Tag: terrorism

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We bring August to a close with one Pook-Emu Bee for the road.

A rectangular yellow street sing which says "SLOW" above a silhouette of a running boy, under which we see the text "CHILDREN AT PLAY." Photo taken in the evening against the backdrop of a brick building and window.
I photographed this Children at Play sign on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights on August 21, 2026.

1 | Understanding And Dealing With Kim Jong-Un’s Resilience (Mario Alexis Portella for American Thinker. August 31, 2026.)
I attribute Kim Jong-un’s resiliance to his looking at everything.

2 | Israel Continues Elimination Campaign Against October 7 Perpetrators and Gaza Terror Commanders (Vijeta Uniyal for Legal Insurrection. August 29, 2026.)
There seems to be a growing correlation between having participated in October 7 and suffering an untimely demise.

3 | Calibre 9.14 Open-Source E-Book Manager Is Out with More AI Features (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. August 27, 2026.)
I’m not one of the people dropping Calibre because of optional AI features (some of which are relatively inoffensive, albeit not useful to me), nor am I in the business of telling people how to run their free and open source projects. With that being granted, I hope we are also working on the non-AI features.

4 | A proposal for new Netflix content rating icons (Eric Bailey. August 25, 2026.) (HT Jim Nielsen.)
I don’t use Netflix, but I see the point about its rating icons. Coincidentally, I was reminded of my article on rating scales.

5 | “I just chose words carefully.” (Marcin Wichary at Unsung. August 30, 2026.)
I never tried typesetting in monospace, but I do use monospace for most of my drafting in my markdown editor.

6 | California lawmakers unanimously pass Linux exemption from age-verification law — software distributed under the GPL, MIT, BSD, and Apache licenses are exempt (Luke James for Tom’s Hardware. August 29, 2026.)
Gavin Newsom dreamed of being President of the United States. He will settle for being accidental Stallman (with hair gel).

7 | Brooklyn city councilmembers look to silence Navy Yard’s noisy raves (Joe Hong for Gothamist. August 29, 2026.)
The correct number of raves in Brooklyn Navy Yard would be 0.

8 | Read This Before You Buy That TV Streaming Stick (Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security. July 30, 2026.)
Alternatively, consider reading “this” and the not buying “that” TV streaming stick.

9 | Bronx Mother Found Not Responsible for Killing Her Two Boys Because of ‘Postpartum Psychosis’ (Lowell Cauffiel for Breitbart. August 29, 2026.)
Someone needs to check in on the Bronx. Not me, mind you. I haven’t been to the Bronx in seven years and that was maybe for a combined 15-20 minutes. I’m good.

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I have a rough three-day work-stretch ahead of me, but the weekday Pook-Emu Bee links streak must continue (I will however compromise on feature images today).

1. Brainless TikTok trend causes $2,000 in damage to SoCal home (Daniel Farr for the New York Post. August 26, 2026.)
States and localities should consider sentence enhancement provisions for crimes committed for social media consumption.

2. EXCLUSIVE: US Investigators Have Proof That UNRWA ‘Social Worker’ Caught on Tape Dragging an Israeli Body Into an SUV on Oct 7 Was an Active Hamas Operative (Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. August 25, 2026.)
It’s always who you least expect… except for those times when it’s the most obvious suspect.

3. $3 Specialty Coffee Is Back In Brooklyn (Ainsley Martinez for Patch Carroll Gardens-Cobble Hill, NY. August 25, 2026.)
I seldom buy coffee when I’m out (firmly in the DIY coffee camp) but $3 for a cup of any size is cheap around these parts. Maybe I’ll find a reason when out with a friend to give it a try.

4. I switched from Android’s default keyboard to an open source alternative to eliminate my constant typos (Oluwaniyi Raji for Android Police. August 25, 2026.)
I also use Heliboard. It’s good. I turn autocorrect off because autocorrect is a war crime. The predictive suggestions are solid but I tend to forget about them. I need to make myself remember because typing on touchscreens is not a strong area for me.

