Leafy Intro

Welcome to the 283rd edition of The Newsletter Leaf Journal, the official newsletter of the perennially virid online writing magazine, The New Leaf Journal ("NLJ") and its short-form writing sister publication, The Emu Café Social ("ECS"). This newsletter comes to you as always from the administrator, editor, and writer of both publications, Nicholas A. Ferrell.

While I did not have the busiest week in terms of publishing new articles, I do have several new articles and short posts to share along with links around the web and our regular assortment of news and notes.

Leaves from around the web

I published four new NLJ articles since mailing Newsletter 282. One of those articles was my timely (for a change) May 2026 at The New Leaf Journal review.

I read an article about a Baidu (think China's answer to Google) engineer replacing himself with a chatbot before leaving the company. That inspired me to write an article. Lest you think that sounds original because no one is writing about AI, I will have you know that my article is about the time I replaced myself in a high school math class I had to miss to take an advanced placement exam. You can read my inspiring story and try to deduce a life lesson from it in Replace Yourself With a Human, Not Bot.

My other two articles were about the NBA Finals. Inspired by the New York Knicks making their first NBA Finals appearance this century, I published NBA Finals Appearance Droughts, wherein I looked at (A) the longest gaps between NBA Finals appearances and (B) the teams with the longest ongoing NBA Finals droughts. Consider this a follow-up to my 2025 article on championship droughts. Next, I was inspired by the defeat of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals to publish Playoff Success of 8.5+ Regular Season SRS NBA Teams. The 2025-26 Thunder had what was by many measures one of the most impressive regular seasons in NBA history. In this article, I look at how the teams with the top-25 regular season SRS (explained in my article) fared in the playoffs. I also have an article inspired by the Western Conference Champion San Antonio Spurs, but I will save that one until the Finals are completed.

Over on ECS, I published two new editions of Pook-Emu Bee links for June 1 and June 4.

Leaves from around the web

I do not suppose that my output is enough to keep readers enraptured for the weekend -- much less the entire week -- so I present 21 links from around the web with my patented commentary. (To be sure, I would have included the links even had I published more words to the internet last week, but phrasing it this way makes me sound magnanimous.)

This day in history

[1] Teacher will honor father’s legacy, visit D-Day beaches (Corey Eliot for Daily Journal. June 6, 2016.) (HT Scott Johnson (with additional context).)

Anne Wilson has a copy of the D-Day orders passed onto her father’s ship in May of 1944. Here is the briefing all members of the United States Navy received just two weeks before D-Day, June 6, 1944.

The briefing is re-printed in the article.

[2] Throw Away the Brooms: Sixers Stun Lakers (Mike Wise for The New York Times. June 7, 2001.)

[A] night on which Iverson took 41 shots in 52 minutes, scored 48 points and shocked the Los Angeles Lakers by 107-101 in overtime in Game 1 of the National Basketball Association finals.

On June 6, 2001, the Los Angeles Lakers entered game one of the NBA Finals after having swept through three 50+ win teams in the Western Conference Playoffs. They suffered their first (and ultimately only) loss of the 2001 NBA Playoffs at home in game one of the Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, thanks in large part to a performance for the ages by the 2000-01 NBA MVP, Allen Iverson. Today, Mr. Iverson's iconic "step over" (which I watched live) turns 25.

Buzz-worthy news

[3] Can We Use Dragonflies To Control Mosquito Populations?
Salama Udaipurwala for Science ABC. March 16, 2020. (HT Dan Lewis).

Solely using dragonflies to control mosquito populations is unlikely to be the answer.

I like dragonflies. I don't like mosquitoes (but they like me). Let's say "yes" in the spirit of wishful thinking.

[4] The Bug Factory That's Saving Lives (Dan Lewis at Now I Know. May 12, 2026.)

Instead of killing mosquitoes, they decided to breed them — millions upon millions of them.

I prefer the methods that don't result in my being bitten.

