December 9, 2023

Newsletter Leaf Journal CLXIV 〜 Newslettero 64 〜

The 164th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to our 3 new articles (including a long post on NAF's default apps) 21 links from around the web (including the on the strange intersection of fashion and root vegetables), and other news and notes from the week that was.

Welcome to the 164th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. Our second newsletter of December 2023 brings three new articles, news from our other project, links from around the web, and other interesting notes from the week that was.

Leaves from the week that was

I published three new articles at The New Leaf Journal since last sending a newsletter...

• Bush Clinton Playground in Red Hook
  N.A. Ferrell. December 3.

  The best-named playground in New York City.

• Unpacking a Mississippi Bonsai Tree
  N.A. Ferrell. December 4.

  All the Styrofoam peanuts you could ever want.

• My Default Apps as of December 2023
  N.A. Ferrell. December 7.

  Inspired by others, I created a list of my default apps as of December 7, 2023. See my companion post from Emu Café Social on adding my review to a directory of default apps articles.

In addition to my New Leaf Journal work, I published several short posts over at The Emu Café Social. I will highlight a few of the new posts here.

• SI Selects Dion Sanders as Sportsperson of the Year (I analyze an unconventional pick)
• Simple Mobile Tools Alternatives (A list of alternative Android apps to the soon-to-be-formerly open source Simple Mobile Tools suite)
• Dropbox Balloons (Appreciating a flourish in Dropbox's web UI)

You can find more by scrolling Emu Café Social's homepage.

Leaves from around the web

Let's check in on my very long around the web backlog (9116 words counting links, descriptions, and commentary).

Correcting the Medieval record

• Scrub-a-Dub in a Medieval Tub
  Magdalena Lanuszka for JSTOR Daily. November 22, 2023.

  Cleansing Medieval misconceptions.

• Thermal Springs of Viterbo in Viterbo, Italy
  Atlas Obscura. December 4, 2023.

  "Historically, the use of the springs dates back beyond the Roman period. In the Middle Ages, they were utilized by aristocrats and senior clerics, including the Pope."

Oh deer...

• The World’s Smallest Reindeer Get Their Day in the Sun
  Cheryl Katz for Smithsonian Magazine. November 29, 2023.

  Not too much sun at this time of year, however.

• An unexpected visitor stops by our cheap Japanese house in the countryside】
  Oona McGee for SoraNews24. November 4, 2023.

  I suppose my section header probably spoils the identity of the visitor.

Time for tea

• 418 I'm a teapot
  MDN Web Docs.

  "The HTTP 418 I'm a teapot client error response code indicates that the server refuses to brew coffee because it is, permanently, a teapot. A combined coffee/tea pot that is temporarily out of coffee should instead return 503. This error is a reference to Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol defined in April Fools' jokes in 1998 and 2014."

• Visiting the oldest tea shop in Japan
  Lee Tran Lam for SBS Food. December 4, 2023.

  "Now, the shop's loose leaf is sold by its 24th-generation operators."

This week in history

• The Battle of Wake Island Lifted the Spirits of the American Public
  Rosemary Giles for War History Online. June 8, 2023.

  Shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 8, 2023, its planes struck Wake Island.

Everything is right in the world

• Tommy DeVito’s dad is an all-pro in his own profession
  Dean Balsamini for the New York Post. December 2, 2023.

  When you learn about the dad of the current New York Giants starting quarterback Tommy DeVito, you see that the Giants are the perfect team for DeVito the younger.

• The Book of Bread (1903)
  Hunter Dukes for Public Domain Review. January 5, 2023.

  Rising to the top of our around the web list.

The fog of history

• Sad But True: We Can't Prove When Super Mario Bros. Came Out
  Frank Cifaldi for Game Developer. March 28, 2012.

  What's truly sad is Nintendo's record keeping.

• Did Mattel really create an M16 or is this a great urban legend?
  Travis Pike for Sandboxx. December 4, 2023.

  My hunch is that your hunch is correct.

The intersection of root vegetables and fashion

• Metal Detectorist Unearths Bronze Age Jewelry in Swiss Carrot Field
  Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. October 20, 2023.

  I bet they also unearthed some carrots.

• The Strange Russian History of Beet Make-Up
  Pavel Syutkin and Ogla Syutkin for The Moscow Times. December 2, 2023.

  The article concludes with a recipe (I guess since you are probably not going to want to try the beet makeup).

Looking north (or south) to Canada

• Migrant Apprehensions in One Canadian Border Sector Surpass Prior 11 Years
  Bob Price and Randy Clark for Breitbart. October 5, 2023.

  "Swanton Sector Chief Patrol Agent Robert Garcia posted on X, formerly Twitter, that his agents apprehended more than 6,700 migrants in less than a year. Unofficial numbers reviewed by Breitbart Texas indicated that the number rose to more than 6,800 by September 30. Garcia stated this is more apprehensions than during the past 11 years combined."

• Most Canadians Live South of Seattle and Other Map Surprises
  Frank Jaconbs for Atlas Obscura. December 8, 2023.

  Why don't Canadians want to live in the North Pole? It's good enough for Santa but not for them?

Let's slurp down some ramen

• Ramen restaurant in Akihabara serves two different types of noodles in one bowl
  Oona McGee for SoraNews24. September 26, 2023.

  I like the bowl.

