Tag: zohran mamdani

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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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We keep the Pook-Emu Bee link momentum going with more links from around the web.

Bottles of hot sauce on a grocery store shelf with a sign that says "TRAPPEY'S RED DEVIL HOU SAUCE" 5/$5"
Key Food has many X for Y sales. In some cases you have to buy multiples for the sale price. In other cases the price applies to less than Y. With that in mind, I chuckled at having to buy five bottles of hot sauce for the $1 per bottle deal.

Articles

1 | NYC first lady Rama Duwaji traveling to Syria, Lebanon — with taxpayer-funded NYPD security detail: sources (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. August 10, 2026.)
I saw this story last night. I had a fun quip prepared that I hoped to get in before the practical problems with this plan (not taxpayer money) made their appearance. “Is the NYPD going to draw sticks to decide who gets stuck with the Syria-Lebanon bodygyard duty assignment?” Alas, the NYPD beat me to it.

2 | Hidden Beauty in Southeast Brooklyn (Megan Messana for Red Hook Star Revue. August 10, 2026.)
I have been to Coney Island and Sheepshead Bay before, but not most of the other areas she mentions.

3 | How I turned my old Fire Tablet into a portable Linux terminal (David J. Buck for How To Geek. August 10, 2026.)
I tried using a Fire HD 10 as a dedicated reader device (Miniflux + IronFox) but it was painfully slow.

4 | DiJonai Carrington Cites Stanford Education Clarifying ‘White Privilege’ Accusation (Paul Bois for Breitbart. August 10, 2026.)
Her X posts read like gobbledygook to me. But then again she says: “I actually went to school, one of the top universities might I add, to educate myself on this exact subject.” She did go to Stanford. I did not go to Stanford and concede Stanford would have almost certainly rejected me had I applied (although I may have been able to swing it had I been a top basketball prospect whose father played in the NFL).

5 | Bushwick Daily Is an AI Slop Zombie (Andrew Karpan and Aaron Tomey for Grime Square. August 2, 2026.)
Good, evidence-backed report on a local newspaper turning into AI slop, save for one aside.

6 | Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Brooklyn This Month (Susan De Vires for Brownstoner. August 10, 2026.)
The August 22-23 festivities look interesting. May present an on-the-ground reporting opportunity. I will consider.

7 | Inside Polaroid’s provocative, pro-analog marketing strategy (Katie Hicks for Marketing Brew. August 11, 2026.)
I wouldn’t call it “provocative” because that is effectively marketing the marketing, but “Real stories. Not Stories & Reels.” is good. “Go jump in some water before the data centers drink it all up.” is terrible. But one thought: Maybe the marketing slogans should do more to distinguish Polaroids from phone photography. I mean… I don’t use Instagram.

Video

8 | It finally came! [Steam Controller v2] (nephitejnf. August 10, 2026.)
I thought about a Steam Controller v2… but probably not for $99. It does look good though. Strikes me as a big but it would probably be fine for me. I was a bit disappointed by his description of the shoulder buttons as a Dreamcast controller fan.

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Two consecutive editions of Pook-Emu Bee daily links? What in the world is going on here?

Photograph of the Marina at Brooklyn Bridge Park in the late evening. It is lined with three tall American Flags on its left side. In the background we see the Manhattan Skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge.
Seen here is the Brooklyn Bridge Park Marina on July 13, 2026. I lined the American Flags, so I took a couple of photos. To the left you see Manhattan and off in the distance straight away you can see the Brooklyn Bridge.

1. Sega Dreamcast driver fixes appear in Linux 7.2-rc3 — fabled console remains in favor while iconic computing architectures like i486 fall by the wayside (Mark Tyson for Tom’s Hardware. July 12, 2026.)

I mainly used my Dreamcast for playing Sonic Adventure, the NBA 2K entries it received, Pen Pen Trilceon, and a little but of Chu Chu Rocket. Missed out on Linux for Dreamcast (in fact I dare say I almost certainly had no idea what “Linux” was). But Pen Pen Trilceon does have a penguin-esque cover character. Close enough. In any event, very cool to see.

