For 35 years, he wrote Scientific American’s Mathematical Games column, educating and entertaining minds.
Category: Latest News
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
-
Helios Homeopathic Childbirth Kit
A set of homeopathic remedies to support you during pregnancy, birth and breastfeeding, just £29.95.
-
Ben Goldacre on evidence-based social policy
Politicians can divine which policy works best by using their special magic politician beam.
-
Julian Baggini interviews Ben Goldacre
Goldacre has an MA in philosophy from King’s College London, squeezed into the middle of his six-year medical training.
-
Jason Rosenhouse reviews Elaine Howard Ecklund
Her data show that 23% of scientists are traditionally religious; her Templeton-funded book says nearly 50% are.
-
Larry Niven on Harvey Mansfield and manly courage
And the Templeton Foundation, virtue ethics, In Character, and other risible subjects.
-
Nigeria: Yerima questioned about marriage to child
The senator said the Nigerian Child Rights Act of 2003 “must have been enacted in error.”
-
Joanthan Sacks refutes atheism in a few words
Theists have more children.
-
Rude but amusing interview with Hitchens
He once wrote that women aren’t funny, yet he’s convulsed by infantile word jokes.
-
There are no new ethical problems here
Humanity has been ‘playing God’ with animals and plants since the invention of agriculture.
-
Anonymity for defendants in rape cases proposed
Ban on identifying defendants was lifted in 1988; police claimed it was preventing women from reporting rapes.
-
Union blames privatization for mine deaths
Mine accidents have risen drastically since change to Mining Law in 2004, with “flexible working conditions” and an inability to unionize.
-
Turkish mining town in mourning ponders its ‘fate’
Erdoğan says fatal mine explosions are ‘fate’; unions and sane people say they are caused.
-
Lincolnshire: psychic joins search for missing cat
Owner has paid £1,000 to Animal Search UK which has hired a psychic in Bangalore to give helpful advice.
-
Carl Zimmer: some background on synthetic genome
You could say this is still a nature hybrid, because its DNA is based on the sequence of an existing species of bacteria.
-
Andrew Brown spies another plot by militant atheism
“Another triumph of the only major scientific programme driven from the beginning by explicit atheism.”
-
It’s alive
“The only DNA in the cells is the designed synthetic DNA sequence…”
-
Jerry Coyne asks: did scientists play god?
Life is just complex chemicals—nothing more, nothing less. Venter and his team have gone a long way toward showing this.
-
Mohammed cartoonist regrets any offense caused
“She has attended a local Muslim group meeting in an effort to learn more.”
-
EU criticizes Pakistan’s blasphemy laws
Notes the laws are often used to justify censorship, criminalisation, persecution and the murder of members of political, racial and religious minorities.