The Dice — 041

This week we finished watching The American Revolution which was much more educational and enlightening than my wife and I anticipated. I'm fairly certain that most Americans have a bent perspective on the formation of this country based upon a combination of poor public education, a decline in civic duty, racism—which, unfortunately is engrained in the core of USA OS—and recent propaganda. In short, everyone who lives in this country should watch the documentary to remind ourselves how and why we are here, and who did what because the pictures that we have about our founders and what they did are badly skewed. Also, we have a much better understanding and appreciation for why Benedict—emphasis on ‘dic’—Arnold is considered a right and proper twat.

Arnold's story is a good reminder why people who do good work and are committed to a cause or a company or whatever, need to be appreciated, and told so. Also, why it's so important to sniff out and get rid of narcissists before they turn into real monsters. Like the fragile, decaying dummy squatting the White House today.

I'm finishing off this issue with a very needy cat tucked between me and the keyboard. Maybe I should have gotten a pet monkey so that at least it could help with editing—couldn't be any worse than most days with ChatGPT.

Enjoy this issue and have a great week.

Hey, are you reading Rolling Stone these days? If not, why not? I subscribed a year ago and love the looks I get when reading the magazine in a coffee shop. Like I'm holding something that has to be seen to be believed. Anyhoo, Rolling Stone kicks off the last month of the year with their take on the 20 best movies of the year and it's a solid list that includes some of my own favorites from 2025, like Edington, Black Bag, and The Phoenian Scheme, but also a bunch of films I'm intrigued to chase down. They include: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Universal Language, No Other Choice (I really want to see this one), and It Was Just An Accident. I knew it would make the list but glad to see One Battle After Another take the top spot.

Also featured is Orwell: 2+2=5, a haunting documentary on George Orwell’s writing paired with footage of current and historical events that maps all too well with his foresight. Rolling Stone dubbed it "the scariest movie of 2025." I would have called it the most sobering—it's only scary if you haven't been paying attention to the course of domestic and global politics and events in the last 25 years.

Related: The Ringer’s list of the top 100 TV episodes of the century. When I saw the number one pick, I could not believe it’s only been 21 years since that episode. Feels like five lifetimes ago.

Here’s a problem that’s highly likely going to get much worse, people [are] outsourcing their thinking to AI. “Many people are becoming reliant on AI to navigate some of the most basic aspects of daily life. A colleague suggested that we might even call the most extreme users “LLeMmings” For this set of compulsive users, AI has become a primary interface through which they interact with the world. The emails they write, the life decisions they make, and the questions that consume their mind all filter through AI first.” Look, I hope I don’t think I have to tell you that this is bad—how we end up in the Matrix. If only there was a brilliantly written book to give people a healthy, human-centered guidance on how to use AI in a way that doesn’t lead to Idiocracy.

As a follow up to his amazing Olympic Games The Design, Markus Osterwalder is back with a book that focuses on the Paris 2024 summer games. “The design for Paris 2024 stands out with its clean, symbolic aesthetic, deeply rooted in the city’s cultural and historical heritage. Hosting competitions at iconic locations was a key element in the success of this approach. Markus Osterwalder has meticulously curated examples from fields such as graphic design, typography, and product design to showcase the design identity of these extraordinary Games in their entirety.” Extraodinary is right! Olympic Games. Paris 2024. looks gorgeous and is currently available at discounted early bird price.

Niggli makes phenominal books and I have a few in the Storey library. While you’re adding Markus’ books to your cart, check out Risomania, Guidelines and Standards for the Visual Design, Max Bill: Typography. Advertising. Book Design, and Design, Typography, etc., to name a few.

Buy the zine that hits hard...

Got this message recently from a reader: “[Eject Disk] really hit me. I think much of it would have brought tears running down my face if I hadn’t shut that faucet off long ago (for the reasons you explained). Highly recommended.”

Buy Eject Disk the zine or the four-zine series.

Outdoor enthusiast Steven Smith sought to find a place in the USA where you can absolutely escape noise pollution. With a country as large as the US you would think that it would be easy peasy but sadly no. “Silence is disappearing. Even in the largest and most remote wilderness areas it is nearly impossible to find. With the help of Dr. Preston Wilson of UT Austin and Matt Mikkelsen, Wilderness director of Quiet Parks International, I go looking for the last quiet place in America.”

I think I’m more bothered by light pollution. Thankfully there seem to be more locations where we can still see the Milky Way (which if you have not seen this in person, then make it a priority) at night.

On a more serious note: Steven’s wife was recently diagnosed with cancer and he had to step away from his channel for a while. Luke Nichols, a famous outdoor content creator came out of retirement to record an episode of surviving an Alaskan winter night in the wilderness without a sleeping bag.

Side note: Akutaq, the eskimo ice cream he eats in the video, is a real thing and it’s disgusting.

“Unlike old authoritarianism built on fear and force, this new system rules through code, capital, and infrastructure—making resistance feel architecturally impossible.” Created as a wake-up call for European countries, The Authoritarian Stack tracks “a network of firms, funds, and political actors turning core state functions into private platforms. Based on an open-source dataset of over 250 actors, thousands of verified connections, and $45 billion in documented financial flows.” It’s well organized and well designed to articulate just how screwed up the United States government is right now. Hopefully not forever.

When I read just how fucked up this situation is maybe we do need a world revolution. “Break the spell of the corpo-capitalist doomsday machine. Reclaim true freedom—from algorithmic control, climate collapse, and the worldwide authoritarian wave.” I’m pulling my copy of Adbusters Manifesto for World Revolution off the shelf and giving it a re-read. Consider doing the same.

For a while I’ve had this idea for an old school BBS experience that had the look and feel of everything charm_ makes. After coming across a link in this week’s issue of Dense Discovery, I can call Bono and tell him that I found what I’m looking for. ᑕ¥βєяรקค¢є is “a quiet corner of the internet where you can think, write, read and connect. Like how the internet was supposed to be.” More of this please!

Though I kinda wish you had to use Telnet to add just a bit more dial-up experience but I’m not going to complain. In fact, Cyberspace has features that I would never have dreamed of while staying true to the mission (no AI, video, algorithm, suggestions, tracking, crypto, or ads) and the sweet charm_ like 8-bit asthestic. I’m impressed by the quality of the software and how much control each user has over their experience. Drop those Slack and Discord channels and jack-in to the real thing.

Published in Tacoma, Washington while signing along to Wild Child by Big Wild.