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The Saker

Indymedia ireland

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.

offsite link 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.

offsite link 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.

offsite link AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 20:00 | Mind Agent
Evaluating Semantic Reasoning Capability of AI Chatbot on Ontologically Deep Abstract (bias neutral) Thought
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.

offsite link 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

offsite link China?s CITY WIDE CASH SEIZURES Begin ? ATMs Frozen, Digital Yuan FORCED Overnight Wed Jul 30, 2025 21:40 | 1 of indy
This story is unverified but it is very instructive of what will happen when cash is removed
THIS STORY IS UNVERIFIED BUT PLEASE WATCH THE VIDEO OR READ THE TRANSCRIPT AS IT GIVES AN VERY GOOD IDEA OF WHAT A CASHLESS SOCIETY WILL LOOK LIKE. And it ain't pretty

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.

The Saker >>

Public Inquiry
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005

offsite link RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony

offsite link Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony

offsite link Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony

offsite link RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony

offsite link Waiting for SIPO Anthony

Public Inquiry >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link The WHO Pandemic Accords Consolidate the Power of the Covid Clerisy on a Global Scale Thu Oct 02, 2025 19:07 | Ramesh Thakur
The WHO Pandemic Accords, the first part of which came into effect last month, consolidate the power of the Covid clerisy on a global scale, warns Professor Ramesh Thakur. Expect more of the same.
The post The WHO Pandemic Accords Consolidate the Power of the Covid Clerisy on a Global Scale appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Teaching Assistant Sacked for ?Manhandling? Pupil to Stop Him Running into Road Thu Oct 02, 2025 17:27 | Will Jones
A teaching assistant was fired after grabbing a special needs pupil to stop him from running out of school and into a busy road.
The post Teaching Assistant Sacked for “Manhandling” Pupil to Stop Him Running into Road appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The True Hidden Purpose of ?Sex Education? Thu Oct 02, 2025 15:00 | Steven Tucker
A quarter of parents believe their child has been taught something inappropriate in sex education. Like choking and rimming. Why? It all goes back to the neo-Marxists of the Frankfurt School, says Steven Tucker.
The post The True Hidden Purpose of ‘Sex Education’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Manchester Synagogue Terror Attack: Two Dead After Yom Kippur Rampage Thu Oct 02, 2025 12:43 | Will Jones
Two people have been killed and three are in a serious condition after a suspected terror attack at a synagogue in Manchester, where car was driven into a crowd on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
The post Manchester Synagogue Terror Attack: Two Dead After Yom Kippur Rampage appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Badenoch Vows to Scrap Climate Change Act Thu Oct 02, 2025 11:03 | Will Jones
Kemi Badenoch will promise today to scrap the "failed" Climate Change Act ? which enshrines the Net Zero target in law ? if the Conservatives regain power.
The post Badenoch Vows to Scrap Climate Change Act appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

We are Awake, Informed and We are Saying No to Fracking

category international | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis author Wednesday November 06, 2013 04:20author by NFI - No Fracking Ireland Report this post to the editors

Ireland Needs to Show Solidarity in the Global Fight Against Fracking

People all over the world are fighting fracking you just won't hear that much about it in Irish media. This week after violent attacks from the police a few weeks ago, First Nations tribes people of New Brunswick, Canada, continue their battle to protect their children's health, water and land against fracking.
http://lastrealindians.com/for-immediate-release-sacred...ov-4/

"This is an issue of human rights and access to clean drinking water, and it's fundamentally about sovereignty and self-determination.
Support for the Elsipogtog and their actions to reclaim lands in their territory is something that is powerful and united from coast to coast and around the world."
- Clayton Thomas-Muller, Idle No More. - http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/11/05-5

While these people stand up to the worlds most powerful industry, the people of their neighbouring provinces, Quebec and in the last few days Newfoundland, can breathe a sigh of relief for now, as both province's federal governments have placed moratoria on fracking.

