Fighting to restore and preserve various freedoms, John & Pauline Holeton, discussed their battle against smart meters in the first half of the show. Smart meters, which energy companies are increasingly using to replace analog meters on homes, have the ability to communicate information back to the utility company, replacing the need for a meter reader. The smart meter uses two-way radio frequency (RF) communication, and could potentially disconnect your house without your permission, as well as regulate your usage of appliances and heating/air conditioning. It's being marketed to consumers as an advantageous way to monitor your energy usage, but in fact, the utility company is invasively tracking personal and private information about its users that was never collected before from the old style meters, said John.
Further, the Holetons contend that the potentially harmful RF signals from the meter could cause certain people to have health problems, such as heart palpitations, nausea, and or even cancer. There is also a safety issue, with smart meters possibly causing arcing, fires, and appliance damage, John noted. In some areas, the smart meters are being offered on a voluntary basis, while in other communities, the changes are introduced as a mandate, or done without the customers' knowledge. To prevent having your old meter replaced, they suggested contacting your Public Service Commission as well as your utility company, and sending them a certified letter of "no consent"-- telling them you do not give them permission to install a smart meter at your home.
--------------------------------------
In the third hour, Oxford graduate and author Chris Carter discussed his study of the history and science of parapsychology. Such abilities as ESP and psychokinesis don't seem to work according to the "mechanistic" principals of classical physics, he said, but may function through "quantum non-locality" whereby particles can influence each other from a distance. He touched on parapsychology's struggle for legitimacy – and how many so-called skeptics are actually deniers, who've already made their minds up before even looking at the available research. Carter cited the work of Rupert Sheldrake, who interestingly has found that animals such as dogs, have a more developed psychic ability than humans. He also shared an account of Winston Churchill's psychic premonition during WWII which saved him from a disaster.
The last hour featured Open Lines.
News segment guest: Mitch Battros