Newsletter Leaf Journal CLXXX 〜 Whole Wheat Newsletter
Newsletter Leaf Journal issue 180 features links to new New Leaf Journal articles on anime, snacks, and smart TVs, links from around the web, and other news and notes.
Welcome to the 180th 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 of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. This newsletter features our usual assortment of New Leaf Journal weekly recaps, links from around the web, and other news and notes.
Leaves from the week that was
I published four articles since mailing Newsletter 180.
Evaluating Purpose in Organizing Feeds
N.A. Ferrell. March 27.
A new RSS article inspired by a response to my previous RSS article.
Against Buying Games From Smart TV Stores
N.A. Ferrell. March 28, 2024.
What I consider to be practical advice.
A Sign of Affection – Anime Review
N.A. Ferrell. March 28, 2024.
I wrote five articles about hair color in A Sign of Affection. The anime concluded on April 23 which left me with one more article to write -- a full season review.
Snack Recommendation: Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers
N.A. Ferrell. March 29, 2024.
Announcing a new focus for The New Leaf Journal: Snack reviews.
Leaves from the week that was
Let's check in on the world-wide-web...
Obsolete tech?
Iran’s Secret Underground Air Base Holds Dozens of American-Made Fighters
Kyle Mizokami for Popular Mechanics. February 10, 2023.
There is a catch, however.
CD Playing Turntable Pairs Analog Aesthetics With Digital Fidelity
Gregory Han for Design Milk. March 11, 2024.
Equal parts ridiculous and cool.
The Latest Windows 11 Release Might Not Work On Your Oldest Machines
Lewin Day for Hackaday. February 16, 2024.
I'm running Bodhi Linux on a netbook with a second generation Intel CPU.
News in vice
Online Gambling Is Changing Sports for the Worse
Jay Caspian Kang for The New Yorker. March 29, 2024.
Here I thought that sports leagues getting in bed with gambling companies and trying to cultivate a new generation of degenerate gamblers would be a good thing for society. The scales have fallen from my eyes.
Brooklyn MTA employee indicted for allegedly running brothel at Greenpoint apartment
Aidan Graham for Brooklyn Paper. March 4, 2024.
Who among us?
FanDuel will replace GambetDC as the District's sports gambling app, officials announce
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. March 12, 2024.
Stay with me but what if the capital of the United States tried not having an official sports gambling app?
Attention to detail
Three men arrested after accidentally livestreaming own crime for 90 minutes
Master Blaster for SoraNews24. February 15, 2024.
Say what you will about criminals but they tend to be kind of dumb. To be sure though, so was the guy livestreaming himself as he stumbled home drunk.
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday: In 2008, DOJ Pays Teens To Jar Salsa, Salad Dressing
Adam Andrzejeski for RealClear Investigations. February 15, 2024.
"Other program objectives included learning the difference between rice and quinoa and deciding which spices taste best on vegetables. The program had 55 participants, meaning the DOJ spent over $9,400 on each Cleveland student. Adjusted for inflation, that’s almost $14,000 per student — which would have been enough to pay for a semester of tuition at Cleveland State University last year."
Los Angeles Lakers to fix slew of typos on base of Kobe Bryant statue
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. March 12, 2024.
This is on brand for the Lakers organization when you really think about it.
Twins
A history of twins in science
William Vaney for Princeton. January 8, 2024.
Studying twins through the scientific ages.
Three near-identical Boris Vishnevskys on St Petersburg election ballot
Andrew Roth for The Guardian. September 6, 2021.
Do your elections not have three candidates who look similar to one another and all have the same name?
I'm not sure this is on the level
Why did Shohei Ohtani allegedly wire $4.5m to a bookmaker?
Nate Silver. March 22, 2024.
One way to reduce the number of questions is to not provide 10 different explanations in 48 hours.
Telegram's new P2PL program offers premium subscriptions for exposing your phone number
Mauricio B. Holguin for AlternativeTo. March 26, 2024.
This is not at all sketchy.
Car industry insists 2,000% increase in sales to Azerbaijan has nothing to do with Russia
Ed Conway for Sky News. March 18, 2024.
The ability to make these kinds of arguments without cracking up is worth big money.
Tell me more
FRESH DEL MONTE LAUNCHES PERSONAL SIZE PRECIOUS HONEYGLOW™ PINEAPPLE EXCLUSIVELY THROUGH MELISSA'S PRODUCE
Fresh Del Monte Produce. March 13, 2024.
