Quick Egyptian Roundup

Several quick takes on Egypt, courtesy of Al-Masry al-Youm's English site:

• Just shoot the protestors. The Egyptian independent and opposition media are having fun (actually that's probably not the right word: how about "aneurysms"?) over suggestions by more than one (though one is quoted here) ruling party figures that democracy protestors should just be shot down in the streets.

• Farouk El-Baz, the Egyptian-born ex-NASA scientist who was critical to the US space program (so much so that in at least one Star Trek episode there's a shuttlecraft named the El-Baz: no kidding), and brother of Usama El-Baz, who was Egypt's foreign policy guru for decades and still commands attention (in short: smart family), has spoken to students at Cairo U and said that "over the past 7000 years Egypt has never been as backward as it is now." I suspect this is normal Arab exaggeration: nobody could read or write 7000 years ago, though indeed that marks the beginnings of Egyptian civilization.

• An account of what our old friend Eyjafjallajökull (why does the spellchecker keep questioning that?) has done to Egyptian air travel.

• Remember the Nag Hammadi killings back in January? Well, the trial has been postponed for the third time.