The number of American filers for U.S. patents, the global standard for protecting intellectual property, was five times the number of British, French, and German filers combined in 2010.

FORBES: The United States Need Not Become Europe

Overrewarding employees ranges from protecting employees from natural consequences, excusing them from standard practices, making exceptions to prop up their performance, to outright promoting them in spite of outlandish past behavior or history with the company.

FORBES: The 'Charlie Sheen' In Your Workplace Did Not Come from Mars -- Your Very Own Leadership Team Created Him

We think the IEEE 1680.1 standard could be a much stronger force for protecting the environment if it were upgraded to include advancements like these.

ENGADGET: Bob Mansfield: 'all eligible Apple products are back on EPEAT'

The most common means of protecting Wi-Fi networks, the Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption standard, or WEP, was broken in 2001.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Items at the bottom of the list include improving the standard of living in poor countries, helping to spread democracy and protecting weak nations against foreign aggression.

ECONOMIST: View from the summit