6 jam versus 24 jam, and libertarian paternalism.
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Much Bolder Than it Looks
And not a summer cottage read. George Graham reviews Daniel Dennett’s Freedom Evolves.
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Marina Warner Reads Harry Potter
Dr. Faustus meets Horatio Alger, and Rowling piles on the horror.
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What is Irony, Again?
Watching ‘Big Brother’ can be lazy or maybe postmodern, but ironic, no.
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Eagleton on Orwell
Opinion on him was divided, as it would be on any animal with the rib-cage of a hippo and the snout of a badger.
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Not Deceptive but Crudely Deceptive
‘…no audience is easier to beguile than one that is smugly confident of its own sophistication.’
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Wool
Another call for ‘demotic science’ from the Economic and Social Research Council.
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A Talk With Steven Pinker
The blank slate became Official Theory, enforced by “accusation, intimidation, name-calling and moralising intellectual questions that are questions of fact”.
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Orwell Centenary
The Guardian offers a page of Orwell links.
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Post-traumatic stress and counseling
Surprise, surprise, it’s not always good to talk.
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What Are the Tasaday?
What is a lost tribe anyway? From Marie Antoinette to Imelda Marcos, what are the uses of ‘simple people’? Where does the World’s Fair come in?
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Innocuous or Threatening?
Does enlightenment summon its own enemies into being?
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Historians Discuss Foner
And interesting issues are raised – is objectivity possible? If not, why write history at all? Why not just pledge allegiance to something?
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Historians and Plagiarism Again
Philip Foner helped himself to students’ work, and many of them fumed but kept quiet about it.
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Pick up Another, More Challenging Book
‘…the outlandish claims that were frequently made for Potter made you wonder whether some of these people had ever read anything else.’
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Adults Read Harry Potter
It’s become hip to regress into childhood.
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Split Decision in Michigan Case
Michigan’s law school can continue to consider race; undergraduate programme is unconstitutional.
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Mixed Decision in US Affirmative Action Case
The US Supreme Court narrowly upholds University of Michigan’s use of race in admissions, rejects point system.
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Words Do Matter
Under God, one man one vote, Muslim child – language does shape our consciousness.
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Creationism Gaining Ground in the US
The Dini case, a conspicuous ‘debate’ in Tucson, a new ‘Special Counsel for Religious Discrimination’ in Ashcroft’s Justice Department.