Newsletter Leaf Journal CLXXIX 〜 Stable brand
Welcome to the 179th 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 waterproof keyboard of the editor and administrator of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. We had a relatively slow week in part because I was busy with non-New Leaf Journal matters, but we still have several new articles, links from around the web, and the usual assortment of news and notes to share today.
Leaves from the week that was
I published three new articles since mailing Newsletter 178.
On Twitter’s (Now X’s) Re-Branding
N.A. Ferrell. March 21, 2024.
I examined X's attempts to move away from its former Twitter brand as it adds full article functionality.
Bad New York City Branding on Social Media
N.A. Ferrell. March 21, 2024.
Wherein I question the political wisdom of the Mayor of New York City calling the city he governs as "the Port-Au-Prince of America."
Power Macintosh G3 in Nana Anime
N.A. Ferrell. March 22, 2024.
On a vintage computer sighting in a vintage anime.
I also posted a response to an interesting short blogger's take on AI training on internet writing without permission over on The Emu Café Social.
Leaves from around the web
Let's check in on what is happening around the world wide web...
Everything is about me
I’ve Had The Same PC Speakers For 20 Years, Almost My Entire Adult Life
Luke Plunkett for Aftermath. March 20, 2004.
Pfft. I have a Newpoint Switcher 2000 Plus from 1997.
Queens man busted for working with Brooklyn smuggling crew transporting raw animal intestines from China: Feds
Bill Parry for QNS. March 8, 2024.
No thank you.
Apple Turned On a Buried iPhone Setting. You Might Want It Off.
Joanna Stern for The Wall Street Journal. March 22, 2024.
I would want it off but I don't have an iPhone.
I can't foresee how this will go sideways
‘Holy grail of shipwrecks’: recovery of 18th-century Spanish ship could begin in April
Luke Taylor for The Guardian. March 18, 2024.
This has "what could go wrong?" written all over it.
The Central African Republic – the end of Françafrique and the return of imperialist competition
Ben Jackson for Review of African Political Economy. March 14, 2024.
I'm not sure that swapping in drunken Wagner mercs for the French military is going to be the gain they're hoping for in CAR but you only live once.
SAT passes the test, going all-in digitally this weekend
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. March 7, 2024.
"Another new wrinkle in the SAT is adaptive testing. After a student does the first module of the reading, writing or math sections, which have questions of mixed difficulties, the second module of the section will be easier or harder depending on his or her performance." (This former SAT-talker has too many questions for a newsletter.)
Unalike neighbors
How the World Failed Haiti
Robbie Gramer for Foreign Policy. March 15, 2024.
The article is better than the headline.
The simple idea behind LatAm’s star economy
Michael Scott for Financial Times. March 18, 2023.
"Dominican Republic bucked region’s economic funk despite sharing its island with a failed state"
Hindsight is 20/20 but foresight should have been close
J.B. Bickerstaff sheds light on impact of gambling on NBA
Michael Rand for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. March 21, 2024.
The in-stadium gambling is a nice touch.
Flashback: When Nintendo Was Forced To Pull Its "Offensive" Game Boy Advert
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. February 8, 2024.
It took me a minute to figure out what the joke in the ad was supposed to be.
Mozilla Drops Onerep After CEO Admits to Running People-Search Networks
Brian Krebs at Krebs on Security. March 22, 2024.
Mozilla should probably do its due diligence next time before partnering with a protection racket.
Basketball Africa League withdraws Dynamo club over 'Visit Rwanda' logo dispute
The East African. March 12, 2024.
The NBA, which runs this league, should have probably foreseen these kinds of jersey advertisement issues in a league where some of the countries are liable to go to war during the season.
Every headline is a question
Beware the Ides of March. (But Why?)
Liz Tracey for JSTOR Daily. March 15, 2022.
I asked Julius Caesar but I'm still waiting for him to get back to me.
Why Does Airbus' Latest Aircraft Wear A 'Mask' Around The Windscreen?
Sumit Singh and Pranjal Pande for Simple Flying. March 12, 2023.
Here I thought the planes were just shy.
Bird news
'Strange' New Prehistoric Bird Discovered in China and Named for David Attenborough
Tara Wu for Smithsonian Magazine. March 12, 2024.
They're picking a fight in the article because this bird didn't have teeth.
Two NYC strangers team up to help lost parakeet found on UWS in ‘small world’ moment
Isabel Keane for the New York Post. March 19, 2024.
Everyone is rescuing parakeets. But how many people are rescuing pigeons?
Parrots love playing tablet games. That's helping researchers understand them
Schuyler Velasco for Northeastern Global News. March 20, 2024.
Losing birds to screen addiction.
Very Rare Yellow-Billed Loon Visits the Las Vegas Strip, Hangs Out in the Bellagio Fountains
Smithsonian Magazine. March 6, 2024.
It's interesting that Las Vegas authorities thought the rare bird would leave on its own. I guess they don't believe their own marketing.
Ask not why...
Gaming on a TP-Link TL-WDR4900 Wireless Router
Maya Posch for Hackaday. March 5, 2024.
