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Donkey Exports

While other African countries are banning the export of donkey skins, Kenya is doing a brisk trade in the commodity so sought after in China. Gelatin from the skins is used in traditional Chinese medicine ejiao. So far, five countries in the world, four of them in Africa, have barred sales of donkey products out of concern that demand from Asia will quickly outstrip local supply. Kenya, home to more than 1.8 million donkeys, vital as beasts of burden, doesn’t appear to be worried about that. Last year officials approved a $3 million donkey abattoir run by two Chinese entrepreneurs in Baringo County, northwest of Nairobi. It was the country’s second donkey slaughterhouse, after another built in Naivasha the year before. Today, it processes about 600 donkeys a day, from suppliers in Kenya as well as Tanzania. Over the last two years, a global trade in donkey skins has emerged as ejiao has become popular among middle-class Chinese who prize it as an anti-aging agent, an aphrodisiac, a cure for insomnia or poor circulation, among other health benefits. Other African countries are getting into the hide business—ejiao can sell for up to $360 per kg in China. Ethiopia, with the continent’s largest donkey population of 7.4 million, has built two large-scale, Chinese-owned slaughterhouses. Cases of illegal “bush slaughter,” where the animals are usually stolen, have been reported in Tanzania, Egypt, and South Africa and beyond.

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International Bike Ferry

Sweden and Denmark might be the most bike-obsessed nations in the world, and they’re out to prove it. Starting this summer, a new international ferry service will link Copenhagen with its Swedish sister city of Malmö, just across the Oresund strait, carrying up to 36 passengers and their bikes. It’s the first cross-border sea route designed especially for cyclists—though it will also accept bike-less passengers—and it should help rectify a minor misstep in the region’s transit. While Copenhagen and Malmö have been joined ever closer together since the opening of the Oresund Bridge in 2000, cyclists have been somewhat left behind. Before the bridge opened, it was pretty easy to cycle up to the old ferry port and wheel your bike aboard a craft. Since the bridge opened, however, ferry services directly between the two cities have been canceled. Nowadays, you can only cross the busy seaway between the two countries by passenger boat if you travel 30 miles north of Copenhagen to cross at Elsinore. Bikes are allowed on the trains across the Oresund Bridge for the price of a child’s ticket.

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Alternative Painkillers

The US opioid epidemic, which now kills 91 people per day, began with good intentions based on misinformation: Doctors in the mid-1990s started prescribing opioid painkillers more freely to help suffering patients after drug companies falsely advertised them as safe to use for chronic pain. In reality, though, drugs like Vicodin and OxyContin are highly addictive, and often lead patients to use heroin, a cheaper, illegal form of opiate that can be bought on the street. Any type of opioid can be lethal when taken in a high enough dose. Now that health care providers are realizing the danger opioids cause patients, treating them for pain means accepting a trade off of risks: On the one hand, doctors don’t want their patients to endure any undue suffering due to an injury, surgery, or illness. On the other, they don’t want to prescribe drugs that could quickly become addictive and cause more harm later on. To solve this problem, scientists are desperately trying to develop alternatives. They’re even taking tips from the animal kingdom: Research suggests that tiny, venomous snails that live in Caribbean waters carry a compound that can alleviate pain in sick patients without using the addictive pathway opioids do. Conus regius, or the crown snail, is a tiny critter that, at its largest, reaches just under 3 inches (7.5 cm). The snail’s venom, which it shoots into prey through microscopic hollow harpoons, makes up for its size: It quickly paralyzes the injection site, and then prevents the prey’s brain from sending signals to surrounding muscles. Scientists from the University of Utah broke down the combination of toxins in the venom, and found that one compound, called RgIA4, works to block nerve pain—similar to the kind caused by cancer treatment and diabetes. The team also used chemical modeling to show how RgIA4 could work in the human brain, and it appears that it binds with completely different receptors than opioids. Theoretically, this means that it wouldn’t be addictive. They’ve still got a long way to go before RgIA4 can be tested in humans.

