The company started in the temperature-controls business in 1885, two years after its founder, Warren S. Johnson, a professor at the State Normal School in Whitewater, Wisconsin, received a patent for the electric room thermostat.

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This was highlighted earlier in 2006, when the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced that high-profile former General Electric CEO Jack Welch would teach students leadership techniques from his best-selling book, Winning.

CNN: Survey shows boom in part-time MBAs

Mr Govindarajan, of the Tuck Business School at Dartmouth College, has advised General Electric on frugal innovation and co-written a path-breaking article on the subject with GE's boss, Jeff Immelt.

ECONOMIST: Frugal ideas are spreading from East to West

When Jamie and I arrived at Fountain-Fort Carson High School in Colorado Springs, CO, the mood was electric.

WHITEHOUSE: Joining Forces Blog

Already a school in Manchester, England has a dozen personal computers connected to the Internet by its electric power line.

FORBES: Fact and Comment

More than a quarter of the country's 40, 000-odd electric cars on the roads are located in Southern California according to Brett Williams, who directs electric-vehicle research at UCLA's Luskin School of Public Affairs, and "the single most congested situation is at LAX, " he says.

WSJ: It's Less Easy Being 'Green' as Los Angeles Yanks Plug on Free Parking for Electric Cars

In Heilongjiang province in the northeast, a survey of 100 nursery-school children showed that 90% took lessons in piano, electric organ, painting or dance.

CNN: LITTLE EMPERORS

The process reverses electrolysis, which many may recall from a high school experiment that involved placing two electrodes in water, passing an electric current through them and collecting the hydrogen and oxygen that bubbled off.

CNN: Bus showcases fuel cell technology