Why I hate smart meters

I heard a Coast to Coast AM broadcast the other morning that was critical of smart electric meters that broadcast data wirelessly. The two primary objections were valid: 1. You don’t want some public utility controlling the appliances in your house; 2. You don’t want stray radio frequencies coming through your walls, for lots of reasons. There are more serious objections however and the broadcast missed some major points. 

One economic rationale for smart meters is "peak shaving". Utility companies have to size their equipment to handle maximum loads. If they can shift demand by controlling appliances so they run during off hours, upgrades to their infrastructure can be deferred. This is their theoretical motive, but customers can do this by hand or with a timer, without needing a smart meter- obviously. All they need is the load curve data in a nice pamphlet. The stray RF data objection is easily controlled with a piece of grounded aluminum flashing.

There are reasons and real reasons for smart meters. To start, Florida Power and Light is an example of how the politics and money work with public utilities, whether gas, water, electric, telecommunications or other regulated industries. Public Service Commissions vary widely in type, but all are political and have tremendous power over the types of services, including telecommunications and how much profit they make.

In April 2009, BusinessWeek magazine reported that FPL Group was one of 25 US companies that paid the least US taxes. FPL Group paid a 1.3 percent annual tax rate, far less than the standard 35 percent corporate rate, based on an analysis of the company’s financial figures for 2005-2008. On more than $7 billion in company earnings during this four-year period, FPL Group paid $88 million in taxes. This low rate was possible given tax breaks for having invested in alternative energy. A company spokesperson said the company is merely taking advantage of incentives to develop renewable resources. To ensure these tax breaks continue, in 2008 alone, FPL Group paid more than $500,000 to five major lobbying firms that lobby Congress. (Wikipedia)

I worked at a private Florida R&D facility that got a contract to test what I regarded as a hare brained alternate energy scheme. I asked the boss why Florida Power wanted to test it if it was almost certain not to work. He smiled and said “They don’t care … The expense is just put into the rate base.”  This is an example of the system: The PSC gets political “green” creds for helping the consumer by mandating energy saving R&D; The utility company gets to hire more people … Some of the money gets passed around to various inside contractors. Everybody is happy but the consumer who pays for crap that doesn’t work!

Q: Ever wonder why utility trucks are always new and shiny? A: It’s in the rate base!  

The smart meter is a computer hooked to your wiring system. This is my strongest personal objection. It has the capability of monitoring your computer and logging everthing you send and receive, whether your computer is plugged into the wall, or a disconnected lap top (your house wiring is an antenna). This is the perfect system for a man in the middle attack. The smart meter can also be set up to send data to your household wireless network and anywhere in the world from there!

The smart meter can function as a wireless network bridge, where your data is hopped from house to house.... meaning there is a potential for your computer data to go through a chain of your neighbors smart meters. Worse, utility companies are notoriously lax with computer security! Count on the fact that hackers are looking at ways to hijack them ... where the reward is manipulating the consumption info to lower their bills or worse ... to hack into the system and steal their neighbor's data.

Data can also be sent and received over power distribution lines and does not have to be sent wirelessly. In all cases the consumer pays for the electricity and the equipment, whether billed directly or indirectly as a cost increase in the rate base.

The probable next step for the Feds would be to mandate computer-controlled kill switches inside new appliances and pass around tax credits unless smart meters are stopped.  

Count on the fact that there are some very sophisticated computer people working at billion dollar corporations who completely understand the capabilities of smart meters ... and will take full advantage unless they are stopped. They are at best unnecessary toys, and at worst, a privacy threat that is far beyond your GPS equipped cell phone or Google reading your email.    

References:

What can you do with a small computer hooked to your wiring system? (Proof of the risk)

http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/03/pwnie/?intcid=story_ribbon

http://pwnieexpress.com/pwnplug.html

Energy saving with a timer:

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blogs/dept/energy-solutions/peak-electric-water-heating

Data over power lines:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication

Bin Laden ... Fishy? Or is it just me?

Conveniently, as the presidential re-election campaign looms ... Commander in Chief Obama finds and kills Bin Laden? Evidently, it was a "head shot" (probably conveniently disfiguring) ... and Osama's corpse was disposed of in the ocean very promptly. We saw smart bombs go down A/C systems into the Iraqi air force headquarters ... we saw Saddam hang ... saw Che on a slab replete with bullet holes. OTOH ... for Osama, we only saw some bloody carpet beside a bed ... curiously, the footage was an ABC "exclusive", but absent a credit for the source.  Despite the fact that we don't mind Delta Force personnel making a few bucks on the side with their cell phone videos ... the provenance for the ABC exclusive video is one initial question. There are many, many more ... Like: Why now and not sooner? What is the actual proof of death other than Obama's statements and questionable video? Was the mission an intentional assassination vs. capture?

