One Every 48 Seconds

Every 48 seconds, another one. That is how often they came over one Baton Rouge neighborhood on a Saturday morning, and the people living under them started counting because nobody else was. Amazon's drones began flying from a center two miles from Rick and Marcia LeCompte's home last August. At first a few, high up. Then everywhere, and low, with a whine one neighbor compared to a weed whacker running for hours. The hawks stopped coming to the sweet-gum tree in the LeComptes' yard. The couple spent less time in the garden. Inside, they still could not escape the buzz, and they thought about moving. Amazon says its drones are quiet, safe, and unobtrusive. The people under them say they feel pushed around by a distant corporation, the same way data centers strong-arm communities. And this is not one neighborhood. The same fights flared in Detroit, Georgia, and Canberra, where a trial shut down within months. Amazon rerouted 70 percent of the Baton Rouge flights after the outcry. Marcia LeCompte thanked them for clearing her sky, and apologized to whoever got the drones. The promise was a package in half an hour. The price is the sky over your own home, and nobody asked the people under it first. Sources: IEEE Spectrum, Drone Delivery Noise Shows Limits of Tech Acceptance: https://spectrum.ieee.org/drone-delivery-noise That's your SignalWatch, from Ashfires Press.