Tag: sports

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Before July’s Nagoya Basho (July grand sumo tournament), I predicted which wrestlers I thought would reach 10 wins. Now, one tournament wiser, I will predict the entire field for the September 2026 Aki Basho (running from September 13-27, 2026). To see predictions from more learned sumo observers, see Tim Edwards’ predictions at Sumo Stomp and the Fantasy Basho predictions. Note that I am assuming for purposes of my predictions that all wrestlers who are slated to compete on day one will compete all 15 days.

  • 12-3: O1e Kirishima
  • 11-4: Y1e Onosato
  • 10-5: O2e Aonishki, M6w Ichiyamamoto, M8e Takerufuji, M8w Hiradoumi, M16e Toshinofuji
  • 9-6: S1e Atamifuji, M10e Oho, M11w Shodai, M12w Asahakuryu, M15e Asasuiryu
  • 8-7: O1w Kotozakura, K1e Hakunofuji, M1w Kotoeiho, M2e Takayasu, M2w Yoshinofuji, M4w Fujiryoga, M13e Asakoryu
  • 7-8: K1w Daieisho, M1e Kotoshoho, M4e Takanosho, M7e Fujiseiun, M13w Abi
  • 6-9: S1w Fujinokawa, M3e Gonoyama, M6e Asanoyama, M9e Ura, M9w Shishi, M10w Kinbozan, M11e Wakamotoharu, M14e Tobizaru, M15w Tokihayate
  • 5-10: M3w Churanoumi, M5e Roga, M5w Oshoma, M7w Nishikifuji, M14w Chiyoshoma, M17e Shonannoumi

I made my picks conservatively, generally avoiding picking extreme records for this tournament. To be sure, I am sure there will be some 3-12/4-13 records on the low-end and I would not be surprised to see one of the wrestlers in my 10+ win group run up a 13-2 record (most likely Kirishima, Onosato, or Aonishki, health permitting on the latter two). Based on other picks I have seen, I will mark M6w Ichiyamamoto and M8w Hiradoumi as my “surprise” picks for this basho.

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Replied to Some Highly Subjective Grades for Nagoya 2026 by Josh KJosh K (tachiai.org)
M7E Kotoeiho 11-4 – Led the basho after 10 days before running into trouble, having adjusted to the higher level of competition at his highest ever rank. Despite being knocked out of the race, finished strong with wins against two impressive opponents to clinch a special prize. A

I read and enjoyed Josh K’s Some Highly Subjective Grades for Nagoya 2026, referring to the Nagoya Basho grand sumo tournament. He gave out four A’s to M7E Kotoeiho, S2W Aoniishki (A+ to the winner), S1E Atamijfuji, and OE Kirishima. I cannot disagree with any. The latter three competed in a playoff for the title, so I will focus on Kotoeiho, who was one win out of the playoff. He was wrestling at what was by far his career high rank at M7E after having made a title run from lower in the standings in May. I dare say he looks like the real deal and he seems to be physically stronger each successive tournament. I am curious to see where he is ranked for September after his 9-6 (MW17), 10-5 (M13E) and 11-4 (M7E) showings in his three tournaments in the top division this year (perhaps very close to his elder brother, who will fall from Sekiewake after a disappointing 6-9 result).

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Replied to Nagoya Basho Predictions by Nicholas A. FerrellNicholas A. Ferrell (The Emu Café Social)
In the spirit of putting my picks on record, I will pick the eight wrestlers who I think will reach double-digit wins [in the Nagoya Basho].

On July 11, I made my pre-Nagoya Basho predictions for the fourth grand sumo tournament of 2026. To be precise, I picked eight wrestlers to hit double digit wins. Now that the Nagoya Basho has been completed, let us see how I did…

Continue reading →

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Replied to Tadej Pogacar explodes the historic Alpe d'Huez record! (climbing-records.com)
1. 2026: 35:25 Tadej Pogacar 23.38 km/h.
2. 1995: 36:40 Marco Pantani 22.58 km/h.
3. 1997: 36:53 Marco Pantani 22.45 km/h.
4. 1994: 37:15 Marco Pantani 22.23 km/h.
5. 2004: 37:36 Lance Armstrong 22.02 km/h.

