Fight or flight? Here's how I feel about plans to fly burgers over my house
The great ideas to cater to the needs no one knew existed.
And the history of invention is littered with them.
There is the USB portal shaped like a fake rock.
Diet Water, a creation of the Sapporo beer company in 2004.
A sleeping bag you can walk around in, umbrellas for shoes and the 'Goldfish Walker' – basically a bowl on wheels.
They all share one thing in common, an absurd pretence that they are here to make life somehow easier and better. When life was getting along just fine without them.
Now into this hall of infamy steps Dublin's newest must have service – take away delivery by drone.
Full transparency. My house may be in the catchment area where 'tech start up' firm Manna has lodged a planning application to open a new drone-port.
Manna has already been fulfilling a need no one knew existed in the Dublin 15 area for over a year.
The service employs a squadron of drones to parachute cups of flat white coffee, kebabs and burgers into the seemingly besieged gardens of suburbia where residents are deemed incapable of making it out as far as the chipper.
It has sparked complaints from some homeowners that it is like living under the flight path of a fleet of airborne lawnmowers.
The creepy invasion of privacy has also been likened in the Dail to a new kind of dystopia.
And now they are coming to a patch of sky near you – or at least near me.
Manna wants to open close to Dundrum shopping centre to extend the reach of its flying burgers.
Now I'm happy to admit I've never been a fan of drones. Dublin ranks as Ireland's noisiest city in brand new poll
I dread each St Stephen's Day when a new horde of middle-aged men emerge on the beaches and in the parks proudly controlling their new buzzing surveillance toys over the heads of helpless citizens.
And it seems I'm not alone.
A NASA study found people under the regular flight paths of drones believe they are more irritating than loud traffic.
Noise pollution in cities is also a proven killer.
That's because humans have an emotional response to sound.
It is detected by the ear and passed onto the amygdala area of the brain for assessment.
This becomes part of the body's 'fight-or-flight' response that has evolved to help us react quickly to sounds such as a predator crashing through the bushes. Or a drone delivering curry chips to your next-door neighbour.
It causes your heart rate to go up. Your nervous system starts to kick in and you release stress hormones, like cortisol and adrenaline.
Over time the risk of heart attack, stroke and death increases.
When the source of the noise is a machine delivering the contents of a deep-fried Spice Bag those risks rise dramatically again.
Across Europe excessive noise is linked to 12,000 premature deaths a year
It also contributes to a condition that 22 million Europeans suffer from - 'Chronic High Annoyance.' (A figure that grew to 22 million and one as soon as I discovered this is a thing). Drones flying fast food around Dublin City
Noise can lead to breeding problems in wildlife – and I dare say some human life too.
In California, a drone crash-landed at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve causing 2,500 terns to abandon their nests and around 1,500 of their unborn young.
There are even records of a crow attacking a delivery drone in Canberra.
Now it would be one thing to accept all that in the name of technological progress that is improving lives. Drones can be used to fly medicines, monitor disasters, do scientific research…
But as a nation, we have survived a famine, bankruptcy and a global pandemic without anyone needing a single of chips airdropped into their back garden.
To listen to the Manna planning application it sounds like a merger between the Red Cross and Greenpeace. It is supplying a service that is both a giant leap for mankind and good for the environment.
They are hoping we will all just get used to it. Much like Elwood's response to Jake in the Blues Brothers when he asked how often the bone-shaking train goes by the apartment window: 'So often you won't notice.' Dublin to become first European city to offer fast food delivery by drone
But I grew up under the flight path to Dublin Airport. Both my parents are now buried under it. I know incessant noise pollution is enough to disturb the sleep of the dead.
It's one reason Michael O'Leary hasn't spent some of the millions he made from charging families to bring clothes on holidays to move from his country ranch to a house on the approach path to Dublin airport's terminal one.
So if there are any tech upstarts out there looking to develop a surface-to-air, anti-burger missile system, let's just say I'm interested.
Years of underage hurling and camogie activity in the household have even given me a prototype built from abandoned hurls and around 150 used sliotars.