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China’s Skyscrapers

China’s skyscraper craze reached another new high last year. In 2016 the world saw the completion of 128 skyscrapers, up from 114 in 2015, according to the US-based Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (it defines a skyscraper as being higher than 200 m, or 656 ft.). Of those, 84 came from China, a new record for the nation. China has topped the council’s completions list every year for nearly a decade. Shenzhen, a city in southern China known for electronics manufacturing, stood out last year, completing 11 such skyscrapers. That’s more than the US and Australia combined. The city was also China’s hottest real estate market last year. Next was Chongqing, noted for its fast GDP growth, and Guangzhou, which completed a new finance center with 111 stories and especially fast elevators. Meanwhile many cities in China have seen growing office vacancy rates. In Shanghai’s central business district—home to the Shanghai Tower, the nation’s tallest building—the rate jumped from 7.3% in the third quarter last year to 10.5% in the fourth. China’s building boom is likely to slow down, notes the CTBUH, thanks to a “still-cooling national economy” and an uptick in capital outflows. But with 328 skyscrapers under construction in 2017, it might take a while.

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Protecting Cyclists

Seattle’s department of transportation is equipping its truck fleet with side guards, or panels on both sides of a truck that prevent people from getting run over by the back wheels. (This assumes a side collision, not a head-on one.) All large vehicles belonging to the department are getting this treatment, and Seattle is also requiring manufacturers to install them on new vehicles it purchases. The guards are not intended as a cure-all for collisions, but mainly to stop the kind of deadly crushing associated with large truck wheels. Half of cyclists killed by big trucks from 2005 to 2009 first made impact with their sides, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. A lot of that might have to do with these vehicles’ considerable blind spots. On longer trucks blind spots can obscure a line of more than 10 cyclists or pedestrians, and make it easy for drivers to inadvertently subsume one underneath the truck.

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Free Bike

Oslo is so keen to get people on bicycles that it will offer residents up to $1,200 to buy electric cargo bikes. The city will pay up to 25 percent of the bike’s cost, capping the grant at 10,000 kroner. Electric cargo bikes currently cost between 20,000 and 50,000 kroner ($2,400 to $6,000), meaning that buyers will still have to come up with between $1,800 and $4,800 from their own funds. So why is Norway’s capital putting its money behind cargo bikes? Because Oslo needs to push for a further shift away from cars if its air is going to be breathable. Like many European cities, Oslo’s air quality has been pretty poor so far this winter, leading the city to put a temporary driving ban on diesel-fuelled vehicles in order to help clear the atmosphere. In a bid to push a general modal shift away from cars, the country is investing a phenomenal $1 billion in new bike infrastructure, so the paths that Oslo’s future cargo bikes use should ultimately be of high quality. But there are still some hurdles. Oslo, for example, is considerably hillier than, say, Amsterdam or Copenhagen, and it can experience some harsh weather conditions. For that reason electric cargo bikes are a potentially greater part of the solution here. Not only do they give riders a push up hills, they also make bikes a feasible option for new purposes like weekly grocery shopping. They can even be used for the school commute: In Copenhagen, it’s already common to see parents pedaling several small children to school in a cart attached to their bike. Five million kroner ($600,000) is earmarked for the project—3 million for private individuals and 2 million for businesses and organizations—meaning the program can only bring 500 to 1,000 electric cargo bikes onto Oslo’s streets.

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Bike Cops

Starting this spring, in a bid to enforce more careful driving around bikes, London’s Metropolitan Police is going low key, with plain-clothes police officers pedaling through the streets on bikes to monitor and reprimand drivers’ behavior. The main goal is to crack down on so-called close passing—that is, drivers overtaking bikes at a distance of less than 1.5 meters (just under 5 feet). The police will be able to make arrests if necessary, but they’re aiming to inform rather than punish. Motorists caught engaging in driving that compromises cyclists’ safety will be given the choice between prosecution or a 15-minute roadside safety training session. The operation won’t cover a very large area of London’s roads at any one time. By introducing the idea that cyclists on the road might just have a police badge in their pocket, however, it may have a far greater effect than punishment alone. The scheme has already been tried elsewhere with great success. Last autumn, police in the West Midlands (the region that contains England’s second city, Birmingham) sent just two plainclothes officers out on bicycle patrol to monitor drivers. Within just nine hours, the pair had stopped 130 motorists, reported eight for serious safety offenses, and revoked one license on the spot. Among the other drivers, only one chose prosecution over an advice session. Public awareness that the police were on patrol seems to have had as much effect as actual contact between officers and drivers. Since the scheme began, collisions between cars and cyclists in the area patrolled have halved. This striking drop has been achieved at almost no expense, just a few man-hours and a roll-up mat showing the safe passing distance for each officer. To some, this might seem to be a case of police sweating the small stuff while the job of fighting more serious crimes is neglected. It isn’t. Last year, 123 British cyclists died on the roads, 89 of them due to collisions with motor vehicles. Five of those incidents saw the driver hit and run un-apprehended, without contacting emergency services or police.

