Newsletter Leaf Journal CXCVII 〜 What re-design?
The 197th Newsletter Leaf Journal follows several new articles and a New Leaf Journal site-design overhaul. You will find news of all of that along with 21 links from around the world wide web.
Welcome to the 197th 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 from the administrator-editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. I had planned to publish three projects to bring August to a close. Unfortunately, I went 0/3 and ended up drafting and researching things for five separate immigration law cases instead. Fortunately, I did have enough drafts close-to-ready to keep things going both on The New Leaf Journal and its short-form-publishing sister site, The Emu Café Social. Now you may see The New Leaf Journal and think some stuff looks different -- but that is definitely all in your imagination (or in the News Leaf Journal section of this newsletter). But before we discuss your imagination, let us look at our newest articles and some good articles from around the web.
Leaves from the week that was
Did I publish what I had planned to publish? No. But did I publish four new articles for you to enjoy? Yes.
I began the week with a photo post on a retired fireboat, the Alfred E. Smith, docked at Brooklyn Bridge Park. While I do discuss and document the boat, I used the opportunity to revisit one of the three things the boat's namesake is most remembered for -- here being his role in the 1924 Democratic National Convention, which holds the distinction (or ill-distinction) of being the longest presidential nominating convention (by a heathly, or unhealthy, margin).
Next, I decided to see whether I could connect LeBron James, through a chain of NBA All Star teammates, to one of the 24 players who participated in the inaugural 1951 NBA All Star Game. See LeBron James’ Six Degrees of All Star Separation. Did I succeed? Why would I spoil it here?
Once I conceded that my article-publishing ambitions were not to be this week, I published a post inspired by my Kindle recommending the A Sign of Affection manga for my reading enjoyment. While regular newsletter readers of recent past will recall that I have written extensively about the anime adaptation of the manga (most extensively about hair color in said anime adaptation), this post contains some new (for you readers, at least) anecdotes that tie unexpectedly to something I wrote about Mario Party.
Finally, I published what I considered to be my lowest priority planned article of the week -- some new thoughts on our Twtxt feed with a niche free and open source Firefox plugin recommendation.
I published several fun posts on our sister site, The Emu Café Social. I dropped a joke that I found clever in Linux Desktop Market Share Hits 4.45% in July 2024. In Local Contact “Sync”, I discussed my new experimental method of syncing my contacts without a server (possible, if not likely, future full article topic). Speaking of future articles, I found some inspiration from my password generator, as told in Diceware Inspiration: Lukewarm Phoenix. I made a typo which worked out in Non-Typo Typos and bragged about not using Google Chrome (not to brag) in Probably Ineligible for Google Incognito Mode Payout. Finally, I agreed that Blogs Should Have About Pages.
Leaves from around the web
I may have had a slight mishap when a few of my Syncthing devices were set to receive only and I "resolved" a conflict in my saved article notes by deleting newer "conflicted copy" or my notes, but fear not -- almost nothing was lost and you thus have much to gain in the form of 21 (mostly up-to-date) links from around the world wide web (with my beloved commentary, as always).
Nordic news
Season’s Bleatings: Finnish Photographs of the Nuuttipukki (1928)
Hunter Dukes for Public Domain Review. November 28, 2023.
"A goat thing lurks behind the barn. There are horns and an empty skull, but its fleece looks thieved from a sheep. Where you might expect a tail, there’s only a truss of twigs — a sauna vihta, made for whipping flesh. It appears to be wearing boots. This is nuuttipukki, and he has come to slurp your booze and feast on scraps. You must let him in." (YOU may have to let him in but I do not.)
New interpretation of runes reveals pricing in Viking Age
Stockholm University. August 14, 2024.
The original economists.
Eurasia news
Analysis: Iran reestablishes its presence in the Caucuses with Armenian arms deal
Janatan Sayeh for Long War Journal. July 25, 2024.
Can't see where this could all go sideways.
Israel’s Fight for the Eurasian Heartland
Anthony De Luca-Baratta, Mollie Sharfman, William Erich Ellison, and Joseph Schneider Maimud for The National Interest. August 28, 2024.
Israel isn't waiting around to find out.
`Kazakhstan: Film touches off national debate about sensitive cultural tradition
Almaz Kumenov for Eurasianet. August 28, 2024.
Specifically sending the first-born to live with (and work for) the grandparents.
I apologize in advance
The Rise, Decline, and Possible Resurrection of China’s Confucius Institutes – The Diplomat
Si-yuan Li and Kenneth King for The Diplomat. August 24, 2024.
Nitpicking here but evidence exists to indicate that the CCP isn't into resurrection..,
China’s War on the Dalai Lama Stokes Tension with India and Russia - Providence
Antonio Graceffo for Providence. August 5, 2024.
...But maybe it's into reincarnation? "The CCP seeks to control not only earthly religious practices but also extends its reach into the next life through harsh laws, ironically referred to by critics as 'rebirth control.'"
Doing things the old way
Wait, you can still send telegrams in Japan? Why? And is it time to shut the service down?
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. August 9, 2024.
It is never time to shut this service down.
The trash in Mali’s capital is piling up. Donkey carts are coming to help
Baba Ahmed for the Associated Press. August 18, 2024.
I guess the Wagner mercenaries Mali hired from Russia didn't come with a trash pickup service.
Speaking of Russia
Kremlin says it has ‘no worries’ about Putin visit to Mongolia despite an ICC warrant for his arrest
The Associated Press (via The Washington Times). August 30, 2024.
