On October 20, 2024, I wrote an article about presidential runner-ups with the most recent birth dates. My article was inspired by the fact that prior to the 2024 presidential election, Al Gore, who lost in 2000, was the youngest person to finish runner-up in a presidential election. I went through all the runners-up to see if Mr. Gore had the longest streak, and learned that he was the record holder. Mr. Gore had appeared slated to extend his mark prior to July 2024 since both of the presumptive major party nominees were older than him. However, the presumptive Democratic nominee, now-outgoing President Joe Biden, withdrew the race and was replaced by the Vice President, Kamala Harris, who is just more than 18 and one-half years younger than Mr. Gore. I noted the possibility that Mr. Gore’s streak would end and indeed it has. As Donald Trump prepares to join Grover Cleveland as the only men to serve two non-consecutive terms as president, Ms. Harris replaces Mr. Gore as the presidential runner-up with the most recent birth date. This is admittedly a very niche record, but Mr. Gore’s holding the mark for six elections is a fun oddity, especially in light of the fact that he was not an exceptionally young major party nominee in 2000. I will add a few small updates to my research article in the coming days.
Cannot Fix Computer With Punch
Nicholas A. FerrellI built my current desktop computer back in August 2020. One of the benefits of building your own computer is that you can easily fix it when you have a hardware issue. For example, one of the top fans on my case is becoming a bit off-kilter. Once in a while (maybe once every 30-40 start-ups), it wi...
I had to buy case-fans for my current computer, which I built back in August 2020. I have had issues with the fans rotating askew and making an unpleasant noise. I had already replaced two before one of my replacement fans started to go. In February, I fixed the replacement fan by punching the top of my computer case. Unfortunately, the punch solution became unreliable on the morning of October 26, 2024. Having work to do, I unplugged the offending fan. I think I can harvest case fans from my previous desktop PC, which I built in 2011.
Halloween for Nagasaki Bio Park Capybaras (2020)
I published a research article on Halloween in Japan on October 17, 2024. My article was based on a selection of English-language sources. After I published the article, it occurred to me to use Feedle, an interesting search tool for RSS/ATOM feeds, to see if I missed any good Halloween-Japan articles. While I did not find any articles that I would have added for their research value, I did find an important report on capybaras at the Nagasaki Bio Park devouring a Halloween Jack-o-lantern in 2020. From that report, I learned that the jack-o-lantern was something of a mulligan after the capybaras had struggled in doing battle with a sturdier pumpkin a few weeks earlier.
Girls Band Cry on Crunchyroll
Anime News Network reported that Crunchyroll is adding Girls Band Cry, a spring 2024 anime, on November 6. Girls Band Cry was perhaps the only high profile anime of 2024 to not be officially simulcast. News of Crunchyroll’s picking it up is bittersweet for me. I am a Crunchyroll subscriber. But I purchased Girls Band Cry on Amazon (in the digital purchase is really a rental sense) early last month. Fortunately, I actually watched all 13 episodes in early-to-mid September, so I got some value from the “purchase” before it officially arrives on Crunchyroll. I had been on the fence about writing a Girls Band Cry review, but now I almost certainly will with the news that it is arriving on Crunchyroll. Now can you expect to see it ranked in my year-end top-six anime of 2024 in a couple of months (see my 2023 ranking)? I did (mostly) like Girls Band Cry, but we are close enough th the end of the year that I will issue a no comment on its prospects.
Recommending the PocketBook Line
For the last few months, I’ve been trying to decide if I should buy a new ereader and, if so, which brand I should purchase. I have been researching options from Kindle, Kobo, Onyx Boox and a few others. My goal is to read books and I check ebooks out from our library so I really want Libby support. ... I could really use some recommendations. I’m leaning away from Kindle (for the most part) but I haven’t ruled it out.
I subscribe to The Well Apportioned Desk in my feed reader. Site creator Ana Reinert is looking for e-reader recommendations. She wants an e-reader that allows her to “read books” and “libby support” for checking out books from her library. She would also prefer a non-Kindle option, although that is not a requirement. I personally have a PocketBook Color (seen here), PocketBook Inkpad Color (first model, seen here), and a 2018 Kindle Paperwhite (discussed here). I like the Pocketbooks. Pocketbook’s native Linux-based OS is unobtrusive and it is very easy to install KoReader for a much better reading and library-management experience (KoReader is noticeably snappier than the default reading app). I do not use PocketBook’s store at, instead using it for DRM-free books (I use Calibre on my PC to send books to my PocketBook). However, I have tested its built-in Adobe DRM functionality and found that it works as expected for DRM-protected books from the Kobo sore. As a bonus, Mozilla’s Privacy Not Included guide has a positive assessment of Pocketbook devices. Readers should note I have not tried an Android-based PocketBook, so I have no opinion of those. I have no take on Libby functionality since I have never checked out library ebooks (moreover, I was only aware of Overdrive). If PocketBook does not check the library box, I would see if Kobo, which, like Pocketbook, supports KoReader, is a viable option (assuming arguendo that Kobo is preferred over Kindle). Since Ms. Reinert mentioned Onyx Book, I will note that I would stay away from that one due to its tendency to phone home and GPL violations, but I would be interested in Onyx Book if something like LineageOS were available for it.
