TYB
Using AI and drone technology to protect seals in Norfolk
26 February 2025
The two-year project has used drone technology combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) to monitor seal populations and their pups off the coast of Norfolk.
In December 2024, a team of specialists from Natural England launched a drone over the beach at Winterton-on-Sea in Norfolk.
Instance segmentation (a type of AI), was then used to automatically detect individual seals from the drone imagery and distinguish between adult seals and whitecoat pups, even when grouped closely together.
The survey identified over 8,500 seals along an 8 kilometre stretch of shoreline, in comparison to a volunteer-led ground count which recorded more than 6,200 seals.
Traditionally, seal population monitoring relied on manual ground observations and aerial surveys, which posed a challenge in terms of collecting accurate data, particularly in hard-to-reach areas.
Now, drones equipped with high-resolution cameras can capture imagery from 110 meters above, minimising disturbance to the seals.
Gabriella Fasoli, Earth Observation Higher Data Scientist at Natural England, said: “The AI model detected over 8,500 seals while the volunteers on the ground counted 6,200.
This difference is likely due to the drone’s aerial perspective, which provides a unique viewpoint from above, allowing for a more accurate count by detecting seals that may be hidden or less visible from the ground.”
Although these new monitoring methods have the potential to enhance the accuracy of our population assessments for the UK’s seals, volunteers on the ground will remain crucial to documenting and protecting them.
Emma Milner, Senior Marine Mammal Specialist at Natural England, said: “This project has shown that drones and the use of AI technology can be a cost and time efficient alternative method of monitoring seal populations.
“This cutting-edge technology will help contribute to a comprehensive national picture of seal populations, allowing us to better understand population changes over time and to assess the impact of human activity on these crucial habitats, enabling better conservation efforts.
“It is our hope that in the future, the methods from this two-year pilot project can be developed to allow drone surveys at other important sites around the country, and for other species as well as grey seals.”
The UK is a crucial breeding ground for grey seals, hosting 35% of the global population. Despite their recovery from a worldwide total of 500 seals in the early 20th century to over 160,000 today, ongoing monitoring remains essential to their protection.
Natural England has special permission to fly drones for the purpose of this scientific survey and followed the appropriate best practice guidelines to minimise disturbance to the seals.
Members of the public should not fly drones over seal colonies without the appropriate permissions.
New technology is unlocking possibilities at Natural England and helping inform nature-based solutions.
Whether it’s managing flood risk, improving farming practices, or monitoring wildlife, these innovations are showing how modern tools can work in harmony with, not against, nature.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/using-ai-and-drone-technology-to-protect-seals-in-norfolk
Isle of Man could get its first ever drone show!
Wednesday, 26 February 2025 08:10
Could the Isle of Man be getting its first ever drone show?
Douglas Council have applied for planning permission for the Douglas City Drone Show, that would take place this March.
If approved, drones would fly out to sea along the promenade for the display.
The show would take place March 20th at 7.30pm.
https://www.three.fm/news/isle-of-man-news/isle-of-man-could-get-its-first-ever-drone-show/
Mexico’s top general admits US drone surveillance flights led to cartel arrests
Updated: Feb 25, 2025 / 05:18 PM CST
Mexico’s Secretary of Defense, Gen. Ricardo Trevilla, told reporters Tuesday morning that U.S. intelligence-gathering drone flights have led to the arrests of at least two cartel leaders.
Last week, Mexico announced it was working in conjunction with the U.S. government to conduct aerial surveillance of cartels and organized crime.
“We’re talking about the apprehensions made in Culiacán were the result of this intelligence work,” Trevilla said.
Culiacán is the regional base for the Sinaloa cartel, which in spite of a leadership split and resulting violence, remains a major manufacturer and exporter of drugs such as fentanyl.
“The aircraft help confirm information gathered by Mexican armed forces,” Trevilla said.
He refused to name cartel members who were arrested but he did say American personnel did not participate in the apprehensions.
Mexico’s head of public safety and security, Omar García Harfuch, recently announced the arrests of “Wero Bryan,” the presumed leader of the Chapitos, and Kevin Alonso, presumed chief of security for Iván Archivaldo Guzmán, “El Chapito.”
The Chapitos are the sons of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the once powerful head of the Sinaloa cartel.
