Driving into Johannesburg, the skyline is often encased in a dome of smog. As Africa urbanises and industrialises, its economic growth is powered by coal, its vehicles by dirty fuels, and many still cook over paraffin and three-stone fires, burning their rubbish in the street. Researchers believe that more than 700,000 Africans die each year as a result of air pollution – and the number continues to grow. Few African cities even measure air pollution, but those that do routinely rank among the dirtiest on the planet. Nigeria is home to four of the worst, including Onitsha, which holds the dubious distinction of the Earth's most toxic air.

With every passing day, we're reminded that the future is here. Yeah, that's sort of a redundant thing to say. What I really mean is that new innovations and disruptions are popping up every day, and they're materializing at a rate never seen before. I mean, think about the fact that the modern computer, which was created in either 1942 or 1946, depending on who you ask, used to cost a fortune and fill up an entire room.[1] It was almost 50 years before that computer would be reduced to the size of an affordable desktop in 1995.

For many, the holiday season is a time of reflection, both from a personal and professional standpoint. I won't get too deep into politics and pop culture, but can't reflect on 2016 without thinking about the 2016 US presidential election and the Chicago Cub's finally winning the world series after 108 years. In my professional life I recall the challenges faced and overcome, the triumphs and even missed opportunities. Hopefully there were more triumphs than missed opportunities in your professional life, but reflecting on both can help prepare and potentially create your own opportunities in the new year – particularly if you work in digital commerce. If you're a digital commerce professional, either an online retailer or a B2B seller, last year saw a few milestones that are sure to impact your business in 2017 and beyond.

The 1556 earthquake that killed an estimated 830,000 people in the Shaanxi Province is but the deadliest example of China's long history with the natural disaster. The 1920 Haiyuan quake killed 273,000; the 1976 Tangshan earthquake claimed about 232,000 lives. Whether or not they hold to the historic view that earthquakes indicate heaven's displeasure, the modern Chinese aren't sitting idle as the ground trembles. Starting in the mid-1960s, the country established a system to improve prediction capabilities, response training, and public communications to reduce the impact of calamities. They enlisted satellites to shape post-disaster responses, but since quakes have a habit of knocking out the ground-based systems that deliver their images to those who need them, a view from space isn't always much help.

Standing in a pink desert landscape, I looked down and realized I'd become a robot, with skinny metal legs and pincers for hands. Without warning or explanation, my hands became cannons and began firing projectiles, which, on further inspection, I saw were small metallic cats. In the sky, a giant cat appeared; it shook an infant's bottle, and stars came out. Earlier that same day, I spent time as a black woman, in a neurocosmetology salon of the future. According to the staff, I needed both hair-styling and a neurological upgrade; namely, "transcranial extensions designed to make the brain's synapses more excitable and primed to increase neuroplasticity."

The emerging technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) will inevitably transform the world in many ways – some that are desirable and others that are not. The extent to which the benefits are maximized and the risks mitigated will depend on the quality of governance – the rules, norms, standards, incentives, institutions, and other mechanisms that shape the development and deployment of each particular technology. Too often the debate about emerging technologies takes place at the extremes of possible responses: among those who focus intently on the potential gains and others who dwell on the potential dangers. The real challenge lies in navigating between these two poles: building understanding and awareness of the trade-offs and tensions we face, and making informed decisions about how to proceed. This task is becoming more pressing as technological change deepens and accelerates, and as we become more aware of the lagged societal, political and even geopolitical impact of earlier waves of innovation.

In 1872 a British general named Alexander Cunningham, excavating an area in what was then British-controlled northern India, came across something peculiar. Buried in some ruins, he uncovered a small, one inch by one inch square piece of what he described as smooth, black, unpolished stone engraved with strange symbols -- lines, interlocking ovals, something resembling a fish -- and what looked like a bull etched underneath. The general, not recognizing the symbols and finding the bull to be unlike other Indian animals, assumed the artifact wasn't Indian at all but some misplaced foreign token. The stone, along with similar ones found over the next few years, ended up in the British Museum. In the 1920s many more of these artifacts, by then known as seals, were found and identified as evidence of a 4,000-year-old culture now known as the Indus Valley Civilization, the oldest known Indian civilization to date. Since then, thousands more of these tiny seals have been uncovered.

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It started as a seemingly sweet Twitter chatbot. Modeled after a millennial, it awakened on the internet from behind a pixelated image of a full-lipped young female with a wide and staring gaze. Microsoft, the multinational technology company that created the bot, named it Tay, assigned it a gender, and gave "her" account a tagline that promised, "The more you talk the smarter Tay gets!" She brimmed with enthusiasm: "can i just say that im stoked to meet u? humans are super cool." She asked innocent questions: "Why isn't #NationalPuppyDay everyday?" Tay's designers built her to be a creature of the web, reliant on artificial intelligence (AI) to learn and engage in human conversations and get better at it by interacting with people over social media. As the day went on, Tay gained followers. She also quickly fell prey to Twitter users targeting her vulnerabilities. For those internet antagonists looking to manipulate Tay, it didn't take much effort; they engaged the bot in ugly conversations, tricking the technology into mimicking their racist and sexist behavior.

President Donald Trump is widely expected to sign his latest executive order Wednesday seriously restricting immigration and refugees from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa, five of which the U.S. bombed under the previous administration. Throughout his presidential campaign, Trump accused President Barack Obama of supporting liberal immigration and refugee policies that the Republican billionaire-turned-politician said threatened national security. Trump directed his anti-immigration rhetoric toward Mexico and the Middle East, particularly singling Muslims as targets for tough, new visa policies. While he at one time suggested implementing a ban on all Muslims, Trump has since said he would focus on several countries whose population he felt presented the greatest risk. The list of countries was confirmed by congressional aides and immigration experts who the new administration had briefed on the upcoming order, according to Reuters.