Like an Olympic Walker
I was walking in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn, on the evening of October 23, 2024. A little girl (probably about 9 years old) was lagging behind her father. She asked him to slow down. When he did not slow down, she dropped the following line:
You’re like in the Olympics for walking.
That is a good line for a kid. Imagine what she will be able to put together when she learns about Olympic racewalking.
Spectrum Internet Speed Increase
My home internet service provider is Spectrum (it has been for a long time), which I discussed in some detail in an article about receiving surprisingly good customer support back in May. I have the cheapest internet plan. That plan had been for 300 Mbps. With my MikroTik hAP ac3 router and good ethernet cables, I was able to get about ~370 Mbps out of it with a wired connection. Spectrum recently bumped the internet speed on my plan to 400 Mbps for no additional cost. I finally got around to testing and got 493-495 Mbps on three tests with an ethernet connection. That is a nice increase but it made me wonder whether there is anything I can do to squeeze 500 out of it.
Amazon’s AI Shopping
Wired wrote an article about Amazon’s dream of having its AI buy stuff on behalf of customers. I am not going to dignify this inane, anti-competitive idea with my patented full analysis. Instead, I will note that Amazon’s current AI summaries of product reviews, most of which are probably fake anyway, are not ringing endorsements of the company’s prowess in this area.
Resource on Tajik-Russia Dual Citizenship
Russian law neither provides for the possession of dual citizenship nor recognizes the foreign citizenship of its nationals. (Law on Citizenship art. 6.) Under this law, all individuals are treated as Russian citizens regardless of whether they have citizenship of a foreign country. An exception is made for the citizens of Tajikistan, the only country that has a relevant treaty with Russia. (Treaty Between the Russian Federation and Republic of Tajikistan on Regulating Dual Citizenship Issues, Sept. 7, 1995.) A similar treaty with Turkmenistan was terminated in 2015.
A May 1, 2020 report by Peter Roudik for the Law Library of Congress titled Russia: New Law Eliminates Requirement to Renounce Foreign Citizenship is a useful resource for legal issues involving dual citizens of Tajikistan and Russia. Toward the end of the report, it notes that Russia neither provides for nor prohibits dual citizenship. Instead, it treats Russian citizens as citizens of Russia and no other country. However, “[a]n exception is made for the citizens of Tajikistan, the only country that has a relevant treaty with Russia.” The relevant treaty took effect in 1997. This is a good starting source for establishing that Tajik citizens who are naturalized as Russian citizens do not lose their Tajik citizenship as a result of Russian naturalization. The article also links to the relevant Russian-language treaty.
Archive Today Works on Instagram
I was formatting a new article by my good friend Victor V. Gurbo for The New Leaf Journal. Victor included a link to an Instagram post by a Bob Dylan scholar. The link was significant because Victor quoted the post. I have never had an Instagram account (I do, however, have a Pixelfed account) and do not like linking to closed platforms. Out of curiosity, I tried opening the Instagram link in Mullvad Browser and was able to see the post. I then tried saving the Instagram post using Archive Today. The saving process took a long time, but it resulted in a near-perfect capture. I included the archive link alongside the original Instagram for people like me who do not use Instagram and prefer a capture of the post to trying to navigate to Instagram. One interesting point: The Archive Today image capture of the post is unusable due to an Instagram pop-up. But the page capture looks good.
Ai Ai Gasa in Living for the Day After Tomorrow
I wrote a survey of English-language sources on the ai ai gasa back in February. That survey was inspired by a review of the Teasing Master Takagi-san series-concluding movie. Since writing about ai ai gasa, I have become more aware of the love umbrella’s occasional cameos in TV anime, similarly to how writing about anime hair color made me pay more attention to hair color in new shows. I recently re-watched a 2006 series called Living for the Day After Tomorrow (aka Asatte no Houkou) for the purpose of writing a review, which I published on October 11. I was collecting screenshots for my articles while watching the episodes. Having written about ai ai gasa not too long ago, I could not help but take the following screen capture from near the end of the show.
Ai ai gasa in the sand of the beach! It gets washed away by a wave in the same scene. The names written are not of any characters in the anime. It is an artistic flourish to go along with a story that one character is telling another by the beach.
TikTok vs Traditional Media
According to Eric Lendrum of American Greatness: “A new survey shows that young Americans who frequently use the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok are much more likely to get their news from content creators rather than actual news outlets.” I am long on record as being an early member of the ban TikTok camp, specifically because no other great power in history would allow an adversary to perform live-action social experiments on its youngest citizens. I read this article about young people viewing CCP propaganda as an alternative to “actual news outlets” and thought “yes that is bad, but what is worse is that this is a battle between the resistable force and the movable object.”
