Welcome to the 263rd 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.

We did not have an especially busy week last week, but I published a few new posts for your attention. I share those below along with our regular assortment of links from around the web and other news and notes.

Leaves from the week that was

I published three new New Leaf Journal leaves since mailing Newsletter 262.

My first two articles last week were snowman-themed (fitting since it is snowing outside as I write this). First, Miya Snowman Cups From Ten Ichi Mart is about two tea cups I purchased back in August (a bit out of season). Next, I shared a story about an October Ebay purchase in Bonus Gifts With Usaburo Snowman Doll. I had planned to publish that article weeks ago since the "bonus gifts" tie into one of my most popular October 2025 posts, Christmas Countdown Clock in September.

My last NLJ article of the previous Newsletter Week is Cheap Winter Cherries. This article features a photo of a bowl of cherries I took in February 2024. Why publish it in 2026? I was reminded of my photo when I read a recent article about Chilean winter cherry prices in China.

I published my first three Emu Café Social posts of 2026. The highlight was AI is a Slop Tool, Not Slop Cause, wherein I agree with Jim Nielsen's take that blog slop predates AI-generated blog slop (which is certainly not to say that AI is not making it easier to generate blog slop). I began sharing my 2026 learning with Things I Learned: Official Languages in Russia. Finally, I resumed work on a NLJ project, as detailed in Resuming Christmas Tina.

Leaves from around the web

My published word count last week was less impressive than the previous week. But let no one say that this week's collection of 24 links from around the web (just three bonus links in addition to our usual 21 this week) is similarly unimpressive.

Cause and effect?

Chinese National Charged With Unlawfully Photographing Home Of U.S. B-2 Fleet In Missouri
David Cenciotti for The Aviationist. January 8, 2026.

I enjoyed this story because the gentleman's explanation was exactly what I predicted it would be before reading.

This Is The Greatest F-15EX Photo Yet
Tyler Rogoway for The War Zone. January 15, 2026.

Talk about not shying away from high expectations.

Dietary solutions

The New Food Pyramid Is Here
Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry at PolicySphere. January 7, 2026.

On the new food pyramid and what it means for saturated fats, canned foods, and more.

China Takes a Shot at Pet Obesity — Using Weight-Loss Drugs
Li Xin for Sixth Tone. December 31, 2025.

I covered this idea from an American perspective but my thoughts should also be applicable to GPL-1 pet shots in the Chinese context.

Separatism in Northeast Africa

How Israel is using diplomacy to pressure its adversaries
Jonathan Conricus for The Jerusalem Post. January 16, 2026.

Still downright shocking that Israel is betraying its friends in the Middle East and abroad by recognizing the existence of a state within the territory of an existing state. My word they would never!

Dubai's DP World says operations at Somaliland's Berbera port unaffected by UAE-Somalia dispute
Reuters. January 13, 2026.

It doesn't sound like the UAE is avoiding blowback by de facto recognizing Somaliland instead of going the full de jure route like its friends in Israel. May as well just go all in.

Great Theban Revolt, the first Egyptian insurrection against the Ptolemaic dynasty, which came to proclaim two pharaohs
Jorge Álvarez for LBV. December 24, 2025.

Included in the background of this story is the creation of the Rosetta Stone.

Did you know I cover anime hair color?

The science of green hair care
Carolyn Wilke for Knowable Magazine. December 18, 2025.

The headline sounded promising but it turned out that it is not about the kind of green hair I cover.

Days with My Stepsister author explains why some anime never end up getting a second season. “Even if we had the budget, it would be too difficult to assemble the original team again”
Carlos "Zoto" Zotomayor for Automation West. January 16, 2026.

I'd be obliged to review a second season after having somewhat begrudgingly reviewed the first (my review followed an aesthetics and hair color study of the show written close to the half-way point). At the moment I have a big anime backlog and I would like to be able to publish my 2025 review by the end of March (if not winter), so no objection to putting off a second season of this one off for a couple of years.

The latest in rackets

Basketball’s game-fixing scandal now includes 17 US colleges—and China’s pro league
Jared Diamond and Louise Randofsky for The Wall Street Journal (via MSN). January 16, 2026.

I don't think you need to be a forensic gambling investigator to figure out that $242,000 on Saint Louis covering a first-half spread against Duquesne raises questions.

The AI Security Shakedown
Jim Nielsen. January 6, 2026.

One difference between the AI security racket and the mob security racket is that when you call the chatbot on it, it will probably say something to the effect of "You're absolutely right, that's a great point" instead of threatening to break your thumbs.

Legal defense strategies

Cooper Union Settles Lawsuit With Jewish Students Forced To Hide From Anti-Israel Mob
Jessica Schwab for The Washington Free Beacon. January 8, 2026.

Sounds like Cooper Union's lawyers convinced the client that settling was cheaper than persisting with the old "they should have hidden in the attic" argument.

The Prosecutor Didn't Prove I Was Over 18, Says Father of 13-Year-Old
Eugene Volokh at The Volokh Conspiracy. January 5, 2026.

"In March 2010, Presley was charged with three counts of aggravated indecent liberties with a child all occurring between June 1, 2009, and August 31, 2009. Each charge involved the same 13-year-old victim—referred to here under the pseudonym Jane—who was Presley's biological daughter…."

Decades of durability

Pokémon Day: CEO believes series can last another 50 years
Mariko Oi and Mel Ramsay for BBC. February 27, 2025.

That's nice but let's work on the frame rate for the generation 10 games first.

The F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Is Getting So Many Upgrades It Will Now Fly Until 2060
Kris Osborn for 1945. January 13, 2026.

