Sometimes being mad is a good thing. An Oxford scientist suggests we should all learn to act a little crazy

My father was a market trader in London. I used to help him when I should have been at school. "You'll learn more on the stall than you ever will in a classroom," he used to say. And in my case he was probably right. One evening, after shutting up shop, we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. As we were paying the bill, Dad said: "Kev, if there's one thing I want you to remember in life, it's this: Persuasion ain't about getting people to do what they don't want to do. It's about giving people a reason to do what they do want to do. Watch and learn."

He picked up a spoon and tinkled it against his glass. Suddenly, the room fell silent. Dad got to his feet.

"I'd just like to thank everyone for coming," he announced. "I'm aware that some of you hail from just around the corner and that others have made the journey from much further afield. But I want you to know that you are all most welcome, and that it's very much appreciated. Oh, and that there's a small reception in the King's Arms across the road after you've finished. Thanks once again, and see you in the pub!"

With that, he started to clap ... as did everyone else - a restaurant full of strangers whom we'd never seen before, who'd never seen each other before, all applauding wildly because they didn't want to be seen to be the gate crashers.

"We're not really going to the pub are we?" I muttered, as we barreled out the door. "Course not," said Dad. "But they are - and my old mate Malcolm has just taken over as landlord. He'll make a few quid tonight!"

CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli, who is credited with helping to launch the tea party movement, flew into a rage on Tuesday after he was asked to defend his apparent suggestion that the most recent jobs report had been doctored to help President Barack Obama get re-elected.

Former GE CEO Jack Welch on Friday spawned a "jobs truthers" front after he tweeted that an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent was "unbelievable," and added that the "Chicago guys" in Obama's campaign headquarters "will do anything..can't debate so change numbers."

"I would never send a tweet like Jack Welch and I respect Jack," Santelli said on Friday. "That's why last month, I said that it would be below 8 percent right before the election. That's why I said it. I don't say things I can't prove, that was my prediction. I will leave it at that."

"I can't prove that it was fudged," the CNBC on-air editor insisted, refusing to distance himself from conservative skepticism about the jobs report. "I do find that that's the common question on the trading floor. It is what it is."

The only way to explain the Nobel Committee awarding the EU the Peace Prize at this sensitive juncture in history is to say that it is a smokescreen; a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from the crimes of the central bankers and their political henchmen. All of this is reminiscent of the uproar that followed last year's Nobel announcement that Barack Obama was the Peace Prize winner despite the fact that the US military was hunkered down on two fronts and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility was still in the torture business.

These once-proud nations have been transformed into hyper-dependent appendages of Brussels, who will probably not hesitate to send NATO forces to collect its monthly rent check.

For the millions of Europeans now protesting against brutal austerity measures, awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union must seem no less unthinkable had the Committee of Five handed their tarnished trophy to Anders Breivik, the nationalist who indiscriminately killed 77 people last year in a madman's attempt to save Norway "from the menace of multiculturalism."

From UPI

"A Cyber-Pearl Harbor that would cause physical destruction and the loss of life, an attack that would paralyze and shock the nation and create a profound new sense of vulnerability."

Panetta, during a speech at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York, said his response was to increased aggressiveness and technological advances by America's adversaries, identified as China, Russia, Iran and militant groups, The New York Times reported.

"An aggressor nation or extremist group could use these kinds of cyber tools to gain control of critical switches," Panetta said. "They could derail passenger trains, or even more dangerous, derail passenger trains loaded with lethal chemicals. They could contaminate the water supply in major cities, or shut down the power grid across large parts of the country."

However, as Michael Tanji, writing for Wired, pointed out over two years ago, the electric grid and the public water supply are not at all vulnerable to a cyber attack, despite what Mr. Panetta may say to incite fear in the ill-informed populous. Instilling fear isn't enough though, as The Secretary of Defense alluded to Congress' failure to pass Cybersecurity legislation.

In a classic Hagelian Dialectic situation, the government has provided us with the problem of cybersecurity, will likely stage something that approximates an attack which can be blamed on enemies, and then will offer the solution--a heavily regulated internet, stripped of any freedom or anonymity.

This has all played out before. Prior to 9/11, in that barely recognizable world, a neocon think tank came up with a plan to impose Western hegemony throughout the world, while subjugating Americans under a brand new scripted and imaginary threat. All that was needed, according to the authors, was "some catastrophic and catalyzing event--like a new Pearl Harbor."

For the second time in as many presidential elections, Joseph Biden got to debate a young, attractive Republican candidate who was demonstrably less qualified to to be president than I am to be chairman of the World Bank. Joseph Biden is a very lucky man. The Great Political Matchmaker in the Sky keeps handing him people who are trying - and failing - to fight above their weight class, and he keeps blowing through what can now legitimately be called the Bum of the Quadrennium Club.

Flaws in a national databank that helps determine the value of houses across Canada have helped fuel inflation in home prices, putting mortgage lenders and borrowers at greater risk, key players in the housing sector have warned.

Documents obtained by The Globe and Mail detailing confidential statements from banks, appraisers and mortgage insurers show rising worry over the use of a database operated by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The documents suggest the data are flawed and help push home prices up.

Introduced in 1996 as a way for the CMHC, banks and other lenders to quickly and inexpensively determine how much money can be lent against a residential property, the database known as Emili is relied upon too heavily by lenders, the documents suggest.

Video from a training session teaching Zionist trolls how to edit and influence Wikipedia and other online sources.

The battle over Alberta's oil sands is spreading east as governments in Quebec and the eastern U.S. are confronted with aggressive moves by western crude producers to access new markets.

The oil industry's critics in Quebec and Maine are gearing up for a fight over existing plans and potential projects that would reverse the flow of oil in a cross-border pipeline network in order to carry crude from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries in Quebec and perhaps as far as the U.S. East Coast.

While mediation efforts are still going on, it's the last chance for the GNC to act wisely and correct itself by first annual its notorious decision and immediately activate the long overdue national reconciliation process, insists Mustafa Fetouri.

The siege of Bani Walid, 180 km, south west of Tripoli has been in place for nearly two weeks now. It was publically authorized, encouraged and approved by Libya's newly elected General National Conference GNC. Reports from inside the city speak of increasingly depleted supplies of food, water, and other necessities. Sporadic indiscriminate rocket bombardments are daily routine especially round the east of the city. Al-Mardoum valley, the closest to the front line have so been under daily fire killing five civilians and injuring a dozen so far. Libyan rights groups joined hands their international counterparts in condemning the siege calling on the Libyan authority to lift it immediately. Amnesty International in particular has been at the forefront of calls to lift the siege and allow supplies to enter the city as well as free movement of people into and out of the Bani Walid.

Home to Libya's largest tribe Bani Walid has been the safest cities in Libya since the war ended last October. The local population attribute this to the fact that no militias are able to enter the city from outside and only its own people volunteered to protect it. They are organized in local defense committees in charge of daily security, checkpoints on the outskirts of the city. Having seen what the revolutionary brigades have done to their houses, farm land, and other personal properties when then entered the city last October local were determined not to let any armed individuals to enter their city again.