Tag: us immigration law

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October begins two-for-two with Pook-Emu Bee Links before our regularly scheduled Saturday off-day for the Newsletter Leaf Journal.

I think they’re hoping you get the hint

1 | Japan announces new permanent residency guidelines, foreigners must earn more than average Japanese person (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. Oct. 1, 2026.)
The earning threshold shouldn’t be too hard to hit. 10 years residence for non-marriage cases however… They’re definitely trying to tell you something. To his credit, article author Casey Baseel appears to get the hint. Meanwhile, the United States still has the Diversity Visa program on the books, wherein we randomly hand out visas to people who have achieved a high school diploma (not great, not the best).

2 | Mamdani Will Be Honored Alongside Group with Alleged Ties to Iranian Regime (Adam Lehodey and Daniel Edward Rosen for City Journal. Oct. 1, 2026.)
I was all but certain the group would be NAIA before opening the article. Did this really need two enterprising reporters? We could also drop the “alleged” for a more to-the-point headline.

We’re going to need you to think this through

3 | Bishops warn inflexible vetting rules could bar eligible family members from taking in migrant kids (Tessa Gervasini for EWTN. Aug. 26, 2026.)
We had a four-year experiment with dropping vetting standards and the results were rather subpar on many levels, so this warning can be safely disregarded.

4 | Prostitution busts plunge 60% — but hookers multiply — in NYC’s infamous ‘Market of Sweethearts’ (Rich Calder, Tina Moore, and Adry Torres for the New York Post. Sep. 27, 2026.)
“But” is doing some incredible heavy-lifting in this headline.

Unexpected angles

5 | New York Public Library hosted author who compared Israel to a ‘dog shelter’ (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. Sep. 28, 2026.)
Does Nicholas Kristoff know about this?

6 | Anthropic Co-Founder Daniela Amodei Kept ‘Personal Advisory Council’ of Stuffed Animals to Solve Problems (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. Oct. 1, 2026.)
My first though here was “this explains so much.”

It’s not bad

7 | Firefox 157 arrives with major UI redesign, compact mode, and hardware AV1 video decoding (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 30, 2026.)
The new compact mode is good is welcome.

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My posting out-put has been subpar of late, but today the Pook-Emu Bee links return for the first time since September 10.

1 | 25 Years Since the Worst Day in My Lifetime (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Studies. Sep. 11, 2026.)
Memories of 9/11 and border/visa security in the ensuing quarter-century.

2 | New World Trade Center is fine but it could have been great (Steve Cuozzo for the New York Post. Sep. 12, 2026.)
Given the number of stupid ideas that were floating around in the wake of 9/11 (many of which are noted in this op-ed), I am willing to count the “fine” Freedom Tower as a “W.”

3 | What 9/11 was like for veteran Post police reporter: ‘Nothing could prepare me’ (Larry Celona for the New York Post. Sep. 11, 2026.)
Memories from a repporter who had covered 9/11 on the ground.

4 | The Second Life of Crayons (Dan Lewis for Now I Know. May 15, 2019.)
Innovative crayon recycling.

5 | Guess Who Helped Doxx the Holdout Juror in the Lindsay Clancy Case (Victoria Taft for PJ Media. Sep. 13, 2026.)
Someone ought to look into whether attorney Reddington and his wife have been communicating with some of the “11” subsequent to the trial.

6 | 220 million traveler records exposed in Vietnam-linked APIS leak (Ax Sharma for Bleeping Computer. Sep. 8, 2026.)
I’m 100% sure I am not part of this leak thanks to one simple trick.

7 | Bernie Sanders proposes 20 year prison sentence for AI devs who plow ahead with Artificial Superintelligence plans — penalty on par with illegally developing rogue nuclear weapons (Mark Tyson for Bleeping Computer. Sep. 13, 2026.)
Superintelligence relative to what? If the bar for human intelligence is this proposal than the original Mario Party devs are in trouble.

8 | Publishing your work increases your luck (Aaron Francis for The ReadME Project. Juuly 12, 2022.)
Every Pook-Emu Bee is a roll of the dice.