I have an old TP-Link router but this looks like too much work.
Super Nintendo Tripod Mount Makes the Game Boy Camera Even Cooler
Jeremy Gray for PetaPixel. February 6, 2024.
This is indeed cool but I'll stick with the RetroBoy app.
Help a catnip-smuggling, car-driving cat escape the cops in this Need for Speed parody browser game
Verity Townsend for Automation West. February 6, 2024.
Sure, why not?
The Old Leaf Journal
Let's dig into our archive...
Dialogue: Car Horn Honkers Want To Be Seen
N.A. Ferrell. June 18, 2022.
An evergreen dialogue (in New York City, at least) about the unexpected motivations of serial car horn honkers.
The Brown Leaf in the Water on an Early Spring Day
N.A. Ferrell. May 22, 2021.
This seems like a fitting piece in the early days of spring (spring has been less spring-like than the end of winter so far in NYC).
Eco-friendly highlighters, fat-free soda
N.A. Ferrell. February 23, 2023.
Seeing an "eco-friendly highlighter" reminded me of a fun grocery store sighting from more than two decades ago.
Hair Color in the MYTH Visual Novel
N.A. Ferrell. March 9, 2022.
This is perhaps my most innocuous hair color article. I always think about actually reviewing MYTH but then I get a headache.
Transferring Photos From My BlackBerry Classic Using KDE Connect
N.A. Ferrell. January 6, 2022.
I wrote an article about my cleverness but not enough people read it.
Please Ring the Doorbell – A Delivery Story
Victor V. Gurbo. July 15, 2020.
Victor has almost as many delivery stories as recorded songs.
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-hit counting solution (see my review).
Below, you will find the five most-visited articles of 2024 newsletter week 12 (March 16-22) along with their 2024 statistics and all-time statistics, which go back to the first week of 2021.
[1] Yuki's Hair Color in A Sign of Affection
Nicholas A. Ferrell. February 2, 2024.
2024: 7 appearances and 3 top placements.
[2] Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 28, 2021.
2024: 9 appearances.
History: 66 appearances and 8 top placements.
[3] Heights in “The Dangers in My Heart” Anime
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 2, 2023.
2024: 7 appearances and 1 top placement.
History: 13 appearances and 1 top placement.
[4] How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.
2024: NEW
History: 4 appearances.
[5] Installing LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 28, 2021.
2024: 2 appearances.
History: 3 appearances.
Analysis
We had our least-trafficked week for the third week running, posting total visitor numbers in line with the Bing-ban months of 2023 in 2024 Newsletter Week 12. However, we do not have any specific issues with the search engines, so I chalk up our relatively weak string of weeks to two factors. Firstly, some of our 2024 Q1 heavy hitters have trailed off in the last few weeks (some for understandable reasons, others may be more random). Secondly, search traffic is a bit random. For example we had a couple of solid days with Google/DuckDuckGo/Bing last week mixed with some poor ones, with nothing changing in between. Thirdly, I think we have had more "one and done" visitors the last few weeks, which is an invitation for me to try to make navigating the site more intuitive.
As for the weekly ranking, my article on Yuki Itose's hair color in the A Sign of Affection anime made its 7th consecutive top five and 3rd consecutive first-place finish. A Sign of Affection (the anime, at least) ends today, so this may be the end of the six-week streak of first-place finishes for A Sign of Affection hair color articles (my article on Itsuomi Nagi's hair color had led for three consecutive weeks before Yuki's streak). Yuki is unsurprisingly running away with the overall March ranking as well.
We had two unusual entrants into the top five in spots four and five. My March 2021 article on the forget-me-not flower made only its fourth top-five appearance in three years and its first since 2023 Newsletter Week 23. It has had its best performances from February-May in each of the last three years, so it is possible we may see it again in the ranking. The fifth spot was weak this week and that allowed my July 2021 article on installing LineageOS on a Nexus 7 tablet to make just its third top five in nearly three years.
News leaf journal
I spent my limited time on The New Leaf Journal last week writing articles. I do have an unusually large number of partially-finished New Leaf Journal articles in the pipeline, so I hope to have some fun pieces to bring March to a close. One piece that is definitely coming this week is my review of the A Sign of Affection anime adaptation. I figure that after I wrote five articles about hair color in the series, I may as well actually review the now-completed first season.
Notable leaf journal
I ended up walking just over 18 miles to Astoria, Queens and back last Saturday (right after I mailed last week's newsletter). I went with a friend to the Noguchi Museum. I do have a few fun photographs from the trip so you can expect to see those in the near future.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading and following The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed the newsletter and are not already a regular reader, you can sign up for our weekly email, add our newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or simply visit our newsletter archive page. See all of the options. Better yet, also follow the site to which this newsletter is connected, The New Leaf Journal.
This past week was a little slow from a New Leaf Journal perspective, but I hope to publish some fun projects in the last week and change of March. I look forward to sharing some of them with you next week.
Until March 29 -- Cura ut valeas,
Nicholas A. Ferrell, Editor and Administrator of The New Leaf Journal