Here’s the (abstract of the) paper I was thinking of https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/opre.4.1.42

Appalling that I can’t find a free version of a 70 year old paper. You might be able to find the full text somewhere… I would of course never encourage anything that might run afoul of the scientific publishing protection racket.

I couldn’t find the paper I was thinking of that described the phenomenon of traffic propagating as a pressure wave, but I did find this paper (new to me) that describes a model for simulating how congestion spreads in urban environments (as opposed to an isolated highway, which IIRC the paper that most people reference models). It does have the full text available though, and it looks like a good read and has references that should get you going on the history of congestion research.

I am not an expert; I just found this with a few minutes of searching. If there are experts with better papers I’d be happy to hear from ya!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-15353-2.pdf

I haven’t actually played this character yet because the group I made it for failed to launch (and I’m currently between tables), but I really want to play this character. He’s a Dwarven Wizard, scion to a massively wealthy trade baron. He got a job as a diviner for the family business and worked there most of his life, but at some point he realized that long-term divination is mostly bullshit, the bit that isn’t is just statistics, and his job is just a sinecure to keep him comfortable since he will likely never run the company (too many older brothers). He studied magic on his own time because he thought it would help him with his job so he has some skill as a wizard. Sometimes he will go to rougher pubs and listen to adventurers talking about their adventures and imagine what it would be like to leave it all behind. Then, after a messy, public divorce, something snaps and he walks out of his job, goes to the outfitter and buys a bunch of fancy equipment, and signs up with the first adventuring crew he can find under an assumed name.

Same. It’s a real joy if you have a good table. It’s more work though, which makes DMing a bad table that much more painful.

Damn girl are you a 16:10 display device because that ratio is visually pleasing and comfortable to hold.

😭 nooo I can change

The poems
I wrote,
I love 'em
but I'm broke.

I have an old laptop that does that and the keys are very distracting whenever I hold it in tablet mode. I find myself holding it awkwardly on one side to avoid them, even though I know they’re disabled. It is still a nice feature though, I like being able to transition a laptop to portrait mode sometimes.

I don’t think being cossetted in a media bubble is the same as having no ability to self-reflect. It’s just that so many people have so little occasion IRL to challenge the beliefs they’ve been fed from birth. Some people can be deprogrammed.

I hope :(

I didn’t know this was a thing. tyvm.

I do this too, but I usually can’t remember the numbers for a stair I use regularly unless I’m actually at the stair.

I have also tried not counting and I can still tell there’s a part of my brain still stubbornly counting.

Mine locks on the first press, then beeps to confirm on the second (within a timer). I press it twice because every once in a while I’ll mix up the buttons and actually hit unlock, which has a different confirmation beep.

I do this too, usually because I’ve run across an odd word choice or turn of phrase. I am way less accurate though.

TW: spiders

I do this too, because my parents did it. I made it a conscious habit after I found a tiny spider skeleton right under the opening of a can I’d already started drinking out of. Now I at least check, usually blow, sometimes rinse.

I’m not superstitious, but when I’m walking on sidewalks or tile floors I have tended to try to avoid cracks or lines. It’s an easy but engaging puzzle to try to do it while maintaining a normal gait, like the ambulatory equivalent of Sudoku.

Then, one day, my high school geometry teacher taught us about angle bisectors and the game changed permanently. Now, in addition to visible lines, any line intersections now produce invisible bisector rays that must also be avoided. I made a picture to show where you can’t step on a sidewalk. It has been decades since high school geometry and I still try to avoid bisector lines any time I’m on a suitable floor. I have never added another rule to the game since, and it wasn’t til this post that I thought about how strange that is.