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Sections Home Search The New York Times Nicholas KristofSite Search Navigation Search NYTimes.com Clear this text input Go Site Navigation Site Mobile Navigation Supported by Nicholas Kristof A New York Times Blog Search Dec 8 6:21 pm Dec 8 6:21 pm This Blog, R.I.P. By Nicholas Kristof I was apparently the first blogger for The New York Times, most recently using this on the ground” space for my own ruminations and those of others. But this technology platform is no longer going to be maintained, and we’ve decided that the world has moved on from blogs — so this is the last post here. You are, however, still stuck with my writing. My columns and other posts that in the past would have been on the blog will be at nytimes.com/kristof and you can also see my work through my email newsletter, available at nytimes.com/kristofemail . Thanks for reading this blog all these years, and I’ll look forward to continuing the interactions elsewhere on the site. We adapt, we experiment, we evolve, but it’s all journalism. Nov 22 3:44 pm Nov 22 3:44 pm How to Use Twitter By Liriel Higa Photo Credit Audrey Hall Nicholas Kristof: My tutor on Twitter has been Liriel Higa ( @iDiplomacy ), who works on social media for The New York Times Opinion section. I asked her to write this quick How to Tweet” guide for the public. Liriel, a former nationally ranked gymnast, was a congressional reporter early in her career, then oversaw social media for the Half the Sky movement, and finally joined the Times in 2014 and has been with us since. Here’s her guide to how to make Twitter work for you. It’s easy to hate on Twitter. It recently ditched its trim 140-character identity to become (to the naysayers) a bloated 280 characters. It verified (then unverified) a white supremacist , but it suspended Rose McGowan’s Twitter account , leaving the initial impression it had to do with her speaking out about Harvey Weinstein. It enabled racist, misogynistic trolls to attack Leslie Jones. But for all its flaws, Twitter is where so much public debate happens, much of it fascinating. It’s where you can actually reach beyond your bubble. It’s where you can leapfrog publicists and aides and interact with your idols. Here are my suggestions for how you should use it — and why it’s worthwhile. Start by listening. There’s a misconception that the main use of Twitter is for self-promotion. Unless you’re @Beyonce , who has tweeted 10 times and has 15.2 million followers, chances are, you won’t have tons of followers when you’re starting out. Thoughtful tweeting certainly improves the platform as a whole, but you don’t need any followers to mine Twitter for useful information. Don’t just follow people you personally know. Follow people who are experts in your fields of interest. Maybe you like comedy, in which case Aparna Nancherla ( @aparnapkin ) or Stephen Colbert ( @StephenColbert ) are must follows. If you’re a fan of cooking, try the chef Yotam Ottolenghi ( @ottolenghi ) for gorgeous food photos or Ruth Reichl ( @ruthreichl ), the former editor of Gourmet, for her scene-setting morning poems. To learn more about the universe, follow Neil deGrasse Tyson ( @neiltyson ). If you want insights on Sweden, @sweden turns over the account to a new Swede each week. Regardless of your political persuasion, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska ( @bensasse ) has a terrific Twitter feed, especially for a politician — authentic and humorous, while Democratic Sen. Cory Booker ( @CoryBooker ) is great about replying to people. For those following the investigation of Russian meddling into the election, Preet Bharara ( @PreetBharara ), Sally Yates ( @SallyQYates ) and Benjamin Wittes ( @benjaminwittes ) are ones to watch. Check out who they’re following and retweeting for more ideas of where to go from there. Read more... Nov 17 2:14 pm Nov 17 2:14 pm Win a Trip in 2018! By Nicholas Kristof Video Win a Trip The Op-Ed columnist Nicholas Kristof invites students to enter a contest for an international reporting trip in 2018. By NICHOLAS KRISTOF on Publish Date November 30, 2016. embed I’m delighted to invite university students to apply for my 2018 win-a-trip contest. I’ve been holding these contests since 2006, and taking the winner along with me on a reporting trip to cover global poverty and social justice issues. My aim is to generate interest in neglected global issues and get more people writing about them. The winner will write pieces for me on the New York Times website. HBO did a documentary called Reporter” based on my 2007 win-a-trip journey to Congo; it’s on Amazon and iTunes if you want to see what you’re getting yourself in for. The contest begins immediately and you must apply by Sunday, Dec. 10 th , 2017. Read more… Nov 17 1:48 pm Nov 17 1:48 pm Win A Trip with Nick Kristof” 2018 Contest Rules By Nicholas Kristof Official Rules NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE OR PAYMENT OF ANY KIND WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. Sponsor : The 2018 Win a Trip with Nick Contest (the Contest”) is sponsored by The New York Times Company, a New York corporation with principal offices at 620 8th Avenue, New York, NY 10018 (Sponsor”). Contest Description : The Contest is a skill-based competition in which participants will compete to be selected as author of the top essay, as selected by Sponsor and the Center for Global Development (CGD”) (together with Sponsor, the Contest Entities”). The author of the winning entry (the Winner”) will be awarded the opportunity to travel on a reporting trip as the guest of Nick Kristof. Participants will be invited to submit essays, which will be voted on and rated by the Contest Entities. The winner will also have an opportunity to submit a regular report from the trip on NYTimes.com. Read more… Sep 26 12:23 pm Sep 26 12:23 pm Call a Lynching By Its Name By Sindiso Mnisi Weeks and Dan Weeks Photo Dan Weeks and Sindiso Mnisi Weeks are parents to two biracial kids in New Hampshire and were horrified to learn about a recent attempted lynching in their state. Credit Courtesy of the Weeks Family In recent days, we have read gut-wrenching accounts of an alleged attack on an 8-year-old biracial boy in Claremont, New Hampshire. Like the local police, who did not issue any public statements until more than a week after the incident, under pressure from the boy’s family, state media have also been circumspect in their coverage. Nowhere in the reporting by top state media outlets on this tragic event does the word lynching” occur. Sadly, it should. As parents of a young biracial boy and girl in New Hampshire, we shudder to say the word and consider its implications for the state we love. Yet as an American and South African couple, we have read enough American history and experienced enough of South Africa’s past under apartheid to arrive at the conviction that past is ever prologue unless we stare it in the face and publicly exclaim, Enough!” Read more… Sep 15 3:28 pm Sep 15 3:28 pm Announcing a Trump Poetry Contest By Nicholas Kristof Shall I compare thee to a Trump? Well, perhaps not. But I would like to invite you to submit entries to a new poetry contest meant to capture the ethos of our times in verse. And if you can make us feel better, or laugh, or think more deeply, so much the better. Why poetry? So many trees have died to fuel debates about our president — and after all this time, it’s not clear how much there is to say that is new. So let’s try to examine this historical moment through a new prism, and I hope to publish the winners in my column in the fall. Over the years I’ve occasionally held poetry contests, inviting readers to submit their own poems about the Iraq war , about race and so on, and early this year I held a contest for Trump poems . The result was a torrent of submissions that led to publication of a book of such poems,Resistance, Rebellion, Life: 50 Poems Now .” I can’t promise that a book will come out of this second contest, but I have found a...