Welcome to the 258th 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 did not publish any new New Leaf Journal articles last week. However, I did publish a bit on ECS and I have made up for the shortcoming with a strong collection of links from around the web, so I encourage you to keep reading.

Leaves from the week that was

I failed to publish a new New Leaf Journal article last week for several reasons. Firstly, I had some electrical work done on my apartment which caused my room/home office to be thrust into disarray. Secondly, I had a long work assignment to finish. Thirdly, I have had a very annoying canker sore on my tongue. But there are two bits of good news. I worked on several New Leaf Journal articles last week and I published several short posts on The Emu Café Social which I will now share below:

• Using Coaxial Cable In/Out on Belkin Surge Protector: I took advantage of having two new electrical outlets behind my computer to re-configure my internet modem plug situation (we will be hearing from my modem again later in this newsletter).
• I wrote about the Official Way to Install Calibre on Linux. One reason I ended up looking that up was because I read about the new AI “Features” in Calibre (fortunately they are opt-in).
• Speaking of ebooks and related issues, I offered a note of approval for Amazon in Amazon KDP To Alllow DRM-free epub and pdf.
• I read about a Blog [being] De-Indexed By Google and shared the story on ECS along with my unsolicited recommendations from having gone through a similar situation with Bing in 2023. I also shared the blog post to Hacker News, where it went crazy (and heard from the blogger that Google has begun re-indexing his posts).
• Inspired by a good blog post quote, I wrote about Blogging as Mindset (this may become a future NLJ article).
• I bookmarked a link to an excellent essay in Bookmark: Rank and File (consider that one a 2026 NLJ article preview).
• In Like: Link to My Link-Saving Workflow, I approved of someone liking one of my posts.
• President Trump On Tiny Cars comes as advertised ("really cute" post).
• Finally, I covered Things I Learned: Age in College Basketball, wherein I learned that last year's 4th-ranked Auburn Tigers college basketball team was older than several NBA teams.

Alas, none of these new posts are full articles, but I do have some full articles for you...

Links from around the web

I usually post 21 links from around the web. But since I failed to publish a single New Leaf Journal article in the last week, I submit 27 links from around the web and numerous NLJ links in my beloved link comments.

Cheers for you

Hero cop recalls heart-pounding moment he saved choking baby on side of highway: ‘She's gonna be here for Christmas’
Amanda Woods and Natalie O'Neill for the Nw York Post. December 12, 2025.

Job well done, Detective Michael Greaney.

Goat herder finds Roman funerary stele
The History Blog. December 7, 2025.

Score one for the goat herders.

Anna Possi on six decades behind the counter at Italy’s Bar Centrale
Lisa Jucca for Reuters. November 20, 2025.

"Despite having recently celebrated her 101st birthday, Italy's longest-serving barista shows no sign of slowing down. From behind the counter of the cafe she opened with her husband over six decades ago, Possi greets locals and tourists alike with the same precision and stamina that has defined her life’s work."

Following-up on our blockbuster stories

Turkey looks to expand Turkmen gas swap deal
Eurasianet. December 11, 2025.

My December 4, 2025 Justin and Justina Dialogue concluded with Justina exclaiming "I don't want to look anywhere to Turkmenistan!"

Saudi Arabia's PIF will own over 93.4% of EA if the deal completes
Alex Forbes-Calvin for Games Industry.biz. December 4, 2025.

Saudi Arabia's video game purchases continue. This would have been a hard headline to explain back in the NBA Live 98 days.

Ed Orgeron Reveals How SEC Players Got Paid Before NIL
Dylan Gwinn for Breitbart. December 9, 2025.

How is the straight-talking Coach Orgeron still unemployed as a coach?

Iraq Invites U.S. Firms to Seize Russia’s Oilfield Prize
Simon Watkins for Oilprice.com. December 8, 2025.

I wish I could get Mr. Z's take on this story.

Animals fulfilling their purpose

'No one knows where it came from': first wild beaver spotted in Norfolk in 500 years (HT Caroline Crampton)
Donna Ferguson for The Guardian. December 7, 2025.

No matter what situation a beaver finds itself in, it will persist in being a beaver.

Bees Are Turning the Sticky-Sweet Secretions of Spotted Lanternflies Into Honey—and Some People Love the Smoky-Smelling Stuff
Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine. December 12, 2025.

When life gives you lemons you make lemonade. When life gives bees lanternflies they make honey.

What could go wrong?

Syria Registers Its First-Ever Jewish Organization
John Hayward for Breitbart. December 12, 2025.

Not to curb everyone's enthusiasm but I still am not sure I'd want to be "Jewish" and "registered" in Syria.

One in four teens turning to AI chatbots for mental health support, study finds
Athena Stavron for The Independent. December 9, 2025.

Expect this to go down to 1 out of 16 because ChatGPT will be so effective.

