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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 Green Party Votes to Abolish Landlords Mon Oct 06, 2025 11:17 | Will Jones
The?Green Party?has committed itself to "abolishing landlords" after party members at its conference in Bournemouth passed a motion to seek the "effective abolition of private landlordism".
The post Green Party Votes to Abolish Landlords appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Will the Green Tory Blob Allow Kemi to Cancel Net?Zero? Mon Oct 06, 2025 09:00 | Paul Homewood
Kemi Badenoch plans to scrap the Climate Change Act and Net Zero, but 49 Tory MPs in the Green Blob might block her ? Paul Homewood urges voters to call them out.
The post Will the Green Tory Blob Allow Kemi to Cancel Net?Zero? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link Does a New Book Claiming Classic 1970s Sit-Coms Contain Secret Occult Messages About Mould Embarrass... Mon Oct 06, 2025 07:00 | Steven Tucker
A bonkers new book claims 1970s sitcoms hide occult codes about damp and decay ? whether it's satire or sincere, it perfectly exposes academia's mouldy absurdity, says Steven Tucker.
The post Does a New Book Claiming Classic 1970s Sit-Coms Contain Secret Occult Messages About Mould Embarrass Pretentious British Academia by Accident or on Purpose? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

offsite link News Round-Up Mon Oct 06, 2025 01:21 | 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 Elon Musk Plans to Take on Wikipedia With ?Grokipedia? Sun Oct 05, 2025 19:00 | Richard Eldred
Elon Musk is taking on 'Wokepedia' with Grokipedia, an AI-powered encyclopedia aiming to cut bias, fix errors and add missing context.
The post Elon Musk Plans to Take on Wikipedia With ?Grokipedia? appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

Lockdown Skeptics >>

Latin America Week 2019 Programme -Sat April 6th - Sat April 13th

category national | worker & community struggles and protests | news report author Thursday March 28, 2019 22:29author by LASC - Latin America Solidarity Centre Report this post to the editors

Events in Dublin, Cork and Galway

This year, LASC’s annual Latin America Week (LAW) will be focused on Gender and Extractive Industries. Between April 6th and 13th we will host a series of talks in Dublin, Cork and Galway to explore how extractive industries impact on women in Latin America.

Our Latin America Week keynote speaker is Jakeline Romero Epiayu, from La Guajira, Colombia. Jakeline is a member of local organisation Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu (Wayúu Women’s Force) which works to visibilise the violations of human and ethnic rights in La Guajira, and to strengthen the rights of women and indigenous communities in the region. The organisation also works on denouncement of the negative consequences of mining and energy mega projects in the region, such as the Cerrejón coal mine.
law2019programme724x1024.png

The full list of events are in the image / poster here

Details about each event are below:

DUBLIN – Conference – Women Defending the Earth from Destructive Mining

Time: Saturday April 6th, 10am-2pm

Location: Teacher’s Club, 36 Parnell Square West


For Latin America Week 2019, LASC are delighted to present this half-day conference – Women Defending the Earth from Destructive Mining: Examples from Latin America and Ireland. This event is free but we ask participants to register through Eventbrite.

Latin America has some of the world’s dirtiest and most dangerous extractive industries, such as mining, logging, and mega-dams. These extractive industries often impact the most on rural and indigenous communities, with severe negative consequences on local livelihoods, community cohesion and the environment. People who stand up against these powerful interests face persecution and sometimes murder – Latin America is the most dangerous region in the world to be an environmental and/or human rights defender. There is also gendered dimension to the impacts of extractivism, with women more affected than men, as they are so often responsible for care-giving in families and communities. Women also face additional threats as land and environmental defenders such as sexual violence.

Many of these extractive projects are driven by multinational corporations based in the Global North, with much of the material extracted also destined for consumption by Global North populations. Our keynote speaker, Jakeline Romero Epiayu, will be representing communities affected by the Cerrejón coal mine, Latin America’s largest open-cast coal mine, in La Guajira, Colombia. All of the coal from this mine is exported, the vast majority to European countries, including Ireland – where the ESB purchases this coal for energy production. Ireland is also home to the mine’s global sales company. LASC is part of a coalition of organisations raising awareness about this issue.

However even Global North countries like Ireland are becoming more affected by the global thirst for resources, caused by consumerism and unbridled corporate greed. Ireland has seen a threat of fracking – now successfully banned – and there is now a threat of gold mining in the Sperrins mountains in Co. Tyrone. However, the impacts of extractive projects are different between Global South and North, as is people’s capacity to resist these projects, as well as the consequences people face for defending their environment and livelihoods.

We will explore these issues with the following speakers:

Jakeline Romero Epiayu, Wayuu Women’s Force, Colombia

Jakeline Romero Epiayu is a Wayúu indigenous woman and human rights defender from the department of La Guajira, in the Northeast of Colombia. Jakeline has held the role of governer of the Zahino indigneous reserve/protected area and she forms part of local organisation Sütsuin Jieyuu Wayúu (Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu in Spanish Wayúu Women’s Force in English), which was founded in 2006 through an alliance between communities, rural settlements, and social processes with the objective of visibilising the violations of human and ethnic rights of communities in La Guajira. The organization has also led processes of denouncement of the negative consequences of mining and energy mega projects in the region, such as the Cerrejón mine. Because of its work, this organization has suffered systemic threats. In 2017, Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu received Colombia’s National Prize for the Defense of Human Rights.