I haven’t watched the Tour de France since 2016, mainly due to the fact I dropped cable and would need to subscribe to a streaming service that may or may not work with my all-Linux set-up. But I stay abreast of the big stories, as I proved last year with my articles on the superhuman feats of Tadej Pogačar on Hautcam and later on Mont Ventoux. Back when I was following cycling closely from 2009-2016ish, there were certainly questions about some of the performances, but for the most part the record climbing times of the 1990s (and to a lesser extent, the early 2000s) were beyond reach (we may offer a qualified exception in the case of Alberto Contador on Verbier in 2009). But that has changed starting in 2024. While Mr. Pogačar did not toppe Bjarne Riis’ famous (or infamous) 1996 record on Hautacam at last year’s Tour, many other records have fallen. But surely he would struggle to dethrone the late Marco Pantani’s hitherto untouchable 1995 record on Alpe d’Huez, which was only threatened by Pantani himself in his 1997 rampage up cycling’s most famous summit. Let’s see what happened… I quote from The Guardian:

Pogacar’s climbing time, of 35 minutes and 26 seconds, shattered the longstanding record set by Marco Pantani in 1997, by more than a minute.

Well. That’s something. Gravity suffers another defeat.

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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 12 days since I last published “daily” Pook-Emu Bee links due to some combination of being busy and not feeling my best. Both of those blockers exist today, but I have time to squeeze in a new edition.

A close up image of leaves and flowers with a bee atop a white flower in the top third of the image.
I photographed this bee hard at work in Brooklyn Bridge Park on July 5 at just after 7 PM.

1. You Can Now Play Virtua Racing On PC, Xbox 360, & Xbox One, Thanks To These Impressive New Emulators (Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. July 13, 2026.)

This is very neat. But Virtua Racing will always be a 32X cartridge to me.

2. July 2026 Grand Sumo Tournament Height-Weight Scatterplot (Mary Pat Campbell at Sumo Stats. July 1, 2026.)

Kazuma is one of the complete newbies, up from Juryo, and he’s the reason I had to extend the weight axis as he comes in at 205 kg (452 pounds) at the height of 185 cm (6’1”).

I thought Kazuma looked “big” when his first match came up. Then I saw his weight in the graphic. He’s a big boy.

3. For the Birds 20 (tugster: a waterblog. July 12, 2026.)

The tugboat blog takes a rare detour into avian photography.

4. Sen. Lindsey Graham Dead at 71 After ‘Sudden Illness’ (Olvia Rondeau for Breitbart. July 12, 2026.)

I was surprised and saddened when I read the news of Senator Graham’s passing. He was certainly one of the more interesting national politicians of the current century. Rest in peace.

5. Manny Pacquiao takes over Floyd Mayweather’s former Hollywood gym in brutal troll (Daniel Farr for the New York Post. July 11, 2026.)

This is all well and good but I’d rather they go back in time and fight in the 2010-11 area. Thank you.

6. You can now legally rip your Wii, GameCube, and Xbox games using a Blu-ray drive (Patrick O’Rourke for XDA. May 25, 2026.)

My Blue-Ray drive is supported… but it looks like a bit of a pain to install the firmware for my specific model on Linux.

7. Court files reveal disturbing details of child sex offender pardoned by Walz, Ellison before deportation (Jenna Gloeb for Alpha News. July 8, 2026.)

Disturbing? How disturbing are we talking?

He further claimed that the 10-year-old victim ‘should be arrested also because she was as much at fault.’

Quite.

8. Immune to DRAM crisis, the original PlayStation gets a massive 8x upgrade 30 years later (Rahim Amir Noorali for Notebook Check. July 9, 2026.)

This bears watching. At the rate AI is eating RAM, PSX running some kind of barely functional Linux may be our best hope down the line.

9. A Top Mamdani Official Tried to Meet with Iran (Adam Lehodey for City Journal. July 9, 2026.)

Having suffered the unfortunate ramifications of empowering provincial machine politicians to run the biggest city in the most powerful country on Earth, New York City upped the ante and now has provincial DSA members trying to conduct foreign policy.  Here, at least, the State Department was there to affectionately say “no, lol.”

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Replied to 2026 Nagoya basho predictions! The Isegahama takeover begins by Tim Edwards (Sumo Stomp!)
My prediction for the 2026 Nagoya basho is a play-off between Hōshōryū and Atamifuji. If that comes to fruition, I think it’s a toss up between those two who takes it. Hōshōryū has more talent, in my opinion, but Atamifuji’s size causes him problems.