9 | You Can Drop SEO (Ibrahim Diallo at iDiallo. Sep. 12, 2026.)
Not here I can’t. The “brand SEO” of “Pook-Emu Bee” is too elite.

10 | Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models (Derek B. Johnson for Cyberscoop. Sep. 8, 2026.)
To be fair to China… a decent number try to scrape my sites directly

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My throat is irrtated, my nose is stuffy, and I have a slight headache. It’s ragweed season. Unrelated: It’s time for our daily Pook-Emu Bee links.

Photo of a blue bench resting against a black cast iron fence next to potted shrubs in front of a restaurant.
I took this photo in what I think was Cobble Hill on the afternoon of August 23, 2026.

1 | Dating App Adds Feature Allowing Men To Filter Out Women Who Support Lindsay Clancy (The Babylon Bee. April 27, 2026.)
An all-timer from Babylon Bee.

2 | Iconic, stained glass ‘Watertower’ above Brooklyn Bridge Park dismantled (Mary Frost for Brooklyn Daily Eagle. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m a fan of the watertower. I am sure I have a photo of it somewhere. But fear not, it is only being taken down temporarily.

3 | This open-source tool was built for academics, and it’s the best productivity tool I own (Yash Patel for XDA. Sep. 1, 2026.)
Zotero is indeed great. Especially when combined with Syncthing for file sync.

4 | Review: Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet—Using a Little to Say a Lot (June for Fuwanovel. August 25, 2026.)
According to Steam, I played Planetarian in 2015. Count me as a fan, it’s an excellent short visual novel. Maybe I should review it since it is also relevant to the history of Insani.

5 | Dyson launches $499 toothbrush with built-in camera, AI technology (Bradford Betz for Fox Business. Sep. 1, 2026.)
GPTeeth?

6 |  Convicted cab driver rapist Gurmeet Singh stripped of US citizenship 15 years after assaulting passenger (Emily Goodin and Chris Nesi for the New York Post. Aug. 31, 2026.)
Now now. I’m sure Mr. Signh’s forgetting that he had brutally raped (not “assaulted” NY Post headline writers) a woman weeks earlier when he was filling out his Form N-400, Application for Naturalization, was nothing more than an honest clerical oversight.

7 | Delicate white blossoms on a tree branch (Doncoombez on Upslash. March 17, 2026.)
This photo appeared as a Brave new tab image on my phone. I liked it, so you can enjoy it too. While you’re in the area, enjoy my 2022 re-publication of a poem about apple blossoms.

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For the first time in about a week (if not a little more), I do not have a tight work deadline. Thus, I present you with a relatively leisurely edition of the Pook-Emu Bee to kick off September.

Three white flowers and leaves, shot from overhead. In the top right corner we see a bee flying toward the flowers.
Note the bee in the top right. I took this photograph in Brooklyn Bridge Park on August 28, 2026.

1 | Expression After Hit By Car (Ojai Raptor Center (via Owl’s in Towels). Oct. 11, 2024.)
That raptor has seen more things than the original raptors.

2 | GrapheneOS might skip the Pixel 11 series over the lack of MTE hardware security support (Paul for AlternativeTo. Sep. 1, 2026.)
Pixels are going in the wrong direction, but my (LineageOS-powered) 3a XL is going stron[-ish].

3 | Tether Brings the Apple Continuity Experience to Linux (Sourav Rudra for It’s FOSS. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I don’t run iOS (see above), but this looks like a neat project for Linux/iOS people. I have now done my PSA duty for the week.

4 | “A Cute Little LibGen Babysitter”: Music Publishers Sue Anthropic Founders Over Torrenting Spree (Ernesto Van der Sar for Torrent Freak. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m somehow not surprised that the Claude leadership described their thoughts about torrenting pirated works contemporaneously in the style of teenage girls keeping a diary.

5 | The 3DO Is Getting A New DOOM-Esque Shooter Featuring The Voice Of Silent Hill’s Lisa Garland (Sep. 1, 2026.)
Having conquered ONScripter-EN, should I make my next visual novel for 3DO?

6 | Dem AG urges Jewish voters to put humanity above ‘safety and security’ of own people (Alec Schemmel for Fox News. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I could state the obvious here. But instead I will offer a more novel take. How in the world did a woman with these political instincts win state-wide office in one of the biggest states in the union?

