Tag: nba

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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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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.

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Replied to An Opinionated Guide to Ranking Ethical NBA Championships in the 21st Century by Russell Samora (The Pudding)
I believe there have only been five truly ethical NBA champions in the last 25 years: teams that don’t need an asterisk by their title.

Writing for The Pudding, Russell Samora recently put together a list of the “most ethical” NBA champions, wherein he used a formula (with many entertaining graphs) to determine, going back to 2001, which NBA champions benefited the least and most from missed games against their playoff rivals. I followed the NBA closely for most of the relevant period, let us say 2001-16, so I can offer my own, non-stat-infused take, on which champions had the most good fortune in the misfortune of their rivals (not that I am opposed to creative stat-takes on the NBA, mind you). See my list of “fortunate” NBA champions from 2001-16 below (I refuse to use “ethical,” which I think is a new entry in the genre of the internet leading to the creation of ridiculous ways to describe things in the NBA, all of which miss the charm of the olden playground slang).

  • 2002-03 San Antonio Spurs: The 2002-03 Spurs were clearly and beyond doubt the weakest of the five Spurs championship squads, but they benefited from having the absolute best version of Tim Duncan, to carry them through the playoffs. But while Mr. Duncan created the 2002-03 Spurs’ good fortune with his monstrous playoff run, the Spurs had some good luck in the Western Conference Finals. In the Western Conference Finals, the Spurs faced the Dallas Mavericks, which had the NBA’s best regular season SRS (+7.90 to the Spurs’ +5.68) and Net Rating (+8.4 to the Spurs’ +6.0), although the Mavericks had the bad luck to have the same 60-22 record as the Spurs and miss out on home court advantage. The Mavericks had a rough time making it to the West Finals, unexpectedly being taken the seven game distance after going up 3-0 against the Portland Trail Blazers in round one and surviving a tough seven-game affair against the Sacramento Kings (second in both regular season SRS and Net) in the semifinals. Of course, the real misfortune would hit the Mavericks against the Spurs, with their best player, Dirk Nowitzki, missing the final three games of the conference finals, which the Spurs won 4-2 (the Spurs had been up 2-1). The Mavericks had been better than the Spurs all year. While the result may have been the same even had Mr. Nowitzki remained healthy (Mr. Duncan had quite the series), the Mavericks’ fate was likely sealed with the injury. (See 2003 Western Conference Finals stats.)
  • 2003-04 Detroit Pistons: I wrote two full articles on the 2003-04 Pistons, with the first offering my hot take that they were better off having not drafted Carmelo Anthony (for that one season, at least) and the second on their “upset” of the star-studded Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. The Lakers were missing starting power forward Karl Malone for much of the Finals (referenced in Mr. Samora’s article), but that is not the injury which puts them on my list. The Pistons so thoroughly dominated the Lakers that Mr. Malone’s injury was immaterial to the final outcome. But the Pistons had some luck in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, where they fell behind the two-time defending Eastern Conference Champion New Jersey Nets 3-2 after jumping out to a 2-0 lead, and barely avoided elimination in New Jersey in game six by a score of 81-75. This series highlights a short-coming of focusing only on games “missed.” The Nets’ best player, perennial All NBA point guard Jason Kidd, was playing through knee problems which resulted in micro-fracture surgery in the offseason (and effectively marked the end of his “peak”). Given the closeness of the series, one can fairly speculate that the Nets may have prevailed had Mr. Kidd, who shot a ghastly 36.5% from the floor, been closer to full health. (See 2004 Eastern Conference Semifinals stats.)
  • 2006-07 San Antonio Spurs: While the 2002-03 Spurs were the worst of the five Spurs title teams, 2006-07 was, by almost all objective measures (save for sublime NBA Finals performances, see 2013-14) the best. But like the 2002-03 squad, they made some good fortune for themselves. The Western Conference Finals were likely the true “finals” that year, with the two best remaining teams by a wide margin in the Spurs (58-24, +8.35 SRS, +9.3 Net) and Phoenix Suns (61-21, +7.28 SRS, +7.6 Net) meeting. The Spurs and Suns split the first four games 2-2, with the Spus slightly out-scoring the Spurs. Unfortunately for Phoenix, All Star Amare Stoudemire and top reserve Boris Diaw were suspended for game five after stepping off the bench in response to Spurs forward Robert Horry body-slamming the Suns’ best player, two-time MVP Steve Nash (Mr. Nash had been the starting point guard on the 2002-03 Mavericks). Without leading scorer Stoudmire and Diaw, the Suns lost gave five 88-85 before falling in game six in San Antonio. (See 2007 Western Conference Semifinals.)
