Tag: tiktok

Posted on
by

You may wonder whether I sometimes go a week or so (a week in this case) without publishing Pook-Emu Bee links because I lack links. Not so. I collect links every day. That makes getting back to Pook-Emu Bee all the more urgent. An out-of-control link backlog is a scary thing.

AI (or SI?) and Tech

1 | Daily News Stuff 29 September 2026 (Ambient Irony. Sep. 29, 2026.)
Incisive analysis of the “rogue” agent phenomenon in four words (“Because they are idiots.”)

2 | Heads of AI firms tell UN Security Council that it could imperil humanity (Seth Borenstein and Jennifer Peltz for AP. Sep, 23, 2026.)
I agree with Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony that this effort is embarrassing on many levels and impractical because the UN does not “have the power to regulate squat.” With that being said, I think the UN may be the perfect forum.

3 | Alabama teens getting their own version of TikTok under sweeping $100M deal (Elaine Mallon for Fox Business. Sep. 26, 2026.)
That’s great but what if we went back and considered that “no TikTok” idea again?

4 | Fwupd 2.1.8 Linux Firmware Updater Is Out Now with Support for More Devices (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linus. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I’m an Fwupd fan. I was hoping one of the devices would be my ASRock motherboard, which I just updated a couple of weeks ago. Alas. Still cool, however.

New York City News

5 | Safety advocate blames Central Park redesign for pedestrian’s death as cyclist crashes rise (Haley Brown for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.)
Correct. But let us not forget the bikers who are pretending they’re riding in the Tour de France.

6 | Bay Ridge’s beloved Ragamuffin Parade turns 60, celebrating generations of community (Olivia Searman for Brooklyn Paper. Sep. 23, 2026.)
Despite having spent a good amount of time in Bay Ridge in my life, I never heard of this parade. But I nevertheless offer my congratulations.

World News

7 | Leftist South Korea Demands Ukraine Apologize After Zelensky Reveals North Korea Soldiers Shipped to Seoul (Frances Martel for Breitbart. Sep. 28, 2026.)
I personally wouldn’t stake my reputation on the reliability of either party here, but as a general point the one asking everyone for assistance in its existential defensive war should probably err on the side of caution.

8 | US Identifies and Blacklists Three More UNRWA ‘Teachers’ Who Participated in Oct 7 Terror Spree, Kidnapped and Held Israeli Hostages (Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. Sep. 28, 2026.)
If it makes these three distinguished UNRWA employees feel better, many individuals who have been publicly implicated in October 7 have suffered worse fates than loss of employment opportunities. Wait a second. That probably shouldn’t make them feel better.

Video Game Stories

9 | Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka considers Ultimate Despair Girls the pinnacle of his writing. “I will never be able to write another scenario that surpasses it” (Dorde P for Automation West. Sep. 25, 2026.)
I think I played something between 30% and 40% of Ultimate Despair Girls before losing interest and unsuccessfully including it in an Amazon trade in when I bought my Switch (UPS lost the package…). It was ok but I would have probably finished had I agreed with Mr. Kodaka’s assessment. With that being said, I do like Dangan 1-3, although I would caution against taking them too seriously.

10 | Persona 4 Revival Corrects Aika Nakamura Details, Confirms She Is Not a New Social Link (Orpheus Josha for Noisy Pixel. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I had seen the false report that P4 Revival was adding a new social link and had questions. Persona 4 Golden already tacked on two social links in Aeon and Jester to the original Persona 4. Adding yet another would have probably demanded some re-balancing. The correction to the original erroneous story thus makes sense to me.

11 | Amid “itasha” ban controversy, Forza Horizon 6 devs say moderation is handled by humans and “the number of reports does not matter” (Carlos “Zoto” Zotomayor for Automation West. Sep. 24, 2026.)
I have seen multiple stories about Forza Horizon 6 moderators allegedly banning user-created anime-style designs on in-game cards. Notably, none of the articles actually offer examples of which designs are being flagged. Thus, despite being an anime fan who is largely skeptical of games that have this much of an online component, I would reserve judgment.

Essential Minerals in Moderation

12 | Living the Low-Sodium Lifestyle (Chris O’Donnell. Sep. 24, 2026.) [HT Makoism]
Good blog post. I don’t measure sodium intake in this much detail but like the author, I seldom eat out and I check sodium on nutrition fact labels.

