The choice of Modi would have been a tad controversial…
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Inevitably links go out of date.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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Vijay Prashad on the FT Group and Modi
As part of the press release culture, FDI picked Narendra Modi as the Asian Personality of 2009.
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Beena Sarwar on the FDI Award
Includes the letter Mira Kamdar and Vijay Prashad wrote to Marjorie Scardino of the FT group.
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Sri Lanka: Journalist Sentenced to 20 Years
JS Tissainayagam was found guilty of ‘causing communal disharmony.’
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Sri Lanka Rejects Criticism of Journalist’s Jailing
The Committee to Protect Journalists will award Tissainayagam the 2009 International Press Freedom Award.
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CPJ Award Goes to Tissainayagam
‘We are announcing this award today to highlight the depth of outrage at this unjust sentence.’
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Helen Ukpabio Threatens State Governor
Ukpabio is upset because Akpabio intervened to protect the Child Rights and Rehabilitation Network.
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Johann Hari on Euphemisms
If they are dead babies, call them dead babies.
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Controversy as Motoons Are Edited Out
Author thinks ‘it’s very serious to suppress illustrations when not a single Muslim has protested the book.’
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World Have Your Say on Motoons
Yale U Press decided to remove cartoons and all pictures of Mohammed from book on the subject.
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Mona Eltahawy on Yale’s Misguided Retreat
‘What occurred across many Muslim-majority countries in 2006 was a clear exercise in manufacturing outrage.’
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Italy Approves RU-486 Despite Church Opposition
Vatican promises ‘excommunication for the doctor, the woman and anyone who encourages its use.’
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Real Scientists Abandoning Bloggingheads.tv
Sympathy for religion is one thing, sympathy for creationism is another.
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Sean Carroll Says Bye to Bloggingheads
If I’m going to spend an hour listening to two people discuss, I want some confidence that they’re both serious.
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Carl Zimmer Says Bye to Bloggingheads
Zimmer does not write about just anything. He writes about research and ideas that have held up under scrutiny.
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Turkey and Armenia to Establish Diplomatic Ties
The central dispute is the genocide, about which there is little dispute among historians.
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Paul Kurtz on the Humanism of Ted Kennedy
Although the Kennedys are officially Roman Catholic, they nevertheless supported a liberal social agenda.
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‘Honour’ Killing is Terrorism
The point is to terrorize all women.
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Natural Selection in Action: Deer Mice Go Sandy
Brown mice show, sandy mice fade into background; brown mice die off, sandy mice flourish.
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Paul Krugman v Niall Ferguson
Started as an argument about bond prices, became a row about racism and the fate of the global economy.