Wayback Machine and My New Article Draft
I just published a review of Living for the Day After Tomorrow (a 2006 TV anime also known as Asatte no Hokou) on The New Leaf Journal. I had planned to simultaneously publish an article about how I first watched the show in June 2010 on Time Warner Cable’s Anime Network on Demand. I was able to pin down the exact week I started watching a 2006 anime in 2010 thanks to the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine. Unfortunately, the Internet Archive was targeted by hackers a few days ago with a pro-Hamas hacker group claiming responsibility (responsibility not confirmed, however). While I could have published my finished draft Anime Network on Demand article today (it is not as if I am expecting it to be a big visit-driver), I decided to hold off until the Internet Archive is fully back online.
October 7 and the National Interest
The following quote comes from Jonathan Sacerdoti’s Israel’s triumphant response to 7 October, published in The Spectator on October 7, 2024:
Much of the concern surrounding Israel’s actions in the last year was not genuine, but a veiled excuse to criticise the state for defending itself. Critics lamented that Israel might sacrifice global goodwill in its pursuit of victory, but these criticisms are superficial and often placate those who have long sought to undermine Israel’s legitimacy. The notion that Israel should refrain from defending itself to preserve its reputation overlooks a critical reality: a nation’s first responsibility is its own survival, not global approval.
I could not have said it better myself. The essay, which discusses Israel’s national interest and the importance of deterrence in the specific context of surving in the Middle East (and especially as surving as a Jewish state in the Middle East) is worth reading in full.
The Annoying Anna Aveiro in Narenare: Cheer For You!
Maybe I could get through [Nanare Hananare] on a binge watch, but I doubt I’d like it, so I’m just not going to bother. Also Anna is god awful.
Takafumi of the Pls No Hate blog posted his review of the summer 2024 anime season. I always enjoy Takafumi’s reviews, both because of the good analysis and also because they include many shows I avoid. But one show we both watched and failed to finish was P.A. Works’ Nanare Hananare (localized by Crunchyroll as Narenare: Cheer For You!). Takafumi got through 2 episodes. I managed to make it through six before tapping out (I think I lost here). I had already begun writing an article over the weekend about my sometimes-difficult relationship with anime by studio P.A. Works, and I figured being able to link to a brief note on its most recently completed anime would be a nice addition to that in-progress article.
In his brief analysis of the first two Nanare Hananare episodes, Takafumi opined that “Anna is god awful.” “Anna” refers to Anna Aveiro, a blonde, overly-energetic, Japanese-Brazilian girl who gets the ball in the series rolling (despite not being the principal main protagonist) by roping four other girls into producing content for her online video channel. Despite the fact that Anna is Brazilian, it would be easy to confuse her with many of anime’s blonde Americans. She is hyper-active, very loud, blunt, has no concept of personal space, and has some very interesting English pronunciations for a supposedly native speaker.
I agree with Takafumi that Anna was annoying in the first two episodes. Takafumi also said of the show “Maybe I could get through it on a binge watch, but I doubt I’d like it, so I’m just not going to bother.” From someone who watched six episodes, allow me to opine that not bothering is the safe choice. Anna gets her own character arc in episodes 4-5 about trying to keep a musty local record store that she loves from closing. The show does establish why the record store is important to Anna. Given that she is in high school, one may think that this would be an opportunity for Anna to accept that businesses come and go and to express her gratitude to the store owner who had run his record shop as a labor of love and consistently treated her well. Instead, Anna throws a tantrum, sulks, and generally acts like a 10-year old before summoning foreign celebrities to Japan (with some of the worst anime-English I have heared, bad as in how I would sound trying to pronounce Japanese). The arc was not helped by the fact that everyone, from the other main characters to entirely new characters, indulged Anna all the way through the arc’s improbable positive conclusion. I stuck it out one episode after the arc, but I had lost all hope for the show after Anna and the record store.
As I noted at the top, I have a difficult relationship with studio P.A. Works. It produced what was nearly my 2015 anime of the year (Shirobako) and a few other pieces I like (True Tears and Sakura Quest). But mixed in with those are pleasant mediocrities (Tari Tari), series which underachieved on account of annoying characters (Hanasaku Iroha and The Aquatope on White Sand), underachievers for lack of direction (Angel Beats), trainwrecks that got my hopes up with pretty previews (Glasslip), and at least one anime atrocity (Charlotte). I will describe Nanare Hananare as an inoffensive mess. I could see someone who does not find Anna obnoxious and does not expect too much from Nanare Hananare finding it somewhat pleasant.
(Anna Aveiro aside, I will note that 2024 has been generous to other anime Annas, but that will have to wait for my 2024 year-end review in a few months.)