Worse than I thought

This knee gets worse and worse — now swollen and very painful. It is agony to get up out of bed, and once out, it’s painful to get up again, so I’m spending most of my time taking the path of least resistance and staying in bed, which is incredibly boring. I have to get up to use the bathroom, but then my wife got me a bed pan, so even that incentive has been lost. She’s hovering over me all day long because we both know how catastrophic it would be if I were to fall.

I have an orthopedics appointment on Monday morning. I fear my travails will not end at that point.

Prognosis: boredom

not my knee

I have seen a doctor. I was x-rayed. I was informed that I have lovely knees, with no signs of arthritic degeneration. I got a blood test for my uric acid levels — they’re normal. I got a pressure bandage. I have an appointment for the orthopedic doctor for next week or the week after. But there are no quick fixes.

I hobbled out in just as much pain as when I went in.

I guess I’m just supposed to cross my fingers and hope it gets better, and if it gets worse, see an orthopedist for more tests.

Right now that means I just sit and wait for a week or more, and walk as little as possible. I’m dreading having to get up to walk 10 meters to use the bathroom.

I done gone did it again

I was doing so well this summer! Regular light exercise, joints working smoothly, no aches or pains…and then last night, something went bad in my right knee, with no warning, no sudden snap, nothin’. I have a very specific, localized pain on the lateral aspect of my right knee, just one spot smaller than the palm of my hand.

I tried to figure out what’s going on, but have you ever looked at knee anatomy? It’s madness.

As I sit here, it doesn’t hurt, and there’s no obvious swelling, but if I try to stand on it, it’s a sharp, tearing pain, and worst of all, the joint has lost some stability, and I keep feeling like it’s going to buckle and send me to the floor.

My non-medical diagnosis is that one of the many rubber bands that Nature has strapped around 3 bones and a kneecap to hold them together has snapped. Intelligent design, my ass. It’s like a 5-year old tried to put some sticks together by wrapping them up with lots of duct tape.

Lobsters, OK — but please don’t boil the bison

You wouldn’t want to take a bath in 70°C water. That would be painful. That’s the temperature of the Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone. We had a dramatic demonstration of how awful it would when a bison stumbled into the spring and was cooked to death.

That’s horrific, but unsurprising. We last visited Yellowstone several decades ago, after a major fire had swept through the place. It wasn’t exactly wholesome for the kids — black charred snags everywhere, heaps of bones where some animal had died in place, and the hot springs were surrounded with skeletons in the muck. It would have made the visit even better if the kids could have watched a massive animal die a horrible painful death. Yellowstone isn’t Disneyland.

I’d rather spare them this sort of thing, though.

Yellowstone’s thermal pools might not be capable of dissolving organic matter, but bodies tend to disappear quickly once they fall in. When Il Hun Ro, 70, fell into the Abyss Pool in the West Thumb Geyser Basin around July 7, the only evidence at the scene was several “dark clumps” and Ro’s shoe-clad foot, which was recovered from the water.

Nature isn’t kind.

Learning a bit about neurodivergence

A person named Elise has compiled a spreadsheet of responses from neurodivergent people about their jobs and careers. I learned something from browsing through it. Most of the respondents seen to favor jobs that don’t require extensive interactions with people, but there was on grade school teacher there — they liked the strict schedule. There was a PhD researcher in the mix, but they seem to have lucked into a position with no teaching, just field and lab work. One paramedic says, “Dopamine dump in intense situations feels normal to people with ADHD.”

It seems neurodivergent people are diverse. Who knew?

Truth Social is nothing but self-serving lies

Late last night, I got an alert with the good news that Iran and Israel were going to stop shooting missiles at each other.

US president Donald Trump has announced in a social media post that Iran and Israel have agreed to a ceasefire. On the assumption that everything works as it should, which it will, I would like to congratulate both Countries, Israel and Iran, on having the Stamina, Courage, and Intelligence to end, what should be called, “THE 12 DAY WAR,” Trump wrote on his platform, Truth Social. This is a War that could have gone on for years, and destroyed the entire Middle East, but it didn’t, and never will!

This was on social media, not the news, and was accompanied with sycophants yelling that now, they have to give Trump the Nobel Peace Prize. Also, it was a ceasefire, not yet the end of the war, so it was presumptuous to announce that not only was this the end of the war, but also that Trump was naming the war.

Then, a little later…

Just after 5am GMT, Trump posted to social media that a ceasefire was now in effect, adding PLEASE DO NOT VIOLATE IT! Earlier he told NBC the ceasefire was unlimited and would last forever.

A ceasefire is a ceasefire, so it’s a little desperate to then beg the opponents to NOT VIOLATE IT.

But then I wondered…when did Truth Social become an international news agency, with reporters publishing reports of actual events? It’s just Donald Trump sitting on a solid gold toilet tapping out his fantasies on his phone. You shouldn’t believe anything on Truth Social.

So I was not surprised this morning that Israel and Iran continue to exchange fire despite Trump’s ceasefire declaration.

Air raid sirens sounded in northern Israel at about 10.30pm, in response to what the Israeli military said was an Iranian missile launch, about two and a half hours after the ceasefire was first announced. Israeli reports said two missiles had been intercepted. Iran denied launching missiles after the ceasefire but Israel’s defence minister, Israel Katz, said he had ordered immediate retaliation on Tehran.

“I have instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to Iran’s violation of the ceasefire with powerful strikes against regime targets in the heart of Tehran,” Katz said in a statement. “In light of Iran’s complete violation of the ceasefire declared by the US president and the launch of missiles towards Israel … I have instructed the IDF … to continue the intense activity of attacking Tehran to thwart regime targets and terrorist infrastructures in Tehran, in continuation of the activity that took place yesterday.”