Back in the day, Mongolia would have pillaged Russia and the ICC.
After 25 Years, Budyonnovsk Hostage Crisis Seen As Horrific Harbinger Of Terror
Tony Wesolowsky for RFE-RL. June 13, 2020.
Looking back at a major terrorist attack in Russia in 1995.
Checking in on proprietary office software
Zoom’s Work-Life Balancer Adds to AI-Powered Productivity Tool Race
Nat Rubio-Licht for The Daily Upside. July 29, 2024.
Spend more time on Zoom to achieve optimal work-life balance.
Slack will delete content older than one year for Free plan users starting August 26th
endolith for AlternativeTo. August 14, 2024.
Slack previously made it impossible to delete all messages sent on the free plan so this is quite a dramatic turn.
Quality interviews
Interview with Serebii.net
Johto Times. July 18, 2024.
Serebii is my go-to source for Pokémon statistics information.
What if this whole section is an excuse for self-links?
Japanese cafe has speech-to-text displays for conversation with hard-of-hearing staff and customers
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. August 12, 2024.
Could be a good season 2 plot for A Sign of Affection.
NYC outdoor dining sheds shutter in droves amid new rules on storage, trees, fire hydrants: ‘It’s too costly’
Nicole Rosenthal, Jack Morphet, Aneeta Bhole, and Valentina Jaramillo for the New York Post. August 12, 2024.
This DIY gaming laptop is made is made from desktop components (CPU, GPU, and more)
Brad Linder for Liliputing. August 14, 2024.
While I am not a pro computer building expert, I will submit as someone who has built three computers (see my current one) and supervised the building of two other computers that you should not do this.
Man Is First to Be Charged in New York With Wearing a Mask in Public
Liam Stack for The New York Times. August 27, 2024.
Looks like the "halo" came off Victor's 2020 HALOmask review.
Examples of Email Phishing in 2024
Jeff Starr at Perishable Press. June 14, 2024.
This makes me appreciate that people take the time to send me more creative spam.
Video game history
The Incredible Story Of Satellaview, Nintendo's Satellite Modem SNES Add-On
Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. December 30, 2023.
Perhaps the earliest significant foray into video game streaming -- Super Nintendo style.
The Long-Lost Tarzan Atari Game, Preserved
Kevin Bunch for Video Game History Foundation. June 3, 2024.
Neat preservation story.
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 2024 Newsletter Week 35 (August 24 through 30). I will include 2024 and historic (which runs through the first week of 2021) ranking information for each article.
(1) An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
N.A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
17 appearances and 4 top placements in 2024; 29 appearances and 9 top placements all time.
(2) Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2
N.A. Ferrell. November 5, 2023.
17 appearances and 9 top placements (all in 2024).
(3) Broken Optical Audio Cable Door “Fix”
N.A. Ferrell. September 16, 2023.
2 appearances (both in 2024).
(4) Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)
N.A. Ferrell. November 28, 2021.
25 appearances and 1 top placement in 2024. 82 appearances and 9 top placements all time.
(5) The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei
N.A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
11 appearances and 4 top placements in 2024. 143 appearances and 73 top placements all time.
Analysis
The Newsletter Week 35 top three is exactly the same as the Newsletter Week 34 edition, with similar, but slightly stronger, page view numbers. Three of this week's top five articles have 9 all time first-place ranking finishes, meaning we will likely soon have our fourth article with 10 first-place finishes since 2021 (you can see one of the two above, my tsuki ga kirei study, with its 73 first-place marks).
On the whole, we had our best week in terms of total page views since February or early March and one of our better Hacker News-free weeks ever, although it remains to be seen whether the overall increase in Google impressions is something that will continue. One interesting point is that the visits have been well-distributed -- for example, based on this week's page views, only the top two articles would have made the top-five in every week of 2024.
News leaf journal
Readers will note that The New Leaf Journal looks different than it did before Friday evening. Since you can see it for yourselves, I will skip describing what it looks like and instead go through some of my changes.
- Added a search box to the top of the site, right under the header. Happy searching! Made some CSS tweaks to make the search box look neat and inoffensive.
- Removed search boxes from header and footer (they did not look neat).
- Changed the site and footer background colors. The colors are similar to our May-early June 2020 design, which you can see here.
- Switched system font stacks (again).
- Rounded the corners of our article boxes on the homepage and archive pages and made some tweaks to the colors.
- Rounded the corners on our article containers.
- Changed color of article backgrounds.
- Changed color of blockquotes.
- Ensured that columns that should be centered in tables are actually centered. Switched to monospaced font stack for tables. Changed table background colors for legibility.
Whew. That is quite a change-log. I think the site looks much better and more modern now, while still being minimal and writing-focused. I was going for cozy enough to make our RSS subscribers want to visit. I will likely make a few more tweaks as I find the CSS selectors I need to change, but the overall design should carry The New Leaf Journal* for the foreseeable future.
(PS: The table thing was driving me crazy so I am glad I fixed that.)
I also made a few tweaks to our sister site, namely for the Activity Stream page. I plan to dig into that a bit more as I prepare for it to get more use.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading and following The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you have not done so already, you can sign up for our weekly email, add our RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or simply visit our newsletter archive page when you want something to read. See our options here.
While I was disappointed to not publish a few big projects I had by the end of August, those projects will go up in the not-too-distant future. I dare say despite that failure, it was a big, productive week at The New Leaf Journal, and I look forward to a big September with our more aesthetic site-design.
Until September,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.