7 | I built my own streaming box, and it beats every smart TV I’ve owned (Anurag Singh for XDA. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I just use a mini PC running Fedora with KDE Plasma. With that being said, I should really test out LineageOS with Waydroid on my TV.

8 | Homan Denies Yiannopoulos Deported Quickly to Bypass ICE Detention (Pam Key for Breitbart. Aug. 31, 2026.)
I know this is going to be hard for a reporter at CNN to understand, so we can go slowly. Detention occurs in the course of removal proceedings or in the period after an alien has been ordered removed but has not for one reason or another been removed. Mr. Yiannopoulous had already been ordered removed in absentia, apparently did not seek to reopen his removal proceedings, and did not otherwise try to obstruct his removal to the United Kingdom, which apparently did not refuse to accept the return of its national (between the return of Prince Harry and Mr. Yiannopoulous, they are having a rough stretch). Thus, Mr. Yiannopoulous was removed expeditiously after DHS performed a social media touchdown dance instead of being detained pending nothing whatsoever. With my “Ted Talk” completed, I will note with some surprise that the new position of CNN is “the prompt execution of removal orders is special treatment.”

9 | Aki 2026 Banuzke Analysis (Fantasy Basho. Sep. 1, 2026.)
I’m thinking about putting together some detained predictions for the upcoming Aki Banuzke. Not fantasy though. Real, ice-cold predictions.

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I’m a bit late with Pook-Emu Bee links today, but the streak continues. By the way, WordPress’s admin area looks different after the latest update. Change in color contrast. I’m not complaining.

A WACOM ONE tablet.
I ordered a Wacom One tablet on Ebay. Need to test, but looks good out of the box.

1 | Google is buying all of Spirit Airlines’ data to feed its AI models (Chris Isidore for CNN. August 18, 2026.)
Looks like AIrline training. I’ll let myself out…

2 | Frozen fruit bars recalled nationwide over possible glass contamination (Sophia Compton for Fox Business. August 19, 2026.)
Come again?

3 | Darline Graham: ‘I Was Just Honest,’ Many People Can’t Find Taiwan on a Map, Care About Other Issues (Ian Hatchett for Breitbart. August 19, 2026.)
A few weeks ago I saw the new Senator Graham give what I thought was a very savvy answer to a question from Sean Hannity about how she would differ from the late Lindsey Graham as a Senator. “Maybe she has good instincts” I thought. Then she was asked about Taiwan in a debate. “Maybe she was lucky once” I think.

4 | Army unit offers soldiers time off for ‘GTA 6’ debut if they reenlist (Patty Nieberg for Task & Purpose. August 18, 2026.)
I’m not a GTA guy but fun idea.

5 | How I browse the Web with uBlock (Hard Mode) (Untrusem. August 18, 2026.) (HT Tux Machines.)
I also use uBO on “hard mode” but I don’t use Redirector or Localcdn (I will look into this Redirector list, however).

6 | Captain in fatal NY Harbor boat tragedy is illegal immigrant: ‘Criminal is off our streets’ (Josh Christenson and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. August 19, 2026.)
In addition to his myriad other problems, I will note that falsely claiming U.S. citizenship for any benefit under the act causes permanent inadmissibility.

7 | Samsung’s Hearing Aid Feature on Galaxy Buds Cleared by FDA (Samsung Newsroom. August 11, 2026.)
It would (or will) be neat with there are earbuds with FDA approval for hearing aid functionality supported by Gadgetbridge or something similar (by “supported” I mean features necessary to make them work as limited hearing aids).

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Another weekday means another set of Poook-Emu Bee links.

A rainbow suitcase with wheels sitting in front of a gray kiosk on a sidewalk.
I photographed this suit case on August 14, 2026, on Court Street between DeGraw and Sackett. Only the brave wheels away a “free” suitcase in Brooklyn.

1 | Jeanie Buss battling siblings over sale of remaining Lakers shares to new ownership group: reports (Scott Thompson for Fox Business. August 17, 2026.)
The unfortunate ramifications of sidelining your siblings for your own benefit. Your siblings, now having little stake in the organization, may decide that turn-about is fair play.

