Python Particle Simulation

Here is how to do a basic particle simulation in Python using PyGame.

The movie below shows a basic 2d particle simulation emulating particles that are attracted to each other, while simultaneously avoiding getting too close to each other.




See the Python source code.

Running on a Mac with Python 2.5? Install pygame and pyobjc from http://rene.f0o.com/~rene/stuff/macosx/. OS X 10.4 versions also work in OS X 10.5.

Why Toyota Discontinued the Electric Car

Toyota discontinued sales and production of the purely electrical vehicle RAV4-EV in 2003. The Toyota website states:
"Although a significant marketing effort was undertaken for the RAV4-EV, we only sold about 300 vehicles a year" and "[...] technical issues tied to electric vehicles remain a major hurdle [...]".

There was no conspiracy against electric cars, no technology was being held back to serve oil or state interests. If any individual had knowledge of such technology, its sale would yield instant wealth.

For the electric car, it was mainly a question of battery efficiency that had to improve beyond some threshold. Surely, the higher price of oil now provides a strong incentive for technologists to develop and reintroduce the electric car again. Tesla Motors Roadster is in production, while Mitsubishi's i MiEV will hit the market later. In Denmark, it has been decided to waiver the usual 180% tax on cars, if it is an electric car.

Toyota RAV4-EV

Written later after watching Who Killed The Electric Car.

On the other hand, the individual car company benefits from engines that need spare parts. Electric car engines, it is said, need less maintenance and spare parts. If hydrogen became the future main power source for vehicles, rather than electricity, oil companies could possibly transform their existing infrastructure.

On Obama's Elitism

During the election campaign in California, Obama was quoted for a remark relating poverty, fundamentalism, guns and bitterness; a remark that was interpreted as elitist.

Here is a hilarious comment from someone bitter.

In Time magazine, April 28, 2008, "A Bitter Lesson":

"I think them remarks is the absolute truth," said Bill Williams, 60, a bearded disabled veteran from Waynesburg who attended an Obama town-hall meeting near Pittsburgh. "We like our faith and our guns. I went to church when things were bad, and I went out and I hunted for my family food, where I didn't know whatever to put the gun in my mouth or to shoot an animal. So, yeah, he was right on the money. And was I bitter, and am I bitter? Hell, yes, I am."