After a nine-day work/NLJ/newsletter-induced lull in the Pook-Emu Bee, I return with my sometimes-regularly-scheduled daily links. ## Speech 1 | Foul Call: New York Times Calls for Canceling Sophie Cunningham in The Athletic (Jonathan Turley. Oct. 11, 2026.) I largely agree with Mr. Turley. But more material to Ms. Cunningham’s immediate future career prospects, I suspect the WNBA largely agrees with The Athletic. 2 | Reform supporter arrested after comparing Tory councillor to ‘rent boy’ (Robert Mendick for The Telegraph. Oct. 5, 2026.) This reminds me that I need to prepare for some America at 250 Evacuation Day celebrations next month. ## Find Me This Level of Self-Regard 3 | Sen. John Kennedy: I’m Thinking About Running for President (Pam Key for Breitbart. Oct. 4, 2026.) There’s an obvious “breaking news from 1959” joke here. But my first thought was a less obvious joke. I never thought I’d be able to say that I have something very much in common with the good Senator from Louisiana, but after reading this story I can say with some confidence that he and I have the exact same odds of being the Republican nominee for president in 2028. 4 | Former CNN host Don Lemon considering presidential bid: ‘If the people want me, I’ll do it’ (Misty Siveri for Just the News. Oct. 7, 2026.) I certainly never thought I’d be able to say I have something in common with Don Lemon, but I can say with some confidence that Mr. Lemon and I have the same number of people clamoring for us to run for President of the United States in 2028. ## AI News 5 | Mistral unveils Mistral Large 4 “Le Chonk”, a new frontier in open-weight AI models (Paul for AlternativeTo. Oct. 7, 2026.) Here in America we have Anthropic pretentiously naming its models “sonnet,” “opus,” or “death manifesto” on us. In France they drop a “le chonk” announcement on everyone. Respect. 6 | Arizona appeals court tosses Gabriel Horcasitas’ road rage sentence over AI-generated victim impact video of Christopher Pelkey (Richard Pollina for the New York Post. Oct. 2, 2026.) I’m troubled that a public prosecutor thought this was a good idea. Correct result. ## Science 7 | Gastrolith shape as an indicator of digestive function and its implications for dinosaurian digestive strategies (Ryuji Takasaki, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Anthony R. Fiorillo, Tsogtbaatar Chinzorig, and Gregory F. Funston for Paleobiology. July 20, 2026.) Eating rocks is kind of metal? You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I documented my then-new Gingerbread Man Soap Dispenser on _The New Leaf Journal_ last December. I then documented my second refill of Mr. Gingerbread Man back in July. Today, it was time for re-fill three. I had some peppermint castile soap for the job, but I wanted to dilute it. In order to know how much water to add, I needed to know the volume of the soap dispenser. Fortunately, I had a good source: Me. While I did not specifically note the volume in either of my two NLJ articles, I included a photograph of the original tag in the first which noted the volume as being 10.48 oz. I was also reminded of the fact that the tag had a peppermint candy depiction for some unknown reason (the original soap smelled like gingerbread, matching the gingerbreadk man), so I do not have to feel bad about filling it with peppermint-scented soap. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I mailed the 300th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal earlier this afternoon. I launched the newsletter back in July 2020 as a companion to _The New Leaf Journal_. While it still serves the purpose of recapping the week that was at _The New Leaf Journal_ and now _The Emu Café_ Social, it has evolved into a publication unto itself. Each issue comes with links from around the web with quotes and commentary (15 per my current practice), a list of the most-visited articles of the week on _NLJ_ , and other news and notes. While I did not do anything _special_ for issue 300 of the Newsletter, I started it early (meaning last night in this case) to make sure it would be a good issue and could go out in the afternoon. If you enjoy the Newsletter, do note that no email sign-up is required. It has an RSS feed and every issue is available in the newsletter archive. See my Newsletter Leaf Journal Sign-Up page for more information. On to 400? You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

October begins two-for-two with Pook-Emu Bee Links before our regularly scheduled Saturday off-day for the Newsletter Leaf Journal. ## I think they’re hoping you get the hint 1 | Japan announces new permanent residency guidelines, foreigners must earn more than average Japanese person (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. Oct. 1, 2026.) The earning threshold shouldn’t be too hard to hit. 10 years residence for non-marriage cases however… They’re definitely trying to tell you something. To his credit, article author Casey Baseel appears to get the hint. Meanwhile, the United States still has the Diversity Visa program on the books, wherein we randomly hand out visas to people who have achieved a high school diploma (not great, not the best). 2 | Mamdani Will Be Honored Alongside Group with Alleged Ties to Iranian Regime (Adam Lehodey and Daniel Edward Rosen for City Journal. Oct. 1, 2026.) I was all but certain the group would be NAIA before opening the article. Did this really need two enterprising reporters? We could also drop the “alleged” for a more to-the-point headline. ## We’re going to need you to think this through 3 | Bishops warn inflexible vetting rules could bar eligible family members from taking in migrant kids (Tessa Gervasini for EWTN. Aug. 26, 2026.) We had a four-year experiment with dropping vetting standards and the results were rather subpar on many levels, so this warning can be safely disregarded. 4 | Prostitution busts plunge 60% — but hookers multiply — in NYC’s infamous ‘Market of Sweethearts’ (Rich Calder, Tina Moore, and Adry Torres for the New York Post. Sep. 27, 2026.) “But” is doing some incredible heavy-lifting in this headline. ## Unexpected angles 5 | New York Public Library hosted author who compared Israel to a ‘dog shelter’ (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.) Does Nicholas Kristoff know about this? 6 | Anthropic Co-Founder Daniela Amodei Kept ‘Personal Advisory Council’ of Stuffed Animals to Solve Problems (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. Oct. 1, 2026.) My first though here was “this explains so much.” ## It’s not bad 7 | Firefox 157 arrives with major UI redesign, compact mode, and hardware AV1 video decoding (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 30, 2026.) The new compact mode is good is welcome. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I came across an article about a “fully restored 1840s Brooklyn Heights townhouse” available for the low price of $12.75 million. It looks nice. But the artcile does leave out some potentially important notes about its _location_. It is in Brooklyn Heights, unlike Old Fulton Street. Beginning at Hicks Street, Joralemon Street in Brooklyn Heights goes sharply downhill, descending to Furman Street and Brooklyn Bridge Park, both of which are about level with the East River. There are two one-block side-streets coming off that sharp-downhill section of Joralemon, connecting it with State Street. Those two side-streets are Willow Place and Columbia Place. This residence is on Willow Place. Thus, I will submit that it is on a side street in the middle of a steep hill between the main, “high” part of Brooklyn Heights, and Brooklyn Bridge Park. I do like both Willow Place and Columbia Place (although I would be wary of living on or right off of Joralemon in the current Brooklyn Bridge Park era), but this would certainly be something to evaluate before throwing down $12.75 million on the Brooklyn Heights experience. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Let us start October off on the right foot with an exciting new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee Links. ## Oh no, whatever will I do? 1 | Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots (Sarah Perez for TechCrunch. Sep. 30, 2026.) One may think that your favorite (I hope) feed proponent would be outraged about Reddit discontinuing its RSS feeds. To paraphrase the Reddit community: “Well ackshully….” Why in the world would I want to contaminate my feed collection with Reddit? 2 | Citi Bike user reveals outrageous ‘hidden tax’ slapped onto every e-bike (Aurielle Weiss for the New York Post. Sep. 26, 2026.) These lunatics are complaining about the speed limit. The fees can’t be high enough. ## Kitty 3 | Bronx Zoo welcomes adorable snow leopard cub threatened by extinction (Natalie O’Neill for the New York Post. Sep. 30, 2026.) I too welcome the new snow leopard. 4 | Workers free kittens from shredder that could have ‘obliterated’ them in purr-fect rescue mission (Steven Vago for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.) A very timely kitten rescue. ## Starcents 5 | Starbucks to close 250 stores: ‘Difficult decision’ (Anders Hagstrom for Fox Business. Sep. 24, 2026.) I have never been a big burnt coffee fan, but there was once a time when Starbucks was clearing the bar many people 6 | Starbucks Japan releases new Pikachu Honey Cream Latte into the wild for new Pokémon collaboration (Oona McGee for SoraNews24. Sep. 29, 2026.) I wouldn’t drink it because it looks like a year’s worth of sugar. But Starbucks did a surprisingly decent job of converting the Pikachu aesthetic into a drink. ## Self-Hosting 7 | Radiology practices that own their imaging equipment less likely to face closure (Marty Stempniak for Radiology Business. Sep. 30, 2026.) That checks out. 8 | Self Hosting Passwords (Chuck Carroll. May 20, 2026.) He uses KeePassCX and Syncthing. He is a smart man. I hubly say that because I too use KeePassXC and Syncthing. With that being said, I would not necessarily recommend our combo to “normies.” ## Photograph 9 | Sheep Tree (Jan Ulicki on Lens Culture. May 20, 2025.) Great photo, baaaa. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Back in the 90s and very early 2000s, most of my video games came from Toys ‘R Us. See, for example, my discussion in Nintendo 64 at 30 and My N64 Memories (which includes a photo of my Toys ‘R Us-sourced copy of Mario Party) and EGM’s 2001 Sega Neptune April Fools Joke (referencing the Sega 32X I received from the store). Toys ‘R Us went under in the United States in 2017, although it may be making a small comeback. I don’t recall ever having thought about Toys ‘R Us’s presence outside the United States, but I learned from a SoraNews24 article titled Toys R Us is leaving Japan after 35 years in the country that Toys ‘R Us has (soon had) a notable presence in Japan. From the article: > Since arriving in the country in 1991, it’s grown to approximately 150 stores across the country and currently employs a total of around 6,000 full and part-time workers. It had a good run. While the sun sets on Toys ‘R Us in Japan, I would not mind seeing it make a successful comeback here in the United States. Good memories. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Time for the Sepender edition of our regularly scheduled Pook-Emu Bee Links. ## Subway Stories 1 | These salvaged relics in a Brooklyn subway station are the ghostly remains of old New York buildings (Ephemeral New York. Sep. 28, 2026.) I wouldn’t call this being restored to their former glory, but it’s something. 2 | MTA axes G train shutdowns planned for December after outcry from small businesses (Kirstyn Brendlen for Brooklyn Paper. Sep. 28, 2026.) Fun fact for non-New Yorkers: The G train is the only non-shuttle line that runs directly between Brooklyn and Queens without going through Manhattan in between. It is also an oft-troubled line in the repair space. ## Tech Replacements 3 | Fedora Discussion Raises The Idea Of Replacing LibreOffice With Collabora Office (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. Sep. 24, 2026.) That is a stupid idea. Fedora should not do that. LibreOffice is a good default office suite (if one wants to ship a default office suite). 4 | US sanctions force The Netherlands off Microsoft and toward alternative NixOS-based software ecosystem — trial programs running now, first release expected at end of 2027 (Oliver Hansen for Tom’s Hardware. Sep. 28, 2026.) U.S. sanctions of the ICC did not “force” the government of the Netherlands to do anything, as the first paragraph of the article itself notes. But since I use Linux instead of Windows myself, it will be interesting to see to what extent governments can make the switch work. ## Military Conflicts 5 | Iran publishes propaganda letter urging US voters to punish Trump in midterm elections (Ronny Reyes for the New York Post. Sep. 29, 2026.) I could state the obvious that I am not taking voting advice from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. But let us go with a less obvious angle. 26 pages? Does the IRGC really expect me to read 26 pages? Moreover, are they aware that 1 USD is now worth more than 2.5 million Iranian Rial? If for no other reason than preserving tokens I would recommend they keep future communications to me to a strict 500 word limit. Thank you. 6 | Captured Hamas Spy Chief Helps Israel Take Out Three Senior Terror Commanders (Vijeta Uniyal for Legal Insurrection. Sep. 29, 2026.) Hamas is finally showing the kind of cooperation that can lead to peace in the Middle East. Inspiring. 7 | Ukraine’s former defense minister launches ‘Manhattan Project’ for killer robots (Katie Livingstone for Defense News. Sep. 30, 2026.) The problem with Giant Death Robots is that by the time you reach the end of the tech tree, you probably already made it to Alpha Centauri or won a domination victory, no? I don’t see how he is addressing that. Shallow. (Link for readers who never played Civilization.) ## Video Games 8 | Danganronpa 2×2 hands-on impressions: Witnessing the exact moment Slayhem Mode takes the familiar killing game off the rails (Dorde P for Automation West. Sep. 30, 2026.) I was mildly curious how they were going to re-do the Danganronpa 2 scenario. This sounds plausible. I _may_ talk myself into this one but TBD. (They had better not kill Chiaki off early, however.) 9 | After Years Of Hard Work, One Of The Most Ambitious Super Mario Kart SNES Hacks Of All Time Finally Has A Release Date (Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. Sep. 30, 2026.) Interesting. I’m curious what the new courses are. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

