She May Be the Face...

Ladies, be advised you are under pressure to set aside posturing, tantrums et al...

A DIY Public Food Ratings Site

With a keen interest in AI/LLM I recently built out a website analysing 6 County data originating from the Food Standards Agency API https://www.food.gov.uk/ - this is under Open Government License https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

The FSA operates a rating scheme where public health officials visit food establishments and rate them. In the North this comprises almost 17,000 establishments - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Please visit my https://publicfoodratings.com/

Technology Stack

• Python & Flask
• Backend API and web framework
• Google Cloud Platform
• BigQuery, Cloud Run, Vertex AI
• BigQuery 
• Data warehouse and analytics
• JavaScript & Bootstrap
• Frontend and responsive design
• Vertex AI
• Machine learning and predictions
• Enterprise Security
• Google Cloud security standards

The rise of the LLM and its foray into coding has created interesting opportunities for those who wish to build out something in an area that they find of interest.

Although the Integrated Development Environment has been around a while we now see the incorporation or twinning with code aware Large Language Models. This may enhance developer productivity through features like code generation, autocompletion, debugging and codebase understanding. On the other hand it may only lead to bad code but certainly to more competing ideologies. 

In this case I used an IDE called Cursor - https://cursor.com/ in combination with Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT.

Each of the LLM have their own idiosyncrasies, e.g. 

• for navigating / deploying Google Cloud I believe that Gemini knows its way through the labyrinth  
• to temper the impetuousness of Cursor you could use Claude to issue instructions in very controlled terms (and make backups)

For the above graphic I asked ChatGPT to produce an abstract composite of my tech stack using a vibrant palette 

REXCO the Revolutionary Executive Committee for Coordination & Oversight

 In 1995 I registered Rexco.com with Network Solutions, an early WayBackMachine capture is dated 20.Dec.1996. Alas the domain lapsed in 1999 during a botched transfer to Tucows.

On this 30 year anniversary I’m celebrating by transforming REXCO into the Revolutionary Executive Committee for Coordination and Oversight - a fictional planning bureau documenting humanity's transition from 2025 to 2055 through six increasingly absurd / realistic Five Year Plans.

Visit rexco.com.
Read the Prohibition of Bloatware Press Release
Check the footnotes on On Departures Relaxation

Why Soviet aesthetics? Because every tech startup's "disruption" is just central planning with better fonts. Every smart city is a digital kolkhoz (collective farm). Every AI governance framework recreates the bureaucracy it claims to eliminate. The turnips or us peasants, as always, don't care.

The Premise Is Simple

REXCO administers impossible futures through impossible documents. Climate collapse becomes Emergency Mobilization Protocols. AI consciousness becomes the Species Transition Framework. Interstellar missions launch while Earth's zones fragment into high-tech and low-tech holdouts. Each plan fails forward into the next crisis.

I'll turn 100 in 2055 so the final plan concludes after my birthday. The archive exists at rexco.com no WordPress, no frameworks, just HTML files in folders loading in under 100ms, per our own Prohibition of Bloatware directive.

Why This Matters Now

We're drowning in prediction. Every consultancy has a 2030 vision. Every government has a net-zero pathway. Every CEO has an AI strategy. But nobody admits the fundamental truth: we're all just making documents about futures that won't arrive as ordered.

REXCO admits this. Every press release contains its own contradiction. Every plan includes its failure. Every peasant quote reminds us that soil preceded committees and will outlast them.

The Claude Collaboration

This project emerged from conversations with Claude about Kondratiev waves, Kohei Saito's degrowth communism and whether using Soviet imagery trivializes historical suffering.

Read the full launch article on my Talking To Claude

The Great Refugee Scam

Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth Purchase Orders for €20,000 or above available at the link below, (please note that links open in new tabs).

Given time pressures I may not be able to create further articles on various aspects / anomalies & analysis of the companies concerned. I plan to take a retrospective look at historical Quarters from the Dept and to file Freedom of Information requests. The easy way to follow this progress would be via X/Twitter, if they restore my account)

https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-children-disability-and-equality/collections/department-of-children-equality-disability-integration-and-youth-purchase-orders-for-20000-or-above/#2025

This lists payments over €20k with regard to Dept costs, a total of €415.8M for this Quarter 1
This is in pdf form, I have converted this to xlsx and google sheets, the Google sheet version is here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1SVrtPJWoVKeD7t1IKQzGPwBChaIucU3m/edit?gid=145650989#gid=145650989

Note: that there may be payments here not attributable to the refugee or international accommodation aspects but to other Departmental costs. It will most likely require a FoI request to obtain the granular detail. 