5. Roblox applies restrictions to games featuring “reward-driven media feeds” available in Roblox Kids and Select (Sophie McEvoy for Games Industry.biz. August 26, 2026.)
The fundamental problem with Roblox is that its ostensible target demographic should not be playing social online games, period.

6. NYC’s borough-based jail boondoggle is nearly $8B over budget and years behind schedule (Matthew Fischetti for the New York Post. August 24, 2026.)
It’s already casting a long shadow.

7. NYers say Citi Bike has gotten too expensive, can a new advocate-led campaign make it cheaper? (Ethan Stark-Miller for amNY. August 18, 2026.)
Hear me out. Instead of stealing my tax money to subsidize City Bike rides for my betters who will then violate traffic laws and threaten to run me over, what if we at least banned the electric City Bikes and made everything more expensive?

8. Smithsonian affiliate AANM gets federal funds, criticized 9/11 response (Robert Schmad for Fox News. August 25, 2026.)
Score another one for team taxation is theft.

9. Taliban facing constant challenge to authority in provinces bordering Central Asian states (Eurasianet. August 25, 2026.)
Economic ties aside, I’ll note that Uzbek and Tajik police don’t take kindly to men having beards, so the Taliban would probably be well-advised (granting I don’t think they’re much into taking advice) to keep their various militants from causing cross-border problems.

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Is it safe to say the daily Pook-Emu Bee links are “daily” again with three posts in a row?

The window of a washing machine with white foam from laundry detergent visible inside.
I did laundry yesterday evening.

1 – Video Game Accounts Can Be Inherited, Chinese Court Rules (Li Xin for Sixth Tone. August 6, 2026.)

The game account inheritance news from China you have been waiting for.

2 – Switch 2 Surpasses 23 Million Units As Nintendo Claims Sales Remain “Solid” (Ollie Reynolds for Nintendo Life. August 6, 2026.)

While I do not plan to contribute to Switch 2’s sales (as much as I’d like to play the upcoming new Fire Emblem), it looks like it is on a promising start to breaking some of Switch 1’s sales records.

3 – Mamdani Backs Squatters’ Rights in Video Demonizing ‘Billionaire’ Jewish ‘Slumlord’ (Ira Stoll for The Washington Free Beacon. August 6, 2026.)

The theater kids are running amok, but I for one am thankful that they are not (yet) performing musicals.

4 – NY lawmakers want to bring back sex-fueled bathhouses — 40 years after ban during AIDS crisis (Carl Campanile and Hannah Fierick for the New York Post. August 5, 2026.)

Count me in favor of maintaining New York City’s laws against commercial orgy establishments, regardless of who or what they may seek to cater to.

5 – Sanders on Objections to Piker Over 9/11 Comments: I Object to Taking AIPAC Money, I Choose Piker Over Carville (Ian Hanchett for Breitbart. August 4, 2026.)

I could note the obvious about defending the not-subtle 9/11 fan or the pathological obsession with AIPAC. But that would be boring. I’m here to present the take others would miss. Both CNN and Bernie Sanders forgot that Bernie Sanders is not a Democrat (except when he is running for President, of course). Wait… did he just foreshadow a 2028 run?

6 – Tell Us What Kind Of Coffee Your Church Serves And We’ll Tell You What Denomination You Are (The Babylon Bee. August 4, 2026.)

7. Tim Hortons — Oh no, you’re not at a Church… you’re in Canada!: Abort, abort!

I’ll have The Babylon Bee that there was a Tim Hortons on Court Street just across from Borough Hall. Of course, that Tim Hortons did not last. So the joke works in 2026 (from my perspective, at least).

7 – The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millennial (Venkat for Ribbonfarm. August 17, 2017.) (HT Espressio Shots.)