  • 2008-09 Los Angeles Lakers: The 2008-09 Lakers were the clear better of the two decade-closing Lakers championship teams, but their championship run was bolstered by direct and indirect good fortune. In the Western Conference Semifinals, the Lakers (65-17, +7.11 SRS, +8.1 Net) faced the Houston Rockets (53-29, +3.73 SRS, +4.4 Net). The Rockets were led by star center Yao Ming, who made All NBA Second Team and had his healthiest regular season in years (note Tracy McGrady only played in 35 games and was out well before the playoffs). The Rockets won game one on the road before dropping games two and three. Yao Ming was out for game four (and the rest of the series), but the Rockets went on to win games four and six at home to force an unexpeted game seven. The Lakers won games five and seven by margins suggesting that a healthy Yao Ming would not have changed the outcome, but it is worth including. (See 2009 Western Conference Semifinals.) In the area of indirect luck, the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics, who had decisively defeated the Lakers in the 2008 NBA Finals, finished the regular season 62-20 (+7.44 SRS, +8.2 Net) despite their best player, Kevin Garnett, missing 25 games. Mr. Garnett was out for the playoffs, but the Celtics only narrowly lost in the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual Eastern Conference Champion Orlando Magic. I am inclined to think the Celtics would have won the title with a healthy Kevin Garnett, but we shall never know.
  • 2014-15 Golden State Warriors: Mr. Samora rated the 2014-15 Warriors as the most “unethical” champion, and they have a strong case. The Warriors had a historically great regular season, albeit over-shadowed by their next two seasons (67-15, +10.01 SRS, +10.2 Net) and rolled through the first three rounds before facing the Cleveland Cavaliers, which went from missing the playoffs to the NBA Finals thanks to the re-acquisition of LeBron James and addition of Kevin Love. The Cavaliers had not been notably impressive in the regular season (53-29, +4.08 SRS, +4.8 Net), but rampaged through the Eastern Conference en route to the Finals. Alas for Cleveland, Kevin Love would miss the Finals and Kyrie Irving, Cleveland’s star point guard, was taken out for the series in Cleveland’s game one overtime loss. But with 2/3 of Cleveland’s big three gone, LeBron James willed Cleveland to wins in games two and three to take a 2-1 lead, but Golden State swept the next three games (despite some huge, albeit inefficient, numbers from James) to win the title. For whatever it is worth, I think a slightly healthier Cleveland would have won, as they would one year later in 2016. Speaking of which… (See 2015 NBA Finals.)
  • 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers: The Warriors and Cavaliers met again in the 2016 NBA Finals. Although the Warriors (73-9, +10.38 SRS, +10.7 Net) were favored over the Cavaliers (57-25, +5.45 SRS, +6.4 Net), I am proud to say that I picked Cleveland before the Finals and stuck with Cleveland even when they fell behind 3-1, a deficit that no team had previously overcome in the Finals. But in 2016 it was the Cavaliers rather than the Warriors which benefited from some good luck. Warriors forward Draymond Green, who was their defensive anchor and an All NBA Second Team honoree, got himself suspended for the potential clinching game five of the Finals after he kicked LeBron James in the crotch in game four (one flagrant foul too many). The Cavaliers avoided elimination on the road in game five against the Green-less Warriors 112-97 thanks to matching 41 point performances by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Green returned, but the Cavaliers forced game seven with a 115-101 win at home in game six and then won a close game seven 93-89 on the road to secure the historic comeback. While Green cost his team big with his game five suspension, no one can fault him for his epic 32 point, 15 rebound, 9 assist performance in game seven. Alas for the Warriors, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined for 31 points on 12-36 shooting, and the Cavaliers had just enough to win it in the end. (See 2016 NBA Finals.)

That is my non-exhaustive list of “fortunate” champions (in terms of their playoff opponents’ misfortune) from 2001-2016. But in the end, every NBA champion can stand to benefit from some good fortune, even historically great teams like the 2006-07 Spurs and 2014-15 Warriors.

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It has been five days since the last edition of Pook-Emu Bee links. While I ordinarily publish links in the morning and it is now the evening, I submit some late links today to keep the backlog under control.

Red white and blue arrow sticker on the sidewalk pointing people to a New York City voting location.
Today (June 23, 2026) was primary election day in New York City. I did not have a primary to vote in, but I did take a photo.

