Newsletter Leaf Journal CCXLII: Liquid Desk
Issue 242 of The Newsletter Leaf Journal features links to 11 new NLJ and ECS posts covering everything from drink marketing to free furniture, 21 links with commentary from around the web, and other news and notes from the week that was and week to come.
Welcome to the 242nd 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 productive week of publishing new articles and short posts. Below, I share links to my new posts, 21 links from around the web, and other news and notes.
Leaves from the week that was
I published four new articles on The New Leaf Journal since mailing Newsletter 241.
I am finally catching up on delayed monthly review posts with May and June 2025 at The New Leaf Journal. While the review comes as advertised, consider it a good way to catch up on any articles of interest that you may have missed or to learn about the backstories behind articles you enjoyed. I also included our most-visited articles for both May and June and six additional articles from Mays and Junes past.
This week featured two articles about drinks.
- First, Missing the 'Liquid Death' Marketing Campaign follows last week's Coca Cola Liquid Death Tag. Having had never heard of this "Liquid Death" drink before seeing a price tag with the label placed under Coca Cola at a store, I saw an article in my feed reader about Liquid Death's apparently well-known marketing campaign hours after publishing my article. I was inspired to write my second how my internet reading habits allowed me to miss that article, with the first having been Missing Temu Ads Through Good Internet Usage back in January 2024.
- Second, I published Against the Coffee Palmer. After reading about and being suitably horrified by a new commercial concoction that combines coffee and lemonade, I decided that I had to turn it into an article. This too recalls an older article, albeit a much older article in this case: “Coffee Fruit Punch” – A Cookbook Abomination (November 23, 2020). I invite you to come for the coffee-lemonade horror and stay for my hot take on bagels with cream cheese.
Rounding out the list is my second article of the week chronologically, Free Desk on Love Lane in Brooklyn Heights. I had this on my to-do list as an Emu Café Social short post, but I decided to move it to The New Leaf Journal. The reason for that will be made clear to readers in the next two weeks.
Speaking of The Emu Café Social, I published a a week's worth of new short posts.
- I responded to a blog post by Steven Rosenberg about the dearth of WordPress hosting options, proposing my own as a potential solution.
- I concurred with an assessment that Hacker News has been taken over by news about AI.
- I responded to news that the United States conducted a series of air strikes against Al-Shabab in Somalia by wondering whether Al-Shabab had Cybertrucks (referencing my recent New Leaf Journal "report").
- I noted a reference to Saudi Arabia's King Salman doing something -- notable because very few articles about Saudi Arabia these days mention the de jure ruler of the Gulf Kingdom.
- An article about Six Flags' business struggles prompted me to recall my one Six Flags memory.
- I questioned whether IBM is correct in reporting based on its purported study that sports fans are clamoring for more AI.
- An interesting user-agent was observed in The New Leaf Journal logs: "GodHatesMastodon"
- A reference to the song Yume no Nake e in an article about a new curry product in Japan caused me to recall the Kare Kano anime.
With my new articles and short posts accounted for, let us account for other articles and posts.
Leaves from around the web
While I think I gave you enough to start your morning reading, perhaps you need some additional links from around the web.
Expect the []expected
Japanese government warns McDonald’s about food waste after chaotic Pokémon TCG Happy Meal campaign
Dorde P for Automation West. August 22, 2025.
File this away under "what did they think was going to happen?"
Popular Chrome VPN extension FreeVPN.One accused of secretly collecting users’ screenshots
Mauricio B. Golguin for AlternativeTo. August 21, 2025.
If you ever find yourself thinking about installing a free VPN extension from the Chrome Web Store (with the qualified exception of Proton VPN), please stop and don't do that. (I pay for Mullvad VPN, for whatever it's worth.
Egyptian traveler eats federal charges for kicking Dulles CBP beagle that detected over 100 pounds of prohibited food products
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. June 26, 2025.
Kicking the CBP dog is probably one of the fastest ways to get arrested by CBP, yes.
What's going on at Microsoft?
