China

Like Bixi….but Waaaaaay Bigger

- Dan Harrison 1 Comment

At a time when owning a car in China has become the ultimate symbol of success, it’s very encouraging to see systems like Hangzhou’s bike share working so well.

The city of Hangzhou, with its population of roughly seven million, has 50 000 bikes in their bike share program!

Hangzhou’s 2,050 bike-share stations are spaced less than a thousand feet from each other in the city center, and on an average day riders make 240,000 trips using the system. Its popularity and success have set a new standard for bike-sharing in Asia. And the city is far from finished. The Hangzhou Bicycle Company plans to expand the bike-share system to 175,000 bikes by 2020!

Check out this video at streetfilms.org.

Bookstores are Still Places for Change

- Adam Clare

In Beijing there stands a bookstore that does more than just sell books – it’s bringing more culture and more discourse to the city. Books are an invaluable way to share ideas and as a result bookstores tend to create a culture around them that encourages critical thinking.

However, the Bookworm is more than just a bookshop with a library, bar and restaurant: it’s a hot house of discussion, creativity and ideas in one of the world’s most happening cities.

Its big book-lined rooms, free Wi-Fi, hip music and good food have made it a magnet for expats and young, English-speaking Chinese alike.

But it’s the Bookworm International Literary Festival that has put it on the map for top international authors curious about China: Americans Dave Eggers and David Sedaris were here for events in January. This month, Toronto’s Emma Donoghue and 70 other writers from 19 different countries celebrated the festival’s fifth year, which wraps up Friday.

Read the rest of the article.

China Bans Some Logging

- Adam Clare

China has protected forests Great and Lesser Hinggan Mountain region in the north east of the country by banning logging there. For the next ten years logging in that region will be illegal in an attempt to help curb climate change.

The ban is part of a forest protection program by the National Development and Reform Commission and State Forestry Administration.

China is trying to increase the size of its forests by 40 million hectares to help reduce greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

The forest reserve in the Hinggan mountains spreads out over 430,000 square kilometres across Heilongjiang province and into neighbouring Inner Mongolia.

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Bacteria Could Eat Oil Spills

- Adam Clare 5 Comments

In the future, oil spills could be partly cleaned up by bacteria that loves to eat all the dangerous goo in oil.

esearchers have discovered a new strain of bacteria that can produce non-toxic, comparatively inexpensive “rhamnolipids,” and effectively help degrade polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, or PAHs – environmental pollutants that are one of the most harmful aspects of oil spills.

Because of its unique characteristics, this new bacterial strain could be of considerable value in the long-term cleanup of the massive Gulf Coast oil spill, scientists say.

More research to further reduce costs and scale up production would be needed before its commercial use, they added.

The findings on this new bacterial strain that degrades the PAHs in oil and other hydrocarbons were just published in a professional journal, Biotechnology Advances, by researchers from Oregon State University and two collaborating universities in China. OSU is filing for a patent on the discovery.

“PAHs are a widespread group of toxic, carcinogenic and mutagenic compounds, but also one of the biggest concerns about oil spills,” said Xihou Yin, a research assistant professor in the OSU College of Pharmacy.

Read more here.

Hummer Fades Away

- Adam Clare

Back in 2008 we wrote here that the SUV is dying and now in 2010 the Hummer has met its doom. You ready for this?

General Motors has stopped making Hummers and selling the brand is really hard.

Now that’s good news!

General Motors Co. failed to win approval from Chinese regulators to sell its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co., said two people briefed on the deal.

A government agency indicated that it won’t provide approval for Chengdu, China-based Tengzhong to purchase the Hummer line of sport-utility vehicles from GM in China, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the decision hasn’t been made public.

Keep reading at Bloomberg.

There is still a chance, albeit quite slim, that the Hummer brand could live on.

Thanks to Dan!

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