The high cost of privacy

I was on the telephone this afternoon with a very nice spokesperson from CMP, or Central Maine power.  No need for "ah-hah's" despite the homey specific name, the whole state of Maine's electric is provided by either CMP or Bangor Hydro (miniscule in comparison customer-wise, to CMP)

Actually, CMP's parent company is out of Spain.

Anyhow, CMP received lots and lots of taxpayer dollars to upgrade "The Grid" a year or so ago.  Then they showed up at everyone's doorstep with a "digital meter" to replace the old analog ones, with the disk that spins around and sets of dials from 1-9 that a meter reader had to come and manually read your KW usage every month.

A truck pulled into my driveway, and I greeted the visitor in the usual(unusual) fashion of dashing out in whatever grundge I was currently wearing and probably barefoot, to be greeted with,

:"I am here to install your digital meter."

uh, no you're not

"I don't want one,"  I said.

"Well, fine, but you have to sign this form blah blah blah grrr grrrr grrr!"



The blah blah blah part was explaining to me that, if I refused, I would be charged a non-standard meter fee of $12 per month.



Fine, so be it.



The grr-grr grr was because I could not be bought, at least not cheaply.



My alert antennae went to high.



What is in it for CMP that I have to pay $12?



I wasn't the only one miffed off. Lawsuits ensued. A miniscule of hope that CMP would have to refund those charges that were steadily racking up.



The lawsuits focused on Health risks. Electro-magnetic exposure from digital meters.



In the meantime, bee-keepers started experiencing colony collapse disorder. The government had already switched all the TV airwaves to digital as well.  Were these signals bad for health?

Hey, I have a cell phone and smoke and had radioactive iodine treatment and grew up a sun worshipper. Do my readers truly believe I was worried about a measley little digital meter for health reasons? :P

Follow the moneybaby.

I have to admit to a certain amount of naivety, or maybe it is denial of my borderline paranoid personality, so I figured my $12 a month was paying the meter reader. Who did a really crappy job compared to my old meter reader, who used to hop determinedly out of the truck and march up to the meter for the monthly reading, no matter if a pack of bullmastiffs or protective geese were determined to prevent it. (Ok, I used to joke that the bullmastiffs were harmless unless you were worried about getting licked to death, lol, but they looked intimidating)

The current one is a wuss and afraid of earthworms in the lawn.  I swear she was demoted from the office.

Her prissiness aggravated me so much one day, I said, "heh, gotta earn your 12 bucks when you come here!"

I felt sort of proud of my stance, paying my 12 to keep someone in a job.  Because the digital meters transmit, they don't have to come and read them.

Well, I had a dispute this month over an estimation on my bill. They estimated me around Feb 14, and when I read my (analog) meter this afternoon, two weeks later, I had yet to reach where they said I was Feb 14.



This little trick is two fold, first, I would have to anty up now for electricity I haven't used yet. Second, when the next actual reading comes in, I could possible be below the minimum 100KW, which is  charged much higher than over 100KW. This happened to me one year, and I pursued it much to the chagrin of the guy on the other end who finally credited me the 75 cents difference. I was making a POINT.

As I was attempting to do today, but the point was rather mute since I have yet to receive the bill following the estimation.  She argued and argued there was no way I would use less than 100 KW in the next two weeks, but it will be very close and we shall see. :D *runs around shutting off all the lights* j/kLOL

Somehow we got on the subject of digital meters. Oh year I was bitching about my bill. $180 dollars a year not to have a digital meter.  My grrrr now. 

"Is it for health reasons?" she asked.

"Because, as a consumer, outside work, I did my own research and they put out not more than a baby monitor, and it's outside your house so I decided that was fine!" she said.

"Actually, I did it for privacy reasons," I told her.



(no practiced response so this was greeted with silence)



"Look," I said," the way the meter is set up, it could determine what time I get up by when the coffee pot goes on, it could determine what time I go to bed at night, by when the TV goes off. This is set up to measure time of use, and it is no big stretch to say it can also identify what type of appliance you use and what time it occurs. "

"oh no, they can't do THAT." she replied.

"The old analog time-of-use meters were set up to monitor three time brackets and how much you used during that set of time, not specific to devices."

