Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXV 〜 No branded Cybertruck (yet)
Issue 215 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to our newest combined 13 NLJ and ECS posts, touching on everything from the 2002-03 NBA season to Cybertrucks seen in Brooklyn Bridge Park, 21 links from around the web, and other news and notes from the week that was and about the week to come.
Welcome to the 215th 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 administrator/editor of The New Leaf Journal and its short-form writing sister-publication, The Emu Café Social, Nicholas A. Ferrell. We had a busy first all-2025 Newsletter Week on both of our sites, so let us get to our newest posts, links from around the web, and other news and notes.
Leaves from the week that was
I published four new articles at The New Leaf Journal since mailing Newsletter 214.
I began the week with The Army-Navy Game and the College Football Playoffs wherein I was inspired to work on a small research project after seeing that Army, which was in the mix for a college football playoff bid after an excellent season, played its traditional rivalry game against Navy one week after the playoff selection. Continuing in the sports theme, I read an article last week about how the 2024-25 Boston Celtics are on pace to shatter every team single-season record for three point attempts. While that is impressive (or horrifying, it is a matter of perspective), it prompted me to turn back the clock 22 years. Having already covered the 2003-04 NBA Finals and the 2003 NBA Draft, I added 2002-03 Celtics and Relative Three Point Stats to my series of early-2000s NBA nostalgia. My 2002-03 Celtics study, in which I defend the honor of the great Antoine Walker, looks at three point stats going back to the introduction of the three point line to the NBA in the 1979-80 season, so it is a broad-perspective piece.
On January 7, I published a photo post titled Eddy's Branded Cybertruck at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The headline accurately advertises what you can expect in the successor to my December 6, 2024 post, Musing About Tesla Cybertruck at Brooklyn Bridge Park.
Finally, I published our first new Justin & Justina dialogue in a few months in AI AI Meta - A Dialogue of Sotrs. The subject of this post with a punny title is Meta's using AI-generated profiles on Facebook and Instagram to drive engagement. It is effectively the successor to my 2021 dialogue titled Existential Social Media Misery. You may think that, based on the timing, my new dialogue has something to do with Meta separating itself from the fact-checking industry. However, it does not -- I drafted this entire dialogue before Meta's splashy new announcement, so that is not touched on by Justin and Justina.
I continued with my series of things I learned posts on The Emu Café Social, missing January 7 but making up for it with learning two things on January 8. See the new entries in this exciting growing collection below:
- In-Season College Football Number Changes
- Removing WordPress Comments Feed From Head
I implemented this fix on The New Leaf Journal. - TP-Link Security Issues
I spent Thursday night setting up a new OpenWrt dumb access point so I could transition my TP-Link dumb access point to client duties. - Funding the Fact-Checking Industry
Here, I tackled big Meta news from the week. - There Are More TikToks (“Lemon”)
- Car Software and Recalls
- Cats on Rikers Island
I also published two additional ECS posts. Angel Next Door Surging Views Explanation comes as advertised. I offered my thoughts on a new Android tablet in TCL NXTPAPER 11 Plus Announced.
Leaves from around the web
Let's check in on what was happening around the world wide web...
Jimmy Carter
Secret Service Ends Carter Detail After Nearly 50 Years
Michael Katz for Newsmax. January 10, 2025.
"Carter, who died last month at age 100, was first given Secret Service protection on Oct. 8, 1975, when he was running for the Democrat presidential nomination, the agency said in a statement posted on X by Kelly O'Donnell, White House correspondent for NBC News." ... "The statement said Carter was assigned his own detail during the fall stretch of the 1976 campaign and weeks after the party's convention on Sept. 6, 1976..."
The wild story of Jimmy Carter’s first election
Nathaneal Rakich at Baseballot. December 30, 2024.
By "first election" we mean a Georgia State Senate race in 1962.
Check your facts
The rise and fall of "fact-checking"
Nate Silver. January 8, 2025.
I agree with most of Mr. Silver's take, granting some unnecessary hedging on his part.