The Nagoya Basho grand sumo tournament is about to begin. I watched the first three tournaments of the year (January, March, and May) and am excited for the fourth. I would not yet deem myself competent to predict the records of all the participants like Tim Edwards does on his always-interesting Sumo Stomp! blog, but I suppose I can take a stab at predicting the top of the bracket. Mr. Edwards is predicting that seven wrestlers will reach double-digit wins (note: out of 15 bouts). In the first three tournaments of the year, the double-digit winners were 8, 8, and 7, although note that May was unusually injury-filled at the top of the bracket. In the spirit of putting my picks on record, I will pick the eight wrestlers who I think will reach double-digit wins.

First, I think both Yokozuna, Y1e Hōshōryū and Y1w Ōnosato, will reach at least 10 wins. Hōshōryū won 10 and 11 in January and March respectively before exiting May on day one with a hamstring injury. The typically-dominant Ōnosato won 10 while hurt in January before missing most of March and all of May.

From the Ozeki rank, I will offer the very lukewarm take that O1e Kirishima, who was champion in March and lost in a playoff in May, will make it four-for-four in double digit win tournaments in 2026.

Skipping down to Komosubi, I will predict that rising star K1e Yoshinofuji notches his second consecutive 10-win performance.

From the maegashira ranks, I will pick M3w Hakunofuji (coming off an 11-4 showing at M10 in May), M7w Takayasu (coming off an injury-shortened May showing), M13w Takerufuji (coming up from Juryo after a lengthy stint caused by injury, I agree with Mr. Edwards’ pick here), and M16w Asakoryu (went 9-6 at M15 and M12 in the first two tournaments before exiting May due to injury at 3-4 as M7).

I suppose I have to pick a winner too. Hōshōryū’s first of two yusho came at the 2023 Nagoya Basho and he is “overdue” for his first win at the top Yokozuna rank, so I will make the fairly “conventional” pick.

The full rankings are available from The Japan Times. Note that K1e Wakatakagae, who won the May tournament, is out with what was apparently a serious health condition.

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Liked Nagoya 2026: Shin-Makushita (新幕下) by hochiyamahochiyama (Tachiai)
This helped me, a 30-plus year sumo fan learn the concept of 'tatakiage / 叩き上げ'. A tatakiage is actually my favorite type of recruit, one who comes straight from middle school without any prior experience and is 'built from scratch' in the stable.

I watched all the matches in the first three grand sumo tournaments of 2026. Because I am following sumo this year, I looked for a couple of sumo blogs to add to my feed collection. One is Tachiai. On June 27, 2026, author Hochiyama covered the lower divisions (which I have not watched in 2026, I only saw the top division matches). In going through some up-and-coming prospects to watch, Hociyama shared a new term he learned: “tatakiage / 叩き上げ”. A tatakiage is a sumo recruit is is picked up out of middle school with no prior sumo experience and is developed by a sumo stable from scratch. In the case of Sachinofuji, we learn that he did attend high school as a correspondence student while dedicating himself to sumo. He is quite small (by sumo standards), but he sounds like someone to watch in the months and years ahead.

Aside: For readers who are not familiar with school in Japan, middle school (aka junior high school) runs through 9th grade there instead of 8th grade as in the United States. I discussed this in the context of translating Japanese media into English in Localizing Japanese High School Classes.

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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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Favorited Angel Reese, Habits, and Shooting Practice by Brian McCormick (Hard2Guard Player Development Newsletter)
'Curry’s the greatest shooter ever. He can get away with it.' Sure, but also, he’s the greatest shooter ever because he shoots successfully with any footwork. Variability is an asset. The best shooters I have coached invariably can shoot off a jump stop, right-left, and left-right. They have generality in their skill. They are not limited to a certain execution.

I came across Brian McCormick’s Hard2Guard Player Development Newsletter, which focuses on coaching basketball, via Mike Klinzing’s Hoops Head Podcast Newsletter (Hoops Head inspired one of my recent memories articles). I had almost included Mr. McCormick’s On Being a Generalist in my NLJ 6th Birthday Blogging Wisdom Series, but I ended up saving it for later use. But in celebration of Junited 2026, I share Mr. McCormick’s new article, Angel Reese, Habits, and Shooting Practice. He used internet critiques of Ms. Reese’s shooting form in practice as a prompt to discuss practicing good shooting form: “My purpose is not to write about Reese specifically, but to provide general observations.” There are more than enough interesting points in the article for me to recommend reading it instead of deferring to a summary. Stand-out sections include Mr. McCormick’s story of working with a young basketball player in high school and college to change her shooting for to enable a quicker release for college play, the origin of what “generations derogatorily termed … ‘throwing like a girl,'” and Stephen Curry being an example of how the absolute best shooters are capable of making shots with “any footwork.”