You may wonder whether I sometimes go a week or so (a week in this case) without publishing Pook-Emu Bee links because I lack links. Not so. I collect links every day. That makes getting back to Pook-Emu Bee all the more urgent. An out-of-control link backlog is a scary thing. ## AI (or SI?) and Tech 1 | Daily News Stuff 29 September 2026 (Ambient Irony. Sep. 29, 2026.) Incisive analysis of the “rogue” agent phenomenon in four words (“Because they are idiots.”) 2 | Heads of AI firms tell UN Security Council that it could imperil humanity (Seth Borenstein and Jennifer Peltz for AP. Sep, 23, 2026.) I agree with Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony that this effort is embarrassing on many levels and impractical because the UN does not “have the power to regulate squat.” With that being said, I think the UN may be the perfect forum. 3 | Alabama teens getting their own version of TikTok under sweeping $100M deal (Elaine Mallon for Fox Business. Sep. 26, 2026.) That’s great but what if we went back and considered that “no TikTok” idea again? 4 | Fwupd 2.1.8 Linux Firmware Updater Is Out Now with Support for More Devices (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linus. Sep. 24, 2026.) I’m an Fwupd fan. I was hoping one of the devices would be my ASRock motherboard, which I just updated a couple of weeks ago. Alas. Still cool, however. ## New York City News 5 | Safety advocate blames Central Park redesign for pedestrian’s death as cyclist crashes rise (Haley Brown for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.) Correct. But let us not forget the bikers who are pretending they’re riding in the Tour de France. 6 | Bay Ridge’s beloved Ragamuffin Parade turns 60, celebrating generations of community (Olivia Searman for Brooklyn Paper. Sep. 23, 2026.) Despite having spent a good amount of time in Bay Ridge in my life, I never heard of this parade. But I nevertheless offer my congratulations. ## World News 7 | Leftist South Korea Demands Ukraine Apologize After Zelensky Reveals North Korea Soldiers Shipped to Seoul (Frances Martel for Breitbart. Sep. 28, 2026.) I personally wouldn’t stake my reputation on the reliability of either party here, but as a general point the one asking everyone for assistance in its existential defensive war should probably err on the side of caution. 8 | US Identifies and Blacklists Three More UNRWA ‘Teachers’ Who Participated in Oct 7 Terror Spree, Kidnapped and Held Israeli Hostages (Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. Sep. 28, 2026.) If it makes these three distinguished UWRWA employees feel better, many individuals who have been publicly implicated in October 7 have suffered worse fates than loss of employment opportunities. Wait a second. That probably shouldn’t make them feel better. ## Video Game Stories 9 | Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka considers Ultimate Despair Girls the pinnacle of his writing. “I will never be able to write another scenario that surpasses it” (Dorde P for Automation West. Sep. 25, 2026.) I think I played something between 30% and 40% of Ultimate Despair Girls before losing interest and unsuccessfully including it in an Amazon trade in when I bought my Switch (UPS lost the package…). It was ok but I would have probably finished had I agreed with Mr. Kodaka’s assessment. With that being said, I do like Dangan 1-3, although I would caution against taking them too seriously. 10 | Persona 4 Revival Corrects Aika Nakamura Details, Confirms She Is Not a New Social Link (Orpheus Josha for Noisy Pixel. Sep. 24, 2026.) I had seen the false report that P4 Revival was adding a new social link and had questions. Persona 4 Golden already tacked on two social links in Aeon and Jester to the original Persona 4. Adding yet another would have probably demanded some re-balancing. The correction to the original erroneous story thus makes sense to me. 11 | Amid “itasha” ban controversy, Forza Horizon 6 devs say moderation is handled by humans and “the number of reports does not matter” (Carlos “Zoto” Zotomayor for Automation West. Sep. 24, 2026.) I have seen multiple stories about Forza Horizon 6 moderators allegedly banning user-created anime-style designs on in-game cards. Notably, none of the articles actually offer examples of which designs are being flagged. Thus, despite being an anime fan who is largely skeptical of games that have this much of an online component, I would reserve judgment. ## Essential Minerals in Moderation 12 | Living the Low-Sodium Lifestyle (Chris O’Donnell. Sep. 24, 2026.) [HT Makoism] Good blog post. I don’t measure sodium intake in this much detail but like the author, I seldom eat out and I check sodium on nutrition fact labels. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I have played and reviewed many little-known and niche visual novels. But I am also familiar with some of the classics. For example, I am a fan of the much-esteemed Higurashi: When They Cry series, which I was in the process of completing in the early days of The New Leaf Journal. Since completing the core eight-novel story, I have learned new things about the series. For example, last year I learned that way back in the early days, creator Ryushiki07 helped spread awareness of his work through an unsolicited mailing campaign. I also learned that there was a Higurashi phone game. Thanks to a September 15, 2026 article on Automation West, I now know that back in 2009, a Higurashi-themed mahjong game called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Jong was released in arcades and for PlayStation Portable. The Higurashi mahjong game is being remastered and re-released for Windows, PlayStation 5, and Nintendo Switch in 2027 (unclear whether there will be an English game). I appreciate that Higa mahjong exists because there is some in-world justification for the idea, but I will be very disappointed if someone tells me that Kurado Ōishi is not the final boss. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

According to Neetu Arnold, writing for City Journal, “37 states require public universities to award credit to students who score a ‘3’ or higher on an AP exam.” That note is consistent with the College Board’s position. Back in 11th grade way back when, I took four AP exams, all without the benefit of studying or having corresponding AP classes. I had two 4s and two 3s. Brooklyn College ultimately gave me 12 credits for the two 4s (which also got me out of “English 1”), but nothing for the 3s. Was I robbed? What is this? I’d have been done at least one semester earlier with 12 additional credits for the 3s. Persecution! You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Let us make it three days of Pook-Emu Bee links in a row. 1 | Million Goods Opens And A Crucial Bike Lane Completed (DeKalb Dispatch. Sep. 11, 2026.) There’s no such thing as a crucial bike lane. 2 | From Holdout to Hunted: Keith Reddington Seeks Phone Records and Interview with Holdout Clancy Juror (Jonathan Turley. Sep. 22, 2026.) This guy is a menace. 3 | Susan Rice: U.S. Must Work with China to ‘Freeze’ AI Development (Pam Key for Breitbart. Sep. 21, 2026.) I think they should be a little more subtle before getting straight to their point. 4 | A powerful West Village 9/11 memorial asks us not to forget one young office worker (Ephemeral New York. Sep. 7, 2026.) I meant to include this link in a Pook-Emu Bee before 9/11. I wasn’t able to publish much that week. Better late than never. 5 | Video shows rare whale sharks just 100 miles off New York City (John Dias for CBS News. Sep. 3, 2026.) I’m not a big boat guy so I will stick to bringing you terrestrial NYC news. 6 | Jellyfish Clog Shores and Sting Swimmers as Summer Wanes in Rockaway (Samantha Maldonado for The City Reporter. Sep. 2, 2026.) I don’t think I’ve ever been to Rockaway so I’ll rate myself as **safe**. 7 | State Department Says ‘Do Not Travel to Libya for Any Reason’ (John Hayward for Breitbart. Sep. 5, 2026.) Well. Where do I go now? (Aside: Whoever sees which of the first six links inspired me to drop a Libya story at the end earns smug self-satisfaction.) You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Daily Pook-Emu Bee links ceased being daily for the last week and change, but perhaps it is **back** with two straight editions to start the new week. 1 | Calibre 9.15 E-Book Manager Introduces “Create Your Own Adventure” Writing Game (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. Sep. 28, 2026.) While I disable (or don’t enable) AI functionality in Calibre, I opined last year that some of the integrations were relatively inoffensive and in line with Calibre’s purpose. I’d say I fear Calibre is losing the plot (get it!?) with this one. However, it is not enabled by default and the new release includes some interesting normal features, so as long as the plot is lost on the side… 2 | NYC refuses to remove massive hornets’ nest from Queens tree, tells terrified residents to foot the bill (Rich Calder for the New York Post. Sep. 19, 2026.) If (heaven forbid) this situation goes sideways after the NYC Parks Department both refused to step in and warned that it would block any efforts by the residents to remedy, NYC (i.e., taxpayers) will most certainly foot the bill. 3 | Ancient bronze bracelets found in Uzbekistan (The History Blog. Sep. 16, 2026.) You never know what you’ll dig up in your yard in Uzbekistan. 4 | Three Patrons, Three Clients: The Mecca Alliance No One Owns (Ahmed Saber Abbas for War on the Rocks. Sep. 15, 2026.) If only Saudi Arabia had some alternative proposal in front of it. 5 | Nearly one third of college-age ‘BORG’ drinkers report blacking out: New study (W.B. Kagan for EurekAlert! Sep. 15, 2026.) This ends with a suggestion for parents to discuss with their college-age students “whether to attend a BORG event, and if one does attend, whether to bring a BORG beverage and how much (if any alcohol to put in the beverage.” That’s great but let’s try cutting this off at “event” and making the answer “no.” 6 | Holdout Lindsay Clancy Juror Breaks Silence, Says “Activists” Wanted “Not Guilty” on Day 1 (Steven Ertelt for Life Site. Sep. 16, 2026.) He shouldn’t have had to break silence, but now that he has been left with no choice, I tip my hat to Mr. Michael P. Desronvil for having the courage to do the right thing. 7 | Scientists Create a New Form of Ice at More Than 2,000 °C (Michelle Starr for Science Alert. Sep. 9, 2026.) I don’t know. Our current ice works well enough. The scientists should focus on something more practical. 8 | The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Rawdawg (Lauren Peck for Austin Chronicle. Nov. 27, 2024.) That this running club was obnoxious enough to be cracked down on in Austin sounds like an accomplishment (and well-deserved as someone who finds our less noisy running clubs here in New York City annoying enough as is). 9 | I saw the movie that Warner tried to delete: ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ (Bryan Preston for Fox Business. Sep. 12, 2026.) While my 16+ year streak of not being in a movie theater continues, this does sound like a fun movie and one that was well-worth saving. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I have not had much time to post new articles (long or short lately), but let us get the last full week of September off to a good start with a new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee. 1 | Linux 7.3 Adds Support For Victrix Pro BFG & Azeron Controllers (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. Sep. 20, 2026.) I have questions here. First, why is that controller $269? Second, why does it look like a hand with six fingers? I can’t weigh in on the new Linux support until those threshold questions are answered. 2 | Jane Austen’s 8-Bit Adventure Switch Review (Game Slush Pile. Sep. 19, 2026.) The review makes it sound uninspiring. But what if you tried playing it with the “hand” controller? (See above.) 3 | NYC judge fails to take bite out of crime after repeat offender chomps on cop (Tina Moore for the New York Post. Sep. 19, 2026.) I understand that the pro-crime judge is reluctant to remand anyone to custody, but what if we compromised and all agreed to send him to the pound? 4 | Hyperlocal New York City publications are having a moment (Hannah Frishberg for Gothamist. Sep. 17, 2026.) I added a few of these to my feed collection. We’ll see if there are any Pook-Emu Bee links to be had. 5 | Judge Strikes Down Controversial Rule Changes Benefitting Embattled Brooklyn Party Boss (The City Repoter (via The Haitian Times). Sep. 17, 2026.) Call me a romantic but I’m not counting out the possibility that Frank Seddio still has some magic left (see link 9 in Pook-Emu Bee 08-27-26). There are some notable contextual omissions in this ostensibly straightforward news report, but I choose to stick with the Seddio jokes. 6 | NYC ‘animal lover’ accused of stealing beloved bodega cat furiously claims she was unfairly arrested (Georgett Roberts and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. Sep. 16, 2026.) Pro-tip: If your position is that you are just a cat lover who genuinely thought the cat was a stray, try to avoid _repeatedly_ referring to the cat you claim you thought you were rescuing as the “f—ing cat.” 7 | AOC Blasts Patriots Owner Robert Kraft for ‘Censoring’ Macklemore from Criticizing Israel (Dylan Gwinn for the New York Post. Sep. 16, 2026.) Strange. Here I thought the Congresswoman was a big fan of Israel-related boycotts. 8 | After Landmarks Review, Hotel Bossert Moves Ahead With Reno, Ritz-Carlton (Anna Bradley-Smith for Brownstoner. Sep. 16, 2026.) It sounds like the new owners are working in good faith to maintain the landmark while getting it up and running again. I approve. 9 | Who Is feeding the sudden panic about AI? (Issues & Insights. Sep. 15, 2026.) The big AI companies and their lobbyists (both of the witting and unwitting variety). I try to be a reality-based AI critic as I fight to keep the scrapers from crashing my sites (preventing stealing my stuff is nice but sometimes you have to focus on the practical wins). That leads us to a fitting final link… 10 | Daily News Stuff 20 September 2026 (Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony. Sep. 20, 2026.) The replies to excerppts from AI safety conversations have gotten unbelievable made me laugh and reminded me of how my friend was able to make himself look smart in front of friends and colleagues by sharing my 2021 election wisdom that, notwithstanding the polls, there was in fact no scenario wherein Andrew Yang would become Mayor of New York City. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I have been watching all of the top division bouts at the 2026 Aki Basho (September Grand Sumo Tournament). One of the highlight bouts on day 4 featured Yokozuna Onosato vs Takayasu. Takayasu delivered a brutal hit at the Tachiai, forcing the Yokozuna back. Onosato backpedaled, and circling away, tried to guide Takayasu out of the ring. He very nearly succeeded, but Takayasu gracefully twirled one leg, staying in. Unfortunately for Yokozuna Onosato, he ended up twirling as well, but without the same success as the light-footed Takayasu. YouTube user Wegwezen decided to set the slow-motion highlights to music, and I must say that I fully approve of his music selection. Consider this video a “must watch.” You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

My posting out-put has been subpar of late, but today the Pook-Emu Bee links return for the first time since September 10. 1 | 25 Years Since the Worst Day in My Lifetime (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Studies. Sep. 11, 2026.) Memories of 9/11 and border/visa security in the ensuing quarter-century. 2 | New World Trade Center is fine but it could have been great (Steve Cuozzo for the New York Post. Sep. 12, 2026.) Given the number of stupid ideas that were floating around in the wake of 9/11 (many of which are noted in this op-ed), I am willing to count the “fine” Freedom Tower as a “W.” 3 | What 9/11 was like for veteran Post police reporter: ‘Nothing could prepare me’ (Larry Celona for the New York Post. Sep. 11, 2026.) Memories from a repporter who had covered 9/11 on the ground. 4 | The Second Life of Crayons (Dan Lewis for Now I Know. May 15, 2019.) Innovative crayon recycling. 5 | Guess Who Helped Doxx the Holdout Juror in the Lindsay Clancy Case (Victoria Taft for PJ Media. Sep. 13, 2026.) Someone ought to look into whether attorney Reddington and his wife have been communicating with some of the “11” subsequent to the trial. 6 | 220 million traveler records exposed in Vietnam-linked APIS leak (Ax Sharma for Bleeping Computer. Sep. 8, 2026.) I’m 100% sure I am not part of this leak thanks to one simple trick. 7 | Bernie Sanders proposes 20 year prison sentence for AI devs who plow ahead with Artificial Superintelligence plans — penalty on par with illegally developing rogue nuclear weapons (Mark Tyson for Bleeping Computer. Sep. 13, 2026.) Superintelligence relative to what? If the bar for human intelligence is this proposal than the original Mario Party devs are in trouble. 8 | Publishing your work increases your luck (Aaron Francis for The ReadME Project. Juuly 12, 2022.) Every Pook-Emu Bee is a roll of the dice. 9 | You Can Drop SEO (Ibrahim Diallo at iDiallo. Sep. 12, 2026.) Not here I can’t. The “brand SEO” of “Pook-Emu Bee” is too elite. 10 | Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models (Derek B. Johnson for Cyberscoop. Sep. 8, 2026.) To be **fair** to China… a decent number try to scrape my sites directly You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Before July’s Nagoya Basho (July grand sumo tournament), I predicted which wrestlers I thought would reach 10 wins. Now, one tournament wiser, I will predict the entire field for the September 2026 Aki Basho (running from September 13-27, 2026). To see predictions from more learned sumo observers, see Tim Edwards’ predictions at Sumo Stomp and the Fantasy Basho predictions. Note that I am assuming for purposes of my predictions that all wrestlers who are slated to compete on day one will compete all 15 days. * 12-3: O1e Kirishima * 11-4: Y1e Onosato * 10-5: O2e Aonishki, M6w Ichiyamamoto, M8e Takerufuji, M8w Hiradoumi, M16e Toshinofuji * 9-6: S1e Atamifuji, M10e Oho, M11w Shodai, M12w Asahakuryu, M15e Asasuiryu * 8-7: O1w Kotozakura, K1e Hakunofuji, M1w Kotoeiho, M2e Takayasu, M2w Yoshinofuji, M4w Fujiryoga, M13e Asajoryu * 7-8: K1w Daieisho, M1e Kotoshoho, M4e Takanosho, M7e Fujiseiun, M13w Abi * 6-9: S1w Fujinokawa, M3e Gonoyama, M6e Asanoyama, M9e Ura, M9w Shishi, M10w Konbozan, M11e Wakamotoharu, M14e Tobizaru, M15w Tokihayate * 5-10: M3w Churanoumi, M5e Roga, M5w Oshoma, M7w Nishikifuji, M14w Chiyoshoma, M17e Shonannoumi I made my picks conservatively, generally avoiding picking extreme records for this tournament. To be sure, I am sure there will be some 3-12/4-13 records on the low-end and I would not be surprised to see one of the wrestlers in my 10+ win group run up a 13-2 record (most likely Kirishima, Onosato, or Aonishki, health permitting on the latter two). Based on other picks I have seen, I will mark M6w Ichiyamamoto and M8w Hiradoumi as my “surprise” picks for this basho. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

We went just over one week without daily Pook-Emu Bee links. Sickness (probably mostly allergies) and work intervened. But today I have a window for links. Back and better than ever? 1 | NCAA declares it cannot overturn outcome of game following Western Michigan’s appeal (Daniel Hager for ON3. Sep. 9, 2026.) I didn’t watch Michigan get saved from defeat against Western Michigan in a manner reminiscent of the Soviet men’s basketball team in the 1972 Summer Olympics, but the story reminded me of when Appalachian State stunned Michigan in its season opener on September 1, 2007. I did watch _that_ 2007 game. 2 | Google Earth’s AI experiment lasted 24 hours. The damage to trust will linger (Masha Alimardani for Rest of World. Sep. 10, 2026.) I didn’t closely follow the Google Earth AI experiment but I’ll note that the delusional consumers of Iranian lego videos have many tools at their disposal. 3 | Can the UK defend the Falkland Islands? (Richard Thomas for Army Technology. Sep. 4, 2026.) At the moment the UK hasn’t demonstrated the ability to consistently defend itself from rafts crossing the channel from France, so put me down in the “doubt” category, granting all of Argentina’s technical and political limitations noted in the article. 4 | Azerbaijan and Kyrgyzstan Elevate Relations to Alliance (Vusal Guliyev for Jamestown. Sep. 9, 2026.) The alliance the caucuses/Central Asia region has been waiting for? 5 | U.S. Open Fans Nauseated by Smell of Human Waste from Restrooms: ‘You’re Breathing in Sh*t’ (Warner Todd Huston for Breitbart. Sep. 8, 2026.) New York City has had some “sewer smell” problems which I noticed began intensifying around 2020. My working theory is that some parts of the Department of Sanitation are still on vacation. In any event, I suppose even our betters at the U.S. Open must deal with plebian problems. 6 | US forces sink fifth ‘refueling vessel’ linked to Los Choneros terrorist organization (Washington Examiner. Sep. 8, 2026.) Buried lede: These cartels have refueling vessels? 7 | NYC’s first racial equity plan sets new framework for future budget decisions (Adam Daly for amNY. Sep. 1, 2026.) “The racial equity planning process stems from ballot measures approved by NYC voters in 2022 that amended the City Charter, created the Office of Racial Equity and required the city to regularly produce racial equity plans.” (Don’t look at me: I voted NO.) 8 | Your Roku TV Offers AI Slop For Free (If You’re Into That Sort Of Thing) (Novak Božović for Endgadget. Sep. 5, 2026.) My Roku TV does not offer me “AI Slop” because I do not connect it to the internet. But if you have a Roku TV and connect it to the internet, maybe _you_ enjoy the AI slop? 9 | NYC’s notoriously violent West Indian American Day parade to end early in effort to curb crime (Matthew Fischetti and Zoe Hussain for the New York Post. Sep. 4, 2026.) To the shock of no one who has been alive in Brooklyn for more than 5 minutes, it didn’t work (noble plan though, noble plan). 10 | Gen Z isn’t interested in Burning Man (Matty Merritt for Morning Brew. Sep. 4, 2026.) I’m squarely “millennial” by birth and have made it through life in general ignorance of Burning Man. Thus, I suppose I must side with “Gen Z.” You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I discovered two new bots in my server logs last week: RSSAmplifierBot and BriskBot. They come from RSS Amplifier and Brisk News respectively. Bot sites are built by Profullstack, Inc. I discovered that RSS Amplifier, unbeknownst to me, had been crawling _New Leaf Journal’s_ ATOM feed and re-publishing (albeit they would not describe it as such) the entire contents of my article under the RSS Amplifier banner (note it appears it took entire articles because I offer full-text feeds; it had truncated entries for sites that do not offer full text feeds). While the articles are attributed with links back to my original source, I do not approve of wholesale re-publishing (as should have been clear from my About Page). Worse yet, RSS Amplifier describes its purpose in part as making articles from around the web readily available for AI crawlers (live About Page) and they sell access to their data (live Training Data page). Brisk News appears to host articles from around the web with AI summaries, but there is less information about the project on site. I present this information for the consideration of my fellow webmasters. I took it upon myself to block both RSS Amplifier and Brisk News at the server level and have a pending take-down request with RSS Amplifier. Alternatively, a webmaster who wants to be part of the collection may want to test whether the team responds to requests about data handling (RSS Amplifier does insist you can make a request to be in the directory but not have your site’s data sold, but I have my doubts on how that would work in practice). In any event, for those who are interested in learning more: * My full report on NLJ with archived links, notes, and opinions * My Codeberg repository for .htaccess and robots.txt blocks, both of which include RSSAmplifierBot and BriskBot You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