Trevilla cautioned people by saying “this is not the beginning of spying operations using unmanned drones.” “These were not ordered by Donald Trump to watch Mexican cartels,” he said.
Last week, CNN and the New York Times reported the CIA was using MQ-9 Reaper drones looking for fentanyl laboratories in Mexico.
The aircraft are not armed with weapons during surveillance operations although they are capable of conducting air strikes and have a range of more than 1,100 miles, according to a U.S. Air Force
Trevilla also told reporters whenever these type of support flights take to the air, it will be at the request and with permission from Mexican armed forces.
“It will be clear what route they’ll take and what information they are after,” he said.
Mexico’s Attorney General Alejandro Gertz Manero, also defended the collaboration with the U.S.
“We have to gain information, we’re helping one another and we’re conscious that we’re getting intelligence, it’s not spying, it’s technical and indispensable information,” Gertz Manero said.
https://www.borderreport.com/immigration/border-crime/mexicos-top-general-admits-us-drone-surveillance-flights-led-to-cartel-arrests/
UFO captured above Jesus statue at religious landmark
February 25, 2025
Christians attending mass at a religious landmark in Mexico were stunned when a mysterious 'UFO' appeared above a Jesus statue.
Visitors at the Cerro del Cubilete in Silao, located northwest of Mexico City, captured images of what they said looked like a 'Saturn-shaped object' in the clear blue sky.
The UFO was seen hanging near the left hand of the 65-foot-tall statue, called Christ the King. One local visiting the landmark said: 'It's an alien navigator.'
The recent sighting appeared similar to another captured last October at a gas station in Cuernavaca, located south of Mexico City, which is about 275 miles from the Cerro del Cubilete.
Footage shows at least two motorists gawping at the alleged spacecraft in the sky at 'the corner of Teopanzolco Avenue and Plan de Ayala Avenue.'
While one spectator can be heard saying it was 'wobbling on a piece of string, so it is fake,' another added: 'It's a UFO, they say they live in nearby Tepoztlán.'
Tepoztlán is a mountain town known for its 800-year-old Tepozteco pyramid, an ancient Xochimilca temple built by the Aztecs.
The site, however, has become a place of pilgrimage for UFO enthusiasts, attracted by stories of numerous otherworldly sightings and occurrences.
The Cerro del Cubilete sits on a mountain more than 8,460 feet above sea level.
The statue represents the figure of Jesus standing with his arms outstretched and an angel at either side, one holding a crown of thorns and the other a royal crown.
The spherical building that serves as the base of the statue was built in art deco style and houses a circular altar. There is also a museum atop the summit.
While tens of thousands of people flock to the site each year, the recent UFO sighting may be one of the first.
As the crowd turned to the flying object, spectators feared they were 'going to be abducted, JAM Press reported.
Another local said: 'It sure looks like a UFO.'
While this is the first reported 'Saturn-like' object spotted near the religions site, another appeared over the the western city of Zitácuaro on September 8, 2024 that looked nearly identical.
Following the videos, some users took to X to share their belief that aliens had made their way to Mexico.
'That's that eye diamond UFO shape,' one person commented. '(Must) be some kind of organic ship.'
'Spectacular video, contact between humans and alien races is getting closer and closer,' another X user chimed in. 'Anyone who continues to believe that it is a balloon, a drone, a hologram or something else is either blind or does not want to see reality.'
However, others were quick to dispel the claims, pointing out that it was most likely just one of the many sky lanterns that float across the Mexican skies during the Globos de Cantoya festival.
'It may have been a test of a hot air balloon, as these balloons are very common in central Mexico and from a distance they can be confused with other objects,' another user explained.
One X user questioned the quality of the video but conceded that life probably exists outside our solar system.
'So much technology, cell phones with too many mega pixels and images like that,' they said. 'I do believe that there is life on other planets, but some tests like this don't help much.'
Some found humor in the alleged UFO sighting.
'They went searching for atoles,' another X user said, referring to the traditional Mexican beverage that is made with water, masa (corn flour), piloncillo, (unrefined cane sugar), cinnamon and vanilla.
