The FCC has made it official. It has released an order that requires participants in the Emergency Alert System EAS, namely broadcasters, cable operators, and certain satellite providers, to participate in the first-ever national test of EAS. This test will differ starkly from the monthly EAS tests the public is familiar with. In this instance, the White House will actually activate the test as if the President wanted to take over the air waves to address the nation. No specific date for the test was set, although as it stands, a two-month notice will be provided.

It's fracking. This time for oil. "A new drilling technique is opening up vast fields of previously out-of-reach oil in the western United States, helping reverse a two-decade decline in domestic production of crude."

'In what can be the "Holy Grail" moment for the peak oil movement, Wikileaks has just released 4 cables that may confirm that as broadly speculated by the peak oil "fringe", the theories about an imminent crude crunch may be in fact true. As the Guardian reports on 4 just declassified cables, "The US fears that Saudi Arabia, the world's largest crude oil exporter, may not have enough reserves to prevent oil prices escalating, confidential cables from its embassy in Riyadh show. The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%."'

'...the line of the night as usual belonged to Faber: "We have a big debate in the world whether we will have a deflationary collapse or an inflationary boom...usually after a period of very heavy money printing war follows." That is the philosophical gist of it. As for Faber's recommendation, it is precisely the asset which has become a short-seller's nightmare in the current geopolitically fragile environment: oil. "Whether you are very bullish or very bearish you should invest in oil."'

Wells Fargo offers no explanation for the blackout that silenced 9,500 ATMs from New York to Minnesota on Monday. The bank's "failure to communicate" to its depositors made matters worse, in spite of its public relations outreach to mass media. "There has been a rash of bank outages recently. In September, millions of people who bank online with J.P. Morgan Chase lost online access to their accounts for more than a day after the bank's website crashed due to a technical glitch. A similar outage occurred last month at Bank of America. "'However, the nationwide ATM outage at Wells Fargo is more serious,' Bob Landry, vice president of Mercator Advisory banking group, said, 'because so many people rely on them to dispense cash at all hours of the day.' "'It's a brand promise,'" Landry said. "'If it's 4 a.m. in the morning, and you're on your way to the airport, you expect that cash will be there. ... I'm sure some heads will roll.'"

The cables, released by WikiLeaks, urge Washington to take seriously a warning from a senior Saudi government oil executive that the kingdom's crude oil reserves may have been overstated by as much as 300bn barrels – nearly 40%.

US diplomat convinced by Saudi expert that reserves of world's biggest oil exporter have been overstated by nearly 40%

A massive blackout of Wells Fargo ATM's from New York to Minnesota left thousands of Wells Fargo customers angry and frustrated as the blackout continued through the end of regular banking hours on Monday the 7th of February. Wells Fargo is the fourth largest bank in the United States, serving one in three Minnesota households. Wells Fargo customers had access to their accounts through online banking and other banks' ATM's -- at additional costs. Wells Fargo has not yet assured customers that it will reimburse them for the additional fees that the blackout caused. The cause of the blackout remained undisclosed to the StarTribune's readers at press time.

Thousands protest against Berlusconi in Italy due to corruption and sex scandals. “Berlusconi go away! You steal our dignity!”

The U.S. Congress, at President Obama's request, recently passed the largest military spending bill of all time in behalf of the share prices of the military/security complex, while many of the 50 states teeter on bankruptcy and default on pensions and municipal bonds and slash education, medical, and other services. For "our" government in Washington, it is a no-brainer that the profits of the military-security complex take every precedence over every need of the American people.