The Week Unpeeled
Big news week all around, with headlines too close to home on the shooting outside the Empire State Building on Friday to a big week for Apple, which first became the largest US company ever by market-cap value, besting Microsoft at nearly $625 billion, making the company an economic but also social powerhouse. Apple then won a “sweeping victory” in its court battle against Samsung ($1.05 billion in damages) when jurors found Samsung infringed on several patent issues, which may affect how competing smartphones are designed.
Elsewhere:
- Prince Harry exposes himself and most of the media did anything but help him cover up, despite palace warnings (pleas) to keep what happened in Vegas for Harry in Vegas;
- Lance Armstrong was stripped of all his record seven Tour de France titles after announcing that he will no longer fight anti-charges against him (and The Wall Street Journal on Saturday distastefully repeated a joke from one comic on Lance that he now doubts “Amstrong’s story that he walked on the moon” even though Neil Amstrong had just died);
- The Dow declined for the week despite a Friday rally to end to close down 0.9 percent to 13,157;
- “The Office” announced that it this was its last season and that Dwight no doubt will end up a beet farmer;
- Phyllis Diller, American comedienne died, and Augusta National admitted its first two female members (In interesting juxtaposition, a Diller tribute on the front page of The New York Times Tuesday showed a picture of Ms Diller pointing right and apparently laughing to the neighboring story on Masters story on finally admitting women;
- The U.K. economy shrank less than initially estimated in the second quarter after construction and production output were revised to show a smaller slump;
- Thousands of Aviva's UK employees are in fear for their jobs after the FTSE 100 insurer released a statement warning it could currently guarantee only 70pc of their jobs;
- Standard & Poor's has downgraded its outlook for HSBC Holdings from stable to negative. HSBC has already set aside $700m (£442m) to cover potential fines for channeling funds from countries such as Iran, Mexico and Syria, in breach of US anti-money laundering regulations; and
- Diageo, the world's biggest producer of spirits, has reported a big jump in annual profits, thanks in part to strong sales and acquisitions in emerging markets.
This past Friday, July 20, marked the anniversary of Neil Armstrong’s famous moon landing. Before this date in 1969, what we knew of space came from the minds of authors and directors, such as 