'We will see more and more UFOs. And the government will make contact with them,' another person jokes. 'We will obey in fear as always. But we will never see them.'
https://www.msn.com/en-my/news/other/ufo-captured-above-jesus-statue-at-religious-landmark/ar-AA1zLnFO
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-14434219/Mysterious-UFO-captured-giant-Jesus-statue-Mexico.html
Fisherman horrified after catching baffling ‘alien’ animal from the ocean depths
Feb. 26, 2025, 2:21 p.m. ET
The sea is dark and full of terrors.
There may or may not be water on Mars, but there are apparently Martians in the water. A fisherman is making waves after sharing footage of a bizarre, mystery sea creature that viewers have compared to an “alien.”
The clip was uploaded by Roman Fedortsov, a Russian trawlerman who photographs the sea monsters he’s accidentally snagged while trolling in the deep, Jam Press reported.
This bizarre bycatch, which the angler regularly posts for his over 600,000 Instagram followers, has included a toothsome wolffish, a critter with a Kardashian-evoking pout, and other animals whose existence suggests that our oceans might be as mysterious as deep space.
His latest monster clip included footage of a gray, bulbous-looking animal sitting on the railing of his ship.
Fedortsov identified the blob as a smooth lumpsucker, a species of marine ray-finned fish that grows to over a foot long and resides in the depths.
The Lovecraftian critter caused quite a stir among Instagram users, who claimed it was evidence of extra-terrestrial existence.
“That is 100% an alien,” declared one viewer, while another wrote, “That’s the pet of aliens living underwater.”
“Kill it and burn it and don’t ever catch one of those again!” advised a third.
“Fished in Chernobyl?” quipped one wit, while another wrote, “Alien or predator?”
Others compared the fish to various cranially-endowed characters from popular media, including “Megamind,” the aliens from “Mars Attacks” and brainiac baddie Krang from the “Ninja Turtles” series.
However, the fish’s bloated body was likely not caused by a preternaturally-large cerebellum, but was rather a result of rapid pressurization changes during its journey to the surface.
This isn’t the first deep-sea denizen to make a splash of late.
Earlier this month, Gen Z TikTok users were moved to tears over the saga of a small anglerfish that perished shortly after swimming to the surface.
https://nypost.com/2025/02/26/lifestyle/fisherman-horrified-after-catching-baffling-alien-animal-from-the-ocean-depths/
Tiny 'alien' creature dubbed the silver sea slug washes up on Florida shoreline… and the truth is even scarier than the photo
Updated: 12:09 EST, 26 February 2025
As families and holidaymakers make plans to rush to beach this spring break, one traveler has issued a stark warning about a dangerous creature that may wash up along the shore.
A beachgoer found an 'absolutely amazing' creature in the ocean that appeared to be as 'small as my thumb' during a trip to Miami a few years ago.
The traveler, unaware that they had stumbled upon a venomous sea dragon, scooped the tiny creature up and placed it in a Styrofoam cup with some ocean water.
'My son and I walked to both lifeguard stands to ask if they knew what it was. No one knew,' the holidaymaker recalled in the Things in Florida Facebook group, noting how they later learned 'it was a type of Sea Dragon and venomous'.
They put the blue dragon, which has the scientific name of glaucus atlanticus, back into to Atlantic Ocean and very revealed they did not get stung.
The holidaymaker is now warning others to be mindful of poisonous blue dragons, which sail on the surface of the ocean and feed on jellyfish.
Blue dragons, which are more venomous than the Portuguese Man O' War, are more prevalent on US beaches in the spring as southeast winds increase, experts warn.
Facebook users were fascinated by the traveler's photo of the creature, hailing it as 'beautiful' and like nothing they had ever seen before.
One user suggested the creature was an 'alien' lifeform, while another joked: 'That's a Pokémon.'
'When I first saw pics of these things I did not think they were real,' one commented, adding: 'You are fortunate that you did not get stung.'
Another warned: 'That little guy can pack a massive punch. Their venom will land you in the hospital, if not worse!!!!'
One user said they found a sea dragon in Outer Banks, North Carolina fall. 'Thankfully my husband knew what it was and no one touched it,' she said. 'But it looked so cool!'
'I found that on a Texas beach,' another added. 'It was blue as well. We were fascinated by it, had no idea it was poisonous until yeas later.'