Fight or Flight? You have my answer.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
5 days ago
- Irish Examiner
'High risk' of consumers finding illegal products on Temu, says European Commission
Temu is not doing enough to assess the risks of illegal products being sold online and could be in breach of a new digital services law, the European Commission said. The commission said on Monday that there was a "high risk" of consumers in the EU encountering illegal products on the e-commerce giant's platform. Specifically, analysis of a mystery shopping exercise conducted by the commission found that consumers shopping on Temu were very likely to find non-compliant products, including baby toys and small electronics. The statement is part of an investigation into the e-commerce giant under the commission's Digital Services Act (DSA), a new piece of legislation governing online content in the European Union. It forces companies that run online platforms such as e-commerce websites to assess how likely consumers are to be exposed to dangerous or illegal products, and work to lessen the risk. The commission said according to its analysis, a risk assessment carried out by Temu, which is owned by PDD Holdings, in October 2024 was "inaccurate" and "relying on general industry information rather than on specific details about its own marketplace". Henna Virkkunen, executive vice-president for 'tech sovereignty, security and democracy', said: "We shop online because we trust that products sold in our Single Market are safe and comply with our rules. "In our preliminary view, Temu is far from assessing risks for its users at the standards required by the Digital Services Act. "Consumers' safety online is not negotiable in the EU - our laws, including the Digital Services Act, are the foundation for a better protection online and a safer and fairer digital Single Market for all Europeans." The company could face a fine of up to 6% of its annual worldwide turnover if the commission ultimately decides its risk assessment does not meet the companies' obligations under the DSA. The commission said officials would also continue investigating the company over other suspected breaches of the DSA such as using addictive design features and a lack of transparency on its algorithms. The EU is trying to counter what it sees as a glut of cheap and potentially unsafe products from China flooding the single market. Officials also sent a formal warning to Shein in May, saying the company's sales tactics fell foul of EU consumer protection law. Shein said it was engaging with the Commission to address concerns.
The Journal
26-07-2025
- The Journal
NASA says it will lose about 20 percent of its workforce as a result of Trump cuts
The US space agency NASA will lose about 3,900 employees under Donald Trump's sweeping effort to trim the federal workforce — at the same time as the president prioritises plans for crewed missions to the Moon and Mars. In an emailed statement, NASA said around 3,000 employees took part in the second round of its deferred resignation program, which closed late yesterday. Combined with the 870 who joined the first round and regular staff departures, the agency's civil servant workforce is set to drop from more than 18,000 before Trump took office in January to roughly 14,000, a more than 20 per cent decrease. Those leaving the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the deferred resignation program will be placed on administrative leave until an agreed departure date. An agency spokesperson said the figures could shift slightly in the coming weeks. Advertisement 'Safety remains a top priority for our agency as we balance the need to become a more streamlined and more efficient organization and work to ensure we remain fully capable of pursuing a Golden Era of exploration and innovation, including to the Moon and Mars,' the agency said. Earlier this year, the Trump administration's proposed NASA budget put a return to the Moon and a journey to Mars front and centre, slashing science and climate programs. The White House says it wants to focus on 'beating China back to the Moon and putting the first human on Mars.' China is aiming for its first crewed lunar landing by 2030, while the US program, called Artemis, has faced repeated delays. NASA is still run by an acting administrator after the administration's initial pick to lead the agency, tech billionaire Jared Isaacman — endorsed by former Trump advisor Elon Musk — was ultimately rejected by the Republican president. © Agence France-Presse
Irish Independent
25-07-2025
- Irish Independent
Meta to halt political advertising in EU from October, cites EU rules
Meta's announcement echoed Alphabet unit Google's decision announced last November, underscoring Big Tech's pushback against EU rules aimed at reining in their power and making sure that they are more accountable and transparent. The European Union legislation, called the Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising regulation and which will apply from October 10, was triggered by concerns about disinformation and foreign interference in elections across the 27-country bloc. The law requires Big Tech companies to clearly label political advertising on their platforms, who paid for it and how much, as well as which elections are being targeted, or risk fines up to 6% of their annual turnover. "From early October 2025, we will no longer allow political, electoral and social issue ads on our platforms in the EU," Meta said in a blog post. "This is a difficult decision - one we've taken in response to the EU's incoming Transparency and Targeting of Political Advertising (TTPA) regulation, which introduces significant operational challenges and legal uncertainties," it said. Meta said the EU rules would ultimately hurt Europeans. "We believe that personalised ads are critical to a wide range of advertisers, including those engaged on campaigns to inform voters about important social issues that shape public discourse," it said. "Regulations, like the TTPA, significantly undermine our ability to offer these services, not only impacting effectiveness of advertisers' outreach but also the ability of voters to access comprehensive information." Meta's Facebook and Instagram are currently being investigated by the European Commission over their suspected failure to tackle disinformation and deceptive advertising in the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections. The EU probe is under the Digital Services Act, which requires Big Tech to do more to counter illegal and harmful content on their platforms or risk fines of as much as 6% of their global annual turnover. ByteDance's TikTok is also in the EU crosshairs over its suspected failure to tackle election interference, notably in the Romanian presidential vote last November. (Reuters)
