Welcome to our archive of news stories relevant to the project of fighting fashionable nonsense. The stories are drawn from the electronic pages of the world’s media. On this page, you’ll find links to those stories that have been featured on Butterflies and Wheels during the current year. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find links to separate archives of stories from previous years.

We’re always pleased to hear about news stories that you think should be featured on Butterflies and Wheels. Just send an email here, if you want to point one out to us.

A note about links

Inevitably links go out of date. We suggest, therefore, that you make hard-copies of the stories that particularly interest you.


Our Birthday *

Sep 9th, 2003 | Filed by

It’s been a year now.… Read the rest



Susan Greenfield Interview *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Is there a tension between popularisation (and celebrity) and serious research?… Read the rest



Putting the Boot In *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Clive James ponders Twain on Cooper, Macdonald on Cozzens, and finds it good.… Read the rest



Psychiatry No Better Than Astrology? *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Richard Bentall differs from Laing because he is a scientist.… Read the rest



Orthorexia Nervosa? *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

‘Cooking food is not natural.’ Neither is living in a house or reading books. So?… Read the rest



A Scientist in Arts Faculty Territory *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Where opinion is sacred while facts have a long leash.… Read the rest



Postmodernists in the Bush Administration *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Truth is a construct, therefore who knows, maybe tax cuts for the rich will create jobs.… Read the rest



Radical Islam is Not Modern but Modernist *

Sep 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Postmodernists despise facts as ‘positivist’ but they are a vital weapon, Terry Eagleton says.… Read the rest



The Quiche Party *

Sep 7th, 2003 | Filed by

When political commitments get confused with consumer choices, rhetoric is in play.… Read the rest



Non sequiturs *

Sep 6th, 2003 | Filed by

‘Science can’t provide all the answers.’ Oh and religion can?… Read the rest



Molière was Really Corneille? *

Sep 6th, 2003 | Filed by

Statistics prove it! No they don’t, say scholars, and the argument is on.… Read the rest



The Myth of Repressed Memory *

Sep 5th, 2003 | Filed by

Wendy Grossman interviews Elizabeth Loftus.… Read the rest



How Embarrassing *

Sep 5th, 2003 | Filed by

Archaeologist’s worst nightmare – that 2000-year-old carving was done by one Barry Luxton in 1995… Read the rest



Calls to Make Hard Choices *

Sep 5th, 2003 | Filed by

They may be a mask for strategies no one wishes to acknowledge.… Read the rest



Donald Davidson *

Sep 4th, 2003 | Filed by

The New York Times obituary.… Read the rest



Ishtiaq Ahmed on Human Rights *

Sep 4th, 2003 | Filed by

Does the adoption of the human rights programme means Westernisation?… Read the rest



Erin O’Connor on Creeping Illiteracy *

Sep 4th, 2003 | Filed by

‘There is no book worth reading that is not somehow partial to something.’… Read the rest



People Make Daft Mistakes *

Sep 3rd, 2003 | Filed by

Rational choice theory versus behaviouralists, prospect theory, the endowment effect; economics is not a placid field.… Read the rest



Bad Behaviour in Secondary Schools *

Sep 3rd, 2003 | Filed by

Occasional violence and routine swearing and rudeness – is it any wonder teachers don’t stay?… Read the rest



Newton Rules *

Sep 2nd, 2003 | Filed by

Relativity, quantum mechanics, chaos theory have not made Newton passé. … Read the rest