the Bitter Lakes flows north in winter and south in summer.

Air view of whole Suez canal

@ Look at Suez Canal Company stamps

Hydrate

Cobalt Chloride before and after hydration

Hydrate is a term used in inorganic chemistry and organic chemistry to indicate that a substance contains water. The chemical state of the water varies widely between hydrates.
Mineral hydrates are inorganic salts containing water molecules combined in a definite ratio as an integral part of the crystal that are either bound to a metal center or that have crystallized with the metal complex.
A colorful example is cobalt chloride, which turns from blue to magenta upon hydration, and can therefore be used as a water indicator.

@ Learn more about hydrates

Optical fiber

An optical fiber or optical fibre is a thin, flexible, transparent fiber that acts as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. Fibers are used instead of metal wires because signals travel along them with less loss and are also immune to electromagnetic interference. Furthermore, because optical fibers transmit only the light, while this is produced by an external generator, they can directly pass through hostile environments for electrical cables, such as water.

optical fiber pool lighting

@ Watch how optical fiber work

PATENT: Method of producing optical waveguide fibers, Keck et al. 1970

Pampers Baby Dry

Wright, Fallingwater house

Fallingwater stands as one of Frank Wright's greatest masterpieces The home was built on top of an active waterfall which flows beneath the house, was essential the impermeability of the foundation.
Wright's passion for Japanese architecture was strongly reflected in the design of Fallingwater, particularly in the importance of interpenetrating exterior and interior spaces and the strong emphasis placed on harmony between man and nature. So for its dynamism and for its integration with the striking natural surroundings, Fallingwater house can be understood as porous.

Fallingwater or Kaufmann Residence, 1935, Southwestern Pennsylvania. 

Explore the Official site of Fallingwater house

Audio filter

They are called filters audio devices that accept an input signal and returns its entire output in just one part. audio filters are often different depending on sound frequency. Low-pass, that enables only frequencies below a certain point called the cutoff, High-pass, that does the opposite of the low-pass, band-pass and rejecy band.

Look how to make a low pass filter

Radiography

Radiography is the use of X-rays to view a non uniformly composed material such as the human body.

A heterogeneous beam of X-rays is produced by an X-ray generator and is projected toward an object. According to the density and composition of the different areas of the object a proportion of X-rays are absorbed by the object. The X-rays that pass through are then captured behind the object by a detector which gives a 2D representation of all the structures superimposed on each other.

@ More about Radiography

Pozzolana

Pozzolana was the first material that Romans used to make roofs waterproof. Pozzolanic ash was first discovered and dug in Italy, at Pozzuoli, in the region around Vesuvius.
It reacts with calcium hydroxide in the presence of water, creating compounds possessing cementitious properties at room temperature which have the ability to set underwater. It transformed the possibilities for making concrete structures, although it took the Romans some time to discover its full potential.
Modern Pozzolana blend may be stronger than Portland cement, due to its lower porosity, which also makes it more resistant to water absorption and spalling.

Pantheon dome made of Pozzolana

@B Read more about Pantheon dome curiosities

@ Explore pozzolana.it (ITA)

Potometer

A potometer is a device used for measuring the rate of water uptake of a leafy shoot. The causes of water uptake are photosynthesis and transpiration.
There are two main types of potometers used. The mass potometer consists of a plant with its root submerged in a beaker. The mass potometer measures the water lost through evapotranspiration of the plant and not the water taken up by the plant.

@B What is evapotranspiration?

Evapotranspiration

Evapotranspiration is a term used to describe the sum of evaporation and plant transpiration from the Earth's land surface to atmosphere. Evaporation accounts for the movement of water to the air from sources such as the soil, canopy interception, andwaterbodies. Transpiration accounts for the movement of water within a plant and the subsequent loss of water as vapor throughstomata in its leaves. Evapotranspiration is an important part of the water cycle. 

@ More about Evapotranspiration

Lysimeter

A lysimeter is a measuring device which can be used to measure the amount of actual evapotranspiration which is released by plants, usually crops or trees. By recording the amount of precipitation that an area receives and the amount lost through the soil, the amount of water lost to evapotranspiration can be calculated.
The amount of water lost by evapotranspiration can be worked out by calculating the difference between the weight before and after the precipitation input.

