National Health Care System Costs vs. Efficiency

See the Huffington Post Infographics at The Most Efficient Health Care Systems In The World.

The Economics of Adaptability: Resistance to Necessary Change as a Formula for Failure: Detroit and the USA as an Example

Stephan Richter of The Globalist has it right at the New York Times in What Really Ails Detroit.

America has lost its traditional ability to welcome "change" and to use it for progress. In an age of globalization, the widespread resistance to desperately necessary change in the USA is a formula for failure.

What Really Ails Detroit

Euro Zone Recovering from Recession

The German Spiegel Online writes that Recession Ending: Euro Zone Shows Growth in Second Quarter.

Europa Universalis 4 Release Update

Europa Universalis 4 Release Update 

The game is apparently to be released in little more than an hour,
i.e. ca. 3 p.m. German time August 13, at one portal (steampowered)
that we examined.

No guarantees are made for this non-sponsored information.

European Alert! Europa Universalis IV To Be Released August 16 With Software Bonuses for Pre-Orders: The History of Europe as a Game for Gamers, Education (?), and Europeans in General

For all lovers of European history
and especially for gamers (or those with gamers in the family),
we pass along the non-sponsored information that

Europa Universalis IV 

is scheduled to be released on August 16 (Update: game apparently to be released in a little more than an hour, i.e. ca. 3 p.m. German time August 13 at one portal that we examined!)
and that pre-orders appear to be rewarded with bonus software.

We make no guarantees about either the release date or the bonus software,
because we do not know how the various software selling portals handle that.

European Union Parliament Elections in 2014 To Change Membership Due to EU Expansion: Germany to Lose 3 MEPs

See How many MEPs will each country get after European Parliament elections in 2014?

Will WhatsApp Surpass Facebook Down the Road?

WhatsApp is an app we use daily
and it seems to us
to be the communication application of choice
among young people
so that we see WhatsApp
surpassing Facebook down the road
in the number of users,
especially given its now announced addition of voice.

See The Verge at WhatsApp adds voice messaging as it hits 300 million monthly active users.

Hat tip to CaryGEE.

Is an ESSENTIAL Patent Worth Less Than a Frivolous Patent? Obama Administration Overturns ITC Import Ban of Apple Products Violating Foreign Patents

When is a patent worth MORE
and when is a patent worth LESS?

Well, if you follow the patent wars closely, you find that ESSENTIAL patents, i.e. real inventions that are essential to technology are, surprisingly, worth LESS

while

frivolous patents of questionable authenticity are, again surprisingly, worth MORE.

What other conclusion can be drawn from the Obama administration

overturning an ITC import ban of certain Apple products for patent violations, a decision based on the argument that the patents in question are ESSENTIAL to technology,

while leaving intact a billion-dollar judgment in California -- in favor of Apple -- based on a frivolous NON-ESSENTIAL "bounce back, rubber-band" patent, obvious as it was, and arguably stolen as it was, from Atari's PONG anyway.

Beyond that elementary patent distinction, we have a divided opinion on this executive patent action of the Obama administration.

We have been writing for quite some time now at LawPundit about the absurdity of permitting the ITC, a non-judicial agency, to issue import bans based on their interpretation of patent infringement, since we regard the interpretation of the validity and infringement of patents to be an area ONLY within the jurisdiction of courts of the U.S. judiciary. See Constitutional Law: Non Article III Courts Encroaching Upon Essential Attributes of Judicial Power Contrary to U.S. Supreme Court Precedents : ITC Again Plays Judge and Jury on Patents.

The current state of affairs was thus predictable, given the increasing number of import bans issued by the ITC. One ban was inevitably bound not to hit foreign industry, but rather to have a strong impact on a domestic company.

But we find clearly that this was the WRONG case for the executive branch to clamp down on the ITC and to say that enough is enough.

They should have done that long ago when the ITC started to meddle in the patent field.

As it is, this whole thing again smacks not of LAW, but rather of government by the home field advantage, much as the woeful Apple patent cases in their own back yard in Cupertino. A travesty of law and justice.

The above cited Financial Times FT article by Richard Waters on Obama overturns Apple import ban quotes lawyer Susan Kohn Ross, who reportedly stated:

"It could be viewed as the US favouring US companies. Frankly, every other country does it, so why shouldn’t the US?"

So, there you have it, "economic trade protectionism" using the "home field advantage" under the guise of patent law.