Newsletter Leaf Journal CXCIV 〜 Newsletter ticket
Issue 194 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal recaps one of our busiest weeks (8 new articles) along with our usual assortment of links from around the web and other news and notes.
Welcome to issue 194 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official weekly newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal. This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator and editor of The New Leaf Journal. After several light publishing weeks, I return to you with eight new articles, which you will find linked to and summarized below along with 21 exciting links from around the web and other news and notes from the week that was.
Leaves from the week that was
I published eight new articles since mailing Newsletter 193. While it was probably not quite our busiest week ever, it was at least in the running. Now to be fair, one of the seven articles was my month-end review which covered both June and July, but the rest of the new posts were more creative.
Presidential Election Fun
Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump is 38 years older than his running-mate, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. I almost immediately correctly guessed that this is the biggest age gap on a major party presidential ticket. Note that my go-to party trick -- if I went to parties, that is -- is being able to name all the presidents in order and also remembering who won and lost the elections, so to be fair, I had a bit of an advantage here. But I digress. I decided to put together an article listing the 24 tickets with the biggest age gaps between the top of the ticket and the running-mate in U.S. history. After putting together the list, I noted some take-aways. See my showcase article of the week: Biggest Age Gaps in U.S. Presidential Election Tickets.
Midsummer Haze X2
Last year, I reviewed a visual novel called Midsummer Haze. The project stood out for me for two reasons. First, I had to do some detective work to find what I needed in order to run the visual novel at all. Second, I had to re-do the same thing 43 times to advance in the novel. Last week, I was prompted to revisit my trauma on two occasions (to be sure, I would have probably preferred to have a good reason to visit the much better Midsummer novel that I also covered).
First, the administrator of the site mirror that I directed readers to for downloading the Midsummer Haze translation patch had added a link to the original Japanese game, which is required for using the patch. With the link, the admin added a note kindly crediting me for the work I had put in to find the patch. Along with this exciting news update (exciting for masochists who want to try the novel), I revisited my Midsummer Haze review one year later. See New Manatsu no Kagerou Download Option.
While I was in the area, I remembered that the developer's afterword in Midsummer Haze made a reference to being written during the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Since I had been given a reason to revisit the novel during the 2024 Olympics, I decided to write an article on the afterword. To get what I needed to write this new article, however, I needed to be able to collect certain screenshots from after the event I once had to do 43 times. Did I have my old save file? Long story short: Join me as I do it all over again (spoiler: it went a more than a bit better this time). See Midsummer [Olympics] Haze.
Searching for Caterpie
I am working on playing through the original Pokémon Red for an article project. In the course of this project, I sought to capture a Caterpie -- which appears in only 5% of wild Pokémon encounters in the Virdian Forest area. From the fact that this then prompted an article, you can probably infer that I would have been happy had I actually encountered Caterpie 5% of the time. Join me in a horror story: Searching for Caterpie in Viridian Forest.
Speaking of Playing Pokémon On a Computer
I decided that I wanted to use an original Nintendo Entertainment System ("NES") controller to play Pokémon on my computer. I especially wanted to do this because I have a cool dogbone NES 2 controller. This required an adapter. Fortunately, unlike the Midsummer Haze and Caterpie stories, configuring my NES 2 controller proved to be fairly easy. See Playing Pokémon Red On Computer With NES 2 Controller. I did run into one snag, however. I configured my controller in RetroArch but I am playing Pokémon Red using Lutris. Fear not, however, I also covered my possibly hacky solution in [Copying RetroArch Controller Config to Lutris].
X is Good Content?
I have long criticized big tech social media (and some clones thereof) for having structures that are not conducive to good content. Neither legacy Twitter nor current X has been immune, see for example my 2021 concurrence with the views of Mr. Haruki Murakami. In a new specious post, I call my own views into question after reading a spirited X-involved war of words between X owner Elon Musk and Venezuelan "President" Nicolas Maduro. See [Rescinding "Twitter is Bad Content" Take]. (Note: I added the quotation marks to the title after publication so that I would not need to include myself in a list of ambiguous headlines.)
