England’s Civil Aviation Authority has again shown that mobile phones ‘a danger to aircraft’, as reported in this BBC story. Effects included triggering false cockpit warnings and malfunctioning of other systems. The story also mentions a man who was sentenced to a year in prison after refusing to turn off his mobile phone. He made no calls, but just having the phone on was danger enough.

I don’t know why I was suprised to find out there’s a whole genre of music called “Right Wing Rock.” An example: Poker Face – Political Protest Rock. I couldn’t bring myself to listen to the music. Who knows… it may actually be good.

I just heard the the Supreme Court has struck down the Violence Against Women Act , or at least the portion of the act that lets women victims of violence sue their attackers in federal court. I imagine that there’s going to be an uproar over this, and most of the uproar will miss the point of the decision, I predict. The US Constitution clearly defines what the federal government has the power to legistate, and really, it isn’t much. Much less, in fact, than what Congress actually passes laws over. One thing the government can regulate is interstate commerce, and the federal attorneys argued that beaten, demoralized women must have a negative effect on commerce. If people are happy, there’s a positive impact on “employment, production, transit or consumption”, no? Not the sturdiest of connections, and so the law’s overturned. Even with the best of intentions, the federal government can’t overstep its bounds. The next step, of course, is to get the states to pass their own tough laws. Or overturn the tenth amendment. Whichever you prefer. Here’s CNN’s story, and here’s the full text of the opinion.

Clever, clever! “…there is a new and ominous danger facing our families. It is a danger facing every man, woman and child. And only a handful of Americans even know it’s out there. It hides behind the face of your co-worker, your bowling buddy, even your trusted family physician. It’s sitting on your PTA board. It’s waiting in the hallways of your neighborhood parish. It may even be watching your children as they sleep. What menace am I speaking of? The greatest scourge of the twenty-first century. My friends,I’m talking about mutants.”

Mrs. Bluebird’s in my mailbox. It’s the truth. It’s actual. Everything’s satisfactual. Zip-a-dee-doo-da, zip-a-dee-ay, wonderful feeling, wonderful day!

As Los Alamos, New Mexico goes up in flames, array - art and applied digital tech news is there. We’ve seen weblog reporting before – from the middle of a hurricane, from the middle of riots, etc – and array’s doing a fine job, too. I went to Los Alamos many times during my eight years in New Mexico, but I didn’t spend much time there. Unlike my friend Marjorie, who worked there a few summers and would likely be there right now had her graduate schooling not taken her to another field entirely. As bill Richardson keeps saying, there’s no risk of the lab’s nuclear materials being released, but who knows what’s been buried or dumped in the area in the last 50 years.

After nine months of me looking at the same page day in and day out, I felt it was time for a bit of a redesign. So, here it is. It’s a bit cleaner than the last, and hopefully a bit more aesthetic. I refrained from doing anything fancy to keep it readable on all platforms (especially my new “internet appliance”), so there’s very little besides text here. A few bits of javascript, most notably my weblogs.com “favorites” list on the right sidebar. The design’s been tested on both MSIE 5.5 and Netscape 4.7 on Windows. If any of you LINUX or Mac folks have problems, [please let me know](mailto:ewagoner@athens.net?subject=Nope. Can’t read it.). Or, if you think it’s a step backwards, let me know that, too.

Umberto Eco wins Spanish literary prize. More praise for one of our finest writers (I’m using the collective “our”, for Eco belongs to the generations, or however that sappy phrase goes). I consider the fact that I’ve yet to read all of his works (actually, any of his works – I’m into The Name of the Rose right now, but just barely) one of my greatest character flaws.

I make my film debut tomorrow in the title role of “Thor (Ode to Thee) “, a video to the rock anthem by Athens’ wondergroup The Dictatortots. Except that it’s being filmed entirely on a digital camera, so there’s no film. Maybe I should say it’s my motion picture debut. But then I’d be really pretentious.

I couldn’t find what I cooked for dinner tonight in my copy of White Trash Cooking, but I should have. I call it “Mushed Tubers and Tuna Cakes,” and, boy howdy! was it good. If you want recipes, you’ll have to email me. Then you can start making your own cookbook. And I’ll buy it.