Leaves from the week that was

I only managed to publish two NLJ articles since mailing Newsletter 281, but I like to think they are good ones.

My highlight article of the week was Be the Blogger You Want to Be (Or Read). This is the final entry in my six-part "blogging wisdom" series for our sixth birthday (you can find links to all six entries in NLJ Sixth Birthday Project). As the title suggests, I make the case for people to write about the topics they would want to read about (with related thoughts on site design), combining my own experience with links from around the web to make the points.

I have never used Spotify, do not listen to podcasts, and have never thought about asking a chatbot to generate an AI podcast from a prompt. But none of those three points stopped me from sharing my thoughts On Spotify’s SpotifAI Podcasts. Let us just say I have a tech-integration idea.

I was somewhat busy on ECS. I began the week with a special edition of Pook-Emu Bee: Links For Memorial Day (2026), with all nine links tying into the solemn remembrance. While I was on the topic, I published a new "thing I learned" post in Moina Michael and the Remembrance Poppy (specifically about the number of poppies sold during her lifetime).

After Memorial Day, I published regular editions of Pook-Emu Bee links for 05-26, 05-27, 05-28, and 05-29.

I also learned about Pink Tea With Baking Soda and Disabling AI in WordPress 7.0, and I shared Video: A Defense of Visual Novels (with some of my own take-aways).

Leaves from around the web

Having shared my own work from last week, let us move on to links from around the world wide web (note that block quotes are quotes from the links themselves).

Spectacular

[1.] 2026 Natsu Basho: Day 13 results and analysis (Tim Edwards for Sumo Stomp. May 22, 2026.)

What happened next is something I’m going to be thinking about for a very long time.

Mr. Edwards was referring to the bout between Ozeki Kirishima and Kotoeihō. I won't spoil it, but you must watch and then watch again in accord with Mr. James' commentary and instructions. Also read Andy's take on Tachiai about bending spacetime.

Pasta is versatile

[2.] Italian Photographer Makes Pinhole Camera Out of Fresh Pasta (Jeremy Gray for PetaPixel. February 9, 2026.) (HT Linkfest)

Berlin-based Italian photographer Paride Ambrogi recently combined two of his loves, photography and pasta, in a brilliant, possibly tasty way.

He created his ravioli camera and took a photo in the time it would take a normal person to ask "why?"

[3.] Irvine ‘pasta bandit’ accused of swapping LEGO sets for noodles in $34K scheme (Daniel Farr for the New York Post. April 17, 2026.)

Police allege Augustine purchased boxed LEGO sets, removed valuable mini figures and select pieces, then stuffed the packages with dried 'durum wheat semolina pasta' before returning them for refunds.

How do you think he decided which pasta to use?

Finding your headline

[4.] The Stains On The Federal Judiciary (Josh Blackman at The Volokh Conspiracy. May 28, 2026.)

There are many stains on the federal judiciary. There is a stain on the couch cushion in Judge Betsy's chambers. Another stain is the flagrant abuse of discretion by Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit to make this reprimand private.

You can imagine Mr. Blackman being "in the zone" while writing this opinion piece about the honorable Judge Elanor Ross.

[5.] Inside the degenerate ‘cult’ that trashed their own taxpayer funded LA apartment (Ross O'Keefe and David Thompson for the New York Post. March 24, 2026.)

In another — captioned 'Section 8 K,' an apparent reference to the Section 8 program, which subsidizes rent for low-income households — a member is seen ripping out the bathroom mirror with a hammer, then smashing the wall.

The headline looks sensationalist on first glance. However, the headline is accurate. Remember: You can in fact sometimes judge a book by its cover.

[6.] Meet the Brooklyn Heights parrot who sings disco in the shower and survived a serious health scare (Olivia Seaman for Brooklyn Paper. May 8, 2026.)

Among the parrot’s favorite songs are Kim Carnes’ 'Bette Davis Eyes' and Prince’s 'Kiss.'

The headline more or less says it all so I just chose a fun fact for the selected quote.

Things you may not have known

[7.] NYC will cut off traffic during 2026 World Cup games with amped-up ‘gridlock alert’. Katherine Donlevy and Matt Troutman for the New York Post. May 29, 2026.

A wide pitch of Manhattan will fall under 'gridlock alert' during eight 2026 World Cup matches to deal with an expected crush of soccer fans, Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Friday.

There will be no World Cup matches played in Manhattan, New York City, or even New York State. The closest matches will be played in New Jersey in the same stadium that hosts 16-17 New York Jets and New York Giants games and hundreds of thousands of fans every single year without incident in Manhattan, traffic or otherwise.

[8.] North Korea holds state funeral for Kim Yong Nam (Kim Tong-Hyung for AP. November 6, 2025.)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un led a state funeral for the country’s longtime ceremonial head of state, Kim Yong Nam, who died this week at age 97.

Your reminder that Kim Jong-un is not technically the head of state of the [always] Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

[9.] Your next car might need 300 GB of RAM, and so will robots (Simon Sharwood for The Register. March 19, 2026.)

Autonomous cars will need 300 gigabytes of DRAM or more, and robots will need similar quantities, leading memory-maker Micron Technology to predict it has a long and happy future ahead of it.

"No-RAM cars" exist. Don't tell anyone.

A long walk unspoiled

[10.] A Springtime Stroll Through Salt Lake City (Jonathan Turley. May 23, 2026.)

This remains the cleanest major city in the United States. It seems almost spotless with beautiful parks and gardens. I walked around for hours and did not see a single piece of trash or graffiti.

That's hard for me to imagine.

[11.] yokohama (Kat & Satoshi at Our Adventures in Japan. May 16, 2026)

The roses were a little past their peak, but were still beautiful to see

Little cars. Average-size flowers.

