Episode 12 – Take Back Your Power: The Reckless Stupidity of So-Called 'Smart Meters'

OH MY GOD, IT’S HUGE!!! We’re back with our first (and definitely last!) almost four hour-long show, including news and events, music and two discussion topics: smart meters and our review of the documentary ‘Take Back Your Power’. Yes, this episode sees the return of our ‘discussion topic’ but fear not! Although our previous discussions have taken several episodes to complete, we manage to cover and wrap up two topics in just this one episode! Should you wish to skip past our ever humorous, insightful and enlightening banter, our discussion of smart meters starts around 1:36:30, and 2:51:15 marks the start of our look at the documentary ‘Take Back Your Power’. Before that though, the terror threat level is rising in the UK, possibly due to Morgan having more of his farmyard horror stories. He’s also been provoking wider debate on social media via his girlfriend and, in a FireIce update, reflects on his discovery that Russia has a coast. NotMorgan recommends Joe Rogan’s recent interview with biologist and ‘morphic resonance’ proponent Rupert Sheldrake. In our look at the recent news and events, we wonder whether we can remove our tin-foil hats now that a Harvard study has found fluoride to be a developmental neurotoxicant, and we welcome into our crazy, conspiracy-theory group the Health Minister of Israel who’s banned the fluoridation of water there. In other health-related news, NotMorgan looks at the latest woes of UK pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline who find themselves being investigated by the UK’s Major Fraud Unit. Morgs queries spending on weaponry as a useful tactic towards peace as NATO countries agree to spend 2% of their GDP on ‘defence’, and it’s also all about the percentages for the Metropolitan Police, with 27% of their ‘stop and searches’ being ‘potentially illegal’. ‘Thought crime’ seems to come a step closer with our latest ‘safety threat’ as a man is removed from a plane for writing his thoughts in his notebook, and a popular ‘alternative media’ podcast goes missing from iTunes. Morgs looks at the response of the medical staff, police and the media in the recent Ashya King story, before NotMorgs tests his knowledge of US law and the bizarre passing of blame and responsibility that accompanies a recent police shooting. Then, in a week dominated by the release of a mobile ‘phone, our three ‘tech news’ stories look instead at Samsung’s killer robot, Facebook finding an image of a two-month old waiting for a heart transplant ‘too negative’ and comparing him to a zombie, and we end with a sad story, a young, Japanese lad’s Oculus Rift virtual groping simulator. All this and more in our look at recent news and events and the media’s portrayal of them. Then, it’s the return of our discussion topics segment. As the biggest smart meter programme in the world begins to roll-out in the UK, we take a thorough, in-depth look at smart meters and the many, genuine causes for concern associated with them. What are they and why do we apparently need them? Will they save us money and, if not, who really benefits from their introduction? What is their real cost to us, not just financially but also, far more importantly, in terms of our health and privacy? We look at the health and safety risks of these meters, which produce radio-frequency radiation and seem to have a propensity for causing house fires, and the risks to our privacy with data collection, profiling and the sale of personal information to third party companies. We also review Josh Del Sol’s recent documentary on smart meters and the smart grid, ‘Take Back Your Power’, and discuss points of particular interest and what we did and didn’t like. We realised whilst recording this show that a four-hour long podcast isn’t sustainable for us and so we’ve chosen to split the topic discussions into separate shows in future, hoping to keep the shows shorter and more relevant for you, the listeners. We restate our desire to get our listening community more involved in the show, and ask listeners to get in touch and give us their feedback. In closing, NotMorgan provides the show’s creative commons outtro music. Thank you for listening, enjoy!