2 | Private Pre-K in Brooklyn Heights: Kinder Prep Montessori’s New 4–5s Program (sponsored post on Brooklyn Bridge Parents. August 18, 2026.)
Note that “sponsored” here refers to sponsored on Brooklyn Bridge Parents. I am not sponsored by any preschools (or anyone for that matter). Here, I demonstrate my impeccable independence with a question. How is this preschool simultaneously in Brooklyn Bridge Park and Brooklyn Heights? Spoiler: It is in Brooklyn Bridge Park, not Brooklyn Heights. BBP is a neighborhood unto itself for all intents and purposes (evinced by the fact it now has preschools).

3 | Geekom admits to shipping malware-laced network drivers for AMD mini PCs — company responds with guidance, removes malicious package (Bruno Ferreira for Tom’s Hardware. August 18, 2026.)
Quoting Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony (HT): “Just wipe the drive and reinstall Windows first.” I offer a slight amendment: Wipe the drive and install Linux first. I installed Linux on my two Beelink mini PCs (note I am unaware of any stories about Beelink shipping malware, but as a general matter I would agree with bringing your own operating system to your China mini-PC).

4 | I clung to Android’s 3-button navigation for years until I learned this clever swipe trick (Jade Bryan Jardinico for Android Police. August 17, 2026.)
Being a relative late-comer to Android, I recently went the opposite direction from swiping to three-button. I had too many problems with unwanted swipes.

5 | May This Balloon Banjo Resonate With You (Kristina Panos for Hackaday. August 17, 2026.)
I see a new project for my good friend and expert luthier, Victor V. Gurbo.

6 | BIA Reads Dictionary, Finds that a ‘Departure’ on Advance Parole Is a ‘Departure (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Studies. August 17, 2026.)
One of my first assignments at my job about 10 years ago involved the 2012 Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of Arrabally and Yerrabelly, 25 I&N Dec. 771 (BIA 2012). When I saw the Board’s new decision in Matter of Delcarmen-Lara, 29 I&N Dec. 830 (BIA 2026), which overrules Arrabally and Yerrabelly, I thought to myself that time flies.

7 | NYC Council Speaker Julie Menin backs away from e-bike registration despite pressure (Haley Brown for the New York Post. August 14, 2026.)
I conclude by quoting myself from the May 15, 2026 Pook-Emu Bee:

I will spoil the feedback process for anyone who questions unlimited accommodations for bikes (including effective exemption from traffic laws) in New York City. Heads, bikes win. Tails, you lose.

Nicholas A. Ferrell

PS to NYP: She folded because of pressure (from the bike lobby) not despite pressure.

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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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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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I have another busy “work” day ahead of me, but I won’t let that come between you and today’s Pook-Emu Bee daily links collection.

1. yokohama (Kat at Our Adventures in Japan. March 25, 2026.)

Spring hasn’t fully spring in Yokohama, but we can see in the pretty photographs that it is in the progress of springing.

2. Chuwi responds to CPU fraud, does not replace all affected models (Hannes Brecher for Notebook Check. March 24, 2026.)

You can count on the company that not only lied about the CPU in its laptops, but also tried to obfuscate the lie, to tell you the truth about how many models were affected.

3. Could One State AG End 18,000 Alien Habeas Suits? (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Studies. March 25, 2026.)

I hadn’t familiarized myself with this provision of the Laken Riley Act but I have been forced to familiarize myself with the habeas issue at issue in the article (that is not “this week’s” assignment, however).

4. How Dare Trump ‘Politicize’ Illegal Who Thrill Killed Loyola College Student (Beege Welborn for Hot Air. March 24, 2026.)

Here I learned that the Venezuelan criminal alien who brutally murdered an 18-year old young woman in Chicago had his arraignment postponed due to his tuberculosis. But of course.

5. NYPD Still Slapping Street Vendors With Criminal Charges Despite Council Law Requiring Civil Charges (Gwynne Hogan for The City. March 20, 2026.)

