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Comment Re:Left turns (Score 1) 882

by WeeLad (#28882463) Attached to: Rude Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams
Well said, except for the exceptions. I take freeway to work every morning and there is one exit ramp on the left side. The median between opposing directions widens and the ramp raises up and over the opposing traffic direction. The biggest problem it causes are the slow people who get in that left lane two miles early just because they see a sign announcing the exit.

Comment Re:and yet NYC still has traffic jams (Score 1) 882

by WeeLad (#28882323) Attached to: Rude Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams

Bringing this back on-topic, tailgaters are one of the biggest reasons you'll see the yo-yo in the left lane. Someone is going too slow in the hammer lane, someone else tries to push him go to faster by tailgating, the slow guy slows from 65 to 55, the tailgater slams his breaks, taking him to 45, the guy tailgating the tailgater slams HIS breaks, taking him to 35.

Just weighing in on this very therapeutic thread and arguing some cause-effect ...

Wouldn't the original cause of the yo-yo'ing be the the ones who are going slow in the speed lane? The tailgaters are just the first ones affected by their disturbance of the system. They certainly exacerbate the problem by riding too close, but the obstacle is the slow-roller in the inappropriate lane, so they would be the reason for the yo-yo'ing.
Transportation

Rude Drivers Reduce Traffic Jams 882

Posted by Soulskill from the earning-that-one-finger-salute dept.
BuzzSkyline writes "Traffic jams are minimized if a significant fraction of drivers break the rules by doing things like passing on the wrong side or changing lanes too close to an intersection. The insight comes from a cellular automata study published this month in the journal Physical Review E. In effect, people who disregard the rules help to break up the groups that form as rule-followers clump together. The risk of jamming is lower if all people obey the rules than if they all disobey them, according to the analysis, but jamming risk is lowest when about 40 percent of people drive like jerks."
Space

Is Jupiter Earth's Cosmic Protector? 222

Posted by Soulskill from the sounds-like-we-should-deify-it-oh-wait dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Last Sunday, an object, probably a comet that nobody saw coming, plowed into Jupiter's colorful cloud tops, splashing up debris and leaving a black eye the size of the Pacific Ocean — the second time in 15 years that this had happened, after Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 fell apart and its pieces crashed into Jupiter in 1994, leaving Earth-size marks that persisted up to a year. 'Better Jupiter than Earth,' say astronomers who think that part of what makes Earth such a nice place to live is that Jupiter acts as a gravitational shield, deflecting incoming space junk away from the inner solar system where it could do to humans what an asteroid apparently did for the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. 'If anything like that had hit the Earth it would have been curtains for us, so we can feel very happy that Jupiter is doing its vacuum-cleaner job and hoovering up all these large pieces before they come for us,' says Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley, who first noticed the mark on Jupiter. But others say the warm and fuzzy image of the King of Planets as father-protector may not be entirely accurate. In 1770, Comet Lexell whizzed by the earth, missing us by a cosmic whisker after passing close to Jupiter. The comet made two passes around the Sun and in 1779 again passed very close to Jupiter, which then threw it back out of the solar system."
Space

US Military Blocks Data On Incoming Meteors 172

Posted by CmdrTaco from the summon-bruce-willis dept.
Hugh Pickens writes "Nature reports that the US military has abruptly ended an informal arrangement that allowed scientists access to data on incoming meteors from classified surveillance satellites, dealing a blow to the astronomers and planetary scientists who used the information to track space rocks. 'These systems are extremely useful,' says astronomer Peter Brown, at the University of Western Ontario. 'I think the scientific community benefited enormously.' Meteor data came from the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite network consisting of infrared satellites in geosynchronous orbit to monitor the globe for missile launches or atmospheric nuclear blasts, forming the principal component of the United States' ballistic missile early-warning system. The satellites' effectiveness was demonstrated during Desert Storm, when DSP detected the launch of Iraqi Scud missiles and provided warning to civilian populations and coalition forces in Israel and Saudi Arabia. As a side benefit, the satellites could also precisely detect the time, position, altitude and brightness of meteors as they entered Earth's atmosphere, information the military didn't consider particularly useful, or classified. 'It was being dropped on the floor,' says former Air Force captain Brian Weeden. Although the reason for ending the arrangement remains unclear, Weeden notes that it coincides with the launch of a new generation of surveillance satellites and speculates that the Pentagon may not want details of the new satellites' capabilities to be made public, or it may simply lack the expensive software needed to handle classified and declassified data simultaneously. 'The decision may have been made that it was perhaps too difficult to disclose just these data.'"
The Internet

When Your Backhoe Cuts "Black" Fiber 385

Posted by timothy from the careful-with-that-thing dept.
bernieS writes "The Washington Post describes what happens when a construction backhoe accidentally cuts buried fiber so secret that it doesn't appear on public maps — and what happens when the Men in Black SUVs appear out of nowhere. Apparently, the numerous secret fiber and utility lines used by government intelligence agencies are being dug up with increasing frequency with all the increased construction projects in the DC area. It's amazing how quickly they get repaired!"

Comment Next time, take your PSP (Score 1) 464

by WeeLad (#28123915) Attached to: Is Playing a DVD Harder Than Rocket Science?
How boring are these short shuttle flights getting that they'd rather be sitting around watching DVDs. An extended ISS tour I could understand, but these shuttle flights don't happen that often and I believe it's still pretty competitive to get on board. If it were me, I'd probably spend that time floating around doing back-flips or other stuff I couldn't do on earth. Hell, if they let me take someone's spot on the next trip, I'll buy them a copy of the DVD. They can watch it all they want down here while I'm bouncing off the walls in orbit.
First Person Shooters (Games)

Duke Nukem For Never 565

Posted by samzenpus from the let-god-sort-'em-out dept.
PLSQL Guy writes "Duke Nukem Forever developer 3D Realms is shutting down, according to Shacknews. They cite 'a reliable source close to the company,' who said the developer is finished and employees have already been let go. It looks like all of the Duke Nukem Forever jokes are turning into reality; DNF might turn out to be the ultimate vaporware after all." 3D Realms' webmaster, Joe Siegler, confirmed the closing, saying that he didn't know about it even a day beforehand. Apogee and Deep Silver, who are working on a different set of Duke Nukem games (referred to as the Duke Nukem Trilogy) say they are not affected by the problems at 3D Realms.

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