My throat is irrtated, my nose is stuffy, and I have a slight headache. It’s ragweed season. Unrelated: It’s time for our daily Pook-Emu Bee links. I took this photo in what I think was Cobble Hill on the afternoon of August 23, 2026. 1 | Dating App Adds Feature Allowing Men To Filter Out Women Who Support Lindsay Clancy (The Babylon Bee. April 27, 2026.) An all-timer from Babylon Bee. 2 | Iconic, stained glass ‘Watertower’ above Brooklyn Bridge Park dismantled (Mary Frost for Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Sep. 1, 2026.) I’m a fan of the watertower. I am sure I have a photo of it somewhere. But fear not, it is only being taken down temporarily. 3 | This open-source tool was built for academics, and it’s the best productivity tool I own (Yash Patel for XDA. Sep. 1, 2026.) Zotero is indeed great. Especially when combined with Syncthing for file sync. 4 | Review: Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet—Using a Little to Say a Lot (June for Fuwanovel. August 25, 2026.) According to Steam, I played Planetarian in 2015. Count me as a fan, it’s an excellent short visual novel. Maybe I should review it since it is also relevant to the history of Insani. 5 | Dyson launches $499 toothbrush with built-in camera, AI technology (Bradford Betz for Fox Business. Sep. 1, 2026.) GPTeeth? 6 | Convicted cab driver rapist Gurmeet Singh stripped of US citizenship 15 years after assaulting passenger (Emily Goodin and Chris Nesi for the New York Post. Aug. 31, 2026.) Now now. I’m sure Mr. Signh’s forgetting that he had brutally raped (not “assaulted” NY Post headline writers) a woman weeks earlier when he was filling out his Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, was nothing more than an honest clerical oversight. 7 | Delicate white blossoms on a tree branch (Doncoombez on Upslash. March 17, 2026.) This photo appeared as a Brave new tab image on my phone. I liked it, so you can enjoy it too. While you’re in the area, enjoy my 2022 re-publication of a poem about apple blossoms. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I read a post on the Strange Voyages blog titled 9 Games to Know Me (HT Bubbles Weekly). It caught my interest because the concept struck me as similar (albeit not identical) to my September 2023 article titled Ranking My Big Impression Video Games (see simple list version), wherein I ranked the 12 video games that left the biggest impression on me. The author at Strange Voyages states that he put the list together for his 32nd birthday, which would have him being born in August 1994. Thus, the author a bit younger than me, given that was about when I received my first video game console (model 2 Sega Genesis) and game (Sonic 2) (see my recent discussion). Because early games often have ways of leaving big impressions, a difference in when one first encounters games will likely affect these sorts of lists. With that being said, my big impression list and the Strange Voyages 9 games list both include _Persona 4 Golden_ (I included it in one selection with the original _Persona 4_). The Strange Voyages list also has later entries in two series I included in mine. Strange Voyages has Pokémon HeartGold while my list had the original Pokémon Gold (to be sure, Heart Gold is a better game than the original Gold/Silver) along with Pokémon Red (which I ranked number one) and Pokémon Ruby. Strange Voyages has Animal Crossing: New Horizons while I had the original Animal Crossing for GameCube. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I read an August 31, 2026 article in SoraNews24 titled Tamagotchi evolves into a ring for its 30th anniversary, preorders now open. I had a Tamagotchi at some point in the 90s, but I do not think it left a big impression on me. But this headline made me think. Pokémon celebrated its 30th anniversary on February 27 of this year. Is Pokémon older than Tamagotchi? I would have probably tentatively guessed “no” had I been asked before seeing this SoraNews24 article, but the headline suggests that Pokémon is older. Unfortunately, the SoraNews24 report did not note when the first Tamagotchi was released. Onto internet research. My search for an authoritative resource led me to the Tamagotchi history page on the official U.S. website. I quote: > Tamagotchi was released on November 23, 1996. > > Tamagotchi (U.S.) History of Tamagotchi Page The original Pokémon Red and Green in Japan beat Tamagotchi by just under nine months. However, Tamagotchi was released just before the first copies of the Japanese Pokémon Blue were mailed out. Since the international Pokémon Red and Blue are based on the Japanese Pokémon Blue rather than the original Red and Green (which had been released on February 27, 1996), I suppose we can make a case that Pokémon only wins a partial victory as far as international audiences go. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

For the first time in about a week (if not a little more), I do not have a tight work deadline. Thus, I present you with a relatively leisurely edition of the Pook-Emu Bee to kick off September. Note the bee in the top right. I took this photograph in Brooklyn Bridge Park on August 28, 2026. 1 | Expression After Hit By Car (Ojai Raptor Center (via Owl’s in Towels). Oct. 11, 2024.) That raptor has seen more things than the original raptors. 2 | GrapheneOS might skip the Pixel 11 series over the lack of MTE hardware security support (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 1, 2026.) Pixels are going in the wrong direction, but my (LineageOS-powered) 3a XL is going stron[-ish]. 3 | Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux (Sourav Rudra for It’s FOSS. Aug. 31, 2026.) I don’t run iOS (see above), but this looks like a neat project for Linux/iOS people. I have now done my PSA duty for the week. 4 | “A Cute Little LibGen Babysitter”: Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Founders Over Torrenting Spree (Ernesto Van der Sar for Torrent Freak. Sep. 1, 2026.) I’m somehow not surprised that the Claude leadership described their thoughts about torrenting pirated works contemporaneously in the style of teenage girls keeping a diary. 5 | The 3DO Is Getting A New DOOM-Esque Shooter Featuring The Voice Of Silent Hill’s Lisa Garland (Sep. 1, 2026.) Having conquered ONScripter-EN, should I make my next visual novel for 3DO? 6 | Dem AG urges Jewish voters to put humanity above ‘safety and security’ of own people (Alec Schemmel for Fox News. Sep. 1, 2026.) I could state the obvious here. But instead I will offer a more novel take. How in the world did a woman with these political instincts win state-wide office in one of the biggest states in the union? 7 | I built my own streaming box, and it beats every smart TV I’ve owned (Anurag Singh for XDA. Aug. 31, 2026.) I just use a mini PC running Fedora with KDE Plasma. With that being said, I should really test out LineageOS with Waydroid on my TV. 8 | Homan Denies Yiannopoulos Deported Quickly to Bypass ICE Detention (Pam Key for Breitbart. Aug. 31, 2026.) I know this is going to be hard for a reporter at CNN to understand, so we can go slowly. Detention occurs in the course of removal proceedings or in the period after an alien has been ordered removed but has not for one reason or another been removed. Mr. Yiannopoulous had already been ordered removed _in absentia_ , apparently did not seek to reopen his removal proceedings, and did not otherwise try to obstruct his removal to the United Kingdom, which apparently did not refuse to accept the return of its national (between the return of Prince Harry and Mr. Yiannopoulous, they are having a rough stretch). Thus, Mr. Yiannopoulous was removed expeditiously after DHS performed a social media touchdown dance instead of being detained pending nothing whatsoever. With my “Ted Talk” completed, I will note with some surprise that the new position of CNN is “the prompt execution of removal orders is special treatment.” 9 | Aki 2026 Banuzke Analysis (Fantasy Basho. Sep. 1, 2026.) I’m thinking about putting together some detained predictions for the upcoming Aki Banuzke. Not fantasy though. Real, ice-cold predictions. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

The 2026 Aki banzuke (September Grand Sumo tournament) were released yesterday. 21-year-old Fujinokawa, one of the smallest wrestlers in the top-division, was expected to make his san’yaku debut after finishing 8-7 at **m****aegashira-1 in July. The more burning question was whether he would make his san’yaku debut at Komosubi or the higher Sekiwake rank. Sekiwake is is for Fujinokawa. In makin. The Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Fujinokawa is the first Kyoto-born sumo wrestler to make the san’yaku ranks in 198(!?) years, with the most recent prior to 2026 being Hiodoshi, he made it for the 1828 October tournament. Fujinokawa has been on a history-making run of late. Back in July he became the first wrestler in the post-war era to win his first four bouts against Yokozuna. Fujinokawa will have a tough slate at his new highest rank, but he has certainly been one of the most exciting (and historic) wrestlers of 2026 thus far.** You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

We bring August to a close with one Pook-Emu Bee for the road. I photographed this Children at Play sign on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights on August 21, 2026. 1 | Understanding And Dealing With Kim Jong-Un’s Resilience (Mario Alexis Portella for American Thinker. August 31, 2026.) I attribute Kim Jong-un’s resiliance to his looking at everything. 2 | Israel Continues Elimination Campaign Against October 7 Perpetrators and Gaza Terror Commanders (Vijeta Uniyal for Legal Insurrection. August 29, 2026.) There seems to be a growing correlation between having participated in October 7 and suffering an untimely demise. 3 | Calibre 9.14 Open-Source E-Book Manager Is Out with More AI Features (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. August 27, 2026.) I’m not one of the people dropping Calibre because of optional AI features (some of which are relatively inoffensive, albeit not useful to me), nor am I in the business of telling people how to run their free and open source projects. With that being granted, I hope we are also working on the non-AI features. 4 | A proposal for new Netflix content rating icons (Eric Bailey. August 25, 2026.) (HT Jim Nielsen.) I don’t use Netflix, but I see the point about its rating icons. Coincidentally, I was reminded of my article on rating scales. 5 | “I just chose words carefully.” (Marcin Wichary at Unsung. August 30, 2026.) I never tried typesetting in monospace, but I do use monospace for most of my drafting in my markdown editor. 6 | California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt (Luke James for Tom’s Hardware. August 29, 2026.) Gavin Newsom dreamed of being President of the United States. He will settle for being accidental Stallman (with hair gel). 7 | Brooklyn city councilmembers look to silence Navy Yard’s noisy raves (Joe Hong for Gothamist. August 29, 2026.) The correct number of raves in Brooklyn Navy Yard would be 0. 8 | Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick (Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security. July 30, 2026.) Alternatively, consider reading “this” and the not buying “that” TV streaming stick. 9 | Bronx Mother Found Not Responsible for Killing Her Two Boys Because of ‘Postpartum Psychosis’ (Lowell Cauffiel for Breitbart. August 29, 2026.) Someone needs to check in on the Bronx. Not me, mind you. I haven’t been to the Bronx in seven years and that was maybe for a combined 15-20 minutes. I’m good. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Kan Gao is the creator of the successful indie _To the Moon_ series. I am not personally a fan of _To the Moon_. I tried the first entry and it just was not working for me, so I never finished. But despite not being a fan of the series, I read with some interest a recent Automation West interview with Mr. Gao. Automation West asked Mr. Gao why he chose to make _To the Moon_ in RPG Maker instead of a different tool or engine. Mr. Gao replied: > It was the tool with the least friction capable of making what I needed to make. I think an important rule for me is to choose not the most elaborate, fancy or feature-heavy tool, but rather the simplest one that’s capable of doing what I need for the project. Friction is the enemy of making multi-media projects, and I tend to become my own obstacle when choosing a needlessly complex tool for the job. > > Kan Gao Well put. Now that I am a totally professional visual novel developer, I continue to think about which tools to use for new projects. I made my most recent visual novel in ONScripter-EN, which I suppose has its roots in the same era as Mr. Gao’s tool of choice, RPG Maker XP. None of this is to say that old engines (or old school engines) are necessarily _better_ than the new. but tools are a means to an end. The best tool is the one that efficiently helps one reach the end goal of, as Mr. Gao puts it, making “interactive experiences that someone might remember one day.” You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Pook-Emu Bee will be taking the weekend off, first for Newsletter Saturday and _probably_ for Sunday, so let us finish _this_ work week strong before I return to my day job. I took this photo at the corner of State and Clinton Streets in Brooklyn Heights on the evening of August 26, 2026. This is just up the block from where I documented two downed Stop Signs on State in October 2020. 1 | Study Linking Solar Farms to Bird Loss Draws Scrutiny in China (Jiang Xinyi for Sixth Tone. August 28, 2026.) I found myself scrutinizing the claim that the Chinese government is focusing on solar because it is concerned with China’s carbon emissions. 2 | What the $131 Billion F-15 Contract May Mean For the Air Force (Stephen Losey for Air & Space Forces Magazine. August 27, 2026.) It may not end up costing $131 billion. Use-dependent. 3 | Brave launches Email Aliases and new Brave Accounts that keep passwords off its servers (Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. August 28, 2026.) I approve of making email aliases more accessable. With that being said here, I will stick with my SimpleLogin subscription. 4 | “Difference, Power & Oppression”: OSU Requires Students to Take Courses on How to “Disrupt” the “Systems of Oppression” in the United States” (Jonathan Turley. August 19, 2026.) With hope, at least some of the students will come away wanting to disrupt systems of ideological indoctrination in higher education. 5 | Data Center Madness Isn’t About AI (Cremieux Recueil. August 27, 2026.) This is a good survey of surveys. His conclusions check out but I’ll submit AI is at a minimum not helping the perception of the data centers. 6 | Unhinged straphanger stabs MTA cleaner who scolded him for urinating on busy NYC subway platform: cops, sources (Amanda Woods for the New York Post. August 27, 2026.) I’d say this guy is behaving like a dog but that would be uncharitable to _most_ of the dogs. Worse yet, he’s probably going around trying to mark every Subway station in New York City without paying the fare. 7 | Italian Teen Girl Nearly Killed by Propeller on Migrant Smuggler Boat (Oliver JJ Lane for Breitbart. August 27, 2026.) I’d say that I’m looking forward to Sardinian law enforcement explaining why they seem to have been on a mission to minimize the near-vehicular homicide right up until video became public, but alas… I doubt any such explanation is forthcoming. 8 | Wealthy Americans look to New Zealand as demand for ‘golden visas’ booms (Eric Revell for Fox Business. August 10, 2026.) $5 million? I tip my hat to New Zealand. That is much more expensive that our (often-abused) EB-5 program. 9 | Why won’t the Times name ALL the thieves it has ID’d up in Albany? (New York Post Editorial Board. August 21, 2026.) I agree with the Post Editorial Board’s theory. With that being said, have they considered that the NYP is one of the most-circulated newspapers in the United States and has major corporate backing? They could… I don’t know… dig into the issue themselves and name names that the Times omitted for reasons we can only imagine? To those who do the work goes the discretion. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I saw a post in my feed collection by Adam Douglas titled Extract and Review Web Page Links Using a Bookmarklet. As the title suggests, he created a bookmarklet which “will create a new local web page with a page heading of ‘List of Links Found’, source web page address, total count of links found, and an unordered list of each link found on the source web page.” I have confirmed that it works as promised. Very neat. You can find the bookmarket and full explanation in his link. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I have a deadline today, so while the weekday Pook-Emu Bee streak continues, this will be another minimalist entry in my ongoing series. 1 | Israel: Law Adopted to Preserve the Memory of the October 7, 2023, Massacre and Commemorate Heroism (Ruth Levush for Global Legal Monitor. August 26, 2026.) A sound law. 2 | Model Owl in a Towel (Wildbase Hospital [via Owls in Towels]. August 24, 2026.) That is a [small] statuesque owl. 3 | How a Ukrainian commander sped through the ‘kill zone’ to save wounded troops (Vitalii Hinidyi and Dan Peleschuk for Reuters [via Defense News]. August 26, 2026.) A teacher by trade, Vladyslav Polskyi taught a lesson in courage on the battlefield. 4 | Marines at Abbey Gate awarded Bronze Star medal upgrade (Patty Neberg for Task & Purpose. August 26, 2026.) Well-deserved. 5 | Vanity Fair Drops Writer for Winking, Smiling at Camera During Lindsay Clancy Trial (Paul Bois and Ezra Dulis for Breitbart. August 26, 2026.) Yes, her exuberantly giggling in the court room and spreading TikTok conspiracy theories (contra Clancy’s own defense) that Clancy’s husband is the hashtag-real killer may lead one to expect that she and her fellow travelers are distasteful human beings who would have reacted much differently had the victim been a single puppy rather than three children. But remember that I noted in Pook-Emu Bee 08-24-26 that Natasha Pearlman of the New York Post assured us that Clancy is just “living proof” of the worst fears of these women. Whew! 6 | The PocketBook Q is a Linux-based alternative to Android ereaders — new Boox rival has a 5.84-inch E Ink screen and will cost $235 (James Rogerson for TechRadar. August 25, 2026.) I’m a PocketBook fan, but while it looks intriguing… I have my Xtenik X4 that I need to use, so I will probably stick with that alongside my preexisting two PocketBooks and my Kindle Paperwhite. 7 | I turned my Android phone into a retro gaming console for free (Varun Krishan for Make Use Of. August 25, 2026.) I have thought about interesting ways to do something to this effect and I have three spare phones to work with, but it is on a long list of “tech” things to do and write about. 8 | Can you have too many hobbies? (Laura at Inky Imaginings. August 23, 2026.) [HT Well-Apportioned Desk] I wish I could say that my comment on link 7 was referring to too many hobbies. But at the moment I am working on a flurry of immigration law matters with a pile of stuff next to me. So not quite… 9 | Brooklyn Dems change who picks party boss in closed-door vote; chair challengers head back to court (Adam Daly for amNY. August 26, 2026.) The Brooklyn Democratic Party machine faced an existential red socialist threat after the June primaries. The last true (now unofficial) party boss, Frank Seddio, stepped in and resolved (pending legal challenges) the situation like a true party boss. I think the machine is on its last legs, but I wouldn’t bet against Mr. Seddio ensuring that it is not deposed just yet. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I have a rough three-day work-stretch ahead of me, but the weekday Pook-Emu Bee links streak must continue (I will however compromise on feature images today). 1. Brainless TikTok trend causes $2,000 in damage to SoCal home (Daniel Farr for the New York Post. August 26, 2026.) States and localities should consider sentence enhancement provisions for crimes committed for social media consumption. 2. EXCLUSIVE: US Investigators Have Proof That UNRWA ‘Social Worker’ Caught on Tape Dragging an Israeli Body Into an SUV on Oct 7 Was an Active Hamas Operative (Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. August 25, 2026.) It’s always who you least expect… except for those times when it’s the most obvious suspect. 3. $3 Specialty Coffee Is Back In Brooklyn (Ainsley Martinez for Patch Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill, NY. August 25, 2026.) I seldom buy coffee when I’m out (firmly in the DIY coffee camp) but $3 for a cup of any size is cheap around these parts. Maybe I’ll find a reason when out with a friend to give it a try. 4. I switched from Android’s default keyboard to an open source alternative to eliminate my constant typos (Oluwaniyi Raji for Android Police. August 25, 2026.) I also use Heliboard. It’s good. I turn autocorrect off because autocorrect is a war crime. The predictive suggestions are solid but I tend to forget about them. I need to make myself remember because typing on touchscreens is not a strong area for me. 5. Roblox applies restrictions to games featuring “reward-driven media feeds” available in Roblox Kids and Select (Sophie McEvoy for Games Industry.biz. August 26, 2026.) The fundamental problem with Roblox is that its ostensible target demographic should not be playing social online games, period. 6. NYC’s borough-based jail boondoggle is nearly $8B over budget and years behind schedule (Matthew Fischetti for the New York Post. August 24, 2026.) It’s already casting a long shadow. 7. NYers say Citi Bike has gotten too expensive, can a new advocate-led campaign make it cheaper? (Ethan Stark-Miller for amNY. August 18, 2026.) Hear me out. Instead of stealing my tax money to subsidize City Bike rides for my betters who will then violate traffic laws and threaten to run me over, what if we at least banned the electric City Bikes and made everything more expensive? 8. Smithsonian affiliate AANM gets federal funds, criticized 9/11 response (Robert Schmad for Fox News. August 25, 2026.) Score another one for team taxation is theft. 9. Taliban facing constant challenge to authority in provinces bordering Central Asian states (Eurasianet. August 25, 2026.) Economic ties aside, I’ll note that Uzbek and Tajik police don’t take kindly to men having beards, so the Taliban would probably be well-advised (granting I don’t think they’re much into taking advice) to keep their various militants from causing cross-border problems. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I read an article by Mark Tyson for Tom’s Hardware titled Maxell brings back classic 1970s cassette tapes — 1970s ferric formula is custom-made for vintage PC data drives. I have many VCR memories, but I do not have many audio cassette tape memories despite being old enough to remember when they were readily available in stores. But while I came to this article for a cassette revival story, I stayed for some fun cassette facts. I summarize below: * The revived 1970s cassette tapes being referenced in the article are UD-60Us. * According to Mr. Tyson, the UD-60Us are “normal-position tapes” (Type I ferric). * In Mr. Tyson’s distinguished opinion, Type I ferric tapes “are not the best for high-fidelity audio recordings.” * Mr. Tyson prefers Chrome (Type II) tapes for making hi-fi mixes and recordings. * He also finds Metal (Type IV) tapes to be acceptable for audio recordings. * Mr. Tyson opines that the Type I ferric tapes “are ideal for 8-bit home computer tape storage.” I knew nothing about different types of cassette tapes, so I found that to be enlightening. The revival must be in full swing because not long after reading Mr. Tyson’s report, I read Fiio releases first look at one of its upcoming portable cassette players by Habeeb Onawole for Notebook Check. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I have been busy today, but the weekday streak of Pook-Emu Bee links continues. 1 | California political candidate facing six years in prison after listing dive bar as home address (Marina Peña for the California Post. August 24, 2026.) This plan was dumb enough to make me wonder whether she lives in a dive bar. 2 | Summer Wars: An Anime With A Cautionary tale About AI (The Ghastly Mirror. August 24, 2026.) I watched Summer Wars with a friend a long time ago (maybe 2014-15). I recall liking it well enough so I’ll second the recommendation. 3 | Happy 35th Birthday, Linux! (Marius Nestor for Tux Machines. August 25, 2026.) 35? Linux is still just a kid. Happy birthday to my operating system since 2020! 4 | The Data Center Wars – A Massive Proposed Data Center in Texas Drops Request for Tax Abatements (Buck Throckmorton for Ace of Spades HQ. August 25, 2026.) Pacifico Energy could have saved itself plenty of grief by not requesting the tax abatements in the first place. 5 | 1000 Blog Posts (Chris at Unaccountable Thoughts. July 6, 2026.) This is 632 here at _ECS_ (not counting my “social” activity posts). 6 | Seen This Week: Butterflies and Fruits (Kate St. John at Outside My Window. August 15, 2026.) I’m pro-butterfly, so I approve of this photo post. I haven’t seen many in Brooklyn this year but there have been a decent number of bees and dragonflies lately. 7 | Kanon Analysis: Understanding Mai’s Struggle (Zalor at Zalor’s Seminar. July 10, 2026.) A very interesting in-depth analysis of the struggle of Mai in the excellent 2006-07 anime adaptation of Kanon (on my distant to-review list). This post includes a link to the analysis video along with the full transcript. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