2. Never Forget — Today Marks Two Years Since Assassination Attempt on Donald Trump in Butler, PA: ‘God Was with Me’ (Amy Furr for Breitbart. July 13, 2026.)

I missed noting the anniversary yesterday. Two whole years… time flies. “I said ‘Wow, what was that?’ I said ‘It’s either the biggest, most violent mosquito in history, or I just got shot.’”

3. ‘Moderate’ Gov Abigail Spanberger Taps Former FBI Official Behind Retracted Biden-Era Memo Targeting Catholics as Terror Threat To Lead Prison Reform Council (Jessica Schwalb for The Washington Free Beacon. July 13, 2026.)

Because I don’t live in Virginia, I’m willing to take the partial win of “at least he’s not in the FBI anymore.”

4. Microsoft Xbox CEO Asha Sharma Appointed to Federal Reserve Jobs Advisory Role After Mass Layoffs (Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. July 10, 2026.)

I see and understand the criticism but let no one say she’s not an expert in increasing the number of American citizens in the open job market.

5. UKRAINE: Conscientious objectors convicted, jailed, held in military units: list (Felix Corley for Forum 18. July 10, 2026.)

I kid you not. I was going to be working on a case involving a man claiming a well-founded fear of persecution in Ukraine based on part on his religion and opposition to compulsory military service when this popped up in my feed on the 10th. Timing is everything.

6. LineageOS introduces web flashing tools, revamped stats page, Android 17 plans, and more (Paul for AlternativeTo. July 9, 2026.)

I haven’t tried it yet, but this looks promising and could potentially make LineageOS more accessible (I am currently running it on my Pixel 3a XL after having installed it the old-fashioned way).

7. REESE’S PIECES Unveils New Chocolate Cookie Candy Nationwide (Vending Connection. July 8, 2026.)

I haven’t hade Reese’s Pieces in a very long time, but I like them. Cookie Reese’s Pieces do sound intriguing…

8. Mayor Mamdani’s map of NYC immigrant neighborhoods sparks outrage for ignoring Little Italy (Matthew Fischetti, Carl Campanile, and Natalie O’Neill for the New York Post. July 8, 2026.)

I begrudgingly respect his trolling. Here he engaged in a very simple troll and got a three-byline report for the New York Post plus days of follow-up articles.

9. The front page of the internet has an AI slop problem (Whizy Kim for Tech Brew. July 7, 2026.)

Reddit? You’re telling me Reddit has a slop problem of any kind? I don’t believe it. Perish the thought! (Remember that AI is a problem, but rarely the only problem.)

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I have an assignment I need to finish today. But I will not let that stop me from capping off the work-week with one more edition of Pook-Emu Bee links. Pook-Emu Bee will be off tomorrow for Newsletter Day.

Photograph of a green leafy tree in front of a brick building seen through a chicken wire window.
The scene behind my second monitor as I draft this post.

1. How Mamdani Should Reform New York City’s Elections (John Ketcham and Jack Santucci for City Journal. June 10, 2026.)

Never go full “think tank.” Take a walk. Think about what you are writing.

2. Bluesky is getting Reddit-inspired communities built for topic-focused discussions (Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. June 11, 2026.)

Reddit is bad enough without people thinking about how to make worse versions of Reddit.

3. Celtic elite grave discovered in the Taunus mountains (livius for The History Blog. June 9, 2026.)

An elite Celtic grave has been discovered near Bad Camberg in the Taunus mountain range of western Germany. The grave goods are exceptional and include gold, chariot remains and an imported Etruscan bronze jug. It dates to the 5th century B.C. and is the first Celtic princely grave discovered in the Taunus mountains.

The Etruscans force their way into the story.

4. RetroPad is a ‘full-feature-parity version of Notepad from XP’ in just 2,749 bytes — x86 assembly coded apps comes from Windows legend Dave W Plummer (Mark Tyson for Tom’s Hardware. June 7, 2026.)

I used to use Notepad sometimes in my Wndows days (which ended on Windows 10 in 2020). Should I try running this with WINE?

5. Long Island bishop using Knicks’ NBA Finals run to convince long-suffering fans there is a God (Alex Mitchell for the New York Post. June 7, 2026.)