@ Visit lysimeter.com

Permeable Membrane

There’s a permeable membrane between art and society. A continuous dialectical motion. Tides brining the estuary. River flowing into sea. A writer describes the landmass “stained” current of the Congo River as discernible three hundred miles out on the ocean. Likewise: the matter of art enters the bloodstream of social energy. Call and response. The empathetic imagination can transform, but we can’t identify precise loci of transformation, can’t track or quantify the moments. Nor say how or when they lead, through innumerable unpredictable passageways, toward recreating survival, undermining illegitimate power and its cruelties.
Nor how newly unlocked social energies, movements of people, demand a renewed social dialogue with art: a spontaneous release of language and forms.
René Char: The poet bursts the bonds of what he touches. He does not teach the end of bonds. She cannot teach the end of bonds; but she can refuse to justify, accord with, ignore their existence.

Adrienne Rich, Permeable Membrane, 2006

@ Read all Permeable Membrane

Permeable

A poem for Sukkot

Today I'll finish our sukkah

stacking old wildflowers
to hint at roof, twining tinsel
around the slats

all year we imagine
our houses are our houses
stable and comfortable
waterproof and familiar

but these seven days
remind us that permanence
is overrated, that our true home
is under the stars

change is always underway
nine short weeks remain
until you'll leave the home
you probably think is forever

and enter our world
airy and unpredictable
where we won't know what you need
even sometimes when you tell us

your first big leap of faith, kid:
into nothing you've ever known
into the fragile sukkah
we've decorated just for you

Rachel Barenblat, 2009

@ Visit Velveteen Rabbi

Tao Te Ching

誰可以 在泥濘的水 讓它是寂靜的  它
會逐漸變得清晰起來。誰可以安全休息的條件
讓運動下去  休息的條件將逐漸出現。

Who can (make) the muddy water (clear)? Let it be still, and it will gradually become clear. Who can secure the condition of rest? Let movement go on, and the condition of rest will gradually arise. 

Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching, Chapter 15, 3

Chi va con lo zoppo

Cum placidissimo et facillimo et minime anxio morosoque uiuendum est; sumuntur a conuersantibus mores et ut quaedam in contactos corporis uitia transiliunt, ita animus mala sua proximis tradit: ebriosus conuictores in amorem meri traxit, inpudicorum coetus fortem quoque et silice natum uirum emolliit, auaritia in proximos uirus suum transtulit.

Seneca, De Ira, Liber III, 8

L'infinito

Sempre caro mi fu quest'ermo colle,

e questa siepe, che da tanta parte

dell'ultimo orizzonte il guardo esclude.

Ma sedendo e mirando, interminati

spazi di là da quella, e sovrumani

silenzi, e profondissima quïete

io nel pensier mi fingo, ove per poco

il cor non si spaura. E come il vento

odo stormir tra queste piante, io quello

infinito silenzio a questa voce

vo comparando: e mi sovvien l'eterno,

e le morte stagioni, e la presente

e viva, e il suon di lei. Così tra questa

immensità s'annega il pensier mio:

e il naufragar m'è dolce in questo mare

Giacomo Leopardi, Canti XII

Pour oil on troubled waters

If a person pours oil on troubled waters, they do or say something to calm a tense situation. "James is an good negotiator, and always manages to pour oil on troubled waters."

Water under the bridge

If something difficult or unpleasant took place in the past but is no longer important, it is referred to as water under the bridge. "They had a serious disagreement in the past but that's water under

the bridge."

Proverbs

Blood is thicker than water

Blood will out

Like father, like son.

Drain is just for Rain

@ Township of Abington - Educational Campaign for Stormwater Management and Pollution

Asabikeshiinh - Dream Catcher

In Ojibwa (Chippewa) culture, a dreamcatcher is a handmade object based on a willow hoop, on which is woven a loose net or web. The dreamcatcher is then decorated with personal and sacred items such as feathers and beads.

The Ojibwa believe that a dreamcatcher changes a person's dreams. According to Konrad J. Kaweczynski, Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through. Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day. Good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper.