Here in California, a jury enters a third day of deliberations in the smartphone/tablet copyright battle between Apple and Samsung. But today in South Korea, a court facing the some of the same questions issued its ruling.

The court ruled today that Apple infringed on two of Samsung’s technology patents in a couple of its products. And Samsung violated one of Apple’s patents in one of its products

U.S. durable goods orders jumped more than 4 percent in July. Those are purchases of big ticket items like computers, refrigerators and airplanes. Durable goods are often interpreted as a way to track business spending.

Not strictly business news, of course, but cycling legend Lance Armstrong has been stripped of all seven of his Tour de France titles after ending his longstanding fight against doping allegations. There is no way to view this situation as good for Lance Armstrong.

But it’s worth noting that in doing so, he admits… nothing. He also spares himself a public airing of evidence and — maybe — an outright loss. To the extent this was a business decision, it might have been the smart one.

$700 million. That’s the cost of two weather satellites that were scheduled to go up this morning — NASA scrubbed the launch until tomorrow. The satellites are meant not to track the weather down here, but the weather up there, in space.

Tired of trying to make sense of fickle polls? Some academics prefer to cut straight to the data. Using economic and other factors, can you forecast who will win?

Yesterday we featured a model known as “Bread and Peace” that strongly projects Romney will win. Today: another model with a near-spotless record, this time from Allan Lichtman, a historian at American University.