1. Polymarket bet on deceptive social advertising: WSJ (Dave Lozo for Morning Brew. June 23, 2026.)

The prediction markets aren’t upholding the highest standards of advertising integrity? Say it ain’t so!

2. “All-Consuming, Joyous, Heartbreaking” – Your Nintendo 64 Memories (Gavin Lane and Staff for Nintendo Life. June 22, 2026.)

You can expect my own Nintendo 64 memories later this week.

3. Lefty owner of anti-Israel NYC coffee shop calls US ally ‘Nazi Germany of our time’ in hateful online outburst (Chris Nesi for the New York Post. June 23, 2026.)

Last Friday, I noticed an Uzbek flag outside a coffee shop on Smith Street in Boerum Hill. I did not think much of it. Then I saw the photo of the Williamsburg location and put two-and-two together. With hope, it will soon be gone.

4. Matt’s Script Archive: The Scripts That Reshaped The Web (Ernie Smith at Tedium. June 22, 2026.)

But programmers who weren’t in high school and weren’t so wet behind the ears looked aghast at what Wright had done: He had spread poorly designed, but widely used software across the internet. This software was packed with security issues, but worst of all, it wasn’t really getting updated all that much.

Neat history article but I don’t think I’ll run these scripts as a nostalgia experiment.

5. NYC’s line culture Is out of control — and getting worse (Marissa Matozzo for the New York Post. June 22, 2026.)

I agree with the headline. But don’t read the article. I was expecting a fun article. Instead, I was assaulted by many variations of “it’s not this, but that” and lists of two and three things, often saying the same thing over and over. I’m not saying it’s this, but maybe it’s that.

6. The social contract of writing (Johanna Larson. May 25, 2026.)

I am definitely not implying anything by linking to this very nice article against LLM-slop writing right after the fifth link.

7. Why the National Basketball Players Association is debuting a B2C brand (Alyssa Meyers for Marketing Brew. June 22, 2026.)

Having read the article, I must confess that I have no idea what this brand actually is.

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I missed Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday and am late today, but we can hardly let a backlog grow… so let us link today.

A black Cybertruck parked in Brooklyn Heights.
A black Cybertruck seen parked in Brooklyn Heights. I took this photo on June 18, 2026.

1. Peeved NYC students, teachers, parents beg mayor to cancel school for Knicks parade: ‘This is once in a lifetime’ (Asia Grace for the New York Post. June 18, 2026.)

‘It’s upsetting because, obviously, we’ve been waiting for this moment a long time,’ … a Brooklyn public school student, exclusively told The Post. ‘The parade is really important, and everyone should be able to experience it.’

Is it possible for a 12-year old to have “been waiting for this moment for a long time”?

2. Who Would Take Iran’s Uranium? (RFE/RL, via OilPrice.com. June 18, 2026.)

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

3. Councils bans England flags on public property during World Cup (Anne-Laurie Dufael for Brussels Signal. June 18, 2026.)

‘The irony of this becomes clear when we realise that St George himself was a migrant from what is now Turkey to Palestine,’ [Bristol City Council leader Tony Dyer] added.

I had been thinking earlier in the article that these rules would probably not be enforced against other flags. My suspicions were not ameliorated by the conclusion.

4. UFC Freedom 250 (John Hinderaker for Power Line. June 15, 2026.)

I am a boxing fan, but not an MMA fan. To me, MMA is more a gladiatorial spectacle than a legitimate sport.

MMA is definitely a “legitimate sport” and I respect the practitioners, but I too like boxing and do not like the MMA for reasons similar to those noted by Mr. Hinderaker. With that being said, I haven’t watched much boxing since ditching cable (along with the premium channels that aired the best fights) 11-12 years ago. I should catch up on YouTube.

5. Russia Imposes Restrictions on Acquisition of Citizenship Except for Belarusians (Anzhelika Kalchenko for Militarnyi. November 10, 2025.)

I deal with many cases involving individuals who moved from former USSR countries to Russia and voluntarily acquired Russian citizenship (no Belarusians, however). If that puzzles you… remember it’s all relative. Of course, they end up here applying for asylum regardless.

6. DeMarcus Cousins explains how John Calipari made him declare for the NBA Draft (Bruno Rukavina for Basketball Network. February 5, 2025.)

‘And Cal is like, look, dude, if you want to take care of my family, you’re going to stay. If you want to take care of yours, you’re out of here. It’s real,’ he said. ‘That’s all I needed to hear. You know what I mean? So real.’

