Recommended Readings...

Some interesting reads lately...

• The Economist spotlights a new bio by Simon Winchester of a brit historiographer Joseph Needham whose epic series Science and Civilization in China changed Western understanding of the tremendous advances (and curious stagnation) of the Middle Kingdom.
• Same Economist discusses the latest wave of Asian navy building -- an unfortunate misuse of precious money -- but does point out the remarkable Chinese treasure fleets of the 15th century which mysteriously, suddenly were ordered homeported with seafaring banned. The global voyages of discovery which thus did not continue are one of history's great might have beens!
• Economist Technology Quarterly has many tasty morsels including a survey of Desalination and a bio-piece on Jimbo Wales of Wikipedia fame.
• Newsweek writes about the Revenge of the Nerdette: Nerd Girls are smart, techie, and "hot".
• NYTimes cover story entitled For English Studies, Koreans Say Goodbye to Dad on Korean kids so passionate about learning English they go with Mom to New Zealand and leave Dad in Seoul.
• Very misleading FT article on MBA students entitled Sustainability not a priority for students with rather tepid commentary from MIT Sloan Dean Schmittlein. Must have been crappy questions because if the bottom line is that "The survey found 93 per cent of students feel the sustainability movement creates strong opportunities. About half plan to start their own businesses" then how can the title possibly be legit?
• Ethan Zuckerman on the Architecture of Serendipity which discusses, among other things, the powerful role of editors in influencing societal priorities by virtue of what's top-story and cover-page and what's elsewhere.
• On Slow Leadership has an interesting post entitled Many of My Most Useful Skills I Owe to Serendipity which I found through Existence is Wonderful
  
• I agree with Africa Unchained's Emeka Okafor's Extracting Intelligence from its People about Tom Friedman's NYT column recently. (And, for that matter, recommend many of the other blog entries...)
• Marginal Revolution surveys Elisabeth Pisani's The Wisdom of Whores
• Greg Mankiw points out some humorously obvious economic essentials, including Law of Demand and So You Want To Be Fair;-)