Tesla announces network of free charging stations powered by solar energy

The biggest problem with driving an electric vehicle (EV) is not driving from home to work. It’s the long trips and vacations that scare people – beyond the EV’s range of 75-150 miles per charge. They need a network of charging stations, like gas stations, placed along highway routes for all the popular destinations. And …

Are you happy this month? – Consumer sentiment rises to 2008 level

Maybe it was all those vacations people took? From the Wall Street Journal: U.S. consumers in early September felt better about the economy as their expectations brightened, according to data released Friday. The Thomson-Reuters/University of Michigan consumer sentiment index rose to 79.2 early this month from the 74.3 final reading for August.   Of course, …

Travel writing – visiting the tiny island of Giglio, a wrecked cruise ship in the harbor and old-time Tuscany in the villages

  GIGLIO ISLAND, Italy — My ferry was full of school groups, delivery trucks and tourists when we left the Tuscan port of Santo Stefano and headed toward the island of Giglio, 12 miles away. I sat on deck with the other foreigners, enjoying the spring sunshine: It was too cold for the Italians, who huddled downstairs …

Internet helps ‘this guy’ find his lost camera

A photograph showing the owner of a lost camera has gone viral Monday after being posted on Facebook, Reddit and other websites. Internet users are teaming up to put the camera back into the owner’s hands. Text on the viral photo reads, “This guy lost his camera with more than 2,800 photos in Amsterdam. Who …

California begins offering $1 trips on Greyhound from LA to SF

Profiled by a Los Angeles Times travel writer, it reminds me of the $1 DC to NYC bus ride. One traveler finds the ghost of Jack Kerouac and more on a bus trip up California’s spine. At $1 each way, it has to be the best bargain in all of travel. Mindful that great American …

The top 10 islands of Europe

The perfect list of European Islands ranked according to 8 factors. Each island is worthy of investigation for many of them are unknown to Americans and yet so full of history. Photos of my favorite three:

What guide books tell foreign visitors to America

The United States is the second greatest tourist draw in the world, with 60-million-plus visitors in 2010 alone (France, number one, attracted almost 80 million). Flipping through a few of the many English-language tourist guides provides a fascinating, if non-scientific and narrow, window into how people from the outside world perceive America, Americans, and the …

Start-up perks – the standards, impressive ones, & no way that’s amazing

We asked more than a dozen startups (Thrillist, Fab, Tumblr, Jetsetter, StumbleUpon, Asana, Eventbrite, Warby Parker, Rent the Runway, Coloft, ZocDoc, GetGlue, Foursquare, Birchbox, Modcloth, Evernote) what perks they offer and we’ve grouped these perks into three tiers, giving you the sampling of who offers what and why these companies think it wise to spend …