This 2017 look at the downwardly mobile urban millennial mindset is interesting in some respects, but deficient in its resistance to examining the role of social media usage. But more importantly, I was heartened to have been unable to follow most of her cultural references despite being a millennial.

8. Elon Musk Launches ‘X Money’ Financial Services Platform to Replace Banks (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. July 28, 2026.)

I think I’ll stick with my non-social media bank set-up.

9. Ukrainian Drone Attacks Lead Moscow to Revive Idea of Buffer Zone in Border Areas (Paul Goble for Jamestown. July 28, 2026.)

In response to Ukrainian drone strikes targeting infrastructure ever deeper into the Russian Federation, Russian Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov revived the idea of creating a buffer zone in Russian regions lying along the Ukrainian border and in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine on the other side

I have this strange thought that there’s something else the Russian government could try, or perhaps stop trying, to reduce the number of drone strikes coming from Ukraine.

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I have not published “daily” Pook-Emu Bee links since June 23. But today is the start of a new month. Let us turn over a new leaf in July with the Pook-Emu Bee.

Photograph of an inlet pond in Brooklyn Bridge Park with Pier 2 in the immediate background and the Manhattan Skyline in the distant background. We see geese in the water.
I took this photograph in Brooklyn Bridge Park on the morning of July 1, 2026. It is difficult to see here, but there were pigeons and doves on the stone path and ducks on the rocks, so we had a meeting of four varieties of birds by the water.

1. Nina Totenberg Sincerely Apologizes For An Inexplicable Error (Josh Blackman at The Volokh Conspiracy. June 30, 2026.)

Her explanation for falsely reporting that Justice Alito was retiring makes no sense. But then again, even given her partisan impulses (noted by Mr. Blackman in the article), it is hard to figure what the game was here.

2. Meta fights soaring hardware costs by reusing old DDR4 server memory in new DDR5-only servers — custom CXL 2.0 chip marries legacy DDR4-2400 with cutting-edge DDR5-6400 (Anton Shilov for Tom’s Hardware. June 30, 2026.)

Add “Meta has to skimp on RAM” to the reasons why my current 2020 computer build is going to have to be in it for the long haul.

3. Rejecting the Luxury of Hobbies (Ennui Vagaries. June 30, 2026.)

This description of how the social media “influencers” treat “hobbies” sounds like what I would have expected. Of course, this is why I don’t follow the “influencers.”

4. Colo-radical: Socialist Who Called 9/11 ‘Inevitable’ Takes Down 15-Term Incumbent in Denver House Primary (Ethan Barton for The Washington Free Beacon. July 1, 2026.)

I still remember the burning smell from across the river when the Islamist terrorists she plays rhetorical footsie with (that was charitable) flew two planes into the World Trade Center. This scenario would most certainly have been difficult to explain a couple of decades ago.

5. COSMIC Desktop’s Frosted Glass Is Giving Windows Aero Vibes (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. June 2, 2026.)

I thought Vista looked decent back when I used it for a couple of years, so I am unsurprisingly not opposed to this frosted glass aesthetic.

6. America’s immigrant tech workers are paying an uncertainty tax (Ananya Bhattacharya for Rest of World. June 30, 2026.)

This article is confusing in that I can’t figure out if the author sees that the point of the now-temporarily-enjoined H-1B fee and other impending regulatory changes is to produce the outcome he is describing (granting potential disagreements on what the H-1B program is ideally for).

7. Sega’s Crazy Taxi Spins Its Wheels Thanks To Another GenAI Kerfuffle (Damien McFerran for Time Extension. June 30, 2026.)

I choose to remember Sega for inspiring me to take up video games in 1993-94.

8. Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez’s wild past of fetish parties, drugs and gruesome chicken stunt exposed (Annie Gaus for the New York Post. June 28, 2026.)

Her college life in 2012 sounds much more dramatic than mine watching Puella Magica Madoka in the Brooklyn College library with a friend. With that being said, I can look past many questionable college life choices if she manages to fix the whole blinding headlights issue.

