Newsletter Leaf Journal CXVI 〜 216th Inaugural
The 216th issue of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to two new NLJ articles covering GrapheneOS features and free stuff seen in Brooklyn, links to six things I learned posted on ECS, 21 links from around the web covering everything from TikTok (which should be banned) and lawyers gone bad, and our Fediverse-flavored most-visited articles of 2025 Newsletter Week 3.
Welcome to the 216th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal and its short-form writing sister publication, The Emu Café Social. This newsletter comes to you as always from the Filco Majestitouch V3 keyboard of the administrator of both sites and the editor of The New Leaf Journal, Nicholas A. Ferrell. It ended up not being an especially busy week at The New Leaf Journal in terms of new posts, but I have multiple drafts in progress. Below, I cover what I did manage to publish last week along with other news and notes from my projects and around the world wide web.
Leaves from the week that was
I published two new New Leaf Journal articles. First, in a fun "PSA" post for anyone running GrapheneOS, a security-focused Android ROM, on a Google Pixel phone or tablet, I wrote about its new battery optimization feature in Enabling Charging Optimization on GrapheneOS. Stock Android users may also use my post to find similar functionality on their newer Android devices.
On January 16, I published a photo post that had been on my to-do list for close to half a year. Free "Hardly Used" Toilet Seen in Brooklyn comes as advertised. I documented said toilet-on-a-dolly-on-the-sidewalk on the same walk I photographed one of the three desks featured in Three Free Desks in Brooklyn (and a Mirror). I recall having considered featuring the toilet in the desk article, but I thought it deserved its own piece (I also considered turning it into a Justin and Justina dialogue). I decided to put it up this week after I read an article about Japanese toilet manufacturer Toto planning to expand its footprint in the American market (I discuss the report in my article).
I almost kept up with my things I learned posts at The Emu Café Social, publishing six (missing one day, I will make up for it). What did I learn? In a bit of early-2000s nostalgia, I learned that SlamBall May Still Exist. Then I changed genres and learned about a new polar icebreaker joining the U.S. Coast Guard fleet. Having covered the seas, I took to the air to learn about in-flight gambling. We then moved to the digital realm to learn that I needed to allow scripts on my new (take two) Miniflux instance to mark all posts as read. News about a re-release of a Super Mario World music collection taught me about Official Super Mario World CDs in 1991. Finally, I learned that if someone talks about a robot vacuum arms race, we should now understand them as talking about literal arms. What kinds of arms? I gave you a link, so you can go learn what I learned.
Leaves from around the web
Let's check in on what's happening around the world wide web.
TikTok for TikTok
The TikTok Majority Opinion
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. January 17, 2025.
Summarizing the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States declining to block the looming TikTok ban (good). See also a summary of the opinion concurring in judgment by Justice Neil Gorsuch. (PS: TikTok should be banned yesterday, whatever day it is.)
In Rasmussen Poll, Plurality Favors US TikTok Ban
George Caldwell for The Daily Signal. January 17, 2025.
Yes, but how many of them were on top of the issues as far back as 2020?
Ahead of looming ban, TikTok creators resist the move to Meta
Katie Hicks for Marketing Brew. January 16, 2025.
Using feeds to follow interesting things on the internet means that you don't have to worry about what the TikTok people do. They can't reach you.
RedNote leans into app store ads as TikTok users look for alternative platforms
Ryan Barwick for Marketing Brew. January 17, 2025.
It is nice to see all the TikTok "creators" finally trying a Chinese app that isn't banned in China.
Italian Police Arrest ‘Clumsy’ Tomb Raiders Who Allegedly Posted Stolen Etruscan Artifacts on Facebook
Julia Binswanger for Smithsonian Magazine. November 22, 2024.
At least they didn't post a TikTok video.
Speaking of ways to stay safe from TikTok
I Ditched the Algorithm for RSS—and You Should Too
Joey's Hoard of Stuff. January 15, 2025.
When you take his advice, make sure to add the RSS feed for this newsletter and feeds for The New Leaf Journal. If none of what I said makes sense, I have you covered.
Send links to your friends and make the Web a better place
Michael at Crysite. February 29, 2024.
HINT.
Revisionist history
Saturn Was "More Powerful Than PlayStation" Claims Argonaut Founder
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. December 2, 2024.
A contrarian take insofar as he makes the case that Saturn was more powerful than PlayStation for 3D games, but he has the experience to make the case.
Robert Moses, Reconsidered
Nicole Gelinas for City Journal. Autumn 2024.
Fair history but Hicks Street in Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens is ugly.
Credit where it's due
Tom Goldstein Was Indicted on Tax Evasion Charges
Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. January 16, 2025.
While Mr. Goldstein was regularly arguing cases before the Supreme Court of the United States and running the popular SCOTUS Blog Supreme Court news site, among other law projects, he was, according to the indictment, raiding his law firms coffers to fund his passion for high stakes poker -- a passion which came with a very high price tag because his passion for high stakes poker outpaced his success at high stakes poker (again, according to the allegations in the indictment).
Comparing The Dates of Tom Goldstein's SCOTUS Oral Arguments And The Dates In His Indictment
Josh Blackman for The Volokh Conspiracy. January 16, 2025.
Again, say what one will, but this man is -- assuming arguendo the allegations in the indictment are true -- a remarkable high-level multi-tasker.
Electricity in Ecuador
Ecuador’s EV sales surge despite frequent power cuts
Rodrigo Buendia for Rest of World. January 16, 2025.
