George Scialabba says House of War moves us, edifies us, chastens us, as an epic ought to.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
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Xian Lawyers Want Queen to Block Gay Rights
Petition cites ‘discrimination’ against Christians in Sexual Orientation Regulations.
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Trivers Sees a Trend Toward Honesty
We can only make life truly miserable for the vast majority of people, not extinguish human life entirely.
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Pinker on the Downward Trend in Violence
Things were actually worse in the past.
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Science and the Decline of Magic
Shermer is optimistic that science is winning out over magic and superstition.
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The Capacity to Understand One Another
Rebecca Goldstein thinks our understanding of propositional attitudes is key.
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What about altruism?
What we admire is genuinely unselfish behaviour.
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Witnesses Taunted Saddam in Last Seconds
An ugly, degrading business.
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No Religion and an End to War
Edge asked more than 150 scientists and intellectuals: ‘What are you optimistic about?’
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The Edge Annual Question
Dennett, Pinker, Shermer, Holton, Goldstein, Diamond, Blackmore, Harris, Ridley, Loftus, Smolin.
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The Evaporation of the Mystique of Religion
Dennett says it is no longer feasible to shield the young from unreligious facts.
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How Old Grand Canyon?
Old Grand Canyon fine; how you?
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Wanna Believe in Ghosts
It’s all about how you see the world, so I’ll just see it the ghosty way.
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A C Grayling on the Deaths of Tyrants
Delay diminishes the one-time tyrant to a pathetic figure; his execution becomes a moment of bathos.
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Many Muslim Women Refuse to Wear Veils
‘seeing younger women adopt the veil in its various forms is a strange and troubling experience.’
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A Petition, a Retraction, a Clarification
Panda’s Thumb clears things up.
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No Shortage of Pseudoscience in 2006
The Brain Gym, the Dore program to cure dyslexia, magical magnetic bandages on the NHS.
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The Best Upcoming Science Books
John Gribbin, Lee Smolin, Steve Jones, Oliver Morton, Marcus Chown, Heather Ewing.
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A C Grayling’s New Book of Essays
The form has a distinguished history in the literary and philosophical tradition: Montaigne, Bacon, Johnson.
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Hajj Pilgrims Stone the Devil
Good, glad that’s taken care of.