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 >>
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.
Top Scientists Confirm Covid Shots Cause Heart Attacks in Children Sun Oct 05, 2025 21:31 | imc
Fraud and mismanagement at University College Cork Thu Aug 28, 2025 19:30 | Calli Morganite
Deliberate Design Flaw In ChatGPT-5 Sun Aug 17, 2025 09:04 | Mind Agent
AI Reach: Gemini Reasoning Question of God Sat Aug 02, 2025 21:00 | Mind Agent
Israeli Human Rights Group B'Tselem finally Admits It is Genocide releasing Our Genocide report Sat Aug 02, 2025 00:54 | 1 of indy
Human Rights in Ireland >>
Wind and Solar Farms Set to Take Over Up to 9% of Total UK Land Area Wed Oct 29, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
The UK Government's plans for renewable energy almost beggar belief, says Ben Pile: hundreds of gigawatts of wind and solar farms that will cost billions and take over up to 9% of the total land area of the UK.
The post Wind and Solar Farms Set to Take Over Up to 9% of Total UK Land Area appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Wed Oct 29, 2025 01:36 | 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.
Afghan Arrested Over Fatal Stabbing of Dog Walker Entered UK Illegally in Back of Lorry Tue Oct 28, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
An Afghan national arrested after a dog walker was killed in a triple stabbing entered the UK illegally in the back of a lorry.
The post Afghan Arrested Over Fatal Stabbing of Dog Walker Entered UK Illegally in Back of Lorry appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
All We?ve Learned About the Covid Vaccines Just Shows They Worked as Designed Tue Oct 28, 2025 17:26 | Dr David Bell
Nothing we've learned about the Covid vaccines since 2020 should be a surprise, says Dr David Bell. Spreading throughout the body, hanging around for weeks, failing to stop infection ? this is how they were designed.
The post All We’ve Learned About the Covid Vaccines Just Shows They Worked as Designed appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Farage Would Be Better PM Than Starmer, Voters Say for First Time Tue Oct 28, 2025 15:46 | Will Jones
Keir Starmer?suffered a fresh blow today as polling showed Nigel Farage is voters' preferred choice as Prime Minister for the first time and the Labour Party hit a new low of its own.
The post Farage Would Be Better PM Than Starmer, Voters Say for First Time appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
national |
housing |
feature
Tuesday May 27, 2008 01:18
by Paula Geraghty
mspgeraghty at yahoo dot ie
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(c)
two blasts from the past
O'Devaney Gardens
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/71921
St. Michael's Estate
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/66997
Those who expect these large-parasitic-companies to act ethically are naive. What kind of contract do the local authorities have with these people? A well negotiated contract with penalties would give them no choice, however, I fear that these Cowboys' legal team may have run rings around the local authoritie's.
Fair play to those who have protested, keep it up and shame these chancers.
2 Points worth highlighting:
1. PPPs are not necessarily cheaper than the direct public route. The Comptroller and Auditor General found that schools provided under the PPP route cost between 8 to 13% higher than the traditional route.
2. PPPs that depend on private sector providing funding are subject to market fluctuations. This means that if the private sector cannot identify the required profitability in a project then projects simply will not happen, or in the worst case scenario collapse, leaving communities and those needing the services in a very vulnerable position. For example, the roll out of the cancer strategy has been delayed, reportedly, because the HSE has found it difficult to get the private sector to take on the projects.
Even more worrying are the public housing regeneration projects, where communities that have been promised better housing and community services are being told that the projects are no longer viable because of the collapse in the property market. They are now being left in estates that are being engulfed by social problems as the projects are put on hold. Another concern in the Social Housing Regeneration PPPs is the significant amount of public land that is being handed over to private developers, that could with state investment, be used to address the extensive
housing waiting lists and tackle the vital long-term issue of social regeneration.
It should be noted that the Department of Environment and Dublin City Council have made it clear to communities that the only way their estate will undergo large-scale building and social regeneration is if they adopt the PPP route.
PPP appears to be no longer economically viable and as attractive to developers. Therefore, it is clear that it is the responsibility of Dublin City Council and the Government to guarantee, with the
injections of state investment, the implementation of the physical and social regeneration plans that these communities urgently need. Or will the most vulnerable in our society be left to suffer the fate of
whatever the property developers decide? As the economic slow-down continues will it be, once again, the poorest who suffer most?
Rory Hearne (People Before Profit Alliance)
"The Government must step in and fund the regeneration projects have collapsed as Public Private Partnerships (PPPs). The fact that the viability of these PPPs is in question, highlights, I believe the need for a reappraisal of the use of PPPs, particularly in areas where the public service or infrastructure being provided primarily serves a social equality function."
See: www.people-before-profit.org
Former Labour Party spin doctor and arch 'moderniser' Fergus Finlay clearly finds it difficult to acknowledge the true source of the problem: PPP. Careful to sympathise with the private sector he is unable even to begin to admit that it is their very involvement that is the crux of the problem:
[url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/irishexaminer/pages/story....1.asp]Link[/url]
Nauseating stuff.
More photos from the protest at City Hall on Monday
Cllr Larry O Toole on the picket line
Cllr Criona Ni Dhalaigh supports the St Michaels Residents
Domick Street Residents
A section of the crowd
Begob. Has Dessie moved to Dominick St?
Interesting that Larry was able to be on the protest yet was one of the few Councillors not to speak in the debate inside City Hall.
