Gates "Part of a 'Racial Narrative' Playing Out in a Biased System"

Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. cast his recent arrest in his home in Cambridge, Mass., as part of a "racial narrative" playing out in a biased criminal justice system. The professor who has spent much of his life studying race in America said he has come to feel like a case study.

"There are one million black men in jail in this country and last Thursday I was one of them," he said in an exclusive interview with The Washington Post Tuesday morning. "This is outrageous and that this is how poor black men across the country are treated everyday in the criminal justice system. It's one thing to write about it, but altogether another to experience it."

He was still outraged but he said he has had time to take a step back and will now apply the scholarship that has been his life's work to the issue of race in the criminal justice system.

link: Gates Says He Is Outraged by Arrest at Cambridge Home - washingtonpost.com

Worst Song Ever Finally Written: Black Eyed Peas Do the Near-Impossible

Black Eyed Peas Have Officially Written The Worst Song Ever

link: Black Eyed Peas Have Officially Written The Worst Song Ever - Funny Videos | Cracked.com

Modern Chinese Prints

These works come from the seemingly-rare book Prints of Heilongjiang: An Appreciation of Modern Chinese Prints (Wanchai, Hong Kong: Sunglow Design/Pub. & Culture Company, btw. 1988 and 1995). Read about Heilongjiang on wikipedia.

link: Google Reader (10)

Singapore: Caning for Drinking Beer

A religious court in Malaysia has sentenced a tearful Singaporean Muslim model to six strokes of the cane after she drank beer in a nightclub, reports said Tuesday.

Kartika Sari Dewi Shukarno, 32, pleaded guilty to consuming alcohol at a hotel nightclub in the eastern state of Pahang last year, the New Straits Times newspaper reported.

“We feel the sentence is fair after going through the prosecution’s argument and since the rotan (cane) is provided for in the law,” Pahang Sharia High Court judge Abdul Rahman Yunus said, according to the paper.

“The rotan is aimed at making the accused repent and serves as a lesson to Muslims,” he added, also fining Kartika 5,000 ringgit (1,412 dollars).

The model, who cried when the judgement was delivered, said she would appeal.

State religious officials could not be reached for comment on the case.

link: Raw Story » Beer-drinking model faces caning in Malaysia

Henry Louis Gates: Charges Dropped

A prosecutor is dropping a charge against prominent Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. after Cambridge, Massachusetts, and the city's police department recommended that the matter not be pursued.

In a joint statement, Cambridge and the police department said they made the recommendation to the Middlesex County district attorney and the district attorney's office "has agreed to enter a nolle prosequi in this matter," meaning that it will not be pursued.

Gates was arrested last week on a charge of disorderly conduct after a confrontation with an officer at his home, according to a Cambridge police report.

link: Charge against Harvard professor dropped - CNN.com

Happy Birthday Sara Carter

1898
Sara Carter, vocals (c&w)
b. Flat Woods, VA, USA.
d. Jan. 8, 1979.
née: Sara Doughtery
Member: 'The Carter Family'.

Biography ~by Craig Harris As a member of the Carter Family, Sara Dougherty Carter laid the foundation for modern country music. During the fourteen years (1927 to 1941) that she recorded with then-husband Alvin Pleasant "A.P. " Delaney Carter and her cousin and A.P.'s sister-in-law Maybelle, Carter helped to turn the sounds of rural America into an international phenomenon.

link: ON THIS DAY IN JAZZ AGE MUSIC!: JULY 21ST...

O Arizona: Monsoon Breaks Through the Magic Barrier, Dumps Rain

A weather advisory was issued Tuesday morning for central Maricopa County, where scattered thunderstorms produced heavy rain, mainly along Interstate 10 and the Superstition freeway.

A flood advisory was also posted for several hours for east central Maricopa County, specifically the communities of Tempe and Guadalupe.

Significant flooding was reported at US 60 and Greenfield, with pooling on the freeway.

Tempe received more than one inch of rain, forecasters said.

link: Inch Of Rain Falls In Tempe Area - Phoenix Weather News Story - KPHO Phoenix

Jupiter Collision

The planet Jupiter shows evidence of having being hit by a large object, either a comet or asteroid.

A dark mark has appeared in its atmosphere towards the southern pole.

It was first seen by Australian amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley on 19 July, and was then quickly followed up by others including the US space agency.

link: BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Jupiter 'struck by large object'