Tesla Motors has the venture funding and the chic beautiful Roadster ... but GM is trying to fight back with the Volt. We talk to both Elon Musk of Tesla and Bob Lutz of GM and get a good idea of what's going on in Silicon Valley, Detroit and elsewhere in the race for the electric car.

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We go to a lot of unhospitable regions, like Alaska, to get our energy today, so how about the warm, welcoming waters of Australia?

This is a story about a company that's switching from oil to energy from the sea ... because it's infinite, completely renewable and nonpolluting. Every scrap of energy is going to be needed, says the company's founder .. including that from the oddest places.

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Constance Steinkuehler has an interesting job: She researches how kids approach video games.

She found that if they were given a challenging task like managing raids on tough targets, they would spontaneously collaborate, collecting data about the targets, finding out their strong and weak spots, and use that information to attack. They even plotted this information using an Excel spreadsheet and created mathematical models to predict what would happen.

They were learning the scientific method, in a setting that gave tangible rewards for learning.

Intriguingly to the researcher, these were the same students that shunned traditional, boring science courses. She believes schools should embrace games as a way to teach people about science in a way that makes them motivated to learn.

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Is this a solar car ... or a UFO?

Some drivers thought the latter was a sure bet ... and reported it to police!

But it was just Canadian Marcelo da Luz striking his own blow for a solar powered, carbon free future.

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After a major storm or earthquake or other disaster, trees keep standing when even our strongest structures fall. So why not make a house out of trees?

Certain trees have bendable roots which can be grown in air, forming into shapes roughly resembling a house. The roots are then guided into soil and harden to create a solid structure. This can be supplemented by metal framing to create architectural spaces.

Looks like a cool idea, but I wonder if you lose the advantages of the tree once you add metal. And the tree bends, does it not? Not sure if you want a bending house.

At the very least, the park bench with built in shade from its included tree is a pretty cool idea.

But if you do ... this link's for you.

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Some people create their amazing things with sand ... and then watch them wash away ...

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Through a combination of solar cells and battery power, the Zephyr experimental plane recently flew for three days straight. Using super-lightweight solar cells and super-efficient batteries, the plane is powered and charged by day, and then the batteries provide power at night.

Like a lot of amazing research, including the Internet, this was funded by the military, in this case to provide a new generation of spy planes.

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Guess they should have used a Mac. They chose Windows XP instead, because they thought it would be more reliable, and look what happened!

Lenovo chairman, Yang Yuanqing, was quoted as saying that because of the complexity of the IT functions at the Games, it was decided to not use the the more recent operating system. "If it's not stable, it could have some problems," he said.

Oops.

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A new company appears to have cracked one of the major obstacles towards full-scale adoption of solar power: Cost.

Its cells can generate power at a price approaching "grid parity" - that is, the same acquisition cost over their lifespan that it would cost to buy power from a normal electric company. It turns out that cost is about $1 per killowatt of capacity.

Previous solar cells cost about $2-4 per killowatt, so this is huge cost savings over the previous technology.

Read the full story at the link.

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Yes, that's a 747 landing right on the beach.

Oddly enough, there has never been a major incident at the airport!

Check out the site for video and more dangerous airports.

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Old news to some of you, perhaps, but it's never too late to enjoy a peek into the Pixar universe, about when point Wall*e was released.

I particularly liked the sign on the server room, like a 24-hour diner.

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If you're like me, issues from Internet censorship to heavy air pollution make this year's Olympics look like an unfortunate mistake. The Chinese seem poor at living up to their word ... but they're still going to put on a spectacular show.

If you still want to watch, you want to have the right gadgets to do it, so instead of paying a Chinese airline for flights, you can pay American gadget makers, who then hire Chinese contract manufacturers to build their stuff. So I guess the Chinese still win, no?

Here's some great stuff for you to buy, or drool over, in anticipation of the Games. And if nothing else, they should make the upcoming Football season truly spectacular ...

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Virgin's Richard Branson and friends board their new plane, "My Other Ride's a Spaceship" for a trip to their partner Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites, and the beginnings of a new era in space, starting with launch vehicle White Knight.

"I'm old enough to have seen the moon landing ... I've wanted to go into space when I saw the moon landing ... I've never had that opportunity ... and ... it will be one of the most exciting things I've done in my life." --Richard Branson

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Continuing our coverage of Oshkosh, here's an electric plane that can fly for 1.5-2 hours at 70mph. The engine takes about two hours to recharge, which is a great flight to charge ratio, and a charge only consumes about $0.75 worth of electricity.

Flying thrills for less than $ 0.50 an hour ... I call that amazing!

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The world's largest general aviation show in Oshkosh, MN, wraps up this week. Here's a best in show roundup from Popular Mechanics. I liked the Cirrus single-engined personal jet, but John Travolta's antique 707 is pretty cool too.

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