Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXX 〜 Bearly
The 220th edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features a link to our newest Valentine's-themed article and 24 links from around the web.
This is the 220th 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 and editor of The New Leaf Journal and its short-form writing sister site, The Emu Café Social, Nicholas A. Ferrell. I do not have much site news to report because several work assignments took away from the time I had to publish new articles. However, this newsletter will make up for it with our usual assortment of links from around the web and other news and notes.
Leaf from the week that was
I had planned to publish a few articles last week. Unfortunately, I only had time for one. Inflatable Valentine's Bears in Brooklyn. As the title suggests, the article features my photos of two inflatable Valentine's bear decorations in Brooklyn. I am in the progress of writing a (sort of) Valentine's Day-themed visual novel review, but I did not have enough time to finish my draft (much less publish).
Leaves from the week that was
Because I produced about 300 words for your reading enjoyment last week, I will give up 24 links from around the web instead of the customary 21.
Brownstones
How 19th century New York City fell in love with brownstones—a love story that endures today
Ephemeral New York. January 27, 2025.
It comes with good brownstone photos.
Brownstone Brooklyn: The Rise of the Brownstone in New York
Brownstoner. January 31, 2017.
I suppose this is the best publication for a history of New York City brownstones.
Something is funky in Brooklyn
NYC plans massive tunnel to keep sewage from flowing into Newtown Creek
Rosemary Misdary for Gothamist. February 12, 2025.
I only took a good whiff of Newtown Creek on one occasion. That was enough to confirm that this project is much needed.
NY may allow even more pot shops in neighborhoods but some merchants say change would put them out of business
Carl Campanile for the New York Post. February 13, 2025.
I like the second half of the headline but I am concerned about the first.
NYC dining sheds' planned return is making New Yorkers sick: 'Inherently dangerous'
Gabrielle Fahrny for the New York Post. February 15, 2025.
I'm looking forward to the return of undisturbed standing water.
The wonders of LLMs
Delta unveils new AI chatbot, Uber partnership, and more at CES 2025 Jordyn Grzelewski for Tech Brew. January 8, 2025.
“Delta Concierge will serve as a thread across your experience, a GenAI-powered personal assistant that anticipates your needs, provides real-time guidance, and delivers tailored recommendations—combining the context of who you are and how you travel with the deep knowledge and insights that we’ve already built as the world’s most reliable airline.” (This has to be corporate performance art, right?)
High Schooler Who Graduates with 3.4 GPA Can't Read (archived) Frannie Block for The Free Press. February 12, 2025.
They say AI is bad in schools but look at how some schools encourage students to use it for homework instead of double-checking whether the students can read.
Kitty
Japanese delivery company tests ideal kotatsu temperature for cats, with live cats
Shannon for SoraNews24. April 8, 2024.
The results were about as conclusive as any study of cats.
'Monument to Lovers and Cats'
Atlas Obscura. February 14, 2025.
"Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, is a feline paradise not unlike Istanbul. There are stray cats everywhere, a cuddly symbol of the city. In the heart of its old town stands the grand Chain Building, part of which pays subtle homage to the local cat population."
The Secret Café That Is Not A Cat Café
Vanessa Glau. February 2, 2025.
Out: Kissaten. In: Kittyten (but don't touch the kitty, apparently).
Exercise Wheel Tracker Confirms Suspicions About Cats
Dan Maloney for Hackaday. December 5, 2024.
You're not going to believe this but...
Question and answer
How Google Took Over the Classroom (Archived)
Natasha Singer for The New York Times. May 13, 2017.
Answer: Vast amounts of money and identifying and targeting easy marks.
Why Does February (Usually) Have 28 Days?
Timothy Taylor for Conversable Economist. February 1, 2025.
So I can write about different ways to remember the days in the month.
Pleasant dinners
Recreating an Ancient Roman Dinner of Death
Sam O'Brien for Atlas Obscura. November 29, 2024.
