I’m in Europe for the next two weeks, at this, and blogging will be negligable.

The ACMA is considering allowing experimental devices to test the effect of mobile phones on planes. (PDF)

It may be so that mobile phones are truly dangerous to the operation of aircraft - the evidence, to say the least, is mixed. But if that is the case, the airlines themselves would ban their use. No company wants their planes falling out of the sky full of paying passengers. But the airplanes should be allowed to experiment on their own terms, and the existence of this legislation shows that they have be restricted from doing so.

I wrote about this issue last year: “Can we remove the ban on mobiles in planes without killing each other?”

On a related note, I’m travelling overseas this week, going through Heathrow, where mobile phones and iPods don’t even qualify to be included in the clear plastic bag. I haven’t been able to get a clear answer on whether books can be included: most official lists do not include them, but photographs of passengers leaving airports seem to do so. It will be a long flight without reading material, and - with all apologies to its editors - I don’t find the Qantas magazine that enjoyable.

UPDATE: It appears that you can bring books purchased after you go through security. I’m going to read SO MUCH generic military history…

Biographies of some obscure contributers to 19th century periodicals.

The Age is reporting that Telstra has finally given up debating their proposed fibre-to-the-node network with the ACCC, and pulled the plug. Graeme Samuels who now appears to be taking the role of telecommunications manager rather than the dispassionate, non-preferential regulator, wants us not to worry: “Telstra is not the only game in town”. Too bad that the other game is woefully inadequate.

Tell you what, this is a boon for the wireless router business.

I’ve written on this a few times, recently “Regulator should butt out on fibre-optic broadband“

Murray Rothbard reviews Red Dawn, scroll down to page 4.

The best Adam Smith quotation I have so far seen doesn’t come from any of his printed works but instead as reported by a close friend from a paper he delivered in 1755:

Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism, but peace, easy taxes and a tolerable administration of justice.

All governments which thwart this natural course, which force things into another channel, or which endeavour to arrest the progress of society at a particular point, are unnatural, and to support themselves are obliged to oppressive and tyrannical

From a short biography, Adam Smith and the pursuit of perfect liberty, which, as my cursory googling seems to indicate, has been renamed dozens of times and given a variety of covers for different markets, even in the brief few months since it has been published.

Tim Harford gives the book a good review here.

Presumably I’m extremely late to the party, but Abebooks Australia and New Zealand is a marvellously efficient way to take money out of my wallet and hand it to booksellers. I think I’m obsessed with it - its better than crack (as far as I am aware). Really useful for finding out of print books that are near impossible to track down in bricks and mortar 2nd hand book stores: I’ve already ordered Hancock’s Australia and Shann’s Economic History of Australia and Bond or Free?

Also, received in the mail has been The Myth of the Great Depression, which appears to argue that the Great Depression, wasn’t depressing, just ‘great!’

There’s quite a 1930’s theme going on here. On that note, I’ve been listening to the mises.org audio lectures, available here, which are extremely engaging. A fascinating exposition of the causes of Great Depression, is here (mp3, or in video - wmv) You shouldn’t go through life without being exposed to hardcore Austrianism.