The Dice — 015

The last week of August ended strong with a lot of work across multiple projects nearing the finish line. It also helped that the summer weather decided to return. Being that it’s Labor Day Weekend, I suspect open rates for this week’s issue will take a dip, but I enjoyed pulling this issue together with a nice blend of sources and topics. I hope you enjoy reading and clicking through as well. Travel safe and let’s chat when you get back. We can either meet for the first time or get caught up. Either way, let's talk before the winter creeps in.

Come on seven!

Verge editor Chris Welch posted a frightening, neigh terrifying, demonstration of Google’s “Reimagine” AI feature for photo editing that is horrifying. “Everyone alive today has grown up in a world where you can’t believe everything you read. Now we need to adapt to a world where that applies just as equally to photos and videos." There are practical uses for AI, but this is not one of them, and I don’t understand why tech companies are forcing these tools upon our society that is so, so, so, not prepared in any way to respond.

It’s timely that California lawmakers approved a ban on deep fakes and for tech companies to provide detection tools to users.

“It was my coworker Tyson Evans who first suggested that HBO should make a gritty series about the vicious New York City newspaper wars of 1896 - 1911, and thinking it over, I'd have to agree that it would be amazing. As Tim Carmody pitched it, ‘It's Deadwood Meets Citizen Kane.’ and thinking it over, I'd have to agree that it would be amazing."

How could you not watch that?! Check out the notes on all of the many historical figures and events that writer Jacob Harris added to his hypothetical pitch. I would love every minute of this series and watch it many times over. Sadly, this post—albeit awesome—is from 2011 but maybe someone at A24 is reading this?

After twelve years at the desk, New York Times restaurant critic, Pete Wells shared his closing perspective on how much the industry has changed “…and Not for the Better.” Pete laments how much technology has taken away the human interaction—the humanity—of dining and amped up the wrong behaviors and expectations of customers. Sadly, Pete’s critique is not only of a cherished industry but society itself where human interactions have evolved into transactions.

I might have to start another publication as an excuse to use Departure Mono, a typeface designed by Helena Zhang that is inspired by “the constraints of early command-line and graphical user interfaces.” It’s perfect. While you’re clicking around I also recommend checking out Helena’s personal site and her other project, Phosphor Icons.

While on the subject of icons, here is a proposal to use an asterism (as seen here: ⁂) as the symbol for the Fediverse. “In astronomy, it refers to groups of stars in the sky, akin to constellations,” and it’s already baked into Unicode (U+2042).

Proving the Internet is Tokyo, earlier this week I came across Obsolete Sony, “a journey through Sony’s history.” Distributing content across many channels including a newsletter, Obsolete Sony offers a look back at Sony’s incredible catalog of fantasticly designed consumer and professional products. Many which I remember and some I had no clue existed, like Sony’s foray into personal computers in the 80s with a variable speed control for the processor—mind blown!

One of my favorite magazines, Delayed Gratification, published Metropolis now, a look at “world’s newest cities, many of which are—or are destined to become—their country’s new capital.” A fascinating read written and photographed by Nick Hannes as part of his research on a new book, New Capital: Building Cities from Scratch.

Published in Tacoma, Washington with Nightmares On Wax on play.