Then she realized what a can of worms that opened,(because we were not talking about privacy issues with the old analog meters) and started with, "and I can go out and look at my digital meter and see when there is high usage and then determine what is going on."

Duh, I didn't bother to point out to her that with the old meters you could see how fast the wheel was moving and wonder what the heck was drawing all that power. Actually, the wheel is a more visual tool.



"No," I said," well that is good that we all cut our usage and pollute less (more squirming on the other end, poor girl, I hope she enjoys that money they pay her for this)
(this is a real benefit to the consumers, are they providing a kitchen top reader, no, you still have to tramp out through the snow drifts to check your own usage, but the meter reader can now do it from the road)

Well, I started to feel this personal connection forming, and that is probably what she is paid to do, but I explained to her that it was not just her company, but someone could hack into their database and gain access to that info, and that caused a bit more squirming.


Then I told her for example that I pay $5 a month to my phone company for an unlisted number. Now why, if they don't have to print it in a book, or give it out over the phone, do I have to pay money? they should be saving money.  But you see, follow the money.  The phone company makes money on your phone number., Yes, you can register with a do not call list for telemarketers, but the phone company makes a heck of a lot of money off phone books, selling advertising in the yellow pages.  And if no one put their number in there, there would be no phone book to sell advertising.

So what is CMP doing that it wants $12 not to have access to your digitalized electrical information?

Silence.

By the way, I got transferred to an even nicer lady about my poor telephone connection not being caused by the neighbors digital meter because it is an old fashioned hard-wired landline, no duh, the lines this way are so bad and of course those wiretaps  create havoc with the sound quality.

*here I lost a long part of my post about the mail service, how all my packages from UPs were arriving tampered with, how I believed it was the driver, but then regular mail started arriving tampered with as well.

and made a point about how the USPS is trying to do away with delivering letters, how much easier it is to snoop through emails, and presto, whole post gone.  But, I had copied and saved to the above point, just don't feel like reinventing the rest I lost.

damn, am I going to let "them" win?

Nope, because the whole prompting of this post was the coincidence in an AP story tonight...out of Barcelona, Spain, a tech show, that was promoting M2M (machine to machine technology) and how great it would be for consumers if their refridge could tell their phone the door was left open, or is you could turn your coffepot on with a text...
damn, wasn 't I jsut pointing out to the CMP spokewoman that those digital meters could tell what time I arose in the morning by the time my coffeepot came on, and she was denying the ability to do so???


keep profiling me baby, I am harmless, but it's none of your damn business, especially if you're going to make money off my personal information.

Comets, Meteors, and Asteroids, oh my!

As usual, I have been busy. Everyday I try and fit in some time for research, happily wandering the big web learning about things.

For quite a few months, I have been following spaceweather@  spaceweather.com  Mostly monitoring solar activity and enjoying the nice photos provided by spacelovers everywhere.

I haven't bothered to blog about it, because there are a lot of great astronomy sites out there, and much better written, as well.

I'll give you a little summary.

The sun has been fairly active, lots of sunspots, coronal holes, small and large flares, and even a few CME's.  The sun is at a maximum in the current solar cycle.

We have several comets buzzing around out there, three of them will  be visible to the naked eye.

First, comet PanStarrs, C/2011L4, will be brightest on March 10th.  Look for it March 9-11 just above and to the left of the setting sun.  Estimated orbital period of 110,000 years, so this one has been gone awhile.

Second, Comet Lemmon, C/2012F6, with an elliptal orbital period of 11,000 years, shouild reach naked eye visibility in late March.  Lemmon is already putting on a nice show in the southern hemisphere with binoculars, with a green coma.  Yes, A green Lemmon. Cynagen gas &diatomic carbon burn green in the vaccuum of space.

Lastly, Comet Ison, C/2012S1.  On October 1 it will be closest to Mars. On November 28th it will be closest to the sun. On December 26 2013 it will be closest to Earth.  on Jan14-15 2014, Earth will pass through the orbit of comet ISON.  Comet ISON's orbit indicates that it is a first time visitor from the Oort cloud, a region beyond the known planets in our solar system.  Every so often something stirs up the Oort cloud and here come the comets. Some astronomers think that ISON may grow to be brighter than a full moon. Other astronomers remember comets that fizzled out on their way around the sun. Either way, this will be our only chance to see ISON, as it's orbit suggests it won't be coming back this way again.

