Two Columbia graduates who are journalists went back to campus to cover the student protest, and their mother, Nahla Al-Arian, came along for an hour. Night-Mayor Adams cited her as an example of an "outside agitator", fictitiously responsible for organizing the protest.

Their father, Professor Sami Al-Arian, was smeared as a terrorist by Dubya's men. The jury found him innocent on most of the charges, but there were some minor charges that the jury could not decide on. He was pressured into a plea bargain which is now being used by New York's thug department as an excuse to smear Nahla Al-Arian as an "outside organizer" of the protests, as if that would justify their violence.

In medieval England, leprosy was transmitted between humans and red squirrels. It may have reached England on squirrels' furs.

*Venomous snakes likely to [move substantial distances to new habitats] en masse amid global heating, says study. Researchers find many countries unprepared for influx of new species and will be vulnerable to bites*

Richard Stallman will give a talk, in French, Free Software and Freedom in a Digital Society at Centrale Supelec in Saclay, on May 15.

Israel has attacked part of Rafah, after calling on civilians there to move to another zone.

Has Israel come up with a way to attack HAMAS while not endangering civilians by the hundreds or thousands? I hope so, but I won't take that for granted. Israel has repeatedly failed to care about killing thousands of civilians.

The text suggests that the new "safe" zone is close to Rafah, but does not clearly say so, or how far one has to walk to get there.

For civilians weakened by hunger, and by untreated sickness and wounds, to carry their own bodies plus meager remaining belongings there may be beyond them. They also have reasons to distrust Israel's promise that it won't attack that zone. It has falsified such commitments before.

Let's not lose sight of where we want to end up.