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Anti-Empire

Anti-Empire

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

Anti-Empire >>

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 Questions for Keir Starmer Over Avoiding Inheritance Tax Sun Sep 28, 2025 11:00 | Richard Eldred
Keir Starmer put a ?295,000 Surrey field in a trust for his parents, so it wasn't part of their estate ? even though he has said "those in charge of taxation can't also be seeking to avoid it."
The post Questions for Keir Starmer Over Avoiding Inheritance Tax appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Digital ID: What is it Good For? Sun Sep 28, 2025 09:00 | Anonymous IT Reporter
Digital ID hasn't even been launched and it has already achieved its goal. You see, everyone was talking about fiscal black holes, small boats and Andy Burnham. Now all they're talking about is Brit Card.
The post Digital ID: What is it Good For? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Trump?s UN Speech: The Climate Emperor Now Stands Exposed Sun Sep 28, 2025 07:00 | Tilak Doshi
Trump's UN speech was a masterclass in speaking unfashionable truth. The climate emperor now stands exposed and the world must face up to the reality that it has bought into a dangerous delusion, says Tilak Doshi.
The post Trump’s UN Speech: The Climate Emperor Now Stands Exposed appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Sun Sep 28, 2025 00:29 | Will Jones
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 Kneecap Terror Case Thrown Out After Legal Blunder Sat Sep 27, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
The terrorism charge against a?Kneecap rapper over his 'support for Hezbollah'?has been dropped after police and prosecutors failed to get the consent of the Attorney General in time.
The post Kneecap Terror Case Thrown Out After Legal Blunder appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

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 >>

Midnight in The House of Sheridan Le Fanu

category galway | arts and media | press release author Friday December 03, 2010 18:14author by Walter Pater - The Western Writers' Centre - Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude, Galwayauthor email westernwriters at eircom dot netauthor phone 087.2178138 Report this post to the editors

The Arts Council's Determination to Shut Down the Western Writers' Centre is A Victorian Melodrama

The Arts Council have refused to fund the Western Writers' Centre, Galway {Ionad Scríbhneoirí Chaitlín Maude}under the Small festivals and Events Scheme, to produce the fifth Forge at Gort Literatrure festival, scheduled for March.
Sheridan Le Fanu: The Dublinocentric Arts Council now inhabit his former home
Sheridan Le Fanu: The Dublinocentric Arts Council now inhabit his former home

Expressing his frustration at the decision, the Centre's Director, author Fred Johnston, said "One may gauge the Arts Council's 'concern.' I telephoned the relevant officer and an answering machine said she'd be back on November 16th!" Fred Johnston added that it was one more a reminder of how little the Arts Council cared for art outside the city of Dublin and its development in the regions. "No recognition of Gort's role in the Celtic Renaissance through its proximity to Coole Park, for instance, would be possible in The Arts Council. They wouldn't even be able to find the town on a map. The Arts Council are determined to render the Western Writers' Centre inoperable and have been so determined for a number of years. By some in Galway, the establishment of the Centre is considered a threat. And this in spite of its being part of the City Development Plan. It would be interesting to know whether the Council have been influenced towards their stance."
He added that several Labour and one Independent Councillor had expressed support for the Centre but had refused to do so in print. "So I won't be voting Labour and I won't be voting for that particular Councillor. They all seem terrified of the City Arts Office."
Mr Johnston pointed out that at a meeting with the Arts Council at the end of 2008, when the Centre's programming grant was withdrawn apparently on foot of a tranche of press-clippings sent to them under an assumed name, he was told in no uncertain terms that the Council did not welcome criticism. "The clippings were of letters I had published in papers critical of the arts." He added that the Festival is now in serious need of sponsorship and funding if it is to take place - inquiries to 087.2178138 - and that he would welcome members of the pubic making their views felt directly to the Arts Council at 70 Merrion Square, Dublin 2 (+353 1 618200) (Photo: Farce Council housed in former home of Sheridan le Fanu, Dublin)

Related Link: http://www.twwc.ie
author by dublincentricpublication date Sat Dec 04, 2010 19:18author address author phone Report this post to the editors


Sorry to hear that the Arts Council has seen fit under the 2003 Act to put the cash into the hands of
wee bureaucrats and council jobsworths, this is Fianna Fáil slowly suffocating the Arts and making
them wholly irrelevant.

Sure they gave us varieties of Ahern book deals and notional shyte such as the destruction of
Arts and culture for a few cheap TV shows, a bit of red carpet and the grape-sucking morbidities
of the luvvie set !!!!

