I watch drones for a living. It’s a pursuit that is, in some ways, rather similar to the work of an 1800s naturalist. As they did, drone watchers spend a lot of time observing little flying things at a distance. Like them, we also spend a lot of time bickering about taxonomy: the nature of things, the categories of things, where they fit into the broader ecological picture. And I think if people like me were talking to to those long-dead naturalists today, they’d agree that the nightmarish war that Russia’s vicious 2022 invasion started has created a thriving and remarkably bio-diverse ecosystem of little flying robots. A Cambrian explosion of drones and things that people can do with drones, if you will. Nor are these little flying robots static in their forms, in their behaviors. They are evolving at a terrifically fast rate, as Ukrainian drone pilots, hackers, and engineers- locked in existential conflict with a far-bigger power - throw every ounce of talent and ingenuity they have at making the drones they already have, and the tactics that they use them with, that much better. So too have the Russians been forced to furiously adapt their own methods of using small, cheap drones, and the drones themselves, to keep up with the pace that Ukraine has set. Since Russia first launched its idiot invasion of Ukraine in early February of 2022, I’ve been maintaining an online database of how small, consumer drones are being used in the war. By “small, consumer” drones, I mean cheap drones, civilian drones, the kind of drones made by DJI and other mostly-Chinese manufacturers that people can buy online and at camera stores for a few thousands bucks in almost every country in the world.

The swift collapse of the FTX crypto exchange has sparked an industry push among big rivals to publish proof of their reserves as a means to provide transparency into the assets on their platforms. With those efforts just getting underway, one firm, Crypto.com, has taken the proactive step of providing a preliminary set of disclosures – sharing wallet addresses with the blockchain analysis firm Nansen to create a dashboard of nearly $3 billion of reserves and other assets. What that shows is just how heavily the mix of assets is skewed toward a meme-y token called shiba inu (SHIB), a digital asset built atop the Ethereum blockchain that was largely inspired by the joke token dogecoin (DOGE). Like DOGE – a key staple of billionaire Elon Musk’s crypto schtick on Twitter – the SHIB token is a highly volatile cryptocurrency whose primary use case is often considered to be speculation itself; it’s traded for fast profits and yuks.

Elon Musk's new pay-for-play verification system on Twitter shook pharmaceutical mainstay Eli Lilly (LLY) — leading LLY stock to skid Friday — after a fake account claimed "insulin is free now." The tweet went live around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday from an account claiming to be Eli Lilly. It remained online for several hours, gaining steam from hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes. As of Friday morning, the fake account is no longer verified and its tweets are now private. But that didn't stop LLY stock from falling 2.2% near 360.70 in morning trades on today's stock market. "We apologize to those who have been served a misleading message from a fake Lilly account," the company said from its official account.

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk had a demand. On Oct. 28, hours after completing his $44 billion buyout of Twitter the night before, Mr. Musk gathered several human-resource executives in a “war room” in the company’s offices in San Francisco. Prepare for widespread layoffs, he told them, six people with knowledge of the discussion said. Twitter’s work force needed to be slashed immediately, he said, and those who were cut would not receive bonuses that were set to be paid on Nov. 1. The executives warned their new boss that his plan could violate employment laws and breach contracts with workers, leading to employee lawsuits, the people said. But Mr. Musk’s team said he was used to going to court and paying penalties, and was not worried about the risks. So Twitter’s human-resource, accounting and legal departments scrambled to figure out how to comply with his command. Two days later, Mr. Musk learned exactly how costly those potential fines and lawsuits could be, three people said. Delays were also piling up as managers haggled over which employees to let go. He decided to wait on cutting jobs until after Nov. 1.

One child worker, a 14-year-old middle school student, was injured while working from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m., five to six days, officials said.

On Thursday, the NC Democratic Party tweeted that only 7% of 18- to 30-year-olds in North Carolina had voted early. There were no other data points to show how the under 30 turnout compared to all other age groups; presumably, based on its tweet, older generations are running circles around younger voters. The intent behind the tweet was to encourage young Democrats to vote before Tuesday’s election, but it isn’t just young people who will see it. For older generations, it reinforces the false equivalence that a low voter turnout is the fault of individuals, not a critical failure of our education systems and the political processes in North Carolina. I am empathetic to people my age who don’t vote, especially those who feel that their votes don’t matter. It’s the byproduct of gerrymandering in North Carolina, the byproduct of a dismal education system and the byproduct of a Democratic Party that doesn’t see the entire picture of North Carolina’s electorate and continuously focuses on white moderates.

California's attorney general on Thursday sued 3M Co , DuPont de Nemours Inc and several other companies to recoup the "staggering" clean-up costs from toxic pollutants known as "forever chemicals."

Twitter’s chief information security officer and chief compliance officer resigned late Wednesday night as the company started implementing changes that would allow users to more easily impersonate major brands and government officials. The departures came just hours before the company’s new CEO, Elon Musk, sent his first email to Twitter employees, titled “difficult times ahead,” and implementing a mandatory return-to-work policy. Lea Kissner, the chief information security officer, confirmed they had left in a Twitter post Thursday morning. Chief Compliance Officer Marianne Fogarty has also left the company, according to a person familiar with the situation who asked to remain nameless because they were not authorized to speak publicly. “I don’t watch Game of Thrones. I certainly don’t want to play it at work,” Fogarty tweeted Monday.

Paul Morantz, a lawyer and investigative journalist who in the 1970s was so successful at taking on cults, abusive psychotherapists and self-proclaimed gurus around California that one of his targets tried to assassinate him with a rattlesnake, died on Oct. 23 in Los Angeles. He was 77.

Higher sea levels will push the water table up with them, causing flooding, contamination, and all manner of unseen chaos.

Yesterday I tweeted out a question about whether or not there was anyone left at Twitter who remembered that the company was under a pretty strict FTC consent decree. Apparently the answer was yes, but they didn’t include Elon Musk. Late last night, a few hours after that tweet, the Chief Information Security Officer, the Chief Privacy Officer, and the Chief Compliance Officer all quit, apparently citing potential FTC violations as the reason.

Three New York City correction officers were arrested early Thursday stemming from a long-running investigation into sick leave abuse, sources familiar with the probe told the Daily News.

Carvana is in trouble. Humans are probably to blame.

I want it out — so why won’t any doctors do it?

A Portland man who used a sword to kill his ex-landlord, who, at the time, was disguised as fictitious serial killer Michael Myers, won’t be criminally charged, officials said. The unidentified tenant acted in self-defense when he fatally stabbed 46-year-old landlord Justin Valdivia after he allegedly attacked him with a hammer and a pellet gun in September, prosecutors said. The tenant won’t face criminal charges, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office confirmed this month, the Willame

The fast-food chain urged German customers to commemorate the Nazi pogrom with cheesy chicken.

Crypto giant Binance has processed Iranian transactions with a value of $8 billion since 2018 despite U.S. sanctions intended to cut Iran off from the global financial system, blockchain data show. (Remember yesterday, when you thought FTX was in big trouble?)

Kentucky voters said no Tuesday to a proposed constitutional amendment that would have allowed the Legislature to meet more, shifting power from the governor’s office to state lawmakers.

“If you vote no to this today, to me, it says you do not support the community of color,” he said. “It says to me that you don’t support the Black and brown community that undoubtedly has a target on their back. It says to me you rather support the [Fort Worth Police Officers Association] than the community.”

I couldn't get enough, so I had to self-destruct The heat was on, rising to the top Everybody going strong, and that is when my spark got hot I heard somebody say … twitter inferno (Burn baby burn) burn that mother down