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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

offsite link North Korea Increases Aid to Russia, Mos... Tue Nov 19, 2024 12:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Trump Assembles a War Cabinet Sat Nov 16, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link Slavgrinder Ramps Up Into Overdrive Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:29 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link ?Existential? Culling to Continue on Com... Mon Nov 11, 2024 10:28 | Marko Marjanovi?

offsite link US to Deploy Military Contractors to Ukr... Sun Nov 10, 2024 02:37 | Field Empty

Anti-Empire >>

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 >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link News Round-Up Tue Sep 23, 2025 01:12 | Richard Eldred
A summary of the most interesting stories in the past 24 hours that challenge the prevailing orthodoxy about the ?climate emergency?, public health ?crises? and the supposed moral defects of Western civilisation.
The post News Round-Up appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Hamas Executes ?Israeli Collaborators? in Streets of Gaza Mon Sep 22, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Hamas?has executed three Palestinians accused of "collaborating" with Israel on the streets of Gaza, just hours after the UK, Australia and Canada announced their?recognition of a Palestinian state.
The post Hamas Executes “Israeli Collaborators” in Streets of Gaza appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link The Covid Response Was Not a Mistake ? It Was Just Wrong Mon Sep 22, 2025 17:35 | Dr David Bell
The Covid response was not an error, and it was not the result of rushing to counter an unknown pathogen. It was a lot of people, mostly professionals, systematically doing what they knew was wrong, says Dr David Bell.
The post The Covid Response Was Not a Mistake ? It Was Just Wrong appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link School Accused of ?Brainwashing? Children After 14 Year-Olds Told to Read Book ?Blaming Them for The... Mon Sep 22, 2025 15:11 | Will Jones
A parent has accused a secondary school of "brainwashing" after?he learned that 14 year-old pupils were told to read a book that "blames them for their white skin" ? and his daughter was forced to read it out loud.
The post School Accused of “Brainwashing” Children After 14 Year-Olds Told to Read Book “Blaming Them for Their White Skin” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link No Benefits for Foreigners Under Reform, Says Nigel Farage: Stricter Visa Tests and Deportation for ... Mon Sep 22, 2025 13:00 | Will Jones
Nigel Farage?today vowed to block foreign nationals from getting benefits, slashing the welfare bill "by ?234bn", and to deport hundreds of thousands of migrants with 'settled status' by bringing in stricter visa tests.
The post No Benefits for Foreigners Under Reform, Says Nigel Farage: Stricter Visa Tests and Deportation for Those Who Fail Under Crackdown on ‘Settled Status’ Migrants appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Voltaire Network
Voltaire, international edition

offsite link Will intergovernmental institutions withstand the end of the "American Empire"?,... Sat Apr 05, 2025 07:15 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?127 Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:38 | en

offsite link Disintegration of Western democracy begins in France Sat Apr 05, 2025 06:00 | en

offsite link Voltaire, International Newsletter N?126 Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:39 | en

offsite link The International Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism by Amichai Chikli and Na... Fri Mar 28, 2025 11:31 | en

Voltaire Network >>

NCT is a farce

category national | miscellaneous | opinion/analysis author Monday August 04, 2014 13:39author by fred Report this post to the editors

the NCT was brought in to inject life into the flagging motor sales industry in celtic tiger days, and to create lucrative business opportunites for some lucky people who happened to well connected and in the loop. It's all a bit of a money making scam, which targets the poor disproportionally, gives gardai draconian powers of seizure. Chronic delays in the test system, not to mention reports of corrupt practices make the thing a nightmare for the less well off trying to keep a vehicle on the road in order to increase their chances of finding work. Just another obstacle put in the way of the poorer classes which serves to limit their possibilities and their movements.
nct.jpg

As a person on limited means, trying to keep a car in Ireland is a nightmare. First you have the riduculous driving test in which for half an hour you are expected to drive in a way that you probably will never do again. Hence the crazy fail and retest rate. Expensive money racket. 1
Then if you negotiate that(or not), you have to get your licence. Another semi privatised money racket.
Then there's the vehicle tax. Highest in Europe for the worst roads. All that is essential if you don't want to get in trouble with the law. No surprise then that you have very little left to spend on the car itself. This is where the next protection racket you need to negotiate comes in. The NCT. IMHO the NCT was brought in to inject life into the flagging motor sales industry in celtic tiger days, and to create lucrative business opportunites for some lucky people in the private sector who happened to well connected and in the loop. It's all a bit of a money making scam.

Gardai have draconian powers of seizure to enforce NCT legislation.

But yet < 1% of accidents are contributed to (NOT caused) by mechanical failure.
The bulk of accidents are related to bad roads, excessive speed and drink.

The NCT test is difficult to organise as the centres are booked out all the time.
Currently in Galway there are no slots until well into October. It is now the beginning of August.

So if your NCT runs out, how can you organise another in the 10 days a garda will give you at a checkpoint to produce an NCT. That is assuming he doesn't just seize your vehicle.

And if he seizes your vehicle, how can you get it back? (how can you possibly get that NCT without actually having your vehicle?)
The answer is of course YOU pay a large fee to a private business for having it towed and YOU pay a large daily storage fee to a private business to get it back. Then you go through the whole cycle again. Except in very exceptional cases this is all very stupid unless you happen to be the licensed private operators who profit from all this.

What happens if you cannot afford the huge fee? Do you just lose your car? Or does it mount up until it's more than the actual value of your car? Presumably you are already likely to be poor if you are driving an older car in need of work. So piling on another huge and needless expense like this is not a good way to encourage you to pay for repairs on your car because it is substantially reducing your available means to pay for necessary repairs in a spiteful useless manner. Surely a better way would be a "compulsory repair order" of some kind, whereby you have 10 days to produce proof of getting the specified repair done. So clearly all this is less about having repairs done quickly and more about punishing poor people and putting them off the road altogether. And if you are unemployed, without a vehicle to get around, you have much less chance of finding work.

Clearly the NCT is not fit for purpose. The fines and punishments and garda powers in the area are draconian and disproportionate, as they tend to be in government driven protection rackets like this. Leaving this aside,actually arranging a test is unwieldy as the number of test centres is clearly inadequate to maximise profit / investment ratio and there are long delays.

Recently there were several scandals reported whereby employees were taking money in return for an NCT pass thereby nullifying the whole purpose of the test.

some more information and discussion of this topic here from a taxi man's perspective:
http://irishtaxi.org/forum/index.php?topic=13048.0

Of course, in a way I can understand why this was happening as doing things the right way was slow, frustrating and indeterminate, and ultimately has little noticeable effect on current levels of road accidents

Surely a simple on the spot small fine system and submission of "proof of repair" in serious cases would have been so much simpler and fairer than the whole seizure thing, which WILL be applied if it's there, and not just in those very exceptional cases where a vehicle is clearly dangerous (and as gardai are not qualified mechanics so in most cases one must ask how can they even judge??)

Of course, like so many things in Irish society, if you have money it's ok but the poor are disproportionally targetted (since they rely on older second hand vehicles and can't afford nice new cars) and if the objective was to limit the ability of the poor to get around then the NCT coupled with draconian garda powers of seizure has worked out very well as yet another (lucrative) rivet in the system of control over the lower classes daring to aspire towards independent transport.

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