Scrolling around...August 20, 2012

Apple is now the most valuable company of all time.
...The stock recently rose 1.8% at $660, pushing Apple’s market capitalization up to $619 billion, FactSet data show. The previous historical record for top market cap belonged to Microsoft, whose market value topped out at $616.3 billion in December 1999, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices...

Nigeria: Armed Muslims attack church and police station
AGI, August 20: Abuja - This morning an armed commando attacked a Catholic church and a police station in Damagun. The city lies 30 km from Damaturu, the capital of the Federal State of Yobe, in North-Eastern Nigeria. The attack, local authorities explained, was fended off by the police forces that had been deployed in the area after a car-bombing attack against a school on Sunday...

Newsweek: Obama’s Gotta Go
...Mitt Romney is not the best candidate for the presidency I can imagine. But he was clearly the best of the Republican contenders for the nomination. He brings to the presidency precisely the kind of experience—both in the business world and in executive office—that Barack Obama manifestly lacked four years ago. (If only Obama had worked at Bain Capital for a few years, instead of as a community organizer in Chicago, he might understand exactly why the private sector is not “doing fine” right now.) And by picking Ryan as his running mate, Romney has given the first real sign that—unlike Obama—he is a courageous leader who will not duck the challenges America faces.
The voters now face a stark choice. They can let Barack Obama’s rambling, solipsistic narrative continue until they find themselves living in some American version of Europe, with low growth, high unemployment, even higher debt—and real geopolitical decline.
Or they can opt for real change: the kind of change that will end four years of economic underperformance, stop the terrifying accumulation of debt, and reestablish a secure fiscal foundation for American national security...