Ireland is dug into a FF notional ideology of granny-propriety that in terms of LEGACY amounts to
cheap trash and toilet-paper drivel, but is what people seem to like : the ultimately non-threatening
chocolateboxsentimentalism of rainbows and turd-polishing.

OLÉ - the Ahern Generation of corrupted everything ! Its a brave New World Fred, sorry to hear they
stole the crumbs off the bird-table but someone's gotta pay for Cecilia's bikini-wax somehow...

:-)

Keep fighting.

author by Wally Bpublication date Sun Dec 05, 2010 00:07author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Good point about Dublin centric stances on culture across the board. For an inside-outsider's analysis of the Dublin centric culture of RTE Television read 'Maverick' by the thoughtful decentralist cineaste, Bob Quinn.

author by Fred Johnstonpublication date Sun Dec 05, 2010 00:34author address author phone Report this post to the editors

That's about the size of it. And just try to get a straight answer out of an Arts Council 'officer.' None of which are artists of any stamp, of course, mainly glorified secretaries whose job is to keep the unwashed and vulgar artists away from the people who make the decisions. I don't know how they live with themselves, frankly, but I suppose the money makes up for it.

author by The Unwashedpublication date Sun Dec 05, 2010 08:54author address author phone Report this post to the editors

Well Said Fred , they may be an officer but they aint a gentleman & they certainly aint no Ladies
either .....Its the money u see, it makes them a cut above the rest who do not use sunlight or life buoy soap , agh well , they probably came from the ordinary workin class areas of Dublin until the lost the run o' themselves. It has been know to happen folks.

author by Wally Bpublication date Sun Dec 05, 2010 10:08author address author phone Report this post to the editors

I must disagree with the implication that working class people are less receptive to cultural creativity than those of middle class origin and schooling. Several individuals of humble social background have distinguished themselves in literature and visual art since the early twentieth century in Ireland. Think of O'Casey, Behan and Dunne for starters. Many years ago I did field work as part of a social study project in the Dolphin's Barn area of Dublin 8. I visited, half a dozen times, a youth centre where, among other things, I witnessed elocution training conducted by a man with a Dublin working class accent (Dublin and proud) who encouraged teenage boys and girls to recite Shakespearean soliloquies and selected poems. He always tempered his critical remarks about diction with warm regard for the beauty of the passages being practised, and deep concern for the educational and aesthetic development of the youngsters (I counted about twelve or more of them) attending his voluntary classes.

More likely the arts administrators who work for the Arts Council and in other areas of arts administration come from the middle class and possess university degrees. Mere possession of a degree nowadays does not inculcate a love of art and literature in the graduate. In today's universities a monetary utilitarianism has supplanted the 19th century Mathew Arnold-William Morris ideals of aesthetic, humane liberal education. Some administrators enjoy permanent pensionable jobs and are cushioned against the precarious living standards of artists, writers, actors, cineastes and composers.

The arts, literature and music have enjoyed varying favour among low-income people in rural and urban Ireland. During the years c. 1890 - 1930 people like Douglas Hyde (Roscommon man), Augusta Gregory (Galway country lady), William Martyn (Galway), Sean O'Casey and John M Synge among others made efforts to personally connect with sections of the common people in the countryside and in the city. These artists and administrators harvested the folk culture in country and town and helped to create unforgettable work of world stature. Some of these individuals were active in popular education and the publication of alternative school textbooks (Lady Gregory) and the co-op movement (the poet George Russell also known as AE).

Don't blame bad arts funding policies on the putative low-income backgrounds of arts administrators. There is such a phenomenon as middle class nihilism, you know.

author by dublincentricpublication date Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:13author address author phone Report this post to the editors

of course the Fianna Fáilers do lurve the intercine squabbles, whilst over-paying the Art's oficers whose schooling
is evident in their choices, i.e they do not really put the cash into infrastructure such as archives, local groups and
such cares BUT instead shovel the money into the rental carpets and canapés !!!

The question here (if I am not mistaken) is the problem of dublincentrism, bureaucracy , illiteracy and
squabbles for crumbs off the bockety table .

Squabble away it ain't art unless it is stored, heated, climate-controlled and free from pettiness, it's Fianna Fáil
sentimentalism and thus banished to death by ill-defined priorities which seek to promote 'officers' to the
realm of personal taste and pecadillo.

Wonder when the illiterate failures in Fianna Fáil will listen to :

i. The NCFA (Both regional and Urbancentric)
ii. The Archive managers from the NL/NA/OPW
iii. The Gallery owners
iv. The independent bookstores and markets/antiquarians.