We’re back from the weekend with a new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee links. 1 | OpenAI builds dedicated ChatGPT experience for teens with parental controls and study features (Eric Revell for Fox Business. August 18, 2026.) This is heartwarming and all but what if the kids just went outside and tried reading once in a while? 2 | Google Opposes Site Blocking in Europe as U.S. Piracy Blocking Plans Gain Momentum (Ernesto Van der Sar for Torrent Freak. July 11, 2026.) Sometimes Google does in fact have a point. 3 | Mamdani plans to build temporary highway in Brooklyn Heights to fix crumbling part of BQE (Stephen Nessen for Gothamist. August 24, 2026.) This sounds reasonable (if they can actually swing it). Sometimes the theater kid does in fact have a point. 4 | Linda McMahon: Parents Should Have ‘Every Right’ to Opt Out of AI Teaching (Jeff Poor for Breitbart. August 23, 2026.) I agree… but missing is an explanation on how DOE would, or will, promote this in practice. 5 | Moving your Linux home folder to a dedicated drive is the distro-hopping secret I wish I knew earlier (Bobby Jack for How-To Geek. August 18, 2026.) When I had to reinstall my OS last month, I copied my home directory in an external SSD. Somewhat more time-consuming. 6 | Lilbits: Rising RAM prices are taking a toll on PCs, tablets, game consoles, and more (Brad Linder for Liliputing. June 25, 2026.) Good thing I have a non-insignificant number of computers and laptops. Good luck to the rest of you, however. 7 | To women, Lindsay Clancy isn’t a monster — she’s living proof of their worst fears (Natasha Pearlman for the New York Post. August 21, 2026.) This is a very charitable take, but not as charitable as my keeping Pook-Emu Bee positive by stopping at “charitable.” 8 | Assassination Sing-a-Long: Hasan Piker Mocks the Murdered Charlie Kirk to Cheering Crowd (Jonathan Turley. August 23, 2026.) The placement of links 7 and 8 is pure happenstance. 9 | Liquid Death and Jason Kelce’s Garage Beer Mockingly Call on Americans to Save Urine to Cool AI Data Centers (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. August 21, 2026.) I have yet to try Liquid Death after writing an article about it being displayed in a inadvertently humorous way last year. They wondered what would push me to purchase over-priced flavored seltzer. “I know! Potty humor featuring a retired football player who gets jobs because his current football player brother married a pop star!” They missed it by just this much. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Fox Business reported on August 9, 2026, that Burger King surpassed Wendy’s as the (distant) second largest burger chain in the United States after McDonald’s. According to the report, Wendy’s had passed Burger King in 2020 and held the runner-up spot for six years, but their fortunes have reversed: > Burger King reclaimed the No. 2 position as its U.S. turnaround gains momentum, with domestic same-store sales jumping 8.5% in the second quarter. Wendy’s, meanwhile, reported a 7% decline in U.S. same-store sales, marking its sixth consecutive quarter of contraction. I am not sure if I have had food from America’s big three burger chains this century, but I had some when I was a kid in the 90s. There are two long-standing McDonald’s and Burger King locations in Downtown Brooklyn, the former being situated on Court Street and the latter on Fulton. There used to be a Wendy’s on Fulton, but it died off some time ago. I do recall having had Wedny’s at the former Pier 17 at South Street Seaport, as in the charming Pier 17 before New York took advantage of Hurricaine Sandy to replace it with something less than charming. Combined with Mixue report from last year and my Taco Bell coverage a few weeks ago, I am working at becoming an authority on fast food that I never eat. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I came across a New York Post opinion column by Lydia Moynihan titled The Gwyneth Paltrow AI controversy only hurts women. This may be rich coming from someone who, in the last month, has published reports on a free air conditioner and free printer left out for the taking in Brooklyn, New York City, but _really_? When I see that headline, I think “I have a deadline and no ideas, let me scour social media for something to write about.” Far be it from me to tell other internet writers how to live their internet writing lives, but please do not do this. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I came across a short post on @iamgregb (I assume by Greg B) titled “Like Them, but Better.” It’s Not. In the post, he makes the case against “[a] social media strategy focused entirely on the competition,” explaining that “I want to choose your product because it’s a unique proposition” rather than because it is _not_ a different project. As the author of The Positive Case for Good Tech, I could not agree more, and state that “I am Greg B” in the “I am Spartacus” sense. I will add an additional reason to advise against defining ones product in terms of what it is not rather than what it is Because iamgregb uses Proton as an example, I will follow suit and in so doing assume _arguendo_ that is description of Proton’s negative advertising is accurate (I do not follow their marketing, but I have no reason to doubt iamgregb’s assessument). I do not need to be persuaded that I do not want Google to handle my personal email, and I assume that this is the case for most people considering Proton. Thus, being that I am already the “target audience,” I would want to know what makes Proton’s email offering good in and of itself rather than in comparison to something I am not interested in using. Thus, that sort of negative marketing does not move me at all. A positive case can reach people who feel “stuck” on Google or one big tech solution or another as well as people who are already using different options. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

It is time to wrap up another perfect five-for-five Pook-Emu Bee work-week before we take tomorrow off for Newsletter Saturday. ## Life Updates I shared a photo of my new (Ebay, so “new”) Wacom One drawing tablet yesterday. While the “drawing” works as expected, I cannot get it to display an image. I think the annoying Wacom “X cable” is the issue, so I am ordering a replacement from B&H to see if that is correct before I move for a refund. In any event, I tested it on different computers to make sure it was not a computer-specific issue. That inspired me to pull out my touchscreen Fujitsu Lifebook, which I “upgraded” last fall with a new SSD and RAM (not to mention a replacement battery) but subsequently forgot due to being busy. It is now upgraded to Fedora 44. My Fujitsu Lifebook with the KDE Plasma lockscreen. I have an article project centered on this Fujitsu. You may think from the lockscreen that it is running KDE Plasma. That is sort of true, but not the full story. It is technically running Fedora’s KDE Plasma Mobile Spin. How many Plasma Mobile-on-laptop articles are there? Add it to my to-do list. ## Links 1 | WordPress..Just Why? (JanerationX. July 23, 2026.) Speaking as someone who has been a WordPress admin for more than six years, I have my fair share of complaints. With that being said and speaking solely for myself (granting different people have different needs and use-cases), I strongly prefer self-hosted WordPress (as in the software, not the service) to service-dependent solutions such as Pika, Bear Blog, Pagecord, and Neocities, and I would take WordPress over Ghost because it is more flexible. But for some people, some of the solutions noted by JanerationX would be better options, and were I starting today I may have opted for a different solution than WordPress, albeit none of the ones singled out for mention in the linked post. 2 | Comic Number 773 (Li Chen. August 21, 2026.) Be careful what you say on the robot podcast. 3 | ‘GTA VI’ hackers threaten a nightmare scenario (Molly Liebergall for Morning Brew. August 21, 2026.) I sincerely doubt any meaningful number of people will refrain from purchasing GTA VI due to leaks. For one, people who are excited for the story can avoid the leaks. For two, my understanding is that GTA focuses on game-play, it is not a movie or kinetic visual novel. Of course, I am not buying it regardless, so what I do I know? 4 | Whistleblower Arturo Béjar leads testimony in landmark trial against Meta (John Rowitch for NPR. August 19, 2026.) I have not had an account having any nexus to a Meta property since I deleted my Facebook account in mid-to-late 2009 (I actually did not “make” that account, but that is a story for another day). My break-out article on _NLJ_ involved my advocating for RSS/ATOM feeds over Facebook News for keeping abreast of worldly affairs. Finally, I have had less-than-positive things to say about children using TikTok, which, while not Meta, evinces that I have some interest in the negative effects of social media and children. Having noted the foregoing, I must concur with Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony (who gets a HT here) that the particulars of the concerns articulated by Mr. Béjar and 29 U.S. states are at best amorphous and fail to live up to the promise of the states’ allegations. Less charitably, I think I am dumber for having read that article. 5 | Diocese in Ghana restores remaining liturgical practices restricted during COVID-19 pandemic (Sabrina Amboka for EWTN News. August 20, 2026.) I had to check the date to make sure they did not accidentally re-publish something from 5 years ago. 6 | Judge in Harvard Antisemitism Case Was Anti-Israel, Anti-War Activist, McGovern Campaign Aide (Ira Stoll for The Washington Free Beacon. August 18, 2026.) There’s something charming about a McGovern presidential campaign controversy poping up as a story in 2026. 7 | AnduinOS is Windows without the frustration, and it just cracked the top 15 distros (João Carrasqueira for XDA Developers. August 17, 2026.) This is the first I heard of it. Setting aside the fact that the Distrowatch rankings do not correspond to the real world, I would consider myself a skeptic of trying to make a Linux desktop look exactly like Windows out of the box. But assuming the review is accurate, AnduinOS sounds like a reasonable implementation of the idea that is trying to do its own thing to make for an interesting Linux experience. It is not something I would use, but I could see use-cases for the concept. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I’m a bit late with Pook-Emu Bee links today, but the streak continues. By the way, WordPress’s admin area looks different after the latest update. Change in color contrast. I’m not complaining. I ordered a Wacom One tablet on Ebay. Need to test, but looks good out of the box. 1 | Google is buying all of Spirit Airlines’ data to feed its AI models (Chris Isidore for CNN. August 18, 2026.) Looks like **AI** rline training. I’ll let myself out… 2 | Frozen fruit bars recalled nationwide over possible glass contamination (Sophia Compton for Fox Business. August 19, 2026.) Come again? 3 | Darline Graham: ‘I Was Just Honest,’ Many People Can’t Find Taiwan on a Map, Care About Other Issues (Ian Hatchett for Breitbart. August 19, 2026.) A few weeks ago I saw the new Senator Graham give what I thought was a very savvy answer to a question from Sean Hannity about how she would differ from the late Lindsey Graham as a Senator. “Maybe she has good instincts” I thought. Then she was asked about Taiwan in a debate. “Maybe she was lucky once” I think. 4 | Army unit offers soldiers time off for ‘GTA 6’ debut if they reenlist (Patty Nieberg for Task & Purpose. August 18, 2026.) I’m not a GTA guy but fun idea. 5 | How I browse the Web with uBlock (Hard Mode) (Untrusem. August 18, 2026.) (HT Tux Machines.) I also use uBO on “hard mode” but I don’t use Redirector or Localcdn (I will look into this Redirector list, however). 6 | Captain in fatal NY Harbor boat tragedy is illegal immigrant: ‘Criminal is off our streets’ (Josh Christenson and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. August 19, 2026.) In addition to his myriad other problems, I will note that falsely claiming U.S. citizenship for any benefit under the act causes permanent inadmissibility. 7 | Samsung’s Hearing Aid Feature on Galaxy Buds Cleared by FDA (Samsung Newsroom. August 11, 2026.) It would (or will) be neat with there are earbuds with FDA approval for hearing aid functionality supported by Gadgetbridge or something similar (by “supported” I mean features necessary to make them work as limited hearing aids). You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Keeping the Pook-Emu Bee weekday streak going on this sunny (here in Brooklyn, at least) August 19, 2026. I upgraded the InfiniTime firmware on my PineTime yesterday. 1 | Vindman Vaporizes $16.2 Million in Loss, Spends 36X DSA Candidate on Ads (Paul Bois for Breitbart. August 18, 2026) & Rep. Cory Mills Unseated in GOP Primary, Ryan Elijah Wins Nomination (Olivia Rondeau for Breitbart. August 18, 2026.) Both of these Florida primary results made me chuckle in their own ways. 2 | Minnesota’s “Nudification” Ban Repeats Unconstitutional Errors of Early Revenge Porn Bills (Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. August 18, 2026.) I haven’t thought much about the legal particulars but interesting article and caution about crafting laws carefully. 3 | After Europe ditched Windows, China follows suit with its own home-grown Linux distros (Rianne Schestowitz for Tux Machines. August 19, 2026.) I was originally going to comment that while I am a proponent of Linux, I will respectfully stop short of celebrating the Chinese government’s Linux uptake. But then I saw the quote from the XDA Developers article includes “Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents.” I checked the original article. Sure enough, the page source for XDA’s AI summary includes “Here is a fact-based summary of the article contents.” I’m not an expert on WordPress AI summary plugins but that strikes me as subpar. 4 | Cheap USB-C chargers are actually fine—these 4 specs are all that matter (Ismar Hrnjcevic for How-To Geek. August 17, 2026.) I have the little UGREEN robot charter pictured in the last image in the article, but in a different color. It’s endearing. I never measured it but I think it charges well enough for all charging purposes. 5 | How to Crown — or Deny — a Champion (Neil Paine. November 4, 2025.) To start: Don’t do what NASCAR has done for most of the last quarter century. 6 | Caputo’s Bake Shop Owner Is Back—This Time in Park Slope (Grand Army Gazette. July 31, 2026.) This certainly raises some questions given his shifty explanations for the unsanitary demise of his previous endeavor, which I covered in the May 27, 2026 Pook-Emu Bee. 7 | Is this Billboard Hot 100 hit AI slop? (Terrance O’Brien for The Verge. August 1, 2026.) I had no prior knowledge what “Fenix Flexin” was and I have no interest in investigating further, but I will submit that if you have to ask whether his “work” is AI slop, the fact you have to ask should probably call into question whether it is worth discussing at all. My Basquiat forgery article remains evergreen. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Another weekday means another set of Poook-Emu Bee links. I photographed this suit case on August 14, 2026, on Court Street between DeGraw and Sackett. Only the brave wheels away a “free” suitcase in Brooklyn. 1 | Jeanie Buss battling siblings over sale of remaining Lakers shares to new ownership group: reports (Scott Thompson for Fox Business. August 17, 2026.) The unfortunate ramifications of sidelining your siblings for your own benefit. Your siblings, now having little stake in the organization, may decide that turn-about is fair play. 2 | Private Pre-K in Brooklyn Heights: Kinder Prep Montessori’s New 4–5s Program (sponsored post on Brooklyn Bridge Parents. August 18, 2026.) Note that “sponsored” here refers to sponsored on Brooklyn Bridge Parents. I am not sponsored by any preschools (or anyone for that matter). Here, I demonstrate my impeccable independence with a question. How is this preschool simultaneously in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Brooklyn Heights? Spoiler: It is in Brooklyn Bridge Park, not Brooklyn Heights. BBP is a neighborhood unto itself for all intents and purposes (evinced by the fact it now has preschools). 3 | Geekom admits to shipping malware-laced network drivers for AMD mini PCs — company responds with guidance, removes malicious package (Bruno Ferreira for Tom’s Hardware. August 18, 2026.) Quoting Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony (HT): “Just wipe the drive and reinstall Windows first.” I offer a slight amendment: Wipe the drive and install Linux first. I installed Linux on my two Beelink mini PCs (note I am unaware of any stories about Beelink shipping malware, but as a general matter I would agree with bringing your own operating system to your China mini-PC). 4 | I clung to Android’s 3-button navigation for years until I learned this clever swipe trick (Jade Bryan Jardinico for Android Police. August 17, 2026.) Being a relative late-comer to Android, I recently went the opposite direction from swiping to three-button. I had too many problems with unwanted swipes. 5 | May This Balloon Banjo Resonate With You (Kristina Panos for Hackaday. August 17, 2026.) I see a new project for my good friend and expert luthier, Victor V. Gurbo. 6 | BIA Reads Dictionary, Finds that a ‘Departure’ on Advance Parole Is a ‘Departure (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Studies. August 17, 2026.) One of my first assignments at my job about 10 years ago involved the 2012 Board of Immigration Appeals decision in _Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly_ , 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012). When I saw the Board’s new decision in _Matter of Delcarmen-Lara_ , 29 I&N Dec. 830 (BIA 2026), which overrules _Arrabally and Yerrabelly_ , I thought to myself that time flies. 7 | NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin backs away from e-bike registration despite pressure (Haley Brown for the New York Post. August 14, 2026.) I conclude by quoting myself from the May 15, 2026 Pook-Emu Bee: > I will spoil the feedback process for anyone who questions unlimited accommodations for bikes (including effective exemption from traffic laws) in New York City. Heads, bikes win. Tails, you lose. > > Nicholas A. Ferrell PS to NYP: She folded _because_ of pressure (from the bike lobby) not _despite_ pressure. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Writing for Morning Brew, Matty Merritt covered “luxury butter.” According to the author: “With grocery item costs up everywhere, even $10 butter feels like a reasonable little treat.” I live in an expensive area of Brooklyn, New York City (even by the general standards of Brooklyn) and I would have to put effort into spending $10 on butter. Let it be said that $10 butter does not strike me as a “reasonable little treat.” Similarly, he writes about $15 pints of ice cream (I just bout a 46 oz tub of Turkey Hil Simply Natural ice cream at a local grocery store for $5) and $30 frozen yogurt (spending $30 on frozen yogurt is the result of frightening levels of Instagram and TikTok usage). It is one thing to write about some people spending like drunken sailors who spend too much time on social media, but another to segue into a suggestion that it is a default state of affairs. $5 sale. Nice. I like the Simply Natural line from Turkey Hill. (In contrast to eggs, ice cream, and butter, I will note that egg prices were legitimately loony in late 2024-early 2025 after the Feds killed all the chickens, albeit even then I was able to find somewhat reasonable prices at one of my favorite fruit and vegetable marts.) You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Pook-Emu Bee was off Saturday for the newsletter and off Sunday because I had work to finish, but we return on this fun Monday for our regularly scheduled links from around the web. I made almond milk hot chocolate last night. Should I share my recipes? Add it to the to-do list. ## Links & Commentary 1 | Teenage tourist stabbed in ‘unprovoked’ attack inside McDonald’s near Times Square: sources (Joe Marino, Amanda Woods, and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon. August 17, 2026.) Note for tourists: Being anywhere near Times Square at 2:00 AM is a poor life choice. I would add that being anywhere Times Square at any time is a poor life choice, but baby steps to giant strides and all. 2 | Debian Turns 33 Years Old, Happy Birthday! (Marcus Nestor for 9 to 5 Linux. August 16, 2026.) Debian was practically a newborn when I received my first video game console. 3 | Who needs a dedicated portable music player in 2026? (Kevin Boone. August 2026.) I never “needed” a portable music player but this is an interesting article. 4 | From Argentina to El Salvador: How Latin America is breaking up with socialism (David Asman for Fox Business. August 14, 2026.) As soon as I saw the headline, I thought “here’s a slam dunk USAID joke for Pook-Emu Bee.” For that reason, I was conflicted when the article noted the USAID angle close to its conclusion. 5 | “Putting my Hand on Your Heart”: Former Senator Kyrsten Sinema Accused of “Alienation of Affection” (Jonathan Turley. August 16, 2026) The Sinema alienation of affection story gave rise to a thing I learned post back in March. 6 | Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s Wife Cami Clark Courted Jeffrey Epstein to Invest in Her Porn Company (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. August 16, 2026.) Sometimes the headlines write themselves. 7 | Firefox is now the last major browser that still supports uBlock Origin (Viktor Eriksson and Joel Lee for PC World. August 13, 2026.) I’m writing this edition of Pook-Emu Bee in Firefox with uBlock Origin watching over me, protecting me from any nefarious ads or trackers I may have planted to manipulate or track me. ## Quotable 8 | The World Cup of Ink (Theodore Dalrymple for The American Conservative. August 2, 2026.) > Tattoos retained their superficial connotations of rebellion and non-conformity, but they also became—in a deeper sense—marks of conformity, as tends to happen with all fashions, no matter how outrageous they may seem at the start. By means of tattooing, one could rebel and conform at the same time. ## Pretty Photo 9 | Between the Nets (Daniel Sofer at Hermosoawave Photography. August 15, 2026.) Beach volleyball nets frame the boat (photo in the link). You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I read a How to Geek blog post titled 5 apps new Linux users should install on day one (HT Tux Machines). The author, Dibakar Ghosh, recommended the following apps: 1. GNOME Tweaks and GNOME Extensions (if using GNOME) 2. KDE Connect or GSConnect 3. A Chromium-based browser 4. OnlyOffice 5. Flatpak All five recommendations are sensible. My only amendments to those five apps specifically would be that I opt for Brave Origin as my Chromium-based browser and I prefer LibreOffice to OnlyOffice. Of course, there are many more recommendable apps out there. I offer five additional recommendations: * **Ghostwriter** : KDE’s Ghostwriter is a simple markdown editor with built-in Pandoc (which should also be installed on every Linux workstation) export through its GUI. I have been using it to draft almost all of my long-form documents for more than five years. It is a “must-install” on all of my machines. (See my Ghostwriter review.) * **mpv Media Player** : A simple, minimalist app for watching videos (it also handles music). Combine with yt-dlp to stream videos in MPV. VLC is also a common choice with a full GUI, but I prefer mpv. * **Okular** : KDE’s Okular is my go-to PDF viewer. It is a strong default option even on non-KDE desktops (I prefer it to Evince). * **Syncthing** : I use Syncthing to continuously sync files between my computers and phones. It is a part of my own essential apps collection. * **Thunderbird** : Mozilla’s Thunderbird is my go-to email client. There are other options, but I would rate Thunderbird as a good default choice for people starting out on Linux. For some honorable, more specialized mentions: **Calibre** (great ebook manager and converter; “ok” ebook reader); **Lutris** (very nice game manager and WINE front-end (consider WINE a good “essential” pick); **Qalculate** (my favorite “normal” desktop calculator); **Steam** (if you use Steam); **Recoll** (powerful full-text desktop file search); **RetroArch** (for playing retro games); and **Zotero** (great reference manager and reader, combine with Syncthing for local storage across devices). You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Unlike Ben Tsai, I have never been an engineer. But like Ben Tsai, I “appreciate the feel of a monospaced font, [and] want something that is optimized for prose.” In my case, I write drafts (and law stuff for my day job) in KDE’s Ghostwriter and prefer monospace fonts while writing in markdown. Many of the monospace options out there are more for terminals and code than prose. I have used and like the iA Writer fonts, which he references in his post. I also agree that I am not looking for a “typewriter feel” with reference to Courier Prime. At the moment I am using Nikita Prokopov’s Writer, which is based on IBM Plex Mono. I stumbled upon it while looking for a font to use in my recently published ONScripter-EN visual novel, Under the Alien Sky. It is a nice font, but I will continue searching. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I added a significant number of Google News feeds for specific Brooklyn neighborhoods to my feed collection (future article topic?). I then went through the initial set of articles that came up. I decided to read Timeless Brooklyn Reimagined: Minerva Development Unveils 263 Sackett in the Heart of Carroll Gardens since I know the area. While the sure-to-be-affordable residence looks nice, something else caught my attention. “Located moments from Court Street…” Moments? I do not think I can learn how to speak like a realtor. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

