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Anti-Empire >>
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 >>
Ban on Trans People Using Female Lavatories ?Risks Breaching ECHR Rules?, Says Council of Europe Tue Oct 14, 2025 13:15 | Will Jones
Implementing the Supreme Court's gender ruling by banning transgender 'women' from female lavatories risks breaching the European Convention on Human Rights, the Council of Europe has warned.
The post Ban on Trans People Using Female Lavatories “Risks Breaching ECHR Rules”, Says Council of Europe appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Parents Being Banned From School Sports Over Their ?Bad Behaviour? Shows What is Wrong With ?Safegua... Tue Oct 14, 2025 11:18 | Mary Gilleece
The banning of parents from their children's sports events by a London school over the parents' 'bad behaviour' shows what is wrong with our officious safeguarding culture, says Mary Gilleece.
The post Parents Being Banned From School Sports Over Their ‘Bad Behaviour’ Shows What is Wrong With ‘Safeguarding’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Real Reason Academics Keep Cancelling Each Other Tue Oct 14, 2025 09:00 | Toby Young
A new book by Steven Pinker offers a fascinating explanation for why academics keep trying to cancel heretics for wrongthink even though, in private, they share exactly the same views.
The post The Real Reason Academics Keep Cancelling Each Other appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Trump is Winning in His Battle Against the Green Blob Tue Oct 14, 2025 07:00 | Ben Pile
One of the UK's largest climate-related grant makers, the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, is withdrawing from the US amid Trump's clampdown on foreign funding of NGOs. The Green Blob is shrivelling, says Ben Pile.
The post Trump is Winning in His Battle Against the Green Blob appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Tue Oct 14, 2025 01:28 | 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.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
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Voltaire Network >>
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Friday January 13, 2006 12:29
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29Link to Village article should read:
http://www.villagemagazine.ie/article.asp?sid=1&sud=41&aid=587
Interesting article on the same subject
http://www.325collective.com/prisons_aramark.html
http://www.indymedia.ie/newswire.php?story_id=73682&search_text=martin%20gregg
Fintan Lane writes
"Not surprisingly, many people take a hostile view and feel little sympathy for prisoners. And why should they? Our prisons contain many criminals guilty of the most heinous of offences. "
and goes on to make an apparent distinction between these and other prisoners who are in prison for "minor offences"
Surely all prisoners should have the same rights. Surely all prisoners should have access to rehabilitative schemes.
While it is welcome that prisoner rights issues are being discussed, it is unfortunate that it takes the very short term incarceration of a leading academic before concerns are raised.
A prisoner is a human being and should be seen as such, the practice of equating the prisoner with their crime is a dehumanising practice that attempts to strip away the humanity of the prisoner and therby make it appear more justifiable to abuse that same prisoner.
I don't like responding to anonymous contributors to indymedia, but I'll make an exception because you may simply be confused.
I don't draw any distinction between those in for very serious or minor offences when it comes to prisoners rights. A right is a right, not a privilege to be dispensed as the authorities see fit. All prisoners are entitled to human, civil and labour rights.
My point, which you seem to have misread, is that the antagonism that many people have towards prisoners is based on the fact that a number of those inside have done very nasty things. It would be foolish to ignore this reality, but it doesn't mean that I'm suggesting separate treatment with regard to labour rights.
I fully agree with you that this is a issue that should have been discussed long before now. I brought it up because I felt obliged to. We're either serious about labour rights in this country or we're not. I believe we should be, and prisoners are as entitled to such rights as anybody else.
The reason for anonymity is because of the societal prejudice against prisoners.
It is of course welcome that you have raised this issue. In raising it you cause debate on the whole penal reform question. As you can imagine, had it been raised by a convicted criminal(not matter whether thay are reformed or not) it would be met with the usual prejudice.
I agree fully with your last point.
It would be interesting to see whether congress will include the issue of prisoner wages/conditions in their "social partnership" talks.
It appears that McDowell is intent on following the Blairite model and privatising our prison system. This wil probably include some version of the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) Scheme which is effectively slave labour. A study of the new prison rules would appear to confirm this with their reference to the participation by prisoners in "authorised structured activity".
Irish prison rules 2005 link
http://www.justice.ie/80256E010039C5AF/vWeb/pcJUSQ6DKN8U-en
.
Prison reform and prisoner rights should not be seen as a single issue campaign. It is merely part of the wider campaign against capital. The example given by Fintan Lane of the exploitation of workers and the evidence from the U.S shows that capital will exploit all.
