Chistmas Wishes and random readings

Happy Christmas to all and here are a couple of last minute readings for the long Christmas nights.

From Worldchanging we got one of my favourite topics which is the potential of microgeneration and even better is the nice UK government/NGO detailed study on it. A major issue for the developing world is the need for universal access to clean water, one solution might be the Watercone but it is probably too expensive to be a viable solution. Here is a really cool idea that is timely and useful, the provision of emergency instructions as podcasts by FirstAidPod which are providing (so far more to come) podcasts on the situations of "No Breathing, No Pulse - CPR", "Choking - CPR", "Drowing - CPR" and "Bleeding - CPR" which are divided into three categories of infants, children and adults. Fanatastic idea, I'm currently certified as a REC Advanced first aider and I would love to see more people being actively involved in learning the simple skills of first aid which can save a person's life.

There is a nice analysis of the election results in Iraq. In other election related news seems some States in the US are finally tossing out there crappy diebold voting machines. You can also check out the "A Fascist Philosopher Helps Us Understand Contemporary Politics" which is part of a dicussion about Carl Schmitt and his latest book, Political Theology which talks about the relationships between political leadership, the legal processes of the state and the state of political emergency with regard to a nation's soverign leader.

A really sweet site which has maps scaled to visualise the world population and GDPs.