Leafy intro

Welcome to the 294th 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”).

My writing output last week was meager. The reason is tied to the fact that I still have work- work to work on this weekend. But the newsletter show must go on, and I do have some new writing to share along with our regularly scheduled links from around the web and other news and notes, so let us hop to it.

Leaves from the week that was

I only managed to publish one new NLJ article since mailing Newsletter 294.

In Union Street and Questioning Article Assertions, I questioned an assertion by a restaurant owner in a recent article in Grub Street about the purported dangerousness of the Gowanus Canal stretch of Union Street in Brooklyn back in 2012. As I explain in the article, my questioning derives from having walked and watched that stretch many times before, during, and after 2012, and some of my observations are indirectly documented in the humble pages of the NLJ. Beyond the anecdotes, I shared my take for a moral. It is easy to identify questionable assertions based on personal knowledge, but less so when the assertions are about something which one lacks such knowledge.

Things were fortunately a bit busier on ECS. To start, I managed to publish daily Pook-Emu Bee links all five days of the work-week. See 08-24, 08-25, 08-26, 08-27, and 08-28. By my count there are a combined 43 links for your reading enjoyment.

In addition sharing 43 links in five Pook-Emu Bee posts, I published a few unique short articles on ECS. In Headlines That Say “I Ran Out Of Ideas”, I mused about how a New York Post columnist settled on a story about some online “controversy” involving Gwyneth Paltrow and AI. I shared some fast food news and facts in Burger King Surpasses Wendy’s. In what was my personal favorite short post of the week, I shared some facts and opinions (not my own) about cassette tapes in Learning About Cassette Types. I shared an interesting link-collection bookmarklet I discovered through one of my feed sources in Adam Douglas’ List Page Links Bookmarklet. Finally, I wrapped things up with Kan Gao on Why He Uses RPG Maker (Kan Gao is the developer of the popular, albeit not my cup of tea, To the Moon game series).

Leaves from around the web

While I did not publish many words last week, there were many words published around the web. I usually collect links from around the web under humorous captions. Today, we will go for a more free-flowing approach.

1. Inside Brooklyn’s seedy Penn Track sex market where pimps, murder and human trafficking are part of daily life (Megan Palin for the New York Post. August 17, 2026.)

Although three pimps were taken off the street, others were quick to assume their places. When The Post visited, several men sitting in parked cars and standing on nearby corners appeared to be keeping tabs on the women and the passing vehicles.

What was that I was saying in my Union Street article about places in Brooklyn I do not want any part of?

2. No, Japan’s prime minster did not make friends with a cockroach, despite what you may have heard (Casey Baseel for SoraNews 24. August 26, 2026.)

[A] recent headline from [The Guardian] regarding Japanese prime minster Sanae Takaichi suggests that maybe the paper should stick to speaking its own mind, since it pretty grossly misrepresented Takaichi’s way of thinking.

Did The Guardian run with a cheap machine translation of a quote from Sanai Takaichi before taking a moment to question and check whether it really reflected what she had said in Japanese for clicks? Probably. But I dare say it’s about the friends you make along the way. Speaking of The Guardian’s cockroach coverage…

3. Cyborg cockroaches with tiny syringes designed to join search and rescue teams in major disasters (Australian Associated Press (via The Guardian). August 26, 2026.)

‘A lot of people might not like the sight of a giant cockroach scurrying towards them, but if you’re trapped in rubble or stuck in a cave and need help, it could make a real difference between life and death.’

That was my second thought after starting the article (my first was wondering what is with all the cyborg cockroach research lately). I’d recommend giving them a speaker so they can announce their arrival before causing a heart attack.

4. Do birds enjoy flying? (Niles Kerstes for PhysOrg. July 14, 2026.)

Who hasn’t dreamed of flying like a bird? But do birds actually enjoy flying as much as we imagine?

Not pigeons. I watch pigeons go through great effort to not fly. But what if I told you some birds love flying so much that it gets them in trouble?

5. British Army Sailors Rescue Exhausted Owl 70 Miles Out To Sea (Reuters (via gCaptain). August 22, 2026.)

A British Army sailing crew competing in one of yachting’s most demanding races found themselves conducting an impromptu wildlife rescue 70 nautical miles from shore when an exhausted barn owl made a determined bid to join their team.

This owl loves flying too much.

6. The Taliban Visited A Belarus Cheese Factory. Then The Photos Vanished (Amos Chapple for RFE/RL. August 24, 2026.) (HT John Hayward.)

The visit by Taliban officials to the Slutz Cheese-Making Plant in central Belarus was reported on by a local news outlet on August 21, but then deleted from its website and social media channels.

Looks like the Belarusian media Talibanned the coverage.

7. Know Your Food: Cheesemaking (Jenny List for Hackaday. June 1, 2026.)

So without further ado, it’s time to dive straight in with cheese, or to be more specific, hard cheese. In simple terms the flavoursome snack is matured fermented coagulated preserved milk, which sounds a lot less appetizing than what the cheese marketing people will tell you, but that’s the hacker’s truth.

You don’t have to rely on the Belarusian-Taliban cheese cartel for your cheese. You can make it yourself. (I’ll stick with non-DIY cheese, however).

8. Brooklyn Dems change who picks party boss in closed-door vote; chair challengers head back to court (Adam Daily for amNY. August 26, 2026.)

Asked about reformers’ plans to return to court, Seddio replied: ‘That’s what we have a good set of courts for.’