That was good advice from Coach Calipari given that Mr. Cousins was a high draft pick and had a good NBA career (including a few All Star appearances) before being derailed by injuries.

7. ID Verification for P*rn Sites Can be Okay (nephitejnf [PeerTube video]. June 15, 2026.)

I concur, and he kicks around some interesting-sounding solutions (albeit I am not concerned about making that onerous).

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Time for a new edition of Pook-Emu Bee links on this very pretty (in Brooklyn, at least) June 16.

Blurry photo of the face of a female kokeshi doll figure.
I took this phone on June 14, 2026, to send to Victor V. Gubo.

1. SCOTUS To Newman: Drop Dead (Josh Blackman at The Volokh Conspiracy. June 15, 2026.)

Say what one will but if applied broadly, chief judges being able to involuntarily retire other judges with lifetime tenure would be a very interesting new standard.

2. Neighbors in posh neighborhood fume about wild antics inside OnlyFans home next to local school (Nina Joudeh for the California Post. June 15, 2026.)

As much work as this headline is trying to do covering for the porn producers, I think some of the complaints are also about what’s happening outside the “OnlyFans home” and the negative effect it is having on the community. With that being said, the fact that the people with justified complaints constantly qualify their complaints by noting how cool they are with OnlyFans as a general matter does have the tendency to open up their position to the headline’s subtle critique.

3. Iran Deal Can Work If We Hit Them Every Time They Break It (Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. June 15, 2026.)

The headline is accurate in a sense, but not entirely in accord with the opinions presented or the hypothetical deal that is sure to occur (which we may see someday). Take aside, I am glad to see Mr. Hanson doing well as he works through some serious health issues.

4. Build large model of Red Hook, Carroll Gardens without the BQE (Brooklyn Daily Eagle. June 15, 2026.)

This ship probably sailed somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 years ago. But at least it left me with a bridge to write about.

5. G7 allies seek common ground with Trump after Iran accord (Brussels Signal. June 15, 2026.)

I’m a bit concerned about the common ground the G7 (definitely not looking at France) and others, now including the United States, seems to be seeking on Hezbollah. Still holding a few grudges and all.

6. Chauncey Billups on 2004 Pistons being underestimated vs. Lakers in NBA Finals (Virgil Villanueva for Basketball Network. November 13, 2025.)

Notwithstanding the fact that I published an article noting various reasons why the evidence did not support favoring the Lakers to the degree which they were favored going into the 2004 Finals, and there was in fact a good statistical case for the Pistons, that the Lakers were favored at all was far in light of the fact they had the two most talented players in the series (that was not the case in their previous two rounds against the Spurs and Timberwolves). However, Basketball Network goes way too far in describing the 2004 Lakers, which featured a slightly past-peak Shaquille O’Neal, an excellent but not-peak Kobe Bryant (2003-04 was arguably a slight down-year for him), and very past-peak versions of Karl Malone and Gary Payton, as “one of the greatest teams ever assembled.”

7. Productivity Videos Are The Bane Of Productivity (Matthew Weber at Matt’s Blog. September 18, 2025.)

Only if you view “productivity” as ideally leading to the production of something of value. If you view productivity as consuming “content” about productivity, productivity videos are probably the best choice.

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Monday is a fun day. One reason Monday is a fun day is because it marks the return of Pook-Emu Bee links after the weekend. Speaking of the weekend, I published links and commentary to enjoy in Saturday’s Newsletter Leaf Journal 284.

Photograph of an intersection with a short red brick building with an American Flag outside and tall apartment buildings in the background.
My photograph of the intersection of Carroll and Bond Streets in Gowanus, Brooklyn. Taken on June 15, 2026.

1. Historic Carroll Street Bridge in Gowanus reopens after 5-year renovation (Aaron Ginsburg for 6sqft New York City. June 11, 2026.)

The above photo is from my walk to the re-opened Carroll Street Bridge. Why did I go to the Bridge? NLJ article forthcoming…

2. Brussels welcomes US-Iran deal and presses for toll-free reopening of Hormuz (Brussels Signal. June 15, 2026.)

Everyone is learning what is in this sure-to-succeed deal (or MOU) except me.

3. GentleOS, A Simple OS For Your Old PC (Jenny List for Hackaday. June 13, 2026.)

This looks worth trying. Maybe it is time for me to sharpen my VM skills.

