InBerkeley

When it comes to understanding the horror that was American slavery, there are two periods: Before Kenneth Stampp and after Kenneth Stampp.

Read more at SFGate.

People, University Deaths, People, UC Berkeley

The 22nd Annual Berkeley Kite Festival & West Coast Kite Championships take place this weekend (7/25-7/26) from 11am-5pm. Bring the family down to Cesar Chavez Park at the Berkeley Marina for the free festival including kite competitions, kite ballet, kite making for kids, food, games and the world’s largest octopus kite.

[Berkeley Kite Festival website]

Events, General festival, marina

My Twitter feed for anything related to Berkeley just exploded with tweets raving about the performance of UC Berkeley dance group Ishaara on America’s Got Talent. It just aired on the east coast — clearly something worth tuning in for at 9pm Pacific.

Arts, UC Berkeley

You don’t often encounter a news lede this dramatic:

Something slammed into Jupiter in the last few days, creating a dark bruise about the size of the Pacific Ocean.

What makes the report even more interesting is how scientists figured out what had happened on Jupiter. An Australian amateur astronomer first reported a “scar” on the surface. So Berkeley astronomer Frank Marchis posted this brief note on his blog on Sunday:

Hello,

if you have access to a telescope you should know that an amateur astronomer in Australia reported the observations of a scare [sic] on the atmosphere of Jupiter which could be resulting from an impact with an asteroid.

It turns out that a number of  Marchis’ colleagues did have access to very powerful telescopes, so the Keck II telescope in Hawaii was trained on Jupiter. The new observation is only the second time that astronomers have recorded an impact on Jupiter. The first was 15 years ago when comet Shoemaker -Levy 9 slammed into the solar system’s largest planet.

UC Berkeley

From the Contra Costa Times:

Firuzeh Mahmoudi was supposed to take a quiet family vacation in the woods of upstate New York this week. Instead, she is helping to organize a worldwide protest from her Berkeley home.

Horrified by news of Iran’s violent crackdown on demonstrators after last month’s contested presidential election, Mahmoudi began looking for ways to help.

She spoke with friends, fellow Iranian-Americans, across the country. Those friends spoke with other friends.

“Within days, it became dozens of people,” she said. “Within a week, it became hundreds, if not thousands, of people working on this.”

General

From Jennifer Cogley, Sustainable Business Coordinator, City of Berkeley –

“Berkeley’s Office of Economic Development has a contract with Buy Local Berkeley to promote locally owned, independently operated businesses and arts organizations in our community. Some studies show that local, independent businesses spend their dollars at other businesses in the region at a rate as much as three times greater than nationally owned chains.

“BuyLocalBerkeley.com showcases Berkeley’s local independents. In order to ensure that your locally owned, independent business is included, please take their survey. Eligible businesses will be able to display the Buy Local Berkeley decal in their windows and participate in their promotional campaigns throughout the year.”

General

The police arrested a 27-year old man for possessing explosive materials on Saturday on Grizzly Peak Boulevard in Berkeley. The San Jose Mercury News reports:

A 911 hang-up call from a Berkeley hills home resulted in the arrest and seizure of explosives this weekend, police said Monday.

Bomb squads from the Berkeley and the University of California, Berkeley police departments, as well as FBI officials and the Berkeley fire department, were called to 976 Grizzly Peak Blvd. on Saturday afternoon.

Officials said it appeared someone mistakenly dialed the emergency line. When Berkeley officers arrived on the scene about 12:30 p.m., a man inside the home was acting strangely, which eventually led them to obtain a search warrant for the home. Officers discovered the explosives inside and called in additional authorities.

“I wouldn’t call it massive quantities of explosives, but enough to be usable in some context,” said Berkeley police Lt. Andrew Greenwood. Greenwood declined to identify the type of explosives seized, or exactly how much of it was there.

A spokesman for the FBI in San Francisco said so far there is no connection to terrorism or any other federal “nexus.”

Nearby houses were evacuated and police were on scene until late Sunday night, Greenwood said.

After searching and removing the explosives, police arrested 27-year-old Emoru Oboke Obbanya. who is a resident of the home, Greenwood said. Greenwood did not know if Obbanya is a U.S. citizen.

Police do not know what Obbanya had in mind for the explosives, Greenwood said.

Crime