Many of you will have heard about the increasing rash of noose-hanging incidents across the region.

In the wake of the recent Jena, La., demonstration, white supremacist groups have encouraged like-minded Americans to hang nooses to demonstrate their outrage over the national movement to free the Jena Six.

DiversityInc. magazine has started what it says is the first ever national noose watch.

The magazine details individual noose hanging cases that have been reported to the authorities by displaying them on a clickable U.S. map.

To see the DiversityInc. Noose Watch, click here.

VJ Pradhan made history in 1997 as the first Indian-born person elected to Rockland’s Legislature.

Pradhan, a Democrat from Nanuet, is among a growing number of politicians of Indian ancestry who are making political gains across the nation.

On Oct. 20, Louisiana elected its first governor of Indian descent — and the first ever ethnic Indian governor in American history. Bobby Jindal, 36, is a Republican whose conservative views on abortion and intelligent design have earned him detractors, including several in the Indian American community.

According to a report by the Associated Press, Jindal’s having gone by his nickname, Bobby, instead of by his given name, which is Piyush, and his conversion from Hinduism to Christianity in high school have led some to accuse him of having distanced himself from his heritage.

Jindal has often chosen not to discuss issues of race, saying during one debate that “the only colors that matter here are red, white and blue,� according to the AP.

Jindal’s parents are Indian immigrants, but Jindal, who as a Rhodes Scholar, was born in Baton Rouge, La.

Offensive language in the New Jersey state Constitution may be changed when voters go to the polls Nov. 6, according to the Associated Press.

The language that has some people fuming reads like this: “No idiot or insane person shall enjoy the right of suffrage.�

The Constitution was adopted in 1844, and times have changed, say advocates for the mentally and physically disabled.

The language stigmatizes mental and physical disability and fuels myths and stereotypes, the advocates add.

Ohio, New Mexico, Mississippi and Iowa are among at least seven other states that have the words “idiot� and “insane� in their Constitutions.

If voters approve the change, the replacement phrase will be specific about barring people who “lack the capacity to understand the act of voting.�

James Watson, who won the Nobel prize in 1962 for his part in the discovery of the double helix of DNA, is being roundly criticized for saying that blacks are less intelligent than whites.

He made the comments during an interview with The Sunday Times, telling the London publication that the prospects for Africa were gloomy because the policies for that continent were based on a false assumption that blacks were as intelligent as whites.

Today, he released a statement to the Associated Press in which he expressed heartfelt apology. Watson is not alone in having expressed the controversial view that blacks are genetically and intellectually inferior to whites.

Watson has made provocative remarks before, including that sex drive was related to skin color. He has also said that if a fetus carried a gene for homosexuality, a woman should be allowed to have an abortion.

The Chicago native’s most recent comments have irreparably harmed his legacy, colleagues and contemporaries have said, and his employer, the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, has called the report bewildering.

A British museum has cancelled a planned lecture by Watson, and the mayor of London said the comments “represent racist propaganda masquerading as scientific fact.�

Watson was in Britain to promote his autobiography, “Avoid Boring People.”

Muslims in Rockland are joining others around the world in anticipating Eid al-Fitr, the joyous three-day holiday that marks the end of the month of Ramadan.

But, as they are preparing for that, they’re also celebrating a great achievement today.

For the first time ever, a Malaysian — physician Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor — blasted off into space this morning alongside Yuri Malenchenko from Russia and Peggy Whitson of the United States. Whitson is the first woman to command the space station.

The three departed from Kazakhstan, and were destined for the International Space Station. Sheikh Muszaphar is the first Muslim to fly in space during Ramadan, the month devoted to prayer, fasting and introspection. He will spend about ten days doing research on the station before returning to Earth.

His participation is momentous because he is only the ninth Muslim in space. Reports had indicated that he would try to keep the sunup to sundown fast required of devout Muslims during Ramadan, but others reports say Malaysian Islamic clerics have declared him exempt.

Other requirements — such as those governing prayer and ablutions — have been modified for him.

Eid will start on Saturday in North America. There are about 6,000 Muslims in Rockland and 1 billion worldwide.

On another note, some schools in the Garden State are closing for Eid. To see a blog on the subject by staff writer Alice Gomstyn, click here.

Sooo … as a reporter you’re always mixin’ and minglin’ with folks, trying to get comments on stories and whatnot. And in my two-plus years here at The Journal News, I’ve gotten a whole bunch of: “Hello, Dear. Now where are you from?” Usually, that translates to, “What kind of Asian are you?”

But I like to play around, ya know? So I’ll say, “Oh, I’m from Queens. Let’s go Mets!” Other times, when I’m in a rush and in not such a playful mood, I’ll get it over with as in I’ll say, “Well my parents are from China, but I was born in Queens. So yeah, that makes me Chinese.”

Yesterday, however, this little game of cat and guess-the-ethnicity-of-the-mouse, got a little more elaborate. I was covering the Planned Parenthood rally on Middletown Road in Nanuet and chatting up a couple of anti-abortion protesters for quotes when we began the usual dance.

We finished up and started on a little small talk when one of the women, now predictably, asked where I was from. I said Queens, but of course we boiled it down to China. The woman who clarified for everyone that I was Chinese qualified the conversation’s course by saying that her daughter-in-law is Chinese. This woman — elderly and white — then turns to the other two ladies — also white — and comments on how her grandchildren are going to beautiful because mixed children are just lovely. The other ladies agreed, nodding and confirming that yes, mixed children are beautiful, and I give a nod, not really paying attention because at this point I decide I should copy down the phrases on their signs: “Abortion kills,” etc. Then, as I’m writing, I hear the first lady say, “This one is gorgeous and she’s purebred.”