Blanca Blanco, Trocaire

Blanca holds an MA in Development Studies from the former Development Studies Centre in Kimmage, Dublin, as well as an MA on Social Anthropology from the Research Institute of Social Anthropology in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico. She has worked in NGOs both in Ireland and Central America for almost twenty years, spending most of her time in Guatemala, where she was Trocaire’s Country Director. She is currently Trócaire´s global Resource Rights Advisor.

Fidelma O’Kane, Save our Sperrins, Northern Ireland

Fidelma O’Kane is a mother of four, retired lecturer and a member of Save Our Sperrins community group. SoS was formed to organise against a proposed goldmine which would use cyanide to extract gold from the Sperrin mountains. SoS and other community groups have set up a protest camp (Greencastle People’s Office), permanently peopled for over a year now. Fidelma is often invited by communities across the island of Ireland to speak about her community’s fight to protect their home.

Chair: Lynda Sullivan (LASC and Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland)

Lynda Sullivan campaigns on extractivism for Friends of the Earth NI and is a LASC committee member. She recently spent 5 years living with communities in Cajamarca, Peru and involved herself in their struggle to defend their land from what would have been the largest gold mine in Latin America. She previously worked in the human rights sector in Ireland, north and south and is a freelance writer.

You can find the event on Facebook here.
https://www.facebook.com/events/553381551735927/

CORK – Public talk – Colombia’s Cerrejón Mine: Impacts on Women and Indigenous Communities

Time: Tuesday April 9th, 6.30 – 8pm

Location: O’Rahilly Building Room G27, University College Cork


AND

GALWAY – Public talk – Colombia’s Cerrejón Mine: Impacts on Women and Indigenous Communities

Time: Wednesday April 10th, 1pm-2.30pm

Location: Seminar Room at the Irish Centre for Human Rights, NUI Galwa
y

Join us for a talk with Jakeline Romero Epiayu, an indigenous Wayúu woman and human rights defender from La Guajira, in the Northeast of Colombia. The region is home to the Cerrejón mine – Latin America’s largest open-cast coal mine, covering 690 square kilometers. It is owned by three of the largest mining companies in the world, and is causing untold environmental and social damages to the region and its people – 35 indigenous communities have been displaced by the mine.

Jakeline has held the role governer of the Zahino indigneous reserve/protected area and she forms part of local organisation Sütsuin Jieyuu Wayúu (Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu in Spanish Wayúu Women’s Force in English), which was founded in 2006 through an alliance between communities, rural settlements, and social processes with the objective of visibilising the violations of human and ethnic rights of communities in La Guajira. The organization has also led processes of denouncement of the negative consequences of mining and energy mega projects in the region, such as the Cerrejón mine. Because of its work, this organization has suffered systemic threats. In 2017, Fuerza de Mujeres Wayúu received Colombia’s National Prize for the Defense of Human Rights.

The Coordinator of the Latin America Solidarity Centre, Sian Cowman, will also speak to us about the direct connections between Ireland and the mining taking place in La Guajira. All of the coal from the Cerrejón mine is exported, the vast majority to European countries, including Ireland – where the ESB purchases this coal for energy production. Ireland is also home to the mine’s global sales company. LASC is part of a coalition of organisations raising awareness about this issue.

You can find the Facebook page for the Cork event here, https://www.facebook.com/events/1964547186948132/
and the Galway event here. https://www.facebook.com/events/259635458277389/

DUBLIN – Talk and Workshop – Corporate Impunity & Community Resistance – International Solidarity & the UN Binding Treaty

Time: Thursday April 11th, 6.30pm

Location: The Central Hotel, Exchequer St


This event is free but we ask participants to register through Eventbrite.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/corporate-impunity-community-resistance-the-un-binding-treaty-tickets-59523103204?aff=affiliate1

In the context of Latin America Week 2019, we invite you to an evening of discussion and debate on corporate impunity and international solidarity. Find out more about the efforts underway at the UN for a binding treaty on multinational corporations and human rights – and why even if successful it cannot be relied upon to hold back damaging corporate power. The evening will include voices from grassroots struggles in Latin America as well as organisations working on global campaigns trying to challenge and dismantle corporate power. There will also be a participative discussion on corporate power in the Irish context, and the limits, constraints and possibilities of current forms of solidarity work. What are we learning about international solidarity in the current political climate in Europe? What are the limitations of focusing on international policy? What new forms of more direct solidarity are emerging? What can we learn from them?

The Democracy Center together with the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power – led by the Transnational Institute (TNI) in Holland – are leading this event.
https://democracyctr.org/

You can find the event on Facebook here.
https://www.facebook.com/events/582125748929255/

DUBLIN – Poetry, Song and Struggle: Nicaragua – 1 Year of Resistance

Time: Saturday 13th April, 2.03pm

Location: Teacher’s Club, 36 Parnell Square West


Join us for the last event of Latin America Week, for an afternoon of poetry, song and performance to celebrate and mark a year of resistance to the Ortega-Murillo government in Nicaragua, and to reflect on the repression that has left so many dead, or afraid to return to their country. We will be joined by poets, artists and musicians from Ireland and Nicaragua, and will hear the stories of Nicaraguans who have been personally affected by the government crackdown.

You can find the Facebook event here and register to attend through Eventbrite here.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/579554652562954/
Eventbrite:https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/poetry-song-and-struggle-nicaragua-1-year-of-resistance-tickets-59228264333?aff=efbeventtix

Related Link: http://lasc.ie/news/latin-america-week-2019-programme/
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