Posted on
by

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.

Posted on
by
Liked AI review: Time Witnessed by Fake History Hunter (Fake History Hunter)
Also woman is merged with a table, although the witch fear wasn’t that big back [in Medieval London] (yet) I’m pretty sure someone walking through tables would be in trouble.

I was linked to a site called Fake History Hunter a few weeks ago. The author, a former historical consultant, uses her site to debunk fake history in media. In AI review: Time Witnessed, she takes apart, frame-by-frame, some AI-generated TikTok monstrosity purportedly placing the influencer in a fictional version of Medieval London conjured by one chatbot or another. I find the still frames depressing to look at, setting aside the lack of historical accuracy (I am sure the AI game worlds will be much better). It was a good article and informative to the extent which I received a glimpse of the brain-melting dreck on TikTok (BAN). But I share the post here because I genuinely cracked up when Fake History Hunter noted the woman merged with a table in the TikTok “history” episode: “[T]he witch fear wasn’t that big back then (yet) I’m pretty sure someone walking through tables would be in trouble.”

Posted on
by

I was busy this morning and forgot to write daily Pook-Emu Bee links. But since tomorrow is newsletter day and there are no Pook-Emu Bee links on newsletter day, I figured I would publish a late-night edition of the Pook-Emu Bee.

1. Can subway rats give New Yorkers hantavirus? Only if you do something extremely disgusting (Natalie O’Neill for the New York Post. May 8, 2026.)

I wouldn’t put it past the TikTok “creators.”

2. Iryna Zarutska Murder Suspect Deemed Incompetent, But Case Will Continue (Amy Furr for Breitbart. May 8, 2026.)

He was competent enough to choose his target on that train car very carefully and deliberately. But not when it comes time for consequences. Many such cases, alas.

3. Military begins prescreening recruits for 28 medical conditions (Patty Nieberg for Task & Purpose. May 6, 2026)

Sounds like a good efficiency gain.

4. Texas-based teleradiologist wins court battle over California income taxes (Marty Stempniak for Radiology Business. May 7, 2026.)

I offer this “content” in California for free just to avoid the potential tax complications.

5. New York’s Teachers’ Unions Are So Progressive, They’re Even Alienating Teachers (Adam Lehodey for City Journal. May 7, 2026.)

I look at who wields power in New York City and conclude that Mr. Lehodey may be engaging in some wishful headline thinking.

6. Brooklyn Heights Greek Revival Asks $9.2 Million (Susan De Vries for Brownstoner. May 7, 2026.)

I like the plaster-work. Roof and garden are clutch. Monroe Place is a nice block. I’ll save up I guess.

7. Cobble Hill’s most expensive listing finds a buyer after a $5M price cut (Jake Indursky for The Real Deal. May 6, 2026.)

I’d take the Monroe Place above for half the price. Monroe Place is also better than Cobble Hill right across Atlantic.

8. Justice Department Finds UCLA Medical School Discriminated Based on Race in Wake of Explosive Free Beacon Reports (Aaron Sibarium for The Washington Free Beacon. May 6, 2026.)

UCLA forgot to tell the Department of Justice that it wasn’t supposed to notice.

9. Xteink blocks installation of custom firmware on some eReaders, launches a new Android-powered model (Brad Linder for Liliputing. May 2, 2026.)

I need to work on this project for an article already. Many such cases.

Posted on
by
Quoted Chaos in notorious NYC subway station leaves straphangers crying in confusion — and canceling travel plans by Marissa Matozzo (nypost.com)
Content creator @worlds.worst.detective went viral in February when he posted a video of himself offering to help confused riders struggling to find the hated platform. He wore a sign that read, “Looking for Brooklyn & Queenz JZ? Ask me how to get there,” but the creator found that many locals would rather skip the station entirely or even cancel plans than attempt the wildly confusing transfer.

The New York Post published a report (of sorts) about commuters having difficulty navigating the labyrithine Fulton Street (Manhattan) subway station, which functions as something of a major hub in lower Manhattan. I call this a report of sorts because it was prompted by a TikTok practitioner who engaged in social media performance art by wearing a sign promising directions to the Brooklyn-bound J-Z trains. I have not been in the Fulton subway station in some time. While it does involve a good amount of walking to make some transfers, this New York Post article is very TikTok-brained. It misses the forest through the trees, where the trees are individual distressed commuters. The problem is that you now have people trying to navigate Subway stations whose entire concept of “navigation” is staring at their phone. Signs confuse them.

