National Public Radio’s (NPR) “Planet Money” team just wound up a series about what goes into making a t-shirt, which I caught on my evening commutes. It followed the t-shirt from the fields where the cotton was grown, to where it was spun in Colombia, to the factory in Bangladesh where it was stitched together. […]
40 best books for toddlers, preschoolers (and their parents)
Reading to your toddler or preschooler is a rich and rewarding experience. It opens up conversations, expands vocabulary and introduces new worlds. But I’ve found that accidentally choosing a poorly written or illustrated book can make story time a lot less fun. And beware the book you loathe, but your child loves and wants read again and […]
America: The Selfish State?
From the pre-blog archives, this op-ed of mine appeared in Australia’s major daily newspaper, “The Australian”, on May 10, 2004. America: the selfish state? A dispassionate examination of the US shows that recent criticisms are unfair, maintains Nicholas Kerr The recent abuses at Abu Ghraib prison and other incidents in the Iraq war have provoked an angry […]
Let’s stop supporting the slaughter of wildlife with subsidies and mandates
A report out today estimated that more than 600,000 and as many as 900,000 bats were killed by wind turbines in the United States in 2012 alone. It’s well known that wind farms slaughter birds, including rare and endangered ones, on a large scale. But until this report came out, I had no idea bats were […]
Things about America that the rest of the world SHOULD find bizarre
Earlier this year a friend shared a link to a post entitled 13 Things That Americans Do That The Rest Of The World Just Finds Bizarre. At first glance, it was a list of American stereotypes or cliches that made me chuckle. Growing up outside of America, I’d enjoyed discovering many of them myself when I […]