• How Was Instant Ramen Invented?
  Alicja Zelazko for Encyclopedia Britannica. October 23, 2023.

  Probably not in a slow cooker.

Caucasus and Central Asia

• Armenia, Azerbaijan issue landmark joint statement
  Heydar Isayev for Eurasianet. December 8, 2023.

  Promising news when we consider recent events and potential dangers ahead.

• Taliban Reportedly Dismantled Islamic State Bases in Western Afghanistan
  Ayaz Gul for Voice of America. December 8, 2023.

  It's a pity they can't both lose (to paraphrase the late Henry Kissinger).

Mobile devices and operating systems

• Getting rid of trackers using LineageOS
  Wouter Groeneveld at Brain Baking. March 1, 2021.

  This piece caught my interest since I run LineageOS on my phone and tablet. It makes some sound points but needs more Syncthing.

• Converting video for use on the Nokia 3310 3G TA-1022 (and similar)
  Galladite. July 1, 2022.

  Summary of a niche project with old hardware.

The Old Leaf Journal

Let's check in on what was going on at The New Leaf Journal in the good ole' days.

• On the Game Boy Renaissance
  N.A. Ferrell. April 23, 2022.

  This article foreshadows 2024 at The New Leaf Journal.

• The Pony-Sizing Cannon
  N.A. Ferrell. September 16, 2020.

  Actually as advertised by the headline (but not for sale).

• The Aesthetic Digital Environment
  N.A. Ferrell. October 19, 2020.

  I am still using the same Android launcher as pictured in this article -- but with a different configuration.

• A Bike in the Snow in Brooklyn
  N.A. Ferrell. February 4, 2021.

  We had a few snow flurries the other day but no Winter Storm Gail.

• Justin and Justina 〜 Merry Christmas. Who checks the mail these days?
  N.A. Ferrell. December 23, 2021.

  A debate on whether it is arguably normal to not check your mail for several months.

• “Adrift” 〜 A Short Poem By Margaret E. Sangster
  N.A. Ferrell. August 17, 2021.

  I must say I did a wonderful formatting job on this poem re-printing.

Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week

I list our most-read articles from the previous newsletter week (Friday to Saturday) in each edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal. These statistics come courtesy of Koko Analytics, our local, privacy friendly page-counting solution (see my review). Below, I present the 5 most-visited articles for 2023 newsletter week 49 (December 2-December 8). Note: All stats are for 2023 only.

1. An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
   N.A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
   9th appearance. 5th top placement.
2. My Default Apps as of December 2023
   N.A. Ferrell. December 7, 2023.
   NEW.
3. Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)
   N.A. Ferrell. November 27, 2021.
   8th appearance. 1 top placement.
4. Installing GrapheneOS on a Google Pixel 6a
   N.A. Ferrell. May 15, 2023.
   7th appearance.
5. The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 - Statistics and Analysis
   N.A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.
   38th appearance. 4 top placements.

The most notable article in this week's ranking is my new default apps post, which only needed 36 hours to surge into second place in what was a solid top five in line with recent weeks. It saw most of its views come after it was added to a directory for default apps articles. I am not sure whether it will be a consistent performer going forward, but it should at least be in the mix for next week's ranking.

The other notable in what was otherwise a conventional top five was my Norton Safe Search review notching its fifth consecutive first place finish, becoming the fifth article since 2021 to accomplish such a streak:

• RSS as a Facebook Alternative (2021: Weeks 10-14)
• The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei (2021: Weeks 19-25; 2021/22: 2021 week 36-2022 week 7; 2023: Weeks 2-6)
• Cross-posting from Mastodon to Twitter (2022: Weeks 44-48)
• Tiki paralogue trick in Fire Emblem Engage (2023: Weeks 7-17)
• An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search (2023: Weeks 45-49 [active])

My Norton Safe Search review, which had only posted four weekly top-fives before its streak and none since Newsletter Week 40, was not an article I had pegged for this sort of success. I am still not entirely sure what drove its interest, but the streak is impressive regardless of how it happened. However, Norton's views did return to Earth in the last week after having increased for in each of the first four weeks of its streak, so I suspect that its run atop the ranking will end before the end of 2023.

News leaf journal

I forgot to note a few weeks ago that I temporarily deactivated comments on our Guestbook because some spam comments/pingbacks were making it through despite my requiring moderation on all comments. I will probably reactivate the Guestbook once I resolve that issue but I may eventually opt to move the Guestbook elsewhere (I have a couple of ideas in mind).

Notable leaf journal

I noted in my default app piece that I am now using an open source app called Omnivore. Omnivore is a read-it-later app with RSS support. It is similar to Wallabag, which I used on and off the last couple of years. The one feature that drew me to Omnivore is that it allows you to create email addresses (with Omnivore's domain) to subscribe to newsletters. I have a few sources that only offer newsletters and this is an easier solution for me than turning them into feeds. While I much prefer my local Android feed reader, Handy Reading, for feeds and most read-it-later purposes, Omnivore fills a niche. Moreover, I can easily save articles I find when I am at my computer into Omnivore for later reading and handling.

Taking leaf

Thank you as always for reading and following The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed the content and have not done so already, you can sign up to receive our Saturday newsletter via email or simply add the newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader (see options).

I have some big projects in store for December, and I hope to actually finish these projects in December. I look forward to sharing some of them with you this upcoming week.

Until December 16,
Cura ut valeas.