4 & 5. Knicks fans set school bus on fire in Times Square madness: ‘I’m scared for my homies!’ ( Jennifer Bain, Jordan Donegan, and Katherine Donlevy for the New York Post. June 14, 2026.) & 63 people arrested, 4 stabbings and 1 shooting reported in NYC as Knicks fans go wild celebrating NBA Finals win (Fenix Suriel, Joe Marino, Jorge Fitz-Gibbon and Steven Vago for the New York Post. June 14. 2026.)

You would have thought that the violence after the first four games would have put the NYC government on notice for potential violence after the championship-clinching game. Maybe authorities just wanted to rekindle to 2020 vibes.

6. More than 75 data center build-outs worth $130 billion have been successfully blocked in the first three months of 2026 — bipartisan opposition mounts nationwide over fears of soaring power and water costs (Joe Morales for Tom’s Hardware. June 13, 2026.)

Many of the concerns raised by residents include massive electricity price hikes, egregious water consumption, and potential noise pollution, among others. However, there have also been reports that Chinese users have been amplifying these issues while posing as Americans.

Let no one doubt my credentials on the CCP propaganda beat, but one must be cautious of attributing potentially reasonable oppositions to one thing or another because the Chinese government may have its own reasons propagandizing.

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I have an assignment I need to finish today. But I will not let that stop me from capping off the work-week with one more edition of Pook-Emu Bee links. Pook-Emu Bee will be off tomorrow for Newsletter Day.

Photograph of a green leafy tree in front of a brick building seen through a chicken wire window.
The scene behind my second monitor as I draft this post.

1. How Mamdani Should Reform New York City’s Elections (John Ketcham and Jack Santucci for City Journal. June 10, 2026.)

Never go full “think tank.” Take a walk. Think about what you are writing.

2. Bluesky is getting Reddit-inspired communities built for topic-focused discussions (Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. June 11, 2026.)

Reddit is bad enough without people thinking about how to make worse versions of Reddit.

3. Celtic elite grave discovered in the Taunus mountains (livius for The History Blog. June 9, 2026.)

An elite Celtic grave has been discovered near Bad Camberg in the Taunus mountain range of western Germany. The grave goods are exceptional and include gold, chariot remains and an imported Etruscan bronze jug. It dates to the 5th century B.C. and is the first Celtic princely grave discovered in the Taunus mountains.

The Etruscans force their way into the story.

4. RetroPad is a ‘full-feature-parity version of Notepad from XP’ in just 2,749 bytes — x86 assembly coded apps comes from Windows legend Dave W Plummer (Mark Tyson for Tom’s Hardware. June 7, 2026.)

I used to use Notepad sometimes in my Wndows days (which ended on Windows 10 in 2020). Should I try running this with WINE?

5. Long Island bishop using Knicks’ NBA Finals run to convince long-suffering fans there is a God (Alex Mitchell for the New York Post. June 7, 2026.)

I haven’t watched any NBA games since the 2019 Finals (despite my NBA writing here and on NLJ), but from what I’m hearing through the grapevine he may be making a compelling case here.

6. Brave Software releases Origin for a paid, bloat-free browsing experience (Lawrence Abrams for Bleeping Computer. June 4, 2026.)

I use it for work on my workstation and as my primary browser on my mini PC for my TV. It is good. Of course, I am using free Brave Origin because I run Linux btw.

7. Persona 30th Anniversary Nendoroid Featuring Persona 3, 4, And 5 Protagonists Opens For Pre-Order (Orpheus Joshua for Noisy Pixel. June 5, 2026.)

They’re missing two. If your first thought is the female protagonist from P3P, that is one of the two. But I am more offended by the absence of a different female protagonist… one who was the box cover character for one of the Persona releases.

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I am on a daily Pook-Emu Bee links roll. Today, I keep it doing with a third consecutive edition of the links.

Photograph of the Gowanus Canal from 3rd Street with Brooklyn Tower reflecting on the water.
I took this photo of the Gowanus Canal from the 3rd Street Bridge at about noon on June 8, 2026. While Washington DC has a shiny refurbished reflecting pool, note how the murky waters of the Gowanus Canal reflect Brooklyn’s tallest building (Brooklyn Tower).

1. Construction of jail in tony NYC nabe turns into potentially deadly ‘clown show’ with failling debris: records, locals (Nicole Rosenthal, Kevin Sheehan, and Katherine Donlevy for the New York Post. June 8, 2026.)

Boerum Hill is “tony” but that particular stretch of it was not “tony” even before the monstrous jail construction project (not least because the new jail is replacing a prior, smaller jail).

2. Federal Court Invalidates Trump’s $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee as Illegal Usurpation of Congress’ Power to Tax (Ilya Somin at The Volokh Conspiracy. June 8, 2026.)

