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Indymedia Ireland is a volunteer-run non-commercial open publishing website for local and international news, opinion & analysis, press releases and events. Its main objective is to enable the public to participate in reporting and analysis of the news and other important events and aspects of our daily lives and thereby give a voice to people.
Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 18:30 | Calli Morganite
UCC has paid huge sums to a criminal professor
This story is not for republication. I bear responsibility for the things I write. I have read the guidelines and understand that I must not write anything untrue, and I won't.
This is a public interest story about a complete failure of governance and management at UCC.
Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 08:04 | Mind Agent
Socratic Dialog Between ChatGPT-5 and Mind Agent Reveals Fatal and Deliberate 'Design by Construction' Flaw
This design flaw in ChatGPT-5's default epistemic mode subverts what the much touted ChatGPT-5 can do... so long as the flaw is not tickled, any usage should be fine---The epistemological question is: how would anyone in the public, includes you reading this (since no one is all knowing), in an unfamiliar domain know whether or not the flaw has been tickled when seeking information or understanding of a domain without prior knowledge of that domain???!
This analysis is a pretty unique and significant contribution to the space of empirical evaluation of LLMs that exist in AI public world... at least thus far, as far as I am aware! For what it's worth--as if anyone in the ChatGPT universe cares as they pile up on using the "PhD level scholar in your pocket".
According to GPT-5, and according to my tests, this flaw exists in all LLMs... What is revealing is the deduction GPT-5 made: Why ?design choice? starts looking like ?deliberate flaw?.
People are paying $200 a month to not just ChatGPT, but all major LLMs have similar Pro pricing! I bet they, like the normal user of free ChatGPT, stay in LLM's default mode where the flaw manifests itself. As it did in this evaluation.
AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent
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I have been evaluating AI Chatbot agents for their epistemic limits over the past two months, and have tested all major AI Agents, ChatGPT, Grok, Claude, Perplexity, and DeepSeek, for their epistemic limits and their negative impact as information gate-keepers.... Today I decided to test for how AI could be the boon for humanity in other positive areas, such as in completely abstract realms, such as metaphysical thought. Meaning, I wanted to test the LLMs for Positives beyond what most researchers benchmark these for, or have expressed in the approx. 2500 Turing tests in Humanity?s Last Exam.. And I chose as my first candidate, Google DeepMind's Gemini as I had not evaluated it before on anything.
Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Fri Aug 01, 2025 23:54 | 1 of indy
We have all known it for over 2 years that it is a genocide in Gaza
Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has finally admitted what everyone else outside Israel has known for two years is that the Israeli state is carrying out a genocide in Gaza
Western governments like the USA are complicit in it as they have been supplying the huge bombs and missiles used by Israel and dropped on innocent civilians in Gaza. One phone call from the USA regime could have ended it at any point. However many other countries are complicity with their tacit approval and neighboring Arab countries have been pretty spinless too in their support
With the release of this report titled: Our Genocide -there is a good chance this will make it okay for more people within Israel itself to speak out and do something about it despite the fact that many there are actually in support of the Gaza
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This story is unverified but it is very instructive of what will happen when cash is removed
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A single video report has come out of China claiming China's biggest cities are now cashless, not by choice, but by force. The report goes on to claim ATMs have gone dark, vaults are being emptied. And overnight (July 20 into 21), the digital yuan is the only currency allowed.
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Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
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Voltaire, international edition
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Voltaire Network >>
dublin |
bin tax / household tax / water tax |
press release
Thursday February 28, 2013 13:02
by Elric
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16http://www.ustream.tv/channel/creep101
Occupation.
The CAHWT have moved the protest to the steps of the convention centre where they have been told they are trespassing! IBEC are holding a conference inside which is being addressed by Enda Kenny!
A peaceful occupation lasting an hour conducting by members of the CAHWT from across Dublin City has successfully concluded in the offices of Price Waterhouse Coopers.
Demonstrators are proceeding to the National Convention Centre to picket out the IBEC organised meeting of Chief Executives from across Europe being addressed by Head of the EU Commission, Jose Manuel Barrosso, the Taoiseach and Junior Minister for Europe Lucinda Creighton.
http://www.reverbnation.com/play_now/song_10928651
Bye Bye Banker!
Well done on that action!!
A must-read book is Treasure Islands by Nicholas Shackson(not sure of spelling). Offshore and Tax Haven now wag the Capitalist dog.
Good action. kudos to all involved. :-)
Video coverage of the action
Caption: Video Id: -R2Yn5PonCY Type: Youtube Video
Occupation of PWC offices by CAHWT
In the 1970's there was a houshold tax known as house rates,this included rubbish charges,and water in the rate.
Fianna fail done away with this to secure a position in power,in fairness they stuck to their promise and abolished rates.
But as a result of fianna fails doing away of rates,a few decades later we have greedy household charges (al a fine gale and labour) with no merit and seperate water charges,not amalgamated into one household rate?!
This is purely a greed tax.There are still potholes down at the end of my road that need doing.
If they bring in these rates the rate of PRSI should be lower,as the county council get money from PRSI tax.
But alas PRSI tax is not lower.This speaks volumes to me as to why it is a greed tax.
Well done to all who participated in this action.
Its about time CAHWT mentioned fluoride in the debate on water taxes.
I'm not saying we should pay water taxes if fluoridation is ended because Iike most people I have no money left to pay any more taxes.
However, its well worth pointing out that this government is spending €millions every year on water fluoridation, money that could be so much better spent elsewhere.
The public have always been assured that there was absolutely no possibility of any harm or risk from fluoridation of water, however there is a wealth of unequivocal evidence that demonstrates that this is not the case.