[5] County crews expand mosquito control after heavy rains leave standing water (Jacob Beltran for San Antonio Express-News. June 1, 2026.)

Recent heavy rains have left standing water across the San Antonio area, creating ideal breeding conditions for mosquitoes...

What's good for the lawn is good for the mosquitoes.

Albinism

[6] Albino buffalo nicknamed 'Donald Trump' becomes sensation at Bangladesh's national zoo for its blond hair (Michael Sinkewicz for Fox News. June 4, 2026.)

The rare albino buffalo, nicknamed 'Donald Trump,' has become a sensation at Bangladesh’s national zoo thanks to its blond tuft of hair...

Next on the list: Spirit buffaloes for Geert Wilders, Gavin Newsom, Kim Jong-un, and Alexander Lukashenko.

[7] 'Super rare' albino squirrel spotted on golf course: 'Keep an eye out' (Ashley J. DiMella for Fox News. April 11, 2025.)

A resident of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, recently spotted an albino squirrel hanging out in a tree near the Prairie Green Golf Course.

This just reminds me how I failed to photograph an albino sparrow.

Playing the odds

[8] Mathematician who won lottery 14 times, forcing rule changes (Bao Nhien for VN Express International. May 31, 2026.) (HT Matthew Ingram).

The strategy relied on a simple principle: identify lotteries where the jackpot exceeded the cost of buying every possible number combination.

You'd think someone running the lottery would have accounted for this possibility before someone playing the lottery exploited it.

[9] Smartphone Gambling is a Disaster (Jonathan D. Cohen and Isaac Rose-Berman for After Babel. July 24, 2025.)

In the last few years, limitless, frictionless gambling has become available to anyone with an internet connection.

Anyone want to place a bet on the "not disaster" side?

It's all about customs

[10] Feds charge foreign nationals working at the National Institutes of Health with smuggling monkeypox into the United States and lying about it (United States Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. June 2, 2026.)

CBP officers observed Kwe and Munster traveling with a large black plastic case. Munster and Kwe falsely told CBP officers that the black case contained diagnostics and testing equipment. subsequent investigation by CBP and FBI agents revealed that the case actually contained 113 vials in Styrofoam coolers. As of the date of the complaint, the FBI has tested 20 of the 113 vials. Seventeen of them contained deactivated monkeypox virus, one contained the Chickenpox virus, and two contained only human DNA.

They're not taking the whole "Wuhan thing" well.

[11] China Busts Fetal Sex Testing Rings Smuggling Blood Samples (Jiang Xinyi for Sixth Tone. December 19, 2025.)

Blood-filled test tubes hidden under clothing and in false-bottom suitcases led Chinese authorities to smuggling rings that shipped more than 100,000 blood samples from pregnant women for fetal sex testing banned on the mainland.

Someday we'll figure out how China maintains its high male-to-female birth ratio.

Things you can always count on

[12] Ukraine Turns the Tide (Jack Watling for Foreign Affairs. June 1, 2026.)

[T]he Russian command appeared content to accept massive and sustained casualties, hurling troops with between two days and two weeks of training against Ukrainian positions.

The world changes. Then there's the Russian military.

[13] Has Al Jazeera Changed Its Editorial Direction? (Ahmad Sharawi and Natalie Ecanow for RealClear World. April 2, 2026.)

[T]he network has fractured into a platform where competing instincts about Iran, the Persian Gulf, and the costs of war are colliding.

I'd bet on Al Jazeera continuing to be Al Jazeera.

I cut through the fluff to highlight the real point

[14] I knew my writing students were using AI. Their confessions led to a powerful teaching moment (Micah Nathan for The Guardian, May 10, 2026.)

I have been teaching fiction writing at MIT since 2017.

Who takes creative writing at MIT?

[15] People in Japan are eating a lot less fish now than they used to, but why? (Casey Baseel for SoraNews24. February 19, 2025.)

