The more scientists know about them, the more there is to find out.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
-
Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji
One rejects Islam, the other wants to reform it.
-
Ben Goldacre on Manufacturing Doubt
Note similarities between dissembling of food supplement industry and tobacco lobby’s war with epidemiology.
-
Ben Goldacre on ‘Pixie Dust’ Nonsense
There is no missing finger, so pixie dust not needed.
-
The Miracle of the Finger
‘It looked to have been an ordinary fingertip injury with quite unremarkable healing. This is junk science.’
-
Charles Darwin Samples a Little Television
It is clear what science is for: it is to help the police elucidate which American has killed which other American.
-
Malaysia Plans to Treat Women Like Infants
Government plans to require women to obtain written consent from families or employers to travel alone.
-
Vatican Happy About Snub to Pope
Time magazine left pope off ‘100 most influential’ list; Vatican claims to be pleased.
-
Imams Angry About Literature Course
‘Muslims for Peace’ has demanded lecturer Samar Habib be dismissed and the course abolished.
-
‘Muslims for Peace’ Speak Up
‘Muslims should fear Almighty Allah and break all connections with this diabolical Centre of Kufr.’
-
Religious Questioning of Secular Public Space
Islamic conservatives try to dictate the content of curriculum at USW’s Centre for Islamic Studies.
-
How Can We Stamp Out All This Kufr?
Lots and lots of ‘community’ pressure.
-
Attenborough Urges Better TV
Fewer celebrity chefs, more science.
-
The Koran Predicted the Big Bang and DNA
So what’s the next big thing? Be patient; the Koran will predict it after it’s happened.
-
Against Taylorism in Education
If teachers are to be visible embodiments of intelligence, skill, and scholarship, they must first be visible.
-
The Humanities Might Nurture Moral Seriousness
The aesthetic disposition is less quietist than dispositions which see everything as ‘always already” inscribed’
-
British Muslims for Secular Democracy
Alibhai-Brown asks ‘How is it that the Sikhs and Hindus can live in democracy but not Muslims?’
-
Brian Whitaker on BMSD Launch
Baroness Kishwer Falkner said Catholics and Muslims ‘want a very special level of exceptionalism.’
-
Imran Ahmad Joined the BMSD
We believe government should be driven by reason and common values, not theology or cultural traditions.
-
How to Teach Writing
‘A lawsuit in which I am accusing some of you (whom shall go unmentioned in this email) of violating Title VII of anti-federal discrimination laws.’