Power Company to Customer: Smart Meter or No Power at All [video included]
Nevada Energy Sends Three Armed Men to Disconnect Woman’s Power After She ‘Opts Out’
theintelhub.com
September 16, 2012
Press Release from StopSmartMeters.org
LAS VEGAS- A woman living near Las Vegas has been living without power for more than a month because the electric utility, Nevada Energy, refuses to give its customers the choice to retain an analog style electrical meter.
Mona Orkoulas lives in the mountains outside Las Vegas, Nevada.
For years Mona worked on humanitarian projects in the Middle East: drilling wells, and providing drinkable water and renewable power to remote villages.
Now, it turns out that she may need some humanitarian assistance herself- right here in the USA.
The story begins when Nevada Energy (NVE) installed a ‘smart’ meter on Mona’s bedroom wall in January without permission, or even so much as a few days’ notice. Mona reports that she does not have any prior history of medical issues.
Shortly after NV Energy installed the smart meter, she started experiencing a range of adverse symptoms including headaches and tinnitus. A letter from Mona’s doctor to NV Energy reads:
“Neurological and cardiological findings may be associated with pulsed EMF… I recommend that this patient be allowed to have NVE reinstall an analog meter at her house.”
Mona called the power company, expecting that they would at least send someone out. Months later, frustrated after at least six failed attempts to have NVE address the problem, Mona finally purchased a standard analog meter and had an electrician install it at her residence.
She carefully photographed and recorded the readings on the old and new meter, to be sure that she paid for every kilowatt-hour used.
On August 6th, 2012 at about 10:30am, three men from Nevada Energy, armed with guns, arrived unannounced on her property, removed the analog meter from the socket, took both meters, and left her living without electricity.
Mona was in tears, visibly shaken by the encounter, and recalls asking the men, “Why are you on my property with guns?” Their response: “this is procedure Ma’am.” More than a month later, the lights are still off and Mona hasn’t budged. “They’re not putting that thing back on my house,” she says.
According to Angel de Fazio, of Nevada Stop Smart Meters! who has been on the front lines working to fight NVE’s smart meter program, “Nevada residents only won the right to be placed on the ‘delay list’, not a full ‘opt out’.”
In other words, NVE has a ‘delay list’ you can sign to ‘delay’ your installation date. But if the power company managed to sneak on your property and install a smart meter- even without permission- then your choice is a smart meter or no power at all, as Mona discovered. Even if you have a letter from your doctor.
Now NVE is accusing Mona of tampering with their equipment, which she says is ridiculous, because she gave them plenty of opportunity to remove the problematic smart meter.
“I had no intention of stealing electricity,” she says. “I just wanted the grinding noise and headaches to stop.”
California Penal code defines “tampering” as: “(carrying out)(1) specified acts with the intent to obtain utility services without paying the full charge.” Nevada laws are similar.
For the last month, Mona has been ‘camping’ in her house, unable to use her appliances, lights or hot water.
The laundry that was in the washing machine when they cut her power was locked in, and by the time she could get it out it was totally destroyed by mildew.
The NVE agents came without warning. The power cut has had a devastating effect on her life, she says.
“My business has taken a nosedive since I have had to travel into town to access my e-mails. My computer, fax machine, and printer don’t work. I’m cooking over a camp stove in my living room.”
Mona says “Some of us eat organic foods, buy our nice bottled waters, exercise daily, but where is the point in all of this wellness when we are forced to have a radiation box attached to our homes?”
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Full story, video and photos at: http://stopsmartmeters.org
Stop Smart Meters! has established a Safe Power Fund to help Mona Orkoulas get through the winter. People can donate at: http://stopsmartmeters.org/donate
A video interview in Mona’s darkened home is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh2O6autcMs&sns=em
WTF? Maryland Police Buy Cameras to Watch other Cameras
P.A.N.D.A. People Against The NDAA
September 17, 2012
The Maryland Police have been purchasing cameras to stop others from…destroying speed cameras. One Maryland man in particular has shot a speed camera or three. While PANDA does not condone destroying equipment, that’s sure an interesting way to fight the police state.
Read the story for yourself:
Synchronized Drone Swarm Takes Flight in Austrian Sky [video included]
Activist Post
September 7, 2012
The largest swarm of synchronized drones to date was organized by Ars Electronica Futurelab to take flight in the evening skies of Linz, Austria. The fleet of 49 quadrocopters demonstrated a pixel presentation of changing lights and formations.
Drones apparently have gone from being conspiracy theory, to media acceptance that Congress has approved drones in American airspace, to a means of artistic expression in less than a decade.
Do you think that the demonstration video below is “creative and beautiful,” as noted by one technology writer? Or do you think it is a creepy indication of a near-future of autonomous drone swarms with deadly intentions of a military nature? Please leave your opinions in the comment section below.
Read other articles by Activist Post HERE
Pentagon To Send Drones Into 66 Countries
Alexander Higgins
September 7, 2012
As the controversy of the use of drones for illegal assassinations and overseas surveillance the Pentagon reveals plans to make drones available to 66 countries.
RT – The use of drones might be raising questions within the United States, but overseas the demand is mounting. The US Defense Departments says they are preparing to make unmanned aerial vehicles commercially available to 66 outside nations.
If approved by Congress and the US State Department, the Pentagon could soon be peddling the remote-controlled war machines that have become a hallmark of America’s overseas wars to dozens of its allies. It’s a not deal that’s likely to be cut without a sound, however, as the use of UAVs has become one of the most debated issues regarding the US military at home.
Last year, however, the DoD put together a list of 66 countries they hope they will be cleared to sell drones too, and today the Defense Department says they are just as eager as ever to get the ball rolling.
