yesterday after much anticipation the proper futon arrived. not a squudgy foam foldable thing, a solid extremely firm not very thick actual futon. i only know one place in the uk that makes these. and I slept. i actually slept, and today my back does not feel like it has folds and twists, it's just a column of bones and muscles and nerves all stacked up.
for context, when I used to have travel for work, I would pull the hotel duvet onto the floor and sleep there.
The air handler in the attic suffered a blockage in the drainage pipe. Water filled the pan and there is, apparently, no float kill-switch. And so, as water does, it sought the lowest point. Eventually that was the ceiling. 😱
A trip to the hardware store to by a wet vac and then a second trip to buy the foam filter required for wet vacuuming (in a frothy rage because why would you sell a wet vac without the ability to, I dunno, wet vacuum out of the box?!?)
Not a fun evening.
Ambient Pressure-Driven Actuators and Shape-Morphing Metamaterials
Benjamin Holdstock, Robert Trowbridge, Alexander W. Powell, Julian Monsalve Londono
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.18982 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.18982 https://arxiv.org/html/2607.18982
arXiv:2607.18982v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Actuators which change shape in response to ambient pressure have great potential for use in extreme environments, from space to the deep ocean. Bi-layer actuators have so far not been explored to this end, despite their lightness and mechanical simplicity (there is no requirement for a separate power source or pump, for example) making them ideal for applications where transport and maintenance are difficult. In this paper, foam-based bilayer actuators powered by ambient pressure change have been constructed, modelled mathematically, characterised in terms of their actuating force, and built into deployable devices and metamaterial structures to showcase properties such as negative pressure expansivity. Actuators such as these are ideally suited for a range of applications, from deploying solar panels and sensors in space and extra-terrestrial atmospheres, to under-sea expandable structures and sensing.
toXiv_bot_toot
A Multi-scale Investigation of Aqueous Foams Stabilised by PNIPAM Microgels
Joanne Zimmer, Luca Mirau, Kevin Gr\"aff, Ga\"etan Barth, Carina Schneider, Vera A. N. A. Hesse, Hayden Robertson, Regine von Klitzing
https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.11999 https://arxiv.org/pdf/2608.11999 https://arxiv.org/html/2608.11999
arXiv:2608.11999v1 Announce Type: new
Abstract: Aqueous foams possess multiple structural motifs across different length scales: macroscopic foam, bubbles, foam films and the air/water interface. In this study, macroscopic foams are generated by sparging gas through an aqueous dispersion of PNIPAM microgels which act as foam stabilisers due to their surface activity. The stiffness of the microgels and thus their interfacial activity are tuned by variation of the cross-linker density. The effect of the cross-linker density and the microgel concentration on the resulting foam formation properties (foamability) and the foam stability are investigated. A lower cross-linker density and a higher microgel concentration enhance the foamability, generate foams with smaller bubbles and higher liquid fractions, and increase the foam stability. These observations are correlated with the microgel behavior at the single air/water interface examined by pendant drop tensiometry and Langmuir compression experiments as well as the mobility in single free-standing foam films determined using a Thin Film Pressure Balance. Our findings highlight good agreement across all length scales: increased foamability correlates with a faster decrease in surface tension, and higher foam stability with a higher surface elastic modulus of a microgel-covered single air/water interface and decreasing mobility in foam films.
toXiv_bot_toot
Folks who travel with a lot of fragile stuff often: Pelican cases with foam look nice if it's the same equipment each time, but buying new foam inserts for each trip would get expensive fast.
How do you keep things safe if you're reconfiguring each time you hit the road depending on the demands of the event / customer?
The Order of Things
Lauren Fensterstock
Permanent collection of the #NorthDakota Museum of Art, Grand Forks
Sharif don’t like it,
Wash the #cat box!
Wash the cat box!
#TheClash
We are in Paris! Our first night was dinner at Brasserie du Louvre, a pleasant and reliable standby. Their cocktail featured a clever spray on top of an egg white foam.
foaming!
I cleaned out the waterfall of gunk and most of the small stones and gravel leaving only the large rocks placed as strategically as I could to leave small gaps for foaming.
1.5 cans worth of landscape foam (DAP). I think I got all of it, but water always finds a way so its probably more like 75% if I'm lucky.
Ill let it cure for 24hrs then Ill trim some of the excess and reactivate the waterfall tomorrow to see what it looks like. It should make a big difference no matter what.
#poolpond #backyardproject #diy #gardening #portalberni
A little discouraged this afternoon as I spent part of the day adding extension wire into the 2nd pump as I had the first.
Two tries on both ends splicing in the cord and both times the pump fails to start with a low voltage on the pump-side error. 😢
Hate losing a day… but also unsure where the problem is. If it’s the pump, my splices, or the quality of the extension cord spliced into it (it is the other half of the same cord used to extend the first pump.) Really hope it is not the first! But the other two options suck too because it is an annoying job to do the splices.
Bummer.
Also after the foaming in, it looks like I still missed a significant gap somewhere. Only redirected about half the water. There is a lot more coming down to the end of the waterfall which is good. Still lots coming out the bottom under the flat rocks.
I think I am going to try splicing in a newer extension cord another day since that will kind of answer both the splicing and cord questions at once.
For now though, no extra bottom poolpond circulation/sprayers, just the main pump. And I still have 1.25 cans of foam to use, so I will plan for another day of foaming when I can take a super close second look at where the water is going that it shouldn’t.
Can’t all be successes. Like computer stuff 😝
Onward!
My outdoor office was fun tho. 😊
#poolpond #backyardProject
#diy #pondlife #success #failure #life
@yetiinabox@todon.nl
