Deep in a magnificent USA Today team investigation last week was hidden a revelation: How a PhD doctoral candidate doing historical research discovered — and publicized — a massive threat to public health. From Ghost Factories: In April 2001, environmental scientist William Eckel published a research article in the American Journal of Public Health warning aboutContinue reading “The heroism of the lonely PhD”
Author Archives: Kit Stolz
Elizabeth Taylor: The accidental feminist
A new book titled The Accidental Feminist: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciousness and We were Too Distracted by her Beauty to Notice argues that the movie star's explorations of gender in (National Velvet) desire (in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and rage (in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) changed our understanding of women andContinue reading “Elizabeth Taylor: The accidental feminist”
Not everyone on the right likes Marco Rubio: Rod Dreher
Rod Dreher, a true conservative who holds some crunchy values (such as a faith in local foods, architecture respectful of traditional values, and nature) has sharp words for Marco Rubio, the young Florida senator who at a glance seems to be the veep choice most likely to help Mitt Romney: This guy, Rubio, is supposed toContinue reading “Not everyone on the right likes Marco Rubio: Rod Dreher”
Condors recover, feast on roadkill near Ojai
In an Earth Day editorial this past Sunday, the Star noted that the captive breeding program that brought the California Condor back from near extinction has become so successful that condors in Ventura County are no longer even newsworthy: It was 25 years ago this month that the last free-flying California condor was plucked fromContinue reading “Condors recover, feast on roadkill near Ojai”
Country music helps mourner find father’s ghost
If there's one thing you learn working with story ideas in the movie industry, as I did for many years, is that people, ordinary people, desperately want to hear from the realm beyond life. ("The undiscovered country," as Hamlet memorably put it, "from whose bourn no traveler returns.") Here's a spooky, memorable example from PostSecret: Continue reading “Country music helps mourner find father’s ghost”
Condors vs. wind turbines: Wildlife vs. green energy
Here's my story on this fascinating topic from the Star on Sunday, which my editor liked and nicely smoothed out for the centerpiece of the front page. Always interesting, watching a good editor at work. Great pics, too, from personal fave Juan Carlo.
Drought-Proofing Ventura County
How a water district is trying to shelter 600,000 people in Ventura county from the potential for drought or disaster; how the first attempt went awry, and how the second one will work — we hope. (Climate change is in the background of this story, but I didn't get into the projections — no time.) Continue reading “Drought-Proofing Ventura County”
The sound of climate change: Tom Toles
From the Washington Post's Tom Toles, of course:
Editorial cartoons: The candy of political opinion-making
Joel Pett, with his squiggly lines and understated style, may be the most charming of editorial chartoonists today (although not the best self-promoter, as it's often difficult to figure out where to go to see his work). While I'm off for a week with a friend on the Appalachian Trail, I thought might be niceContinue reading “Editorial cartoons: The candy of political opinion-making”
If Barnes and Noble collapses, it’s the death of books
So argues Ted Rall, who knows a thing or two about media today and publishing: Borders and Barnes & Noble killed independent bookstores. Amazon killed Borders. Now Barnes & Noble, which sells more than 20 percent of pulp-and-ink books in the U.S., is under siege. If B&N collapses: the death of books. Cultural apocalypse. Neo-feudalism.Continue reading “If Barnes and Noble collapses, it’s the death of books”
Kit Stolz 