Recommended Readings 080720 ~ On Mobiles, Malaria, Africa, Asia, Canines, Collaboration, Platforms, Charisma, Overspending, Age, Trust...

Some readable morsels this week...

• Pascal Zachary writes in the NYTimes from Inside Nairobi, The Next Palo Alto? about the boom in mobile phone programming and innovation in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. (If you're interested in this, I suggest looking into Nathan Eagle's EPROM effort.)
• Mark Schoofs writes in the WSJ that the Clinton Foundation Sets Up Malaria-Drug Price Plan. They're bringing market-mechanisms and supply-consistency in an effort to reduce price instability and hence producer uncertainty. There's still work to be done, of course, but this is an exciting step.
• Interesting interview by Andrew Davidson of the Sunday Times entitled On a mission to save Africa of Richard Harvey, former boss of British insurer Aviva, who quit to pursue charitable works in Malawi and Kenya. His mission now is to get business to help solve more of Africa's problems.
• Michael O'Hanlon writes in the USAToday about Vietnam's model for N. Korea, surveying the evolution of former Cold War enemy to emerging Asian tiger economy and imagining parallels up north.
• Just in time for the Olympics, China bans dogs as food from restaurants. Not dog food, nor hot dogs, but actual canine cuisine. Too bad, I actually was looking forward to tasting a roast of Rover.
• Andrew Stone of the Sunday Times spotlights Andrew Ritchie, founder of Brompton Bicycle, who found others to work with in creating his folding bike for commuters.
• Lindsay Brooke writes in the NYTimes about Mr. Ford's T: Mobility With Versatility, spotlighting the hundreds of add-on and specialization kits reinforcing the value of the Model T core-platform. Reminds me of mobile phones as the platform of today. (And some people still think the whole "pimp your ride" movement is novel!-) Definitely checkout the online photo slideshow of Model T variations.
• In his Critical Faculties column, Mark Oppenheimer writes Charm School: Scholars unpack the secrets of charisma, and suggest the elusive quality can be taught.
• Good to see Peter Peterson, co-founder of Blackstone Group spending a pile of his coins to create a documentary entitled I.O.U.S.A. to provoke politicians into spending less than they extort from society in taxes.
• Anemona Hartocollis writes in the NYTimes about the very welcome Rise Seen in Medical Efforts To Improve Very Long Lives (or Treat the Very Old).
• In Afghanistan, Getting to Know The Neighbors Is Half the Battle writes Michael Phillips in the WSJ about the role of trust in nation-building.