What now? Stunned, I feel like I’m both laughing and crying inside. It was definitely a well-meaning compliment, but I couldn’t help but feel like a horse afterwards.

Disclaimer: I’m no expert in diversity matters, I just live in these times looking at the world through these almond-shaped eyes. I say that because I don’t want anyone to think that just because I contribute to this blog I’m some sort of authority on such a weighty issue. I do, however, experience my share of “diversity moments” while on the job — some hilarious, others insulting, the abovementioned incident a peculiar mix of both. Hopefully, these tidbits in the life of Jeng will be both fun and intellectual fodder for discussion. So … enjoy!

The Rev. Al Sharpton has weighed in on comments Knicks coach and general manager Isiah Thomas made during his sexual harassment trial in which he said it was less objectionable for a black man to call a black woman the b-word than it was for a white man to so call a black woman.

Sharpton is now asking for an apology from Thomas. He is threatening a boycott of the Knicks if the apology isn’t forthcoming.

Sharpton and other black civil rights leaders were quick to condemn radio host Don Imus for his own controversial remarks about female basketball players at Rutgers University.

Critics say Thomas’ remarks went unchallenged for too long, and that they’re just as offensive as Imus’. Allowing Thomas’ comments to go unaddressed erroneously indicates the presence of a different standard in the black community, they say.

Some are characterizing as a patent double standard Sharpton’s failure to call for Thomas’ firing.

The case, which initially ignited a debate about workplace and gender equity issues, is now sparking more discussion about society, race, culture and the dynamic of language within given social and ethnic groups.

It wasn’t too long ago that similar arguments were raging over attempts to control the use of the N-word.

To learn more about the harassment case, read here.

According to a report released yesterday by New York-based Catalyst, a group that promotes diversity in the workplace, companies with more women board members achieved better financial results than those with fewer female directors.

The report showed that return on equity at Fortune 500 companies with the most female board members was 53 percent higher than it was at companies with the fewest women directors. (Return on equity, a company’s after-tax income divided by book value, is a measure of how well earnings are reinvested).

“What it means is that women need to be in the boardroom,� said Ilene H. Lang, president of Catalyst, a nonprofit research firm that focuses on expanding the opportunities for women in business.

Lang said, the relationship between female board members and a company’s financial success “is not cause-and-effect, but there’s a very strong link.”

Rosa Bennett, president of R.B. Search Services Inc., a Spring Valley employment-services firm, said she wasn’t surprised by the study, but added that women on boards needed to be vocal in order to actually influence a company.

Bennett, who also serves on several private business and nonprofit boards, said today,

My voice is heard if I speak loud enough. I have to be intentional. If not, I will just be looked over … Because women can be in the boardrooms and they can be silent They need to make a difference, they’re not just sitting there to fill a seat, they’re there to make changes.

In the survey, Catalyst divided Fortune 500 companies into four quarters by percentage of women on their boards of directors, then looked at their financial performance.

The group of companies with the highest average percentage of women directors did better. Their average return on equity was 14 percent.

That group included JPMorgan Chase & Co., Merrill Lynch & Co., Bank of America Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp., Walt Disney Co. and General Electric Co. At least 17 percent of board members at each of those 132 companies were women.

In the lowest-scoring group of 129 companies, the average return on equity was 9.1 percent. Each of those companies had fewer than 8.3 percent of women directors, Catalyst said.

That group included Citigroup Inc., Bear Stearns Cos., General Motors Corp., Apple Inc., Time Warner Inc., Capital One Financial Corp. and Countrywide Financial Corp.

Return on sales was 42 percent higher for the top group than for the group with the fewest women directors, the study said, dividing those companies’ pretax income by their total sales.

The survey was taken using financial data from 2001 to 2004 of 520 companies that were in the Fortune 500 during that time. Those years were chosen because the U.S. economy was stable, the group said.

Bloomberg News contributed to this report.

If you happen to be shopping in New City tomorrow, don’t be surprised if you see a mobile wooden shelter stationed in your supermarket’s parking lot.

The structure is called a sukkah, and it’s been scheduled to visit other parts of Clarkstown to mark the joyous Jewish holiday known as Sukkot.

The photo above is of the structure. (Caption info: From left, Debbie Herman of New City and Rabbi Yisroel Golberg eat cookies in Chabad of Rockland’s portable sukkah in the ShopRite parking lot in New City Oct. 6, 2006. Photo by Angela Gaul / The Journal News ).

Sukkot, a seven-day celebration that starts five days after Yom Kippur, is a remembrance of the desert wanderings of the Israelites after they were taken out of slavery in Egypt. It also is a celebration of the fall harvest.

Sukkot began Thursday (well, technically, it began at sundown on Wednesday), and runs through Wednesday. To mark the occasion, observant Jews build temporary huts outside their homes. They eat, sleep and pray in the structures to commemorate how the Israelites lived for 40 years after leaving Egypt.

Last year, shoppers were delighted to see the mobile sukkah, which is operated by Chabad of Rockland in New City. People had the opportunity to look inside, and also were invited to enter the structure and have a meal, as Jewish custom requires.

The sukkah will be at Clarkstown Plaza tomorrow between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m., and at ShopRite in New City from 3 to 5 p.m.

Just so you know, the word “sukkah” is Hebrew for “booth.” The plural of the word is “sukkot.”