OPINION

MIKE MASTERSON: Sky full of drones?

Flying high

Those unmanned aerial vehicles we call drones began appearing in our skies a decade ago to a drizzle of public interest that has built into a thunderstorm.

While I don't own one of the new-age flying machines, I know where I can find one for just under 70 dollars when and if I decide to enter the 21st century. My reticence isn't surprising since it also took a spell for me to warm up to laptops and flip phones when they appeared a few decades back.

Now the wise among us recognize the broad future of drones. These machines already are hard at work in war zones as instruments of surveillance and death. On the commercial end, we're seeing them hovering overhead in parks, recreation sites and above our neighborhoods as they observe and/or photograph wherever their beady eyes focus.

And believe me, there are many more coming in the years ahead. They can expose in high definition every backyard, each piece of real estate, personal associations and a host of details that potentially invade the privacy we baby boomers have taken for granted.

In other words, the era of drones, while sounding futuristic and a tad science fiction to many, is here and flying high (and low).

Wasn't it only last year many of us scoffed at the idea of shipping giants such as FedEx and UPS using drones rather than gas-guzzling vans for deliveries? Chortle no more, my friends, because it's bound to happen, along with pizza and all sorts of retail items.

About a million drones reportedly were sold in our country during the last holiday season. The FAA projects that number will skyrocket to seven million within the next three years.

One report said drone sales more than doubled between February 2016 and this February. And buyers aren't cheaping out in their choice of models.

I read where during the first two months of 2017 drones costing over $300 comprised 84 percent of sales. They range in price depending upon quality from just over $6,000 to less than $100.

DJI, based in China, is the planet's largest producer of consumer drones. Its least expensive model still costs around $500. But, like big-screen TVs and cell phones, look for prices to fall in near future.

The LT Selfie Drone promoted on social media has dropped in price from $150 to $69. That hand-sized drone carries a camera lens capable of operating through a a cell phone. While far removed from being the most sophisticated device around, it appears able to fly above your neighborhood and photograph all the scenery, perhaps even you peacefully sunbathing or toiling in your flower garden.

Discounting these nosy airborne buzzers' soaring popularity and ability to erase outdoor privacy is akin to denying the effects of gravity. Any disclaiming doesn't change reality. It's another fact of life in 2017. Drones are reproducing and entrenched in our lives as tightly as a bad case of chiggers.

This development confirms just how rapidly society continues to change and evolve, which, in turn, means each individual must decide whether to fight the powerful currents of change or remain in the river and go with the flow.

Sixth-grader survey?

Valued reader (you all are) T.A. Sampson sent a message the other day to say he'd followed my recent urging to head over to the relatively brief public opinion survey prepared by the state's Department of Environmental Quality (wheeze).

I found the survey questions obviously designed for an inside group and issued so the department can legitimately say it seeks public opinion. A shrewd political move that results in no worthwhile information where the public this agency supposedly serves is concerned.

Sampson obviously felt likewise judging from his comment: "I went to the link for that survey. What a joke. Did a sixth-grader write it? At least they had a comment box where I was able to let them have it."

If you have yet to let the Department of Environmental Quality have your thoughts, you'll find the survey at: tinyurl.com/adeqsurvey.

Officials and politics

I also heard from another regular reader wondering why the state's attorneys general, each charged with the responsibility of advocating for all the laws and citizens of their respective state, would have a Republican or Democrat national association.

Karl Hansen said he read that our Attorney General Leslie Rutledge was recently elected chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association.

However, he wondered, since these elected officers in particular (29 Republicans in U.S.) are tasked with defending the laws legally passed and compliant with the Constitution, period, regardless of political preferences in any state, why the need for such associations by either party, well, other than party fundraising.

"Run as a party member if one chooses--but overt evidence of partiality to a party in office (once gained) seems somehow smarmy to me," Hansen said.

Congrats to our attorney general for her honor. But Karl's larger point is one I feel deserves deeper contemplation since it fits so doggone well with common sense, dontcha think?

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Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist. Email him at [email protected].

Editorial on 08/15/2017

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