chris

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

A physicist put 22 cars on a circular track and asked every driver to hold a steady 30 km/h, about 19 mph. No lights, no lanes, no obstacles. Within a minute the cars started bunching, and soon a full stop appeared out of nowhere, then drifted backward around the loop.

This was Yuki Sugiyama at Nagoya University in 2008. His team spaced the cars evenly on a 230-meter ring and filmed them from overhead. For a while the flow stayed smooth. Then the tiny differences no human can avoid, one driver a hair slower, the next a hair too close, began to feed on themselves.

One car eases off slightly. The driver behind sees the brake lights, reacts a fraction of a second late, and brakes a little harder to be safe. The next driver brakes harder still. A dozen cars back, someone is stopping dead. The squeeze rolls backward through the line like a compression running down a Slinky, and it keeps going long after the first driver has sped up again.

Car count was the tipping point. With fewer than 22 on that track, the bunching sorted itself out. At 22, a jam formed every time. Engineers call that a critical density, the point where a road holds just enough cars that one small tap can snowball into a standstill.

These waves are eerily consistent. Measured on highways around the world, the jam rolls backward against the traffic at roughly 20 km/h, and that speed barely shifts from one country to the next. Different drivers, different roads, same number.

The same setup later became the cure. In 2017, a US team rebuilt Sugiyama's ring with 22 cars and turned just one of them into a self-driving car running a program to smooth its own speed. That single car soaked up the small slowdowns instead of passing them back, and the waves died. Fuel use across every car fell by up to 40 percent. Fewer than 5 percent of the vehicles had to be automated to steady the whole group.

In 2022 the idea moved onto a live highway. Researchers ran 100 cars with cruise control guided by AI into the morning rush on Interstate 24 near Nashville, mixed into normal traffic. Early numbers pointed the same way: a small share of smoother-driving cars, up to 40 percent less fuel for everyone around them.

The jam you sat in this morning likely had no crash and no cause you could see. It was a few hundred drivers, each braking a moment too late.

[Aakash Gupta @aakashgupta]

In Germany, a talented 14-year-old earns his club money. In America, his parents pay the club $15,000 a year.

That single inversion explains why "we will not" is the most accurate line ever written about US soccer.

FIFA built a global system for this. Training compensation and solidarity payments send a cut of every transfer fee back to the clubs that developed the player, from age 12 onward. Develop one future pro and your academy gets paid for a decade. Barcelona's La Masia, Ajax, every Bundesliga academy runs on this logic. The kid is the asset.

US Soccer refuses to enforce those rules. When Seattle's Crossfire Premier claimed its $60,000 share of DeAndre Yedlin's transfer to Tottenham, it got nothing. Claims on the Dempsey and Bradley transfers died partly because the federation couldn't even produce the youth training records.

So American clubs earn zero dollars when a kid turns pro. They earn when a kid enrolls. Which makes the parent the customer, and the product is whatever keeps the parent writing checks: travel tournaments, hotel weekends, $500 showcase events, private training at $100 an hour. Elite pathways run $8,000 to $20,000 a year. A comparable academy spot in Italy costs about 120 euros.

Follow the incentive one level deeper and it gets darker. A club dependent on fees can't cut its weakest paying players, so rosters optimize for retention over development. The scouting pool shrinks to families who can afford the cliff, which appears around age 11, exactly when development matters most. The country runs a talent filter sorted by household income instead of ability.

Every four years someone proposes fixing this. The proposal always requires the people profiting from the $15,000 model to vote themselves out of business.

They will not.

[David Jones @iPopEditor]

I keep seeing Europeans complaining that Americans don’t understand the rules of soccer. Fair enough.

But when you discover our version of football, don’t be asking us “What is a catch?”

Because frankly, we don’t know either.

[chris @lrfc99dad]

@USMNT My hotel room in Texarkana Texas.

[chris @lrfc99dad]

That’s bullshit. If you’re going to call that simulation you have to card. @ldock93 #26Fifa

[chris @lrfc99dad]

Couldn’t write a better script

[Scott Lincicome @scottlincicome]

Straightforward from here:
Freddy adopts the USA as his team
Freddy meets an American at the Bosnia game
USA goes to the finals
Freddy marries the American at halftime, becomes citizen
USA wins it all

[Unpopularfootyx @Unpopularfootyx]

🚨🎙️ IKER CASILLAS ON JAPAN'S GOALKEEPER ZION SUZUKI:

🗣️“I've never been wrong about a goalkeeper.

I know talent when I see one.

And when I watch Zion Suzuki, I see a goalkeeper with everything needed to become one of the best in the world.”

“This is the only young goalkeeper I look at and think could one day be worthy of succeeding Thibaut Courtois at Real Madrid.

That's how highly I rate him.

He has the composure.

He has the courage.

And most importantly, he has the personality.”

“Japan lost today.

But I'm proud to say they found a gem.

Sometimes a defeat introduces a player to the world more than a victory ever could.

I think that's exactly what happened.”

“He's literally just 23...

(laughs)

Twenty-three!

When I was that age, I was still learning what it meant to be a top goalkeeper.

This boy is already playing with the maturity of someone who's been at the highest level for years.”

