Tag: reddit

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Let us start October off on the right foot with an exciting new edition of the Pook-Emu Bee Links.

Oh no, whatever will I do?

1 | Reddit is killing RSS feeds and ending public API access because of AI bots (Sarah Perez for TechCrunch. Sep. 30, 2026.)
One may think that your favorite (I hope) feed proponent would be outraged about Reddit discontinuing its RSS feeds. To paraphrase the Reddit community: “Well ackshully….” Why in the world would I want to contaminate my feed collection with Reddit?

2 | Citi Bike user reveals outrageous ‘hidden tax’ slapped onto every e-bike (Aurielle Weiss for the New York Post. Sep. 26, 2026.)
These lunatics are complaining about the speed limit. The fees can’t be high enough.

Kitty

3 | Bronx Zoo welcomes adorable snow leopard cub threatened by extinction (Natalie O’Neill for the New York Post. Sep. 30, 2026.)
I too welcome the new snow leopard.

4 | Workers free kittens from shredder that could have ‘obliterated’ them in purr-fect rescue mission (Steven Vago for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.)
A very timely kitten rescue.

Starcents

5 | Starbucks to close 250 stores: ‘Difficult decision’ (Anders Hagstrom for Fox Business. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I have never been a big burnt coffee fan, but there was once a time when Starbucks was clearing the bar many people

6 | Starbucks Japan releases new Pikachu Honey Cream Latte into the wild for new Pokémon collaboration (Oona McGee for SoraNews24. Sep. 29, 2026.)
I wouldn’t drink it because it looks like a year’s worth of sugar. But Starbucks did a surprisingly decent job of converting the Pikachu aesthetic into a drink.

Self-Hosting

7 | Radiology practices that own their imaging equipment less likely to face closure (Marty Stempniak for Radiology Business. Sep. 30, 2026.)
That checks out.

8 | Self Hosting Passwords (Chuck Carroll. May 20, 2026.)
He uses KeePassXC and Syncthing. He is a smart man. I hubly say that because I too use KeePassXC and Syncthing. With that being said, I would not necessarily recommend our combo to “normies.”

Photograph

9 | Sheep Tree (Jan Ulicki on Lens Culture. May 20, 2025.)
Great photo, baaaa.

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Two consecutive editions of Pook-Emu Bee daily links? What in the world is going on here?

Photograph of the Marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park in the late evening. It is lined with three tall American Flags on its left side. In the background we see the Manhattan Skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Seen here is the Brooklyn Bridge Park Marina on July 13, 2026. I lined the American Flags, so I took a couple of photos. To the left you see Manhattan and off in the distance straight away you can see the Brooklyn Bridge.

1. Sega Dreamcast driver fixes appear in Linux 7.2-rc3 — fabled console remains in favor while iconic computing architectures like i486 fall by the wayside (Mark Tyson for Tom’s Hardware. July 12, 2026.)

I mainly used my Dreamcast for playing Sonic Adventure, the NBA 2K entries it received, Pen Pen Trilceon, and a little but of Chu Chu Rocket. Missed out on Linux for Dreamcast (in fact I dare say I almost certainly had no idea what “Linux” was). But Pen Pen Trilceon does have a penguin-esque cover character. Close enough. In any event, very cool to see.

2. Never Forget — Today Marks Two Years Since Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, PA: ‘God Was with Me’ (Amy Furr for Breitbart. July 13, 2026.)

I missed noting the anniversary yesterday. Two whole years… time flies. “I said ‘Wow, what was that?’ I said ‘It’s either the biggest, most violent mosquito in history, or I just got shot.’”

3. ‘Moderate’ Gov Abigail Spanberger Taps Former FBI Official Behind Retracted Biden-Era Memo Targeting Catholics as Terror Threat To Lead Prison Reform Council (Jessica Schwalb for The Washington Free Beacon. July 13, 2026.)

Because I don’t live in Virginia, I’m willing to take the partial win of “at least he’s not in the FBI anymore.”

4. Microsoft Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Appointed to Federal Reserve Jobs Advisory Role After Mass Layoffs (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. July 10, 2026.)

I see and understand the criticism but let no one say she’s not an expert in increasing the number of American citizens in the open job market.

5. UKRAINE: Conscientious objectors convicted, jailed, held in military units: list (Felix Corley for Forum 18. July 10, 2026.)

I kid you not. I was going to be working on a case involving a man claiming a well-founded fear of persecution in Ukraine based on part on his religion and opposition to compulsory military service when this popped up in my feed on the 10th. Timing is everything.

6. LineageOS introduces web flashing tools, revamped stats page, Android 17 plans, and more (Paul for AlternativeTo. July 9, 2026.)

I haven’t tried it yet, but this looks promising and could potentially make LineageOS more accessible (I am currently running it on my Pixel 3a XL after having installed it the old-fashioned way).

7. REESE’S PIECES Unveils New Chocolate Cookie Candy Nationwide (Vending Connection. July 8, 2026.)

I haven’t hade Reese’s Pieces in a very long time, but I like them. Cookie Reese’s Pieces do sound intriguing…

8. Mayor Mamdani’s map of NYC immigrant neighborhoods sparks outrage for ignoring Little Italy (Matthew Fischetti, Carl Campanile, and Natalie O’Neill for the New York Post. July 8, 2026.)

I begrudgingly respect his trolling. Here he engaged in a very simple troll and got a three-byline report for the New York Post plus days of follow-up articles.

