Ayer, Berlin, Russell, Miller, Sontag, Magee, Bronowski – not much of that on the box now.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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The Cultural Turn
Breathless celebration of the fact that these people are human should give way to finer-grained questions.
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Darwin and Hooker and Botany
An intellectual collaboration in letters.
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Book Reviews That Say No
‘It is a real pity that argued dissent is regularly caricatured as “hatchet job”, “savage attack” and other such bulking agents.’
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What is a ‘Jewish Intellectual’?
And what is a ‘Muslim intellectual’? Is there a double standard in France?
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Is Religion Adaptive?
Not so you’d notice, Richard Dawkins says.
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‘Frontier Medicine in Biofield Science’
And other strange frontiers funded by the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
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Stephen King Rebukes Grisham-Avoiders
Because if it’s a best-seller there can’t possibly be any good reason not to read it, right?
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Mind Body Spirit – the Snake Oil of Psychology
You discover your new friend owns 50 self-help books. What to do? Escape.
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Istanbul, Again
Bomb attacks on bank and consulate leave at least 25 dead including the British Consul-General, and devastate Turkey.
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BHL Irritates People
Showing up the unreality of conventional world views tends to infuriate.
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‘Ghost Ships’ Not All That Spooky?
In fact no more dangerous than most ships. Crying wolf is not clever.
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Institutes of Technology Thrive in India
Engineers and computer scientists more admired than lawyers and academics.
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Gurcharan Das on Martha Nussbaum
‘The Sangh Parivar’s idea of a Hindu nation goes against this basic tenet of our Constitution.’
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Amartya Sen on Democracy
It’s more than public balloting, it’s the ‘exercise of public reason.’
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They Were Murdered for Being Jews
Hitchens on the Istanbul synagogue bombing.
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Open-Access Science Publishing
It’s not a plot to destroy capitalism, it’s a different way to make research available.
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Wetlands Cause Pollution
If the research irritates developers, well, get new researchers!
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‘Berlusconism’ for Short
Money has contempt for the life of the mind, George Steiner says.
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Insiders and Outsiders
Can minority communities be studied only by their own members?