PG&E's new, wireless Smart Meters were unpopular with a lot of folks to begin with. When the utility began charging customers extra to keep their old meters, that anger mounted. It all poured out at a PUC hearing in Santa Rosa yesterday.

Administrative law judge Amy Yip-Kikugawa (upper left) takes testimony before a packed auditorium at Santa Rosa’s Steele Lane Community Center on Thursday afternoon. More than 90 people signed up to speak; all were critical of PG&E’s Smart Meters and the utility’s “opt out” program for those who don’t want the new wireless devices. (KRCB photos)None of the complaints and allegations aired at the Thursday afternoon hearing came as a surprise to former PG&E technician Patrick Wrigley.

You may have heard dire predictions about the world ending after tomorrow. Popular movies and internet chatter have fueled worries ranging the reversal of gravity to the impact of rouge planets. KRCB’s Danielle Venton decided to see what’s behind the rumors and if anybody locally is not expecting to see Christmas. (Image Flickr user stef thomas.)

Rick Luttmann, professor of ethnomathematics (the study of math from indigenous cultures) at Sonoma State University has a lot of questions he'd pose to the ancient Mayans. (At Machu Picchu, courtesy Rick Luttmann.)

The ancient Mayans were accomplished mathematicians and astronomers, able to forecast movements of the stars and planets far into the future. Misunderstandings about their cyclical calendar has fueled doomsday speculations. Learn more about their ancient culture and why their civilization may have declined. (Image Flickr user David Cesarino.)

From a rural seed farm to a suburban city with a population of more than 42,000, Rohnert Park is a city with a succinct 50 years of  civic history, which is now on display in a photo book published earlier this year.

Tim DanisiAttorney Pete Golis was the driving force behind the creation of the City of Rohnert Park. His vision was for a residential community with eight neighborhoods, each with its own park, school and swimming pool, and that blueprint can still be seen in many parts of present day Rohnert Park.

But after the municipality was incorporated in 1962, reports Tim Danisi, President of the Rohnert Park Historical Society, Golis' influence waned.

Even before Rohnert Park became a city, it was traversed by the railroad, even though there was never a station there. Still, Danisi says, Golis' envisioned the trains being a significant presence in his town.

One other notable institution in Rohnert Park is the region's only public television and radio station. Yes, that would be KRCB. But Danisi notes it was largely through some astute negations with the city that the stations secured their home here.

Weaponized drones have become widely used by the US military in Afghanistan, Pakistan and other trouble spots. But there are some serious flaws with this highly secretive new tactical program.

Medea BenjaminUsing drones as agents of warfare serves to distance both the military and the American public from the consequences of their use, cautions Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin, even from the policy choices than enable their use.

Most of the focus on drones to date has been on their use in foreign military operations. But Benjamin says the groundwork has been quietly put into place for the devices to be widely deployed within the United States as well.

 Drones now come in a wide range of sizes. The largest compare to a small airplane; these are the ones most able to carry a weapons payload. But Benjamin notes that the newest surveillance machines have become almost unimaginably tiny.