I haven’t watched any NBA games since the 2019 Finals (despite my NBA writing here and on NLJ), but from what I’m hearing through the grapevine he may be making a compelling case here.

6. Brave Software releases Origin for a paid, bloat-free browsing experience (Lawrence Abrams for Bleeping Computer. June 4, 2026.)

I use it for work on my workstation and as my primary browser on my mini PC for my TV. It is good. Of course, I am using free Brave Origin because I run Linux btw.

7. Persona 30th Anniversary Nendoroid Featuring Persona 3, 4, And 5 Protagonists Opens For Pre-Order (Orpheus Joshua for Noisy Pixel. June 5, 2026.)

They’re missing two. If your first thought is the female protagonist from P3P, that is one of the two. But I am more offended by the absence of a different female protagonist… one who was the box cover character for one of the Persona releases.

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Today is June 1. It is also Monday. With that, I present our first-ever collection of June Pook-Emu Bee links after a brief photography interlude.

Photograph of the Staten Island Ferry behind a sail boat in the East River, taken from Valentino Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
I took this photo on Sunday, May 31, 2026, from Valentino Pier in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The orange boat in the background is the iconic Staten Island Ferry (en route to Staten Island from Manhattan).

1. Wikipedia editors plot strike and banner sabotage after Wikimedia layoffs (Carly Page for The Register. May 30, 2026.)

HT to and quote from Ambient Irony: “Wikipedia editors are threatening a global strike where they’ll stop airbrushing history.” I chuckled.

2. Mamdani wants to remove former Mayor Ed Koch’s name from iconic NYC bridge — but critics say hands off ( Jordan Donegan and Carl Campanile for the New York Post. June 1, 2026.)

Let’s not. But beyond my incisive take, you can enjoy some of my photographs and writing about the Queensboro Bridge.

3. Nothing has changed on Instagram; Meta has always read your DMs (Rodrigo Ghedin. May 11, 2026.)

I am 100% confident that Meta has never read my Instagram DMs.

4. The RAMageddon hits home (Rob Fahey for Games Industry.biz. May 29, 2026.)

I wasn’t planning to buy a Steam Deck, so this “hits home” for me less than the dramatic spike in RAM and SSD prices. (Note: I think Steam Deck is cool, I just don’t have a use-case for it that is commensurate to the pre-“RAMageddon” price, much less the current price.) But the Steam Deck price spike is one of the purest examples of the effects of RAMageddon.

5. “You Have 30 Seconds”: United Pilot’s FBI Warning Over Passenger’s Wi-Fi Hotspot Name (Luke Diaz for Simple Flying. May 26, 2026.)

A United Airlines pilot took the situation into their own hands earlier this month after a passenger activated a hotspot with a politically provocative network name. The hotspot name onboard read ‘Free Palestine, F Zionists,’ according to an account of the event posted on Reddit.

“Starting in the 1960s, Palestinian militant groups made commercial aviation one of their primary targets, carrying out a series of hijackings over the decades.” See one historic example I covered on NLJ.

6. Keep messing with the clocks (Kitten. May 30, 2026.)

Permanent DST polls well with the public because people are familiar with early sunsets but not with late sunrises, and they aren’t smart enough to realize you have to pick one. They don’t actually like DST; they like summer. Setting the clocks forward all year long doesn’t give you an endless summer, just miserably dark winter mornings. People haven’t thought it through and would hate it in practice.

Seconded.

7. 17Studio and the Degradation of the Nintendo eShop (Game Slush Pile. May 31, 2026.)

Do people actually buy these AI slop games? That would be bleaker than the fact they exist.

 

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I was too busy yesterday to put together my daily Pook-Emu Bee links. I am busy today as well, but not too busy to take a link break.

Article Links

1. Six search engines worth trying now that Google isn’t really Google anymore (Amanda Siberlin for TechCrunch. May 21, 2026.)

This is a fair list but the article misses some nuance about the sources used by Startpage and Ecosia. I would add Mojeek to the selection.

2. Prosecutor charged for allegedly emailing self sealed Jack Smith Trump report veiled as cake recipes (Justin Dunleavy for Just the News. May 20, 2026.)

