Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXL 〜 Garbage RSS
Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to two new NLJ articles covering Red Hook and RSS feeds, 27 links from around the web, and other news and notes from the week that was.
Welcome to the 240th 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 administrator, editor, and writer of both publications, Nicholas A. Ferrell.
I had a busy week. As a result, neither NLJ nor ECS had a busy week in terms of new articles. However, we do have a couple of new articles to cover along with 27 links from around the web and other assorted news and notes.
Leaves from the week that was
I only published two new articles since mailing Newsletter 239, but I like to think I made them count.
I tackled a two RSS/ATOM feed issues in Finding the Best RSS/ATOM Feed. First, I dealt with a site which features its main site feed but where its main site feed is messy. Second, I found a site which has an empty main site feed, which makes its main site feed somewhat less than useful. Fortunately, there was a solution in each case -- working taxonomic feeds.
In Garbage and Free Stuff in Red Hook, Brooklyn, I shared photos from Hicks and Nelson Streets in Red Hook, Brooklyn. The twist here is that the first photo came on April 19, 2025 (not my first April 19 photo post). Enjoy a coffee cup tied to a fence and the same(?) coffee cup seen several months later next to two discarded chairs.
Links from around the web
Let us make up for my small word count last week with some words from around the web. You lucky readers will get 27 links instead of the usual 21. I would like to say that the extra links are solely to make it for my only publishing two articles last week, but in all honesty I became concerned when I saw the current size of my unused newsletter link list (learn how I collect and annotate all of these wonderful links).
People are saying
Weasel Words: How to Remove Them From Your Writing
Ryan Law.
Experts state that people say that many people widely believe that the fact is The Newsletter Leaf Journal is free of weasel words.
How it was going, how it is going
Moscow and Tehran Working to Block U.S. Involvement in Zangezur Corridor
Paul Goble for The Jamestown Foundation. July 30, 2025.
These efforts may have included instigating a bizarre fight between the President of Armenia and the head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, covered in Newsletter 236.
Trump brokers potentially game-changing deal with Armenia, Azerbaijan
Eurasianet. August 8, 2025.
"The centerpiece is an Armenian commitment to grant a long-term lease to the United States to develop a transit corridor traversing Armenian territory and connecting mainland Azerbaijan to the country’s Nakhchivan exclave."
Let's check in on Lebanon
AP Writes Puff Piece on Hezbollah 'Victims' of Israeli Pager Attack
Andrew Stiles for The Washington Free Beacon. August 6, 2025.
Which part of the AP style guide deals with editing final drafts of stories delivered to your news desk by Islamist terrorist organizations?
Explainer: Can Lebanon disarm Hezbollah?
Reuters. August 6, 2025.
The situation for Hezbollah is apparently dire enough that the Associated Press is rushing to publish its human interest stories, so I suppose it's now or never for the non-Hezbollah portion of the Lebanese government.
The wide world of sports without comment
Full-contact Wrestball tournament USA Wrestball Cup 2026 Announced
Wrestball Inc. (via PR Newswire). August 5, 2025.
"Wrestball is a high-energy, full-contact sport that combines elements of basketball and wrestling. Each play starts with a one-on-one clash for ball control, then shifts into a team phase with throws, passes, and scoring at the hoop. There's no dribbling — just movement, power, and strategy. Likewise basketball, the objective is to score by throwing the ball through a hoop. However, unlike basketball, wrestling moves are permitted when battling for possession. Points are awarded for successful shots and for executing wrestling techniques during gameplay."
Despite confusion, NFL players can use own smelling salts
Kalyn Kahler for ESPN. August 6, 2025.
"San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle and Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Lavonte David publicly mourned the loss of smelling salts [before the policy was clarified] because they interpreted the memo to mean an all-out ban on using them during games."
The Greatest Game Never Played
Jonathan Abrams for Bleacher Report. February 14, 2017.
"The made-for-TV court at Caesars Palace could have been empty except for one basketball and two of the game's most illustrious players ever. They would've been free of teammates, facing each other head-on in The King of the Court, to finally answer a question that remained unanswered for so long: Who's better—Michael Jordan or Magic Johnson?"
Everyone is getting rich except me
Waste of the Day: Covid Loans For 11-Year-Olds
Jeremy Portnoy for RealClearInvestigations. July 2, 2025.
I thought I accomplished something by launching The New Leaf Journal in April 2020. Meanwhile entrepreneurial toddlers were getting $312 million in "loans." I feel inadequate.
How much should you charge for your game?
Chris Sutcliffe for Games Industry.biz. August 7, 2025.
Not to be pedantic but you should probably try to find the sweet spot where you maximize your profit. Of course, this newsletter is free, so far be it from me to tell you how to make money off your game.
Burying the lede, omitting the lede
Elite New York High School Admits 8 Black Students in a Class of 781 (archived)
Troy Closson for The New York Times. July 31, 2025.
I couldn't help but notice that it took Mr. Closson until the tenth paragraph to note that admission to the schools in question is based on a standardized test.
America Should Look to Japan for Prison Reform
Derek Lux and Jack Kontarinis for City Journal. August 4, 2025.
I have my doubts that we would replicate the Japanese prison experience by adopting Japanese prison policies unless the policy change comes with an agreement to swap prisoners with Japan.
Learn something new
Understanding ODF File Types: .odt, .ods, .odp, and Beyond
Italo Vignoli for Open Document Planet. July 25, 2025.
Learn about your .ods and .odt formats.
6 Facts About Indigo That Might Surprise You
The Thing Magazine. June 16, 2025.