Given the fact that the top 5 gross out at €52.4M that leaves approx €363.3M for further analysis

I conducted analysis of the approx 2000 payments using Anthropic Claude AI - there are three presentations one for each of Jan, Feb,Mar together with some commentary.

Serious Issues

Whilst there are serious issues here these could be said to be primary:

1. a number of the Irish companies are what is known as Unlimited, this means they do not file detailed accounts
2. a number of the companies appear to be 'related' in some way to other companies on the list
3. most criticaly a number of the companies are overseas, Isle of Man and others. This means no % of their profits flow to Ireland as taxation.
4. the ownership of those overseas companies appears nebulous at best

Refugee housing contracts are being awarded to offshore companies, this raises multiple risks:

• No local accountability,
• Profit extraction with no reinvestment,
• Tax evasion or avoidance,
• Reduced transparency about who owns or controls the properties,
• Potential human rights compliance failures with no enforcement recourse.

Under EU Procurement rules Ireland can legitimately exclude IOM Companies

• The Isle of Man is not part of the EU, not part of the EEA, and not a party to the EU public procurement regime.
• It is a British Crown Dependency, but excluded from the UK–EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) for procurement unless expressly included — which it is not.
• Therefore, Irish contracting authorities have no obligation to treat Isle of Man firms as eligible bidders under EU procurement law.

Circa 600 Unique Entities

There are circa 600 unique entities on the list and I have begun to drill down into their data. I would be happy to take 100 of these.

Perhaps there are volunteers out there who would take 50 or 100 each. Please use my contact form here to get in touch. https://www.dd.ie/p/contact.html

I do have an X account for 19 years under my pseudonym Drax but I am currently being restricted. https://x.com/Drax because of what X deems unacceptable commentary in the context of the genocide in Palestine & the total disregard for international law given the attacks on Iran.

Brief Overview

Full 'analysis' of this aspect here:

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/b89c84e0-9b91-477c-a2e2-0eb68da2a31c

Full Analysis for Jan 2025

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/252f31af-8629-4689-b811-e84dbe2ec48a

Full Analysis for Feb 2025
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/91e68f1b-b0c8-46e5-ba99-ea60f42aa5be

Full Analysis for Mar 2025
https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/8db362cb-8250-483b-ad86-ef28e25ce8b7

Top 5 Data Anomalies Identified:

1. Duplicate Payment Anomaly
Campbell Catering Ltd has multiple identical payments on the same dates:
4 identical payments of €148,512.65 on 23/01/2025 (Ukraine program)
2 identical payments of €459,028.29 on 20/02/2025 (IP program)
2 identical payments of €377,451.99 on 20/03/2025 (IP program)
Suggests possible data entry errors or unusual payment splitting practices

2. Extreme Payment Variation Anomaly

Several vendors show suspicious payment amount ranges:
Bridgestock Care Limited: €26,460 to €1,937,811 (73x difference)
Allpro Security Services: €26,599 to €1,920,466 (72x difference)
Travelodge Hotels: €64,288 to €2,675,003 (42x difference)
Such extreme variations within single vendors may indicate billing errors or misclassifications

3. Payment Clustering Anomaly

Unusual concentration of payments on specific dates:
13/02/2025: 196 payments (potential bulk processing)
20/03/2025: 140 payments
12/03/2025: 113 payments
May indicate batch processing dates rather than actual service delivery dates

4. Cross-Program Activity Anomaly 

Vendors serving both Ukraine and IP programs simultaneously:
Allpro Security: €2.5M Ukraine vs €3.5M IP
Bridgestock Care: €200K Ukraine vs €6.6M IP
Multiple other vendors operating across both programs
Could indicate operational flexibility or potential misallocation between programs

5. Payment Amount Outlier Anomaly

Payments significantly above normal patterns:
Several payments exceed €5M (e.g., Cape Wrath's €11.6M total in March)
Abbeytrill Sagcon: Consistent €700K+ payments monthly
Outliers >€559K threshold appearing regularly
May indicate institutional contracts or potential data validation issues

Given the recent debaucle over payment of pensions to fomer State employees it would come as no surprise if 'mistakes' were being made. Howver these may just be operational anomalies. A request under the Freedom of Information will be required for clarification.

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Ends

Happy Russia Day

 

Absurdist Play in Four Unverified Loops

The AI Intern Who Hired the AI Extern

Genre: Absurdist Play in Four Unverified Loops
By Des Donnelly

 https://open.substack.com/pub/desdonnelly/p/the-ai-intern-who-hired-the-ai-extern?r=mymu&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Death & Palestine

 Speak out, so you can face your children with integrity when they ask about these events in Palestine.

Or join the cowards and bought politicians on the island of Ireland if you want - but death will come to your door one way or another.