Why did @sciencemagazine terminate me after 25 years of service?
Yesterday March 10 at about noon East Coast USA time, I received a telephone call from Science 's news editor, Tim Appenzeller. Tim was calling …
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My terrible teachable moment dream
I had a terrible dream a couple of nights ago, and I think I understand it very well. Freud would no doubt be proud of me, even if there was no se…
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My own David Bowie story
The world is in extended mourning for David Bowie, rightly so, and many who knew him have been telling their stories. Sadly, I never met him, but ov…
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Rachel Dolezal and the Culture of Condemnation
When the Rachel Dolezal affair became a major news story last week, we at first had only a few details. Her parents were claiming that she was whi…
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Charlie Hebdo and the current controversy within PEN America
Many readers will have read about the debate within PEN America over the past several days, over whether the organization is doing the right thing …
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A Toilet in Tarrytown
Have you ever wished you had enough time to deal with life's annoyances? Well I am taking the day off today so thought I would find out why the …
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Was Charlie Hebdo obsessed with Islam? A study by two sociologists says "non"
Yesterday's issue of Le Monde featured an opinion piece by two sociologists, who looked at the cartoon covers of Charlie Hebdo over a period…
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Stuart Klawans on "American Sniper"
"People want American Sniper to come from the Clint Eastwood who directed Unforgiven , but it's made by the guy who talked to a chair at…
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AAAS CEO Alan Leshner speaks publicly at last, but sidesteps main concerns about terminations at Science
Yesterday the Columbia Journalism Review posted an online story about recent upheavals at Science, sparked by the abrupt termination of four employ…
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Why is Science's Editor-in-Chief dissing her own news staff? [UPDATED]
As regular readers of this blog know (and many thousands of others), on October 6 I began a three month leave of absence from my position as Contri…
Read more![The truth at last, or at least some of it, about Peter Rathjen, the U of Adelaide, the U of Melbourne, the U of Tasmania, etc. [Updated Sept 3, 2020: University of Melbourne "leader" finally speaks]](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NtaT0gwizlA/X0YoPAu3_nI/AAAAAAAAK0U/HMTuK0240ssttw105h75kgbWbSaXS2v4wCNcBGAsYHQ/w680/Rathjen.jpg)
My book about Neolithic Catalhoyuk in Turkey and the origins of civilization, the paperback edition. For more information about it, please visit MY WEB SITE
- Michael Balter
- I have been a working journalist for more than 40 years, beginning in Los Angeles as an investigative reporter and then in Paris as a travel, food, and science writer. For more than 20 years I have covered anthropology and archaeology writer for Science, Audubon, Scientific American, SAPIENS, and other publications. I have also covered sexual misconduct for The Verge, Scientific American, and others; I write about mental health, especially schizophrenia; and I engage in occasional media criticism. I returned to the USA in October 2017 after 30 years in Paris, and now live in the New York City area, where I currently teach journalism at City College of New York (I previously taught journalism at Boston University and New York University.) For more about me and what I do, copies of my articles, information about my book, and other goodies, please visit MY WEB SITE
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