Fintan Lanes piece is good. We need more analysis of what is going on within the prison system. There appears a complete reluctance to address the serious defincies within the whole prison system including the fact that it is one of the most expensive in the world and yet has one of the worst rehabilitative records.
Estimates of it costing 100K to keep each prisoner incacarated each year are frightening when you consider the systems 70%+ failure rate. Lock them up attitudes are failing us because eventually the day comes when the prisoner must be "unlocked" and he is returned into society .
It is therefore essential that prisoners be supported to address offending behaviour in order to rehabilitate. Maybe it's time people started to listen to ex prisoners when they speak on this subject.
Prisoners have no rights. IN fact none of us do. The state vindicates your rights in so far as is practicable. This has been interpretedt to mean that prisoners can't vote for example. Certainly in the case of prisoners it is not clear what rights they do and don't have.
After that wonderful insight I no longer see the point in living.
Rights that the government 'vindicates'?? A statist understanding of rights if I ever heard one!
By the way, prisoners do have the right to vote in Ireland. Twas made inoperable up to now but a new bill put forward last month by the government means that they should be able to exercise their franchise in the next general election.
Doubt if they'll be voting for the PDs anyway.
If the state takes your rights away there is nothing you can do about it. That's the reality.
I'm sure th JJ who think that life is based around shopping and doing coke doesn't care about that reality; don't worry JJ you still have the right to consume.
Is this the Leon of the WSM who entertains us on occasion? If this is the case then it is rather odd views for a supposed Libertarian to be disseminating.
Just thought of this - it could be Leon Trotsky posting as well, sorry Leon from WSM if it actually is Trotsky.
Fair play Fintan, as an ex prisoner who has posted on indimedia regarding the lack of penal reform in this country, i applaud anyone who is willing to publicly contribute to the debate.Because more than anything, we do need a debate.
Leon Trotsky would never have written such tosh. True Socialist Democracy reigned when he was in power in the USSR. Prisons were like holiday camps, the guards (known as redcoats) tended to the prisoners every need.
Pushkin
Secretary for Inter-Species Solidarity
Vanguard Leninist League
Irish Section
Provisional International Secretariat of the Fourth International (International Centre for Reconstruction).
Do they still believe in the liquidation of the Gent... er, the bourgeoisie?
It's an interesting issue but ultimately will be dodged by the various leftie grouplets including the anarchists. The Left by and large has absorbed much of the prejudice against prisoners.
Its not just that it links in with wider issues as pointed out by fintan and one of the comments, its that the vast, vast majority of prisoners come from working-class backgrounds. Why do poor working-class young males turn to crime and end up in prison? If you start looking at these issues you inevitably focus on the society we live in and the inequalities that dominate people's lives.
Has the Left ever raised the issue of prisoners rights before? Do lefties really care? Do they (we) see the connections?
http://www.325collective.com/prisons.html
But no response from Labour, Sinn Fein, S.P, S.W.P, R.S.F., Greens or anyone else for that matter.
Surely the anarchists aren't the only ones with an opinion on this?
now that prisoners have the right to vote the political parties of the left surely have a responsibility to consider these views given that it likely most prisoners would vote left or at least come from left voting areas.
Before you get too carried away with the idea of the anarchists being the only ones concerned with prisoners rights Comrade X, the article was written by a member of the ISN and posted on the ISN website, and last I heard they're not anarchists, though the trots might think they are! Anarchists have a long and honourable tradition of defending and organising prisoners but they don't have a monopoly.
It is a left-wing activist (after all Fintan Lane is a member of the ISN) who has raised this, so it's not entirely fair to say the left has 'dodged' the issue. That said, a lot of the other left groups (the Trotskyists in particular - SWP, SP, etc) probably don't have a good track record here. On the other hand who does?
I agree Luxemburg, I did not intend to suggest that the anarchist response was the only one.
We oppose all of the running dogs of Capitalism. Never the less we want cats and dogs to unite and recognise that their common enemy is Capitalism. we have successfully unionised sheep dogs. They have broken their chains and are now looking for baaack pay.
Pushkin
Secretary for Inter-Species Solidarity
Vanguard Leninist League
Irish Section
Provisional International Secretariat of the Fourth International (International Centre for Reconstruction).
Hi Pushkin and Luxemburg: I knows more about jail that you two put together.
Signed
Franz Kafka