I'm intrigued.
Microtransaction purchases in Japan drop for third consecutive year
Amber V for Automation West. March 27, 2024.
Rare to see a bad trend in video games go into reverse.
Weird Japanese gacha lucky dip vending machine gives us more than we bargained for
Oona McGee for SoraNews24. January 29, 2024.
The variety of items surpassed my expectations.
Lost and found
Pristine 200-year-old sweater found in impounded parcel
The History Blog. March 8, 2024.
All's well that ends well.
Seal frolics on Coney Island beach before being guided back to water, adorable video shows
David Propper for the New York Post. March 29, 2024.
Seals should think twice before swimming off Coney Island.
For your knowledge
What to buy inside a North Korean app store
Alek Sigley NK News. for February 1, 2019.
This reminds me a bit of getting games at Toys "R" Us as a kid except that Toys "R" Us was much more convenient, probably worked better, and wasn't communist.
How To Choose A Romantic Partner
Rob Henderson. March 24, 2024.
More of a study than a guide, but well-written and with plenty of statistics.
The Old Leaf Journal
Let's check in on our archives...
Inflatable Carrot and Easter Bunnies in Brooklyn
N.A. Ferrell. April 19, 2022.
More or less as advertised.
Inflatable colorful Easter egg bunny thing
N.A. Ferrell. April 8, 2023.
I'm still not quite sure what it is supposed to be.
EGM’s 2001 Sega Neptune April Fools Joke
N.A. Ferrell. March 31, 2022.
A classic video game magazine April Fools joke that was perfect in context.
April Fools With Justin and Justina
N.A. Ferrell. April 1, 2022.
Our resident fictional dialogue duo played four truths and a lie for April Fools.
Constantine and the Last Vespers at Hagia Sophia
N.A. Ferrell. July 14, 2020.
On the last vespers at the Hagia Sophia before Constantinople fell to the Ottomans.
New Leaf Spring Content, New and Old
N.A. Ferrell. March 21, 2021.
A spring time reader for the season.
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 23-29) 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
N.A. Ferrell. February 2, 2024.
2024: 8 appearances and 4 top placements.
[2] Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)
N.A. Ferrell. November 28, 2021.
2024: 10 appearances.
History: 67 appearances and 8 top placements.
[3] Itsuomi Nagi’s Hair Color Experiments
N.A. Ferrell. February 5, 2024.
2024: 6 appearances and 3 top placements.
[4] Heights in “The Dangers in My Heart” Anime
N.A. Ferrell. April 2, 2023.
2024: 8 appearances and 1 top placement.
History: 15 appearances and 1 top placement.
[5] Classic Pokémon Strategy Guides from Nintendo Power and Japan
N.A. Ferrell. May 23, 2021.
2024 & History: NEW
Discussion
We improved on newsletter week 12 in terms of overall views but because the article visits were more distributed, the top five was a bit weaker. My post on Yuki's hair color in A Sign of Affection narrowly made it four consecutive weeks atop the ranking and, combined with my post on Itsuomi's hair color in the same season, seven weeks in first. As I noted in my new articles section, A Sign of Affection just concluded, so I think we will start to see the two hair color articles fall back. We saw one major surprise in the top five was my 2021 article on a couple of classic Pokémon strategy guides. To the best of my recollection, it never came close to a weekly top five before -- but it had a few good days early in the week that were good enough for a weekly top five with a low barrier to entry.
News leaf journal
I reduced the maximum width of The New Leaf Journal for wide screen displays (think desktop and laptop computers) to 1000 px from 1100 px. I think this makes articles more readable for people who visit the site on computers.
Notable leaf journal
I helped my New Leaf Journal colleague Victor V. Gurbo set up RetroArch on an old Kindle Fire (he picked up two for $10) so it can now run Game Boy games and a variety of other retro games. It was an interesting project and one you can expect to see in some form in The New Leaf Journal in the future.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading and following The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed the newsletter and have not done so already, you can subscribe to our weekly email, add our newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or simply visit the newsletter's archive page at your leisure (see options). I hope everyone has a restful and reflective Easter weekend. I look forward to ushering in April next week with a new newsletter (and I hope some fun new articles).
Until April 6 -- Cura ut valeas,
Nicholas A. Ferrell