Tag: brooklyn heights

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Quoted Exclusive: A Day in the Life of Luxury With Carl Gambino by Kristine Hansen (realtor.com)
"It is unusual to find a 25-foot-wide Brooklyn Heights townhouse that preserves its 1848 Greek Revival character while offering a fully rebuilt interior," says Gambino.

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. But there is a caveat here. 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 for the Brooklyn Heights experience.

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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 excerpts 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.

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We bring August to a close with one Pook-Emu Bee for the road.

A rectangular yellow street sing which says "SLOW" above a silhouette of a running boy, under which we see the text "CHILDREN AT PLAY." Photo taken in the evening against the backdrop of a brick building and window.
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.

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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.

Two One Way signs and a State St street sign on the ground with construction in Brooklyn Heights.
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? Who works decides.

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Another weekday means another set of Poook-Emu Bee links.

A rainbow suitcase with wheels sitting in front of a gray kiosk on a sidewalk.
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.

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Pook-Emu Bee links are so real now that we’re delivering on Sundays.

Statue of Mary casting a shadow against the stone wall of a cathedral.
I took this photograph outside the Our Lady of Lebanon Maronite Cathedral in Brooklyn Heights on August 6, 2026.

1 | Tracking Bees with a Stereo Camera (Al Williams for Hackaday. August 8, 2026.)
A fitting entry in light of today’s New Leaf Journal review of A Taste of Honey.

2 | RV Steelhead (Tugster: A Waterblog. August 8, 2026.)
Survey research of a survey vessel.

3 | Why some tech users are ditching Android for Linux phones (Maya Brooks for Northeast Times. August 6, 2026.) (HT Tux Machines.)
This reminds me that I need to write about my experiences with Ubuntu Touch… and by extension my return to LineageOS.

4 | Mamdani taps Israel-hating, anti-cop radicals for NYC school board (David Spector for the New York Post. August 8, 2026.)
The headline is accurate but it leaves out the weird overcompensating dude who wants to create race-segregated discussion groups (and pursued that agenda while working in DOE during the de Blasio administration).

5 | Most Googlebots are fake (Bobbie Chen for Digital Seams. July 26, 2026.) (HT Lazy Reading.)
I don’t doubt it but I will submit that to the best of my recollection, NLJ was never brought to heel by a bot falsely advertising itself as Googlebot. Most of the bots that hit NLJ aggressively enough to take it down had generic user agents. In one case it was Scrapy.

6 | Linux 7.2 Drops Ancient PROFIBUS Driver: Ported From SCO Unix In 1998, Unused For Years (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. June 25, 2026.)
I never heard of this driver but dropping it from the Linux kernel both disgusts and offends me. I’m switching to Windows 98.

7 | Linux gaming got so big that even GOG couldn’t ignore it anymore (Simon Batt for XDA Developers. August 7, 2026.)
I approve of the respect for Linux. With that being said, despite my having a collection of GOG games, I will probably stick with using Lutris since I use Lutris as a WINE front-end for some non-GOG games.

8 | Woke Canadian deported for slapping teens wearing MAGA clothing faces one final humiliation as she’s banished from the US (Eliot Force for Daily Mail. August 5, 2026.)
I wonder what her lawyer thought when he realized that he had so little to work with that he was going to have to go with her having engaged in unauthorized employment as being a positive equity.

9 | Have an Intel Mac or Old Windows PC? Revive It With One of These 20 Fun DIY Projects (Eric Griffin for PC Mag. August 5, 2026.)
Suggestions 1-3 and 6-7 are good. I’d throw in making a designated machine for retro games, albeit that is arguably a subset of 1 and/or 2, Starts grasping at straws toward the end, but points for creativity.

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Replied to AI-generated blog post images are not cool any more by Panagiotis Vryonis (blog.vrypan.net)
But AI-generated images in blog posts are no longer cool. Everyone does it. And with the exception when an image is a really good fit, it looks like a 2000 PowerPoint using animated transitions and WordArt.