In the meantime, we can keep busy watching the skies and news for meteors.  One estimated to be the size of a bus exploded over Russia. the shockwave destroyed  thousands of panes of glass.  Hint: if you see a flash, don't run to the window, run for cover.  Or take the advice of someone else, and position yourself at the window but behind something, put your hands over your ears and keep your mouth open.  That should alleviate the pressure when the shock wave hits.

There are lots of smaller meteors as well, some just flashes of light in our peripheral vision as we pick out constellations in the night sky, others that make it to Earth are kept a little quiet, any damage is blamed on something else.  After all, we can't have the public in a panic or a rush of treasure hunters inundating the areas in question, no?  Especially when some meteors are worth much more than gold. I am not sure how they rate as so rare, considering our own planet is also, technically, just a big space rock too.

Happy Valentine's Day

Tree

Desert Places

Snow falling and night falling fast, oh, fast
In a field I looked into going past,
And the ground almost covered smooth in snow,
But a few weeds and stubble showing last.

The woods around it have it—it is theirs.
All animals are smothered in their lairs.
I am too absent-spirited to count;
The loneliness includes me unawares.

And lonely as it is, that loneliness
Will be more lonely ere it will be less—
A blanker whiteness of benighted snow
With no expression, nothing to express.

They cannot scare me with their empty spaces
Between stars—on stars where no human race is.
I have it in me so much nearer home
To scare myself with my own desert places.

Robert Frost

February

Tree

Half a Century

I am rapidly approaching the half a century mark.

I have done a lot of soul searching and deep thinking about the past 50 years/.

I thought about sharing dates and landmarks in history, but do you really care where I was when Lennon was shot, or what telephones used to be like?

I decided to write a few thoughts on the improvements that should have been made in the last 50 years, given the advancements in technology.

First off, especially because it has so much impact on Earth, transportation.  A few improvements have been made, the subway in Washington DC is one example.

But automobile engines??? Still using gasoline, still getting mostly the same mileage?? And the cost of those vehicles? More or less affordable?

My futuristic vision for public transportation is really sci-fi.  Pods that travel through tubes. The pods would have a shell made of genetically engineered ...(algae) that could absorb nutrients from the tube and convert it into propulsion energy. The nutrients in the tube could be obtained through sewage.

One could merely "call up a pod" which would then pick you up and deliver you to your destination, or, in a nod to capitalism, one could purchase their own designer pods equipped with couches and televisions.

And what about advances in architecture over the last 50years? A few changes in building codes for mandatory insulation?
Double paned windows?

My sci fi vision for human habitation is based on this observation of what has happened in the last 50 years: Loss of life. BUILD BUILD BUILD, more buildings above the ground, more roads, parking lots, power corridors.  If we are to save the Earth, this HAS to be drastically changed.  We need to INCREASE growing space, not annihilate every square inch of the planet.

I have a couple of proposals for that. First, every roof needs to be a growing space. Whether buildings are placed below ground or designed to withstand substantial roof loads. The effect will be twofold: Less energy consumption due to the higher insulating value , and cleaner cooler air. There could also be crop benefit, ie strawberries or grain.

Embracing the vision, one can see exterior walls being utilized as growing spaces, trellised in flowers or herbs or vegetables or just grasses.

And the bugs and birds and amphibians that delight in those green spaces should be embraced and not vilified.

Worried about water? The whole system could be designed to utilize waste water, and purify it in the process.

Plants absorb CO2, the primary "greenhouse gas" and release oxygen. The process "fixes" the carbon into the plant life.

Earth buildings would generate less CO2 by requiring less energy for heating and cooling, in fact, help remove CO2 from the atmosphere by absorption of CO2. Earth buildings would also be better protected from severe weather.

The Firebird and I had additional discussion about water insulated habitats-my idea but discarded due to instability of currents and waves, also the conductive value of water would require a building to have more insulation. But-they would be cool in hot weather. :) Anti-gravity buildings (the Firebird's suggestion) would require technology we are not aware of, and would also shade the ground unless designed to drift.