This is a joke, but it is also not a joke. I got the joke, and I gave newsletter readers the context to get the joke in Newsletters 252 and 259. Look, say what one will, but we are all witnesses to the last true party boss in Brooklyn pulling out a bit of very above-board magic for one comedic last stand.

9. The last remaining street in the neighborhood once known as Italian Harlem (Ephemeral New York. March 10, 2025.)

Today, the organized crime influence has faded, if not disappeared completely—just like almost all the Italian American residents and businesses that made the area so rich and vibrant.

I won’t let Mr. Seddio’s old school smoke-filled room magic out-do my headline organizing magic.

10. Muscle, Memory: Inside China’s Last Bull Wrestling School (Will Wain-Williams for Sixth Tone. November 26, 2025.)

Today, that tradition survives in a single courtyard in Jiaxing, in eastern China’s Zhejiang province. Down one of its quiet back alleys, a wooden gate bears the sweeping calligraphy of the city’s most famous native, wuxia novelist Jin Yong: Chinese Bull Wrestling Academy.

No wonder I went my whole life without ever having heard of “bull wrestling.”

11. Monopoly Money: Why Meta “Likes” the $16 Billion Settlement (Jonathan Turley. August 27, 2026.)

It is not every day that a company can settle a case for over $16 billion and celebrate. However, Meta’s settlement with 29 states is a remarkably good deal for a company facing a demand of over $1.4 trillion and years of litigation. In the end, it may not even take a loss from the litigation.

Having noted in a short post that I had some difficulty making sense of the actual claims, I share the esteemed Mr. Turley’s hunch.

12. ‘I’m Worried The Kids Are Addicted To Social Media,’ Says Mom Who Posts On Facebook 137 Times A Day (The Babylon Bee. August 27, 2026.)

Local mom Gina Muldoon, who sources confirmed posts to Facebook an average of 137 times each day, shared her concerns on a Facebook mom’s group that kids these days might be addicted to social media.

I definitely did not include a link to the Facebook settlement to set up this Babylon Bee joke.

13. The Making of a Techno-Nationalist Elite (Tanner Greer for American Affairs Journal. November 20, 2025.)

The techno-nationalist sees technology and nationhood as two intertwined goods. As technology advances, so does national power. Only a powerful state can unite a populous nation around a common identity and protect it from both external enemies and centrifugal forces. Such a nation then functions as a vast open market that allows emerging industries to benefit fully from economies of scale. These industries create wealth; wealth invested expands industrial capacity; booming industrial development stimulates the invention and adoption of new technologies, beginning the cycle anew.

A book review turns into a lengthy essay on the history of “techno-nationalism” in the United States.

14. How Dolly Parton built a legacy of giving beyond country music (Sophia Compton for Fox Business. August 25, 2026.)

One of Parton’s best-known philanthropic efforts, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, has distributed more than 332 million free books since its founding, according to the organization’s website.

A legacy of giving.

15. Lenny Wilkens Was a Man Between NBA Eras (Neil Paine. November 11, 2025.)

Following an All-American career at Providence in the late 1950s/early ‘60s, Wilkens played in the NBA from 1961 to 1975 — the latter six seasons of which he also spent the majority of time as a player-coach, logging more than 37 minutes a night at his peak while also coaching the team. After retiring as a player, he’d coach another 28 seasons in the NBA, leading the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1979 championship and later breaking Red Auerbach’s then-record for career coaching wins (938) during the 1994-95 season — a distinction he’d retire with in 2005.

A look back at the NBA coaching career (third most-wins of all time) of Hall of Fame player and coach (and the third-to-last player-coach), Lenny Wilkens.

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 August 15-21 with notes on their cumulative ranking statistics going back to 2021.

1. Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search (NAF. April 17, 2025.) 35 appearances and 22 top placements in 2026; 62 appearances and 43 top placements cumulatively.

2. Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine. (NAF. January 21, 2026.) 32 appearances and 13 top placements.

3. The Story of Billy Possum, President Hoover’s Pet Opossum (NAF. November 30, 2021.) 4 appearances in 2026; 9 appearances and 1 top placement cumulatively.

4. Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow (NAF. October 5, 2023.) 15 appearances in 2026; 34 appearances cumulatively.

5. The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 - Statistics and Analysis (NAF. January 18, 2022). 9 appearances in 2026; 72 appearances and 4 top placements cumulatively.

Catching 151 Pokémon in Google Search and Adding noai.duckduckgo.com as Custom Search Engine have alternated in the top position for four consecutive weeks, with the former narrowly regaining the top spot this week. Between the two, they account for the top position all 35 weeks of 2026. They may well lock all articles out of the top spot through the end of the year, but I will work on publishing something to make our ranking a bit more interesting.

Way back in third, my study of Herbrt Hoover’s White House pet opossum slid into third for its fourth appearance of 2026. Fourth and fifth were weak last week, but saw the return of Dragonair Safari in Pokémon Yellow and The Pokémon Special Split in Generation 2 - Statistics and Analysis to the ranking. The latter is now one appearance shy of becoming the sixth article to reach double-digit weekly ranking appearances in 2026.

Taking leaves

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.

My publishing output last week left a bit to be desired. but my schedule may clear up a bit by Tuesday, so with hope, I will have much more to share with the reading public as we move into September.

Independence forever!
Nicholas A. Ferrell.