We use alot of electricity at our house, because, well... electricity is what seperates us from the cavemen? Anyway, we always leave lights on, have two big TVs, electric heat, fridge, oven, and water heater, etc. Cause of this, I've been really following the "smart meter" thing lately.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, smart meters are the new power meters being installed in British Columbia and Ontario, replacing whatever non-digital meters we were using before. They measure your power usage exactly, as in, when you turn on a light, it measures the 60w or 300w or whatever change in your power usage instantly, so you can be billed acordingly.

This sounds pretty cool, but unfortunately no one's power bill seems to do anything but increase after having the non-optional new meters installed. Add in the controversy over them allegedly letting off deadly radiation, and the smart meters don't really seem that nice.

I personally just can't get over the fact that no one is worried about the potential "invasion of privacy", considering the big fuss made over those airport x-ray things just a little while ago. You know which one I mean; a bunch of obese people got all whiney because the scanning machine could see how many rolls they had and their veiny nipples and so forth, showing the world (of x-ray technicians, anyway) that they are secretly overweight piggies.

Really, a smart meter can be just as bad. Think about it. My fridge has a little 10 watt or whatever lightbulb in it. Every time I open it, that light comes on, and my smart meter picks up a 10w change in my power use. When I open the freezer, I let cold air out, setting off the thermostat and starting up the electrically powered process that cools my freezer back off. Turning on the oven to bake my carb-loaded curley fries uses ridiculous amounts of energy, etc. etc. I could take this even farther, to the point where a smart meter picks up the amount of energy used by a scanner during my checkout at a grocery store, giving the power company a loose estimation of how much I'm buying there, but I think you get the idea.

So really, a smart meter gives away that you're a fatty with veiny nipples just as much as an x-ray machine. And when you stop to consider that a record now exists of what time you watch your TV, turn your computer on, what time you turn off the lights and go to bed or leave the house, etc. etc., you think more people would be more concerned.

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In other news, I don't really like "Deadliest Warrior". It's one of those really simple shows for mass consumption that attempt to show a "scientific" way of testing something that isn't really that scientific. I'm watching 'Pirates Vs. Knights', for example, and it looks like the knight is gonna kick ass because he's got thick steel armour. What this doesn't take into account is what the fight would be like on a boat, which is where a pirate is most likely to be found. Yeah, you can take a pistol shot point blank, but that much metal strapped to your body makes it REALLY hard to swim. It's also pretty hard to come up with some way of scientifically representing a fight between a guy who's trained his whole life for war and a guy who could have just said "fuck it!" and jumped on a boat two weeks prior.