Tag: uzbekistan

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Daily Pook-Emu Bee links ceased being daily for the last week and change, but perhaps it is back with two straight editions to start the new week.

1 | Calibre 9.15 E-Book Manager Introduces “Create Your Own Adventure” Writing Game (Marcus Nestor for 9 To 5 Linux. Sep. 28, 2026.)
While I disable (or don’t enable) AI functionality in Calibre, I opined last year that some of the integrations were relatively inoffensive and in line with Calibre’s purpose. I’d say I fear Calibre is losing the plot (get it!?) with this one. However, it is not enabled by default and the new release includes some interesting normal features, so as long as the plot is lost on the side…

2 | NYC refuses to remove massive hornets’ nest from Queens tree, tells terrified residents to foot the bill (Rich Calder for the New York Post. Sep. 19, 2026.)
If (heaven forbid) this situation goes sideways after the NYC Parks Department both refused to step in and warned that it would block any efforts by the residents to remedy, NYC (i.e., taxpayers) will most certainly foot the bill.

3 | Ancient bronze bracelets found in Uzbekistan (The History Blog. Sep. 16, 2026.)
You never know what you’ll dig up in your yard in Uzbekistan.

4 | Three Patrons, Three Clients: The Mecca Alliance No One Owns (Ahmed Saber Abbas for War on the Rocks. Sep. 15, 2026.)
If only Saudi Arabia had some alternative proposal in front of it.

5 | Nearly one third of college-age ‘BORG’ drinkers report blacking out: New study (W.B. Kagan for EurekAlert! Sep. 15, 2026.)
This ends with a suggestion for parents to discuss with their college-age students “whether to attend a BORG event, and if one does attend, whether to bring a BORG beverage and how much (if any alcohol to put in the beverage.” That’s great but let’s try cutting this off at “event” and making the answer “no.”

6 | Holdout Lindsay Clancy Juror Breaks Silence, Says “Activists” Wanted “Not Guilty” on Day 1 (Steven Ertelt for Life Site. Sep. 16, 2026.)
He shouldn’t have had to break silence, but now that he has been left with no choice, I tip my hat to Mr. Michael P. Desronvil for having the courage to do the right thing.

7 | Scientists Create a New Form of Ice at More Than 2,000 °C (Michelle Starr for Science Alert. Sep. 9, 2026.)
I don’t know. Our current ice works well enough. The scientists should focus on something more practical.

8 | The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Rawdawg (Lauren Peck for Austin Chronicle. Nov. 27, 2024.)
That this running club was obnoxious enough to be cracked down on in Austin sounds like an accomplishment (and well-deserved as someone who finds our less noisy running clubs here in New York City annoying enough as is).

9 | I saw the movie that Warner tried to delete: ‘Coyote vs. Acme’ (Bryan Preston for Fox Business. Sep. 12, 2026.)
While my 16+ year streak of not being in a movie theater continues, this does sound like a fun movie and one that was well-worth saving.

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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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I missed Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday, but I am making sure to make up for it by starting this post yesterday.

Photograph of the marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park facing Brooklyn, with the buildings of Brooklyn Heights visible in the background. There are many boats docked at the maraina (four in the immediate foreground). Off in the far left we can see the Brooklyn Bridge.
I took this photograph of the Marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park on the morning of June 7, 2026.

1. Uzbek Fighters in Syria Face Tensions with Al-Sharaa’s Government (Jacob Zenn for Jamestown. June 9, 2026.)

Whatever disagreements the various bands of foreign jihadists have, the Uzbek fighters have good reason to figure out a way to make it work. That reason?

This incident can also serve as a reminder to Central Asian states to continue developing repatriation frameworks for the return of foreign fighters.

In the case of Uzbekistan the concern for someone returning from fighting in Syria would be that the Uzbek security services may have a “repatriation framework” of sorts.

2. Justice Department Investigates Alleged Race Discrimination at the City University of New York (U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. June 9, 2026.)

I can weigh in here as a CUNY grad: Don’t name programs in ways that can be shortened to “BMI”

3. Big tobacco hooked us on ultra-processed foods. It might teach us how to cut back (Maria Godoy for NPR. June 9, 2026.)

Interesting article but I there’s a problem with that headline.

4. Adagio celebrates Iced Tea Month with full-leaf cold brew teas. (Tea & Coffee Trade Journal. June 10, 2026.)

My first thought when I saw this headline was that I wasn’t a big fan of Adagio the visual novel. The tea looks more interesting.

5. Poland furious about failing to land any EU ambassador posts (Krzysztof Mularczyk for Brussels Signal. June 10, 2026.)

My first thought when I saw this headline was “this is still your future, Hungary.” But the article noted that it is also Hungary’s present.

6. Sanctioned Private Chinese Refiner Seeks Non-Iranian Crude (Charles Kennedy for OilPrice.com. June 11, 2026.)

Yet, Hengli could find itself in a Catch-22 situation in procuring non-sanctioned crude to prove that it’s not buying Iranian oil, as sellers may not be too willing to expose themselves to potential secondary sanctions by transacting with an entity sanctioned by the U.S.

I personally avoided this Catch-22 situation by not purchasing sanctioned Iranian crude.

7. ‘AI-pilled’ firms spend $7,500 per employee each month on AI (Rebecca Bellan for TechCrunch. June 10, 2026.) (HT Ambient Irony)

I’m starting to think I’m mighty impressive for running this site at a cost of $0 each month on AI. Should I pay for one of the models so I can ask it if I’m impressive?

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The Republic of Uzbekistan gained independence from the former Soviet Union on September 1, 1991. But according to Eurasianet, the most recent census in Uzbekistan was conducted in 1989. Former Uzbek President Islam Karimov (ruled from the end of the Soviet period through September 2016) was reportedly not keen on a census due to Uzbekistan’s high emigration (I will note for whatever it is worth that I have worked on a decent number of asylum cases featuring individuals originally from Uzbekistan who moved to Russia). Karimov’s successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, is more keen on holding a census. According to the Eurasianet report, Uzbekistan planned to conduct a census in 2022 but abandoned those plans due to a bug going around at the time. I had shared the September Eurasianet report (linked above) in issue 246 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal. Now I share census update from the government of Uzbekistan:

The population and agriculture census in the Republic of Uzbekistan will be conducted from January 15 to February 28, 2026, and the census data will be collected as of January 15, 2026.

National Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan

Barring any unforeseen events, we are now just a few weeks away from the first-ever census in the Republic of Uzbekistan.