Global fact-checkers were disappointed, not surprised, Meta ended its program
Ananya Bhattacharya for Rest of World. January 10, 2025.
This looks at Meta's "fact-checker" decision from a Middle East/Central Asia fact checker perspective.
Misinformation Expert's "Citation to Fake, AI-Generated Sources in His Declaration … Shatters His Credibility with This Court"
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. October 10, 2025.
A "misinformation expert" lazily uses a large language model to generate a declaration on "misinformation" without making sure the model, or "AI," cited to sources that exist? Perish the thought!
Hey! That's MY Thing!
Meet the Tiny, Adorable Owls That Have Mastered the Art of Hiding
Kayla Randall for Smithsonian Magazine. January 3, 2025.
I'm surprised there's more to say about them after I settled all the issues back in 2021 in All About the Saw-whet Owl. But even before that article, we learned in 2020 that saw-whet owls are good at hiding.
Does Defense Really Win Championships??
Sean Beney at Beyond the Score. December 30, 2024.
I wrote the NBA version of this article back in July. Here we look at college football. While the NBA answer was "yes, but..." the college football answer is closer to "yes."
Here's hoping
Instant Analysis of the TikTok Oral Argument
Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. January 10, 2025.
Fingers crossed for letting the ban-hammer come down.
House Passes Measure To Sanction ICC in Bipartisan Vote, Setting Stage for Senate Approval
Adam Kredo for The Washington Free Beacon. January 9, 2025.
I have my doubts about its prospects in the Senate, but speaking for myself, this is a good and important first step regardless of the bill's ultimate fate.
Drawing connections from a link I saved in December to one I saved in January
EU does not want a member state in Georgia, it wants a client state
Anthony J. Constantini for Brussels Signal. December 6, 2024.
Not unfair, even granting some -- let's say serious issues -- with the Georgian Dream party.
Zero evidence: the bogus ‘intelligence’ behind Romania’s cancelled election
Gabriel Elefteriu for Brussels Signal. January 9, 2025.
Speaking as someone who was on the ban TikTok yesterday train before yesterday, I submit for the record that I never advocated for using TikTok to discard an election result because the leading political parties and the European Union disagree with the outcome.
Free kitties
How a house cat miraculously survived weeks lost on Governors Island: ‘Really exciting’
Nicole Rosenthal for the New York Post. December 30, 2024.
Overlooked in the article is the Instagram-addled behavior which led to the cat being lost on Governor's Island.
Meet the Cats Who Roam Rikers Island
Haidee Chu for The City. January 10, 2025.
They must be on good behavior to be allowed to roam around.
Top-notch cybersecurity
North Korean Hackers Exploit Supposedly Dead Internet Explorer To Attack Users
Michael Kan for PC Mag. October 16, 2024.
I hope this did not affect all of you who use Internet Explorer to explore The New Leaf Journal.
How Chinese Hackers Graduated From Clumsy Corporate Thieves to Military Weapons (Archived)
Dustin Volz, Aruna Viswanatha, Sarah Krouse, and Drew FitzGerald for The Wall Street Journal. January 4, 2025.
"The intruders used known software flaws that had been publicly warned about but hadn’t been patched. Investigators said they were still probing the full scope of the attack."
Foreign policy triumphs in the Middle East
In Countering the Houthis, America Should Lead From Behind
Allison Minor for Foreign Affairs. October 18, 2024.
I was not at all surprised when we finally reached "stop the Houthis from shutting down international shipping by trying to implement Iran's foreign policy objectives on their behalf."
The Paradox of Israeli Deterrence
Carrie A. Lee for Foreign Affairs. November 19, 2024.
I disagree with most of this essay but it is a good summary of what has been the dominant view of the Middle East in the U.S. foreign policy establishment for the better part of the last 16 years.
Doing more with less
800% Detail: Tweaking Stunt Island's 30-year-old 3D engine
Alberto Marnetto. November 20, 2024.
Talk about dedication to maximizing the aesthetics of your favorite classic games.
The Making Of: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2's Surprisingly Stellar GBA Port
Jack Yarwood for Time Extension. January 9, 2025.