Leaves from around the web
Do you really need more articles after everything I just published for you? Well, whether you do or do not, here come 21 curated links from around the web.
Look what they found
World’s rarest whale may have washed up on New Zealand beach
Helen Sullivan for The Guardian. July 16, 2024.
A whale of a find.
This 13-Year-Old Stumbled Upon a Roman-Era Ring While Hiking in Israel
Julia Binswanger for Smithsonian Magazine. July 24, 2024.
Yeah, well I found a blue jay and black squirrel before I was 13. Hmph.
Vehicles
The truth about Russia’s turtle tanks
Mick Ryan for The Telegraph. June 21, 2024.
When the going gets tough (because of sanctions and death-by-drone-from-above), cobble together some spare parts and build a very odd looking contraption.
Isekai truck deaths accused of sending negative “subliminal messages” about trucks by Japan’s logistics industry
Carlos Zotomayor for Automation West. July 12, 2024.
I have no anime-induced anti-truck bias because I usually run away from shows that begin with "I was hit by a truck and then suddenly found myself reincarnated in another world."
Policing
Police brass say recidivism remains ongoing problem with subway crime
Deam Moses for amNY. July 8, 2024.
Breaking news from 1989.
NYPD Data Shows Most Shootings Occur on the Same Blocks
Brittany Kriegstein for Gothamist. July 25, 2024.
Neat to see people rediscovering things that were figured out in 1994.
How to Get the Subways Under Control
William J. Bratton and Rafael A. Mangual for City Journal. Summer 2024.
Not as if former NYPD and LAPD Commissioner Bratton has experience in this area.
Let's check in on science
China calls on scientists of all nations to study lunar samples, but notes obstacle with the U.S.
Huizhong Wu for the Associated Press (via The Washington Times). June 27, 2024.
The United States funds bio labs in China but China seems very unwilling to reciprocate the goodwill of American taxpayers.
‘Model collapse’: Scientists warn against letting AI eat its own tail
Devin Coldewey for TechCrunch. July 24, 2024.
You have to be a scientist to see the obvious, apparently.
Let's check in on Turkey
50 Years Later: Turkey’s ‘Cyprus Model’ Is Still Dangerous
Michael Rubin for National Security Journal.
Don't forget the Hagia Sophia model.
ISIS-K’s financier and smuggler in Europe has long been operating out of Turkey under multiple aliases
Nordic Monitor. August 5, 2024.
Next up you'll tell me that someone hijacked an ambulance in Texas and drove it across the U.S.-Mexico border...
Someone hijacked an ambulance in Texas and drove it across the U.S.-Mexico border
Border City Ambulance Stolen in Texas, Taken to Mexico
Ildefonso Ortiz for Breitbart. August 5, 2024.
Starting to think the culprit didn't really need medical care.
Preservation
As GameStop Erases Game Informer From History, Fans Are Preserving Its Legacy Online
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. August 7, 2024.
I had actually already preserved what I needed for New Leaf Journal purposes.
To preserve their work — and drafts of history — journalists take archiving into their own hands
Hanaa' Tameez for NiemanLab. July 31, 2024.
Good advice for anyone writing stuff on the internet. Zotero,the SingleFile web extension, and MarkDownload are good places to start.
Spending money
Camera versus Lens for Quality
Tim Grey. June 17, 2024.
One photographer's take on where to spend your money.
A Brief Review of the Minisforum V3 AMD Tablet
Mudkip Mud Sport. April 4, 2024.
I am not inclined to spend this much on a tablet, but if I were, I will say this Minisforum tablet looks intriguing.
Grappling with Soviet legacies
Kazakhstan: Government taking action to promote Kazakh language
Alamaz Kumenov for Eurasianet. June 3, 2024.