A list of things governments should consider before they shoot money out of a firehose to encourage people to buy a random assortment of Chinese electric cars.
Ecuador: Law on Energy Generation Enacted to Address Energy Crisis
Stephania Alvares for Law Library of Congress. January 16, 2025.
This article presents some different explanations for Ecuador's electricity woes. Maybe everyone should to reach an agreement on what is going on.
Finding your quarterback, paying your quarterback
Chicago Bears' futility at the QB position defies probability
Dan Wetzel for Yahoo! Sports. April 22, 2024.
I knew the Bears were not known for great quarterbacks but three quarterback Pro Bowl appearances in 72 seasons is so hideous that it demands respect.
How to disguise your quarterback as your punter
Rodger Sherman. December 30, 2024.
In this case change numbers, adjust socks, and go with the third-string quarterback instead of the primary backup quarterback.
The Purdy Problem
Alex Varghese. January 10, 2025.
The dilemma of whether to pay big money to a good (but not great) quarterback in light of the NFL salary cap.
Great expectations
Mammoth Remains Found Nearly Intact in Siberia
Reuters (via Newsmax). December 23, 2024.
To be sure that is about where I would expect to come across "nearly intact" mammoth remains.
Identifying Gaming's First Playable Female Character "Isn't As Cut-And-Dried" As You Might Think
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. January 10, 2025.
I wouldn't have assumed that identifying the first video game character was "cut-and-dried."
Nonimmigrant work visas (de facto and de jure)
There Are 1.5 Million Foreign Students in the United States (and Over a Third Have Work Authorization)
Jon Feere for Center for Immigration Studies. November 22, 2024.
I don't think the F-1 student visa classification was originally intended to be a bargain hunting employer-friendly employment visa category.
Elon Musk Is Right about H-1Bs
George Fishman for Center for Immigration Studies. January 9, 2025.
The headline is somewhat misleading in that the author's take, with which your friendly small website editor-slash-immigration law research specialist is largely in agreement with, is that Mr. Musk was wrong in his colorful opening salvo on the H-1B program and somewhat closer to the mark after backtracking from said salvo.
Chuck Norris
My favourite colour is Chuck Norris red
Declan Chidlow for HTMHEell. December 20, 2024.
My favorite color is whatever Chuck Norris' favorite color is.
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 3 (Jan 11-17) with 2025 and historic (going back to 2021) ranking information for each of the five articles.
(1.) An Early Review of Pixelfed – Instagram Alternative
N.A. Ferrell. November 13, 2020.
2025: 1 appearance and 1 top placement.
Historic: 36 appearances and 3 top placements.
(2.) Kaori After Story - Visual Novel Review
N.A. Ferrell. December 31, 2022.
2025: 3 appearances and 2 top placements.
Historic: 4 appearances and 2 top placements.
(3.) An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
N.A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
2025: 3 appearances.
Historic: 49 appearances and 18 top placements.
(4.) Broken Optical Audio Cable Door “Fix”
N.A. Ferrell. September 16, 2023.
2025: 2 appearances.
Historic: 16 appearances.
(5.) Hair Color in Raven of the Inner Palace
N.A. Ferrell. November 15, 2023.
2025: 1 appearance.
Historic: 3 appearances.
Analysis
My 2020 review of Pixelfed last topped our weekly ranking charts in Newsletter Week 3 of 2020. Four years later, it returns to the top-ranking, which also happens to be its first appearance in any weekly ranking since Newsletter Week 52 of 2022. Moreover, it also posted the best week of 2023 and, by extension, the best single-week performance since Newsletter Week 3 of 2024 -- good enough that it actually had more views in seven days than it had when it led our monthly ranking in January 2021. What happened? I suspect the Pixelfed review's renaissance is owed to some combination of the Pixelfed project releasing mobile apps and some dissatisfaction with Instagram. While my Pixelfed review is dated, I long resisted writing a follow-up since my 2020 thoughts have remained consistent over the years. However, I am now in the progress of writing a follow-up after having seen clearly and beyond doubt that there is periodic demand for information about it.
My review of Kaori After Story dropped to second after two dominant first-place finishes to begin 2025. It began showing signs of returning to Earth in the second half of the week such that I would be surprised to see it return to the top ranking next week (or at least until another round of Steam sales... which could be soon), but we shall see. We do have a mild surprise at fifth this week. Calvin Coolidge Describes His Mother, Victoria almost returned to the top-five after a surprise appearance last week, but was edged out my my study of hair color in the 2022 Raven in the Inner Palace anime, which makes its third weekly appearance after having last appeared four weeks ago. I still have no explanation for Raven's not only making top-fives in 2025, but doing so in competitive weeks, but it has ensured that 2025 is another year in which anime hair color articles are represented in the weekly rankings.
I conclude with one to watch: My Norton Safe Search review has now made 23 consecutive weekly rankings and, while it is not as strong as it was in November and December, has not come especially close to missing a weekly top five in a while. I know for certain we only have three streaks of 30 in newsletter ranking history, so if Norton keeps going, I will work on figuring out where it stands among the legends ("legend" is doing work here) of the newsletter ranking.
Taking leaf
This last week was disappointing in terns of New Leaf Journal article output, but as I keep promising, I have some big projects in the work in addition to my review of anime in 2024 (which is coming in January -- that much I can guarantee). I am loath to spoil everything, but anyone interested in open source smartwatches, librebooting old Macbooks, presidential election stats, appearances of the phrase "tsuki ga kirei" in anime, or checking in on Halloween in Japan in 2024 will have something to look forward to.
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Until January 25, 2025,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.