Tag: manhattan

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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 UNRWA 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.

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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

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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).

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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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We welcome May with a new edition of the daily Pook-Emu Bee links (after a spotty week). It looks nice outside my window…

1. Stripe introduces Link, a digital wallet that autonomous AI agents can use, too (Sarah Perez for TechCrunch. April 30, 2026.)

While this is certainly exciting, I would suggest considering not allowing “autonomous AI agents” to make purchases on your behalf.

2. Pirate RPG game is secretly looting your SSD lifespan — new Windrose patch promises smoother sailing and addresses excessive disk writing (Aaron Klotz for Tom’s Hardware. April 30, 2026.)

It wasn’t looting my SSD lifespan…

3. Nexon CEO says “it’s important to assume every game company is using AI” following Arc Raiders debate (Sophie McEvoy for Games Industry.biz. November 12, 2025.)

See what I just did here with this expert link placement?

4. Republicans Shouldn’t Kill the Dignity Act—They Should Make it Tougher (Daniel Di Martino for City Journal. May 1, 2026.)

There are a number of problems with this argument. But the most basic problem is that “mak[ing] it tougher” would “kill” it. Thus, I would humbly suggest staying the course.

5. cPanel, WHM emergency update fixes critical auth bypass bug (Bill Toulas for cPanel. April 29, 2026.)

NLJ’s server used cPanel back when it was on Bluehost. But I moved NLJ more than four years ago. Joke is on you, hackers.

6. Statement from New York State Education Department Spokesperson JP O’Hare (JP O’Hare for the New York State Education Department. April 29, 2026.)

As a one-time test proctor, may I suggest just having kids take tests in person at the school buildings my tax money is paying for?

7. The Art Deco beauty of Bloomingdale’s 59th Street streamlined and stylized elevators (Ephemeral New York. November 10, 2025.)

I only went to the 59th Street Bloomingdale’s once. That trip was documented in NLJ. I did use the elevators because all of the cow statues were on the first floor.

(HT Ambient Irony for links 2 and 5.)

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There were no Pook-Emu Bee links on Saturday because it was newsletter day (22 links in issue 275!). There were no Pook-Emu Bee links on Sunday because I failed. But today is Monday. Monday is a fun day. I will not fail. In fact, I may even have some bonus links (either to make up for yesterday or to keep my link list under control).

1. 420 Court’s Façade Takes Shape in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (Michael Young and Matt Pruznick for New York YIMBY. April 13, 2026.)

Carroll Gardens is next to Cobble Hill, which is one of Brooklyn’s historic districts. The line between Carroll Gardens and Cobble Hill is easy to miss. Yet, as I noted in 2020, Carroll Gardens is not a historic district. With that in mind, this new construction is not bad.

2. Placard Abuse Clogs Downtown Brooklyn Bike Lane (Brooklyn Today. April 13, 2026.)

Placard abuse is a well-known problem. But must everything be about the struggles of bikers? The bikers in the area behave terribly even where the bike lanes are unimpeded.

3. Investors Juice BlackBerry as the SaaS-y Company Racks Up Contracts (Jamie Wilde for The Daily Upside*. April 13, 2026.)

Making QWERTY phones offered more value.

4. Morgan Library (I Love Beets. April 13, 2026.)

I have not been to the Morgan Library in a long time, but these photographs indicate that it is as aesthetic as I remember it.

5. ProPublica journalists walk off the job in first U.S. newsroom strike over AI (Andrew Deck for NiemanLab. April 9, 2026.)

I reached the “choose your fighter” screen between ProPublica and big AI. Then I left the game on and went for a walk.

6. Doki Doki Literature Club Removed from Google Play Store Following Policy Violation or Is This Just Another Attempt by Monika for Our Attention? (It’s Not, They Really Delisted It) (Azario Lopez for Noisy Pixel. April 9, 2026.)

While I never “reviewed” Doki Doki Literature Club, I referenced it in my review of a freeware visual novel called Save the Date in expressing my hope that Save the Date would be published on Steam, Itch, and other places where more people could find it. I never played the “paid” version of Doki Doki Literature Club, but from my knowledge of the free version, this decision strikes me as odd. It certainly deserves an “M” rating (which I presumre age-gates downloads/purchases) but I am sure there is more objectionable “content” on Google Play Store. Of course, I use F-Droid, so what do I know?

