Shanghai Eye goes on a press junket and frolics with the convivial miners.… 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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Leo Marx on American Studies 
Dec 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The discipline that was not a discipline, before and after the Great Divide.… Read the rest
How Did the MMR Scare Get Going?
Dec 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Sloppy reporting, visions of movie stars playing the hero parents – the usual thing.… Read the rest
Why Was Said so Controversial?
Dec 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Perhaps because he turned a blind eye to certain problems?… Read the rest
Retorts and Ripostes to Monbiot
Dec 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Whose cult, whose media manipulation, whose naivete, whose agenda?… Read the rest
Neocon Confusions
Dec 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
John Patrick Diggins on inadequate understandings of Communism and ‘the Islamic revolution.’… Read the rest
Hitchens on Trotskyism, Principle, Resistance
Dec 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘It’s important to try and contain multitudes.’… Read the rest
Right to Life for a Foetus?
Dec 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
European abortion laws under threat?… Read the rest
Sense Prevails
Dec 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Mother freed in ‘cot-death’ case.… Read the rest
A Whiff of Gujarat in Houston?
Dec 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Are tensions between Hindus and Muslims showing up in a US city?… Read the rest
From Trotskyist Splinter Group to Neocon Ring?
Dec 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
George Monbiot wonders what links the Institute of Ideas, spiked, and other entities.… Read the rest
Philip Stott Answers Monbiot
Dec 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
If the Guardian won’t cover science well, then spiked will have to do.… Read the rest
Let a Thousand Opinions Bloom?
Dec 9th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Is there a shortage of ill-founded, uninformed opinions?… Read the rest
The Difference Between Hegemony and Empire
Dec 9th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The ideals of the Enlightenment belong to the left rather than the neocons.… Read the rest
More on ‘Hear the Silence’
Dec 9th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A scientifically dishonest and emotionally manipulative film gives a groundless scare still more publicity.… Read the rest
Doctors Say MMR Film is Inaccurate
Dec 9th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
‘Emotionally biased but not factually biased’ – oh well that’s all right then.… Read the rest
Insulting Sartre Became a Rite of Passage
Dec 8th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Foucault called one of his books ‘the effort of a 19th-century man to imagine the 20th century.’… Read the rest
Realism and Anti-Realism
Dec 8th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Grounding ethical realism independently of religion.… Read the rest
Simon Blackburn Reviews Richard Dawkins
Dec 8th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
A superb writer and a valuable ally.… Read the rest
Barnes, Byatt, Drabble, Holmes, Holroyd
Dec 7th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Crick, Fenton, Kermode – writers choose their favorite books of the year. … Read the rest
