Like many visitors today, they arrived by boat, though flights are the most common mode of transportation, and vital for supplying the few businesses and 3, 000 or so residents of the islands.

WSJ: Brazil Three Ways: Art, Eco-Escape, Surf City

GM's vice president for research and development, Lawrence Burns, says consumers have to start thinking of their car as a power-supplying appliance as well as a means of transportation. (A hybrid car, for example, might be an alternative to an emergency generator during an ice storm.) Meanwhile, GM is endorsing Huber's thinking with plans to introduce plug-in versions of the Chevrolet Volt and a Saturn vue crossover by 2010.

FORBES: A Light Bulb Goes On