Japan’s per-person fish consumption peaked in 2001, with an average of 40.2 kilograms (88.6 pounds) of fish eaten per person in Japan. Fast forward to 2022, the latest year for which the ministry has posted its food supply and demand tables on its publicly viewable website, and that amount has dropped to 22 kilograms of fish eaten per person per year....

What is the per capita cooked fish consumption?

Speak for yourself

[16] Your CEO is suffering from AI psychosis (Jake Handy. April 15, 2026.)

At SXSW in March, Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan sat on a panel with Bill Gurley and described what he called 'cyber psychosis.' He said he’d been sleeping four hours a night because he was so excited about AI agents.

I don't have a CEO.

[17] Visa says AI will start shopping and paying for you in 2026 (Brian Fagioli for Nerds.xyz. December 18, 2025.)

If Visa is right, 2025 becomes the last full year where most people shop alone, with AI agents increasingly moving from product discovery to actually pulling the trigger on purchases.

We're in the sixth month of 2026. No AI agent has made a purchase on my behalf. Joke is on you, Visa.

[18] The likelihood your friends are line dancing is high (Matty Merritt for Morning Brew. January 11, 2026.)

In recent years, country line dancing has seen a massive resurgence in major US cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

I wasn't sure so I asked around. None of my friends reported "line dancing."

You'll Need a Magnifying Glass to Read Some of the World's Smallest Books at the V&A (HT Clive Thompson) (Kate Mothes for Colossal. March 13, 2026.)

It was designed by a German typographer and is so tiny that it’s accompanied by a small pamphlet showing what you would see if you could page through the book.

I'm not sure what I'd need a magnifying glass for if you can't read the book with one. With that being said, I have a magnifying glass.

Out on a limb

[20] The story of our reporter P.K. Sanjun’s heart attack (Casey Baseel and P.P. Sanjun for SoraNews24. May 21, 2026.)

We should also add, however, that we don’t necessarily recommend copying P.K.’s hesitancy to call for an ambulance when experiencing searing chest pains, since it really could be a matter of life and death.

Just in case you were wondering (fortunately his dithering did not result in a bad outcome).

[21] Choosing The Right Camera For You (Dennis A. Mook at The Wandering Lensman. April 24, 2026.)

"Obviously, the serious answer always is, 'it depends.'"

Unless you have affiliate links. Then it would "depend" in a different way

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 30-June 5 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

1. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine (NAF. Jan. 20, 2026.) 20 appearances and 4 top placements.

2. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search (NAF. April 17, 2025.) 23 appearances and 19 top placements in 2026; 50 appearances and 40 top placements overall.

3. Hair Color in Raven of the Inner Palace (NAF. November 15, 2023.) First appearance in 2026; 5 appearances overall.

4. How the Forget-Me-Not Flower Found Its Name (NAF. March 11, 2021.) 13 appearances in 2026; 23 appearances overall.

5. Brave and DuckDuckGo Timer Search Shortcuts (NAF. August 5, 2022.) First appearance.

Analysis

Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine surpassed its record from the previous week and posted the best-ever week for an article that did not make page one of Hacker News (and the fifth-best week including the Hacker News page one articles). Its numbers came down a bit Wednesday-Friday, but not to the point where I would expect to see it challenged in the next three weeks.

Moving down the list, we had two 2026 debut articles after not having any "new faces" since the week of May 2-8. First, Hair Color in Raven of the Inner Palace, which was having a relatively quiet 2026 after having a solid January, posted its best week of the year to easily take third and make it three consecutive years with a weekly ranking appearance. Rounding out the top-five was the first-ever appearance of my 2022 article on creating browser shortcuts for the DuckDuckGo and Brave Search timers. I had hopes for that article when I published it -- hopes that were never realized. But the success of Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine most likely pulled it into a weekly top-five.

We ended up with a "five year" top five, with 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, and 2026 all being represented.

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.

Until June 13,
Cura ut valeas -- Nicholas A. Ferrell.