I read an interesting blog post by Panagiotis Vryonis titled AI-generated blog post images are not cool any more. My first thought was “they were never cool.” But I read on to see his perspective. While I and many others serve as proof that asserting that “everyone does it” is flippant, he does offer a practical point (from a non-AI skeptic perspective) that enough people use AI images to illustrate blog posts that it has the effect of “look[ing] like a 2000 PowerPoint using animated transitions and WordArt.” Mr. Vryonis offers a sensible AI-powered alternative that is less ocularly offensive than many of the AI images and would not raise that same hard-to-suppress tendency to question whether what follows is genuinely authored by a human being (commenter cmc highlighted that issue well). But I like to be solutions-oriented, so I offer my own take on the issue.

Back before I launched The New Leaf Journal in 2020, I thought it would be fun to use my own photographs and public domain sources such as Project Gutenberg books for photographs and images on my site. As people who frequent my posts know, I have stuck to that approach for more than six years, although some of my articles are illustrated by screen captures instead.

Photograph of two pigeons on the asphalt, separated by a liquid stain of some sort. The pigeon on the left is white and black and we see its back. The pigeon on the right is standard gray with a green neck and we see it in profile.
My photograph of two pigeons in the street in Brooklyn Heights on April 10, 2026. Straight from the camera lens of my LineageOS-powered Google Pixel 3a XL (subsequently cropped and compressed for publication).

While some people may have reasons for not wanting to publish local photographs, I appreciate seeing writers put some work and a human touch into their illustrations. Because Mr. Vryonis also references using images with creative commons licenses, I will note I have done that in a small number of posts, using images from Wikimedia, Flickr, Pixabay, and Pexels with the appropriate licenses, but in general I try to stick to my original approach. I would personally recommend against using AI-generated images, both because the sort of flattening effect Mr. Vryonis describes and their tendency to give off an inhuman vibe about the post as a whole (deserved or not), but I do read some blogs that use them (see Marius’s contrary On Generative AI Imagery take on his interesting blog) and would not go close to so far as to say they raise the same questions as writing bearing obviously inhuman AI markers.

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I decided to step out to see if I could see the 4th of July fireworks from a cross-street in Brooklyn Heights. I took this video from Pierrepont and Willow Streets and then converted it into a gif using the same procedure I described for turning a pill bug video into a gif back in 2024. Independence Forever!

Gif of fireworks over the East River on July 4, 2026, taken through the trees from Pierrepont and Willow Streets in Brooklyn Heights.
I recorded some 4th of July fireworks from Pierrepont and Willow Streets in Brooklyn Heights.

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I was only able to publish two editions of Pook-Emu Bee links last week. Thus, to make amends, I present a rare Sunday edition of the Pook-Emu Bee. For link fans out there, I include many links in my weekly newsletter. See my June 6, 2026 Newsletter for an example.

Photograph of a bush with green leaves and brown berries in Brooklyn Heights. Out of focus in the background are brick townhouses.
I took this photograph of a bush with berries in Brooklyn Heights on the morning of June 7, 2026.

1.Bug Fables: Almost, but Not Quite, Paper Mario 3.0 (Wouter Groeneveld at Jefklak’s Codex. November 29, 2021.)

I never heard of this Paper Mario-inspired RPG, but as a big Paper Mario fan, consider me intrigued. Add it to the ever-growing to-do list.

2. ‘Bots have now passed human traffic online,’ Cloudflare boss laments — says agentic traffic wasn’t expected to eclipse real people until next year (Mark Tyson for Tom’s Hardware. June 4, 2026.)

I am reasonably confident that I have never had more human traffic than bot traffic save for the peak of a few Hacker News page one surges.

3. I made a bee bath (Laura Michet. June 6, 2026.)

That’s a good bee bath. There is still plenty of time for it to welcome bee visitors.

4. 98-year-old beaten with broomstick, chair in NYC by woman campaigning for Dem: cops ( Sofia Poznansky, Marie Pohl, Rich Calder and Tina Moore for the New York Post. June 6, 2026.)

The campaigns aren’t hiring the best.

5. Chet Holmgren and the $240 Million Disappearing Act (Kevin O’Connor. May 31, 2026.)

I did not watch but I assess that you would generally prefer that your maximum contract guys do not disappear in win-or-go-home games.

6. Anthropic warns AI could soon help build its own successors (Ashley Gold for Axios. June 4, 2026.)

I respect Antrhopic’s ability to just post stuff that gets turned into free advertising my various news outlets.

7. Richard Gere Says He’s ‘Deeply Ashamed’ That Trump Admin Is Calling Migrants ‘Aliens’ During Speech in Germany (Alana Mastrangelo for Breitbart. June 6, 2026.)

The trouble with actors begins when they don’t have a script to read from. But fear not: I offer a script in the form of my 2022 article, Aliens vs Noncitizens – The Anatomy of a Debate. By the way, that headline I came up with back in 2022 looks vaguely AI. But rest assured, everything from the headline to the article is 100% original, human grown “content.”

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I have more work ahead of me today. But once again, I refuse to let work stand between me and another edition of our regularly scheduled Pook-Emu Bee links.

1. Can an ESPN analyst revive the Scripps Spelling Bee? (Molly Liebergall for Morning Brew. May 28, 2026.)

The premise presupposes that the spelling bee needs to have big (it’s relative) TV ratings.

2. Hochul tries to dunk on Trump over Knicks fandom — but it totally backfires (Haley Brown, Mark Lungariello, and David Propper for the New York Post. May 27, 2026.)

I have an upcoming NLJ article planned that should help the Governor keep her New York Knicks NBA Finals history straight. (Aside: Why does this article have three reporters on the byline?)

3. Japanese government to allow desecration of flags on kids’ meals (Master Blaster for SoraNews24. May 25, 2026.)

Say what one will but the Diet is thorough.

4. Obviously AI, totally acceptable (Herbert Lui. May 5, 2026.)

My policy is … If you didn’t put yourself into it, I don’t want to read it.

I agree with Mr. Lui’s post in full. But I would add as an addendum that if the prose reeks of AI, I will probably click away regardless of the profundity of the insights (it’s not that, it’s [list of three things]…)

5. WordPress 7.0 (Gordon McLean at Happily Imperfect. May 22, 2026.)

I’m on WordPress 7.0 and hadn’t noticed the new “Connectors” option under settings. My life goes on well. But it is clutter so I’ll figure out how to make it go away later.

6. Your WordPress Site — From RSS Feed to Social Account (Matthias Pfefferle at ActivityPub for WordPress Blog. May 22, 2026.)

I looking forward to these new features making it to self-hosted WordPress.

7. This Is Your Reminder to Go Touch Grass (Absurd Pirate’s Internet Blog. May 26, 2026.)

Photograph of the Manhattan Skyline and Brooklyn Bridge Park from the Fruit Street Sitting Area in Brooklyn Heights. The BQE is the immediate foreground. The trees and grassy hill Brooklyn Bridge Park is in the middle. Off in the distance we can see the southern tip of Manhattan, a Staten Island Ferry, and the Statue of Liberty.
I took this photograph this morning from the Fruit Street Sitting Area in Brooklyn Heights. We see the BQE, Brooklyn Bridge Park, the East River, and Manhattan/New Jersey/Governor’s Island off in the distance. The orange just leaving Manhattan is the Staten Island Ferry. If you squint, you can also see the Statue of Liberty way out back. No fires in New Jersey today.

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I was busy this morning and forgot to write daily Pook-Emu Bee links. But since tomorrow is newsletter day and there are no Pook-Emu Bee links on newsletter day, I figured I would publish a late-night edition of the Pook-Emu Bee.

1. Can subway rats give New Yorkers hantavirus? Only if you do something extremely disgusting (Natalie O’Neill for the New York Post. May 8, 2026.)

I wouldn’t put it past the TikTok “creators.”

2. Iryna Zarutska Murder Suspect Deemed Incompetent, But Case Will Continue (Amy Furr for Breitbart. May 8, 2026.)

He was competent enough to choose his target on that train car very carefully and deliberately. But not when it comes time for consequences. Many such cases, alas.

3. Military begins prescreening recruits for 28 medical conditions (Patty Nieberg for Task & Purpose. May 6, 2026)

Sounds like a good efficiency gain.

4. Texas-based teleradiologist wins court battle over California income taxes (Marty Stempniak for Radiology Business. May 7, 2026.)

I offer this “content” in California for free just to avoid the potential tax complications.

5. New York’s Teachers’ Unions Are So Progressive, They’re Even Alienating Teachers (Adam Lehodey for City Journal. May 7, 2026.)

I look at who wields power in New York City and conclude that Mr. Lehodey may be engaging in some wishful headline thinking.

6. Brooklyn Heights Greek Revival Asks $9.2 Million (Susan De Vries for Brownstoner. May 7, 2026.)

I like the plaster-work. Roof and garden are clutch. Monroe Place is a nice block. I’ll save up I guess.

7. Cobble Hill’s most expensive listing finds a buyer after a $5M price cut (Jake Indursky for The Real Deal. May 6, 2026.)

I’d take the Monroe Place above for half the price. Monroe Place is also better than Cobble Hill right across Atlantic.

8. Justice Department Finds UCLA Medical School Discriminated Based on Race in Wake of Explosive Free Beacon Reports (Aaron Sibarium for The Washington Free Beacon. May 6, 2026.)

UCLA forgot to tell the Department of Justice that it wasn’t supposed to notice.

9. Xteink blocks installation of custom firmware on some eReaders, launches a new Android-powered model (Brad Linder for Liliputing. May 2, 2026.)

I need to work on this project for an article already. Many such cases.

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Pook-Emu Bee was off yesterday because it was Newsletter day. But the newsletter is out, and Pook-Emu Bee links are back.

1. FDNY changes policy after clout-chasing models turn NYC fire station into their own sorority house (Tina Moore for the New York Post. April 18, 2026.)

The change came after The Post exclusively reported Saturday that two models turned a Greenwich Village fire station into their own personal sorority house — sauntering inside with firefighters, climbing on a firetruck and shaking their booties to Lil Wayne’s ‘Fireman.’

I approve of keeping social media-addled idiots out of fire houses. I am sad that we needed a new directive to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

2. Life Sentence for Sinaloa Cartel Smuggler Busted with 2 Million Lethal Fentanyl Doses (Randy Clark for Breitbart. April 18, 2026.)

Life is the correct punishment for most fentanyl trafficking offenses.

3. When Did “The Nerds” Start Ruining Each Sport? (Neil Paine. December 20, 2024.)

I’d describe the trend as analytics strategies flattening the sports.

4. Daniel Jones’ Impossible Cap Math (Troy Chapman at Cap & Trade Football. April 17, 2026.)

Given the salary cap rules and number of players on football teams, making the math work is complicated.

5. Almost 90% of Japanese people dislike random and “blind bag” merch, but the majority still buys it, large-scale survey shows (Amber V for Automation West. April 18, 2026.)

I have never purchased “blind bag merch.” I have purchased Kinder eggs. I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

6. E-bikes are all over mountain trails. Some want them banned (Jack Dolan for the Los Angeles Times. April 15, 2026.)

I don’t have a stake in mountain bike trails, but I do want to see e-bikes banned. I’m willing to make common cause with the California mountain bikers if they support me on the sidewalks.

7. The Black Hole of Brooklyn Heights Finally Lists (Adriane Quinlan for Curbed. April 17, 2026.)

I linked to an article about this house back in Newsletter 239.

8. Open-border legal activists instruct migrants to fabricate false gay asylum claims, BBC finds (Carl Deconinck for Brussels Signal. April 15, 2026.)

Likely common here in the United States as well since asylum claims based on sexual orientation are cognizable under controlling precedent and the stories can be structured in such a way as to explain the lack of corroborating evidence. That is not likely to say that they are likely to succeed, however, and these activists hurt applicants who have legitimate claims on this basis.

9. City Deems Fort Greene Manse Unworthy of Protection (Anna Bradley-Smith for Brownstoner. April 10, 2026.)

I like the house. Bad call by the landmarks commission.

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Quoted End is nigh for Watchtower sign: Iconic placard to come down after $340M sale (2017) by Kathryn Brenzel (therealdeal.com)
The iconic Watchtower sign, a glowing fixture over Brooklyn Heights, will soon disappear from the skyline. Earlier this month, the Jehovah’s Witnesses filed a permit application seeking to remove the 15-foot-tall letters from the roof of the organization’s now-former headquarters ... Removal of the letters will cost an estimated $70,500, according to documents filed with the city’s Department of Buildings.

In the March 12 edition of Pook-Emu Bee, I shared a link to a story about a proposal to turn the former Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower buildings on Columbia Heights (between Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO) into apartments. When the Jehovah’s Witnesses owned the building, they had a giant red “WATCHTOWER” sign over their headquarters that was something of a landmark in the “Brooklyn skyline.” I remember when the WATCHTOWER sign came down in the late 2010s. While reading more news about what may be done with the buildings, I came across a June 26, 2017 report in The Real Deal on news that the Jehovah’s Witnesses had filed permits to take down the WATCHTOWER sign. According to the report, the estimated cost of the removal was $70,500. While I do not know if that ended up being the final cost, the Jehovah’s Witnesses were responsible stewards of their properties (if not champions of great aesthetics), so I would not be surprised if they were able to remove the sign for the price they estimated.

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Monday is the beginning of the work week. But it is also Pook-Emu Bee links day. Of course, every day except Newsletter Saturday is Pook-Emu Bee links day…

1. Hiding Behind Pen Names (Jerome Mazandarani for Anime News Network. March 23, 2026.)

In this case, changing a pen name to hide a conviction for photographing a 15-year old student in violation of Japan’s Child Prostitution and Pornography Act.

2. Clean-up, construction inch forward at Gowanus Green amid concerns from residents, pols (Kirstyn Brendlen for Brooklyn Paper. March 18, 2026.)

More Gowanus construction news for those of you who enjoyed (or will enjoy) my recent Gowanus-walk Happy Cleaners Cargo Trike in the Rain article on NLJ.

3. Increasing Numbers of Inadmissible Migrants and Paroled Migrants at Ports of Entry (TRAC Immigration. March 13, 2026.)

Consider this an addendum to my link in yesterday’s Pook-Emu Bee about low encounter numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border. There has been a small recent uptick in encounters, and a dramatic increase in parole grants beginning in October. While both are still historically low (especially when compared to the previous administration), the unexplained uptick in parole grants is odd and the type of policy that would have the tendency to lead to a gradual rise in crossing attempts without being more narrowly applied than the current percentages would suggest.

4. LI county touts crackdown on e-bikes as NYC eases up its own regs (Brandon Cruz for the New York Post. March 22, 2026.)

There are heroes among us. Unfortunately for me, those heroes are in Nassau County instead of Kings County.

5. The DS Pico might be the last DS flashcart you’ll ever need (Max Glenister. March 3, 2026.)

I never had a DS flashcart and I don’t think I need one. With that being said, this open source flashcart does sound neat.

6. Silhouette Event at Brooklyn Women’s Exchange (Claude Scales for Brooklyn Heights Blog. March 21, 2026.)

I never had a silhouette done at the historic Brooklyn Women’s Exchange (nice new location on Montague Street) in Brooklyn Heights. But if you are in the area from April 24-26, you can sign up for a silhouette.

7. A Cooper’s Hawk in the Old Woods (Khürt Williams at Island in the Net. March 20, 2026.)

I have never seen a hawk in the woods. But I have seen a falcon in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

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Quoted The Week in Brooklyn: March 15–21, 2026 by orliorli (brooklynbridgeparents.com)
After more than a decade of broken promises, the Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights is finally under renovation. SomeraRoad, which bought the building for $100 million last year, began replacing the old scaffolding this week so that facade repairs can start. The 1909 landmark — once known as the “Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn” and the site of the Dodgers’ 1955 World Series celebration — will be converted into 60 to 70 condominiums. Interior demolition begins in April or May, with exterior restoration later this year. A new restaurant is planned for the ground floor, with SomeraRoad reportedly in talks with “very accomplished restaurateurs.” Montague Street hasn’t had this much to look forward to in a long time.

I saw new scaffolding going up around the iconic, and now derelict, Bossert Hotel building in Brooklyn Heights. According to Brooklyn Bridge Parents, the new scaffolding is going up so that new new owner, SomeraRoad, which bought the building for $100 million in 2025, can begin work on the facade (I have lost track of how many times it has been sold since the Jehovah’s Witnesses gave it up). More interestingly, Brooklyn Bridge Parents reports that “[i]nterior demolition begins in April or May, with exterior restoration later this year.” It adds that “[a] new restaurant is planned for the ground floor…” There have been many “false starts” regarding the Bossert in recent years, but I have my fingers crossed that SomeraRoad will actually undertake and complete the planned work. You can see the side of the Bossert under the old scaffolding in a photo I took of a Cybertruck.