Thank you but I think I will stick with the dinners of the living.
Japan’s workplace drinking party communication is unnecessary, says majority of workers in survey
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. November 26, 2024.
What better way is there to wind down after a long day at work than listen to your drunk colleagues whine about their lives?
Obsolete operating systems
Rediscovering Plan9 from Bell Labs
Bill Dyer for It's FOSS. December 30, 2024.
I need to revive the spirit of Plan 9 with a new operating system. I'll call it Plan999.
With 10 months of support remaining, Win 10 still dominates
Richard Speed for The Register. January 2, 2025.
There are people running Windows 7 who will call the Windows 10 dead-enders sell-outs. I'm just sitting here watching the show from my EndeavourOS-powered desktop.
Good and bad console business strategies
Feature: Valve's Unshackling Of SteamOS Could Give Switch 2 Some Welcome Competition
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. January 17, 2024.
They operate in different niches and Nintendo's console niche is much bigger, but I root for SteamOS in its own right since everything Steam is doing for its OS benefits mainline Linux.
Shuhei Yoshida Explains Why The PS Vita Flopped
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. January 16, 2025.
I have a PlayStation TV, which can play Vita games on the TV. I never had a Vita. Unsurprisingly, I agree that ditching the option to connect the Vita to an external monitor was a big miss by Sony.
Small web takes
RSS blogrolls are a federated social network
Robert Alexander. May 13, 2024.
I'm working on one.
Surfing the Independent Web
Matthew at TechTea. September 23, 2024.
If you're reading this newsletter, you probably have some interest in the independent web issues he speaks of.
Do not comment on another website, when you can write on your own – disassociated.com
John Lampard at disassociated. April 29, 2024.
I largely agree with the comment on your own site take.
Pretty pictures
Someone Sent a Fuzzy Photo of a Painting to Christie's. It Turned Out to Be a Rare Watercolor by J.M.W. Turner
Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian Magazine. January 15, 2025.
Once thought to be a Ruskin, the painting turned out to be a Turner, which is much more valuable. To be sure, Ruskin would have likely concurred that the Turner is much more valuable.
The Wonder of Her Kind
Old Book Illustrations. January 18, 2025.
A very pretty old book illustration by Charles Robinson.
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 7 (February 8-14) with 2025 and historic (going back to 2021) ranking information for each of the five articles.
(1.) Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
N.A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.
2025: 5 appearances and 2 top placements.
Historic: 9 appearances and 3 top placements.
(2.) January 2025 Look at Pixelfed Social
N.A. Ferrell. January 29, 2025.
2025: 3 appearances.
(3.) Kaori After Story – Visual Novel Review
N.A. Ferrell. December 31, 2022.
2025: 5 appearances and 2 top placements.
Historic: 6 appearances and 2 top placements.
(4.) An In-Depth Look at Norton Safe Search
N.A. Ferrell. October 18, 2022.
2025: 6 appearances.
Historic: 52 appearances and 18 top placements.
(5.) The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei
N.A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
2025: First appearance.
Historic: 154 appearances and 75 top placements.
Analysis
We had a strong first five days of the week followed by our two weakest days of 2025 -- albeit Thursday and Friday were still well above average by previous standards. This week's ranking contained no major surprises and the only new article for 2025 was our long-time ranking king, my tsuki ga kirei essay, which is now our first article with weekly ranking appearances in five consecutive years. Our top two returned from last week in the same order and again separated themselves from the pack, but they slowed enough in the second half of the week that I could see a more competitive race for the top spot in newsletter week 8.
Taking leaf
My lack of new articles indicates that I do not have much news to report in this newsletter, so I will skip to our closing and work on publishing some of the articles I had planned for last week this upcoming week. If you enjoyed the newsletter and are not already a regular reader, you can sign up for our weekly Saturday email, add the newsletter's RSS feed to your favorite feed reader (see introduction) or check in on our newsletter archive when you want to catch up (see options).
Until February 22,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.