The Prius Might be the Best Car Ever Made

 This is me lubing the gears of writing. I’ve loved writing here over the years. I used to make it a habit. I would look forward to sitting at my computer and just spilling my thoughts on how i felt about whatever topic was on my mind.

The thoughts are still there. The love to write my thoughts and feelings down still exist. My tasks. My life. My habits have changed. 

So here we go. 

The Toyota Prius. 

I think it’s such an amazing vehicle. Maybe that’s too much. I just think it’s a great car. 

I used to think that a Toyota Tacoma was my dream vehicle. And it still kind of is. Tacomas are really cool. Today’s Tacomas are very large, and I still think I like the first gen Tacomas the best. 

The Prius though. Great efficiency. The engineering that went into the vehicle is understated. It’s got some great technology. The hybrid system. The transmission is a e-CVT transmission. Electronically Controlled Continuously Variable Transmission. Essentially this means that there are no traditional gears like a traditional transmission. The gear your car needs to be in is determined by how the driver operates then accelerator. And as I understand it, the ratio is continuous. It just applies the correct ration and that ratio is just kind of infinite and is determined by the input provided by the accelerator. 

The car’s got some great aerodynamics. I think last I checked it was in the top 5 production vehicles in aerodynamics. 

Technology. The Prius I have (2017) includes a push button start. Fuel usage records. Lots of data displayed on the dashboard. Radar assisted cruise control (probably the best feature). Some great speakers. Leather interior. Seat warmers. 

It’s just a great car. Yeah. It’s not a car that makes you feel lofty feelings. But it is a car that makes you feel good about getting from point A to point B using minimal fuel. Oh and the power is not as bad as you’d think.

Glad that’s out. Next posts will be with more substance. 

Who uses blogger?

 It’s been a very long time since I’ve used Blogger. This app is one of the lucky Google apps that has not been slashed. And I’m glad it hasn’t. This app reminds me of an Internet era that was fun for me. 

So I’m going to try to use this app a bit more. App? I mean website. 

I don’t feel like I have the time I used to, to just sit down and write the things that are on my mind. How much of my time recently has been spent in either the ChatGPT app or the perplexity AI app. These are apps that very seamlessly mesh with my type of thinking in my type of curiosity. 

I’m not going to have ChatGPT right works of literature for me and then claim credit. But I will share some of my ChatGPT results from what my research produces. 

Here’s an example. I went down the rabbit hole of learning more about photosynthesis. I think photosynthesis is one of the most incredible phenomenon. And that took me down other scientific pathways of curiosity. 

Here is quantum tunneling:

Quantum tunneling, in simple terms, is when a particle manages to slip through a barrier that, by all classical accounts, it shouldn’t be able to cross. Imagine rolling a ball at a hill: if the ball doesn’t have enough energy (speed) to get over the hill, it’ll roll back down. Classically, that’s the end of the story. But quantum mechanics allows for a small chance that the “ball” can appear on the other side of the hill—even when it doesn’t have the energy to climb over the top. This “magical shortcut” is quantum tunneling.

Why is that so mind-blowing?

• Classically, it’s impossible: Nothing should get through the barrier if it doesn’t have enough energy.
• Quantum mechanics changes the rules: It introduces the idea of probability waves for particles, meaning a particle’s location and outcome are described by chances rather than strict certainties.
• Essential to the Sun’s power: Protons in the Sun’s core shouldn’t, by classical physics, have enough energy to overcome their electric repulsion and fuse. Without tunneling, fusion—and thus sunlight—wouldn’t happen at the rate we observe.

Once you realize quantum tunneling is the reason stars can fuse lighter elements into heavier ones, it’s a big eye-opener: the Sun and all starlight rely on a subtle effect of quantum mechanics rather than straightforward Newtonian physics. That’s what makes quantum tunneling so impressive. It keeps our star shining—and keeps us alive—by letting protons “borrow” a little probability-powered trick to come together despite their mutual repulsion.