Welcome to the 262nd 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.

While my focus last week was on recapping 2025, we also have some news and notes regarding 2026 in addition to our regular assortment of links from around the web.

Leaves from the week that was

While I am sitting on a few almost-complete article drafts, I only published three new New Leaf Journal articles last week. But before anyone questions my output, I submit that we did have a big published word count last week.

The star of the week was Our Most-Visited Articles of 2025, in which I listed our most "popular" posts for the sixth consecutive year. The article includes links to our 140 most-visited posts and detailed comments on the top 112. Unlike some prior years, the top of the list will be familiar to you if you regularly check in on our Newsletter Week Rankings. In previous years, I had our fictional dialogue duo, Justin and Justina, narrate all (or for 2024, part) of our ranking. This year, I decided to write Justin and Justina's portion separately (you can look forward to that in the next week).

Before publishing my full 2025 review, I posted November and December 2025 at The New Leaf Journal, which includes a full recap of my posts and our most-visited articles from the last two months of 2025.

In what can be called my first non-recap article of 2026, I published Record vs Scoring Margin in NBA Team Analysis. In many of my NBA team statistics research articles, I favor net rating (scoring margin per 100 possessions) or SRS (scoring margin minus strength of schedule) over raw win-loss records. A story about the 2025-26 Los Angeles Lakers, which had at publication time a 22-11 record despite having a negative net rating, inspired me to dig deeper into the subject (I also focus on the 2006-07 NBA season and playoffs for fans from that era).

Leaves from around the web

I come to you this week with 24 links from around the world wide web (happy 2026!) instead of our customary 21, due both to the fact that most of the links focus on three broad topics and my link backlog continues to be an alarming size.

Re-drawing maps in the Horn of Africa

Inside Israel’s foray into the Horn of Africa
The Independent. January 3, 2026.

A good piece on Israel's move to recognize independent Somaliland.

Israel's Recognition of Somaliland Angers China and Arab Countries
Shoshana Bryen at Weapons and Strategy. December 30, 2025.

China and Arab countries (the UAE notably missing from the list of angry Arab countries) would certainly not recognize hitherto unrecognized states within the territorial jurisdiction of a country that exists.

International student higher education news

UAE restricts funding for students wanting to study in Britain over radicalisation fears
Charles Hymas for The Telegraph. January 9, 2026.

"When UK officials queried the absence of British universities, they were told it was not an oversight. 'The UAE doesn’t want its kids to be radicalised on campus,' one source said."

University of Michigan’s Partnership With CCP-Linked Shanghai School Brought Chinese Spies to Campus—And Dozens of US Universities Have Similar Arrangements
Jessica Costescu for The Washington Free Beacon. December 8, 2025.

Between the unlawful voting case I covered in 2024 and the spy cases described above, I'm starting to think someone should take a look at University of Michigan's student visa privileges.

Did something happen in Venezuela?

Operation Absolute Resolve: Anatomy of a Modern Decapitation Strike
Josh Luberisse for RealClear Defense. January 5, 2026.

I wouldn't call Absolute Resolve a "decapitation strike" but this is a good rundown of a very impressive military-law enforcement operation.

Operation Absolute Resolve: How 150+ Aircraft And Aviation Precision Defined The Capture Of Nicolás Maduro
Dave Hartland for AVGeekery.com. January 3, 2026.

Come for the early analysis, stay for the charts.

Why Venezuela’s political shock had MercadoLibre’s stock rallying
Ananya Bhattacharya for Rest of World. January 7, 2026.

I suppose it makes sense that e-commerce company stockholders may be enthusiastic about the prospect that more people in the market will have the means to engage in e-commerce. Whether this enthusiasm will be well-founded, however, remains TBD.

Where Did Those Rent-a-Mob Protests for Maduro Come From? Here Are the Receipts
Victoria Taft for PJ Media. January 5, 2026.

I didn't need all 20 questions to guess the answer.

Cause & Effect?

Assessing North Korea’s Claimed Nuclear-Powered Submarine
Jihoon Yu for RealClear Defense. January 7, 2026.

I'm worried about the fish.

Bidding farewell to the USS Nimitz, Navy's oldest active aircraft carrier
Mike Glenn for The Washington Times. January 8, 2026.

I bet it was the North Korean nuclear submarine news that did it.

Sliced bread

Woman charged after Mississippi Walmart shoppers report finding razor blades in loaves of bread
Sophie Bates for AP (via The Washington Times). December 17, 2025.

Everyone needs a hobby but some hobbies should be discouraged.

History of sliced bread little known on 75th anniversary (Archived)
Paul Wenske for The Kansas City Star. July 29, 2003.

This article is old but they say it's the best thing since sliced bread.

It's AI's fault but let us not ignore the human element

Thousands duped by AI into watching non-existent NYE fireworks show at Brooklyn Bridge: ‘We got pranked”
Katherine Donlevy for the New York Post. January 2, 2026.