McDonald’s Japan asks people making fanart of their cute anime mascot to “mind their manners and have common sense”
Verity Townsend for Automation West. March 28, 2025.

Apparently they have reason to believe that internet people may be creative in bad ways with their new fully dressed manga-style samurai girl mascot.

Wondrous fungus

Night of the zombie insects
Rohini Subrahmanyam for Knowable Magazine. October 28, 2024.

While we have written about mushrooms, we will not cover this fungus at The New Leaf Journal.

Chinese Genetics Lab Modifies Fungus Protein to Replace Chicken
John Hayward for Breitbart. December 8, 2025.

No thank you we've had enough Chinese lab creations this century.

The Mushroom Museum
Ploup for Atlas Obscura. October 20, 2025.

I haven't been but I'd love to see the mushroom.

The hottest in restroom tech

‘End-to-end encrypted’ smart toilet camera is not actually end-to-end encrypted
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai for TechCrunch. December 3, 2025.

I have plenty of questions that I don't want answered before we get to the lack-of-encryption issue.

Japan’s first hotel with a human washing machine is now ready for you to come and bathe in it
Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. December 9, 2025.

I don't think this is going to catch on like the Walkman.

Life on the road

Japan government mulling more restrictions on foreign driver’s license conversions
Master Blaster for SoraNews24. May 17, 2025.

Japan cracks down on Chinese driver's license tourism.

Foreign driver’s license conversion test passes plummet from over 90% to 33% in Japan
Master Blaster for SoraNews24. December 6, 2025.

I sat on the first link about foreign driver's license conversions in Japan for so long that a follow-up appeared in my feed-reader.

Speak for yourself

Ready or not, AI-generated ads have come to CTV
Jasmine Sheena for Marketing Brew. December 2, 2025.

The joke is on them because I only learn about these revolutions in advertising from articles about the advertising.

Instacart may be jacking up your grocery prices
Dave Lozo for Morning Brew. December 10, 2025.

I only vaguely know what Instacart is. Maybe it's jacking up your grocery prices?

Checking in on vice

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed a law legalizing sports betting. He now says he's opposed to it
Julie Carr Smyth for The Washington Times. November 24, 2025.

They say hindsight is 20/20. My 20/20 hindsight says foresight should have been 20/20 here.

Everyone Thinks Legal Weed is Inevitable. Everyone Is Wrong.
Charles Fain Lehman for City Journal. December 11, 2025.

Some people had second thoughts after being confronted with the smell and listening to stoners talking about stoning while being stoned.

Porn Is Poisoning Our Culture
Scott Yenor for City Journal. December 10, 2025.

Not great, not the best.

The explainers

How honeycrisp apples went from marvel to mediocre
Genevieve Yam for Serious Eats. November 30, 2024.

I have noticed that honeycrisp apples are often a bit dry and mealy.

Small boats: Why so many Vietnamese are fleeing to the UK
Jonathan Head and Thu Bui for BBC. January 6, 2025.

Must be the convenience of Ho Chi Minh City being right across the Channel.

How Silica Gel Took Over the World
Spencer Wright for Scope of Work. March 31, 2025.

I read this right before finding a packet in my new PocketBook InkPad Color cover box. (Note I wrote that comment in April so my cover is not so "new" anymore.)

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 for the period covering December 6-12 along with their 2025 and historic (going back 2021) weekly ranking statistics.

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   2025: 25 appearances and 19 top placements.

2. Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
   2025: 33 appearances and 8 top placements.

3. Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.
   2025: 28 appearances and 10 top placements.
   Cumulative: 32 appearances and 11 top placements.

4. Misleading ARRIS Modem Login Instructions
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. June 12, 2024.
   2025 & Cumulative: 12 appearances and 1 top placement.

5. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
   2025: 16 appearances.
   Cumulative: 18 appearances.

Analysis

This was one of our least exciting top-fives of 2025. The five articles in this week's ranking are 1-5 on the list of most weekly ranking appearances in 2025, and four of the five account for 38 top placements. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search ran away with the top spot again and needs one top finish in the last two full weeks of 2025 to become the first article with 20 top-placements in a single year since The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei in 2022.

News leaf journal

I noted earlier in this newsletter that I made some progress on ongoing article projects in the last week. The "big" one is my list of 54 things I learned in 2025, which follows the 2024 edition. This year's list will be more exciting (although the title will be "52" even though there will be "54"). I also began drafting an article about an epiphany related to my desktop computer speakers. Other ongoing projects include my September-November month-in-review posts, an introduction to a new blogroll project, and a post on WordPress plugins I use on The New Leaf Journal. These posts have a decent chance of going live by the end of the year.

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. You can also sign up for a separate newsletter which sends daily digests of our new posts here.

I can promise that we will have new NLJ posts next week (there should be at least one live by the time you finish reading this newsletter), so I look forward to discussing them and more with you on December 20.

Until next week,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.