Closing Another Gap - Consciousness

General anesthesia has been in use for nearly 175 years, but its mechanism for causing loss of consciousness has been unknown until now. So momentous was the first use of ether that it was memorialized in this painting, "First Operation Under Ether," by Robert C. Hinckley.

Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School.

Solving the 175-year-old medical mystery of anesthesia’s effects | Scripps Research

Scientists may not have fully explained consciousness and how the brain monitors its own thought processes but, as this piece of research by scientists from the Scripps Institute shows, consciousness does not exist independently of the brain, as some woo-peddling charlatans claim, but is an integral, materialist function of neurophysiology.

Scripps Research News explains:

Using modern nanoscale microscopic techniques, plus clever experiments in living cells and fruit flies, the scientists show how clusters of lipids in the cell membrane serve as a missing go-between in a two-part mechanism. Temporary exposure to anesthesia causes the lipid clusters to move from an ordered state, to a disordered one, and then back again, leading to a multitude of subsequent effects that ultimately cause changes in consciousness.

Bible Authors May Have Been High on Cannabis

Iron Age Judahite shrine

New research reveals Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Biblical Arad.

Cannabis was used in early cultic ceremonies in the Iron Age kingdom of Judah, according to researchers from Tel Aviv University. This may explain some of the more bizarre stories and claims of revelations and experiences related in the Bible.

This comes from analysis of the material found on two Iron Age altars discovered at the entrance to the "holy of holies" of a shrine at Tel Arad in the Beer-sheba Valley, Israel, which were found to contain Cannabis and Frankincense.

The findings were published free access yesterday in Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University

Catholic Abuse News - Another Diocese Goes Bankrupt

Catholic cathedral, St Paul, Minnesota.

Photograph: Jim Mone/AP

Catholic diocese in Minnesota to pay sexual abuse victims $22.5m | Guardian

The Roman Catholic diocese of St. Cloud in Minnesota is to go bankrupt but not before paying out $22.5 million to some 70 victims victims of sexual abuse by 41 priests, dating back to the 1950s, according to the terms of a settlement announced last Tuesday.

St Cloud will be the fifth of Minnesota's six diocese to go bankrupt because of sexual abuse compensation payments.

Covidiots - Missi Wimberly the Doctor's Wife

Screen grab of Missi Wimberly's 'Stop Social Distancing' Tweet
(now deleted)

Missi Wimberly: Backlash Over COVID-19 Pedicure Tweet | Heavy.com

Missi Wimberly was so shocked that her pedicurist wore PPE during her 'essential' pedicure that she flew into a rage and started a Twitter campaign to end social distancing. Apparently, the suggestion that anyone could catch something like the Covid-19 virus from her, or that she could catch it from a pedicurist was an unacceptable afront to her dignity.

One could almost accept this behaviour from an ignorant, spoilt little princess daughter of a Bible belt Redneck who had never read a book in her life, but Missi Wimberly is no ordinary Alabama Redneck. She proclaims herself on her LinkedIn page to be "a health, wellness and fitness professional". She is also the wife of a doctor who should understand the rudiments of epidemiology and the danger to people that the Covid-19 virus presents.

Her husband is Lee Thomas Wimberly, MD, an Internist with several Alabama hospitals and CEO of several retirement homes in the state. Together they have five children. One can only hope that, despite Missi's cavalier approach to infection control, their children remain safe during the pandemic.

Evolution News - Women with Neanderthal Genes are More Fertile

Photo credit: Getty Images

Women with Neandertal gene give birth to more children | Karolinska Institutet Nyheter

The one in three European women who have a copy of a Neanderthal gene are likely to be more fertile because they suffer fewer miscarriages and incidents of bleeding in early pregnancy, according to researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

The gene codes for a progesterone receptor. Molecular analyses revealed that these women produce more progesterone receptors in their cells, which may lead to increased sensitivity to progesterone and to protection against early miscarriages and bleeding.

Covidiots - The Catholic Bishop and the 'Fake Shepherds'

Bishop Athanasius Schneider
Auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, Kazakhstan

Bishop Schneider: Govt’s are using COVID-19 as pretext to ‘persecute’ Church | Blogs | LifeSite

Never being slow to play the persecution card, Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of the archdiocese of Mary Most Holy in Astana, Kazakhstan, has declared the Covid-19 lockdown to be a global conspiracy to persecute Christians by forcing churches to close.

In March this year he told the Catholic News magazine, Life Site News:

Directives canceling all public Masses “are a pure human law; however, the supreme law in the Church is the salvation of souls”.

Covidiots - Dettol Cure (Not True, But Could Be)

Fake News - But not THAT fake

Perma | FROM PASTOR DOOM TO PASTOR DISINFECTANT!

