The Sanity Project

Book review: Retaking College Hill

This entry was posted in Book discussion and tagged books education fiction Objectivism on by

Walter Donway
Retaking College Hill: The Adults Are Back
Paperback or e-book, Amazon.com

Cover, Retaking College HillRetaking College Hill is a novel of both action and ideas. It deals with a topic which is an excellent source of dramatic conflict but hasn’t been used in literature as much as it should. That topic is the battle for academic freedom, for making universities a place for teaching and controversy without fear of retaliation.
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What is irony, and how can writers use it?

This entry was posted in Techniques Writing and tagged irony usage writing on by

Irony is one of those things we know when we see it, but it’s hard to pin down if you’re asked to explain. Merriam-Webster gives two definitions: (1) the use of words that mean the opposite of what you really think especially in order to be funny. (2) a situation that is strange or funny because things happen in a way that seems to be the opposite of what you expected.
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Search engine tricks for researchers

This entry was posted in Techniques Tools and tagged Google research search Startpage on by

On several occasions, when I’ve researched a topic that has just hit the news, search engines have shown me nothing but news articles on commentary on that event. Usually it’s 20 versions of the same syndicated article. Finding background information becomes nearly impossible. Google’s weighting heavily favors recently added or changed pages.

Fortunately, if you know Google’s options well, there are ways to get around this. They also work with Startpage, which is an independent privacy-protecting front end to Google. I recommend Startpage, if only to avoid Google’s diddling with your search results based on what it knows about you. Startpage recently dropped its advanced search page, but you can still do everything it let you do.
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This entry was posted in News and tagged books bookstores science fiction on by | Open »

There’s a new update on GoFundMe on Uncle Hugo’s Bookstore. As you may recall, it was destroyed by arson during the Minneapolis protests, most likely by someone taking advantage of the confusion rather than a legitimate protester. But they’re still working on finding a suitable location for a new store. In the meantime, you can buy books from the website.

They’re really going for the long haul. As I’m writing this, Uncle Hugo’s has an event scheduled for July 31, 21021.

I have no association with the store. I’m just a fan supporting other fans.

Abusing the nominative 2

This entry was posted in Commentary Writing and tagged grammar writing on by

Alexander James Adams has a song which is quite nice yet makes me grate my teeth. Its refrain is “There’s only the music between you and I.” An occasional grammatical violation in a song is OK, but one that occurs in every verse is painful. There are plenty of good rhymes for “me.”

When a pronoun follows a preposition, it has to be in the accusative case, also called the objective case. “With me.” “To them.” “Behind her.” The favorite grammatical error of snobs is to use the nominative case instead.
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