Nine Shift

Electric cars will destroy the earth

Well, the kids (those under 30) know better, but old people over 40 are clinging to the automobile, now hoping electric cars will save the day.

Turns out electric cars will destroy the earth, not save it.  Hedrick Smith, in a PBS Frontline documentary on "Poisoned Waters" says that cars don't just emit pollution, they also drop it.  Driving down a street or highway, your car drops bits of metal, including chromium, aluminum and mercury. That goes into the water system, poisoning fish, plants and people.

Then there's the issue of the roads themselves.  In the U.S. we have roadways that take up the same amount of space as the state of Georgia, much of it asphalt, leaking oil into the water system as well. We could go on.  But electric cars won't get very far unless a lot more than fuel is fixed.

Twitter co-founder another college "push out"

Twitter, of course, is the hottest new social media networking software. Just for fun we decided to find out if Twitter co-found Jack Dorsey is a college drop-out. 

Why yes he is!  Amazing, just like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Shawn Fanning (downloading music) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook).  

I like the term "push out" better than drop-out. I think it describes better what is actually going on.  What do you think?  Are smart boys pushed out of college, or do they drop out? 

The Future of Cities

NineShift Exclusive!
Last month My brilliant co-author Julie Coates told me about the future of cities. Here's what a city will be like in the 21st century.

A city or community in the United States will be about 200 miles long. It will take 2 hours by train to get from one end of the city to the other. 

The 2 hour limit is exactly the same maximum time it took to get to town in a horsedrawn buggy, and the same time a maximum car commuter trip took in the auto age.   The ideal time is much less of course, say an hour, or even half hour.  The average commute time for cars today is about a half hour.  But 2 hours will be the reasonable maximum limit.

What that means is that your church, or your child's school, could be located 100 miles away and still be in the same community.  Churches, schools and other organizations, shops and places will be more niched, more specialized, because the population in the 200 mile city will be millions of people. And they can travel 100 miles in an hour, no problem at all getting to church or school  (and of course the kids can study on the way to and from school).  I have not had time to figure out all the implications. It is a stunning sociological discovery by Ms. Coates. Tell us your thoughts on the city of the 21st century.

This is the third NineShift exclusive discovery for 2009. Previously this year we found out that support for cars has nosedived among Gen Y, and the solution to boys' bad grades actually works.

Canada: The rise of public places

(more posts from my 5 day NineShift Canada tour)

There are times when a NineShift co-author should keep silent. One of those times is when he does not know the answer.  The other is when in the presence of NineShifters.  This was both of those times.

NineShifter Jeff Roach invited me to dinner in the beautifully restored townhouse of an art gallery owner in the historic past-future section of Saint John, New Brunswick, one of the oldest important cities in North America.

The gallery owner is telling his guests how he was thinking of combining an art gallery with a couple of other enterprises and creating a multiple public space for people to both buy and just be.  But then, he reads NineShift and reconsiders, wondering whether public space is really needed in a virtual age. 

I hesitate, then decide to keep quiet, so Jeff speaks up.  He says that the more he works from home, the more he likes to get out and patronize public space.  With people telecommuting, he predicts public space will be even more important, and more public space should and will be created.  That is the right answer.  Wish I had thought of it, but sure glad Jeff did.   Photo: NineShifters Kelly Lawson and Jeff Road of Saint John, New Brunswick.