Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo.

I’m always amazed how much information I come along, by simply starting somewhere on the web and then just out of curiosity of the things that I read, end up with hours of reading material. Here is an example. Come on the trip with me, it’s interesting:

I started of on swiss-miss, one of my favorite design blogs and I found a video about Web 3.0.

Nova Spivack appeared in the video and I got curious about what he does. A quick google search reveal his wikipedia page and his home page. Very interesting guy, I could spend hours on his blog.

According to Wikipedia, Nova Spivack “is the grandson of Dr. Peter F. Drucker, widely considered “the father of modern management”” Wow, what is that? Lets check out Dr. Peter F. Druckers wikipedia page: He was a writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.” Also a very interesting guy. I have to read more about him.

What the heck is “social ecology”. Extremely interesting.

All this rev’s up my brain like crazy. Did you read what “Social Ecology” is? It pretty much explains why things aren’t really working out with the environment and the root of it: our political and social systems and the “grow-or-die philosophy”.

Now, where am I going to find enough time to read up on all of this?

Just a few years ago, I would have jumped on this opportunity to release something big, you know, REALLY BIG. Just to gain some traction. Everyone does it today though and this does not distinguish the fakers from the real ones. I don’t really need to prove one day of the year, that I can make a change. We change on a constant basis, and we (this is my family and I) try to live… earth weeks, years, life times? This also means that I have slowly changed from being a total freak about everything super green, to making changes that actually matter on the long run.

Think about it. A lot of the green products that you buy are made to make you feel good about yourself. The message is “You can still consume just as much, just get our eco stuff.” Don’t get me wrong, its still better than being regular non-eco stuff, but the problem is really the massive consumption.

So here some of the basics (in case you forgot).

Reduce – Reuse – Recycle

I’m not going to give you concrete tips on things to change, because I believe you are smart enough figure it out yourself. Now please pply this to your life, every day of every year. Reducing comes before Reusing which comes before Recycling. (Recycling is our last “resort”).

Here are some more videos that explain stuff in case you have never heard about it.

I’m always so perplexed to see how much stuff is made in China and I don’t really get it. Shouldn’t we be interested in creating as many jobs here rather than shipping them offshore?

It’s a tough question, but hear me out, I’ll show you a fancy video at the end.

Lets for instance look at a Billy bookcase from Ikea. Do you really think that there is a lot of labor involved in making one of those? If everything is completely automated in the manufacturing of the bookcase, the only thing that would be more expensive is setting up the factory and maintaining the machinery, but should that cost (even with much higher labor cost) be so small compared (almost neglectable) to the amount of product that is made?

Here is a video of a machine that drills the holes into a shelf, not fully automated, but this is just a demonstration as to the type of machinery used in making a book case. There are machines out there, that just have to be loaded with wood and other materials and that just spit out bookcases every few minutes. Think about it.

So after seeing this, does it really matter if this machine sits in the USA, Canada or in China?

As a kid and teenager, I never wanted to smile in photos. I always pulled faces and whatnot else. I thought it was funny, but it was frustrating to people taking the photo, ie. my parents.

I just found myself looking through the many pictures of missing people in Haiti on CBC’s website. It is truely shocking that so many of them will never be found. So many people, with many pretty smiles and fun lives, and so many more of their families left behind with beautiful memories of these people.

It makes me wonder, how do I want to be remembered? With one of my douchebag faces or with a smile. So from now on, I will ALWAYS smile like there is no tomorrow!

Please take a moment to look at those many beautiful people and pray for them and for their families! And do yourself a favor, smile like there is no tomorrow!

What? They do? Well, I might be pushing it. But this is a very interesting podcast episode of Treehugger Radio with founder Jay Rogers of Local Motors. Local Motors is pushing the limits of what we think car manufacturers are capable of. So without further or do, head on over the the article, listen to it on iTunes or listen to it directly online.

Watch this. There is hopefor the future after the oil Lets get crackin’ on it today.