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 >>
Parse failure for http://humanrights.ie/feed/.
Last Retry Saturday September 20, 2025 12:10
Sun and Cosmic Rays Drive Climate, Not CO2, Says Astrophysicist Sat Sep 20, 2025 09:00 | Hannes Sarv
It's not CO2 that drives the climate, says astrophysicist Dr Henrik Svensmark. Its the Sun and cosmic rays. But you won't hear about this because only one viewpoint is now allowed in the pseudo-science of climate.
The post Sun and Cosmic Rays Drive Climate, Not CO2, Says Astrophysicist appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The ?Far Left? Finally Gets Its Comeuppance Sat Sep 20, 2025 07:00 | James Alexander
For years the Left has smeared its opponents as 'far Right'. Now, the spike in Leftist political violence has led to a turning of the tables. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the Guardian, says Prof James Alexander.
The post The ‘Far Left’ Finally Gets Its Comeuppance appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
News Round-Up Sat Sep 20, 2025 01:09 | Toby Young
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.
Labour Sinks to Lowest Ever Poll Rating ? as Andy Burnham Fuels Starmer Challenge Rumours Fri Sep 19, 2025 17:00 | Will Jones
Labour has sunk to its lowest ever poll rating as Andy Burnham fuels rumours he is preparing to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership by refusing to commit to serving a full term as Greater Manchester Mayor.
The post Labour Sinks to Lowest Ever Poll Rating ? as Andy Burnham Fuels Starmer Challenge Rumours appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Oxford and Cambridge Drop Out of Top Three in University Rankings Because of ?Misguided Attempts at ... Fri Sep 19, 2025 15:00 | Will Jones
Oxford and Cambridge universities have?failed to get into the top three in the Times's prestigious annual university ranking for the first time, with experts blaming "misguided attempts at equality".
The post Oxford and Cambridge Drop Out of Top Three in University Rankings Because of “Misguided Attempts at Equality” appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
Lockdown Skeptics >>
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Wednesday July 02, 2008 20:54
by Mairead
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Comments (14 of 14)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14Wonderful news,her freedom was long over due.i wish her and her family well, and I hope her health fully recovers,she was held in appaling barbaric conditions,she didnt deserve such treatment.I hope all the other hostages held by FARC are released soon.
with French and Swiss, theres probably an arms deal in there somewhere. or maybe Sarko et al
just like to get really close to the Bushites and play tinker games with Chavez- who Knows?
Uribe was involved, Sarko was involved, the Swiss were involved.
It was not a rescue per se.
I am glad she is alive.
I am glad she is free.
Yes Ingrid is free. She is in good health, in fact she is the picture of health, the complete opposite of what we were told by the media. This is not the only case. All of the hostages released were in good health. On previous occasions we told of a Senator so ill he had to drag himself on all fours to get to the toilet. he was however able to walk to freedom when the FARC unilaterally released him earlier this year.
As for Ingrid her first declarations put paid to the myth circulated by some in Europe that she was a progressive candidate. She has fully backed Uribe and the army, yes the same army that even the Colombian prosecutors say murders civilians. Watch this space, she will take an appointment from Uribe at some stage. Uribe who had to buy off congress deputies in order to pass legislation allowing a second term. Uribe who has accused the Colombian Supreme Court of being terrorists because they dare challenge him.
None of this means she deserved her years in the jungle, but then there are others left behind who joined the army out of poverty. The same poverty Ingrid is happy to endorse.
C'est la vie, madame.
Well said comrade!
This morning I heard her on the radio praising the Colombian Army: "My army, the army of my country". This is the same army that has slaughtered countless thousands of peasants, teachers, trade unionists. They slaughter anyone who stands up against the Oligarchs.
Good responses Gearoid and Pat C
The link below leads to an interesting article by Workers Power that is critical of the FARC's strategy but scathing of Hugo Chávez's call on the FARC to surrender. No wonder Colombia and the USA rushed to praise the Venezuelan president for the first time in many years.
http://workerspower.com/index.php?id=163,1660,0,0,1,0
We all know that the notoriously corrupt Colombian Army has been involved in a mass murder, torture, terrorism drug trafficking etc etc etc. However that does no in anyway justify the activities of FARC - who are also involved in massmurder, torture and terrorism.
This a brutal conflict between a corrupt super-rich elite and military fascists one side and fanatical communist barbarians on the other side. The impoverished Colombian people are caught in the middle between both sets of criminal gangsters.
Why does opposition to the Colombian military means that one must root for scum like FARC?
I think someone is as they say in spanish pissing outside of the potty. No one said anything about supporting the FARC. Ingrid has now come out in favour of a third reelection of Uribe. She is not the smiling fan of the anti globalisation movement so much put out int eh media over the years.
A number of years ago a right wing commentator in Colombia wrote an article on this very subject pointing out that her voting record in teh congress was right wing and neoliberal and that she had never uttered a single statement on the environment despite her green title.