"Holding one of the revoked licenses (in Quebec), Lone Pine Resources, an oil and gas company, is now launching a $250 million lawsuit against the Canadian government over Quebec’s fracking moratorium under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Although Lone Pine maintains all its operations in Canada, it’s registered in Delaware which allows it to make claims under NAFTA." - http://commonsensecanadian.ca/quebec-fracking-nafta-cha...ofit/

"The proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the European Union (EU) and Canada would grant energy companies far-reaching rights to challenge bans and regulations of environmentally damaging shale gas development (fracking), a new briefing by Corporate Europe Observatory, The Council of Canadians and the Transnational Institute shows." - http://corporateeurope.org/pressreleases/2013/eu-canada...-bans

"This is the system to which we will be subject if the transatlantic treaty goes ahead. The US and the European Commission, both of which have been captured by the corporations they are supposed to regulate, are pressing for investor-state dispute resolution to be included in the agreement. The Commission justifies this policy by claiming that domestic courts don’t offer corporations sufficient protection because they “might be biased or lack independence.”(12) Which courts is it talking about? Those of the US? Its own member states? It doesn’t say. In fact it fails to produce a single concrete example demonstrating the need for a new, extra-judicial system.
It is precisely because our courts are generally not biased or lacking independence that the corporations want to bypass them. The EC seeks to replace open, accountable, sovereign courts with a closed, corrupt system riddled with conflicts of interest and arbitrary powers. Investor-state rules could be used to smash any attempt to save the NHS from corporate control, to re-regulate the banks, to curb the greed of the energy companies, to renationalise the railways, to leave fossil fuels in the ground. These rules shut down democratic alternatives." - http://www.monbiot.com/2013/11/04/a-global-ban-on-left-...tics/

Intensive secret lobbying by U.S. law firms on behalf of major oil and gas companies is presently taking place in Brussels. "Gathered at the Brussels office of Covington & Burling, a prominent Washington-based firm, were some of its lawyers and lobbyists, along with executives from some of the world’s largest oil companies, including Chevron and Statoil. Their aim was to help shape the European Union’s policies on the gas and oil drilling technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. They were meeting with Kurt Vandenberghe,then a top environmental official for Europe and a prime player in the debate over fracking, which is even more contentious in Europe than in the United States."
- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/19/world/europe/lobbying...&_r=0

The current EU Commissioner for Climate Action is Connie Hedegaard. Yesterday she made herself available to answer questions via twitter. There were very few contributors to this online Q & A. No Fracking Ireland asked the commissioner "if communities continue to resist fracking will you ignore this and allow industry to over-ride wishes of communities?". This question was put to the commissioner several times, each time ignored. another contributor asked about fracking, their question was also ignored.

The major battle of course is in getting the facts and information out there to the general public. The bans and moratoria against fracking to date, have happened because of intense public protest and pressure on governments. Trying to give people the full picture and extent of the destructive nature of the fracking industry is not easy, especially in a country like Ireland where we have a very pro-industry, media culture. This has been well proven by the treatment given by state TV and national newspapers to the Shell to Sea campaign.

With fracking there are so many aspects to cover, use and contamination of water, the contribution to climate change, ponzi economics, industrialisation/contamination of land, contamination of air, serious human health risks, stalling of renewables, threat to wildlife, ecosystems, earthquakes, damage to sustainable industries, risk to food production etc etc... Because 'fracking' for shale gas and oil is only over a decade old, and has moved closer to areas where people live, many of these areas of concern are only now being discussed and documented. It will be years before we understand the full affects.

For every academic report or piece of evidence we have against fracking, industry fights back ten fold. They've got the money to have reports written when needed, on demand, plus this industry fund many of the major universities around the world. When it comes to the oil and gas industry science is a commodity. People are shocked when they hear that even the U.S. EPA have turned their back on communities and the environment in support of the frackers. Leaked U.S. EPA documents showed that the industry and the EPA were aware of water contamination but chose to keep that information from the public. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZx8kWdWUxk

In Ireland the government and industry want to keep this issue from being properly debated, they want the majority of the public to believe this to be a NIMBY campaign. It is being portrayed in the media as a "Leitrim" or "Clare" issue and in the north as a Fermanagh issue. The fact is that there are shale formations throughout the country. When the 'options licenses' were handed out in the ROI vast areas of 11 counties were included. The demand for future water supply on this island will come from the Shannon Basin Region, the very same region the companies want to frack. It is vital for the future of this whole island that this region is protected from this industry.
To date, because of the lack of national media coverage, people are still largely uninformed. An uninformed public means the government can quietly push ahead, while informed TD's say little because there are, as they see it, "no votes in this issue". It's up to us to change that.