Earlier today, in the case of California v. Mullin, the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued a decision striking down the Trump Administration’s $100,000 fee on applications for H-1B visas (which are used by tech firms, research institutions, and other organizations to hire immigrant workers and researchers with a variety of specialized skills).

Ilya Somin

Far be it from me to issue corrections but the H-1B program, as I am genuinely confident Mr. Somin knows, is for nonimmigrant workers, not immigrant workers (the immigrant analogs for most H-1Bs are EB-2 and EB-3). Moreover, while it is technically for specialty occupation workers, the baseline requirement for H-1B is a qualifying degree, H-1B is far from the most strictly-defined work visa classification.

3. xAI is looking more like a datacentre REIT than a frontier lab (HT Ambient Irony)

Fair. But you can look like many things when you don’t run out of money.

4. Colombia’s Outgoing President Gustavo Petro Publishes ‘Heil Hitler’ Message (Christian K. Caruzo for Breitbart. June 8, 2026.)

This is fairly tame political commentary by his lofty standards.

5. GLP-1-related returns leave retailers reeling (Brandon Cosgrove. June 6, 2026.)

I still have at least one shirt from when I was in high school (a fairly long time ago at this stage). I think they should be giving me discounts.

6. The Jason Kidd Nets (Neil Paine at Basketball History. June 27, 2012.)

The New York Knicks’ Finals drought was so long that the most recent team from the New York Metropolitan area to have made the NBA Finals before the Knicks in 2026 no longer exists in its “Finals” form. Revisiting the Jason Kidd-era New Jersey Nets, which represented the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003 (they were reasonably competitive in the 2003 Finals against the Spurs).

7.Trump: US Will Respond to Iran After Apache Downed (Sandy Fitzgerald for Newsmax. June 9, 2026.)

I don’t doubt Iran wants a deal but I’m starting to get this sneaking suspicion it’s not the same kind of deal we’re looking for. (Thank goodness the pilots were once again rescued (very creatively) and are safe.)

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Wherein I managed to successfully publish my “daily” Pook-Emu Bee links for a second consecutive day (what a twist!).

Photo of the wide intersection at 3rd Avenue and 2nd Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn. In the center of the photo on an island is what appears to be a multi-colored junk statue.
I took this photograph on the morning of June 8, 2026, on 3rd Avenue and 2nd Street in Gowanus, Brooklyn. I’m not 100% sure what is up with the random statue on the island.

1. Persona 4 Revival Broadcast Announced As Atlus Reveals New Mechanics, Editions, And Screenshots (Orpheus Joshua at Noisy Pixel. June 7, 2026.)

Let no one say I am not a long-standing Persona 4 fan, but $65 for a second re-master of the original Persona 4 is steep before you consider that Atlus will almost certainly release a DLC ($20? $25? $30?) with the extras from Golden. Persona 4 Golden, which is readibly available, is more than good enough for the uninitiated. I previously covered this critically important topic. (PS: I want to note that Atlus has released new versions of Persona 3, 4, and 5 in the ten years since releasing 5… speaking of which.)

2.Persona 6’s horror vibes aren’t convincing Japanese fans who remember Persona 5’s misleadingly grim “You Are Slave” teaser (Dorde P for Automation West. June 8, 2026.)

I vaguely remember the very vague Persona 5 trailer from 2013. Did people really think Persona 5 was going to be dark? I suppose so. With that being said, I would not remind a return to the darker tone of Persona 3 (notwithstanding the fact that Persona 4 Golden is my favorite of the modern Personas).

3. Knicks watch party to be held at Bryant Park after NYC axed planned event outside MSG (Chris Nesi for the New York Post. June 8, 2026.)

The New York Knicks’ Finals games will be on national TV. Anyone can watch with a TV antenna. You don’t even need cable or a streaming service.

4.Congress Throws A-10 Warthog Another Lifeline (Thomas Newdick for The War Zone. June 5, 2026.)

Warts and all?

5. Is hosting the World Cup worth it? (Sam Klebanov for Morning Brew. June 7, 2026.)

No.

6. A Prominent OpenAI Investor Appears to Be Suffering a ChatGPT-Related Mental Health Crisis, His Peers Say (Joe Wilkins for Futurism. July 18, 2025.)

Either that or he had just optimized social media posting by turning over his account to ChatGPT.

7. Noodle Bomb Craft Ramen Sauce Taste Test & Unboxing (Hans Lienesch at The Ramen Rater. May 29, 2026.)

A blog/video post on spicing up your ramen.