Safe alternatives need to be found for dangerous polluting chemicals and the mass production of dangerous substances needs to be controlled unless the risk is worth the gain. For public health not private industry.

Health care improvements are another blog. A good place to start- is to stop

polluting the planet with toxic waste.

The House of Clouds

 I would build a cloudy House
For my thoughts to live in;
When for earth too fancy-loose
And too low for Heaven!
Hush! I talk my dream aloud---
I build it bright to see,---
I build it on the moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee.

Cloud-walls of the morning's grey,
Faced with amber column,---
Crowned with crimson cupola
From a sunset solemn!
May mists, for the casements, fetch,
Pale and glimmering;
With a sunbeam hid in each,
And a smell of spring.

Build the entrance high and proud,
Darkening and then brightening,---
If a riven thunder-cloud,
Veined by the lightning.
Use one with an iris-stain,
For the door within;
Turning to a sound like rain,
As I enter in.

Build a spacious hall thereby:
Boldly, never fearing.
Use the blue place of the sky,
Which the wind is clearing;
Branched with corridors sublime,
Flecked with winding stairs---
Such as children wish to climb,
Following their own prayers.

In the mutest of the house,
I will have my chamber:
Silence at the door shall use
Evening's light of amber,
Solemnising every mood,
Softemng in degree,---
Turning sadness into good,
As I turn the key.

Be my chamber tapestried
With the showers of summer,
Close, but soundless,---glorified
When the sunbeams come here;
Wandering harpers, harping on
Waters stringed for such,---
Drawing colours, for a tune,
With a vibrant touch.

Bring a shadow green and still
From the chestnut forest,
Bring a purple from the hill,
When the heat is sorest;
Spread them out from wall to wall,
Carpet-wove around,---
Whereupon the foot shall fall
In light instead of sound.

Bring the fantasque cloudlets home
From the noontide zenith
Ranged, for sculptures, round the room,---
Named as Fancy weeneth:
Some be Junos, without eyes;
Naiads, without sources
Some be birds of paradise,---
Some, Olympian horses.

Bring the dews the birds shake off,
Waking in the hedges,---
Those too, perfumed for a proof,
From the lilies' edges:
From our England's field and moor,
Bring them calm and white in;
Whence to form a mirror pure,
For Love's self-delighting.

Bring a grey cloud from the east,
Where the lark is singing;
Something of the song at least,
Unlost in the bringing:
That shall be a morning chair,
Poet-dream may sit in,
When it leans out on the air,
Unrhymed and unwritten.

Bring the red cloud from the sun
While he sinketh, catch it.
That shall be a couch,---with one
Sidelong star to watch it,---
Fit for poet's finest Thought,
At the curfew-sounding,--- ;
Things unseen being nearer brought
Than the seen, around him.

Poet's thought,----not poet's sigh!
'Las, they come together!
Cloudy walls divide and fly,
As in April weather!
Cupola and column proud,
Structure bright to see---
Gone---except that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with thee!

Let them! Wipe such visionings
From the Fancy's cartel---
Love secures some fairer things
Dowered with his immortal.
The sun may darken,---heaven be bowed---
But still, unchanged shall be,---
Here in my soul,---that moonlit cloud,
To which I looked with THEE!


 Elizabeth Barrett Browning



Six Significant Landscapes


I
An old man sits
In the shadow of a pine tree
In China.
He sees larkspur,
Blue and white,
At the edge of the shadow,
Move in the wind.
His beard moves in the wind.
The pine tree moves in the wind.
Thus water flows
Over weeds.

II
The night is of the colour
Of a woman's arm:
Night, the female,
Obscure,
Fragrant and supple,
Conceals herself.
A pool shines,
Like a bracelet
Shaken in a dance.

III
I measure myself
Against a tall tree.
I find that I am much taller,
For I reach right up to the sun,
With my eye;
And I reach to the shore of the sea
With my ear.
Nevertheless, I dislike
The way ants crawl
In and out of my shadow.

IV
When my dream was near the moon,
The white folds of its gown
Filled with yellow light.
The soles of its feet
Grew red.
Its hair filled
With certain blue crystallizations
From stars,
Not far off.