I'm looking at working toward the same longevity for my computers with the increase in RAM and SSD prices.

Experiments in alternative social media

Daily Tech News 12 January 2026
Pixy Misa at Ambient Irony. January 12, 2026.

The analysis of a new social platform called "Tangle" made me chuckle.

Twitterlike is a Bad Shape
Coyote. April 12, 2025.

While I differ on some of the particulars, I agree with the broad point for reasons I articulated in Fediverse Clone Wars and Decentralized Social Media and Substack Notes' Twitter clone war.

Revisiting successful video game consoles

The Casio Loopy Just Got Its First English Translation, Puppy Love Story
Damien McFerran for Time Extension. April 21, 2025.

Back in the day American fans of Japanese games wished for missing Dragon Quest and Fire Emblem titles or classic visual novels. Having covered all that ground, 2025 brought Casio Loopy game translations.

Opinion: The Nintendo Console Nobody Wanted To Review Returns Soon, And I'm Here For It, Again
Nathan Lockard for Nintendo Life. January 10, 2025.

I should see if my Virtual Boy can be brought to working order...

Roblox blocks

Roblox "strongly contests" Iraqi ban, claims the government's reasoning is "inaccurate"
Vikki Blake for Games Industry.biz. October 27, 2025.

Iraqi democracy finally delivers.

Children Flood Putin With Complaints About Roblox Ban, Kremlin Says The Moscow Times. December 9, 2025.

One danger of going on ill-fated foreign adventures is that you miss the real threats at home.

Let's use links to talk about us

The Path to Pedantry
Theodore Dalyrmple for Taki's Magazine. November 28, 2025.

Pedants hate my work because I never make mistakes.

When Do Viewers Get Hooked on a TV Show? A Statistical Analysis
Daniel Parris at Stat Significant. April 3, 2025.

I like to think The New Leaf Journal only needs one article.

On Being Interested in Stuff Almost No One is Interested in (HT Caroline Crampton)
David C. Porter at Garden Scenery. November 26, 2025.

If ever there were an article for Newsletter Leaf Journal subscribers!

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 10-16 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: 3 appearances and top placements.
   Cumulative: 30 appearances and 24 top placements.

2. Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. April 9, 2025.
   Cumulative: 36 appearances and 8 top placements.

3. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. October 5, 2023.
   2026: 2 appearances.
   Cumulative: 21 appearances.

4. Bonus Gifts With Usaburo Snowman Doll
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. January 11, 2026.

5. Umineko When They Cry Red Truth Guide
   Nicholas A. Ferrell. December 7, 2022.
   Cumulative: 2 appearances.

Analysis

Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search lapped the field again, extending its first-place streak to 16 weeks. The 2025 runner-up in the overall ranking, Amazon "Cargo Bikes" in Brooklyn, made its 2026 Newsletter Week debut in a distant second place, while Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow (4th overall in 2025) became the third article to notch multiple 2026 weekly placements. One of my three new articles, Bonus Gifts With Usaburo Snowman Doll, became the first 2026 article to appear in a ranking (I would be surprised to see it repeat, but you never know). Taking fifth place was the inexplicably strong Umineko When They Cry Red Truth Guide, which makes its second all-time appearance after debuting in the weekly ranking in late 2025. With three new articles in this week's ranking, 11 articles have appeared in the first three Newsletter Week rankings of 2026.

The Old Leaf Journal

I am drafting this newsletter just after noon on the mailing date (January 17, 2026). As I noted above, it is snowing hard out there here in Brooklyn. However, I do not expect to see great snowman conditions since the temperature is hovering just above freezing. Perhaps snowmen are on my mind after I published two articles about inorganic snowmen last week. But what about organic snowmen? I have covered those too in The New Leaf Journal...

Weathered “Snow King” Sculpture in Brooklyn (December 31, 2025): My last article of 2025 covered a "viral" snow sculpture in Brooklyn after above-freezing temperatures and rain had left it a bit worse for ware. As I note in the article and in Seeing the “Snow King” on Brooklyn’s Atlantic Avenue on ECS, I had by pure chance stumbled upon the snow sculpture before it weathered but neglected to take a photo.

Snowman with Mask 〜 It’s the thought that counts (February 27, 2021): I came across a malformed snowman against a bank of stained black snow in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, on February 4, 2021. The "snowman" reminded me of a fourth-generation Pokémon named Garbodor, which led to a digression. Little did I know at the time that thanks(?) to Victor V. Gurbo, Garbodor would feature in Two Independence Day-Themed Pokémon Battles: Ferrell vs Gurbo.

Snowman with One-Eyed Frog Hat – Pure Evil? (December 26, 2020): In the aftermath of 2020's Winter Storm Gail (see next paragraph), I photographed a snowman in a scarf wearing a one-eyed frog hat. Before publishing the photo, I sent it to Victor (see above paragraph) for processing. Victor returned the photo with "pure evil" added to the file name. With that, I had a theme for the article.

Brooklyn Snowman and Winter Storm Gail Sights (December 17, 2020): Brooklyn saw heavy snow accumulation in the wake of Winter Storm Gail in on December 17, 2020. I took several photos when the snow was fresh. The first photo in my article features a snowman built into a planter in Brooklyn Heights with a carrot for a nose (classic).

Those are the only "snow and ice" snowmen I have documented in The New Leaf Journal, but I have also covered many depictions of snowmen, including my new articles on the kokeshi doll and cups. You can find more snowman references by viewing our Snowman tag archive.

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 am still working on several projects and I hope to have time to publish a few of them between today and the mailing of Newsletter Leaf Journal 264 next week.

Until January 23,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.