Category: Technology
He’s No Saint: It’s Time to Talk About the Real Nicholas of Myra
Note: We are issuing this statement anonymously because in the current political climate it is important to protect the safety of dissenters and those whose views may be challenging to the powerful Santa Claus Lobby. Earlier this week we celebrated the...
32 Theses (and several more words) on Podcasting
Alan Jacobs has not been shy about his dislike of podcasts—but recently posted an apology, along with a comment and a request. The comment: I like podcasts that are professionally edited, scripted, festooned with appropriate music, crafted into some kind...
On the Quirky Author Bio
If you’ve spent any amount of time online then you have come across a weird genre of online writing that we’re going to call the Quirky Author Bio. You’ll find them at the end of blog posts all over the...
Housekeeping News
Hey all, here are a few brief housekeeping things I wanted to draw to your attention. Secure Browsing First, if you at the URL bar, you’ll see a padlock next to the URL for the website. This is a sign that...
Moral Sentimentalism and Mechanized Society
Recently Alastair Roberts and I had the chance to do an email back and forth over an issue I’ve noticed increasingly often in the way that many are reasoning about issues of public ethics. Unsurprisingly, the discussion sprawled out a...
A Note on Mere O Notes
Hey all, so I’m still sorting through some of the things I want to do with Mere O as the lead writer. One thing I’ve been thinking about, and reading this book has pushed me further along in this thinking,...
On Tinder and Why It’s OK to Commodify Sex
In the aftermath of last week’s Vanity Fair story on Tinder and the end of dating there was no shortage of hand-wringing by many readers who were, rightly, appalled at what they found in the story. But upon reflection it seems...
Twitter Is Like Elizabeth Bennet’s Meryton
I’m quite pleased to feature this piece from Mere Fidelity contributor Alastair Roberts today. You can follow him on Twitter here or read his personal blog here. ‘A Truth Universally Acknowledged…’ In a 1997 article on communal judgment in Pride...
On Long Posts
A brief word about running longer essays given the long piece from Alastair Roberts we’re running today. There are five brief points I want to make that you can read parallel to the piece Alastair ran over at his blog...
The Evolution of Blogs and the Future of Mere O
If the conventional blog wasn’t dead before The Dish’s demise, the shuttering of Andrew Sullivan’s iconic internet publishing venture surely signaled the end of traditional blogging. Once an intriguing new publishing form that shunned the norms of traditional journalism for...