The prosecution team say they are questioning whether the six scientists and the official on trial, who constitute Italy’s Commission of Grand Risks, did their jobs properly.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Italy: trial of scientists has opened in L’Aquila
Last year, more than 5,000 scientists signed an open letter to Italian President Giorgio
Napolitano in support of the defendants. -
Al-Shabab radio gives weapons prize to Somali children
First prize in Koran-reciting and general knowledge Ramadan contest: an AK-47 and $700; second prize an AK-47 and $500; third prize two grenades and $400.
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Bush’s Toronto appearance canceled
Did someone remind him Toronto is in Canada? Those nagging worries about international law was it?
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Austin Dacey on why skeptics should work globally
“The threats of dogma, fraudulent, paranormal and fringe science claims are
global,” says Leo Igwe. “So combating them requires a global approach.” -
Sharia court in Nigeria sentences two to amputation
The sharia court in Zamfara state ordered that Auwalu Abubaka, 23, and Lawalli Musa, 22, have
their right hands chopped off for stealing a bull. -
Teach evolution, not creationism!
Creationism and ‘intelligent design’ are not scientific theories, but they are portrayed as such by some fundamentalists who try to have their views promoted in publicly-funded schools.
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Scientists want tougher guidelines on creationism in schools
A group of 30 UK scientists have signed a statement saying it is “unacceptable” to teach creationism and intelligent design, whether it happens in science lessons or not.
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Is the Australian Christian Lobby dominionist?
Dominionism has already made huge inroads into every aspect of American government and society and is now spreading its tentacles across a number of third-world countries.
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Yet another “beyond ‘new’ atheism”
“Mere liberation from theism is not enough.” Well no kidding.
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Steven Pinker argues humans are becoming less violent
Pinker shows that, with notable exceptions, the long-term trend for murder and violence has been going down since humans developed agriculture 10,000 years ago.
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Dexter Filkins on the murder of Saleem Shahzad
Only a few other journalists had written as aggressively about Islamist extremism in the military, and not all of them had survived.
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The New Yorker offers God’s blog commenters
A month old but funny.
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Lawyer gets rich off “persecuted Christian” suits
The crusade against secularism pays well.
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Ben Goldacre on detecting dodgy stats
Forensic statisticians have ways of spotting suspicious patterns in the raw numbers, thus estimating the chances that figures from a set of accounts have been fiddled.
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Tom Martin, LSE, and the Missing Minister
He has been busy.
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The F-word on Tom Martin’s campaign to sue LSE
His antics stink of a publicity stunt designed to paint him as the innocent, caring, liberal-minded bloke taken hostage by a feminised, man-hating world.
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Daughter of the Patriarchy works her way free
Philosophy at Community College; wanting to be authentic; long “Biblical” skirt v jeans; a horde of Message women; apostasy.
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Chocolate ‘as good for you as exercise’
Says headline. Article replaces ‘you’ with ‘mice’ and says it would be a leap of faith to say the same effects would be seen in humans.
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“Smile!” he said
These hyper-concerned male citizens aren’t exactly smiling when they offer up
their unsolicited advice.