Author Archives: Kit Stolz

Unstable jobs the new norm: LA + NY Times

Tiffany Hsu, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, has this year done a terrific job of documenting changes in the nature of work today, especially here in California. Her conclusion to a recent piece on how "non-employees" (aka free-lancers) are becoming a powerful force deserved the lede I thought:  The number of so-called non-employersContinue reading “Unstable jobs the new norm: LA + NY Times”

Global warming: even the Mafia sees it now

From the great Frank Cotham at The New Yorker. Available here, on their new and infinitely more accessible website. (Complained about it a couple of months ago: it's so much better now!)  Seems everyone can see the reality of global warming, except Congressional Republicans (58% denier) and members of the Tea Party (61% denier). RelatedContinue reading “Global warming: even the Mafia sees it now”

To be young (and old) in the wild: This Feeling

Last week, in his un-ostentacious but no bullshit way, Nicholas Kristof of the NYTimes wrote a great column on the joys of being on the PCT. I'm not going to quote it, because it's hard to know which bit to choose, but encourage you all to take a look.  Today, in a similar vein, butContinue reading “To be young (and old) in the wild: This Feeling”

Flying tumbling vehicles: #1 movie visual today?

Took a look at the classic old disaster movie, Earthquake, from 1974, which has a great preview/trailer:  This movie surprises, first of all, because its strongest images inadvertently connote 9/11. Not what one expects from a movie set in a natural disaster.  Of course the plausibility question, so often an issue with disaster movies, cannotContinue reading “Flying tumbling vehicles: #1 movie visual today?”

Storms, lighting, death at Venice beach: Climate change?

As Judith Lewis Mernit wrote for a blog with High Country News: The weather of Venice Beach, California, where I live, is for the most part stable, and almost always predictable. No sudden squalls appear out of the southwest to chase skateboarders off their concrete ramps; never do we hear the civil-defense sirens warning ofContinue reading “Storms, lighting, death at Venice beach: Climate change?”

A deal to save the whales in the Santa Barbara Channel

So hard to keep up with even of a fraction of what is going on! But here for once is some maybe-semi-kind-of good news from the world of science and the environment. Research published this june has shown that over a period of fifteen years whales traveling with the California current along the coast haveContinue reading “A deal to save the whales in the Santa Barbara Channel”

How to confuse the media and public: Butter ’em up

A few months ago the rapturous reporting of a new study on saturated fat caught my eye. Sounded too good to be true, and, well, long story short, that's exactly what it turned out to be. Here's the opening, from the USC Annenberg/California Endowment's Reporting on Health site: Time to jump on the bandwagon ofContinue reading “How to confuse the media and public: Butter ’em up”

The wisdom of Carl Jung on Eros and love (not)

In my medical experience as well as in my own life I have again and again been faced with the mystery of love, and have never been able to explain what it is. Like Job, I have had to “lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer.”

–Carl Jung

Climate change inaction threatens economy: White House

This week the White House released a climate report on its blog. (Did you know the White House has a blog?) You can "get it" just from the title: The cost of delaying action on climate change As political/scientific statements go, it's blunt and to the point. The longer we wait to act to reduceContinue reading “Climate change inaction threatens economy: White House”