This scheme sounds like a lemon cake.

3. Jeff Bezos blasts Mamdani for casting billionaire Ken Griffin as a ‘villain’ in Hizzoner’s viral video filmed outside NYC penthouse (Carl Campanile and Anna Young for the New York Post. May 20, 2026.)

Mr. Bezos is not wrong. While he is on the subject of being right, can he right the wrong that is the Amazon chatbot on store pages? It evolved from Rufus to Alexa and I think it went from war crime to super war crime.

4. A before-and-after look at downtown Brooklyn’s new streetscape (Nate Berg for Fast Company. December 9, 2025.)

They did a nice job. But it is still Downtown Brooklyn. You can only do so much with all the traffic and ugly apartment and office towers.

5. Delivery Robots Take Over Chicago Sidewalks, Sparking Debate And A Petition To Hit ‘Pause’ (Alec Karam for Block Club Chicago. December 8, 2025.)

I’d welcome them to Brooklyn on the condition that they take over the bike lanes while keeping bikes off the sidewalk.

6. Pocketbook Era With Koreader (tc3. September 21, 2025.)

I have a Pocketbook Color and InkPad Color with Koreader. I have almost talked myself into buying an Era for the side buttons, but it would be a bit expensive in light of the fact that I already have two working Pocketbooks. But let it be said Pocketbook comes with my recommendation for anyone who does not “need” the Kindle or Kobo stores.

7. Firefox Should Let Users Disable Searching from the URL Bar (Terence Towles Canote at A Shroud of Thoughts. May 20, 2026.)

I enable the search box on Firefox and agree with this take. But with that being said, I have reasons for usually searching from the address bar.

Videos

Natsu Basho (May Grand Sumo Tournament) Day 10: Atamifuji vs Wakatakage (May 19, 2026.)

I won’t spoil the outcome other than saying it was a big lift.

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I have another busy day ahead of me, but we cannot forsake our daily Pook-Emu Bee links.

1. Syncthing 2.1 adds group organization and proxy support options (Fla for AlternativeTo. May 12, 2026.)

I approve of having “the ability to group devices and folders in the GUI using a new group attribute.”

2. Airbnb enlists Al Sharpton in fight against Mamdani’s short-term rental crackdown in NYC: report (Ariel Zilber for the New York Post. May 11, 2026.)

I’d ordinarily make a “it’s a pity they can’t both lose” joke but in this case the Mayor is correct.

3. Stranger assaulted by maniac weeks before he pushed retired NYC teacher to death recounts frightening attack: ‘Why is he following us?’ (Joe Marino and Anna Young for the New York Post. May 8, 2026.)

‘Maybe a part of me was just like, I don’t want to put another black man in jail, but, you know, at some point, if you are a criminal, you’re a criminal, and he was scary, he was a scary guy.’

Let us hope she suppresses that stupid part of herself if there is a next time in the interest of getting homicidal criminals off the street.

4. John Calipari slams the NCAA for catering to European pros over American kid (Yalshpat Bhagava for Basketball Network. April 27, 2026.)

Notwithstanding the ever-increasing professionalization of college basketball, I would be inclined to agree with Coach Calipari (always the advocate for elite NBA draft prospects) that young (or not so young) men who were playing professionally in Europe should probably not be eligible to play American college basketball.

5. JPMorgan Offered a $1M Settlement to MeToo Accuser of Female Exec (Paul Bois for Breitbart. May 6, 2026.)

These people just shoot money out of firehoses.

6. “He Was Literally Frothing At The Mouth” – Yuji Naka Really Didn’t Want Sega To Make Mature Games (Damien McFerran for Time Extension. December 16, 2025.)

A family-friendly game designer after our own heart. I don’t suppose this is how we avoided Tails’ Bad Fur Day.

7. Maggots Are an Incredibly Efficient Source of Protein, Which May Make Them the Next Superfood for Humans (Mary Roach for Smithsonian Magazine. January/February 2026.)

Is it just me or have they not been trying to convince us to eat the bugs as much these days as they were 6-12 years ago?

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After bouncing back from missing Tuesday with daily Pook-Emu Bee links yesterday, we make it two days in a row with your daily collection of links for May 7, 2026.