Posted on
by

I have never been a fan of TikTok and long called for it to be banned yesterday. Despite having come close, President Trump was derermined to snag partial defeat from the jaws of victory, potentially ameliorating some, but certainly not all, of the concerns I have raised about TikTok in a deal of questionable legality under the TikTok divestment law. Even were we to sepparate the Chinese Communist Party concerns from TikTok, its rapid fire short video format combined with its promotion of pure algorithmic “consumption” is conducive to “bad content” and turning the brans of its “users” into pudding. To paraphrase James Carville: It’s the format stupid. TikTok is not always the only problem. I note this all to set up a question: Could there be anything more insufferable than the old or new TikTok? After reading an article in the Verge titled TikTokers are heading to UpScrolled following US takeover (HT GadgeteerZA), I fear the answer is yes: A TikTok consisting of people leaving TikTok to post more TikTok-style videos could be worse than TikTok.

(All jokes aside, I am willing to grant that in a structural design sense, that UpScrolled and the Fediverse answer to TikTok, Loops, eschew TikTok’s infamous algorithmic approach is an improvement, but the short video format is the problem. Consider me anti-TikTok clone for reasons largely unrelated to why I personally led the charge to ban TikTok. Something that is conducive to creating meaningful writing and anudio-visual media is preferable to alternatives or proxies that encourage more content.)

Posted on
by

I read an April 28, 2025 report in Morning Brew titled LTK wants to be creators’ post-social platform of choice. I had heard of L DK, but never LTK. Is it new?

Amber Venz Box started as a creator on WordPress, and founded the platform formerly known as LiketoKnow.it and RewardStyle in 2011 as an affiliate platform for bloggers, which is now often cited as one of the original social commerce platforms.

It is apparently not new. Maybe it is niche?

Internal data shows that most LTK affiliate transactions now happen through or within the LTK platform (as opposed to, say, a link from a social post) and around 38% of millennial and Gen Z women in the US are using LTK, Venz Box said.

According to this, many millennial women are using it. I am obviously not a woman, but I have dated myself as a millennial by birth. Nevertheless, I never heard of this supposedly popular platform. Its being focused on affiliate advertising may explain why. I am good at being ignorant of advertising trends and video creators. While I have no opinion on LTK, I do have one take on one opinion of Amber Venz Box, the creator of LTK:

Ultimately, she said, she doesn’t want to see TikTok go away, particularly due to the platform’s power in democratizing who can become a creator.

 

TikTok should definitely go away.

Posted on
by

Haleluya Hadero of the Associated Press begins her report [Haleluya Hadero for The Associated Press]:

Hearing a lot about Lemon8 lately? You’re not the only one.

I have not heard of Lemon8. Is this going to be another Temu situation?

Ms. Hadero continued:

Amid a looming U.S. ban on TikTok, content creators have been pushing the platform’s sister app. Lemon8 resembles an amalgamation of the types of short-form videos found on TikTok and the picture-perfect aesthetic of Instagram and Pinterest.

Sister? TikTok has siblings other than the for-Chinese version of TikTok (since China does not allow TikTok)?

Like its popular relation, Lemon8 is owned by China-based ByteDance, whose collection of internationally available apps also includes the video editing app CapCut and the photo and art editing app Hypic. In addition, the company operates Douyin, the Chinese sibling of TikTok that follows Beijing’s strict censorship rules.

TikTok should be banned (you were right the first time Mr. President-elect). When it tries to give you a lemon, you should also ban the lemon. When it tries to give you eight lemons, you should ban all eight lemons.

 

Posted on
by

According to Eric Lendrum of American Greatness: “A new survey shows that young Americans who frequently use the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok are much more likely to get their news from content creators rather than actual news outlets.” I am long on record as being an early member of the ban TikTok camp, specifically because no other great power in history would allow an adversary to perform live-action social experiments on its youngest citizens. I read this article about young people viewing CCP propaganda as an alternative to “actual news outlets” and thought “yes that is bad, but what is worse is that this is a battle between the resistable force and the movable object.”