I put this customized bumper sticker on our car more than 2 years ago.

Are you as fed up with people who text while driving as I am?

I pray every day that my family and I don’t get taken out by some selfish idiot who thinks it’s okay to surf the web while steering (or trying to steer) a several thousand-pound metal box around at 75 mph.

I also pray that if anyone is going to be taken out by the texting/surfing driver, that it happens in this order: 1) the driver who’s texting; 2) anyone who argues that the freedom to text/surf and drive is worth dying for.

Of course, the world isn’t just, or fair, and so it doesn’t usually happen like that. Instead, thousands of innocent, non-texting/surfing drivers/passengers end up as the victims of others’ stupidity.

[Credit: Vineyard Power Cooperative]

Martha’s Vineyard, one of Massachusetts’ best known tourist destinations, will soon have a solar canopy complete with EV charging stations.

Vineyard Power Cooperative (VPC) is in the first phase of a project to put two rows of solar electricity parking lot canopies in the parking lot in between two stores, Cronig's and Healthy Additions in Vineyard Haven, reports the Martha’s Vineyard Patch.Com site.

A crowd gathers at the inauguration of a giant solar carport -- complete with solar EV charging, note the Chevy Volt plugged in in the upper left -- at Cal-State Fullerton recently. [Photo Credit: Cal-State U. Fullterton Media Affairs Office]

California State University, Fullerton recently added itself to the growing list of universities and colleges in the U.S. with solar-powered EV charging stations.

REC Solar and AECOM Technology Corporation unveiled a 1.16MW installation at the Cal-State Fullerton (CSUF) campus. REC Solar installed systems on the rooftops of two CSU Fullerton buildings and a parking structure carport under contract to AECOM.

“CSUF is saving energy and reducing costs, while setting the bar for other universities to aspire to," said Dr. Willie Hagan, Interim President of California State University, Fullerton.

Can the all-electric Nissan LEAF cut it in the cold and snow?

The video clip you see above, in which Japanese automotive media representatives put the LEAF through the winter test would seem to indicate the answer is yes, at least in terms of how the LEAF handles in snow.

With much of the vehicle’s weight evenly distributed through the middle of the vehicle, the LEAF is considerably less likely to fishtail or spin out, in contrast to most front-wheel gasoline engine vehicles, which tend to have more weight at the front, something that causes the back end of the car to easily slide out, especially when going around corners.