Microsoft employees say internal emails with 'Gaza,' 'Palestine' will not send
Brad Matthews for The Washington Times. May 23, 2025.
Maybe Windows would be better if its employees focused on doing their jobs.
18 Arrested at Microsoft HQ During Anti-Israel Protest Led by Employees
Lucas Nolan for Breitbart. August 21, 2025.
So it's not looking like they're going to fix the atrocious Planner that is part of the Teams suite.
Healthy human relationships
Japanese host and host clubs no longer allowed to take advantage of customer’s romantic feelings
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. May 23, 2025.
I'm not sure if Japan is aware that it seems to have just banned host clubs.
A hidden network handles chats for OnlyFans stars. AI could soon take over
Michael Beltran for Rest of World. August 20, 2025.
I'm curious whether the OnlyFans "fans" would prefer the AI chatbot to the guy chatting on behalf of the "models" pictured in the article
Speaking of a tech company which prides itself on fostering healthy, authentic, and genuinely human interactions
A flirty Meta AI bot invited a retiree to meet. He never made it home.
Jeff Horwitz for Reuters. August 14, 2025.
Am I the only one who finds it kind of weird that whoever is doing PR for Kendall Jenner (who I understand is a Kardashian-adjacent celebrity) thought it was a good idea to collaborate on a "big sister" chatbot?
Meta’s AI rules have let bots hold ‘sensual’ chats with children
Jeff Horwitz for Reuters. August 14, 2025.
Am I the only one who finds it a little weird that a bunch of adtech bros are coming up with guidelines for flirting with middle schoolers?
AI AI Meta – A Dialogue of Sorts
Nicholas A. Ferrell at The New Leaf Journal. January 9, 2025.
Back in January, I understood that the AI profile thing on Instagram and Facebook was profoundly stupid. But I will confess I did not have "guidelines for how the chatbots can flirt with middle schoolers" or "big sister Kardashian bot was trained off 'attractive Ukrainian singles' posts and wants to meet you in person on a New York rooftop" on the bingo card. I will do better in my next Justin and Justina dialogue.
Bots, you've been warned
This website is for humans
Sophie Koonin. August 8, 2025.
This newsletter is also for humans, but if any AI bots want to join in on the fun, I recommend that they have a sense of humor and don't take themselves too seriously.
Egune AI, the LLM that specializes in Mongolia’s language, culture, and nomadic traditions
Viola Zhou for Rest of World. August 22, 2025.
The historical memory in China, Russia, the Middle East, and the Balkans is long enough for billions of people to say "whatever keeps the archers off the horses and away from our city gates."
Arcades
Game on: why Japan’s arcades are still winning (Archived)
Leo Lewis for Financial Times. February 9, 2017.
Japan's arcade culture limps on.
How friends built the Red Hook Pinball Museum, with some machines dating to the 1880s
Ryan Kailath for Gothamist. August 16, 2025.
Looks a little different than my first "pinball" game (Sonic Spinball for Sega Genesis).
These $25 Keyring-Sized Arcade Hits Come From The Company Behind Evercade
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. August 20, 2025.
I had a Game & Watch Parachute game in this form-factor back in the late 90s. Very fun. I approve.
If you know you know (games & anime edition)
The charm of Persona and Metaphor: ReFantazio’s character designs lies in a sex appeal that doesn’t reveal the artist’s gender, says former Atlus designer
Amber V for Automation West. November 26, 2024.
While I generally agree with this assessment of the character designs in Atlus' Persona series, the same cannot be said of some of the female character designs in Atlus' smaller Devil Survivor series.
Some trivia I've noticed about FLCL
Joseph Petitti. December 30, 2019.
"Every time I rewatch FLCL I notice something new, so I'm sure there's still stuff I missed in this densely packed series." (Indeed -- I say you have to watch at least 3 times before learning what he noticed.)
Good fortunes
How Emperor Claudius Tried to Promote the Art of Predicting the Future: A Political Strategy in Ancient Rome
Guillermo Carvajal for LBV. May 25, 2025.