These are good facts but they left out that you battle the Kanto Elite Four in Indigo Plateau.
What Is llms.txt, and Should You Care About It?
Ryan Law for Ahrefs Blog. April 22, 2025.
I read this post and concluded that I should not care about llms.txt.
Let them eat cake
Taste-testing Japan’s “I love Obama” cakes【Taste test】
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. April 5, 2025.
I see what they just did there.
Little Debbie® Snacks Unveils Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal Creme Pies
Vending Connection. August 7, 2025.
Makes more sense than makeup removal wipes.
Tired: Checking in on AI. Wired: AI checking in on you.
Microsoft Recall can still nab credit cards, passwords, info
Avram Piltch for The Register. August 1, 2025.
It can't if you use Linux.
Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives
Gabriel Corral, Valbhav Singhai, Brian Mitchell, and Reid Tatoris for The Cloudflare Blog. August 4, 2025.
I had reason to suspect this before reading Cloudflare's compelling evidence.
What's the UAE up to?
UAE approves plan to develop new laws with AI
Arabian Business. April 14, 2025.
What happens when you have more money than you could ever spend?
UAE offers free open-source AI as alternative to US and China
Divasha Bhat for Rest of World. August 8, 2025.
The UAE can't spend money as fast as it makes it, but it will give it a good go.
UAE offers free-of-charge portable desalination plants to cover arid Cyprus' summer water needs
Menelaos Hadjicostis for AP. April 24, 2025.
Certainly preferable to the aid Cyprus receives from Turkey.
I write captions in May, waiting for the perfect newsletter to drop them
Nintendo Switch store blocks indie dev’s release over “in-game advertising” for including references to previous titles in series
Amber V for Automation West. May 20, 2025.
Meanwhile it probably allowed something with a title along the lines of Hentai Summer Puzzle 16, featuring totally-not-AI-generated-anime-style-girls.
In defense of quality
Ruslan Osipov. July 7, 2025.
It touches on some of the ideas I presented in An Essay on Productivity, Production, and Productive Leisure.
Great Rescues
Coast Guard Aircrew Rescues Four from Sinking Tug in Remote Gulf of Alaska
Mike Schuler for gCaptain. August 4, 2025.
No tugboat crew or Coast Guard members were injured in the operation, but the poor tugboat has probably seen better days.
Long Island deputy saves injured red-tailed hawk on side of busy road
Alex Mitchell for New York Post. August 4, 2024.
We know why the Long Island deputy sheriff crossed the road.
Black bear hangs out in Maryland tree, eventually tranquilized
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. May 27, 2025.
It's Maryland's fault for not putting a "don't climb the trees" sign up.
Most-turned leaves of the newsletter week
I use a privacy-friendly and entirely local tool called Koko Analytics (see my 2025 article) to track page visits. 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 2025 Newsletter Week XXXIII (August 2-8) along with their 2025 and historic (going back 2021) weekly ranking statistics.
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Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
2025: 15 appearances and 7 top placements. -
Garbage and Free Stuff in Red Hook, Brooklyn
Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 7, 2025.
2025: First appearance. -
Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
2025: 7 appearances and 2 top placements. -
The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei
Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 14, 2021.
2025: 4 appearances.
Cumulative: 157 appearances and 75 top placements. -
Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
2025: 9 appearances.
Cumulative: 11 appearances.
Analysis
We had another good week in terms of visitors, with the top three articles all having excellent weeks and far out-pacing the field. While my Amazon Cargo Bike article regained the top-spot in the ranking and notched its seventh first-place finish since being published in April, the stand-out in the top three is Thursday's Red Hook photo post. Last week, I noted that my article on Jim Walden's campaign car appeared to make the weekly ranking thanks in large part to referrals from the NewsBreak App (which I do not use, but started seeing in my referrer logs in July). The same thing happened with my photo post, except the photo post received about double the number of referrals as Walden and had one of the best performing days of the year on Friday. Alas for random things seen on a Brooklyn street corner, the funny Amazon vehicles had enough visits in the bank to hold off the late charge (Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search) was also in the first-place mix.
Notable Leaf Journal
The NewsBreak App (discussed in the previous paragraph) referrals is interesting. I do not remember when I first saw it in my referrers (I discussed it on ECS), but it caught my attention when it delivered an unusual number of visits to my July 23, 2025 Window Washing Machine Couple in Ridgewood article (albeit not enough for a newsletter week ranking placement). It is now largely responsible for two newsletter week ranking articles in the last two weeks.
As I noted on ECS, NewsBreak App appears to be a proprietary news aggregator app for Android and iOS. I am not 100% sure why it suddenly started delivering meaningful traffic to The New Leaf Journal, but I suspect that it has to do with my having only recently added a Google News Sitemap to the site. The articles that have benefited thus far have been my posts on things seen around Brooklyn, leading me to believe my Brooklyn articles play best with it.
It is too early to say whether the NewsBreak referral trend will hold up, but I would consider it a big win if it delivers traffic to some of my local photo posts, which seldom do well unless they touch on a bigger topic (e.g., the Amazon Cargo Bike piece or some of my BLOB Dylan articles).
Taking Leaf
Thank you as always for reading The Newsletter Leaf Journal. If you enjoyed this issue and have not done so already, you can follow this newsletter by signing up for our weekly email, adding our RSS feed to your favorite feed reader, or checking in on our archive page.
I have several article projects in the works so I hope to publish a bit more this upcoming week.
Until August 16,
Cura ut valeas.