7. The Death of the Small Point Guard? (James Barlowe. April 10, 2026.)

Is there really a “death”? How many instances in NBA history have we had where the undisputed best player on a championship team was a “small” point guard? Off the top of my head: 2014-15 and 2022-23 Golden State Warriors (Stephen Curry), 1988-89 and 89-90 Detroit Pistons (Isiah Thomas), and 1972-73 New York Knicks (Walt Frazier). You could argue for a few additional cases in the 1950-51 Rochester Royals (Bob Davies), 1969-70 Knicks (Frazier). 2003-04 Pistons (Chauncey Billups), and 2016-17 and 2017-18 Warriors (Curry). I suppose one could try to include Dennis Johnson since he was “small” and add the 1978-79 Seattle SuperSonics? But if this is all we can come up with, it does not seem like building a team “around” a small point guard has ever been the best path to an NBA championship.

8. Ascendance of a Bookworm anime studio acknowledges gen AI use in opening, promises to replace offending scenes with hand-drawn art (Dorde P for Automation West. April 10, 2026.)

I never watched the first few seasons, and I doubt I will ever catch up. Were I planning to catch up, this would not encourage me. With that being said, I have 2.5 seasons worth of anime to catch up on. Every news article reminds me.

9. Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Monopoly (Dan Lewis for Now I Know. April 3, 2020.)

I never played Monopoly. No one ever tried to convince me to play Monopoly. Now I know that Dan Lewis does not think I should play Monopoly.

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My Pook-Emu Bee links are a bit late today. I had to deal with an issue related to my wireless access point this morning and then some work assignments. Unfortunately, I did not have time to engage in my regular morning reading, but we can take advantage to clear links from my to-use backlog.

1. Bee Write Back is a DIY distraction-free writing machine with OLED display and mechanical keyboard (Brad Linder for Liliputing. April 9, 2026.)

This is adorable.

2. Penn Station’s chaotic World Cup plan could unleash travel hell on New Jersey commuters ( Hannah Fierick, Ella Morrison, and Matt Troutman for the New York Post. April 6, 2026.)

I am starting to wonder whether New York is trying to be so obnoxious about the World Cup that it kills the “this is soccer’s American moment” trope once and for all.

3. Make the NBA better: 7 New Year’s resolutions for the league in 2026 (Tom Haberstroh for Yahoo! Sports. January 1, 2026.)

3-6 are all reasonable. 1-2 and 7 should go into the discard pile.

4. Waterfox to integrate Brave adblock engine, with search ads enabled by default (Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. April 3, 2026.)

I never used Waterfox, but this may be worth watching for if (or when) upstream Firefox does away with Manifest V2. I’ll submit that I prefer uBlock Origin to Brave’s built-in implementation as a user, but Brave’s does work well.

5. CEO of America’s largest public hospital system says he’s ready to replace radiologists with AI (Marty Stempniak for Radiology Business. March 31, 2026.)

Let’s not.

6. NFL’s Goodell Defies Florida’s Lawsuit Over Rooney Rule, Calls Diversity ‘A Benefit’ (Warner Todd Huston for Breitbart. April 1, 2026.)

Left unexplained by the comissioner is why this benefit cannot be achieved in 2026 without the Rooney Rule. Also left unexplained is how narrowly the Commissioner defines diversity.

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The daily Pook-Emu Bee links were off yesterday thanks to Newsletter Leaf Journal 272. But with no new newsletter coming until next Saturday, the Pook-Emu Bee returns. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.

1. Awesome Ghibli Howl’s Moving Castle figure is also a puzzle and an organizer (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. March 22, 2026.)

I saw Howl’s Moving Castle back in high school after class one day when a friend brought it in and we used one of the school’s TVs. That was before I had seen much anime beyond the Adult Swim selection. Good movie. Cool puzzle here.

2. Hundreds of delivery drivers hanging outside East Village mosque overwhelming locals, forcing NYC businesses to close (Steve Galvin for the New York Post. March 21, 2026.)

There is a mosque in Cobble Hill (Brooklyn) that was being used as a gathering spot/staging area for the food delivery e-bikers. Thus, I am familiar with the phenomenon. Fortunately, I have not seen bathing or grooming areas here across the river.