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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 missed two days of Pook-Emu Bee links. But it is not all bad: Now we have even more links from around the web to choose from.

1. Why I Built Bubbles (Ben at Bubbles Blog. March 26, 2026.)

I’ve been an RSS obsessive for years. Hundreds of feeds, hand-picked one by one. But RSS only shows you sources you already know. New voices don’t find you there.

I added Bubbles’ Daily Briefing to my feed reader to find new articles of interest. Nevertheless, I offer my qualified disagreement with the assertion “new voices don’t find you” in a feed collection. As I argued in Feeds and Read-It-Later for Online Reading, a well-curated feed collection can serve as a discovery tool. For example, NLJ readers may have discovered many new websites and articles through my now-completed blogging wisdom project.

2. An Overdue Commemoration of Rasheed Wallace’s Atlanta Hawks Tenure (Dallin Duffy at Soaring Down South. March 20, 2020.)

In 2004, the Detroit Pistons made one of the most consequential in-season trades in NBA history, acquiring Rasheed Wallace mid-season and going on to unexpectedly win the 2003-04 NBA Championship. This article examples Mr. Wallace’s one-game pit stop with the Atlanta Hawks before being traded to the Pistons.

3. Ninth Circuit on AI Hallucinations (Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. June 3, 2026.)

Checking citations is not difficult.

4. Whole Foods is coming to Cobble Hill’s Smith Street (Brooklyn Bridge Parents. June 3, 2026.)

Whole Foods is a bit rich for my blood. I’ll stick with Mr. Beet. (PS: I would consider this Boerum Hill, not Cobble Hill, but it is at worst one block in on the Boerum Hill side.)

5. Intel says ‘something has to give’ with memory prices — company says it ‘will continue to make sure that there are products which can take care of older memory technologies’ (Jake Roach for Tom’s Hardware. June 2, 2026.)

You would think that something has to give. But I’ll work under the assumption that my computers will need to make it into the next decade and go on well.

6. Interview with the Engineer of Uruky, a Private Search Engine (Privacy Dad. May 21, 2026.)

Interesting interview and new product. With that being said, I don’t have a use-case commensurate to paying for a meta-search tool (which is also why I have never been tempted to try Kagi).

7. Gmail Thinks I’m Stupid, So I Left (Jeremy at moddedbear.com. June 1, 2026.)

My main email is Posteo + SimpleLogin, but I use Thunderbird, which to be sure would ameliorate some (but not all) of Gmail’s problems.

8. Moldova could seek union with Romania if EU path stalls (Brussels Signal. June 2, 2026.)

As I discussed in NLJ back in June 5, 2023, there would not be much of a language barrier.

9. The Battle Over the ‘Times Square of Brooklyn’ (Anne Kadet for Curbed. May 29, 2026.)

Calling it “Times Square” is extreme. Times Square is an atrocity. But “the most Instagrammed location on the planet” has been made to be profoundly stupid by social media addicts (both tourists and locals) and vendors catering to said addicts. I would remind the people fighting against it that once you are at the point of negotiating with the vendors, you have already lost.

A blue glowing stand-up electronic "DUMBO" sign under the Manhattan Bridge. There is purple lighting in the background.
DUMBO is a Brooklyn neighborhood. The name stands for “Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass.” I took this photo of an electronic DUMBO sign under the Manhattan Bridge overpass on the evening of May 29, 2026.

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Today is Friday, May 29, 2026. Because it is a day ending in -day that is not Saturday, it is time for our daily Pook-Emu Bee links. There will be no Pook-Emu Bee tomorrow, but you will find even more links in The Newsletter Leaf Journal. I usually do not publish links on Sunday, but maybe I will surprise everyone. In any event, Pook-Emu Bee will be back on Monday. By the way, do you know what the people are saying about Pook-Emu Bee?

Photo of a sign for CARROLL GARDENS PLUMBING SUPPLY LLC on a brick wall. Under the name and logo, we see the next "WE'RE LIKE FAMILY... ONLY NICER"
I took this photo on May 28, 2026. You will never guess which Brooklyn neighborhood this is in. Like Carroll Gardens Plumbing Supply, Pook-Emu Bee is just like family… only nicer. They say no one is nicer, in fact.

1. SiteGround’s Icky Approach to AI in WordPress 7.0 (Rhys Wynne. May 27, 2026.)

Say what one will but automatically adding your commercial AI plugin to your customers’ websites is a tremendous way to make those install numbers go up. No no, you’re very welcome.

