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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?

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

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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 >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link 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.

offsite link 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.

offsite link Blow to Miliband as Reeves Signals Support for North Sea Drilling and Union Boss Calls for Him to Be... Tue Sep 30, 2025 17:36 | Will Jones
Rachel Reeves has signalled support for drilling in the North Sea in a blow to Ed Miliband ? as the boss of the Unite union calls on Keir Starmer to sack the "disastrous" Net Zero Secretary.
The post Blow to Miliband as Reeves Signals Support for North Sea Drilling and Union Boss Calls for Him to Be Sacked appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Wes Streeting Says Nigel Farage is ?Racist? Tue Sep 30, 2025 15:30 | Will Jones
Health Secretary Wes Streeting?has said Nigel Farage is "racist", joining Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson in using the insult of the Reform party and its leader.
The post Wes Streeting Says Nigel Farage is “Racist” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Is the ?Friend-Enemy Distinction? Right-Wing Critical Race Theory? Tue Sep 30, 2025 13:00 | Noah Carl
Perfectly neutral institutions will never be attainable, argues Noah Carl, but that doesn?t mean that reasonably neutral institutions aren?t worth striving for.
The post Is the ‘Friend-Enemy Distinction’ Right-Wing Critical Race Theory? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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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 >>

Sunday Tribune - A word to Gormley on his new archaeology code: Tara

category international | history and heritage | other press author Monday June 29, 2009 15:39author by TaraWatchauthor email info at tarawatch dot org Report this post to the editors

By David Kenny - Sunday 28 June 2009

Minister for the Environment, John Gormley, advertised a public process in December to review Ireland's Tentative List of UNESCO sites. The aim was to submit this list, including the Hill of Tara, to UNESCO at their World Heritage Committee meeting in Seville, Spain.
That didn't happen. Dave Kenny asks 'why?'

He also notes there will be a demonstration outside the Dail on Wednesday, 1st July at 1.00pm
tribune.jpg

David Kenny - A word to Gormley on his new archaeology code: Tara

"This boys," said Mr Halpin, "will stay with you forever. I hope it makes a big impact."

Ordinarily, whenever a teacher spoke of making an 'impact' at St Joseph's National School in Glasthule, you started sweating. It normally involved the crack of a bamboo cane. Not on this occasion though. We were about to see something historic. Besides, Halpin always preferred sarcasm to brutality.

He was a bit of a hero. He played Mungo Jerry records in class and showed us how to make free plectrums out of detergent bottles. He also liked cartoons and had a wit as dry as a pub on Good Friday. He seemed to actually like us.

The historic occasion took place on a trip to the National Library in 1979. Myself and two other 11-year-olds, Cianán and Mick, were to choose books for the school. The four of us clowned the day away with Mr Halpin leading the laughter. Afterwards, he took us to see a part of Dublin he hoped we'd remember forever. He hoped seeing it would make an impact on our young minds. It did.

I can still see, through a gap in the hoarding, the muddy timber steps of Wood Quay. "This is going," he said. "The council is covering it with concrete." All the way home we simmered with anger, fuelled by his. He told us how protestors had found swords in the builders' rubble and how the city walls had been razed. He explained how the quay had been named a national monument but the government destroyed it anyway. He told us the only people who wanted the ugly new buildings were politicians.

I still get angry when I pass Wood Quay. Halpin had given us a mental snapshot of our disappearing history. I'll always have it in my head. Last week, I saw Wood Quay again when John Gormley announced a new archaeological code of practice to protect our monuments. There was the clang of a rusty gate being bolted and the distant neighing of a horse. This is the man who sold Tara to get into bed with Fianna Fáil – the party which was responsible for Wood Quay.

Despite being 'Green', he has done nothing to halt the M3 ploughing through the Tara/Skryne valley. Instead he has concentrated on defending his predecessor's demolition of the Lismullin national monument which lay in its way.

Dick Roche contravened European law by failing to commission an environmental impact study on the site. The government has now spent huge sums fighting the European Commission over the issue.

Gormley also spent a bundle drafting last week's Eirgrid Code of Practice. If the European Court finds against Ireland, the National Monuments Act will have to be amended and the code will have to be redrafted. More money flushed away.

The M3 tolls will go out of Meath to a multinational. More waste.

The mishandling of Tara proves, conclusively, that we are being governed by profligate idiots. The M3 should never have been routed through Tara/Skryne. It was always going to throw up monuments like Lismullin and lead to costly court battles. The obvious thing to do was route it west of Tara, avoiding the valley.

The Greens campaigned against the M3. The World Monuments Fund and Smithsonian Institution have placed it on their 'endangered' lists. Gormley is still pushing ahead with it, though.

In December, he hired 15 experts to help draft a list of sites, including Tara, to nominate to Unesco for world heritage status at its annual meeting last Tuesday. No list was delivered.

Tarawatch is continuing its campaign to re-route the road with a protest at the Dáil this Wednesday (1pm). They will ask Gormley why the Unesco list wasn't submitted as it would have tested the M3's impact on Tara's heritage status. They will also tell him that his new archaeological code of practice is meaningless while Tara/Skryne is being vandalised.

Gormley's betrayal of Tara/Skryne is endorsing Fianna Fáil's traditional approach to the environment – "cover it over with concrete". That party's love of unbridled development is the reason why places like Meath became an overspill for Dublin and why its roads desperately need to be improved. They mustn't be improved at the expense of Tara. It's bound up with our history. For 800 years it tied our ancestors to a legendary past which was ultimately used to stir up revolution and create our Republic.

The world sees Tara as our spiritual centre. It even features in one of the most popular novels/films of all time. Scarlett O'Hara's plantation is named after it in Gone With The Wind. Her fictional Tara represents the Irish emigrant's longing for home. Our real one now stands for longing to get home from work quicker. We need Unesco to protect Tara from ourselves.

Our generation stood by as the government over-developed our country. What will our legacy be? Some Nama-esque hulks of buildings? Some half-built estates? A concrete dagger through the heart of Tara? Is this what we want to leave behind for future schoolchildren and young teachers like the late Mr Halpin?

I can imagine him surveying the M3 and sardonically quoting Scarlett's famous line: "Is Tara still standing or is it also gone with the wind?"

Scarlet? He'd be crimson with anger.

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http://www.tarawatch.org / info@tarawatch.org

Related Link: http://www.tribune.ie/news/editorial-opinion/article/2009/jun/28/david-kenny-a-word-to-gormley-on-his-new-archaeolo/
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