Unfortunately, not on the Brooklyn Bridge. I walked across the Brooklyn Bridge on a Sunday afternoon a couple of weeks ago. The vendors are back after a refreshing respite during part of the Adams Administration. Not quite “better than ever” but close. We can only hope there’s enough “turf” in Manhattan for more of the vendors to stay in-island (fortunately the vendors generally do not seem drawn to the areas of Brooklyn I frequent).

6. Former NBA player exposes the toxic delusion of the youth basketball circuit (Mislav Puljiz for Basketball Network. March 23, 2026.)

This article bothered me. I saw the featured image and asked myself “is that Stromile Swift?” No. Tyrus Thomas. Shame on me. I even watched him at LSU and remember when he was drafted! In any event, he offers some words of wisdom to parents who think the son they paid to get on an AAU team is on a glide-path to NBA (or, now, NCAA) riches: “[I]f your child is good enough to be on the elite circuit, they are going to pay for them. And they gonna pay to bring you too. So, if you have to pay, your child not good enough.”

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I am busy with work today. But today is a day ending in -day that is not Newsletter Satur-day, so I briefly set aside my business to deliver my not-yet-world-famous Pook-Emu Bee links.

1. FCC bans imports of new routers made in other countries, on national security concerns (Brad Linder for Liliputing. March 23, 2026.)

My MikroTik hAP ac3 should be supported for a long time. Maybe I will build my next router someday. See my related post from a while back on questions about TP-Link.

2. Sam Smith said MJ lied in 95′ about not returning in case of Pippen trade (John Jefferson Tam for Basketball Network. March 22, 2026.)

The possible 1995 Scottie Pippen-Shawn Kemp trade is an interesting “what if,” but I think things ended up working out decently well for the Bulls in staying put (understatement of the issue).

3. A rogue AI led to a serious security incident at Meta (Stevie Bonifield for The Verge. March 19, 2026.)

That’s a roundabout way of saying that a Meta employee caused a serious security incident at Meta.

4. Planned Tower for Duffield Street Lacks Identity, LPC Says (Anna Bradley Smith for Brownstoner. March 23, 2026.)

It could be worse. In any event, I am glad they are protecting the Duffield houses (for now, at least).

5. Former Syrian Prison Boss Convicted on Immigration Fraud, Torture Charges (Andrew R. Arthur for Center for Immigration Policy. March 23, 2026.)

But other than that…

6. Kim Jong-un’s Daughter Drives a Tank in North Korean Propaganda Images (Frances Martel for Breitbart. March 20, 2026.)

That probably makes her a general.

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Monday is the beginning of the work week. But it is also Pook-Emu Bee links day. Of course, every day except Newsletter Saturday is Pook-Emu Bee links day…

1. Hiding Behind Pen Names (Jerome Mazandarani for Anime News Network. March 23, 2026.)

In this case, changing a pen name to hide a conviction for photographing a 15-year old student in violation of Japan’s Child Prostitution and Pornography Act.

2. Clean-up, construction inch forward at Gowanus Green amid concerns from residents, pols (Kirstyn Brendlen for Brooklyn Paper. March 18, 2026.)

More Gowanus construction news for those of you who enjoyed (or will enjoy) my recent Gowanus-walk Happy Cleaners Cargo Trike in the Rain article on NLJ.

3. Increasing Numbers of Inadmissible Migrants and Paroled Migrants at Ports of Entry (TRAC Immigration. March 13, 2026.)

Consider this an addendum to my link in yesterday’s Pook-Emu Bee about low encounter numbers at the U.S.-Mexico border. There has been a small recent uptick in encounters, and a dramatic increase in parole grants beginning in October. While both are still historically low (especially when compared to the previous administration), the unexplained uptick in parole grants is odd and the type of policy that would have the tendency to lead to a gradual rise in crossing attempts without being more narrowly applied than the current percentages would suggest.

4. LI county touts crackdown on e-bikes as NYC eases up its own regs (Brandon Cruz for the New York Post. March 22, 2026.)

There are heroes among us. Unfortunately for me, those heroes are in Nassau County instead of Kings County.

5. The DS Pico might be the last DS flashcart you’ll ever need (Max Glenister. March 3, 2026.)

I never had a DS flashcart and I don’t think I need one. With that being said, this open source flashcart does sound neat.

