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Inevitably links go out of date.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.


The Action is on the Surface *

Mar 15th, 2003 | Filed by

Janet Malcolm interviewed on journalists as vampires, psychoanalysis as literary technique, lawsuits and more.… Read the rest



Discrimination Against Men? *

Mar 14th, 2003 | Filed by

Women’s colleges are ‘all full of lesbians now,’ is one rumour. ‘And what if they are?’ asks Joan Bakewell.… Read the rest



Competing Goods *

Mar 14th, 2003 | Filed by

Targets or no targets? How does one increase university admissions for excluded groups without discriminating against currently-included groups?… Read the rest



Student Consumers *

Mar 14th, 2003 | Filed by

Spot on. John Sutherland on student evaluations: ‘the one criticism which is never made is: “This professor is just an entertainer”.’… Read the rest



Liberty Letters *

Mar 13th, 2003 | Filed by

In The Great War we had liberty cabbage, now it’s…Freedom Toast? What planet is this again?… Read the rest



Single-sex Education *

Mar 12th, 2003 | Filed by

St. Hilda’s college votes not to admit men.… Read the rest



Single-sex Education Good for Women *

Mar 12th, 2003 | Filed by

‘Women benefit from a single-sex education, whereas men benefit from a mixed one,’ a former student at St. Hilda’s says.… Read the rest



One in Four of Everyone Has Something *

Mar 11th, 2003 | Filed by

So if one in four has something, and one in four has a different something, and the number of somethings is large and growing…… Read the rest



Missionary Formulas *

Mar 11th, 2003 | Filed by

Historian Jackson Lears suggests ‘providence’ might not be all that predictable.… Read the rest



‘Honour crimes’ and cultural relativism *

Mar 10th, 2003 | Filed by

Is political correctness to blame for a lack of awareness about honour crimes?… Read the rest



More on ‘Honour’ Killing *

Mar 10th, 2003 | Filed by

An Iranian woman writes for the Institute for the Secularization of Islamic Society on the murder of insubordinate women.… Read the rest



Rorty Reviews Dewey Biography *

Mar 10th, 2003 | Filed by

More about events of his life than resonance of his ideas, Rorty says.… Read the rest



Bristol University, social class and meritocracy *

Mar 9th, 2003 | Filed by

Can a university have too many well-off students?… Read the rest



Tinpot Trotskyists Running Bristol Admissions? *

Mar 9th, 2003 | Filed by

The Observer samples press coverage of the row over Bristol’s acceptance of lower marks for students from state schools.… Read the rest



Green Welly Image *

Mar 9th, 2003 | Filed by

The Independent on Bristol’s admissions policy.… Read the rest



Dialogue *

Mar 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Two historians, one Tory one Labour, discuss Iraq and Tony Blair.… Read the rest



Happiness and Positional Goods *

Mar 8th, 2003 | Filed by

If inequality makes the rich a little happier and the poor a lot more miserable, what then?… Read the rest



A Doomed Enterprise *

Mar 8th, 2003 | Filed by

John Haldane restates traditional view that religion is perfection of reason; Edward Skidelsky is not sure it can be done.… Read the rest



Nonsense, Mistakes, Barrel-Scraping Insults *

Mar 8th, 2003 | Filed by

Todd Gitlin demolishes Alston Chase’s anti-intellectual version of what made the Unabomber.… Read the rest



Two Books on Islam Reviewed in Dissent *

Mar 7th, 2003 | Filed by

One makes lucid distinctions, the other leaves too much out.… Read the rest