The Core

Panda update the day before

http://searchengineland.com/google-panda-update-20-released-2-4-of-english-queries-impacted-135291

>>  Their only weapon to defend against their inability to create a fair search engine.

The sad part is that they are totally capable of creating a fair SE. But they'd have to give up some control to do it, and that's what they can't face, it seems. They are trying to build a walled garden so big, you don't even know you're in it, because you can't see the walls

Not too surprising - they just repeat what G tells them

looks to me like the EMD update was real, but may have been rolled back slightly over the past few days/week.

Anyone else seen any recent shifts for EMDs?

Yep. Seen improvements recently, not across the board but in a few instances there appears to have been a roll back to levels not far off prior rankings.