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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 >>

Lockdown Skeptics

The Daily Sceptic

offsite link Sir Lenny Henry Wants ?18 Trillion of Slavery Reparations Wed Oct 08, 2025 11:17 | Sallust
Sir Lenny Henry has called for Britain to pay ?18 trillion in reparations to black people, arguing in a new book that high rates of black crime and unemployment are "all because of the slave trade".
The post Sir Lenny Henry Wants ?18 Trillion of Slavery Reparations appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link How Representative is X of UK Public Opinion? Wed Oct 08, 2025 09:00 | Noah Carl
Britain's political class is addicted to X, but how representative Is the platform? According to recent YouGov polls, only 1 in 6 people uses X daily, and most people view it unfavourably.
The post How Representative is X of UK Public Opinion? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Hugh Grant Teams Up With Climate Activists Wed Oct 08, 2025 07:00 | Charlotte Gill
Last week Hugh Grant, one of several celebrities behind press censorship campaign group Hacked Off, announced a joint campaign with 38 Degrees, a radical climate activist group. Charlotte Gill investigates what's going on.
The post Hugh Grant Teams Up With Climate Activists appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Wed Oct 08, 2025 01:19 | 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 Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Students Sing Antisemitic Chants on October 7th Anniversary Tue Oct 07, 2025 19:30 | Will Jones
Hundreds of pro-Palestine students chanted "from the river to the sea" ? an antisemitic slogan calling for the destruction of Israel ? during protests on the second anniversary of?Hamas's October 7th attacks.
The post Hundreds of Pro-Palestine Students Sing Antisemitic Chants on October 7th Anniversary appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Open Letter on Referendum Commission Failure

category national | eu | press release author Tuesday September 29, 2009 01:12author by O.O'C - National Platform EU Research & Information Centreauthor email info at nationalplatform dot orgauthor address 24 Crawford Avenue, Dublin 9author phone 01-8305792 Report this post to the editors

Criticism of Mr Justice Frank Clarke's and the Referendum Commission's failure to carry out their statutory duty under the Referendum Acts

Below for your information is a copy of the letter that was delivered to Mr Justice Frank Clarke, Chairman of the Referendum Commission, from Anthony Coughlan last Thursday, with the most relevant passages highlighted in bold

Sunday 27 September 2009
_______

TO:
MrJustice Frank Clarke
Chairman,
The Referendum Commission
18 Lower Leeson St.
Dublin 2

FROM:
Anthony Coughlan
The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre
24 Crawford Avenue
Dublin 9
Tel.: 01-8305792

Thursday 24 September 2009

Dear Mr Justice Clarke

May I enclose for your information a copy of the new edition of the Lisbon Treaty: The Readable Version, the first edition of which I sent you and your Referendum Commission colleagues some time ago. I also enclose a document which describes the main changes the Lisbon Treaty would make.

May I take the opportunity of saying that the current Lisbon referendum, as I presume you have noted, has been characterized by monstrous illegality on the part of several key parties, as follows:-

1. The intervention of the European Commission, which is unlawful under European law, as the Commission has no function in relation to the ratification of new Treaties, something that is exclusively a matter for the Member States under their own constitutional procedures;

2. The part-funding of the posters and press advertisements of most of Ireland's Yes-side political parties by their sister parties in the European Parliament, even though it is illegal under Irish law to receive donations from sources outside the country in a referendum and when, under EU law, money provided by the European Parliament to cross-national political parties is supposed to be confined to informational-type material and to avoid direct partisan advocacy. I read that the Green Party has refused such funding from its sister party in the European Parliament on the ground that it is advised that this is illegal under European law

(Later comment on this latter point inserted by A.Coughlan:
Presumably this scrupulousness is because Green Party Local Government Minister
John Gormley, as Minister responsible for running the referendum, cannot afford to
have the political party he belongs to flout the law!)


3. The Government's unlawful use of public funds in circulating to voters a postcard with details of the so-called "assurances" from the European Council, followed by a brochure some time later containing a tendentious summary of the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty - both steps being in breach of the Supreme Court's 1995 judgement in McKenna that it is unconstitutional of the Government to use public money to seek to procure a particular result in a referendum;

4. The failure of your own Referendum Commission to carry out its statutory function under the 1998 and 2001 Referendum Acts of preparing for citizens a statement or statements "containing a general explanation of the subject matter of the proposal (viz. the proposal to amend the Constitution) and of the text thereof in the relevant Bill", namely the 28th Amendment of the Constitution Bill 2009.

