Month: December 2008

Misleading Obesity in Ireland

Ireland, Thought Provoking

From the Irish Times today, it seems like Obesity is now affecting one in five pregnant women. This is absolutely crazy. For a government running out of ideas, how about a tax proposal that would target obesity in the same way that alcohol and tobacco addition is targeted. How about a huge tax increase on all foods that have a fat proportion of over a certain level and then a sliding scale below that. One of the most laughable things I found on my last trip to Ireland was on the back of a pack of Tayto crips was a statistic that 2500 calories were the standing level for a man. Since I’ve been using Gyminee to track diet and exercise, the figure is close to 1700 for me. When is misleading packaging like that on Tayto (which I love by the way) going to be tackled in Ireland?

Rural broadband

Ireland, Tech, Web

FT reports on a rural broadband initiative in the UK. I’d love to see something like this being adopted in Ireland.

Not yet two years old, it is estimated to have brought in hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment by enabling entrepreneurs to thrive in areas that would have once been off limits, with 50,000 rural businesses now in reach of a fast internet connection.

Infrastructure investment is a mantra that has been heard from too long from the current Irish government. However, when it has come to prescient action, the efforts so far have look flat-footed and slow.

“We are levelling the playing field with urban areas,” said Andy Lister, marketing director of NYnet. Private companies have little incentive to build networks in sparsely populated areas and the costs for businesses increase the further they are from the exchange.