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Inevitably links go out of date.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.


Secularism is Good *

Dec 14th, 2002 | Filed by

Hermione Lee admires Salman Rushdie’s chutzpah: extolling unbelief in a Sunday address in King’s College Chapel.… Read the rest



The Persistence of Superstition *

Dec 14th, 2002 | Filed by

Magical thinking thrives when the other kind can’t perform miracles.… Read the rest



Rawls and Nozick *

Dec 13th, 2002 | Filed by

It is instructive to consider the two opposing principles of equality and liberty taken to the extreme conclusions Nozick and Rawls did.… Read the rest



Threat Envy *

Dec 12th, 2002 | Filed by

When piety equals incitement to murder, not to mention murder itself, there is nothing to negotiate.… Read the rest



How to Attract Corporate Interest *

Dec 11th, 2002 | Filed by

Issues of patenting and profit versus free exchange of knowledge surface in new stem cell research.… Read the rest



Situatedness and its Discontents *

Dec 10th, 2002 | Filed by

Are we doomed never to be able to see past our own situations?… Read the rest



Troublesome DNA *

Dec 10th, 2002 | Filed by

Mormon scientist faces excommunication after DNA casts doubt on Mormon heredity story.… Read the rest



Alternative Medicine in a World of Science *

Dec 9th, 2002 | Filed by

Why do we heed “the songs of the New Age pied pipers whose melodies interweave quantum physics and the workings of the colon”?… Read the rest



Be Cool, Don’t Study *

Dec 9th, 2002 | Filed by

Report says social conformity among black students works against academic achievement and for confronting the teacher.… Read the rest



Hawks, Doves, Dawks, Hoves *

Dec 8th, 2002 | Filed by

Containment, Kurds in jeeps, re-alignments, suspicion, fear, hope, revolution from above, Paine, Trotsky, Bosnia, Iraq…it’s all so complicated.… Read the rest



Anthropology and Consent *

Dec 7th, 2002 | Filed by

The Yanomamo want their blood samples back, and Neel is guilty of something or other.… Read the rest



Religion Disguised as Science *

Dec 6th, 2002 | Filed by

Intelligent Design theorists upstage Young-Earthers.… Read the rest



Blank Dogs and Straw Slates *

Dec 5th, 2002 | Filed by

Kenan Malik considers the implications of ideas about human nature.… Read the rest



Evans on Williams on Truth *

Dec 5th, 2002 | Filed by

It’s good to read a philosopher who knows what he’s talking about when he talks about history, Richard Evans says.… Read the rest



What Does ‘Jihad’ Really Mean? *

Dec 4th, 2002 | Filed by

A historian examines the word and its re-definition.… Read the rest



Necessary Research or Delaying Tactic? *

Dec 3rd, 2002 | Filed by

When is it time to say we know enough to act?… Read the rest



“Talking too properly” *

Dec 2nd, 2002 | Filed by

Can identity politics make school seem “white”?… Read the rest



Too Polite and Agreeable *

Dec 2nd, 2002 | Filed by

Does ecofeminism even deserve a mention? Denis Dutton asks… Read the rest



Hattersley on Rawls *

Dec 2nd, 2002 | Filed by

Rawls replaced evasion with precision, making bluster unnecessary when enemies of equality asked awkward questions.… Read the rest



Green Spoon Worm Inhales Husband *

Dec 1st, 2002 | Filed by

David Barash reviews Olivia Judson’s book of sex advice for animals; disputes her definition of promiscuity, but on the whole approves.… Read the rest