Decribing the conflict in terms of people caught in the middle is stupid really. It does nothing to explain how the legal parties in Colombia massacred 300,000 people in the 1950s (pop. was only 11 million at the time) and gave rise to the current conflict. Whether one agrees with the FARC and the ELN or not, they were a reaction to that violence.
I have not sympathy for Betancourt at all. Rich, white, mouthy and a little thick to go into a guerrilla controlled area she and others had been barred from. I do have sympathy for the families of those soldiers who spent so many years in the mountains when the government could have negotiated their release a long time ago. Amongst those freed, I did not see the son of Gustavo Moncayo the teacher whose walk from narińo de Bogota did more to highlight this issue than any other. I met Moncayo once for an interview, a nice man whose son joined the army due to a lack of money to buy his way out of military service and so joined as a professional to get some money. Uirbe's sons Tomas and Geronimo ( I kid you not that is his name) have yet to go into theh mountains to fight the fight their father loves so much and others like Ingrid seem intent on continuing.
I will be writing a longer article on his in the near future.
Ingrid Betancourt's impromptu airport press conference, flanked by the bloody Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos and other military officers with undeniably gringo features was one of the strangest spectacles Machetera has ever seen. Even considering the joy she must have felt at being liberated after so much time in captivity, her effusiveness toward her liberators suggests that the time she spent in the jungle with the FARC left her with no greater understanding of the Colombian conflict than when she was seized on her presidential campaign tour seven years ago. Her extravagant praise of Colombian President Uribe and the Colombian army (who, she implied, had one-upped Israel with its commando tactics) sounded more like a campaign speech than anything else - minus a recent visit to the dentist and blonde highlights in her hair.
Continued at - http://machetera.wordpress.com/2008/07/03/someone-get-t...aper/
Serious media sources like the French Swiss Radio and France Presse have already pointed that the FARC got 20 million dollars in exchange for the French-Colombian politician so it doesn't seem to be any kind of blow for the people's army.
I just can't believe how people who write in Indymedia can trust the capitalist media nevertheless call anti-capitalist guerrilleros "scum". And this doesn't just happen with the FARC...
Where are youse coming from?
The placing of cable ties on the wrists of the detainees was part of the staging of the 'release'. American Keith Stansell repeatedly shows off the ties to demonstrate he is now a prisoner and soon he will be free.
The fairy tale release is believable only by the most gullible. It never ceases to amaze me how most people swallow any dodgy propaganda they are fed by the media. It's not because the propaganda is believable, it is because they want to believe it.
FARC leaders were paid millions to free hostages
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/07/....html
VIDEO
http://www.mindefensa.gov.co/index.php?page=181&id=7329
Only the most naive would think it wasn't staged and only the most innocent would think it didn't need to be.
Here's a bit of IMC global IRC chinwagging - http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/07/402771.html?c=on...99160
Her 2321st day was her last, on the 2323rd day since her captivity began on Feb23 2002, she found herself in Paris to help Sarkozy celebrate USA's July 4th and open his presidency of the EU. Not only do prison guards count their prisoners every day, but prisoners count their days too. Often many times a day. Only the very poor, very young, prime ministers, people giving up cigarettes or smack actually count every day a few times a day if they're not in captivity.
But none of that matters a bollox unless you really were sitting at the edge of your three piece suite saying novenas to the sacred heart or writing ballads to get Ingrid Betancourt released or fretting away thinking she'd never recover from beri beri fever. In that case, now that she is free you feel at a loose end and probably should think of all the other hostages in the world. Widen your campaign now that you're experienced.
Too many people upon learning her name around about before the 2000th day in captivity thought of her as a card or bargaining chip. She is not nor was ever a card. She is now a larger than life piece on the board with lots of cards of her own to play. She has got cards or letters or even better met or is about to meet most of the famous people who care and appear in your newspapers.
I reckon Amy Winehouse doesn't spring to mind as one of the first famous people on your list of those who want to be photographed next to Ingrid or are even remotely connected. Newspapers wreck the head. Don't ever slip into the trap of sourcing your news in them. Just make sure you're in relay distance of a grapevine and everything will be ok.
By Concerned citizens of irc.indymedia.org
In order to understand the "rescue operation" of Ingrid Betancourt and the Northrop Grumman Corporation mercenaries who were released with her, it is necessary to piece together articles published in the media, filter the content and out of this is formed a true understanding of the facts of what happened here.
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/07/98466.html
Colombian TV are showing bags of home made explosive (ANFO) which they claim was found at a farm outside Bogota. To keep up the momentum of the faked 'rescue' of the 13 US mercenaries and Betancourt, the government is claiming this was FARC explosives for use in 'reprisal' attacks.
I wonder where Superintendent Lennon was? He was always a dab hand at making ammonium nitrate / fuel oil explosives when required for promotional or propaganda purposes. Perhaps the Garda have been sending members to Colombia to train their counterparts in the anti-FARC forces?
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23976726....html
FARC is now up US$20 million and if US/Israeli/Colombian government want to pretend they rescued the mercenaries, so be it.
France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview published today in Le Journal du Dimanche that "no French money" was paid for Betancourt. He said, "Clearly, there was no French money". He is specific, the money was not French.