The story about a South African pastor killing 59 people by listening to Trump's idiotic suggestion and giving them Dettol to drink to cure Covid-19 is fake. It did not happen!

At least it did not happen then and to cure Covid-19.

It happened in December 2016 in the AK Spiritual Christian Church, Makgodu, Limpopo, where 'Prophet' Rufus Phala gave his unfortunate congregation Dettol to drink, telling them it would cure them of sickness.

'Prophet' Phala told his congregation that God had told him to give them the Dettol to drink and that he had received several WhatsApp messages from people telling him they had been healed by it.

There are no records of anyone dying as a result of this faith-based stupidity.

A few weeks earlier, 'Prophet' Lethebo Rabelago of Mount Zion Christian Church, Mathibela, Limpopo, had sprayed the congregation with the toxic insecticide 'Doom', telling them it would cure them of all sickness. He has now been banned from spraying anything on his congregation by the Limpopo High Court. His lawyer, Edmond Lubisi, had claimed 'Prophet' Rabelago had prayed over the insecticide, making it holy.

Phophi Ramathuba of the Health Department, welcomed the court ruling and announced that her department would be running various programmes to help poor and vulnerable people understand the effects of these 'unusual practices' performed on them by these pastors.

Why Americans Are Losing Faith

Internet Access and Growth in 'Nones'

How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion | MIT Technology Review

This article in MIT Technology Review is from 2014 but, if anything the correlation is likely to be even more marked today as the increase in non-affiliation (Nones) in USA has increased considerably in the last six years, as has rejection of creationism as an explanation for the existence of humans and of biodiversity.

Data from University of Chicago's General Social Survey, which has been collecting cohort data since 1972, was analysed by Allen Downey, a computer scientist at the Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts who came up with the following major causes of this decline in religious affiliation in the USA:

Covidiots - South Korea's Wackadoodle Christians

88 year-old Lee Man-hee, "the Second Coming of Jesus"

Prosecutors raid branches of religious group at center of coronavirus outbreak

A wackadoodle Christian cult in South Korea has been linked to 50-60% of Covid-19 deaths. Now the cult's leader faces homicide charges! The cult was founded by Lee Man-hee who claims to be the Second Coming of Jesus. His followers believe the Bible contains secret messages and metaphors that only he can understand (where have we heard that before?).

They also believe they are immune to disease. Now 1.2 million South Koreans are calling for the cult to be disbanded.

According to this report in The Korea Herald

Another Deconversion - Jon Steingard, Star of Christian Rock

Jon Steingard, ex-Christian Atheist.

Jon Steingard, Star of Christian Rock, Admits on Instagram He’s Lost His Faith | Terry Firma | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Jon Steingard is the latest in a long list of former evangelical Christians who realised their faith was vacuous when they began to examine it. He is now an Atheist and has told his followers so on Instagram.

He joined the Christian rock group Hawk Nelson in 2004 but had become increasing uncomfortable performing on stage to praise God because of his growing doubts about the existence of a god and the authenticity of the Bible. At last, unable to live with the dishonesty and pretense any longer, he 'confessed' his deconversion in an Instagram message to his followers.

Creationism News - Another Gap Closing!

Amino Acid Chirality chirality with hands from http://www.nai.arc.nasa.gov/ A "chiral" molecule is one that is not superposable with its mirror image. Like left and right hands that have a thumb, fingers in the same order, but are mirror images and not the same, chiral molecules have the same things attached in the same order, but are mirror images and not the same. Although most amino acids can exist in both left and right handed forms, Life on Earth is made of left handed amino acids, almost exclusively.

Source: Wikipedia

Cosmic rays may have left indelible imprint on early life, Stanford physicist says

One of the creationist 'gap' arguments you see pulled out of the toy box and dusted off once in a while is the so-called 'chirality' or handedness problem. The reason it's used so infrequently is probably because so few creationists have the capacity to understand what the term 'chirality' means. The 'problem' is to explain why all amino acids (and so biological proteins) and sugars are composed only of one enantiomere, 'L' in the case of amino acids and 'D' in the case of sugars.

Like so many creationist presuppositional 'gap' arguments, the answer is that the presupposed god did it. No evidence need ever be offered of the existence of this god nor any explanation of how or why it did whatever it is claimed to have done. 'Magic' and 'mystery' satisfy a creationist.

But now this creationist-satisfying gap might have closed according to a paper published in The Astrophysics Journal Letters by two STanford University physicists, Noemie Globus and Roger D. Blandford.

Taylor Kubota of Stanford News Service explains:

Covidiots - Georgia's Christian Slow Learners

Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle Christians ignoring social distancing advice and spreading Covid-19 anmongst themselves.

