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The Know It All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World. Book by A.J. Jacobs.

The author reads 100% of the entire Encyclopaedia Brittanica from A to Z and sums up his experience in this amusing little paperback. Not oddly, although he gains a small amount of raw academic information, most of the knowledge he does gain from this little endeavor is not from the Good Books themselves but rather from the reactions of others as he repeatedly seeks validation, encouragement, or even just acknowledgment. That’s understandable, given an entire year of every free moment spent with one’s nose in the books. So although this makes the knowledge gained not exist as much for it’s own sake (rather, it’s being gained just so the author can feel validated), still, a lot of what he does just seems, well, stupid. For example, he read an extensive article on chess, complete with some pointers and tips on good chess strategy, and decides to test out his newly-acquired chess skills by playing against an experienced player. Actually, just a kid in a chess club. Result? Quick loss, as one would expect. You don’t learn chess by reading about it, you learn by practicing it. Same things goes for just about everything else the author attempts, although he doesn’t fail in as obvious or spectacular ways.

What sort of knowledge, wisdom, insight, etc. does the author actually gain? Simply what I said, what we already know, but for which a demonstration or two can’t hurt: that there is no substitute for experience. That people don’t, for the most part, even respect “raw” knowledge, especially when it’s presented with the seeming attitude of just trying to show off.

Anyway, after reading this, I don’t have all that much respect for the author. (He spends the entire book talking about his failures, so some component of this is perhaps an unconscious perception I can’t help.) His one major achievement is that he did successfully read the encyclopedia, but for what? If anything, this book was entertaining, but that’s about it. Quick, fun read.

Check out Tesla Motors. Their FAQ is somewhat enlightening, and the specs behind their first car give me knowledge of what must lie behind the plot of the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car”, which I haven’t seen. And now I don’t really need to see it, because I understand the issues at stake here. Tesla is building a car, which is not some prototype showroom model but a real car you can order today (if you have enough money; it’s expensive!), with very compelling specs. (And things can only get better from here.) The Tesla Roadster is a completely electric car which goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds. It has a range of 250 miles between recharging, and a full recharge will take about 3.5 hours. They repeatedly make the point in their FAQ that charge time isn’t really the issue; you’ll use one of these in your daily commute and simply leave it plugged in at right, like a cell phone. For most commutes, forgetting to plug it in for one or two or even three nights won’t make a difference; the battery will be fine. The only issue is that you wouldn’t be able to use this car for long trips; drive to Vegas and you probably won’t make it the whole way. (Stop for a 1-hour recharging break over lunch? Pack in the “extended capacity” battery before the trip?)

It seems that an electric car ought to be superior to a gasoline-powered car in almost every way. No transmission is really needed, since an electric motor provides the same torque output no matter how fast it’s spinning. The car doesn’t even need a reverse gear; the motor just turns backwards. The Tesla Roadster nonetheless implements a two-gear transmission; one can leave the car in second gear and drive normally without thinking about things. The first gear seems to be there just so the car can achieve that impressive 0-60 time, but if you drive that way all the time you’ll eat the battery and the range’ll be a lot less than 250 miles…

Something Tesla downplays in their FAQ is the availability of a conversion kit to create a plug-in hybrid out of a car such as the Toyota Prius. I’d be interested to see a head-to-head comparison (in terms of range, recharge time, and power) between (1) a Tesla Roadster, (2) a plug-in Prius (with an empty gas tank), (3) a plug-in Prius with a full gas tank (for increased range, but would add weight), and (4) a plug-in Prius with its gas tank and gasoline engine fully removed (to decrease weight for maximal efficiency).

I was filling up my Accord’s 15-gallon tank last night, and thinking about how big a 15-gallon tank really is. 15 gallons takes up a lot of space! Three of those big bottles that go atop the water cooler. I wonder if the volume of space taken up by the batteries in an electric car such as this one are less than 15 fluid gallons of volume… And if that’s the case, it’s not like battery space should really be such a huge issue when it comes to electric cars, and so old battery technology ought to have been workable. Who killed the electric car?

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See my friend Tony’s Documenting the conversion of a Scion xA gas car (ICE) to a fully electric car (BEV) project blog for more fun than a barrel of monkeys (which costs more than a barrel of oil, but you get more fun out of it than barrels of oil and monkeys, or even oily monkeys).

Catching up on reading…

The best book about rabbits I’ve ever read.

Also, the best book about leadership I’ve ever read.

The author visits his old college professor who is dying of ALS, a disease of the nervous system which over the course of a year or two causes the victim to slowly lose control over his or her body, becoming a clear mind in an increasingly immobile and atrophying shell. The disease inevitably ends in death.

I haven’t read this (yet!), but the reviews of A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates are pretty funny:

A strictly “by the numbers,” formula-driven plot spoiled the ending…

Another:

…with so many terrific random digits, it’s a shame they didn’t sort them, to make it easier to find the one you’re looking for.

Another:

Although the plot was appropriately paced and the characterisation inventive, I found it hard to suspend disbelief in a couple of places, and frankly the sex scenes were awkward and clumsily written…