Newsletter Leaf Journal CXCIX 〜 Perennially underrated
Newsletter Leaf Journal 199 covers six new articles from NLJ and ECS, 21 links from around the web, and other news and notes from the week that was as we look forward to a big second-half of September.
Welcome to the 199th 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 FILCO Majestitouch v3 keyboard of the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. This last week was not especially busy. But part of the reason it was not busy is because I was working on some big projects that should be going live this upcoming week. But this newsletter is about the week that was.
Leaves from the week that was
I published three new New Leaf Journal articles since mailing Newsletter 198. First, I responded to an anime writing prompt on a different blog and searched for a well-liked anime that I did not like. On September 11, I posted a short piece on a 9/11 memorial stone in San Antonio, Texas. Finally, on September 12, I reviewed a relatively new open source game for Android (and Android-derived) devices and offered some suggestions on how to improve it going forward.
Things were similarly slow at The Emu Café Social. I offered my take on Russian President Vladimir Putin's excursion to Mongolia. I then wrote about the re-design of a proprietary feed reader app for iOS that I cannot use because I do not use iOS or use proprietary feed reader app. Finally, I weighed in on Roku's new strategies for extracting revenue from its "customers."
Leaves from around the web
Let's check in on the world wide web...
Walking or waddling into our hearts
Carpentopod: A walking table project
Giliam de Carpentier. September 9, 2024.
I must inform you that this story has legs: This is indeed a walking coffee table. You can build one too!
How a 'Puffling Patrol' Protects Iceland’s Puffin Babies
Maggie Downs for Atlas Obscura. September 13, 2024.
Just a reminder that baby puffins are pufflings.
On second thought
Using Android Without a Google Account
Privacy Dad. September 12, 2024.
I would recommend (to be sure, so does the author), where possible, using one of the well-maintained Android alternative projects such as GrapheneOS, DivestOS, /e/ OS, or LineageOS. If you are on stock Android... well Google will always be there.
Yes, you can get a job with a humanities degree
Sam Klebanov for Morning Brew. September 13, 2024.
As the proud holder of an undergraduate philosophy degree, I want you to know that there is another way. You can get a job that has absolutely nothing to do with your degree and then write stuff on the internet about it.
Who’s Ready for World War Three?
John Schindler at Top Secret Umbra. September 13, 2024.
Meh. I'd rather not.
What if a virus could reverse antibiotic resistance?
Patience Asanga for Knowable Magazine. September 9, 2024.
Oh no we know how this ends. Let's not.
Questionable decision-making
Feeld dating app – Your nudes and data were publicly available
Bogdan Tiron for Fortbridge. September 10, 2024.
So people just install random apps and then upload naked pictures of themselves? Fascinating.
Inside California's brutal underground market for puppies: Neglected dogs, deceived owners, big profits
Alene Tchekmedyian and Melody Gutierrez for the Los Angeles Times (via Yahoo! News). September 12, 2024.
One of those cases where the government people did a thing (banning selling dogs at pet stores), did not contemplate second-order effects, and then celebrated their heroic deed while everyone else dealt with the second-order effects.
Everyone is military spending
Taiwan’s Latest Defense Budget Risks Falling Further Behind China
David Sacks for Council on Foreign Relations. August 9, 2024.
I would be impressed if Taiwan were out-spending China.
From China to Russia: Global Military Budgets Are Catching Up to the U.S. - NationalSecurityJournal
Robert Farley for National Security Journal. September 12, 2024.
Is this a challenge?
Life-risking thrill-seeking
Amid a surge in violence in Tijuana, ride-hailing apps and authorities implement new safety measures
Alicia Fàbregas for Rest of World. September 5, 2024.
Ride-share driver in Tijuana is certainly a career choice...
No s–t, Sherlock! Most NYC public bathrooms are dirty and lacking toilet paper — if they’re even open
Khristina Narizhnaya and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon for the New York Post. September 6, 2024.
Interesting. I had reached the same conclusion without needing to investigate.
The quiet Japanese island paradise on the frontline of growing Taiwan-China tensions
Justin McCurry for The Guardian. May 17, 2024.