1. Mamdani to announce free 2026 World Cup fan events across NYC (Mary Frost for Brooklyn Daily Eagle. April 27, 2026.)

Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice Julie Su said the World Cup is an opportunity to celebrate all of the city’s diverse cultures and people. ‘In the past, host cities have been criticized for failing to ensure their own workers and residents benefit and get to participate in the opportunities this global game presents,’ she said, calling Mamdani’s approach ‘a new model.’

New York City is not a “host city.” There will no World Cup matches being played in New York City.

2. Lasers, hawks and even guns haven’t solved the UK’s pigeon problem. There is a better way (Sydney Lobe for The Guardian. May 4, 2026.)

There is a better way. Stop being hysterical. Help pigeons in need.

3. Warren Buffett on Sports Betting: ‘It’s a Tax on Stupidity’ (Dylan Gwinn for Breitbart. May 6, 2026.)

I have never been one to wait at the base of the mountain for Warren Buffett to appear with a tablet, but he’s certainly not wrong here.

4. How the Portland Fire marketers created content without players (Alyssa Meyers for Marketing Brew. May 6, 2026.)

They have their work cut out for them when the team with no players is called the “Fire.” Are we mere years away from a Portland Fire/Indiana Fever final? The original WNBA teams had great names. New York Liberty, Houston Comets, Phoenix Mercury, etc. But after, even shortly after like the Portland Fire, they lost the [Los Angeles] Sparks.

5. Beijing Frames the Trump Visit (David Bandurski for China Media Project. October 28, 2025.)

Cameras have an tend to love President Trump so China should not have difficulty framing the visit, assuming it is not scuttled by one geopolitical circumstance or another. But I would recommend that Chinese officials ensure that the Mao and Xi frames always have a place of honor, prudence and all.

6. The Partisan Asymmetry In Callais (Josh Blackman for Reason. May 4, 2026.)

Asymmetrical no more.

7. REVEALED: EU Planning Forceful Merging of BlueSky with X (Peter Caddle for Gript. May 1, 2026.)

The extent to which this is an actual plan rather than one policy document is perhaps overstated by the headline, but I think X has enough moderation failures involving bots and grifters without taking on Bluesky’s considerable baggage.

8. The NBA lottery reform is good, actually (Mike Shearer at Basketball Poetry. May 1, 2026.)

It seems alright but I suspect tanking will still be an “issue,” especially in years where there exists the perception that there are 3-4 elite, top-pick caliber prospects.

9. Oscars: Film Academy Cracks Down on AI, Opens Up International and Acting Categories (Scott Feinberg for The Hollywood Reporter. May 1, 2026.)

The organization’s board of governors decreed that the only sorts of performances that will be eligible for acting Oscars are those credited in a film’s legal billing and demonstrably performed by humans with their consent. (This appears to address questions raised by the posthumous completion of a performance by Val Kilmer, who died in 2025, using AI.). Additionally, the Academy explicitly spelled out that only human-authored screenplays are eligible for writing Oscars.

The Oscars and 3D people movies are not my area, but these new rules sound good to me.

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The Pook-Emu Bee, your favorite (or “favourite” if you prefer British English) daily links collection, returns after taking two days off for Newsletter Leaf Journal Saturday and Easter.

1. E-Bikes = Freedom (Matthew Morgan at World of Matthew. April 6, 2026.)

The “Why the hatred of e-bikes?” section summarizes my feelings about e-bikes in Brooklyn, New York City.

2. Mamdani signs ’emergency’ order to block concerts, food festivals at NYC parks during FIFA World Cup (Carl Campanile for the New York Post. April 6, 2026.)

The actual policy does not affect me. But I include the link to note that the World Cup games are being played in New Jersey, not New York City. After the Mayor suggested last week that being able to commute across the Brooklyn Bridge has something to do with accessing World Cup matches in New Jersey, I am beginning to think the leadership of New York City is suffering from some sort of collective delusion.

3. AI-Generated Data Can Poison Future AI Models (Rahul Rao for Scientific American. July 28, 2023.)

This bridge had been crossed before this article was published in July 2023.