Language and nations in the wake of the fall of the Soviet Union.
Kyrgyzstan: Presidential decree ties Kyrgyz statehood to Soviet legacy
Eurasianet. July 29, 2024.
Granted, some of the Soviet legacy figures had unfortunate Soviet experiences.
I raise your headline a question
3-foot-long snake found slithering across NYC street: cops
Amanda Woods for New York Post. August 4, 2024.
What was it supposed to do? Walk?
Armenia’s Misguided “Pivot to the West”
Arman Grigoryan for The National Interest. July 17, 2024.
What if there's nowhere to pivot?
Anticipating what you, the reader, want
Botswana election could complicate Pentagon’s search for new digs in Africa
Geoff Hill for The Washington Times. August 8, 2024.
I know everyone wanted the latest news on the geopolitical implications of the upcoming presidential election in Botswana.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
I use a privacy-friendly and entirely local tool called Koko Analytics to track page hits. In each issue of the newsletter, I list our five most-visited articles, according to Koko Analytics, for the one-week period beginning with Saturday and ending with Friday. Below, you will find the most-visited articles of Newsletter Week 32 (August 3 through 9).
(1) Understanding Hair Color in the Kimi ni Todoke Anime Series (N.A.F. August 19, 2021.)
First appearance and top placement in 2024. 4 appearances all-time.
(2) Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2 (N.A.F. November 5, 2023)
14 appearances and 8 top placements in 2024 (all appearances in 2024).
(3) Kaori After Story – Visual Novel Review (N.A.F. December 31, 2022.)
First ever appearance.
(4) Installing Ubuntu Touch on a Google Nexus 7 (2013) (N.A.F. July 5, 2021.)
15 appearances and 2 top placements in 2024. 92 appearances and 4 top placements all time.
(5) Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021) (N.A.F. November 28, 2021.)
24 appearances and 1 top placement in 2024. 81 appearances and 9 top placements all time.
Analysis
Our top-three featured two first-time entrants this year. My 2021 article on hair color in Kimi ni Todoke, which made three surprise top-five appearances back in 2023, posted its best-week close to its three-year anniversary and in so doing, took its first top weekly placement. I suspect this has to do with Netflix releasing five new Kimi ni Todoke episodes on August 1, more than 13 years after the anime's second full season concluded. The article is coming off a 12th place finish in July (its fourth top-12 after December 2021, January 2023, and February 2023), so while I would not have marked Kimi ni Todoke as a first-place candidate, I suppose it is not the biggest surprise.
Perhaps our biggest surprise was by New Years Eve 2022 review of a visual novel called Kaori After Story. I have published many visual novel reviews (I think at least 40), but none have made a weekly top-five. Kaori broke the barrier -- I suspect because of a Steam sale. Interestingly, Kaori After Story effectively requires the reader to be familiar with ACE Academy, which I also reviewed and is also available on Steam -- but the Kaori After Story review performs significantly better in terms of attracting visitors.
The rise of Kimi ni Todoke broke the seven-week first-place streak of my article on having the good foresight to review a 2023 anime called The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten. While topping the ranking since March has generally not required big visitor numbers, it is worth noting that the Angel Next Door article is one of only three articles, with the other being my essay on the phrase tsuki ga kirei (multiple times) and my review of a trick in Fire Emblem Engage (11 weeks in 2023) to lead the weekly ranking for at least seven consecutive weeks.
News leaf journal
I changed the system font stack we are using at The New Leaf Journal. Because we use a system font stack, the fonts you see will depend on your device. Some readers may not notice much of (or any) difference, but I think the serif font stack I switch to will make for better reading in most cases.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you are not already a regular reader, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter, add our newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader (that is how I subscribe), or check the newsletter's home page from time to time when you want to find some new articles to read. See your options here.
I am working on several article projects at the moment, so there should be plenty more to look forward to in the near future (although I am not promising another eight-article week).
Until August 17,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.