And electrically powered trains would emit less nasty carbon than fossil-fuelled aircraft.

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Even those jobs that demand physical labor -- manufacturing, for example -- are much less grueling than they used to be, as electrically powered machines do the lifting and shifting that used to consume human energy.

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Finally, AgustaWestland surprised the HeliExpo crowd by revealing that it has been secretly testing an electrically powered tiltrotor, mixing the versatility of a vertical takeoff and land helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft.

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As a result, they are commonly installed in places where it would be expensive to use electrically-powered signs.

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People may one day compare him with Nikola Tesla, the famous Serbian inventor and futurist after whom Musk named his other big venture, which makes sleek electrically-powered automobiles.

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Compared to the early polar explorers of the 1900s, Fiennes's team will benefit from some innovative equipment, including boots with electrically-heated insoles, battery-powered heated clothing, radar to spot dangerous crevasse fields and a specially designed breathing apparatus to enable them to survive at temperatures that will regularly reach -70 degrees Celsius and perhaps even lower.

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