The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. Civilization is not a collection of finished artefacts, it is the elaboration of processes. In the end, the march of man is the refinement of the hand in action. The most powerful drive in the ascent of man is his pleasure in his own skill. He loves to do what he does well and, having done it well, he loves to do it better. You see it in his science. You see it in the magnificence with which he carves and builds, the loving care, the gaiety, the effrontery. The monuments are supposed to commemorate kings and religions, heroes, dogmas, but in the end the man they commemorate is the builder.

That quote is from about minute 42 of the below. The whole video is worth watching and the whole of the series too.

What is your one single favourite thing on the whole Internet? A person, a website, a piece of content like a photo, video or song or?

Rules (if you believe in such things):
Go off and have a think about this if you like and then come back.
You’re only allowed one and it must be your absolute favourite thing.
When leaving the comment, please include a short sentence as to why it is your fav
If you want to make this anonymous, please do.

Streaky bacon weaved together

Sausage meat plastered on top

Barbecue sauce put on that

Cooked bacon bits sprinkled on top

Rolled and then weaved

Did this on Facebook a while back and got a lot of replies. Here are some choice places in Ireland:

Muff
Nobber
Sally Gap
Termonfeckin
Tubbercurry
Ringsend
Bastardstown
Dyke Parade
Ballinaboy
Belgooly
Ballsbridge
Letterfinish
Blackbox Theatre, Dyke Rd, Galway
Moll’s Gap
Ring
Laytown
Effin, County Limerick
Sandymount
Strangalowilly, Co Tyrone
Meelick
Freemount
Stillorgan
Naad, Cork
Mount Juliet
Mount Daisy
The Giant’s Ring, Belfast
South Ring Road
Dundonald
Bangor
Ringaskiddy
Skeheenarinky, Tipperary
Gaggin, Cork
Spunkane
Kilcock, Co. Kildare

This will warm up your Friday. Via Ivan. Extreme Facedown Ireland.

Official Facebook Group for Extreme Facedown Ireland.

Some great ones:

Notes like the below make it all worth it though:

Please do blog and email and give thanks to the organisers. It takes considerable effort to run this and year on year less thank you emails are sent while complaint emails go up. It makes a difference between the organisers enjoying doing this or seeing it as a chore.

Thanks to Nathalie for the photo. Thanks to Jim Caroll and Rick O’Shea for positive messages about running events.

If you’re a progressive hotel you’ll be emailing and offering your hotel facilities at a deep discount. 300 good spending bloggers, most will stay in the hotel if it’s of good value and many will take lots of pics of the place too. The Blog Awards is not going to be in Cork, Dublin or Galway next year. So loads of choices.

The idea is simple enough, I pick out Irish individuals who I think will do something that will make an impact in Ireland or elsewhere and challenge the status quo. In no particular order they are:

Mark Little
Given Mark is already starting with a new news initiative, this prediction is lazy enough. However, Mark is still one to watch as it is the first time an Irish person with massive traditional media experience is embarking on such an interesting project. The video linked to above might give you an idea of what Mark wants to do. Thankfully it’s not another Huffington Post or a clone where increasing pageviews is the business model.

Will McInnes and Tom Nixon
Will’s related to people in Tipp, Tom looks Irish. Good enough for the Irish soccer team, good enough for this post. Will and Tom head NixonMcInnes and are doing some clever and social things on the web for clients and the greater industry. The company has an amazing democratic philosophy, they care a hell of a lot about their staff and that attitude is the same for their clients and what they do. That attitude is going to influence a much greater sphere and while the upcoming social business trend could be over-hyped, agencies like NixonMcInnes are redesigning companies by helping them to become more social. Social media in the nice form forces a business to be more transparent and when it’s done properly a business becomes better to serve their customers and (hippy stuff warning) make the world a bit better.

Joan Mulvihill
Joan is the new boss of the Irish Internet Association and before getting the job she was doing a lot of work helping those who lost their jobs/were made redundant. I think this is a perfect match as she’ll understand how people and businesses are thinking in 2010. Hopefully with Joan we might see the IIA gain recognition again as an org that represents all businesses that use the web and to encourage more to do so.

Ian Healy
Ian looks after a Leaving Cert website and got a lot of kudos for his insane coverage of the Hard Working Class Heroes event in October. A music nut, evangelist for many of the rising stars in Irish indy music and someone working on numerous projects. Great to see people work so prolifically to help out a section of society. Once he gets the Leaving Cert out of the way let’s hope to see him embark on something a little more fun.

Dena Walker
Everyone’s favourite Mancunian in the Irish digital world. Dena is a marketing and PR whiz while never wearing the cape that the gurus wear. Fun at events, direct and forthright, she’s someone I hope to do some work with in 2010 and hope the switched on companies out there think the same.

Pat Phelan
Pat is a barnacle to these lists, I just can’t remove him. Pat’s 2009 saw him take it to 11 and it seems 2010 is going the same way. MaxRoam has grown and evolved a lot over time and Pat’s way of working without the boundaries of state support and iterating a product and selling from day one is one good example of a way to do business. So will MaxRoam conquer more in 2010? Sub to his blog and see.

Donal Skehan
I hope most people know who Donal is at this stage. Cook, great photographer and singer in a pop group called Industry. Donal has been blogging for years at this stage and is proof that hard work does pay off. His cookery book came out late in 2009 and is all over the place in shops. Think it might have been the first cook book I bought that I’ll make use of. I think 2010 will be an even greater year for Donal. No pressure now mind!

Lisa Pereira
Lisa is a producer with Morning Ireland and the one who has them podcasting, doing live video from the studio and interacting with people on Twitter. Morning Ireland recently won a Golden Spider award for their work online, their work was part-reason why RTÉ picked up the Grand Prix at the Irish Web Awards and 2010 is probably going to be a year where more media outlets and more sections of RTÉ will get into that same aul lark too. Her work so is already a strong influence and everyone is watching to see what MI do next as lots are sure to follow.