Welcome to the first installment of Friday Stir-Fry, where I bundle all the news that caught my eye for one reason or another during the week but doesn’t fit neatly into any specific category or simply didn’t get to cover in depth.

1) When One Goes High, The Other Goes Low:

As terrorist groups get increasingly high tech by deploying their own weaponized drones, Western nations discover the benefits of falconry… against drones.

Use of weaponized drones by ISIS spurs terrorism fears – Washington Post

Born killers: French army grooms eagles to down drones – Radio France Internationale

On a serious note, the use of cheap, commercially available drones doesn’t present so much a battlefield challenge (though it does for now) as it does a civilian risk. Terrorists can do a lot of damage by dropping a simple bomb into a crowded area. The size and coming ubiquity of drones makes it difficult for governments that are already stretched thin to address this danger.

2) There is a stark difference between being the CEO of a publicly traded company and the CEO of a family-owned business:

“The CEO of a public company is subject to an array of constraints and a varying but always substantial degree of oversight. There are boards of directors, of course, that review all major strategic decisions, among other duties. And there are separate committees that assess CEO performance and determine compensation, composed entirely of independent or outside directors without any ongoing involvement in running the business.

…

Trump, by contrast, as the head of a family business was accountable to no one and reportedly ran his company that way. His executive team comprised his children and people who are loyal to him, and his decision-making authority was unconstrained by any internal governance mechanisms. Decisions concerning what businesses to start or exit, how much money to borrow and at what interest rates, how to market products and services, and how – or even whether – to pay suppliers or treat customers were made centrally and not subject to review.

…

Trump, it should be noted, made one stab at a public company: Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts. That was an unmitigated disaster, leading to five separate declarations of bankruptcy before finally going under, all this while other casino companies thrived. Public investors ignored all the signs in favor of the showmanship and glitz of the Trump brand and, as a result, lost millions of dollars. Trump allotted himself a huge salary and bonuses, corporate perks and special merchandising deals.”

White House in turmoil shows why Trump’s no CEO – The Conversation

3) The majority of Americans see Trump as ____:

The problem with articles that describe how the majority of Americans see Trump is that they don’t provide much useful information. It doesn’t indicate how Trump or the Republican Party is going to respond because the majority of Americans either voted for Clinton or didn’t vote for him, depending on how you look at the numbers, and the Republican Party still came to power. So most polls are going to tell you that the public disapproves of what Trump is doing.

Due to gerrymandering and partisanship, what matters is how Republicans and Independents feel in Republican districts (for representatives) and states (for Senators). There is an argument being made that the rise in popularity of poll aggregators such as 538 have perversely led to a decline in the polls they aggregate, and as such, we have less of an idea of what’s going on at the state and county level, although we can still see national trends.

If you want to see what’s going to influence Republican lawmakers, keep an eye on their districts, especially events like townhalls.

A majority of Americans are embarrassed by President Trump – The Washington Post

Poll aggregators seem to be killing off actual polling – Vox

Republicans distance themselves from Trump’s agenda at rowdy town halls – The Washington Post

4) Is It Russia and Trump or Russia vs Trump? Even Russia Is Not Sure:

Russia is doing some “light” testing of the Trump Administration’s response to aggression; buzzing American naval ships, stationing a spy ship just inside of international waters, deploying banned missiles.

Problem is, there’s no Administration to respond. The NSC is understaffed, and about 500-600 Senate confirmable seats, including many at the State Department, are unfilled. Responses from Trump himself range from a warm embrace to the equivalent of pleading with your pet poodle not to pee on the rug.

Thus Russia’s latest actions. They’ve been hemmed in for decades by the United States and its allies. After Trump’s rise to power and their victories in Syria, Georgia, and Ukraine, a few more successful ventures abroad would help cement Putin’s popularity in spite of a faltering economy. However, anti-Russia sentiment runs strong within the Republican establishment, and this is how Russia will test if Trump can overcome that inherent bias.

Advice to Trump: Beware of Russian Trolls – Foreign Policy

5) From the Elf On The Shelf to My Friend Cayla

While selling a product, such as a doll, that can record everything their owners say so that it can respond to them sounds like a great idea, it might be good to think twice or thrice before doing so… unless you are Amazon, Google, or Apple.

The Bright-Eyed Talking Doll That Just Might Be a Spy – The New York Times

6) The Fight For The Autonomous Future Gets Real Before It Was Supposed To Start:

Alphabet’s Waymo, their autonomous driving division, alleges that they have evidence that their former lead, Anthony Levandowski, stole 14,000 company secrets before quitting, starting an autonomous driving start up, and being subsequently bought out by Uber to the tune of $680 million.

Given that the autonomous driving unit is the proposed future of Uber and the reason that investors are tolerating continued losses amid breakneck expansion, this is a serious blow to Uber if true. They would either effectively become a user of Waymo’s platform, or suffer a crippling blow to the ability to develop their own technology, imperiling their ability transition from an innovative taxi company to managing an autonomous fleet.

It is no surprise that Uber has already responded that the claims are baseless, but Waymo appears to have solid evidence retrieved from Levandowski’s laptop that gives a step-by-step account of how he went about stealing Waymo’s secrets. Uber’s strategy is to entrench itself in a market and make itself so useful to users and drivers alike that it can withstand significant political pressure and weather lawsuits, but given that their autonomous unit is so nascent, it is not sure that they can weather this challenge.

Google Self-Driving Car Unit Accuses Uber of Using Stolen Technology