Thousands of blue dragons washed up on beaches across Texas last March after being blown in my strong winds from the Gulf of Mexico.
At the time, marine experts warned beachgoers to be careful not to step on or touch the tiny one-inch sea creatures, as doing so could result in a painful sting.
'There's all kinds of stories of people accidentally stepping on these blue dragons or picking them up and squeezing them and getting stung,' Jace Tunnell, a marine biologist at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, told NBC News.
'It doesn't end well,' she added, noting that holidaymakers would 'know immediately if you are stung by a blue dragon'.
Tunnell said a blue dragon sting would cause 'intense pain, claiming it feels 'like somebody has needles that they’re scraping across your skin'.
A sting can cause extreme pain, nausea, vomiting and even hospitalization, but Tunell warned that until someone is stung, 'you don’t know how your body is going to react to the venom'.
She warned that blue dragons will sting in the water if they 'feel threatened or agitated'. They can also sting after they've come ashore and died.
Blue dragons predominately live in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans, but experts warn their habitats are expanding.
The species has been spotted in European waters, along Australia's east coast and on the east and south coasts of South Africa.
Tunnell said she expects the creature's habitat to continue to grow, citing 'warming temperatures' and climate change as a possible factor for the expansion.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14438839/Alien-creature-silver-sea-slug-washes-Florida-shores.html
Woody Harrelson recounts his alien experience from 1974: 'It was so freaky, even for me'
February 26, 2025 12:26PM EST
Turns out Woody Harrelson was drawing from real-life experience for his Saturday Night Live "Close Encounter" sketch.
Along with recounting an eventful Grateful Dead concert, the Now You See Me star, 63, used his recent visit to The Late Show to tell host Stephen Colbert all about his 1974 encounter with aliens… though it taking quite a bit of prompting to get Harrelson to open up.
While chatting about Harrelson's appearance on SNL 50, where he joined Kate McKinnon for her latest abduction sketch, Colbert asked the actor if he believes in aliens.
"Yeah. I mean, I'm open-minded," Harrelson replied. When the late-night host pushed further, asking if the actor had experienced any close encounters himself, Harrelson was incredulous.
"Have I had an alien experience? You're really asking me if I've had an alien experience?" he asked, to the delight of the laughing studio audience.
Colbert defended himself, "I'm not saying 'Have you been abducted?,'" he began, then joked, "But if you have been abducted, now would be a great time to tell me! But have you like seen a UFO? 'Cause I have, I've seen stuff I can't explain."
That admission ended up being key: because despite his initial disbelief, it prompted Harrelson to divulge his secret. "I'll admit, I have," he finally answered.
"I wasn't abducted. Or maybe I was abducted and forgot," he quipped.
The Electric State star explained that the incident occurred over 50 years prior, in 1974 when he was a teenager living in Ohio.
"Suddenly I noticed, like everybody's out in the street and so I went out, and we look up. It was nighttime and there were these lights that were just kind of blinking, and then it would just shoot all the way across the sky," he recalled.
"And then there'd be one over there, shoot over here, and there were several. They just kept going across the sky."
He continued, "Everybody, we watched it for a while, it took a few minutes and then finally just, whoosh, went somewhere else. Some other world."
The kicker is that afterward, Harrelson said nobody stuck around to unpack the strange occurrence.
"Nobody talked about it. Literally, everybody just went inside and said nothing," he shared. "It was so freaky, even for me, as young as I was."
So do aliens exist? Harrelson thinks so. "Of course it's true," he told Colbert. "Why wouldn't it be true?"
Memorable as Harrelson's story may be, it was thankfully far less traumatic than the experiences of McKinnon's Colleen Rafferty, who has been “vacuumed” up into space in several separate SNL sketches.
Meanwhile, her companions — which this time included Harrelson, Pedro Pascal, and Meryl Streep — always manage to have a much more wholesome experience.
"We met these two beautiful glowing aliens who took our hands and said welcome. I've never felt so safe," Harrelson says at one point in the sketch.
"Little different for me," McKinnon's Colleen interjects. "I was less cradled by light and more grabbed by a giant rusty claw."
https://ew.com/woody-harrelson-shares-freaky-alien-experience-1974-11686811
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY7vbqbNrRM
MIND BLOWING UFO Cases That Trump Should Declassify ASAP
February 25, 2025
MIND-BLOWING UFO Cases That Trump Should Declassify ASAP via the work done investigating UAP / UFOs by the new Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets headed by Rep Anna Paulina Luna.
