In group decision making, those who are most confident tend to win, even if they are confident because they don't understand the issue.

Syriza talks about holding new elections if the eurozone's plutocrats reject its plans to end austerity in Greece.

The criticism of Syriza by Dr Bastian amounts to, "Syriza isn't playing ball with the plutocrats as it's supposed to."

Obama criticized Republican senators for "wanting to make common cause with the hardliners in Iran".

It is a valid point. Taking something important hostage and threatening to ruin it is standard Republican tactics, but this takes them further than usual.

The Cape Wind wind power farm is ready to proceed.

However, this is not the sort of urgency that we need if we are to avoid causing global heating disaster.

Islamist Egyptian rebels continue attacking regime forces in the Sinai.

These rebels want to impose a theocratic dictatorship, in place of the current military dictatorship that imposes unjust Islamic law in a less strict form. On the other hand, they seem to be more principled than PISSI: they only attack regime thugs and soldiers, not civilians.

I cheered the Egyptians who overthrew Mubarak to win freedom. Now Egypt has a choice between two forms of tyranny, each worse than the other.