Dermot Lacey- your one of Pro PPP crew I don't see what your gloating about.
Abe,
Actually I am a supporter of full rejuventaion of thes areas. I do support any measures that can be used to achieve this but the residents and the needs of tenants and potential tenants must come first.
That is one of many reasons why I have constantly argued for better funding for Local Government - if you want to achieve this welcome on board.
One of the reasons why I am most pleased to be a Labour member of the Council is the unequalled record of the Labour Party on Social and Affordable Housing.
I will give every possible support to the residents of those areas who have been seriously let down by this PPP process.
Typical you dodge the central issue is that PPP as a method to provide essential public services is a joke and you supported PPPs as a model.
Abe,
There has been no dodge on my part. Where appropriate I think PPP's can have a place. In this instance the PPP's have not worked and it is my job as a Councillor to help find a practical solution that actually resolves the plight faced by the people whose lives have been badly affected.
On balance however I believe that Social and Affordable Housing should be provided for by the State and not be profit driven.
A Case of Profit before People....Sad Sad Mess indeed. What will it take for people to listen,The Irish Government do not care about the working classes and never have,you have the worst polticians imaginable...a greedy heartless state run by greedy heartless Politicians....you are a dispicable nation who care only about economics.
"Plans to redevelop the areas collapsed when wealthy developer, Bernard McNamara, cried off saying he wouldn't make enough money."
Factually Incorrect. Speaking on Marian Finnucane he cited changes to the original requirements which meant a 25% increase in the build space, and specifically referred to a decision by the council to follow "a different route" related to him 10 days prior to this story breaking. [3]
"If McNamara had begun the redevelopment 5 or 6 years ago (as they were supposed to have) "
Factually incorrect. McNamara were selected in February 2007. It took the council 10 years to progress the plans, not McNamara.[2] Also worth remembering that the council rejected the plans of their own officials, so this isn't just a PPP problem.[4]
"Bernard McNamara was granted a multimillion Euro Public Private Partnership contract to develop five areas of Dublin"
Factually Incorrect. McNamara only signed contracts on two of these projects, and they are not worth the paper they are printed on because of the changes desired by DCC and An Bord Pleanala to the specifications in the contract.
Overall this is a grossly inaccurate article, especially when one considers that it has been penned by an indy editor.
[1] http://www.tribune.ie/article.tvt?_scope=Tribune%2FBusi...88321
[2] "McNamara & Co, and its joint venture partner, Castlethorn Construction, had been the council's development partner for only just over a year" http://www.tribune.ie/article.tvt?_scope=Tribune%2FBusi...88321
[3] "Speaking on RTE's Marian Finucane programme yesterday, Mr McNamara said Dublin City Council told him ten days ago that it wanted to go down a different route. " http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/0526/burlington.html
[4] "In 2004, ...the councilors unanimously rejected plans drawn up by the city's own officials for the estate."http://www.tribune.ie/article.tvt?_scope=Tribune%2FBusi...88321
[5] "McNamara only signed contracts on two projects." http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=NEWS+...1.asp
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87848
I have just finished reading "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein. Her book exposes the agenda behind privatisation and schemes such as PP...... as a way to destroy democratic governance by the people for the people, usually instituted via series of shocks - or in the case of Ireland, bribes and blackmail....
By forcing through the handing over those areas of Government Welfare and Social activity in utilities, housing, education, healthcare to private profit driven companies the 'market' gains access to the taxpayers funds and exploits those for purely profit motivations. Such is the agenda behind both the Tara motorway (Halliburton) and Shells Gas terminal in Mayo. Peoples lives matter less than the 'bottom line'.
Shame on the Irish Government for engaging in this process - and shame upon the Irish Middle classes for going along with it, for seeking to profit whilst their fellow country men suffer, to the extent that Shannon is now part of the Criminal and illegal Iraq and Afghan Wars. Complicity cannot be avoided. And in time there will be a reckoning.
South America was the initial crucible in which these nefarious policies were first attempted, and due to the fact that no electorate that comprised a majority of workers and small farmers would sign up to these 'ideas', force was required.
Hence Pinochet et al. Over 20 Million people died in South America as a direct result of enforcement, through stark brutality, through hunger as a result of unemployment, currency collapes etc etc... such is the nature of 'shock doctrine'.
So in Ireland and the UK, rather than use force, a combination of psychology (marketing) and force 'lite' (directed at Trade Unions) in the 80s was utilised : the first stage was to destroy the unions power base, and to destroy the viability of small holding farming, the second stage was to enroll everyone in the idea of owning homes and shares (in privatised utilities) and seeing those homes and shares as 'investments' ...... this was done by making it ever easier to get a mortgage ... which is why the 'sub prime mortgage' crisis eventually caught up with the bankers, (they lent money to people who could not repay, on properties that were worthless - hoisted by their own petard!) and why Governments repeatedly shored up collapsing lenders - to keep the project alive... in spite of it's obvious deadly effect upon people.
Some people call it nationalising debt, and privatising profit. I agree.
The people of Dublin, and of other areas where (relative) poverty is the order of the day are to be commended for beginning to organise a resistance to these policies. They are following in the footsteps of the South Americans, who are now ejecting the IMF, WTO and World Bank from their countries, along with the multinational corporate robber barons.
Adequate Social Housing is a human right, enshrined in the Declaration Of Human Rights, and it should never be subject to profiteering.