Blumnethal on Clinton is not Saint Simon on Louis XIV, unfortunately.… Read the rest
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Inevitably links go out of date.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.
Where Did ‘Theory’ Come From? 
May 20th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Morris Dickstein considers some roots.… Read the rest
‘Infallible for 152 years, and now this! Oy!’
May 19th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Cronies, star systems, sanctimony, glitz – the Times after the Blair meltdown.… Read the rest
Damasio on Spinoza
May 18th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
His dissent on the prevailing view of the mind-body problem stood out in a sea of conformity.… Read the rest
These Predictions are Postdictions
May 17th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Michael Shermer looks at Moby Dick and the Bible as secret decoder devices.… Read the rest
Journalism, Truth, and ‘Truth’
May 16th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Julian Baggini says journalism’s goal of objectivity is neither anachronistic nor incoherent. … Read the rest
The Presentation of Self in Presidential Life
May 16th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Ordinary millionaires without neckties and other varieties of manipulation.… Read the rest
A Heretic in the Church of Traumatology
May 15th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
New study of memory and repression won’t please ‘the psychobabblers and the melodramatists and the daytime-television bookers.’… Read the rest
Dodgy Educations?
May 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
What a lot of people in the Labour Cabinet studied useless subjects at university.… Read the rest
Gerald Holton Interviewed
May 14th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The physicist, author of ‘Einstein, History and Other Passions’ talks about his work for Reagan’s commission on school reform.… Read the rest
A Few Bags of Cheez Doodles Later
May 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Editor & Publisher asks some cogent (and laugh-provoking) questions about the ‘Blair Watch Project’.… Read the rest
Neuroethics
May 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Steven Rose wonders about epidemics of depression and Ritalin use, the possibility of ‘smart drugs,’ and whether drugs are a cheap fix for social problems.… Read the rest
Robert Park’s Column
May 13th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Virtuous Bill is math-challenged and a loser, Wall Street Journal takes herbal medicine claim at face value.… Read the rest
A Huge Black Eye
May 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Washington Post on the fraudulent reporter at the New York Times.… Read the rest
Most Hated Books
May 12th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Tolkien, Iris Murdoch, Derrida, Jeffrey Archer? Harry Potter, Possession, Atonement, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin? … Read the rest
New York Times not Relativists About Truth
May 11th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Story on a reporter’s fraud says the cardinal tenet of journalism is simply truth.… Read the rest
Ars Gratia Marketing
May 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
There is a difference between content and wrapping, says the founder of the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow.… Read the rest
Ornamentalism
May 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The idea of education for its own sake is a bit dodgy?… Read the rest
Historians and Clarke
May 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
The Times Higher on the Education Secretary’s views of history and historians’ views of him.… Read the rest
Clarke on History
May 10th, 2003 |
Filed by Ophelia Benson
Another attack on learning for learning’s sake, THES says.… Read the rest