6. Silhouette Event at Brooklyn Women’s Exchange (Claude Scales for Brooklyn Heights Blog. March 21, 2026.)

I never had a silhouette done at the historic Brooklyn Women’s Exchange (nice new location on Montague Street) in Brooklyn Heights. But if you are in the area from April 24-26, you can sign up for a silhouette.

7. A Cooper’s Hawk in the Old Woods (Khürt Williams at Island in the Net. March 20, 2026.)

I have never seen a hawk in the woods. But I have seen a falcon in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

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The daily Pook-Emu Bee links were off yesterday thanks to Newsletter Leaf Journal 272. But with no new newsletter coming until next Saturday, the Pook-Emu Bee returns. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.

1. Awesome Ghibli Howl’s Moving Castle figure is also a puzzle and an organizer (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. March 22, 2026.)

I saw Howl’s Moving Castle back in high school after class one day when a friend brought it in and we used one of the school’s TVs. That was before I had seen much anime beyond the Adult Swim selection. Good movie. Cool puzzle here.

2. Hundreds of delivery drivers hanging outside East Village mosque overwhelming locals, forcing NYC businesses to close (Steve Galvin for the New York Post. March 21, 2026.)

There is a mosque in Cobble Hill (Brooklyn) that was being used as a gathering spot/staging area for the food delivery e-bikers. Thus, I am familiar with the phenomenon. Fortunately, I have not seen bathing or grooming areas here across the river.

3. Trump’s DHS Celebrates 10th Month of Zero Releases of Illegals at Border (John Binder for Breitbart. March 20, 2026.)

The “border crisis” during the prior administration was caused by reversable deliberate policy choices. Nevertheless:

Similarly, the Trump administration marked the 13th consecutive month where there have been fewer than 9,000 illegal border crossers captured at the border. This indicates a 95 percent decline in border apprehensions compared with Biden-era levels.

13 consectutive months under 9,000 apprehensions is wholly unprecedented since the stats have been compiled and better than your optimistic border hawk would have likely predicted.

4. The Bigme B6 Color E-Ink Tablet (Max Glenister. January 26, 2023.)

The only Android e-ink device I would be inclined to consider would be from PocketBook (I have two non-Android PocketBook readers). Nevertheless, interesting review for learning more about what is out there.

5. New cherry blossom party picnic essential: This super-handy folding cardboard table (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. March 21, 2026.)

I found myself thinking of the cardboard box table your house comes with in Animal Crossing.

6. How important was it for Hamlin to dominate at season’s first 1.5-mile oval? (Neil Paine for NASCAR.com. March 19, 2026.)

On the predictive value of performances on 1.5 mile ovals.

7. Windows 11 updates will scale back unnecessary Copilot integrations, let you reposition the taskbar, and more (Brad Linder for Liliputing. March 20, 2026.)

I have not used Windows since 10. I did not know 11 prevents you from moving the task bar. As I look at my task bar at the top of my screen, I can conclude that this would have annoyed me had I stayed on Windows instead of switching to Linux.

8. Black Forest® Gummies Go Fully Organic (Vending Connection. March 20, 2026.)

The forest-themed gummies make for good branding consistency. Have they considered National Park Typeface?

9. The dead Internet is not a theory anymore. (Adrian Krebs. March 11, 2026.)

He has a good story about an AI “agent” apparently having requested a job interview on someone’s behalf. But let it be said that the Pook-Emu Bee is a living internet publication (confidently originalist, however).

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It is time for more daily links in the second edition of the Pook-Emu Bee.

Links from around the web

Shiroi Printer – Visual Novel Review (Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. February 25, 2026.)

I have now published more visual novel reviews in 2026 than I did in all of 2025. Things are looking up. This one takes just 10-15 minutes to read and is available to play for free in your favorite web browser, so it is a very “accessable” visual novel to try if my review piques your interest.

DOJ Board Adds New Mechanism to Deter Marriage Fraud (Andrew R. Aruthor for Center for Immigration Studies. February 25, 2026.)

A very good article on the recent Board of Immigrations precedential decision in Matter of Jin, 29 I&N Dec. 441 (BIA 2026), which I covered last week on NLJ. The views expressed are agreeable to me. It also discusses an interesting note in Matter of Jin about how USCIS apparently cut down on the number of marriage petition interviews from Jan 2021 to Jan 2025 (not smart).