4. Noelia Castillo Ramos and the Dictatorship of Happiness (Tiare Gatti Mora for Compact. April 3, 2026.)

What we value is no longer a meaningful life, but a life in which we achieve and maintain a positive emotional state.

5. George Harrison Explains Why Everyone Should Play the Ukulele (Open Culture. October 16, 2024.)

My first thought when I read this was Haruko’s “ukulele no good” line in episode 3 of FLCL. Of course, she was using the ukulele as a weapon, which was a very different use-case than what George Harrison had in mind.

6. Claude Code’s source reveals extent of system access (Thomas Claburn for The Register. April 1, 2026.)

I employ a secret method to ensure that Claude does not have access to my system. I won’t reveal it (proprietary, unlike some of Claude’s source code now), but I will tell you that I achieve it without installing anything.

7. Rookies almost never make good teams better (Henry Abbott at TrueHoop. April 3, 2026.)

Despite being the person who wrote an entire essay arguing the contrarian position that the Detroit Pistons would not have been better off had they drafted Carmelo Anthony over Darko Milicic in 2003, Mr. Abbott’s position is far too extreme for my taste. For example, while he notes that Cooper Flagg’s advanced stats are middling, I do not think it follows that Flagg would not have potentially made a good team better in a smaller role than he is playing for the Mavericks.

8. Microsoft inches closer to glass storage breakthrough that could finally make ransomware attacks impossible in the data center and hyperscalers — but only Azure customers will benefit from it (Keumars Afifi-Sabet for Tech Radar. December 6, 2023.)

Glass storage looks aesthetic. I approve.

9. The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya 20th Anniversary Project Revealed With New PV And Art (Orpheus Joshua for Noisy Pixel. April 3, 2026.)

I watched Haruhi a few years after it aired in 2006. The titular character is still an all-timer in 2D person stage presence. (I referenced her in my best female character award section for 2024 and in a short post about anime characters with brown hair). Haruhi also informed my articles on Halloween in Japan and anime characters with brown hair. Haruhi as a show? I still think it is good but it is certainly not the best-aging show of the era. Speaking of the era, I need to do a 2006 Anime Review at some point. 2006 was loaded. Of course, I need to write 2025 first…

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Another day means more daily Pook-Emu Bee links. If you enjoy the (almost) daily links and commentary, you can also follow via feed.

1. Opera GX Web Browser Released For Linux (Michael Larabel for Phoronix. March 19, 2026.)

Awesome! I have been happy on Linux since August 2020, but I have often found myself thinking that my experience would be perfect if I had that unaesthetic spying browser for gamers that the YouTube people promote.

2. Mamdani unveils pared version of hyped ‘Community Safety’ agency — with 2 staffers, $260M budget (Craig McCarthy for the New York Post. March 19, 2026.)

The NYP scoffs, but there is no greater threat to community safety than failing to pay back your campaign stakeholders.

3. Visual Novel ‘Everything Will Be Fine! Launches’ On PC (Orpheus Joshua for Noisy Pixel. March 19, 2026.)

I like the look of this one. Should I pull the trigger and write my first “new” visual novel review? I think I just might.

4. This New Café in Brooklyn Is a Stylish Ode to Georgian Food and Design (Nicole Kliest for Vogue. March 16, 2026.)

I almost certainly walked passed it and did not take note of it. With that being said, it looks interesting and aesthetic. But is the coffee good? (I will submit for the record that this is almost certainly the first time I have linked to or read an article in Vogue.)

5. NBA and The Coca-Cola Company Announce Multiyear Global Partnership (Vending Connection. March 17, 2026.)

This is a better and more conventional partnership than the Atlanta Hawks’ ill-fated strip club night.

6. Is Japan’s Crab-shaped Cup Ramen Timer worth the hype? (Oona McGee for SoraNews24. March 9, 2026.)

I would try it but for the “hidden cost” issue I noted in response to the first entry in yesterday’s Pook-Emu Bee.

7. Spotify says its best developers haven’t written a line of code since December, thanks to AI (Sarah Perez for Tech Crunch. February 12, 2026.)

I have never used Spotify. Nothing I have read about it leads me to believe that I have been missing out.

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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.