I do not think they ever will, what FF appear to be going for is pedestrianism and the dilution of Arts in
favour of hyping the poor-minded idiots who believe that a flute of champers and a designer shoe upon
a febrezed moth-eaten rug denote an 'arrival' upon the jaundiced and empty art-scene (dublincentric too)

Sidenote> the poet-laureate of ireland had to hock his framed poems to aid the local national school
to pay bills , so that wee kids could receive something like a dignified education, ART does not come
from the the spawn of a Hanfin or an Ahern, it comes from something above FF's clutter of
crap and legislation designed to ethnically cleanse words from their meanings.

Sidenote > Do Arts 'advocates' discuss finance, blasphemy , censorship , bureaucracy and destruction
of archives or is it *all* about fighting for a bit a crumb and cash to further personal career choices ?

HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmm

author by dublincentricpublication date Mon Dec 06, 2010 11:02author address author phone Report this post to the editors

So is everyone still fighting for crumbs from the bockety table that is Fianna Fáil mismanagement of Arts?

I do laugh when people like Gogarty come out with statements that it will take' 20 years to fix the mess' that it took
13 years to create, of course it will (and more) , as long as the Govt and its campaign of top down reward and
ossiification is endlessly repeated by people who have not one clue about the level of manipulation and reward
that occurs in the Arts.

Simples : the Arts Council advise the revenue on merit and blasphemy, this mean Govt appointees
can tip the wink with regard to naming an exemption to the high-literature od Ryan Tubridy and Bertie Ahern!

They can then mint it on the scene , be interviewed, positioned and placed to accquire more chattels
and dependency.

It's a self-perpetuating circle-jerk which denies the root of egalitarianism in Arts and will quite possibly
ensure the death of free-expression in ireland, that and the withery school marm who figure-heads
the sinking ship.

HI Mary Hanafin !!!

author by Fred Johnstonpublication date Tue Dec 07, 2010 13:16author address author phone Report this post to the editors

The over-arching policy of the Arts Council is simple enough: criticise us, our regional arts officers or our policies publicly and you will be chastised financially. Keep shtum, smile when you're told to and use 'Darling' a lot and we'll see what we can do for you. DO NOT EVER create something that our arts officers or some project we are already funding should have or might have created if they'd been half-way worth our investment. DO NOT, therefore, embarrass us.

author by dublincentricpublication date Wed Dec 08, 2010 11:59author address author phone Report this post to the editors

It really shows people for what they have become , cowed , passive and incapable of starting a national dialogue on
Arts Council failure.. Ultimately this means that Fianna Fáil policy : 'Divide and Rule' is quite sucessful at governmental
level and not alone in relation to the Arts!

(imagine taking that cynicism and moving it into health, education , environment : * its a recipe for decay* )

ho hum :-D

author by Fred Johnstonpublication date Wed Dec 08, 2010 17:34author address author phone Report this post to the editors

There are some very true things being said here. The divide-and-conquer rule has also been utilised by the Arts Office of Galway City Council, an office which is and has been for years the single greatest opponent of the Western Writers' Centre, as the Freedom of Information Act uncovered. Yet Galway City Council, though aware of all of this, are paralysed and will do nothing. The worst 'offenders' here are some Labour and Independent Councillors, some of whom made doorstep promises and got very rankled when accused of not keeping them. The Arts Council stands behind its regional arts officers come what may, it seems. This, coupled with an impotent or, more likely, couldn't-be-arsed City Council, creates situations of stasis and decay: Galway is not a place to bring your imagination to or your novel ideas. Ideas tend to get, eh, re-used, let us say, in this little town by opportunistic arts groups who can't think for themselves.

author by Fred Johnston - a linkpublication date Wed Dec 08, 2010 17:51author address author phone Report this post to the editors

This letter was circulated to every councillor in Galway City Council and appeared in today's Galway Independent.

Related Link: http://www.galwayindependent.com/section/letters/
author by dublincentricpublication date Fri Dec 10, 2010 16:00author address author phone Report this post to the editors

it might be the bits of string and tincans that hold the PC together.

irish Times focussing on th'Arts today but there has been a lack there too, maybe they should consider relieving Ger
of her position (goes off into dreamland)

there has been a broadsheet and tabloid weakness for birds in their knickers masquerading as (er) culture
and life , wholly dispensing with the idea that people actually want Arts in this country. Irish Times has not
been immune on issues like Tara, the Pipe, Blasphemy, Dúchas, and the planning crap that is ongoing...

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