9. Two new Casio Vintage watches with step tracker, bluetooth on their way (Anubhav Sharma for Notebook Check. June 29, 2026.)

I might be interested if they work with Gadgetbridge. My atomic non-smart watch is a Casio and I am a fan.

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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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Today is Friday. That means it is time for our last Pook-Emu Bee link collection of the week (Saturday’s links come in the Newsletter Leaf Journal).

1. Gemini adds personalized AI image generation using your preferences (Fla for AlternativeTo. April 17, 2026.)

Google Gemini now enables users to generate deeply personalized images, with Nano Banana 2, by drawing on their preferences and Google Photos content. This new feature uses Personal Intelligence to automatically incorporate user context, reducing the need for detailed prompts or manual image uploads.

Cambridge Dictionary definition of facepalm.

2. Japanese man gets prison sentence and million-yen fine for writing monetized “spoiler-heavy” summaries of movies and anime (Dorde P for Automation West. April 17, 2026.)

While I support copryight, I’m not so sure about this one (on the underlying merits, separate from the stiff punishment). But I render no final “judgment” since I’m not familiar with Japanese laws or the website in question beyond the summary.

3. UK Greens demand US foots bill if fans barred over social media ahead of World Cup (Anne-Laure Dufeal for Brussels Signal. April 17, 2026.)

I understand the concerns of the UK Green Party in light of their foreign policy positions, which are often contrary to U.S. foreign policy positions and terrorism designations. Having considered their concerns, I render my response as an American: “No.”

4. Apple and Google Continue to Offer ‘Nudify’ Apps that Use AI to Generate Deepfake Porn (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. April 16, 2026.)

Yes, but at least Google banned Doki Doki Literature Club. Please focus on the important things.

5. President Trump congratulates Tanajit Sandhu on becoming Lt. Governor of Delhi (Donald. J. Trump (via Trump’s Truth). April 16, 2026.)

Mixed in with many “truths” about ball room litigation and legal standing, potentially compromised former intelligence officials and podcast hosts, war in Lebanon, and local race endorsements. Sure, why not?

6. George Washington University Hires Federal Judge Overseeing Antisemitism Lawsuit Against It To Teach ‘Ethics and Discretionary Judgment’ (Jessica Costescu for The Washington Free Beacon. April 16, 2026.)

I find myself reminded of the legal manuverings of Frank Seddio in Brooklyn (see Newsletter 252 comment).

7. PC Makers Have Apparently Cracked the Code on Supply Shortages: Stop Making Hardware Regular Gamers Can Afford (Muhammad Zuhair for wccftech. April 3, 2026.)

Not a problem if you stick to my al|together visual novel review series.

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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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I missed publishing a set of Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday due to an assignment. But that does not mean I was not collecting links. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.

Links from around the web

1. Former Watchtower buildings in Brooklyn Heights eyed for new housing (Arun Venugopal for Gothamist. March 12, 2026.)

I would not describe the buildings as being “Brooklyn Heights,” but the one on the hill descending from Brooklyn Heights to DUMBO is more plausible than other Brooklyn Heights claims. Regardless of how the apartment plans go, I am thankful that they re-painted the old Watchtower buildings (see the former color in the second photo in this post).

2. Is the Dude Dying? (Chris Dalla Riva. March 6, 2026.)

I came across this study on the prevalence of dude and dudette pop stars courtesy of Caroline Crampton’s weekly links. I am not familiar with most of the referenced pop stars or what a Harry Stiles is. This, my friends, is why I have only published one music interview.

3. Xbox mode turns any Windows PC into a game console with a full-screen experience (Brad Linder at Liliputing. March 11, 2026.)

Sounds promising for Windows people with big game collections. Of course, if you are a Windows person who does not play games (or is not interested in “Xbox” mode), it may just be more menu clutter.

4. Whoopsie! CNN Accidentally Sympathizes With Terrorists (Andrew Stiles for The Washington Free Beacon. March 10, 2026.)

