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 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.
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
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 >>
Interested in maladministration. Estd. 2005
RTEs Sarah McInerney ? Fianna Fail?supporter? Anthony
Joe Duffy is dishonest and untrustworthy Anthony
Robert Watt complaint: Time for decision by SIPO Anthony
RTE in breach of its own editorial principles Anthony
Waiting for SIPO Anthony Public Inquiry >>
Parse failure for http://humanrights.ie/feed/. Last Retry Wednesday October 01, 2025 12:58
Lammy Backtracks on Claim Farage ?Once Flirted With Hitler Youth? Wed Oct 01, 2025 11:21 | Will Jones Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy has been forced to row back on his bizarre claim that Nigel Farage "once flirted with the Hitler Youth", which Farage has denied.
The post Lammy Backtracks on Claim Farage “Once Flirted With Hitler Youth” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
I?m a Meteorologist. The Met Office Has Serious Questions to Answer Over the Accuracy of its Tempera... Wed Oct 01, 2025 09:00 | Andrew Sibley Chartered Meteorologist Andrew Sibley says the Met Office has serious questions to answer over the accuracy of its temperature measurements. Instrument changes and urban growth cast major doubt on recent warming trends.
The post I’m a Meteorologist. The Met Office Has Serious Questions to Answer Over the Accuracy of its Temperature Measurements appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Labour?s EU Youth Mobility Scheme is a Win for George Soros Wed Oct 01, 2025 07:00 | Charlotte Gill Labour's "ambitious" EU youth mobility scheme will make hundreds of thousands of European 18 to 30 year-olds eligible to work in the UK ? just like before Brexit. It's a win for George Soros, says Charlotte Gill.
The post Labour’s EU Youth Mobility Scheme is a Win for George Soros appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Wed Oct 01, 2025 00:40 | 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.
Climatism in Europe is Dying Tue Sep 30, 2025 19:00 | Eugyppius Climatism in Europe is dying as its grassroots support evaporates and Left-wing activists move onto other concerns. Eurocrats are well-insulated from public opinion but they can't ignore it forever, says Eugyppius.
The post Climatism in Europe is Dying appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
|
Now that smart money has got out - time to throw U to the Wolves
national |
housing |
opinion/analysis
Friday January 18, 2008 15:41 by as do many other small builders

I'm sitting here in a wee village with row upon row of empty houses in sight. The rumour is less than 10% have sold. They're building even more. If I was them buildermen I'd give up and go home or take them diggers and go digging for gold in the mountains. The shit is hitting the fans BIGTIME. They'll try to paper over the cracks until after the EU constitution referendum but I don't think they'll succeed.
The Bertie Bonanza vs Energised Enraged Enda all channels all day everyday puppet freak show distraction is wearing mighty thin and the main man ain't even back in the country yet.
The smart money is long gone into gold and basic commodities - grain / oil / helium futures - that sort of thing. It'll come back to feast when all the latecomers are screwed and have to sell really really really cheap. It mightn't take too long at all.
Evidence? Empty never inhabited gaffs everywhere down the sticks starting to look that tiny bit rough round the edges with more going up beside them.
Food up. Heat up. Kyars up. E10 for a sambo and a cuppa. Funny Money. And oh look what's going on in the global economy. We'll pay a V high price for being the most globalised of them all.
I could find 100 similar articles today but for the small builder moving rapidly from constructivist-surrealist mode to pauvre-realist mode Here's the lay of the land:
Biggest drop in US housing starts since 1980
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/58247d58-c50a-11dc-811a-00007....html
New residential building in the US last year suffered its biggest drop in nearly three decades, according to government data published on Thursday that highlighted the dramatic downturn in US housing.
Housing starts for 2007 fell by more than 25 per cent to 1,376,100 homes. The largest previous drop was recorded in 1980, as the US entered a deep recession.
Builders broke ground on fewer new homes in December, leaving the annual rate of construction at 1,006,000 - its lowest level since 1991, and down 14 per cent from November and 38 per cent from the same month a year earlier.
Permits issued to build new homes, which signal future construction trends, fell 8 per cent in December, and were 34 per cent down year-on-year.
*****************************************************************
Former chief economist of the Finnish Savings Bank Association, Ari Aaltonen: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/US+subprime+lending+cr...01555
Aaltonen paints an exceptionally grim picture of the situation facing American banks. He says that the financial system has already collapsed "in some way", but that the Americans are not saying it out loud.
"No American investment bank will say that it is, in, fact bankrupt, and so are the competitors." The US might have to set up junk banks financed by the federal government by issuing bonds worth billions of dollars. That is why nobody wants to buy US dollars, because huge amounts of bonds are coming onto the market.
"When this happens, one euro might be worth two or even three dollars", Aaltonen says. The euro is currently worth 1.47 US dollars.
*********************************************************************
The economy may be about to enter a period of prolonged recession, writes Morgan Kelly , the economist who predicted the (IRISH) property slump
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/opinion/2008/0118/1200....html
Writing in this newspaper a year ago, I suggested that, in the light of past property booms abroad, Irish house prices were at risk of falls of around 50 per cent in real terms. At the time I imagined, again based on what had happened elsewhere, that selling prices would stabilise at their peak values for a year or two, and then fall slowly by a few per cent a year for up to a decade.
My forecast has turned out to be wildly optimistic. In the past year Irish house prices appear to have fallen by around 10 to 15 per cent. While still short of the 20 per cent fall in Finland in 1991, this is on a par with the largest falls experienced during the Dutch and Swedish collapses.
However, the Irish property market is giving signs of approaching a critical point where vague individual anxieties coalesce into a general panic and prices collapse. Should a collapse occur in 2008, it is most likely to start among heavily-indebted builders, many of whom have not sold a house in over a year, coming under pressure from banks to liquidate their large amounts of unsold inventory.
What has made the Irish house price boom different from any other (apart from the concurrent boom in Spain) is that it has occurred alongside a building boom. In most economies, the housing stock is overwhelmingly second-hand houses whose owners are reluctant to accept price cuts. When a downturn occurs, most people refuse to sell and the market effectively dries up for a few years until prices rise again. In Ireland, by contrast, the supply of houses has expanded rapidly: at the peak of the boom in 2006 we built almost 90,000 units, or one for every 16 households. This fell to around 70,000 last year and, ominously, a large proportion of these failed to sell.
This raises the question of why, given the number of unsold houses, builders are planning to build another 50,000 or so units this year? Once we know the answer to this question, we are in a position to understand why Irish house prices are now at risk of sudden and large falls.
To start, we need to remember that, because of delays in the planning process, this new building represents projects undertaken by developers in the very different climate of two years ago. There are now two distinct groups of developers.
The first group own land, typically have vivid memories of how their fathers and uncles went bankrupt in the 1980s, and have all stopped residential construction. The second group, who are by no means the smallest developers, have borrowed heavily to buy land and have no choice but to keep on building.
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (1 of 1)
Jump To Comment: 1And other strange anomalies as a result of the bert n enda show
http://www.politics.ie/viewtopic.php?t=30511
De Dow: But But The Crimes said it was goin up: Brekfastroll ruined