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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?

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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 >>

Peat biomass subsidy challenged

category national | environment | press release author Monday August 27, 2018 22:03author by foie - Friends of Irish Environment Report this post to the editors

Press Release - Friends of the Irish Environment -20th Aug 2018

Indirect support to burning peat through a Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy to support electricity generation from three peat powered plants when co-fired with biomass has been challenged as it is leading to significant increases in greenhouse gas emissions and increasing the price of biomass to home users, forcing them to use more fossil fuels.

The claim comes in formal letters to European Commissioner for Climate Action, Mr. Miguel Arias Cañete, and Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner Phil Hogan from the Irish environmental charity Friends of the Irish Environment [FIE]. [1] They have told the Commissioners they believe the subsidy undermines the ‘duty of sincere and loyal cooperation between EU member states’.

FIE supports its arguments by drawing the Commissioner’s attention to the Climate Change Advisory Council Report to the Government of July 2018 which states that ‘Peat is a high-carbon fuel whether burned alone or co-fired with biomass. Government resources should not support measures that lead to increases in emissions.’ The Report concludes that ‘The bio-mass subsidy for peat power plants is an environmentally harmful subsidy resulting in substantially higher emissions of greenhouse gases at significant direct cost to the nation.’ [2]

The FIE submission substantiates this by citing the Irish Environmental Protection Agency’s May 2018 EPA publication ‘Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections 2017-2035’ which states that the subsidy will lead to increased annual emissions of over 2Mt CO2 per year. [3] Over the period 2013 - 2020 Ireland is projected to cumulatively exceed its compliance obligations by approximately 17 Mt CO2.

Not only is the subsidy, proposed by the current Government in December 2017, going to lead to increased emissions, but it also is undermining the Support Scheme for Renewable Heat, originally described by the Minister as ‘a tangible and viable measure that will kick start the biomass sector’. The subsidy will undermine the 2020 12% target for renewable home heating by forcing more fossil fuel use for home heating than would otherwise be the case. The heating sector is the largest user of energy in Ireland.

The EPA ‘Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections 2017-2035’ confirms that ‘the increased use of biomass for co-firing with peat in the power generation sector is reducing the available resource for use in the industry sector. This increases the price of biomass and hence reduces the uptake of biomass for heat in end-use sectors. Consequently, energy demand in affected end-use sectors is being met by more fossil fuels because of the biomass subsidy of peat powered plants.’ [4]

FIE’s submissions ask the Commissioners to investigate if the detailed implementation of the scheme to keep Ireland’s three peat power station running on 70% fossil fuels is permitted because it is leading to the opposite results to those intended by the EU legislation under which it operates.

The call is echoed by a letter from more than 30 conservation and environmental justice organizations in the Southern United States to the Irish government, the Electricity Supply Board [ESB] and Bord na Móna pointing out that the wood pellet to the company plans to import come from their region, the North Atlantic Coastal Plain. Their coastal hardwood forests are at the heart of the world’s 36th biodiversity hotspot and are being felled with no legal obligation to replant. [3] The EU Renewable Energy Directive bans the use of ‘raw material obtained from land with high biodiversity value’, stating this applies ‘inside or outside of the territory of the community.’

Contact
Tony Lowes +353 (0)27 74 771 / +353 (0)87 2176316
Daithí Ó hÉalaithe (Irish language) +353 (0)87 6178852

NOTES
Ireland’s three peat fired electricity plants were constructed between 2000 and 2004 in spite of FIE and other Irish environmental NGOs objections at European level. Burning milled peat, the plants relied on a Public Service Obligation (PSO) subsidy which the European Commission approved. The PSO supporting 100% peat burning ended for Edenderry in 2016 and will end for the other two power plants in 2019. It s now being replaced by a PSO to support electricity generation from 30% biomass co-fired with peat until 2026, reducing to closure in 2030. The biomass co-firing subsidy is already in place at Edenderry and will be extended to Laneborough and Shannonbridge, up to and including 2026, allowing operations to continue to 2030.

[1] http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/images/Arias_eu_10.08...7.pdf

http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/images/Hogan_peat_bio...8.pdf

[2] Climate Change Advisory Council Annual Report 2018

‘Peat-fired electricity generation is committed to end by 2030. These announcements are in line with a commitment by the ESB to reduce the carbon intensity of its emissions to below 200 grams of carbon dioxide per kilo Watt hour (g CO2 /kWh) by 2030, meaning that there will be no peat or coal in its generation portfolio by 2030. However, projections under the ‘with additional measures’ scenario show an increase in emissions associated with electricity generation until 2030, largely associated with indirect support to peat through a Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy to support electricity generation from biomass co-fired with peat.
‘A commitment to launch a support scheme for renewable heat, announced in 2017, is a welcome development to address emissions and low-carbon transition in the commercial and industrial sectors. To ensure that anticipated deployment levels are achieved it will be important to ensure that supply chains for renewable fuels, conversion of heating systems and installation of renewable energy-based systems are secure. This could be undermined by planned support for co-firing of biomass with peat in electricity generation.

‘The Council is very concerned by the plans for the continued support for peat indirectly through a subsidy for biomass co-fired with peat. Support for electricity generation from co-firing of peat with biomass is projected to lead to an increase in greenhouse gas emissions up to 2030 and will not assist in meeting climate change targets. Peat is a high-carbon fuel whether burned alone or co-fired with biomass. Government resources should not support measures that lead to increases in emissions.

http://www.climatecouncil.ie/media/CCAC_AnnualReview2018.pdf

[3] Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections 2017-2035
https://www.epa.ie/pubs/reports/air/airemissions/ghgprojections20...t.pdf

[4] https://www.dogwoodalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Open-l...8.pdf

http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases/17547-...enged

Related Link: http://www.friendsoftheirishenvironment.org/press-releases
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