My point to this post is to make a prediction: Unless there is definitive information released, the Obama pre-election coup may only come back to haunt him by providing fodder for conspiracy theorists.
Supposedly, Bin Laden now rests with the fishes ... seems fishy to me. Time will tell ...and probably soon.

Each person shelters about 100 trillion microbes

Interesting NY Times article:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/21/science/21gut.html In the early 1900s, scientists discovered that each person belonged to one of four blood types. Now they have discovered a new way to classify humanity: by bacteria. 

It turns out that we only have 10 trillion cells, but ten times as many microbes in us! If you find this sort of stuff interesting, here is some must viewing: Dr. Kiki's Science Hour 89: Bacteria, Viruses And Parasites,  This is "nerd" internet TV and the production quality is not indicative of the content,  The guest is an expert science writer. It starts slow, but ramps up ...  I posted this review:

This provocative video is important for all scientists and theologians and farmers alike. In ordinary language, it has implications for everyone. I won't explain the relevance to all disciplines but it is must viewing. The meat starts about 7-8 minutes in ... but the introductory humor "A virus walks into a bar ..." shouldn't be off-putting. I learned more and thought more from this relaxed production than I ever did from any slick piece of NOVA work. Kudos and 5 plus stars. Watch it!

DARPA Wants System that Records Genomic Changes

DARPA wants a genetic security system that’s built into the genome that can monitor for and report on changes to an organism’s genetic makeup.

According to Popular Science, 

DARPA ostensibly wants such a technology to protect intellectual property. Genomes (and specific genes) are now bio-commodities, and patented microbes and the genes therein are the property of those who create them. A tool like CLIO would help protect patented genes from misuse as well as to help competitors prove that they are not infringing on another lab’s IP. DARPA also wants CLIO to devise a way to encrypt a genome so it can’t be stolen by rival researchers or (and now perhaps we get to the heart of the DoD’s interest) rival states. 


The short article begs the question: "What other uses might this technology have that DARPA might find useful?

The Big Spill... Who’s Conning Whom?

Reference Download for in-depth details: the Deepwater Horizon Incident

BP still has not revised their claim that their oil spill is 5000 barrels per day. Experts confidently claim the spill is 12 to 20 times as large. BP refuses to allow experts to use more sensitive equipment to determine the size of the spill. Probable Motive? The larger the spill, the greater the liability and under-representation may save money if nobody gets caught

Pres. Obama claims that BP will pay cleanup costs. They won't. They're limited to $75 million in liability via a US fund. Probable Motive? Trivially obvious!

The New York Times claims there are multiple subsurface oil plumes up to 3 miles wide, 10 miles long and 300 feet deep. AP and others say the largest plume is 1 mile wide. It makes a difference. The higher estimate for a single plume equals 2,000,000,000,000 gallons ... that's 2 Trillion! Possible Motive for NYT misrepresentation? Obvious!

The National Institute for Undersea Science and Technology (NIUST), is operating the only research vessel currently allowed in the spill area. (R/V Pelican) News reports of the subsurface plumes are based on their data

What’s in the “plumes”? Currently unknown. NIUST and the R/V Pelican were diverted from another research mission to track the spill. They are using sensitive underwater detectors … for which the sensitivities and data throughput are undisclosed at this point. Spectroscopy, using lasers, is a highly evolved and sensitive technology which looks through the water and at backscatter, i.e. transmission, reflectance and fluorescence.

However, no one in the news media can claim to have an accurate characterization of the plumes. Are they merely at detectable levels which can be to the part per million range, or relatively dense, i.e. one large blob? In the Deepwater Horizon Incident, I describe how complex the oil spill is and provide a spectrograph of crude oil from the Max Planck Institute. Is NIUST looking for one or all of the various compounds? Again, who knows? Especially since they were diverted from another investigative cruise, they may have an accurate data set that describes the plume, or... be missing significant portions entirely.

Finally, it is physically impossible for one single vessel to accurately characterize this massive spill. The best available data is from the NIUST website. A chart showing sample locations over a period of 2 1/2 weeks is shown below. Shown are 50 sites but … With all due respect to NIUST and the University of Southern Mississippi, they simply do not have sufficient data points to impute continuity to these massive underwater plumes down to 5000 feet deep as reported in the press. Some data points were acquired at speed and a small vessel absolutely cannot use a few sensors to take samples down to 5000 feet while underway.

A major question is … Is R/V Pelican looking at large plumes, or just happen to be hitting many small ones where they sample? In testing jargon, the term is aliasing, where a bad result (picture) can from testing with inadequate sampling.

