Zoe: Uh huh. River, honey? He's putting the hair away now. River: It'll still be there... waiting.

'Jaynestown'


Natter 46: The FIGHTIN' 46  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Cass - Aug 10, 2006 10:58:07 am PDT #1880 of 10001
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.

less porn, I gather. Ever notice that there's ALWAYS a porn store within walking distance of the post gate?
I suspect that is how I knew where to find the porn. Here? No idea without bases nearby. In San Diego, the three major porn/strip club areas were near the bases. If it weren't for the internets? I'd be deporned.

This reminds me that I need to go to the "special place" to buy vodka.


DavidS - Aug 10, 2006 11:06:25 am PDT #1881 of 10001
"Look, son, if it's good enough for Shirley Bassey, it's good enough for you."

Good luck, Dawn! I've been wearing your earring a lot lately. Thanks!


tommyrot - Aug 10, 2006 11:07:49 am PDT #1882 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

One of my bosses is considering buying a motorcycle, so he asked me if I wanted to come along to the BMW motorcycle store. I'm not a big motorcycle buff, but spending an hour looking at shiny bikes was a nice break from work....

Hell, if I didn't live in a big city I'd consider getting a motorcycle.


Topic!Cindy - Aug 10, 2006 11:30:42 am PDT #1883 of 10001
What is even happening?

For that t-shirt, I wish I was still pregnant!

Oh. I don't like any shirt that much.


bon bon - Aug 10, 2006 11:30:57 am PDT #1884 of 10001
It's five thousand for kissing, ten thousand for snuggling... End of list.

Question to wrap up the afternoon: what is your favorite restaurant?


tommyrot - Aug 10, 2006 11:33:02 am PDT #1885 of 10001
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.

Was it Nilly who was studying the physics of auto traffic, traffic jams, etc? For the curious, this is the best explanation I've seen of the rather strange phenomena of the beginnings of traffic jams: [link]

Think of it this way: On a sparsely populated highway the cars are far apart and can move at whatever speed they choose while freely maneuvering between lanes -- much like the movement of molecules in a gas. In heavier traffic, the "car molecules" are more densely packed, with less room to maneuver, so cars move at slower average speeds and traffic behaves more like a liquid. If the the "car molecules" become too densely packed, their speed is reduced, and their range of movement is restricted, to such an extent that they can "crystallize" into a solid. So traffic jams aren't random. There's a threshold "value" to the flux of cars traveling along a highway, and if that threshold is exceeded sufficiently -- if local perturbations are large enough -- then the flowing "liquid" traffic jams into a "solid," akin to the critical temperature/pressure point threshold where water turns into ice.

...

Based on that data, he developed a model that essentially broke traffic into three basic categories: freely flowing, jammed (solid state), and a bizarre intermediate state called synchronized flow, in which densely packed "car molecules" move in unison, like members of a marching band (or the highly disciplined troops in G.I. Jane). When this happens -- when all the cars are traveling at close to the same average speed because of the vehicle density on the roadway -- they become highly dependent on one another. A physicist might compare the relationship to the correlated motion of electrons in metals, which gives rise to weird phenomena like superconductivity.

Highly correlated traffic means that a tiny perturbation -- a butterfly flapping its wings, or a single driver braking unexpectedly to change a CD -- will send little ripples of corresponding slowdowns through the entire chain of cars behind him/her.


Lee - Aug 10, 2006 11:40:01 am PDT #1886 of 10001
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.

Question to wrap up the afternoon: what is your favorite restaurant?

Around here, it's gotta be Shiok!

Not around here, there are too many to count.


msbelle - Aug 10, 2006 11:45:44 am PDT #1887 of 10001
I remember the crazy days. 500 posts an hour. Nubmer! Natgbsb

Tabla . . . . . . . . .or BK


sarameg - Aug 10, 2006 11:49:10 am PDT #1888 of 10001

Why am I not surprised?


Jessica - Aug 10, 2006 11:52:40 am PDT #1889 of 10001
And then Ortus came and said "It's Ortin' time" and they all Orted off into the sunset

Panino'teca, probably. Or 'inoteca, on the LES. (Hmmm, apparently I have a thing for cute Italian wine bars. Who knew?)