3. Trump’s DHS Celebrates 10th Month of Zero Releases of Illegals at Border (John Binder for Breitbart. March 20, 2026.)

The “border crisis” during the prior administration was caused by reversable deliberate policy choices. Nevertheless:

Similarly, the Trump administration marked the 13th consecutive month where there have been fewer than 9,000 illegal border crossers captured at the border. This indicates a 95 percent decline in border apprehensions compared with Biden-era levels.

13 consectutive months under 9,000 apprehensions is wholly unprecedented since the stats have been compiled and better than your optimistic border hawk would have likely predicted.

4. The Bigme B6 Color E-Ink Tablet (Max Glenister. January 26, 2023.)

The only Android e-ink device I would be inclined to consider would be from PocketBook (I have two non-Android PocketBook readers). Nevertheless, interesting review for learning more about what is out there.

5. New cherry blossom party picnic essential: This super-handy folding cardboard table (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. March 21, 2026.)

I found myself thinking of the cardboard box table your house comes with in Animal Crossing.

6. How important was it for Hamlin to dominate at season’s first 1.5-mile oval? (Neil Paine for NASCAR.com. March 19, 2026.)

On the predictive value of performances on 1.5 mile ovals.

7. Windows 11 updates will scale back unnecessary Copilot integrations, let you reposition the taskbar, and more (Brad Linder for Liliputing. March 20, 2026.)

I have not used Windows since 10. I did not know 11 prevents you from moving the task bar. As I look at my task bar at the top of my screen, I can conclude that this would have annoyed me had I stayed on Windows instead of switching to Linux.

8. Black Forest® Gummies Go Fully Organic (Vending Connection. March 20, 2026.)

The forest-themed gummies make for good branding consistency. Have they considered National Park Typeface?

9. The dead Internet is not a theory anymore. (Adrian Krebs. March 11, 2026.)

He has a good story about an AI “agent” apparently having requested a job interview on someone’s behalf. But let it be said that the Pook-Emu Bee is a living internet publication (confidently originalist, however).

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I published several New Leaf Journal articles on the subject of the relentless abuse of the word like. My first four articles on the subject were inspired by things I overheard while walking around Brooklyn. I was walking in Manhattan near the Winter Garden the other day when I heard a woman talking on the phone. I recorded the quote contemporaneously in an SMS to my good friend Victor V. Gurbo (good thing I did since I installed a new OS on my phone a few hours later without saving the message): “But like, I was like, whatever.” That’s even worse than like… and like… yeah… Oh yeah? Well I was like I’m going to like save this quote and like literally start a new series like, on my like website,

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Back in 2021, I wrote about walking around Manhattan with a friend to see cow statues. One of the cow statues was in Bloomingdale’s. In the post I explained that I had previously not known anything about Bloomingdale’s other than the name. In a recent Washington Times report, I learned not only that Bloomingdale’s is owned by Macy’s (I went to Macy’s many times when I was younger), but also that Macy’s owns something called Bluemercury. What is Bluemercury? Beats me.

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Replied to Alien Street Vendors and Unauthorized Employment by Nicholas A. FerrellNicholas A. Ferrell
The Gothamist published an article on the push to ban street vendors from the magisterial Brooklyn Bridge. I am 100% in support of banning street vendors from the Bridge.
But vendors said there are not many legal spots where t...

I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge for the first time since New York City evicted all of the vendors and panhandlers a few weeks ago. I fully supported clearing the Bridge for pedestrians just like I previously supported removing the bike lane from the walkway. However, I was skeptical that New York City would follow through. I can happily report that I saw no vendors or stands on my two walks across the Brooklyn Bridge on the afternoon of February 6, 2024. Despite having a decent number of pedestrians, both walks were easy and painless (save for the one guy twirling around with his “selfie stick”). Moreover, I only saw one illegal bike on the Bridge. There were a few cops (first time I have seen cops on the Bridge since early 2020), so that may also be helping.

Photograph of the Manhattan skyline and Freedom Tower from the Manhattan pedestrian exit/entrance of the Brooklyn Bridge -- taken on February 6, 2024.

While I did not take pictures of the walkway, you can see the Manhattan skyline and Freedom Tower from what is close to the Manhattan off-ramp at about 1:40 PM.