Apr. 24 again, again : Talking about the colors in the bilum, reminds me of this song: RallyRoundTheFlag.mp3
rallyround.html (the lyrics)
Apr. 24 again: my "bilum" was found! it was somewhere in the house, Lisa found it. "bilum" is a Tok Pisin word. Tok Pisin is the
pidgin English language in Papua New Guinea (PNG). I was in PNG for a month in 1984 and bought this. As this article https://tokpisin.info/bilum/ explains,
it is a traditional accessory, but was originally made from fibers which were not colorful. With the collision of cultures when Western people showed up, they started making them with colored
threads, reflecting their color sense. It is somewhat reminiscent of the Red, Gold and Green of Rastas, etc.
Apr. 24 Croissants le matin!!!! 
Apr. 20 - a couple of the pictures from the Sudan Advocacy Week.
Apr. 18 - today is the last day of this week's activity, visiting Congresspersons and Senators about the crisis in Sudan, with Emgage - a political group. I found my way into this and have been just trying to support the efforts, pretty much. The people
on these visits include Sudanese refugees who are here in the US and Emgage people who are quite expert in the practice of these visits. These are all scheduled sit-down meetings with staffers. A bit more genteel than the Codepink visits, which are mostly drop-ins and less formal.
The crisis in Sudan is, like the crisis in Gaza, fueled in part by US weapons and money. It is a massive humanitarian catastrophe, the biggest one on the planet right now. I think it is so rarely paid attention to here in the US due
to racism and Islamophobia.
Apr. 14 again -- meanwhile, here in the everyday reality, an article in the Register is interesting. AI progress marches on:
"In a recent study, researchers found that about 5.2 percent of package suggestions from commercial models didn't exist, compared to 21.7 percent from open source or openly available models.
Running that code should result in an error when importing a non-existent package. But miscreants have realized that they can hijack the hallucination for their own benefit.
All that's required is to create a malicious software package under a hallucinated package name and then upload the bad package to a package registry or index like PyPI or npm for distribution. Thereafter, when an AI code assistant re-hallucinates the co-opted name, the process of installing dependencies and executing the code will run the malware."
https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/12/ai_code_suggestions_sabotage_supply_chain/?td=rt-3a
Apr. 14.
וְגֵ֖ר לֹ֣א תִלְחָ֑ץ וְאַתֶּ֗ם יְדַעְתֶּם֙ אֶת־נֶ֣פֶשׁ הַגֵּ֔ר כִּֽי־גֵרִ֥ים הֱיִיתֶ֖ם בְּאֶ֥רֶץ
מִצְרָֽיִם׃
You shall not oppress a stranger, for you know the feelings of the stranger, having yourselves been strangers in the land of Egypt.
I hope that came through, it's Hebrew from https://www.sefaria.org/Exodus.23.9?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en
The Hebrew bible is the O.G. of the Abrahamic religions. So that is also part of Christianity and Islam. This concept is illustrated in Greek mythology, in Ovid's Metamorphoses - see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baucis_and_Philemon. Just reading the Wikipedia summary, it's such a beautiful story. Zeus and Hermes "going undercover" to test
the kindness of humans. It's really worth reading.
The upshot, of course, is that God/Zeus wants humans to treat "strangers" well. What does that mean for us today? Who are the "strangers"? Palestinians? Sudanese? "Latin" Americans?
Thomas Jefferson: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just: that his justice cannot sleep for ever..." of course he was a slaveowner.
God save us from ourselves.
Apr. 10. Cancelled New York Times. The announcements of new audio feature with Ross Douthat and guests like Steve Bannon, and the new article on how "Mr. Trump" is quietly going to "get" Greenland as a "real-estate deal". I'm not giving them any more money. Will see how I feel about this decision later on, but that's my decision today.
Apr. 8 again - I am not finding the image I remember of heads being shaved as part of the intake of the "deportees" into CECOT. News on the internet is sometimes sort of ephemeral???
Apr. 8 -- really feeling that these mass "deportations" to CECOT (CECOT.pdf) are a grave concern. The Supremes have stepped in as of last night
and I don't think I fully understand what it is they've done (the "conservative" majority). One thing I am struck by is that
my "common sense"? understanding of the meaning of "deport" does not include " to a notorious foreign prison". Most of the press I see on this does not
mention how being "rendered" (is that the right word?) to CECOT is not an ordinary "deportation". Wouldn't deportation leave you in some other country but at least able to walk the streets, to appeal to their judicial system in whatever ways they allow?
Our government at work:
Apr. 3 again - some Vonnegut material that came to mind just now: csi.html "Chrono-Synclastic Infundibula"
Apr. 3 another month gone by. Haven't been posting as much. Trying to understand and possibly do some things that make a little difference - what is going on in the world?
Trump? Israel-Gaza? Sudan? Climate? other conflicts? How can we have peace and kindness and joy?