I found this to be a very interesting read despite my never having played one of the Tony Hawk games.
Hindsight is 20/20
Rare 'Doomsday Fish' Washes Up on California Shore
Solange Reyner for Newsmax. November 16, 2024.
"An oarfish, a rare creature considered a symbol of impending doom in Japanese folklore, washed up on a California beach last week." (This had been sitting in my list of around the web articles for almost two months.)
Before you buy a domain name, first check to see if it's haunted
Bryan Braun. October 25, 2024.
We didn't do this but fortunately thenewleafjournal had previously been used for an anodyne WordPress.com blog instead of something malicious.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
I use a privacy-friendly and entirely local tool called Koko Analytics (see my 2022 review) 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, I present the five most-visited articles of 2025 Newsletter Week 2 (Jan 4-10) with 2025 and historic (going back to 2021) ranking information for each of the five articles.
(1.) Kaori After Story - Visual Novel Review
N.A. Ferrell. December 31, 2022.
2025: 2 appearances and 2 top placements.
Historic: 3 appearances and 2 top placements.
(2.) Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
N.A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.
2025: First appearance.
Historic: 5 appearances and 1 top placement.
(3.) An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
N.A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
2025: 2 appearances.
Historic: 48 appearances and 18 top placements.
(4.) Planning and Angel Next Door Season 2
N.A. Ferrell. November 5, 2023.
2025: 2 appearances.
Historic: 30 appearances and 11 top placements.
(5.) Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother, Victoria
N.A. Ferrell. March 13, 2021.
2025: First appearance.
Historic: 3 appearances.
Note: Previous appearances were in 2022 Newsletter Weeks 41-42.
Analysis
(I had a Koko Analytics update Thursday, which resulted in our losing about 90 minutes of stats that afternoon. It probably did not have any effect on the top-five order, but I suppose anything is possible.)
My Kaori After Story not only made it two-for-two in first-place finishes to start 2025, but it also provided a mild surprise by slightly improving on its week one performance. It was briefly over-taken on Monday by Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships, which posted the best single day of the year (which in turn coincided with two mysterious referrals from nytimes.com domains), but it quickly returned to the top spot en route to a convincing first-place finish by Friday. While I do not expect Kaori to keep leading the field indefinitely, it should be considered a strong favorite to claim the title of most-viewed article in January based on its current performance and lead over the field.
We have a surprise in fifth place. My March 2021 article Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother, Victoria, had a brief, seemingly random run of success in October and November of 2022, when it appeared in the 2022 Newsletter Week 41 and 42 rankings. It did not register again on my rankings until it snuck into the top-24 for December 2024. It has been performing well for a few weeks and its strong performance, which would have been good for first place in a good number of 2024 weeks, gives it is first weekly top-five in more than two years.
(Visual Novels, NBA stats, search engine reviews, a joke article tangentially about a 2023 romance anime, and Calvin Coolidge history -- let no one say our billions of readers do not have varied interests.)
News Leaf Journal
My top priority at the moment is finishing my 2024 anime review, but I have two things I want to do in the interim. First, there is one leftover 2024 show that I want to finish watching -- even though I am already fairly confident it will not be in my top-six ranking, which I think is solid. Secondly, I have already started work on a review of Girls Band Cry, a spring-2024 show, and I figure I ought to finish that since, regardless of whether it is placing in my 2024-top six (no spoilers!), being able to cross-reference the GBC article will reduce some of the work I have to do in the final 2024 anime review. I plan to finish those tasks and projects by the 15th -- I think first half of January 2025 is a fair target for a 2024 anime review.
I have a number of tech article ideas and projects to go along with my usual one-man miscellany, so I expect that we should have a variety of posts coming in the latter two-thirds of January.
Taking leaf
Thank you as always for reading and following The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you are not already a regular reader of this weekly newsletter, you can become one by signing up for our weekly email, adding our RSS feed to your favorite feed reader (no sign-up required), or simply checking in on our newsletter archive page where you can find all of our newsletters (again, no sign-up required). See the options here.
Until January 18,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.