I was this morning at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View to see Condie Rice taking a fast and furious ride (up to 160 MPH) on board of the all-electric Tesla Roadster. There will be more than 400 of these cars shipping in the US this Fall, at about $90K a pop for the Rich and Famous like Governor Schwarzenegger, actor George Clooney and Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page. The Secretary of State is in Silicon Valley with Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer to discuss about innovation, green technologies, etc.

"Well, the Foreign Minister and I have just gone in what felt like a little rocket ship. We went down the runway there. We've been looking at some of the ways that energy efficiency can improve our ability to get off of hydrocarbons but also to improve the environment and contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which is an issue of great concern to me and to Foreign Minister Downer as well. So we're delighted to be here at this great company. And we expect to see great things from Tesla, but it was a wonderful to meet with the engineers, to meet with the founder, but it was especially wonderful to ride in the car.", said Condie.

After test driving the "small rocket ship", Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer gave a short speech on the goodness of green technologies and bragged about the car... for which they received a gift of appreciation: a small scale version of the Roaster!