In this video I look into 5 incredible UFO cases that deserve immediate attention.
00:00 - Intro
01:17 - They said it was Dummies
10:09 - Protect the President
16:27 - Fight or Flight
21:29 - Nobody Could Help Him
28:05 - This was not a Joke
34:29 - Does THIS Base have the Secrets?
39:21 - Outro and Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuSDtLrlB68
https://www.ufonews.co/
244 Million Passwords Stolen From Crime Forum—Are Yours On The List?
Feb 26, 2025, 06:07am EST
As the news of the shocking number of passwords compromised by infostealer malware during 2024 continues to reverberate, and Microsoft users are warned of the importance of enabling two-factor authentication as “spray and pray” password hackers strike, an alert is issued concerning the theft of a hacker database of 284,132,969 accounts containing 244 million never seen before passwords from a single crime forum.
Here’s what you need to know and how to find out if any of yours are on the list.
Ensuring your passwords are long and strong, or more to the point that they are complex and hard to crack, has always been high on the list of security best practices.
But what if you have strong passwords and they get stolen?
That’s the issue facing millions as Troy Hunt, the owner of the Have I Been Pwned, the free service that lets you check if your email address has appeared in a data breach, and a way to determine if your password has been compromised, issued a Feb. 25 alert regarding the breach of a major crime forum known as ALIEN TXTBASE.
Confirming that a “corpus of 1.5TB worth of stealer logs,” containing “23 billion rows with 493 million unique website and email address pairs, affecting 284M unique email addresses,” Hunt said that this has resulted in the addition of “244 million passwords we've never seen before to Pwned Passwords and updated the counts against another 199 million that were already in there.”
Passwords Stolen By Malware And Sold By Crime Forums
ALIEN TXTBASE appears to be a crime forum operating as a Telegram channel, which in and of itself is not unusual according to Hunt.
“There's been growing concern in recent years about the use of Telegram by organized crime,” Hunt said; “Telegram makes it super easy to publish large volumes of data (such as we're talking about here) under the veil of anonymity and distribute it en masse.”
Hunt was made aware of a sample file of 36 million rows of data, with. Ore available if the buyer took out a subscription to access the new stuff rather than the existing email addresses and passwords contained in the teaser. The data concerned looks like it has come from infostealer malware which sucks up all credentials as they are entered into an infected device and added to stealer logs.
It is these logs that are then sold in cybercrime marketplaces. It is these logs that have been leaked to Hunt and, after thorough analysis, added to the Have I Been Pwned and Pwned Passwords databases.
Are Your Passwords In This Latest Mega-Breach?
“One of the coolest, most awesome, best things we’ve ever done with HIBP is to create a massive repository of passwords that’s all open source ,” Hunt said, “and can be queried anonymously without disclosing the searched password.”
That database is known as Pwned Passwords and you can access it now to see if your passwords appear in any known breach.
You can also query the original Have I Been Pwned database to see if, and where, your email addresses have appeared in breaches.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daveywinder/2025/02/26/244-million-passwords-stolen-from-crime-forum-are-yours-on-the-list/
https://haveibeenpwned.com/Passwords
Secretary Rollins Takes Action to Prevent Illegal Aliens from Accessing Food Stamps
February 25, 2025
American Taxpayers Will No Longer Subsidize Illegal Immigration
— U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins today directed the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to immediately clarify and enforce all rules restricting its beneficiaries to U.S. citizens and legal residents only.
This Secretarial directive enforces President Donald J. Trump’s Executive Order of February 19th, 2025, ensuring taxpayer resources are not used to incentivize or support illegal immigration.
“The days in which taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize illegal immigration are over,” said Secretary Rollins, “Today's directive affirms that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will follow the law—full stop."
The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture plays an important role in providing nutrition services for vulnerable populations in the interest of our Nation.
https://www.usda.gov/about-usda/news/press-releases/2025/02/25/secretary-rollins-takes-action-prevent-illegal-aliens-accessing-food-stamps
https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/fns-snap-letter-to-governors.pdf