May I make some points to you and your Referendum Commission colleagues regarding this.

The Lisbon Treaty-Your Guide which you have circulated to voters makes no attempt to inform them about the proposed Constitutional Amendment, despite that being your prime statutory duty and that of your Referendum Commission colleagues under the Referendum Acts.

The leaflet and other material which you have made available do not tell citizen-voters that the new first sentence of the proposed Amendment we shall be voting on provides that the State "affirms its commitment to the European Union" which would be established by the Lisbon Treaty - a sentence, incidentally, that was not in the Constitutional Amendment in last year's referendum - and you give voters no idea that this is the case or what such a commitment might entail.

You do not inform voters that the second and third sentences of the proposed Amendment make clear that ratifying the Lisbon Treaty would abolish the European Community which Ireland joined in 1973 and would establish in its place a new European Union on the basis of the Lisbon Treaty which would be constitutionally very different from the European Union that we are currently members of, or what that difference might be.
Nowhere in the Referendum Commission's information material that you have sent to voters do you advert to the fact that the Lisbon Treaty would confer on Irish citizens an "additional" citizenship of the post-Lisbon European Union, with associated citizens' rights and duties vis-à-vis that Union, and what the implications of such a change might be.

One would think that there could be be few things more constitutionally important for citizens than being endowed with an additional citizenship. Yet you and your Commission say absolutely nothing about it in the "information" material you have circulated - in violation of the provisions of the Act which gives you your authority.

You say nothing about how the rights and duties that we would have as real citizens of the constitutionally new European Union which the Lisbon Treaty would establish would relate to our rights and duties as Irish citizens in the event of any conflicts arising between the two; or how the "additional" citizenship that Lisbon would endow us with differs from our essentially notional and symbolical EU "citizenship" of today.

It is clear that such a dereliction of duty on your part and that of your fellow Commissioners amounts to constitutional delinquency of a high order, as well as being a gross misuse of the ¤4 million of public money that you have been entrusted with. It will be interesting to see how future historians assess your actions.

As for yourself personally, instead of doing the job which the Referendum Acts impose on you, you have arrogated to yourself the task of answering questions on the Lisbon Treaty on the radio and in the press, in which you give your personal opinions and judgements, whereas all statements by the Commission should be collectively agreed by its members, as the Referendum Acts clearly envisage.

In no way do the Referendum Acts authorise you to do the "solo runs" on radio and in the press that you have undertaken. Your predecessor, retired Chief Justice TA Finlay, who was an exemplary chairman of the Referendum Commission between 1998 and 2002, would never have permitted this.

Some of the oral statements you have made, moreover, have been either false or misleading. From several l examples I could give, I quote two. A fortnight ago you accepted in response to a question on Morning Ireland that the right of Member State governments to "propose" and decide their National Commissioner would be changed by the Lisbon Treaty into a right to make "suggestions" only, effectively for the incoming Commission President to decide - that key person's appointment being in the gift of the Big States.

You added the rider however that you did not think this change was of much consequence. You must be aware from previous private correspondence that I had with the Referendum Commission on behalf of my colleagues in our EU Research and Information Centre that many people on the No-side consider this be a Lisbon Treaty amendment of considerable consequence. One way or another, its consequences are clearly a matter of political judgement which it is not your job as Referendum Commission chairman to make.

Last Friday I heard you state on Morning Ireland that the difference between the "additional" citizenship that we would have of the post-Lisbon European Union and the notional or symbolical "complementary" EU citizenship we are said to have today was "of no great consequence" either, or words to that effect. Yet the most cursory acquaintance with the constitutional changes which the Lisbon Treaty and the Constitutional Amendment to ratify it would bring about, shows that this is just not true. Lisbon is the old Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe after all which the French and Dutch rejected in 2005, even if it implements that Constitution for Europe indirectly rather than directly.