The media obfuscation campaign about the ISIS-inspired terrorist attack in New York City has been something to watch in action.

5. LibreOffice learns to speak Markdown in version 26.2 (Liam Proven for The Register. March 9, 2026.)

I was excited about LibreOffice’s new markdown tricks when they were announced. It works well. Unfortunately does not handle my markdown footnotes yet. I would be interested in seeing if there is a way it could elegantly handle track changes on markdown files.

6. Google’s Genie 3 world models start to break down after around a minute (Lewis Packwood for Games Industry.biz. March 11, 2026.)

More than enough time to fulfill the essential purpose of creating social media hashtag-content.

Mash “random article” button on NLJ

7. 40 Days and 40 Nights of Rain – VN Review (Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. February 20, 2025.)

It is raining in my home Brooklyn, NYC. I hit random article on my website. The random article is my review of a visual novel in which it is always raining. Is the random article button truly random? Note the visual novel I reviewed is free to download and read, so visual novel fans out there many find my review to be of interest.

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I missed publishing a set of Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday. But that just means I have more links saved for today. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.

1. Qatar Wants to Bolster Security Partnership with US After Iran’s Strikes (Reuters [via gCaptain]. March 10, 2026.)

If so they should explain this to their local international TV outlet.

2. The joys of data centers: Debunking the backlash against the $7 trillion AI building boom (Christian Britschgi for Reason. April 2026 issue.)

The rest of us should be able to see the tremendous upsides of the country’s data center boom. Advances in artificial intelligence and robotics could liberate humanity from boring, backbreaking labor

The libertarians at Reason are smug now but I am not entirely convinced that AI cannot exude a smug sense of self-satisfaction while achieving nothing in the real world.

3. New All-Day Cafe LeTish Opening Soon in Williamsburg (Jennifer Rosini-Gentile for Greenpointers. March 9, 2026.)

I seldom eat or buy coffee “out” and have not been to Williamsburg in several months. Granting the foregoing, this place looks good.

4. Mamdani Condemns ‘White Supremacy’ Protest But Not Radical Islam After ISIS-Linked Bomb Attack (Jasmyn Jordan for Breitbart. March 9, 2026.)

All fair complaints. But imagine how insufferable he would have been had the two terrorists not explicitly spelled out their alleigance to ISIS. (Glass half-full take!)

5. Renovations on Carroll Gardens Library drag on (Mary Frost for Brooklyn Daily Eagle. March 9, 2026.)

I wrote about the library renovations back in 2024. My skeptecism about the timeline was well-founded.

6. Hobby Airport warns of 2-hour TSA wait due to government shutdown (Briahn Hawkins and Jillian Hartmann for Fox 26 Houston. March 8, 2026.)

I had a two hour wait at Houston Hobby last May. I used that time to wander around the airport Learning About William P. Hobby at Houston Hobby Airport and Failing to Try Airport Illy Coffee Vending Machine. Of course, my 2-hour wait was scheduled and everything was running on time. It sounds like things are going less swimmingly for travelers this March 2026.

7. How Usable Is Windows 98 In 2026? (Maya Posch for Hackaday. March 8, 2026.)

I would put this one in the “mileage may vary” category. With that being said, let it be said that I did several high school assignments on my Windows 95 in 2004 and 2005 and brought them to school on floppy disks.

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From an August 17, 2025 report by Nicholas Slayton for Task & Purpose:

U.S. Africa Command confirmed that American aircraft ‘conducted a series of airstrikes against al Shabaab in the vicinity of Bariire in central Somalia’ between Aug. 1-8.  between August 1-8, 2025.

I have a simple question based on my “reporting” in my recent NLJ article, U.S. Air Force Targets Cybertrucks. Did we neutralize an al-Shabab Cybertruck threat or are we striking al-Shabab to preemptively thwart the al-Qaeda offshoot’s acquisition of angular electric trucks?