9. The front page of the internet has an AI slop problem (Whizy Kim for Tech Brew. July 7, 2026.)

Reddit? You’re telling me Reddit has a slop problem of any kind? I don’t believe it. Perish the thought! (Remember that AI is a problem, but rarely the only problem.)

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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 took an off-day from Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday. I am busy today, but let us not let that stop us from our daily selection of links from around the web.

1, Putting the phone down: an Osmo Nano workflow (Wojtek Powiertowski at Behind the Viewfinder. May 10, 2026.)

That camera is adorable.

2. Latvian defence minister resigns after Ukrainian drones hit oil depot (Brussels Signal. May 11, 2026.)

To be fair to the now-former Defense Minister, I am not sure Ukrainian drone strikes would have been anyone’s first contingency in the context of 2026.

3. Experts warn Trump admin any Iran deal must block plutonium path to atomic bomb (Benjamin Weinthal for Fox News. May 9, 2026.)

Doesn’t sound like it should be the first priority, but while you’re in the area dealing with the uranium. With that being said, I would respectfully decline a recent magnanimous request for assistance with the matter.

4. Red Hook’s Alma BK Has one of the Best Views in Brooklyn (TimeOut New York. May 5, 2026.)

I had lunch on the roof at Alma 12-13 years ago. Alma is not in Red Hook. It is in Columbia Street Waterfront District (the view is as advertised). One day they say CSWD is Red Hook, the next Carroll Gardens. No respect for that little neighborhood (which may soon become bigger).

5. Medicaid fraud fears grow amid massive red state billing spike in sector that also plagued Minnesota (Andrew Mark Miller for Fox News. May 9, 2026.)

Many people see autism as a piggy bank. Taxpayers, kids who get fake/wrong diagnoses, and kids (and their parents) who actually need services search in a sea of real-world slop.

6. No spectator parking for NJ World Cup has nearby town’s police dept issuing warning (Angela Barbuti for the New York Post. May 9, 2026.)

No one asks why the New Jersey state government, a state with two NFL teams and 17 NFL home games every year, is trying to manufacture chaos over the World Cup.

7. Mixtape is garbage, Don’t Listen to IGN! (Game Slush Pile. May 9, 2026.)

I had never heard of it but a cursory glance does suggest to me Game Slush Pile may be onto something.

8. AI Slop is Killing Online Communities (Robin Moffatt at rmoff’s random musings for May 6, 2026.)

I’m not a member of any online communities, but this lines up with what I would have assumed. With that being said, if AI slop can sink Reddit to the bottom of the sea, I am willing to reassess my AI slop priors.

9. kicking out human slop from my online space (Ava at Ava’s Space. May 8, 2026.)

I looked at the things she is no longer engaging with and confirmed that I only see them second-hand. Feed-reader centric surfing wins again.

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We have a second consecutive warm day in New York City. We also have a third consecutive day of Pook-Emu Bee links.

1. Seven Myths About the Iran War (Michael Doran for Tablet Magazine. April 13, 2026.)

Good start. Hard to choose just seven.

2. Someone Bought 30 WordPress Plugins and Planted a Backdoor in All of Them. (Austin Ginder for Anchor. April 9, 2026.)

WordPress should send notifications to webmasters whenever an installed plugin from the standard WordPress repository changes hands.

3. Sam Altman’s house targeted in second attack; two suspects arrested (John Owen Lamb for The San Francisco Standard. April 12, 2026.)

Scary stuff and good thing both attacks failed (these sorts of types are often not too competent). Let us hope the perpetrators are dealt with appropriately and quickly to minimize the number of other deranged individuals who may take inspiration.

4. Reflecting on Microsoft Windows Vista in 2026 (Maya Posch for Hackaday. April 9, 2026.)

Say what one will but my Vista experience was fine. I’d take it over whatever is going on with Windows 11 these days.

5. Failing the Fix (2026) (U.S. PIRG Education Fund. April 7, 2026.)

I won’t spoil everything but I will note that having recently operated on a 2006-07 Macbook, I can confirm that Apple’s failing grade is nothing new.

6. You Should Be Using Reddit on Your RSS Reader (David Nield for Lifehacker. April 10, 2026.)

That is an interesting suggestion but I counter with “use an RSS reader and don’t use Reddit at all.”

7. Amazon is ending support for Kindle devices from 2012 and earlier (Brad Linder for Liliputing. April 7, 2026.)

But not all is lost for people with ancient Kindles: “You can still ‘transfer personal documents’ to an unsupported Kindle using a USB cable, although you may need to use a third-party tool like Calibre to convert some eBooks into a format that your Kindle recognizes.” Calibre does handle conversions to MOBI.

8. MLB pitcher Merrill Kelly says California tax rate swayed decision to reject Padres’ free agency offer (Chantz Martin for Fox News. February 28, 2026.)

Today reminds him why he made that call in free agency.

9. A medical journal says the case reports it has published for 25 years are, in fact, fiction (Retraction Watch. March 3, 2026.)

But other than that, the reports were accurate.

(HT to Pixy Misa for links 2 and 3.)

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From Reddit blocks Internet Archive to end sneaky AI scraping by Ashley Belanger on Ars Technica:

Reddit is now blocking the Internet Archive (IA) from indexing popular Reddit threads after allegedly catching sneaky AI firms—restricted from scraping Reddit—instead simply scraping data from IA’s archived content.

I admit that I am confused here. While I am not a fan of AI scrapers or AI slop, it is unclear to me why Reddit is worried about AI firms scraping AI generated content on Reddit (including content promoted by Reddit itself).