The fight against fracking is happening right now in communities all over the world and because of that global unity, this fight is very winnable. These communities are fighting on our behalf. The people at the fore-front of this battle in South America, the U.S., Poland, U.K., Romania etc need our support. To show our solidarity we intend to highlight what is going on in these countries. If the attitude of the vast majority in Stormont and the Dail, towards this industry, is to be heeded then the frackers are not far from our door. Public pressure has worked to secure moratoria and bans in other countries. Thankfully, we are not in the situation, for example that the U.K are in, where the companies are on the ground, drilling has commenced and people are having to fight stronger to stop the industry from pushing forward. Here we have the luxury of some time, but we need to use that time, act now and make it clear to investors, industry and government that we are awake, informed and we are saying no.
We hope you will help in whatever way you can.

Our symbol is the black shamrock.
In the words of the Lock the Gate campaign Australia, "Our resistance is non-violent but non-negotiable".

For info on local groups, events and how you can help please join and SHARE our facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/146055765467930/?fref=ts

Find out further info/news etc on our website - http://frackingfreeireland.org/

On twitter @notofracking

More articles here - http://indymedia.ie/article/101995?search_text=fracking

Sign our petition here - http://nofrackingireland.wordpress.com/ find petitions for NI etc on website.

Related Link: http://frackingfreeireland.org/
author by KMpublication date Wed Feb 19, 2014 14:03author address author phone Report this post to the editors

You couldn't make this up.

With one person missing and presumed dead in an explosion at a natural gas well in a small Pennsylvania town, the company responsible is now under fire after apparently apologizing to the local community by handing out vouchers for free pizza.

It took five days for emergency crews to safely extinguish a fire that was set by an explosion that shook the small town of Bobtown, located in the far southwestern corner of the state. The blast gave off a loud hissing noise that could be heard from hundreds of yards away.

The Philadelphia Daily News has since discovered that residents of Bobtown – a census-designated community of fewer than 1,000 people that revolves mostly around coal mining – have started receiving coupons for one free pizza and a two-liter of soda from the local Bobtown pizza.

Daily News reporters were able to confirm with Bobtown pizza that it was, in fact, Chevron that bought about 100 of the $12 coupons, which expire on May 1, 2014.g.”

author by KMpublication date Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Not in his backyard. Fracking is only for little people.

As ExxonMobil’s CEO, it’s Rex Tillerson’s job to promote the hydraulic fracturing enabling the recent oil and gas boom, and fight regulatory oversight. The oil company is the biggest natural gas producer in the U.S., relying on the controversial drilling technology to extract it.

The exception is when Tillerson’s $5 million property value might be harmed. Tillerson has joined a lawsuit that cites fracking’s consequences in order to block the construction of a 160-foot water tower next to his and his wife’s Texas home.

The Wall Street Journal reports the tower would supply water to a nearby fracking site, and the plaintiffs argue the project would cause too much noise and traffic from hauling the water from the tower to the drilling site. The water tower, owned by Cross Timbers Water Supply Corporation, “will sell water to oil and gas explorers for fracing [sic] shale formations leading to traffic with heavy trucks on FM 407, creating a noise nuisance and traffic hazards,” the suit says.


Though Tillerson’s name is on the lawsuit, a lawyer representing him said his concern is about the devaluation of his property, not fracking specifically.

Related Link: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/21/3316881/exxon-ceo-protests-fracking/#
author by Crazy Catpublication date Mon Apr 28, 2014 12:21author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Interesting article from Naomi Klein in the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/10/us...trine

 
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