Lean and mean but powerful muscle

Wow! The European Union Farmer's have a powerful Muscle although they are just 5% of the total population in Europe. That is the economics of interest groups.

Lean and mean, but not very popular Economist.com: THESE days, farmers account
for only about 5% of the population of Europe. Yet they manage to cause an astonishing amount of trouble. Few can boast of dismantling a McDonald’s and dumping the rubble in front of the town hall, as José Bové, a French farmer, famously did in 1999. But as a group, those who work the land have nearly succeeded in derailing the World Trade Organisation’s latest round of
negotiations. These have all but ground to a halt over the European Union’s refusal to consider deeper cuts to its lavish farm subsidies. And as the EU heads into an important summit next week, Tony Blair, Britain's prime minister, will try to keep Europe's farmers from taking the Union’s budget to pieces as well.

The new mkt place

Everything has a market. Gift cards have found a niche too. Interesting

Unwanted Presents Find Homes In the Online Gift-Card Marketplace: "It has the air of a mini
stock market: On Cardavenue.com yesterday, a $200 Best Buy gift card was going for $175 with less than a minute left to bid. Meanwhile, another user was looking to trade a $25 Gap card for one from eBay, Marshall's, Target, clothing store Guess or home furnishings store Tuesday Morning."

Nanotechnology and New Perils

The nanotechnology is amazing so are it's perils. Negative Externalities!

Nanotechnology Regulation Needed, Critics Say: "And a California team working with
laboratory-grown cells showed that carbon nanotubes specifically activate 'cell suicide genes.'
'Cell growth was retarded, and there was a doubling of cell deaths,' said study leader Fanqing Frank Chen of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Chen said factory exposures should be 'a big concern,' and added that many nanospheres are very stable and not likely to break down in the environment."

Pakistan Earthquake Damage Report

"First consolidated report has arrived from Asian Development Bank."

Where are Externalities? RIM vs NTP

I think RIM is being punished because they are Canadians. The ruling in RIM's case has failed to incorporate the idea of monopoly regulation and externalities and public goods criterion. Text messaging is a public service, lot of emergency response personals have been using it. I think RIM's technology is more advanced as compared to NTP. The decision has a weakness as well. It has not given enough time to people and firms to adopt PLAN B. You don't make a decision which has negative welfare consequences for the society.

Fearful Messagers Cross Their Thumbs: "everyone's taken notice; the word on the street is that
BlackBerry is in a jam,' said Bob Egan, director of emerging technology at Tower Group, a market analysis firm. He said he spoke with several financial and investment firms that are considering moving their e-mail computer servers to Canada, RIM's home country, in an attempt to avert the U.S shutdown. But no one has figured out if that would work, he said.
Wireless carriers that offer BlackBerry service declined to comment yesterday on their plans for handling customers if BlackBerry goes dark."

After four years of litigation, RIM suffered another legal defeat Wednesday when the judge denied its request to further delay a permanent injunction. RIM could be forced to shut down service to almost all 3.65 million U.S. customers, except the 10 percent who are government or emergency-service users. It could avoid that fate by settling with NTP, which analysts have predicted could cost as much as $2 billion.

By the way there is greed involved and the loss in business is not to RIM but to millions of people.

A Virginia court ruled Wednesday that a $450 million preliminary settlement between RIM and NTP Inc., which was signed in March, isn't binding.
NTP is now expected to seek an injunction preventing U.S. Blackberry sales and service, which could force RIM to pay more to settle.

Canadian economy may benefit as many firms may plan to move part of their IT offices to Canada as the news report suggests.

Amazing advancements in science

Though ethical questions need to be resolved yet these are amazing advancements in science. We expect a huge socio-economic research in this area as well.

Doctors perform first partial face transplant - More Health News - MSNBC.com: "LYON, France - Doctors in France said they had performed the world's first partial face transplant, forging the way into a risky medical frontier by operating on a woman disfigured by a dog bite."

Related
Dubernard led teams that performed a hand transplant in 1998 and the world’s first double forearm transplant in January 2000.