“What impressed me wasn't only the saves.

It was his decision-making.

His positioning.

His confidence under pressure.

Against one of the strongest attacks in international football, he never looked overwhelmed.

That's the sign of a special goalkeeper.”

“Goalkeepers are different.

You can teach technique.

You can improve distribution.

But you cannot teach personality.

Either you have it or you don't.

Zion Suzuki has it.

That's why I believe he's going far.”

“If he keeps working with the same humility and hunger, Europe will soon be talking about him as one of the elite.

And trust me...

This won't be the last time the football world hears the name Zion Suzuki.”

[John LeFevre @JohnLeFevre]

Homeless, yachtless Elon Musk, who actually builds rockets, EVs, and neural tech trying to benefit humanity, should apparently cough up $50 billion in taxes on unrealized gains.

Meanwhile, Laurene Powell Jobs ($15B inherited), Nancy Walton ($20B inherited), and MacKenzie Scott ($40B divorce) never built shit, never risked shit, and never shipped a single product that changed the world.

But they get the praise and zero scrutiny. Because they have the right politics.

(BTW ~25% of Walmart employees are on government benefits.)

[PiptheCowboy @AeroSpaceShark]

The Chaplains didn't have their "rank taken away"

I work with them daily, they replaced their rank on their uniforms with chaplains corp insignia to make them more approachable. The Chaplains corp likes this change. They're foremost counselors, not officers with command

[chris @lrfc99dad]

@MLShater Man he was like a black hole. Wverte the ball went to him
It was lost

[chris @lrfc99dad]

See if this works with my 11 followers
FUCK JOHN THUNE!!!!!!!!!!

[Yinzer G @yinzer_g]

What I've learned from World Cup travelers this week.

- Apparently the US is the only country with A/C
- Other countries don't use seasoning on their food
- You can only buy a gallon of milk in the USA
- You have to pay for a 2nd or 3rd pop at a restaurant outside of America. No free refills
- They love to party just like us and boy are they fun!
- Only we do flyovers before games
- America's spring is hotter than Europe's summer
-We have a lot to learn when it comes to soccer chants
- Ranch Dressing is a delicacy to be treasured
- Their media lies to them just like ours does to us

Can we keep em?

[🇺🇸 Bull Moose American 🇺🇸 @BullMooseMemes]

Immodest White women are too braindead to see it:

Your tiny bikinis at the beach, butt-crack leggings at the gym, and sports bras in the grocery store only exist because Christianity built a high-trust society that tames men and shields sluts from consequences.

Try that shit in a Muslim country, Africa, Hindu, or any Third World shithole, you’d be harassed, beaten, or worse within minutes.

Oh wait, you voted in tandem to IMPORT those very same people.

You mock the very faith and men protecting your degeneracy while sawing off the branch you sit on.

Peak entitled, suicidal stupidity.

[Whale Psychiatrist ™️ @k_ovfefe2]

The Second Lady of the United States using a promo code on a $12 old Navy dress might be the most relatable political-adjacent thing I've ever seen

[chris @lrfc99dad]

@Super70sSports It is a move taught in defensive driving schools and has a name. It’s called “sitting the curb”. Everyone should be taught it.

[chris @lrfc99dad]

This is a great explanation of why the second amendment matters

[Colion Noir @MrColionNoir]

“Why do you need an AR-15?”

Ask the police.

Because they have them.

They have the rifles.

They have the 30-round magazines.

They have the gear politicians keep saying is too dangerous for you.

And nobody asks them why they need it.

Why?

Because the answer is obvious:

They carry it to confront violent people.

But here’s the part everyone skips…

Who meets that violent person first?

You do.

The cop shows up after the threat starts.

You’re the one already there.

No badge.

No backup.

No radio.

No team.

And the Supreme Court has already said police do not have a constitutional duty to protect you as an individual.

So if the state keeps these tools for the people who arrive second…

Why does it want to take them from the person who has to survive first?

That’s the question.

Drop your answer below — and send this to the person who still asks, “Why do you need that?”

[Leah Ray @LeahRay44]

I haven’t seen anyone talk about this yet so here is a message to the American police, Thank you. Thank you for keeping us all safe during the World Cup. This event must be one of the most stressful things in the world to plan and organise and I really haven’t seen enough about you guys and the work you have been doing behind the scenes. As well as keeping us safe they also don't  hesitate to help if you need directions or just have a question about the city. They seem to get criticised a lot and I get people have had negative experiences with them but for the World Cup they have been great.

[Lee (Greater) @shortmagsmle]

It was a lady cop? It was a rabbi coming out of PornHub headquarters? Shooter was a communist? The other cop was named Mohammed? It was in a gun free zone? Took place in Canada?

[chris @lrfc99dad]

@KSoltisAnderson I’ll vote for him

[chris @lrfc99dad]

Any follow up

[۟ @vermilionpixie]

I respect Messi a lot, but that hattrick vs Algeria was the worst thing that could’ve happened to Argentina.

He’s chasing Klose now while Mbappé plays Iraq tomorrow.

Bookmark this when he forces 10 shots, scores none, and Austria take points because he won’t pass.