2. Spill sends 550,000 gallons of wastewater into Guadalupe River (Ricardo Delgado for San Antonio Express News. May 28, 2026.)

That sounds subpar. There are easier ways to recreate Newton Creek.

3. Revisiting Shawn Kemp for Vin Baker (Harlan Schreiber at Hoops Analyst. May 25, 2026.)

I agree that Milwaukee, the team that ended this three-way trade without Messrs. Kemp or Baker, won (see my article on the 2000-01 Bucks). But the Sonics got even in 2002-03 when they acquired Ray Allen from Milwaukee in return for half a season of an over-the-hill Gary Payton. Of course, the Sonics didn’t end up making much of having a near-prime Ray Allen for the better part of the 2000s, so I suppose no one won in the end.

4. Switch off autoplay on streaming services (Practical Betterments. May 25, 2026.)

I will confess there have been times when I watched that extra episode of an anime on Crunchyroll at 2:00 AM because of autoplay. Not recently, however. I’m way behind. (This is good advice, all jokes aside.)

5. Minesweeper Classic Switch Review (Game Slush Pile. May 22, 2026.)

Please do not spend $5 for a remake of vanilla Minesweeper on Switch. Switch is not really for vanilla Minesweeper unless you install LineageOS on your Switch. In that case, do install Simon Tatham’s Puzzles from F-Droid and enjoy the great classic Minesweeper implementation.

6. A 24-Team College Football Playoff Solves a Problem That Doesn’t Exist (Michael Bryan. May 21, 2026.)

If you have a four team playoff, there will be controversy regarding the 5th and 6th teams. If you have a 12-team playoff, there will be controversy about the 13th and 14th times. So on and so forth. You just push the problem further down the ladder. Funny enough, there were not too many dramatic controversies in the single championship game BCS era (the Oklahoma-LSU-USC mess of 2003 being the notable exception). Maybe they had it right before the playoff!

7. I Didn’t Even Know American Wisteria Was A Thing (Athena Scalzi at Whatever. May 12, 2026.)

But now you do.

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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 am a bit late on today’s Pook-Emu Bee links, but the links are better late than never.

1. Ghost CMS SQL injection flaw exploited in large-scale ClickFix campaign (Bill Toulas for Bleeping Computer. May 24, 2026.)

PSA for those of your running Ghost. Not WordPress, for once. Winning over here.

2. Former Nintendo exec confirms NES and SNES Classics were made to sustain the company’s business during Wii U’s dark days (Brian at Nintendo Everything. May 23, 2026.)

I had taken it for granted that the Wii U’s robust virtual console lineup was a response to the fact that no one bought the Wii U.

3. Japanese voice actress Kana Hanazawa literally ate her audition script to get her role in the 2010 Book Girl anime movie (Carlos “Zoto” Zotomayor for at Automation West. May 25, 2026.)

Talk about being in character (I never saw “Book Girl”)

4. Dungeon Minesweeper Switch Review (Game Slush Pile. October 30, 2025.)

That looks like a clever Minesweeper take. I have a Minesweeper article I started in 2024 and never finished. I should get back on that.

5. Massie Doesn’t Rule Out 2028 Presidential Run (Pam Key for Breitbart. May 24, 2026.)

In related news: I’m not ruling out running for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2028.

6. Whoever holds your dream gets to take it away (Herbert Lui. May 24, 2026.)

This is one reason I’m hedging on the plan I described in response to link 5.

7. Wilt Chamberlain would be transcendent in today’s NBA as we watch the rebirth of the big man (Shamus Clancy. May 19, 2026.)

I’m inclined to agree that Wilt Chamberlain would be a great player in any era. But you can’t extrapolate from his 1960s stats like Mr. Clancy does when he writes:

After San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama pulled off a Wilt-esque 41-point, 24-rebound, three-assist, three-block performance in the Spurs’ Game 1 win in the Western Conference Finals on Monday evening, it just felt apt to recontextualize Chamberlain as a whole making stat lines like that a nightly occurrence.

As I demonstrated in a recent article, the pace of play was extraordinarily high when Chamberlain had his highest scoring seasons. Moreover, Chamberlain’s offensive repertoire, which was arguably dated when his career wound down in the 1970s, would not be effective today (the same could be said of trying to translate step-back three pointers to Chamberlain’s era). But had Chamberlain been an up-and-coming prospect in the 2000s or 2010s instead of 1950s, there is no doubt he would have developed differently.