V
Not all the knives of the lamp-posts,
Nor the chisels of the long streets,
Nor the mallets of the domes
And high towers,
Can carve
What one star can carve,
Shining through the grape-leaves.

VI
Rationalists, wearing square hats,
Think, in square rooms,
Looking at the floor,
Looking at the ceiling.
They confine themselves
To right-angled triangles.
If they tried rhomboids,
Cones, waving lines, ellipses --
As, for example, the ellipse of the half-moon --
Rationalists would wear sombreros.

 Wallace Stevens 

The Real Work

 It may be that when we no longer know what to do
we have come our real work,

and that when we no longer know which way to go
we have come to our real journey.

The mind that is not baffled is not employed.

The impeded stream is the one that sings.

Wendell Barry

The End is near..or is it just beginnning?

I thought blogger was through with me, but I found a way in with Firefox and patience. Maybe I shouldn't have blocked google update, either- that could be throwing a wrench in the blogger land.

Tree

 
Less than one week until 12-21-2012.

What's so special about an arbitrary number, anyhow? Letters and numbers are just something someone made up at some point, so why should anything special to attributed to a random date?

Why not 03 03 2003?

_insert side thought_ our eyes and brains are constantly trying to detect patterns, patterns mean predictability.





 According to scholars who translate Mayans hieroglyphs, the winter solstice of 2012 marks the end of a phase in how the Mayan calculated time. Another Mayan tablet heralds the arrival of Bolon Yokte, Mayan God of War, who was also associated with creation.

"He will descend from the sky"

Anything can happen, right?

Maybe that was the man they found in the suburban British neighborhood with Angolan money a couple of months ago.

So, IS something going to happen 12-21-2012?

I don't know. I think if anyone knew, that information would be redacted.

We've all felt the message. Be prepared. That is directed to everyone. Of course anywhere can have an emergency situation, so we are all forewarned to be prepared to evacuate or hunker down.

We've watched what happened to those in Katrina's line of fire. The earthquake in Haiti. New York and 911, and just recently,Hurricane Sandy.

The whole East coast had a week of forewarning before Sandy.

So, here's the scenario:
The end of the world may be approaching, according to the Mayans.

We don't know how, but most typical end-of-the-world scenarios for modern society includes loss of power for weeks or potentially months.

How will you spend the next week? Now that you know you may have a week's notice?

But, it all may be a bunch of malarkey and you will still have bills to pay and not a whit changes but another page on OUR Julian calendar.

Do you go on life as usual, or do you do as advised, and prepare for an emergency?

What does that mean to you?

In the big Sandy buildup, I relinquished and finally bought the batteries which we were desperately needing anyhow. I replaced the ones in the headlamp, much handier than a flashlight of any kind. Some D's for the flashlights that usually only last an hour or two when actually put to use.

I haven't been able to find replacement globes for the lamps, and balked at paying $5+ for lamp oil at Wally world today.

What I have on hand should last at least a week of nights..do I need more than that? If I do, that $5 bottle isn't going to make that much difference.

That's how a financially challenged person has to think.

Now that I think of it, if times get tough that could be a pretty good deal for $5 now.

We have a week of snow and rain predicted here beginning tomorrow night.

That really puts a crimp in my Holiday errands and my "what if the world ends in a week?" preparations.

Do I dash to the bank to cash a check or spend the morning home with my kids?

If I have only a week left, I would spend it with my kids.  But if the turd hits the wind tunnel and my children and myself are at the other end, I am going to want that cash and not useless electronic finances.

Maybe that's why the price of gold is so strong.

Would they tell us? If it was known a global event was imminent, but provisions for safety was limited to a select few, would everyone else get a warning?

And what if you didn't know what to warn or weren't even really sure what might happen- would you warn?

Shouldn't we always be prepared anyhow? live every moment like it will be our last, appreciate every breath, sparkling bit of light, stubbed toe, hangnail, thunderstorm, headache,    full belly, bee sting...

Personally I will spend this week in reverence. And indulgence.  Going to see the Hobbit is definitely on my bucket list. If the world ends in a week I am going to be sure we have seen the Hobbit first!

120-173 hours on the Mayan long count countdown...should three go to the first Hobbit movie?  I would be spending that time with my children...so I think, weather and travel permitting, a definite "Yes"

Beloved

T