The fluoride added to Irish water is not the naturally occurring substance calcium fluoride, instead the highly toxic industrial waste product hydrofluorosilicic acid is used. This chemical is collected from the pollution scrubbers of the phosphate fertiliser industry and includes contaminants such as aluminium, arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury.
Fluoride is a cumulative poison, and the health implications of chronic exposure to fluorosilicic acid in the population have not been investigated by this or preceding Irish governments.
I'd recommend reading the excellent report by Declan Waugh on the effects of water fluoridation, summary at:
http://www.enviro.ie/Summary_Report_Fluoridation.pdf
Declan points out that successive governments have dumped 78,400,000 kgs of fluoride into the environment since fluoridation started here in 1964 where it persists indefinitely - and they claim they care about Irish water and the environment - complete humbug!
This government is always pointing out that we should follow the example of the rest of Europe, well Ireland is the only country left in Europe that still fluoridates its entire public water supply.
The government and the media are actively suppressing any real debate on this issue, so it's up to groups such as CAHWT to highlight this madness, otherwise we have to continue to read complacent journalist's statements such as "ending fluoridation would be an attack on the poor" - as if they care about the poor.
I agree that water fluoridation is superfluous and people can just brush their teeth with toothpaste if they think fluoride helps avoid caries.
However, if the CAHWT takes up this cause and pushes it, it will look to the public as if they are a bunch of conspiracy theorists instead of a serious campaign and the public will not get behind it.
It could be mentioned purely as one example of the waste of public funds in water treatment though.
Personally I accept that fluoridation of water is unnecessary and is anti democratic, but years of TV has most people thinking anything other than the government line on pretty much everything is just the ravings of nutjob conspiracy theorists. Until you can deprogramme most of the population from this and other such views, it is best to approach the issues by appealing to logic and that which is impossible to write off in this emotive manner.
Propagandists have done a wonderful job mixing up outlandish views with ideas that have a lot of truth in them and thus having them all written off and labelled as "conspiracy theory", a term which I believe the father of PR himself, Edward Bernays came up with. This needs to be addressed and unravelled but alas the CAHWT is not the time or the place or the organisation to do it.
It would be a complete tactical faux pas at this time to make big statements about fluoridation, and would just end up fragmenting and destroying a fledgling movement. It's hard enough to motivate the public about anything these days. They certainly won't get out on the streets if it means being ridiculed.
I'm not saying the discussions about fluoride don't contain a fair bit of truth and personally I agree fluoridation should be stopped from a democratic and economic point of view. However, the propagandists have won the PR battle regarding many such things labelled as "conspiracy theory" and It's not wise or appropriate for the CAHWT to try to go up against years of successful propaganda at this point.
price waterhouse cooper.
What a name for a company pushing privatisation of water
they are pushing an increase to the price of water to houses and they have us over a barrel
No to household water charges!. Great action. Thanks to all involved
I find myself sympathetic to both of you. I agree with John Lagan that water fluoridation is both unnecessary and harmful and should be stopped asap but also think Mel G is right that it would be tactically harmful for CAHWT to take it on at this time.
Having said that though I believe that the current discourse within and without the campaign is shallow and inadequate and does not go anywhere near where we need to be heading as regards water management in this country.
Even without the proposed tax the situation is dire.
It isn't enough to simply demand an end to the tax.
I would like to see CAHWT groups working towards the envisaging (if not the implementation) of democratic and ecologically sound practices regarding water useage in this country that bring control over water distribution and treatment into community hands. These should incorporate such things as rain water harvesting for washing and flushing of toilets and natural grey and black water treatment systems to deal with dirty water coming out of homes and businesses. Most importantly there needs to be a general awareness that our access to quality water ultimately depends on a healthy ecosystem and landscape rather than on technological solutions and that the responsibility to ensure this lies with everyone.
This is probably a long way off, for the same reasons that Mel outlines in his post but as the man said the journey of a million miles starts with a single step and if we don't make that step we'll never get there. Whether or not CAHWT is ready to adopt these kinds of progressive policies it is important that there are people taking them on, thrashing them out and bringing them into the discourse now so that when the time comes we actually have some practical, positive solutions to offer as well as the know how to implement them.
John B, Your ideas about how the CAHWT campaign should be broadened are spot on and correct and should be taken up, but the problem is that the political parties that form the backbone of the campaign don't want to go in that direction as they have their own agendas to follow and that isn't one of them.
You could try and do it from within the CAHWT by joining it except you won't have the force of numbers. The only alternative is to start your own group and simply write about these issues.
shrewd political spin doctors will infiltrate / encourage talk of water fluoridation in the campaign then use it to try to discredit the campaign. Keep the line and focus on the main objectives here. Don't underestimate the underhandedness of those who wish to profit from this and other privatisations.
Fluoridation is a separate issue that can easily be addressed by a completely seperate group if people wish to do so.
Flouridation is a seperate issue and there is a good groundswell building against it and not before time.
Hotpress and Declan Waugh are doing great work on it, some of us will keep it moving. See here: http://www.hotpress.com/archive/9609873.html
MSM are a problem, they bury or totally distort and minimise more and more issues vital issues and expand the trivial.
I saw a good poster in inchicore the other day, A3 , it said : "Government Mission Statement : To safeguard the rich, we'll plunder the poor."
Great action, at P WH C well done to all involved.
Maybe an amalgam of the many disaffected who are bailing the rich can march on RTE in view of its increasing distortion or outright supression of essential news items. We know what they are so does the establishment and they know really well, that it is the Information War that matters.