I'd like to think that Instagram/TikTok-addled New Yorkers, tourists, and Time Out Magazine "journalists" learned a valuable lesson from this debacle, but I expect they'll all be "back" on July 4.

AI-generated manga becomes top-ranked in Japan’s biggest e-book store
Carlos "Zoto" Zotomayor for Automation West. January 6, 2026.

I'm not surprised it's a "rather suggestive story" but I was expecting something also involving "another world" and "cheat powers." Now who says AI can't defy our expectations?

Man who asked ChatGPT about cutting out salt from his diet was hospitalized with hallucinations (HT Tech Brew).
Doha Madani for NBC News. August 14, 2025.

The problem was less the cutting out salt and more the replacing salt.

Grok restricts AI image creation on X after backlash over sexualized photo edits of women
Paul for AlternativeTo. January 8, 2026.

They say hindsight is 20/20. But sometimes 20/20 hindsight reveals where foresight should have also been 20/20.

Dutch court invalidates marriage after use of ChatGPT to ‘liven up’ ceremony
Carl Deconinck for Brussels Signal. January 9, 2026.

ChatGPT made things so lively that they're going to need a second, livelier (or less lively?), ceremony.

Networking hardware

I migrated from a Consumer Router to an OPNsense Firewall Appliance
Danie van der Merwe at GadgeteerZA. February 16, 2025.

I've thought about doing this but I will stick with my MikroTik hAP ac3 for now.

Review: TP-Link Deco X80-5G – A Good 5G Modem or Not?
Grough Lui at Grough's Tech Zone. January 4, 2026.

Forcing people to use a mobile app to operate their own internet hardware is less than ideal.

Articles that defy their dreary headlines

Inside Britain’s underworld
David Rose for UnHerd. May 20, 2025.

This is either about organized crime or cave exploring. You'll have to click to find out.

The tragedy at Uganda Airlines
Andrew M. Mwenda for The Independent. January 5, 2026.

The headline sets you up to think this is about a horrible plane crash or a certain infamous hostage incident from Uganda's past. But fear not: It's a quaint story about mismanagement and potential corruption at Uganda Airlines (very dramatic headline, however).

Who is ready for the always-competitive Ugandan elections on the 15th?

Federalism and Uganda's unfinished political settlement
Ronald Musoke for The Independent. December 11, 2025.

On the weighty debate over federalism in Uganda.

Wrapping up with un-categorized good reads

Then I Stopped Being Able To Close The Wardrobe Door
Caroline Crampton. January 8, 2026.

This is a good list of "suggestions for a slightly better life." I agree with the bar soap suggestion. "Chopsticks for snacks" sounds good but I can't use chopsticks so I will leave that one for others.

Good money, no team tactics and cute dogs: the rise of pro cycling freelancers
Andy Cochrane for The Guardian. October 17, 2024.

Interesting story on gravel racing drawing some American pros home from Europe.

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 our most-visited articles for the week of January 3-9 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 17, 2025.
   2026: 2 appearances and top placements.
   Cumulative: 29 appearances and 23 top placements.

2. The Story of Billy Possum, President Hoover’s Pet Opossum
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. November 30, 2021.
   2026: 2 appearances.
   7 appearances and 1 top placement.

3. Examining Whether Defense Wins NBA Championships
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. July 9, 2024.
   Cumulative: 34 appearances and 11 top placements.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. March 11, 2021.
   Cumulative: 11 appearances.

5. The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 18, 2022.
   Cumulative: 64 appearances and 4 top placements.

Analysis

The top of 2026 Newsletter Week 2 is similar to week 1, with Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search again taking the top spot by a wide margin and runner-up The Story of Billy Possum, President Hoover’s Pet Opossum posting what would be a top-spot-worthy week in a world where my Pokémon-Google game story was not dominating the ranking. Speaking of the former, it has now led the ranking for 15 consecutive weeks, which is our second-longest streak since The Mystery of Sōseki and Tsuki ga Kirei led for 25 consecutive weeks in 2021-22. While I am inclined to doubt that the 25-week record will fall, Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search has not been seriously challenged for the top spot for most of its current streak, so I suppose anything is possible.

There was a decent-sized gap between second and third place. One mild surprise was the appearance of How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name, which made its 11th appearance since being published in March 2021 (note that its first appearance was in 2023). While this has been one of our most consistent articles over the years (year-end ranks from 2021-25: 22, 20, 12, 19, and 21), it usually flowers in March-May.

News leaf journal

I have four articles that I hope to publish in the next week (two snowman-related drafts, one visual novel review, and my Justin and Justina recap of 2025), but whether I publish the latter two this week or next is TBD. Consistent with my Winter 2026 theme, I will prioritize ideas that were already on my article idea to-do list (the first three planned articles I just noted all qualify).

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.

We have just about closed our accounts for the year that was in 2025, so with our recaps almost entirely behind us, I look forward to shifting my focus to new, less self-referential articles (even though some of those "new" articles have been brewing for some time).

Until January 17,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.