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Second Home Tax

Paris has tripled its surtax on second homes, raising the extra charge paid by owners from 20 percent of the standard property tax up to 60 percent. As a result, people who own second homes in Paris will pay more than one and a half times the property taxes paid by people who either live in their homes or rent them out to full-time tenants. The idea is to open up more housing for full-time occupants who actually make their lives in the city. Paris contains over 100,000 second homes, a large number for a city whose official limits contain just 1.1 million homes in total. The idea of making second-home owners pay extra is nothing new. In 2015, France implemented the law requiring a 20 percent surcharge for any home that isn’t registered as someone’s primary residence. So far, that law is restricted to a long list of officially recognized “stressed zones” where affordable housing is in especially short supply. The exact final tax bill varies widely because property tax rates are set by local, not national authorities. The 2015 law gave local authorities in stressed zones the option of raising the surtax as high as 60 percent. Paris, whose entire area is marked as a stressed zone, is the first municipality to do so—but possibly not the last.

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Baby Monitor

To reduce mortality from hypothermia, Bempu, a Bangalore-based startup, has developed a baby bracelet to constantly monitor a newborn’s temperature. The idea is as simple as a 24/7 thermometer, but its effects are life-saving in a country where “the highest number of infant deaths are due to premature birth,” says Gini Morgan, director of public health for Bempu. The bracelet is a hypoallergenic and non-toxic silicone band that tracks temperature by touching the underside of a baby’s wrist. If the temperature fluctuates either too high or too low, the bracelet emits an alarm that turns off once the baby’s temperature is regulated. The main difference from a thermometer, says Morgan, is a built-in “call to action for parents.” Bempu advises doctors to prescribe the bracelet to parents of underweight babies or when a newborn is in the intensive care unit. The startup is now working with both private and government hospitals across India. Launched in 2014 with help from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bempu has focused efforts in low-resource communities by conducting trials in partnership with government hospitals and distributing the bracelet free of cost in public hospitals (it retails for $26.49 USD, or 1,800 rupees, in private hospitals). Most recently, the startup launched a pilot program at a public hospital in the state of Rajasthan in 2016.  

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Amsterdam’s New Housing

Starved for living space amid a growing population, Amsterdam has a long tradition of creating homes in less obvious places. Some warehouses along its canals were converted to homes as far back as the 19th century, while after the war it populated its canals with mock “houseboats” actually built on concrete moorings. Since the millennium, the city has gone as far as building artificial islands for new homes (and still more are on the way). Now the city has turned its sights on an untapped urban space: the rooms above and behind stores. Starting in February, Amsterdam will offer a grant of up to €25,000 (around $26,600) to store owners who want to convert unused space on their premises into homes. It’s not only landlords that can apply for the fund: With permission from the landlord, store tenants can also apply for the funds, though their rent would likely be increased to account for their new source of income. This could unlock a potentially large area of living space for the city. Last year’s pilot version of the project in the downtown Amsterdam Centrum borough brought 850 more apartments onto the market, many of them created on the second floor above stores on the busy shopping streets at Nieuwendijk and Damrak.

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Africa’s First High-Speed Train

The train from Tangier to Casablanca currently moseys down the coast of Morocco, making the journey in 4 hours and 45 minutes. When the North African nation’s new high-speed train debuts in June 2018, that trip will take less than half the time—2 hours and 10 minutes. It will be the first high-speed train for both Morocco and the African continent. There’s much to be celebrated in the successful completion of this $1.9 billion project. The high-tech rolling stock comes from French manufacturer Alstom, which supplied the 12 double-decker models; the funding came from Morocco, France, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. The high-speed line is in keeping with the Moroccan government’s focus on attracting foreign investment through megaprojects. Recent development has been big and flashy. And it’s worked: Since 2011, foreign direct investment has increased by more than 11 percent. Tourism, which supplies close to 7 percent of GDP, has also remained strong.