Art interlude

[12.] Elizabeth Saloka's Vibrant Painted Rocks Adopt the Personalities of Snacks and Pop Culture Icons (HT Clive Thompson) (Kate Mothes for Colossal. March 9, 2026.)

From a couple of rock piles outside of her regular supermarket to crumbling curbs or demolished structures, [Elizabel Saloka] sifts through a variety of shapes and sizes to find rocks that may eventually transform into vibrant mimics of common household items, boxed sandwiches from Pret a Manger, or Babybel brand snacking cheese.

I like the Babybel.

[13.] Hyper Realistic Pencil Drawings of Metallic Objects by Kohei Ohmori (Johnny for Spoon & Tamago. July 1, 2024.)

Something must have come over me, says Kohei Ohmori, reflecting on the 280 hours or roughly 5 months spent drawing a hyper realistic composition of a metallic bolt and nut using just pencils.

The headline does not lie.

[14.] How Money Laundering Works In The Art World (Charlie Pogacar for Art & Object. June 13, 2025.)

Take, for example, a story about Jean-Michel Basquiat’s Hannibal painting, estimated to be worth $8 million. The work was smuggled into the U.S. by convicted Brazilian money launderer and former banker Edemar Cid Ferreira.

I had a feeling Basquiat would make a cameo appearance in this article. I thought of my 2023 article Basquiat Forgeries Made With Alarming Ease.

Time for me to remind you that I'm a professional headline arranger

[15.] The 800-Word Book Review (Derek Neal. April 7, 2026.)

At this point, some readers might think I am advocating for the replacement of writers by AI in the book review sections of The New York Times and The Guardian, but this is not the case. Instead, I am advocating for writers to prevent themselves from becoming AI.

Foreshadowing?

[16.] A prize-winning story published in Granta was (very likely) written by AI. (Brittney Allen for Literary Hub. May 19, 2026.)

It’s another grim day at the human factory. There is strong evidence to suggest that a prize-winning short story published this week in celebrated literary magazine Granta was entirely generated by AI.

Indirectly foreshadowed.

The answer is "NO"

[17.] Put sesame oil in your coffee? Japanese maker says it’s the best way to start your day (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. October 3, 2025.)

If you don’t want to drink your coffee black, it’s not unusual to put a little cream or sugar in your coffee, but recently Japan’s Kadoya Seiyu caused a stir with a different recommendation.

That is an atrocity and it violates the Geneva Convention, but I'm inclined to say it is not quite as bad as the coffee fruit punch and lemonade coffee I covered on NLJ. But once you pass the "gag-inducing" threshold, "relative" is of little comfort.

[18.] Did Christianity Inspire North Korea? (Benjamin R. Young for Compact. May 15, 2026.)

But these reinterpretations risk distracting from what is plainly in front of us: North Korea’s party bureaucracy, administrative practices, and repressive security apparatus are unmistakably Soviet in origin.

In other words, the book reviewer's answer is "NO"

[19.] Is AI the Paperclip? (Nicholas Carr at New Cartographies. February 9, 2026.)

To maintain a linear path of improvement in the performance of today’s neural-network-based AI models requires an exponential increase in resources. Ever larger inputs achieve ever smaller gains.

In other words, "no." But very well-done.

Parenting and disabilities

[20.] General Charles De Gaulle and a Very Special Person With Down's Syndrome (Catholic Medical Quarterly. August 2022.)

One of de Gaulle’s neighbours recalled how he used to walk with her hand-in-hand around the property, caressing her and talking quietly about the things she understood. She was, [de Gaulle]said simply, 'My joy. She helped me overcome the failures in all men, and to look beyond them'.

[21.] Judson’s Last Ride (Sean Trende for RealClear Politics. May 22, 2026.)

Judson is a senior in high school. He also has profound autism. He’s 18 years old, and while he blessedly has some capacity for speech, I’ve never had what you would call a conversation with him ... Today, Judson Hancock Trende will have his last day of class. He’ll get off that bus, and he’ll never get back on.

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 May 23-29 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

1. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine (NAF. Jan. 20, 2026.) 19 appearances and 3 top placements in 2026.

2. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search (NAF. April 17, 2025.) 22 appearances and 19 top placements in 2026; 49 appearances and 40 top placements overall.

3. Amazon “Cargo Bikes” in Brooklyn (NAF. April 9, 2025.) 13 appearances in 2026; 48 appearances and 8 top placements overall.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name (NAF. March 11, 2021.) 12 appearances in 2026; 22 appearances overall.

5. Misleading ARRIS Modem Login Instructions (NAF. June 12, 2024.) 2 appearances in 2026; 15 appearances and 1 top placement overall.

Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine not only ended the 13-week first-place streak of Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search after coming just short last week, but it had the best single "unassisted" (as in not boosted by an obvious external sharing event) in NLJ history. Reason? I suspect it has to do with Google making news with its efforts to push an "AI" search experience on searchers. If the last 10 days are any indication, we may be entering a new ranking era. This week's 5th-place article, Misleading ARRIS Modem Login Instructions, makes its first appearance since week 1. Missing the top-five by one spot was Futaba Igarashi’s Hair Is Naturally Green?, which is currently 8th place in 2026, but still has yet to make a weekly top-five (in 2026 or any year). It is unsurprisingly the best-placed article with no weekly ranking appearances.

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.

This is our final newsletter of May 2026. While I was not able to publish everything I had hoped because of work, I am satisfied with having managed to publish all six essays of our sixth birthday project on schedule (albeit that schedule kept me from working on some other projects). I look forward to sharing some more interesting articles and essays in June.

Until June 6,
Cura ut valeas – Nicholas A. Ferrell.