Damien Mulley

Government to also charge disabled people for being disabled. As well as charging pensioners for their stay in nursing homes, it seems the Government will now charge disabled people in care and take the money from their weekly supplement.

It now appears that the department of health (which has historically dropped the ball on supports for those with disabilities) is planning to implement the same regime of charges for those with disabilities as for the pensioners in residential care. Which means they will charge disabled people for living in residential settings. And charge them out of their disabled person’s maintenance allowance.

See? Twitter can make money. Kind of. Selling t-shirts? Please.

Wind powered L.E.D.s. Yum.

Fucking brilliant. Firefox extension to uncensor starred out w*rds.

Internet World Map for 2007.

The start of the Data Bill of rights.

We can identify and review the data that companies have about us. A sticky issue is whether we can also identify and review data that is made about us based on other data the company might have. (IE, based on your behavior, we at Amazon know you might also like….)

Another fight in the states about campaign ad spends.

Via Loic, subtitle any video using a wiki type collaboration model.

Feist – 1,2,3,4

Hopefully I can do this at the end of every week. A lookback on what was posted here during the week. (Excluding Fluffy Links.)

Monday:
The net is becoming even more self-obsessed. But that’s ok.

TheGayVote.ie launches.

Tuesday:
Give blogs to students as a marketing tool for the college.

Using a FON model for CoWorking.

Labour launch the “This is Margaret” video. Harry McGee says it is the best 60 seconds of the election.

Political Thicko does McDowell.

Wednesday:
Free .info domains.

ENet, the crowd that run the fibre around the towns talk a lot of bollox.

Thursday:
Political Thicko version of “This is Margaret.”

Boards.ie has a Lifehacking forum.

Beirut the Band are playing Ireland again.

Saturday:
Should Credit Unions become Angels/Venture Capitalists? Should there be a Startup Lobby Group?

I’m sure they might get taken down soon, so enjoy. More on Bjork’s set.

Earth Intruders:

Wanderlust:

Army of Me:

Declare Independence:

Joga:

The credit unions are having their annual conference this year and it seems from the preview in the Indo yesterday that they are looking at new ways of diverifying before they become obsolete.

CREDIT unions risk becoming irrelevant, fragmented and strait-jacketed by increasingly onerous regulation unless they undergo major changes, its strategy plan warns. The movement also risks losing members in their thousands as banks continue to target products such as loans which were traditionally the preserve of credit unions.

One area they are thinking of going into is “Wealth Management”:

CREDIT unions are considering expanding their services to tap into the fast-expanding wealth management sector of the market.The credit union movement, which is largely perceived to be rural-based and offering services to the less well-off, is also considering offering loans to businesses.
Any move into wealth management would see unions competing with a raft of banks and investments houses that target high net worth individuals. All the major domestic banks have private banking or wealth management divisions, while international heavyweights such as Coutts and HSBC have expressed interest in entering the Irish wealth management market.

Should credit unions get pitched and encouraged to get into the sub-million VC game? They could fill the niche where angels (and the main VC companies) fear to tread. Credit Unions are more forgiving and less greedy than banks and they seem to have more local knowledge or knowledge at least of their members. Though would they be allowed to gamble with their members’ money more so than they do now?

Also, I was wondering should startups create a lobby group or association to make sure that the Government thinks small about their big pile of cash? Does ISME and the SFA do this already? Small investments and hundreds of em are better than worrying about getting money back. Investing tax payer money into small companies and taking a slight gamble is better than taking large chunks of taxpayer money and investing in a handful of sure things. This should be public policy. You know, that’s the reason social welfare and the health system is not a money making machine. And linking to another post from Joe, this has got to piss ya off.

And a bonus link of rule-bending by Enterprise Ireland. Always happy to bend the rules for their sure things are ye lads?

Away in Dublin at meetings with a rake of people. Meanwhile, please read this appeal.

Via Jim Carroll is news that Beirut are back in Dublin on June 22nd. 4 tickets now purchased. Cheers Jim. Ledgebag, as Miz Rocks would and does say.

And just to whet your appetite: