Tag: crime

Posted on
by

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?

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by

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.”

Posted on
by

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.

Photo of a blue bench resting against a black cast iron fence next to potted shrubs in front of a restaurant.
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.

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by

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 the analysis video along with the full transcript.

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by

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.

A WACOM ONE tablet.
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 AIrline 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).

Posted on
by

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.

Almond milk in a milk pot on a portable induction cooker on a kitchen counter. Next to it we see a mug with mushrooms, a bottle of powdered peanut butter, cocoa, sugar, and a small bowl with the ingredients mixed together.
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).

Posted on
by

Let us complete our perfect Pook-Emu Bee link week before our regularly scheduled day off for Newsletter Saturday.

A brown wooden TV shelf with doors seen on the sidewalk in front of a large pile of trash bags. A note taped to the top says "FREE /GOOD CONTITION"
I spotted this TV cabinet in Downtown Brooklyn at approximately 7:40 in the evening on June 28, 2026. The note says “Free / Good Condition”

1 | Sekiwake Wakatakakage Begins Rehabilitation After Narrowly Avoiding Leg Amputation in Emergency Surgery (Sumostats. July 29, 2026.)
Scary stuff. Hoping first for a safe and speedy recovery and second for him to quickly return to the lofty rank he achieved with his win in the May Basho once he is back in competition.

2 | Sixth Circuit Reverses Pretrial Release for Antifa Member Accused of ICE-Related Threats (Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. August 14, 2026.)
Excellent. Quoting the opinion of the Court: “The Bail Reform Act focuses on the danger the defendant poses to ‘any other person and the community.’ The district court’s views on the Executive Branch’s immigration policy have no bearing on that inquiry….”

3 | Tankhouse to Raze Historic Boerum Hill Church After $28.25 Million Purchase (Anna Bradley Smith for Brownstoner. August 13, 2026.)
Funny timing. I was just sitting there thinking to myself “what we need is more ugly tall buildings designed by architects who read too many Superman comic books.” The news has a way of delivering.

4 | Preview: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Dials The ‘Three Houses Formula’ Up To 11 (Jim Norman for Nintendo Life. August 13, 2026.)
It looks great. I dare say this is the first game to make not buying a Switch 2 sting. But I’m still not throwing down $500+ for a Switch 2 and Fortune’s Weave.

5 | Simon & Schuster Doubles Down on Notorious Writer Who Calls Jews ‘Ghouls,’ Will Publish Her New Novel: Writer Taunts Angry ‘Zionists’ Who Oppose Her Deal (Jon Levine for The Washington Free Beacon. August 13, 2026.)
I suppose the question is was she published by Simon & Schuster despite being an Islamist terrorist-supporting antisemite or because she is an Islamist terrrorist-supporting antisemite? I have my suspicions it’s the latter.

6 | I finally switched Linux desktops, and COSMIC is the one to blame (João Carrasqueira for XDA Developers. August 10, 2026.)
Cosmic looks interesting but I will stick with KDE for my daily driver needs for the foreseeable future (certainly at least until Cosmic is “stable”).

7 | Sweet Hamster Days Game Review (Bolts for Anime News Network. August 14, 2026.)
This is certainly a visual novel concept. A good concept? I didn’t say that. But it’s A concept.

Posted on
by

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).

My hand holding a tube of Sensodyne Pronamel Kids Berry Twist toothpaste over a sink.
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.

Posted on
by

Can we complete a perfect Sunday-Friday Pook-Emu Bee link week? With this, we are 5/7 of the way there.

An evening photo of a table, TV stand, and night stand (missing two drawners) lined upp in front of a bagged mattress.
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.