Of course, NIUST and the University of Southern Mississippi have unfortunately hit on a gold mine here. An obscure experiment conducted by USM and their researchers is suddenly diverted and thrust into the global news. An analogy is the robots on Mars which were theoretically funded for a 90 day life span and had the expeditions last for years. I hope that USM will use discipline and resist the temptation for sensational news releases without good data and then ... allow the news media to extrapolate their data for mutual benefit. Caveats are in order now. What we need desperately at this point is good science and truth. Shown below are the few data points from NIUST's website, which . If there are more, where are the rest that cranked the Times and the rest of the press into hysteria? Please NIUST, accurate, pre-massage data, available publicly, is in order.

New Deadly Fungus and Contradictory News

National Geographic: New Deadly Fungus Found in U.S., Has Already Killed Six- Infections from a new strain are unpreventable... and the strain is spreading.

Google and ABC: Fatal Fungus Cryptococcus Gattii: Experts Say Fears Overblown

According to National Geographic, a new strain of deadly fungus found in Oregon that kills 25% of those infected ... "No one knows how the species got to North America or how the fungus can thrive in a temperate region, experts say. ... The alarming thing is that it's occurring in this region, it's affecting healthy people, and geographically it's been expanding,"

Conversely, according to a link to ABC from Google's front news page, there is nothing to worry about.

As far as the fear of fatal fungi, Alcabes of Hunter College pointed out that the strain is likely to fade out soon. "In most cases, when new strains arise, they are transient," he says.... Certainly, he said, "it's worth asking, 'Is there some new risk here?'" But in this particular case, he said, "I see no new threat at all, just a slightly different name for an existing, and rather rare, danger."As far as the fear of fatal fungi, Alcabes of Hunter College pointed out that the strain is likely to fade out soon ... In most cases, when new strains arise, they are transient," he says. "

If you take the time to read the two articles, you'll see that they are clearly contradictory. ABC's expert says that the fungus is likely to fade out soon, however the co-author of the study says the opposite. Common sense tells me that ABC's expert pundit Prof. Alcabes is not entitled to make longevity pronouncements on a new strain of fungus that somehow made from New Guinea to Oregon and managed to mutate. There are too many unknowns and Alcabes did not do the referenced study. Have a look at the articles.

In a previous blog entry "The US Is Heating Up" I proposed that Google appears to be influencing the news per their own the agenda by selectively posting links to news items. This may be another case. Google, Microsoft, Intel and Yahoo along with thousands of other high-tech companies are located in the region ... i.e. Washington State and Northern California. My question is whether or not Google links an article which trivializes the threat for business reasons like recruitment and property values. That is certainly a reason to evaluate the news that Google constantly flashes on our screen.

In my opinion, given the available data, Google should have at least presented both sides regarding this potential emerging threat. My own trust leans towards National Geographic and the person who did the study, rather than some professor pundit from ABC's Rolodex. Time will tell.

Google, Smart Electric Meters and Enron

Google aready knows more about you personally than you can possibly imagine. Their official mantra ("corporate mission") is: "Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." When they reference the "world's information ... they mean ALL. "universally accessible" is also literal ... See: http://www.google.com/corporate/facts.html

Understanding that they already know who you are via public and commercial records, broadcast images of your house, parse your gmail with computers and know what you're doing on the web ... Now ... According to National Geographic, Google is not only going to read your electric meter, they are also going into the energy business. Please read the Nat Geo article:

"Google Can Now Buy and Sell Energy" Source: http://blogs.nationalgeographic.com/blogs/thegreenguide/2010/02/google-can-now-buy-and-sell-en.html

"According to reporting by PC World, Google's move into the energy market is a strategy to help provide power to the electricity-hungry buildings that house its search engine, advertising network, email software, and all the other things Google does that require large groups of computers. Google has also made a pledge to be carbon neutral, so being able to buy and sell energy will help it incorporate greener energy into its operations, the article said. "

Nobody seems to understand what Google is doing. As I described in a previous blog entry ... Google is influencing the news with a political slant and has multiple executives placed in the Obama administration. http://multimeat.blogspot.com/2010/03/us-is-heating-up.html They are taking on Microsoft in the software business, are now a major player in the mobile smart phone business and more. Google's market cap is nearly $200B ... not bad for a company that went public in 2004. Google is far beyond the intellect of the average politician, in a business with little existing regulation and moving so quickly that any future regulations will always be behind the curve.

Nobel Prize winner Al Gore (who invented the internet) will certainly be proud of Google going green, but we have not forgotten Enron ... a predecessor with political clout who invented the business of buying and selling energy. If they can read the world's smart electric meters, they will "probably" do a better job the Enron could have imagined.

Here are some facts to consider: The wires in your home and business are also antennas; They are hard-wired into your phones and computers; The electrical grid system is fully capable of being an internet data transmission system. If a smart electric meter can report your energy consumption, it can also transmit your data. Don't worry though ... Google, per their corporate mission, is going to "organize" it for you.

Buy Recommendation: Google Inc. (NasdaqGS: GOOG)