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.
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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.
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.
Tabla
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.or BK
Panino'teca, probably. Or 'inoteca, on the LES. (Hmmm, apparently I have a thing for cute Italian wine bars. Who knew?)
Jets may be vulnerable to on-board bombs
I understand that this is serious and the article makes sense, but I just thought this headline was hysterically funny. What place wouldn't be vulnerable to bombs within that location?
El Al
I may have mentioned this before, but when I was a kid I took a flight with a Christian tour group from Norway to Israel on El Al. The group was evangelical, and some of the folks were a bit touched in the head, I think. They interviewed everyone and opened everyones' bags. They set off alarm clocks. They asked one of our folks if he had any weapons. "Why yes," he replied (touched in the head, remember). They got all freaked out, as you might imagine. Turns out, he was talking about his Bible. In retrospect, I'm surprised they let any of us on after that.
At this time, my mom and I were travelling with pretty much all of our worldly belongings, because we weren't sure if we were going back to Norway or not. We had this humungous duffle bag, the army kind that only opens at the end. They clearly really didn't want to go through the whole thing, but were concerned about security. After long, whispered discussions and sidelong glances, a manager finally came over to my mom and me. He looked at me seriously and, after asking some questions to verify that I was not a dolt and knew that bombs were bad, asked if we had anything packed that we shouldn't. Very seriously, I responded that we didn't, and they let us pass without searching our bags. I was always amazed by that. I was about 11 at the time, in the late 1970s.
In the spirit of both balance and testing August to see how many Buffistas can fit into the hospital, I was back in the ER last night.
I assume it was migraine, ita? How are you now? Were they able to help at all, despite the rudeness?
I'm migrainey today, one of those "sinus migraines." It's not so bad that I
couldn't
go to work, just bad enough that I really didn't want to. I've been working on some special projects lately, and am really too behind on other stuff to stay home.
granola:
what is your favorite restaurant?
Kasrah, a Persian place in San Francisco. It used to be in SF, anyway. I haven't been there in years and don't know if it is even open anymore
For me, it's Suenos, an upscale Mexican place close by. Menu changes regularly and it's always good. Always easy to get a table, the staff recognizes us and occasionally comps drinks, and the margs are delightfully good. One is called Suzi's Smokin' and it has a subtle smoky aftertaste-- can't figure out how she did it.
ETA link
and fruit salad:
NO ONE IS TAKING CLYDE'S PLANET FROM HIM DAMNIT.
Sarameg, do you know Christine Lavin's song, Planet X from Shining My Flashlight On the Moon? She mentions him in it (and his "planet"). I just love that song.