Mobile game developer denies gen AI use after AI tool watermark shows up on official promo artwork (Amber V for Automation West. February 25, 2026.)

I for one am shocked that producers of trash free to play, pay to win mobile games are getting caught with their hand in the AI cookie jar. But that aside, they are still doing Code Geass stuff? I know they have done some spin-off shows and a movie which I understand does a good job of undermining the end of the anime, but the first season is going on 20 now. I like Code Geass for what it is (see my discussion in Newsletter Leaf Journal 102) but this is some longevity.

Parents opt kids out of school computers, insisting on pen and paper instead (Tyler Kingkade for NBC News. February 16, 2026.)

Parents are typically asked to sign paperwork at enrollment granting consent for the schools to give their kids laptops. Nicki Petrossi said when she initially refused to sign it in 2024, the school district in Fullerton, California, told her that she was legally barred from doing so. According to a letter the district provided her, reviewed by NBC News, administrators argued state rules require children to use computers if that’s how the school is teaching a curriculum.

The people at the school district do not seem to understand the purpose of a consent form, so I can see why they may feel like they need to outsource their cognitive functioning to Apple, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.

CK Hutchison says Panama Canal port workers removed after court-ordered takeover (Reuters. February 23, 2026.) & Panama Takes Control of Key Canal Ports After Court Nullifies China-Linked Contracts (Christian K. Caruzo for Breitbart. February 24, 2026.)

I know the Chinese Communist Party thinks that being unceremoniously thrown out of Panama is unfair, but think about how much more time they will have to focus on the South China See.

This day in NLJ history

“Mondrian” – Victor V. Gurbo on his Original Song (Victor V. Gurbo for The New Leaf Journal. February 25, 2021.)

Victor wrote about his original song, Mondrian, five years to the day (link to the recording included). As readers will learn, Mondrian was not the main interest for the song (but he was for the artwork).

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The Gothamist published an article on the push to ban street vendors from the magisterial Brooklyn Bridge. I am 100% in support of banning street vendors from the Bridge, but I will focus on another point in the report. See the following quote:

But vendors said there are not many legal spots where they can move to. Street vending has become more common as asylum seekers try to make ends meet without work permits.

Setting aside the reporter’s insistence on using asylum seeker as a blanket term for aliens who may or may not have actually applied for asylum, much less have a colorable asylum case, I submit for the record that hawking wares on the street is not a legal solution to not having employment authorization. An alien who is not authorized to engage in employment is not authorized to engage in self-employment (many aliens who are explicitly here on work visas are not eligible to engage in self-employment, see e.g., H-1B specialty occupation workers and O-1 aliens of extraordinary ability). The article quotes a street vendor advocate in the very next paragraph as describing street vendors as small businesses. An alien who lacks employment authorization cannot legally work as a street vendor regardless of his or her desire to make ends meet.

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Replied to New BIA Decision Requiring Aggregate Analysis of Past Persecution in Asylum Claim by Matthew Hoppock (Hoppock Law Firm)
The Board said all the way back in 1966 that long and pervasive discrimination can amount to persecution. Matter of Salama, 11 I&N Dec. 536 (BIA 1966) (recognizing discrimination against Jews in Egypt as persecution). Matter of Salama was one of the first BIA decisions construing the phrase “persecution on account of race, religion, or political opinion” in the Immigration and Nationality Act. What today’s decision confirms is that the Board’s analysis in Salama, that “a government campaign of discrimination” may be persecution, remains true.

I wrote a detailed analysis of a 1966 Board of Immigration Appeals decision in Matter of Salama, 11 I&N Dec. 536 (BIA 1966). In that post, I worked through the decision and examined the small number of citations to it in precedent decisions. I opined that although I first came across the decision while researching economic persecution precedents, its analysis is too limited to provide much value in that area of asylum law. The Hoppock Law Firm’s description of Salama as holding that “long and pervasive discrimination can amount to persecution” is over the target. However, as I explained in my piece, the limited analysis makes it difficult to discern an easy-to-apply broader principle in Salama.