They'll have an unfortunately good view if anything goes sideways.
Extra ingredient suggestion?
Pasta with pecorino-zucchini sauce and basil, skip the cream but keep the creamy, cheesy pasta
Christopher Kimball for the Associated Press (via The Washington Times). August 26, 2024.
Looks good.
There’s a Truffle Vending Machine at JFK Airport
Nicole Sarneiro for Untapped New York. March 12, 2024.
Probably in line with the cost of everything else at an airport.
Holding steadfast to time-honoured traditions
Putin Puts Forth Resolute Indifference to Kursk Debacle
Pavel K. Baev for The Jamestown Foundation. September 3, 2024.
And they say Putin isn't serious about his passion for learning from past Russian leaders.
Interview with The PokéGym
Johto times. September 6, 2024.
An interview with someone who has been running a Pokémon Trading Card Game strategy website for a quarter century (I wonder if it has any strategies for the Game Boy version).
Trust no one, especially...
Extra Ordinary Comic 756
Li Chen. September 11, 2024.
"Let this be a lesson to you all! Never trust bears!"
No excuses
Marine training for winter Olympics Bobsled team while in Iraq
Jeff Schogol for Task and Purpose. August 12, 2024.
If you can bobsled in Iraq, you can bobsled anywhere.
But I'm not an expert
Colleges Still Don’t Have a Plan for AI Cheating
Ian Bogost for The Atlantic. August 29, 2024.
I can think of one but I'm not a PhD.
For security, we have to stop picking up the phone
Zack Whittaker for TechCrunch. September 7, 2024.
Or get a new phone number and avoid giving it out as much as possible. Look, it worked for me.
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 37 (September 7 through 13). I will include 2024 and historic (which runs through the first week of 2021) ranking information for each article.
(1) Grafting a Bird's Head Cane Handle Onto a Wooden Umbrella
Victor V. Gurbo. June 8, 2021.
First appearance.
(2) An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
19 appearances and 5 top placements in 2024; 31 and 10 all time.
(3) Recommended F-Droid FOSS Apps For Android-Based Devices (2021)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 28, 2021.
27 appearances and 1 top placement in 2024; 84 and 9 all time.
(4) The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
13 appearances and 4 top placements in 2024; 145 and 73 all time.
(5) Installing Ubuntu Touch on a Google Nexus 7 (2013)
Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 5, 2021.
16 appearances and 2 top placements in 2024; 93 and 4 all time.
We had one big, and odd, surprise this week. My friend Victor V. Gurbo's 2021 article about grafting a brass cane handle to an umbrella (it still works, by the way) shot to the top of the ranking after receiving a ton of views one evening. This article has not been a factor in any ranking in a long while and accrued more views this week than it had all year en route to its first top five appearance and top placement. It was obviously shared somewhere, but I have been unable to find the source. Mysterious.
The umbrella article helped save what was otherwise a very middling week -- as our Google impressions firmly crashed back down to what they were before mid-August and the other search engines have been inconsistent. My Norton Safe Search review, which has taken over as the strongest article in recent weeks after leading the list for Newsletter Weeks 34-36, kept this week's ranking from being a clean sweep by 2021 articles.
News leaf journal
I have just about cleared one major project off my to-do list. I have planned to write an analysis of May Sky, a freeware visual novel that I reviewed as part of my al|together project and rated as the best of the 31 al|together novels, since I first covered the game in May 2022. I finally sat down and wrote my analysis -- which is long enough to necessitate being delivered in multiple parts. That should go live this week, along with my other summer 2024 project, a review of an old anime series called Living for the Day After Tomorro9w.
However, if you are not interested in visual novel and anime reviews -- you will still have a reason to tune in. I am working on several other shorter posts on other topics while finalizing those, so we should have a busy second-half of September as the season turns from summer to autumn.
Taking leaf
I will end my newsletter here this week because I have some things to take care of -- not least making sure I publish all of my in-progress projects in the near future. Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you have not done so already, consider signing up for our weekly email, using our newsletter's RSS feed, or simply checking in on the newsletter archive page once-in-a-while (see options).
Until summer's end,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.