A completely electric plane has made its longest flight ever at just under 15 minutes. The plane is a collaboration (合作成果) between a Seattle engineering firm named MagniX and a nearby Vancouver air charter company named Harbour Air.

Harbour Air offers services you might describe as an air taxi--it ferries people to places- just outside of Vancouver, where many people live on and visit islands, resorts, and more that are accessible by boat or air ferry. The company also flies back and forth to Seattle. These short, frequent trips make Harbour an ideal candidate for an electric fleet.

MagniX chief Roei Ganzarski says the plane it tested for this flight could fly up to 100 miles. Like early electric cars, this limitation prevents people going longer distances, but works for many who are just going short distances- especially suited for the corridor between Seattle and Vancouver, where many people work and play in both places. Where the airline industry in general is drawing constant criticism for how much carbon it produces, an electric fleet of local charters is very appealing.

The airplane flown in the test is old: a 1957 de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver made right in Canada. These planes have remained so popular for so many decades that another manufacturer purchased the rights to continue to make new replacement parts.

Because of the high durability (持久耐用) and easy repair of the DHC-2 Beaver, Harbour Air hopes to turn all of its similar planes electric as well,   resulting in a fully electric feet (机队) that's still made of the most hardy and field tested civilian aircraft around. Harbour Air's founder Greg McDougall says the fuel and repair savings alone make an electric fleet worth investing in.

The DHC-2 Beaver was designed as a short takeoff and landing (STOL) airplane,   and now it's been retrofitted (改型) with an electric engine. Harbour's website lists the horse- power of the new DHC-2 Beavers as 450 HP, which is the same as the original engine.

Harbour Air says it's already carbon neutral, flying 500, 000 people per year on over 40 airplanes. If the company s entire map of 12 destinations is within the 100-mile threshold (门槛), founder McDougall is right that it makes undeniable sense to electrify. The next step for Harbour and MagniX's Magni500 electric power-train is to go through a long period of tests and other paperwork and government safety rules.

Harbour and MagniX expect this will take at least a couple of years, after which they can hopefully upgrade their entire fleet. The MagniX power-train comes in 375 and 750 HP versions, so Harbour's larger planes are covered, too. In a time when elites are booking long flights to nowhere to boost their airline miles status, Harbour Air and MagniX's planned electric fleet is a breath of fresh, unpolluted air.

Restaurants, schools, dentist offices are all keeping more windows open, to increase ventilation — and hopefully, to decrease the chances of encountering the coronavirus. But letting in fresh air also lets in more noise.

Now, researchers have come up with a device that’s like noise-cancelling headphones — but for a building.

“It works on the same principle, so it detects noise that’s coming into the windows, and then is cancelling the noise.” says Bhan Lam, an acoustical engineer at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. The device looks like a grid of small speakers, and fits over an open window.

A microphone samples incoming noise, then sends the speaker grid instructions on what sort of “anti-noise” to emit. The result is to cancel out the incoming sound.

For example, here’s the sound of a commuter train in Singapore, with no noise control. (Before Control SFX) Now, here’s that same train sound, with the array of noise-cancelling speakers turned on. (After Control SFX)

Compare that to a closed window (Window Closed SFX). The anti-noise device is almost as good, and allows air to keep flowing into and out of the window. The details are in the journal Scientific Reports. The device is just a prototype (样机) — so it’s still expensive.

And it doesn’t block out all sounds. It masks sound at frequencies from 300 to 1000 Hz — which includes the rumble of freeways, trains and planes. But even that could come in handy in a place like Singapore. “Give me a second, there’s a plane flying past.” Bhan says Singapore already has a lot of green buildings that use natural ventilation. “But the downside is, when you have lots of openings in the buildings, the noise comes in, so you need some way to manage the increasing noise.”

A grid of window speakers could do the trick — especially if people prioritize peace and quiet over a good view, which folks at home tend to do all night.

In 2019 a group of parents in Lymington started sharing concerns about their children’s money-management skills. Pocket money was now stored in a building society rather than a piggy bank (储蓄罐); household shopping was done online; the children rarely saw their parents handling cash. They were spending online, too. Money had become intangible. How, then, were children to learn its value?

The answer they came up with was GoHenry, an app now available in America as well as Britain. It is designed to help young people learn good spending habits through real-world money activities. Parents sign up with their own bank accounts and pay a monthly fee of ￡2.99 or $3.99 for each child aged six or over. Adults and children download separate versions. Parents can schedule pocket money and set chores. When those are marked as done, the child is paid the agreed amount. Parents can see what the child has bought and where. And they can choose where the card can be used: in shops, online or at ATMs.

Children get cards printed with their name. They can put money in savings pots, view their spending and balances, and set savings targets. “They could decide to save ten dollars for a friend’s birthday in four weeks’ time, or set a goal at 12 to have $2,000 to buy a car at age 18,” says Dean Brauer, one of GoHenry’s founders. “The app tells them how much to save each week to meet their goal.”

A big benefit of such apps is that they inspire family conversations about money. According to the latest research, more than half of British parents find the subject hard to discuss with their children. And yet most agree that children’s attitudes to money are formed in their early years.

Some GoHenry customers are wealthy parents who worry that their children will grow up with little knowledge of money. Others have slim incomes but regard the app as a preparation for their child’s future. Some say that they have been in debt and want their children to avoid that mistake when they grow up; others that the app is cost-effective because their children learn to plan spending. Even though young people no longer touch and hold money, they can still be taught to handle it well.