I was working late into the night (unfortunately not on articles), but I am back for another Pook-Emu Bee link (one away from Sunday-Friday perfection before we yield the floor on Saturday for The Newsletter Leaf Journal). I use SLS-free toothpaste because of canker sores. I also want toothpaste with fluoride. My options at Lot Less in late July were limited. This is what I came up with (photograph from July 29, 2026). 1 | Some Claude users are mad that Anthropic’s new watermarks will catch them using it at their jobs, classes (Lucas Ropek for TechCrunch. August 12, 2026.) The thought that these people may be too lazy to paste the output into a text editor and sanitize it is almost as concerning as how lazy they are in using Claude. 2 | Twenty-Five in Blog Years (Dave Peck. August 11, 2026.) I offer my congratulations to Mr. Peck on his blog’s quarter-century anniversary. What was I doing 25 years ago? Elementary school. 3 | Koei Tecmo releases 90-minute Atelier Ryza ASMR featuring Klaudia, picnics, bathing, and ear-cleaning (Amber V for Automation West. August 13, 2026.) I think it may be time for “Ryza” to join “Palworld” on my gaming-related Miniflux global block list. 4 | Houston Man Charged For Terroristic Threat Over Anime (Rafael Antonio Pineda for Anime News Network. August 13, 2026.) His rant raises many questions. I don’t think I want the answers. 5 | Bob Iger, Josh Kushner shockingly purchase Lakers months after Mark Walter became majority owner (Ryan Morik for Fox Business. August 12, 2026.) I went on record when the Lakers went for $10 billion last year noting that the price struck me as high. To be sure, I was not expecting the Lakers to be flipped for $12 billion just over one year later. Perhaps it has something to do with the report’s note that Mr. Walter is under investigation for tax fraud. 6 | Clicks have killed the Inverted Pyramid (Gordon Meyer. August 8, 2026.) I have more than 200 feeds in my feed collection and many feed items, so I have more than enough to read to allow me to check out when I see what appears to be a rambling SEO introduction. My bigger problem lately has been seeing obvious indicia of AI junk in articles, which also leads to a quick close. 7 | Rite Aid-Replacing Tower for Corner of Smith and President? (Cate Cocoran for Brownstoner. August 11, 2026.) That is not the nicest stretch of the Carroll Gardens section of Court Street (it looks better from the air than the ground), so this could be an improvement provided that they do not make it too tall. While I cannot say that I am optimistic, I would agree that Carroll Gardens survives pretty well without the benefit of the historic district designation that neighboring Cobble Hill has. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Can we complete a perfect Sunday-Friday Pook-Emu Bee link week? With this, we are 5/7 of the way there. Free discarded furniture on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights. I took this photo on August 6, 2026. ## Articles 1 | New $472M electronic brain modernizes aging CH-47 Chinook helicopters (Amir Kholam for Interesting Engineering. August 11, 2026.) This reminds me of replacing the SSD and RAM in a cheap laptop I purchased on Ebay last year (I got in right before the DDR3 RAM was hit by price hikes!) 2 | ICE slams Long Island judge who let once-deported illegal immigrant walk out of court after 4th DWI conviction (Josh Christenson and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. August 12, 2026.) That’s atrociously bad, and I can only hope the feds find him before he gets behind the wheel of another car after a few drinks. But on the bright side, Judge Bryan Brown is earning well-deserved publicity for his exercise of judicial indiscretion. 3 | Bunny Drop’s Yumi Unita Launches New Manga in September (Rafael Antonio Pineda for Anime News Network. August 11, 2026.) No thank you. 4 | Signal to add optional registration without phone number through one-time payment (Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. August 11, 2026.) This would be a good decision if it is implemented as the code suggests. 5 | These 3 Linux distros make leaving Windows feel natural (Rich Hein for How To Geek. August 11, 2026.) Mint (all three flavors) strikes a decent balance, but I think most of the big stable options are fine with the right desktop environment. 6 | Iran Shuffles Military Leaders, Prepares for ‘Prolonged Confrontation’ (John Hayward for Breitbart. August 11, 2026.) I wouldn’t go so far as to state as a fact that Mojtaba Khamenei made these appointments until he can be reached for comment by someone he didn’t appoint. If he wants to confirm that he made these appointments, I’m prepared for the exclusive. I will have him know that I am trusted by former Chinese Defense ministers. 7 | Peru Confirms over 450 Nationals Fighting for Russia Against Ukraine (Christian K. Caruzo for Breitbart. August 10, 2026.) PSA: Don’t accept job offers in Russia (especially if you are a man who maintains a core body temperature roughly in the 90s). ## Video 8 | Iseo CITY Euro Cylinder Lock Pick and Gut (Lock Noob. August 11, 2026) [7:12] I came away with the impression that this would be a solid lock to purchase. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

We keep the Pook-Emu Bee link momentum going with more links from around the web. Key Food has many X for Y sales. In some cases you have to buy multiples for the sale price. In other cases the price applies to less than Y. With that in mind, I chuckled at having to buy five bottles of hot sauce for the $1 per bottle deal. ## **Articles** 1 | NYC first lady Rama Duwaji traveling to Syria, Lebanon — with taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail: sources (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. August 10, 2026.) I saw this story last night. I had a fun quip prepared that I hoped to get in before the practical problems with this plan (not taxpayer money) made their appearance. “Is the NYPD going to draw sticks to decide who gets stuck with the Syria-Lebanon bodygyard duty assignment?” Alas, the NYPD beat me to it. 2 | Hidden Beauty in Southeast Brooklyn (Megan Messana for Red Hook Star Revue. August 10, 2026.) I have been to Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay before, but not most of the other areas she mentions. 3 | How I turned my old Fire Tablet into a portable Linux terminal (David J. Buck for How To Geek. August 10, 2026.) I tried using a Fire HD 10 as a dedicated reader device (Miniflux + IronFox) but it was painfully slow. 4 | DiJonai Carrington Cites Stanford Education Clarifying ‘White Privilege’ Accusation (Paul Bois for Breitbart. August 10, 2026.) Her X posts read like gobbledygook to me. But then again she says: “I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to educate myself on this exact subject.” She did go to Stanford. I did not go to Stanford and concede Stanford would have almost certainly rejected me had I applied (although I may have been able to swing it had I been a top basketball prospect whose father played in the NFL). 5 | Bushwick Daily Is an AI Slop Zombie (Andrew Karpan and Aaron Tomey for Grime Square. August 2, 2026.) Good, evidence-backed report on a local newspaper turning into AI slop save for one aside. 6 | Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn This Month (Susan De Vires for Brownstoner. August 10, 2026.) The August 22-23 festivities look interesting. May present an on-the-ground reporting opportunity. I will consider. 7 | Inside Polaroid’s provocative, pro-analog marketing strategy (Katie Hicks for Marketing Brew. August 11, 2026.) I wouldn’t call it “provocative” because that is effectively marketing the marketing, but “Real stories. Not Stories & Reels.” is good. “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.” is terrible. But one thought: Maybe the marketing slogans should do more to distinguish Polaroids from phone photography. I mean… I don’t use Instagram. ## Video 8 | It finally came! [Steam Controller v2] (nephitejnf. August 10, 2026.) I thought about a Steam Controller v2… but probably not for $99. It does look good though. Strikes me as a big but it would probably be fine for me. I was a bit disappointed by his description of the shoulder buttons as a Dreamcast controller fan. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Gamer Braves conducted an interesting interview with Wada Kazuhisa, who is producer of the upcoming Persona 4 Revival. Long-time NLJ readers may know that I am a Persona 4 fan, although I am not particularly excited for what would be my third version of P4 (I had the original several years before Golden came out). But that aside, were I to recommend one change beyond fancy new graphics and some quality of life improvements, I would recommend fixing the difficulty curve in Persona 4 and Golden. In my humble opinion, the difficulty curve in the otherwise great Persona 4 Golden was broken such that the game became easier as one progressed, and particularly easy in the end-game, in part because the player’s party grows in strength more dramatically than the enemies. I will note that I played both Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden on Hard (not the two higher difficulties). With that being noted, I am not sure I am on the same wavelength as Mr. Kazuhisa when he says that he is working on making the dungeons “less stressful.” I cleared every dungeon after Kanji’s (the second) in one go, making more time to enjoy the daily life sections. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.

Pook-Emu Bee links are back today as we start the new work-week. I took this photo on July 2, 2026. I “believe” it is in Columbia Street Waterfront District. 1 – Persona 30th Anniversary Paper Fragrances Feature Designs Announced (Orpheus Joshua for Noisy Pixel. August 9, 2026.) I have been a Persona fan since I first played FES more than 16 years ago. I have been seeing one 30-year anniversary note after another. I am respectfully asking Sega’s marketing team to calm down. The shark has been jumped. 2 – Someone built a browser that generates every website from scratch, and it impressed me more than it should (Mahmoor Faisal for XDA Developers. August 8, 2026.) I wouldn’t advertise being impressed by what Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony accurately described as being a “slop machine.” With that being said, I have no doubt that many more people will read about his mind being blown by a slop machine than my daily links, so what do I know? 3 – The Current Status of American Schools (Larry Sand for American Greatness. August 4, 2026.) Could be better. But the administrators in New York City are doing great. 4 – NYC Council pushes slate of measures to address dangerous e-bikes (Craig McCarthy, Matthew Fischerri, Hannah Fierick, and Matt Troutman for the New York Post. August 4, 2026.) It’s not enough, but it’s a start. Unfortunately, the start will have to contend with the anarcho-bikists and a Mayor who enables and encourages them, so count me on the “not optimistic” side. 5 – ReactOS Implements First Windows NT6 System Call In Step Toward Vista Compatibility (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. July 2, 2026.) I had a decent experience with Vista so I think I’ll take my talents to ReactOS once they reach full Vista compatibility. 6 – BasicSync and Synctrain: solid apps for bringing Syncthing to phones (Rodrigo Ghedin. May 8, 2026.) I don’t use iOS but I am glad to see that there is now a plausible, free, and open source Synthing option there (even granting the iOS-imposed limitations). 7 – Magic Magikarp Makes Moves (Ian Boss for Hackaday. December 5, 2025.) Nintendo should be ashamed of itself for not coming up with this idea on its own. You can reply to this article from your own site by sending a Webmention.