You and your Referendum Commission colleagues still have some time left in which to fulfil your statutory function under the Referendum Acts that set you up. You still have a few days in which to do your duty to the Irish people whom you are profoundly failing at present, as they face their historic decision of next Friday with virtually nothing from you and your Referendum Commission colleagues which might give them "the general explanation of the subject matter" of the Constitutional Amendment "and of its text", on which they will be voting, as the Referendum Act requires.

On behalf of citizens all over the country who are deeply disquieted by the Referendum Commission's failure to provide information on how the Lisbon Treaty would affect the Consitution, may I appeal to you to do that duty still and to carry out your statutory function under the Referendum Acts.

Yours sincerely

Anthony Coughlan

Director
President, Foundation for EU Democracy, Brussels

PS. I intend to release this letter to the media this weekend and to circulate it widely to Irish opinion-leaders.

Related Link: http://www.nationalplatform.org/2009/09/29/open-letter-to-the-referendum-commission/
author by Pete.publication date Tue Sep 29, 2009 08:33author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The Referendum Commission should never have been set up in the first place.
They are damned-if-they-do and damned-if-they-don't.

This extraordinarily complicated treaty should never have been put to a referendum either.
Other countries elect representatives to do that.

Most people literally do not have a clue about the Treaty.
(Any more than they have a clue about the fuel managment system in their car.)

THAT is the real reason for the last "no" vote.

Switzerland is mired down by such referendums.
Referendums destroyed womens rights in Switzerland until 1971.

http://history-switzerland.geschichte-schweiz.ch/chrono....html

(Women got the vote in Switzerland because Swiss men condescended to give it to them... by referendum.... only in 1971.)

.

.

author by Peat Mosspublication date Tue Sep 29, 2009 13:12author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Yes, most people are clueless and they are intentionally kept that way by the powers that control the media and the money.
All praise to indymedia and anyone who works to help educate and inform without personal gain.
Ireland's freedom is fast disappearing.
Power to the people.

Touch forelock and genuflect to Sarkozy?
Touch forelock and genuflect to Sarkozy?

author by Pete.publication date Tue Sep 29, 2009 16:49author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I composed a poem to Nicholas Sarkozy.....hope the Mod on duty has a sense of humour.
(Apologies to the Irish poem from 1798.... and for the phonetic Irish spelling.)

.......................... Ode To Nicholas Sarcozy.........................

Oh You French go back to sea..... or the Shan Van is Voct.
Oh You French go back to sea..... or the Shan Van is Voct.

Oh You French go back to sea!
Oh you French go back to sea!

‘Tis a sure guarantee that some hour we’ll be free.

Oh you French go back to sea!
Oh you French go back to sea!

Says the Shan Van Voct.

.

author by O.O'C - (personal capacity)publication date Tue Sep 29, 2009 21:14author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The referendum commission is quite capable of doing a capable and truthful job in informing people of the issues. Saying "damned if they do..." etc. is a bit of a cop-out because it assumes the treaty is like a work of art that's capable of an indefinite number of subjective interpretations. But it's a legal text that affects real world institutions in definite ways. This is not postmodern textual deconstruction of literature. Nor is it some neutral technological schematics of no consequence to users except that it makes things go.

Take the Danish example: they set up a committee where the best legal experts from both sides were invited to examine one of the Treaties. They published their analysis thusly: when they could reach a consensus on areas and powers etc. (which was on many things), this was written as such. When they could not, each side would succinctly put forward their statement and reasons. That's it - it's neither rocket science nor abstract art.

Not having a clue is either a reason to help people have a clue, or a reason to not bother involving them. But it is a fallacy of logic - a circular argument - Pete, to assume that people not having a clue is contributary proof that they don't need to be involved by getting a clue.

Our country's state was founded on the legal principle that only the people can abdicate the sovereignty from which the state derives it's power. That's the principal in Ireland - it has nothing to do with setting domestic policy, and to make analogies with countries where it is used in such a way is to misunderstand that basic principle. What others do is their choice - why argue with our right to choose?

And please do check out Jens-Peter Bonde's excellent The Lisbon Treaty: The Readable Version to see why this is not all impenetrable voodoo that only experts can understand.

Related Link: http://en.euabc.com/
 
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