A drone flies through Paris during a safety presentation by the French government.Francois Mori/The Associated Press
If the Grinch couldn't stand jingtinglers and floofloovers, imagine how he would have reacted on Christmas morning if every second Who had unwrapped a drone.
The noisy, invasive, potentially dangerous and also extremely cool and popular unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are one of the hottest-selling gifts of the season. Some retailers in Canada are reporting that demand has quadrupled since last year, thanks to falling prices and simpler operating systems.
Which means on Christmas Day you may hear what sounds like 10,000 mosquitoes buzzing outside your window, and you'll rush to see what it is only to discover a futuristic flying device hovering there and pointing a high-definition camera at your face. It'll make the Grinch's nightmare seem like a lullaby in comparison.
A recreational drone, for those who've never seen one, is a robotic vehicle that is operated remotely from a controller, a computer or even a smartphone. Some have wheels, but the most popular ones at your local electronics retailer are the kind that fly. Many, if not all, carry high-quality video cameras. An operator can send one soaring into the sky to record events and people below.
This gives the devices a lot of potential commercial and research uses, both good and to-be-determined. Scientists can safely access remote areas of the planet; rescuers can search for lost people; retailers like Amazon may one day deliver purchases by UAV.
But while commercial users and researchers need a Transport Canada permit for most flights, recreational users can operate a UAV without permission as long as it weighs less than 35 kilograms. These are fairly big flying machines, and a lot can go wrong when something that size isn't operated responsibly and crashes into people's heads or veers clumsily into controlled airspace.
You just have to read Transport Canada's guidelines on recreational drone use to see how bad it could get. If you get a drone for Christmas, buy at least $100,000 in liability insurance and never fly it anywhere near airports and military bases. Yield to commercial aircraft. Don't try to hover it over crowds while drunk.
Basically, if you don't know what you're doing, drones are a real danger. Don't be the idiot who flies one through a neighbour's window on Christmas Day, but if that's the biggest mistake you make, apparently you will have gotten off lightly.