Interesting article tied to Claudius being the last person known to have been fluent in the Etruscan language.
LI psychic charged under little-used NY anti-fortunetelling law after allegedly scamming a woman out of $62K
Brandon Cruz for New York Post. July 18, 2025.
He knew what he'd be charged with before the prosecutors.
What are you accomplishing today?
This 102-Year-Old Man Just Became the Oldest Person on Record to Summit Japan's Mount Fuji
Sonja Anderson for Smithsonian Magazine. August 22, 2025.
102 is impressive. But the lede is buried: "Akuzawa had already scaled Mount Fuji a few years earlier, when he was 96. Since then, he’s suffered a fall, heart failure and a case of the shingles. Still, Akuzawa decided to climb Fuji one last time."
Perfect segue
The Grammarphobia Blog: And now, let us digress
Grammarphobia. August 18, 2025.
But I digress.
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 XXXV (August 16-22) along with their 2025 and historic (going back 2021) weekly ranking statistics.
-
Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
2025: 9 appearances and 4 top placements. -
Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn
Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
2025: 17 appearances and 7 top placements. -
Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
2025: 11 appearances.
Cumulative: 13 appearances. -
Coca Cola Liquid Death Tag
Nicholas A. Ferrell. August 14, 2025.
2025: 2 appearances. -
My Logitech Washable Wired Keyboard K310
Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 20, 2024.
2025: First appearance.
Cumulative: 2 appearances.
Analysis
Four of the top-five articles return from last week's ranking, with the top-two again separating themselves from the pack (albeit with less traffic than the previous week). Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search snagged its second consecutive top placement and third in five weeks. It also narrowed what is a small gap between it and weekly runner-up Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn for the top ranking in August, a battle that should be resolved in the next week.
The only new article in this week's top-five was my 2024 review of my former washable keyboard (it is still around), which took advantage of a soft end of the top-five by recent standards to make its second appearance overall and first since 2024 Newsletter Week 38. It had been the highest-ranked article in our 2025 ranking (18th as of press time) to not had have a single Newsletter Week Top 5 ranking. That honor now goes to Installing LineageOS on a 2013 Nexus 7 (Wi-Fi) and Reviewing FrogFind: A Search Engine For Vintage Computers, which are tied for 23rd place on our most-visited article ranking for 2025 but are not among the now-39 articles to have made a weekly ranking appearance thus far.
News Leaf Journal
We have a few "social media" updates from the last week.
I previously wrote about how you can follow The New Leaf Journal via ActivityPub (e.g., If you have a Mastodon account or similar, you can follow the site). You can also follow me on The Emu Café Social. See my Mastodon post for details. A new plugin update makes it possible to bridge our ActivityPub profiles with Bluesky. Thus, if you use Bluesky (I wouldn't recommend that, but if you do), you can now follow The New Leaf Journal and my ECS account directly. See my Bluesky post for details.
(Note: It may be possible follow us sites on Meta's Threads but I do not have Threads and cannot test it. If you have Threads (why?) and want to try, feel free to let me know if it works.)
Back in 2020 I made a Pinterest account for The New Leaf Journal. I did this, despite never having used Pinterest and only vaguely knowing what Pinterest was, because our SEO plugin at the time (Yoast then, The SEO Framework since January 2022) had fields for Pinterest webmaster tools along with the major search engines. I posted many images on Pinterest but never really "got" it and eventually "abandoned" the account. These days I use a tool called Buffer to schedule posts on X and Bluesky. Buffer's three plan allows for three connected accounts. While it works for Mastodon, I prefer to write my Mastodon directly on my profile. I noticed that Pinterest was an option, and I figured since I am already using Buffer for X and Bluesky and I had a "third" connection available, I may as well "revive" our Pinterest. I deleted all of our old "pins" and am starting over. If you happen to use Pinterest (why?), you can stay up to date with my new "pins" or whatever I'm supposed to call them.
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.
While I have a few work assignments in the upcoming week, I expect to publish a few articles to bring August to a close (including a very late July 2025 review).
Until August 30,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.