Countless watchdog groups have condemned the use of drones, calling the aircraft responsible for the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians. As recently as this past weekend, a US-led drone strike in Yemen was reported to cause fatalities for no fewer than 13 civilians. Even so, adding UAVs to the wish-lists of other countries could be a consideration favored by much of Washington, especially those who have feared than planned budget cuts will nix billions from the Pentagon’s budget over the next decade.
Last year, US weapons exports amounted $66.3 billion worth of deals thanks to sales to the States’ allies, the largest figure ever to come through arms sales. Just last month, a Congressional Research Service report claimed that 2011 was “the highest single year agreements total in the history of the US arms export program,” and that trend could very well carry over, especially if UAVs are added to the list of inventory available to the allies.
To Reuters on Wednesday, Northrop Grumman Corp CEO Wes Bush says that the Obama White House is working to make it easier for his company and others to deal drones as part of their international arms exchange, but roadblocks remain in place, regardless.
“I wish we were further along in getting that done. It’s slow, it’s painful, but we’re doing the right things to move in that direction,” Bush tells Reuters.
Earlier this year, the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency deputy director, Richard Genaille, told attendees at the ComDef 2012 conference, “We don’t really have a comprehensive U.S. government policy” on drone exports, but one was indeed in the works.
“It hasn’t moved quite as fast as we would like, but we’re not giving up,” Genaille said.
In May, Turkish President Abdullah Gul told the state-run Anadolu Agency that the White House has expressed a “positive stance” over the sale of UAVs, and “They are trying to convince the Congress” before an agreement is made.
Last month, the US-based marketing firm Teal Group estimated that “UAV spending will almost double over the next decade from current worldwide UAV expenditures of $6.6 billion annually to $11.4 billion, totaling just over $89 billion in the next ten years.”
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Researchers Develop Mind Controlled Flying Drone
Conscious Life News
September 5, 2012
(Discovery News) Mind-controlled applications and drones have been quite in vogue as of late, wouldn’t you say? We’ve told you about scads of brain-computer interfaces and our list of drone-related projects stretches as far as the finger can click.
So, naturally, it came as no surprise when this landed in our lap: a brain-controlled quadcopter drone.
Researchers at Zhejian University in Hangzhou, China, developed the quadcopter with the intent to give those with impaired motor skills a new way to interact.
By wearing an emotiv electroencephalography (EEG) headset, the researchers showed how they can pilot the drone simply by thinking “left hard” to have quadcopter take off and land, “left lightly” to rotate, “right” to move it forward and “push” to have it fly up. If users clench their teeth, the drone descends. Blinking the eyes causes the on-board camera to snap a photo.
The EEG headset first relays commands from Bluetooth to a laptop, then via Wi-Fi to the drone. The quadcopter, named Flying Buddy 2, also live streams video footage of the flight back to the laptop to give users better control.
Researchers will present their mind-controlled drone this week at the 14th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing (Ubicomp 2012) in Pittsburgh, Pa. Check out the team’s demo video below. Make sure to stick around until the end, where there’s some pretty wicked drone-on-drone combat, a fight almost as fierce as the time Daniel LaRusso battled Johnny Lawrence for the All Valley Karate Tournament.
Source:
news.discovery.com/tech/mind-controlled-drone-120904.html
Open The TPP — SEND A MESSAGE TO TPP OFFICIALS
openthetpp.net
September 6, 2012
This week, government representatives from around the world are meeting with over 600 industry lobbyist “advisors” to negotiate an extreme agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).1
They’ve shut ordinary citizens out of the process, but we know from leaked documents2 that the TPP:
- Threatens Internet freedom by giving media conglomerates new powers to impose fines on Internet users, block websites, collect your private online information, and even cut off your access to the Internet.3
- Undermines our liberty and democracy by restricting our ability to make democratic decisions at a national and local level.4
We deserve to know what binding rules are being negotiated in these secretive TPP meetings, and we deserve to have our voices heard.
Send your message using our easy-to-use tool to the right [HERE], and we’ll put it on display right in front of TPP officials this Sunday. Supporters of our campaign have a table inside the TPP meeting space, and we’ll project your comments on the walls for all to see.
Let’s open the TPP together. Add your comment now
The TPP threatens your Internet freedom and democratic rights. Use this editable form to send your message and we’ll put it on display right in front of TPP officials this week.
Brought to you by OpenMedia, working with other members of the StopTheTrap.net Coalition
Footnotes
[1] The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secretive multi-nation trade agreement that seeks, among other things, to rewrite the global rules on intellectual property enforcement. It is being negotiated behind closed doors by a group of 600 industry lobbyist “advisors” and un-elected government trade representatives.
[2] Public interest groups have obtained the February 2011 draft of the TPP’s Intellectual Property Rights Chapter and the TPP text on copyright Limitations and Exceptions. The text shows that the TPP would criminalize many everyday uses of the Internet, and give Big Media more Internet lockdown powers.
[3] See analysis from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Public Knowledge, or infojustice.org.
[4] The TPP lacks transparency, public participation, and democratic accountability. In this letter, a number of U.S. civil society organizations detail and decry the opacity of the process.
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[hat tip: What Really Happened]
Drones Over Asia: 21st Century Warfare in the New Battlefront [video]
Boiling Frogs Video
September 5, 2012
Over the past decade, the peoples of Pakistan and Yemen have become all too familiar with the horrors of the Pentagon’s latest toy: the unmanned aerial vehicle. Capable of raining death from above while its operator sits in air-conditioned comfort in an air force base thousands of miles away, drones represent the next stage in the evolution of 21st century warfare. And now they’re coming to Asia.
Find out more in this week’s Eyeopener report from BoilingFrogsPost.com
CONTINUE WATCHING: http://ur1.ca/a4e2r
TRANSCRIPT AND SOURCES: http://www.corbettreport.com/?p=5568
PN 