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August 2025

Another mistaken feature of our academic copyright system. Although it also works the other way around - if you are sued, it might be the publisher who bears the brunt.

Of course, they usually have contracts that make the author liable

I have been needled repeatedly over the last few days, with only very limited access points in one arm. The picture shows my arm now, I'm a state of bad hematoma/bruising. Please no more!

A very bruised arm with bad hematoma

Still hospitalised here. Feel that the pulmonary edema is receding,which is great. I have another haemodialysis session today - third day in a row - to pull fluid off my lungs.

On top of fluid overload, it's also been a joy countering the pneumonia, also in the lungs. Please cut me a break now!

A picture of me, 39 year old man, in a grey t shirt, with an oxygen mask, of the spectacles type

I remain in the hospital, suffering from pneumonia and pulmonary edema. I am still on oxygen and feel like I'm drowning if I get fluid overload. Hence I am receiving a lot of dialysis to try to pull the fluid off my lungs.

This morning's news: I am in hospital as I could not breathe yesterday. I felt like I was drowning.

It looks like pneumonia and pulmonary edema. We are also checking for a lung clot.

All quite unpleasant. 😕

This thread is really worth a read. Matthew has done the hard work not only of diagnosing the problem but of providing a potential solution in "detokenizing" the classroom. Suspect this would involve a period of loss and mourning if implemented, but it might save learning.

I've reached that frustrating point in infection recovery where you feel as though you could get up and run around, but know that, if you do so, you'll spend the next six days back in bed, unable to move.

Ok, yeah. Not feeling that good now. 😕

Take them at first sign of infection. Has saved my neck several times. They also put me on prophylactic antibiotics.

As to the ribs: recent x ray showed evidence that I HAVE broken mine from coughing, several times. You may have, too. 😢

Wrote a product review for the first time in a while, to get back into writing. The Nurosym vagus nerve stimulator for people with multiple chronic conditions. My HRV is improving for the first time in years, sleep scores up. Could be placebo, but the results seem good 🤔

https://doi.org/10.59348/az6ev-rvh24

A picture of the Nurosym handset, which has four grey buttons on an oblong box

A bad night, just when I thought things were improving. Coughing up blood, couldn't breathe properly. Quite worried. Hate the panic sensation of not being able to breathe.

The Southern Water disability email is [payless at southern dot etc] and every time I get an email from them, I feel the Trekker need to exclaim Kahless must Payless!

A picture of Kahless from Star Trek

I went to ER/A&E a week ago, unable to breathe. I was simply told that I was "OK to go home". Now I am really unwell and saw this note on my file. They knew I was severely immunocompromised with end-stage kidney failure,on dialysis. I may now require hospital admission for intravenous antibiotics.

A screenshot from a letter saying "Diagnoses: primary diagnoses: Lower respiratory tract infection"

Simon Jenkins: "why do teenagers want to go to university?"

Simon Jenkins attended "St John's College, Oxford, where he earned a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics."

I'd put money on his son having also gone to university.

With apologies, I'm a little behind on my emails due to a challenging health situation.

Seems my breathing difficulties may be due to severe costochondritis caused by the rheumatoid arthritis, perhaps compounded by pregabalin-induced respiratory depression.

So far, this trip to hospital has been major complaint territory.

1. A&E sent me to "urgent treatment", where I waited 2hrs. Then they just sent me back to A&E urgently.

2. A&E was relatively OK: 1hr. Did bloods, x-ray, and ECG.

3. Then been waiting for 6hrs on the "Observation Ward". No contact.

The mistriage at the door cost 2hrs (that won't count on their A&E waiting figures). But 6hrs without any patient contact in A&E is bad. I wonder whether this "Observation Ward" counts as an "admission" from A&E so they can meet their targets for "discharge or admission".

Turned up at A&E saying I had shortness of breath and low SATS of 89%-> 93%. Was sent to urgent treatment centre. 1.5hrs later, I've been sent back to A&E by the GP there. Back to the start basically because of bad triage, quite frankly.

Relying on The Internet Archive - as amazing as it is - to fulfil all of our digital preservation needs is not enough. 😭

So, drat.

I have been sent to A&E/ER again, by my kidney team.

My blood-oxygen saturation/SpO2 is low, bouncing between 85% and 94%.

This.

The government has created those conditions but they are then described as though"that's just the way it is".

Having a day out, visiting my mother and attending a performance of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons in her local derelict church. It was extremely difficult travelling here and I had to have a lie down just now. It's also only for a day due to dialysis, so it's home soon.

This afternoon, listening to a fabulous string quartet, I felt pleased that my hearing loss pertains mostly to speech perception. I'm sure this evening, in the pub garden, I'll be cursing it isn't otherwise.

This seems a very, very bad idea. Will make identifying ownership of photographs a total nightmare. Also, some people look very much alike. Also, a face, in most circumstances, posseses none of the traditional characteristics of copyright protected material (novelty, creativity, createdness).

The University of Warwick has paid a lot of money, I'm guessing, for their internet banner ads on the Guardian and elsewhere.

But they can't spell "curiosity". This isn't a US-UK variant. They just, genuinely, have a massive spelling error in their banner ads.

A banner advert for the University of Warwick, which says "Beyond ignores curiousity". This is a spelling error.

I had my appointment yesterday at the National Neurology Hospital. It turns out that I have a rare and incurable mitochondrial genetic disease called MELAS (mitochondrial encephalopathy, lactic acidosis, and stroke-like episodes). This explains a whole heap of my health problems, though not all.

This survey appears to have returned accurate results.

Example: I had to do a sexual misconduct training course the other day for one of my institutions. The questions were bleakly obvious.

"Which of these should you not do?"

"a. Follow the person around, stalking them, until you get a date"

It was just an utter box-ticking exercise. Ridiculous. As for pointless meetings - well, I like a bit of sociability as much as the next person, but, wowser, there are a lot of meetings in the world that we don't need. Some people's jobs depend on there being such meetings, though.

It's like the annual research survey, which takes up more time the more research you have done. Every year I just want to scrawl over it:" I could be doing research in the time it takes to so this form!!"

So basically: I know academics have moaned about admin since the dawn of time, but it's really bad right now. Just at a time when we can't afford it.

Well, today's the worrying appointment at the National Neurology Hospital. It's going to exhaust me just travelling to get there. Wish I had my powerchair already.

Watched the Elementary episode "The Hound of the Cancer Cells" tonight. Superb and features several of my interests. Peer review sleuths and Tor!

I have a somewhat scary hospital referral this week to the Highly Specialised Service for Rare Mitochondrial Disorders at the National Neurology Hospital. A genetic test revealed that my systemic health disorders (severe RA, stroke, immunodeficiency, others) may have mitochondrial disease origins.

A while ago, I mapped my health to show how all the conditions were connected and it's kind of insane. Some sort of systemic cell-level problem would totally fit the bill. But who knows what they are going to say. Perhaps it's nothing to do with that. Or perhaps it is. Bit of a rollercoaster.

One of the most amusing things about having my young nieces to vist was their incredulity at our three-legged dog. "Where did her leg go?"

They also said "we've got to take care of her, in case she loses another leg" - as though it were going to disappear any minute!