And now Trump is spittin’ mad because now he’s learning that his precious ceasefire and end of the war were built on wishes and farts and are dissipating in the same winds that are blowing away his credibility.

They don’t know what the f**k they’re doing: Trump lashes out at Israel and Iran

Neither do you, Donald. Neither do you.

“our nation’s reputation abroad is plummeting”

The World Humanist Conference was scheduled for next year in Washington DC. I’ve been to this conference in Oxford in the past — it’s a good meeting, and I would have planned on attending. I can’t confidently travel abroad anymore because of the fucked up way the US handles security at airports. I’m even reluctant to do much domestic travel.

If I’m unwilling to travel, the shoe is also on the other foot — who would want to travel to the repressive hellhole that the US has become? So I was not surprised to get this email from Jen Scott of American Atheists.

As the Board Chair of American Atheists, I’m writing you today with some difficult news: Due to escalating threats to civil liberties, human rights, and international relations under the Trump Administration, the board and staff of American Atheists have withdrawn our organization as host of the 2026 World Humanist Congress, originally scheduled to be held next August in Washington, D.C.

The Board of Directors takes seriously our duty to ensure the safety of our members and the continued ability of American Atheists to carry out its mission. This decision was not made lightly. It comes after a thorough evaluation of our organization’s ability to successfully host and safely execute an event of this magnitude in the coming year, given the new and yet unfolding risks posed by the escalation of religious nationalism and the erosion of human rights in our country.

In just its first six months, the Trump Administration’s actions — including the deportation of legal immigrants, detentions and refusals of admission to visitors of the United States, and travel restrictions — have created an environment that is not only incompatible with our values but also inhospitable to members of our global secular community.

Already, our nation’s reputation abroad is plummeting. And fueled by fear of being detained, surveilled, or harassed at our borders, so, too, are the number of foreign arrivals. A significant majority of the potential attendees we surveyed expressed apprehension about the political climate and a reluctance or unwillingness to travel to D.C., including U.S. residents and key volunteers.

Our board and staff are also acutely aware that executive orders retributively targeting private and nonprofit entities the administration views as disloyal to its agenda present an existential threat to American Atheists, our members, and our partner organizations.

Here’s the sobering truth: Under this administration, it is impossible for American Atheists to guarantee or even make reasonable assurances regarding the admissibility of international guests from key regions of the world, nor is it feasible for us to ensure the security of those who are granted entry to the United States or to mitigate against the still unknown events of the coming year.

The totality of these circumstances and the reality of this moment is deeply troubling. We are witnessing the dismantling of foundational freedoms and the weaponization of the state to stifle dissent, suppress civil society, and silence voices like ours. The repressive actions of this regime not only obstruct our ability to gather in peace but strike at the very heart of what our community stands for.

Of course, we are disappointed. But we are not deterred.

Together with our partners at Humanists International, we have responded to this challenge with agility, vision, and resolve to secure a new location. Today, we can happily announce the 2026 World Humanist Congress will take place August 7-9, 2026, in Ottawa, Canada.

It’s embarrassing to be a citizen of the United States anymore.

Would you like to visit the US next year?

Put yourself in their shoes

There may be little point to these comments, because the people who need to hear them most are incapable of empathy.

Our bombing of Iran was a surprise attack, and the initial missiles flung at them by Israel was done under cover of negotiations between US diplomats and Iran. It was about as underhanded as you can get. But Trump was oblivious to the dishonor when he posted a comment on Truth Social, that is parodied here.

@RealHirohito We have completed our very successful attack on Hawaii. All planes are now outside of America air space. A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Pearl Harbor. All planes are safely on their way home. Congratulations to our great Japanese Warriors. There is not another military in the World that could have done this. NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE! Thank you for your attention to this matter

I deplore the Iranian theocracy, but you have to consider the people living under it.

I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves.
Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven’t lived in blood and bone.
That doesn’t mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins.
If your vision of liberation comes only through the ‘l destruction of innocent Ylives, then it’s not freedom you’re after.]
Sahar Delijani,

Please, world, I would welcome the dissolution of the Trump/Republican regime that is wrecking our country, but don’t bomb me and claim you’re helping us.

So much effort spiraling down the drain of AI

Google has come up with a new tool for generating video called Veo — feed it some detailed prompts, and it will spit back realistic video and audio. David Gerard and Aron Peterson decided to test it and put it through its paces, and see whether it produces output that is useful commercially or artistically. It turns out to be disappointing.

The problems are inherent to the tools. You can’t build a coherent narrative and structured sequence with an algorithm that just uses predictive models based on fragments of disconnected images. As Gerard says,

Veo doesn’t work. You get something that looks like it came out of a good camera with good lighting — because it was trained on scenes with good lighting. But it can’t hold continuity for seven seconds. It can’t act. The details are all wrong. And they still have the nonsense text problem.

The whole history of “artificial intelligence” since 1955 is making impressive demos that you can’t use for real work. Then they cut your funding off and it’s AI Winter again.

AI video generators are the same. They’re toys. You can make cool little scenes. In a super limited way.

But the video generators have the same problems they had when OpenAI released Sora. And they’ll keep having these problems as long as they’re just training a transformer on video clips and not doing anything with the actual structure of telling a visual story. There is no reason to think it’ll be better next year either.

So all this generative AI is good for is making blipverts, stuff to catch consumers’ attention for the few seconds it’ll take to sell them something. That’s commercially viable, I suppose. But I’ll hate it.

Unfortunately, they’ve already lost all the nerds. Check out Council of Geeks’ video about how bad Lucasfilm and ILM are getting. You can’t tell an internally consistent, engaging story with a series of SIGGRAPH demos spliced together, without human artists to provide a relevant foundation.