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Madrid Car Ban

Visit Madrid’s Gran Vía in five years’ time and you won’t find a car in sight. That’s the promise coming from the Mayor Manuela Carmena, following a lengthy debate over the future of the city’s main street. Carmena announced that Madrid’s central avenue will only allow access to bikes, buses, and taxis before her term ends in May 2019. The plan shows impressive, even daunting ambition. Gran Vía is a blaringly busy, six-lane road smashed through the city’s heart in 1910. It’s currently an essential route bisecting the city center, and rerouting car traffic away from it is likely to prove an intricate task—and one that risks being highly controversial.

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Worker Replacement

One Japanese insurance company, Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance, is replacing 34 human insurance claim workers with “IBM Watson Explorer.” The AI will scan hospital records and other documents to determine insurance payouts, factoring injuries, patient medical histories, and procedures administered. Automation of these research and data gathering tasks will help the remaining human workers process the final payout faster. Fukoku Mutual will spend $1.7 million (200 million yen) to install the AI system, and $128,000 per year for maintenance. The company saves roughly $1.1 million per year on employee salaries by using the IBM software, meaning it hopes to see a return on the investment in less than two years. Watson AI is expected to improve productivity by 30%, Fukoku Mutual says.

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Cannabis Inhaler

Syqe Medical—a startup out of Tel-Aviv, Israel—has created a cannabis inhaler that allows doctors to prescribe a precise dose of marijuana and even administer it remotely. The inhaler was green-lighted by the Israel Health Ministry, and has been in use for a year at Rambam hospital in Haifa. Made with 3D-printing technology, the inhaler comes in two variations—one for individuals and for medical institutions. The hospital version includes a caregiver interface and allows for remote dosing; it was created for use in pain clinics, cancer centers, intensive care units, and other medical institutions. The pocketsize gadgets come pre-loaded with 100-microgram cannabis cartridges, plus thermal and flow controllers, lung interfacing, and wireless connectivity to a clinical database that serves physicians, researchers and health care entities.

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HIV Prevention

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is investing $140 million to help Intarcia Therapeutics, a Boston-based biopharmaceutical company, develop a tiny implantable drug pump. The pump will use Intarcia’s Medici Drug Delivery System, which delivers HIV preventive medicine to healthy patients, ensuring they are consistent in the treatment. The matchstick-size mini-pump is embedded just under the dermal layer of the patients’ skin by a trained physician in an in-office procedure. The pump can hold six- or 12-month supplies of the drug. The Gates Foundation’s investment is divided into two parts; $50 million for an equity stake in the company and $90 million in grants, pegged to Intarcia achieving certain milestones in developing the device. In the future, additional grants will be made to ensure broader access to the treatment.

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Self-Driving Trucks

British mining company Rio Tinto has 73 autonomous behemoths transporting iron ore 24 hours a day in West Angelas, Australia, across four job sites. The autonomous fleet is roughly 15% cheaper than one with human drivers. The trucks, made by Japanese manufacturer Komatsu, weigh 416 tons and use a mix of GPS, radar, and laser sensors to navigate a site. Their job is simple: go to a load site, wait to be filled with iron ore, and then drive to another location. Komatsu estimates that their autonomous trucks have already hauled 1 billion tons of material, mainly in Australia and Chile. The human team overseeing the robots work 750 miles away, far from being able to physically take action should something go wrong. Autonomous systems have been pitched to mining companies as a safer, cheaper way to operate their business.

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India’s Shoppers

Mobile-savvy shoppers are the backbone of India’s online shopping industry. According to two of India’s burgeoning domestic e-retail platforms, Flipkart and Snapdeal, more than 80% of online shoppers made purchases through their smartphones, accessing the portals via mobile sites or apps. The most popular purchases included mobile phones, tablets, computers and other electronics in 2016, according to Snapdeal and Flipkart. Men in India are more avid shoppers than women in part because of demographic and cultural differences. More older people shopped online in 2016. About 15% of people over age 44 bought products from Flipkart, the company said. The demographic has more disposable income than younger groups.