‘It was fairly obviously a joke,’ says student editor of headline ‘Kill Levinsky, win a Robin reliant’. … Read the rest
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Feds to Investigate Biology Professor 
Jan 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
US professor, naturally enough, refuses to recommend students who don’t believe in evolution. But John Ashcroft is Attorney General.… Read the rest
Fishy Tomatoes and Moneyish Rockets
Jan 30th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Richard Dawkins suggests that subtle judgment is better than gut reactions, and that muddleheadedness helps no one.… Read the rest
Six Years and $60,000
Jan 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Imagine what six years reading $60 k worth of decent books about subjects other than oneself might have done…… Read the rest
Made-Up History
Jan 29th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Someone saw some armor sometime and said it was authentic but where the armor is now, no one knows.… Read the rest
What Role For School Targets?
Jan 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Achievement targets in UK schools may be ‘counter-productive’.… Read the rest
Prisoners are Intentional Systems
Jan 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Genetic determinists and environmental determinists are both mythical beings, Daniel Dennett says.… Read the rest
Satire Confusingly Like Real Life
Jan 28th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Onion on pity for skeptics. Sounds all too familiar.… Read the rest
Hugh Trevor-Roper
Jan 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His ‘approach to history was…based not so much on original research as on wide reading’ including ‘economists, sociologists, philosophers, art historians and even anthropologists and psychologists.’… Read the rest
Well Who Did Move my Cheese?
Jan 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Appropriately acid look at self-help ‘books’. ‘It’s very cheap and obvious to laugh at self-help books (which is no reason not to do so)’.… Read the rest
Richard Sennett
Jan 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Works as an academic sociologist, but doesn’t really write academic sociology.… Read the rest
The Blockbuster Effect
Jan 27th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Are books that aren’t likely best-sellers doomed?… Read the rest
Steve Jones on Raelian Clones
Jan 26th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
It’s a failure of education that editors take the Raelian story seriously, Jones says. Cloning is not clowning.… Read the rest
Hugh Trevor-Roper
Jan 26th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Independent’s obituary of the historian who ‘enjoyed vendettas as well as friendships’, as any historian should.… Read the rest
Networks
Jan 25th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Networks are either a promising new field, or over-hyped. Or both.… Read the rest
Tom Tomorrow
Jan 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The People want tax cuts for the rich, it’s left-wing elitists who don’t. Slippery word, ‘elitist’.… Read the rest
Precautionary or Libertarian
Jan 24th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Freeman Dyson on biotechnology, the future, and a debate in Davos.… Read the rest
What Everyone Else Thinks? Think the Opposite
Jan 23rd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Christopher Hitchens loves mess on the carpet, Stefan Collini says in The London Review of Books.… Read the rest
Anti-intellectual? Us?
Jan 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
University is about getting a job that pays a lot and about football. Isn’t it?… Read the rest
Classical Economics and the Other Kind
Jan 22nd, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Who defines ‘rational’ and ‘works’ and ‘sorts out’, anyway?… Read the rest
