Damien Mulley

Go to google.ie and search for: damien
Beating yer man Rice and yer man Dempsey.
(Yes I am that sad.)

When you Google for “Damien” on Yahoo.ie or Google it on MSN.ie* I’m not near no.1

Meanwhile Richard is talking about the Americans and Googlebombing their elections. I think we should make Fianna Fail guy Damien Blake number 1 for the search phrase “Fianna Fail”. Since he seems to be the one Fianna Failer who is actively engaging with the online community it is only right that he should rank highly in results when someone searches for Fianna Fail.

*Bubble Brothers, like Google, have issued a guide on when to use and when not to use the phrase “bubble brothers”.

Update: Blakey is on first page of results for Damien too. Competition!

Dalek jack-o-lantern.

Cute iPod case for kids. Thought it looks too much like a frisbee.

5 best movie monologues.

How unfortunate.

Joel shows how you can add those DIGG type buttons to a blogger post.

Niall’s guide to planning small conferences.

Fan made ad for the democrats. Staying the course:

Daily Show and the cursing parrot:

I’m off to New York next week for a week. I’m hoping to do a few things like see the Museum of Modern Art, go Ice Skating at the Rockefeller Centre and sample as much ethnic cuisine as possible. I was there for a whole 6 hours on a previous trip so saw nothing except very tall buildings. If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know. Something not too touristy but still cool is what I’m after.

The Irony Mark. Oh good god.

Anti-homophobia campaign to begin in Irish Schools. About time.

Also equal rights granted to gay couples in New Jersey. Marriage by any other name is still marriage?

The court gave the State Legislature 180 days to come up with legislation guaranteeing gay people a legal mechanism to have their unions recognized in identical practical terms as those afforded to heterosexual marriages. It left for another day the question of whether the contours of and, more important, the label attached to that mechanism would satisfy the State Constitution.

Meanwhile Google thinks words and verbs are very very important. They’re telling people how they should refer to making searches online. How about feck off?

Shots of a Space Shuttle Launch from a tracker plane.

Ze Frank smacks down Rocketboom.

Iraqi TV news show that’s a mix of Ze Frank and the Daily Show. Nice to see that someone can find humour in such despair.

Collection of great TV commercials.

Pelican swallows a pigeon.

I really don’t know what to say about this:

I’m looking to get a band or else a DJ for the 2007 Irish Blog Awards which should be happening in late February or early March. After the Award show itself I’d like to keep the crowd together and prevent the mass scattering we encountered last year. For that reason I hope to keep the bar at the event open and have the band/DJ to entertain people until the wee hours.

Yes I’m willing to pay, but not too much. Think the Warlords of Pez are available and not too expensive? 🙂 Or that Orbital will reform for the event?

Denise Howell announces the “This Week in Law” podcast.

Via a quick comment from Marc is news that Russell Beattie has left Yahoo. His notebook doesn’t seem to be coming back though. Shame.

Can’t believe the dog survived.

Ice Cube is back. No no, not that one. Maybe we should call him Ice cub instead.

Top Gear play Darts:

In the same vein, launching a car off an 18 storey carpark into a river:

What’s going on?

Hope everyone has fun at the big wine event tonight. I’ll be stuck in college learning the OJ defense. (This is slightly different to the Chewbacca Defense.)

Damien Blake has suggested bloggers have a “Stop the Carnage Week” this week where we share our ideas on what should be done to stop the constant deaths on our roads. Twenty has already started.

Damien suggests:

• Write a post on your own blog
• Tag it with “roadsafetyblog“, link to his post or add a comment with the link
• If you don’t have a blog, you can comment here
• Most importantly, we need your suggestions on how to improve things

I’ll prepare a report on the submissions, and forward it to the Minister, Taoiseach, Road Safety Authority, Insurance Federation and every member of the Oireachtas.

I’m sure people are sick of this talk about road safety already with every paper and radio station discussing it but if a blog post can make you even a slightly safer driver it could be the difference between life and death. Unlike a lot of those crappy memes going about, this is worthwhile. Also see the Road Deaths Map.

My own suggestions:

• Courses like the “Ignition” course that Hibernian Insurance offers should be mandatory. It certainly made me a safer driver.
• Driving Instructors need to pass certain criteria before they can teach.
• Everyone should have to sit a certain number of driving lessons from qualified instructors.
• If there isn’t a reasonable drop in road deaths of young people then speed restrictors/monitors should be added to their cars. A work colleague was telling me today of devices that can text parents to let them know their kids are speeding. Speed is fine for motorways, not for crappy roads that are in the majority of this country.