After Reopening in April, Georgia Church Closes Again Following Virus Outbreak | Beth Stoneburner | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

After several weeks of campaigning and complaints that they were being denied their constitutional right not to take part in the nation-wide attempt to limit the spread of Covid-19 by staying at home instead of going to church, Georgia's Christian Covidiots finally got their way when Republican governor Brian Kemp finally caved into demands and lifted the ban on gatherings.

Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle, in Ringgold,promptly opened its doors for personal services and, as this photo shows, ignored the advice on social distancing, even allowing children to be put at risk. However, only about 25% of the normal congregation were foolish enough to attend.

Malevolent Designer News - Dental Caries!

With powerful microscopy, researchers were able to visualize the structure of a tooth decay-causing biofilm growing on toddlers’ teeth. The organism primarily responsible for cavities, Streptococcus mutans, labeled in green, shields itself under layers of other bacteria, enabling it stick stubbornly to the enamel.

Image credit: Dongyeop Kim

Cavity-causing bacteria assemble an army of protective microbes on human teeth | Penn Today

Next time your dentist tells you you need some work done to stop your teeth rotting away, or to prevent painful abscesses forming in your gums, you know who to thank for it.

According to creationists it was the work of a brilliant intelligent [sic] designer who designed the bacterium,Streptococcus mutans to create the caries. Scientists have now worked out how this brilliant design works, according to an open access paper published a couple of days ago in PNAS.

According to Penn Today, the University of Pennsylvania news magazine:

Covidiots - Magic Cure Pastor Dies of Covid-19

Pastor Frankline Ndifor, "Prophet and faith-healer"

Panic Grips Faithful After Cameroon COVID Pastor Dies | Voice of America - English

Sad news from Cameroon that another victim of religion has died of Covid-19. Pastor Frankline Ndifor, a candidate in Cameroon's last presidential election, head of the Kingship International Ministries Church and popular purveyor of magic faith 'healing', died at his home in Douala a week after contracting the Covid-19 virus, probably when laying his magic hands on another victim.

According to this report in Voice of America, by Moki Edwin Kindzeka, his death has provoked panic in his congregation, many of whom had fallen for his bogus claims and regarded him as a prophet.

Malevolent Designer - God Hates Millipedes

The photo of the American centipede shared on Twitter. The fungi can be seen in the small red circles towards the top.

Credit: Derek Hennen.

New bizarre species discovered on… Twitter - University of Copenhagen

Discoveries like this present intelligent [sic] design creationists with two choices.

They can either accept that their putative designer creates things because it hates some of its creation and behaves like a malevolent influence in the World who actively seeks to increase suffering in ever-more inventive ways, or things like this evolve naturally while their god just sits back and allows it to happen.

Neither of these choices leave their designer resembling an omnibenevolent god who wishes to minimise the amount of suffering or who loves its creation.

Malevolent Designer News - Covid-19 Devastating Church Congregations

Raul Luis Lopez’s funeral, at the house in Queens where the delivery worker lived, is the first Reverend Fabian Arias has presided over in a private home.

These Two New York City Churches Lost a Hundred Members to COVID | Terry Firma | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Despite the regular claims by religious fruitloops that they are magically immune to Covid-19, having been protected with magic spells or potions and having been 'washed in the blood of Christ' [sic], and even claims that Covid-19 is God's punishment on specific people like Atheists, pro-choice 'liberals' and other members of the conservative Christian demonology, as this CNN article shows, Christians are being hit at least as badly as others and probably more so. (Cue: the 'no true Scotsmen' fallacy - "well, they're not true Christians!")

It is also clear from this report, that racial/ethnic minorities are being hit disproportionately, just as we are finding in the UK where black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups have been hit twice as hard as the white population.

Covidiots - India's Fools' Gold

'Saint' Sobhan Sarker, aka 1008 Viraktanand Saraswati, aka Suryabhan Tiwari
Looked 'beneath the Earth' and saw a thousand tons of magic gold!

Police Book 4,100 Who Crowded Godman’s Funeral in India Despite COVID Rules | Terry Firma | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Covidiocy appears to be a characteristic of most religions, including Hinduism, if these Hindu Covidiots are anything to go by.

Despite the nationwide lockdown as India battles against Covid-19, thousands of people forced their way past police lines to attend the funeral in Kanpur last Wednesday, of self-styled Godman, Sobhan Saker, aka 1008 Viraktanand Saraswati, aka Suryabhan Tiwari. 4,100 have been charged with lockdown violations. Sakar was regarded by his followers as a sadhu or saint. He claimed he could see "beyond the sky and beneath the Earth".

Mormons for Child Abuse

Fundamentalist Mormons demonstrating in support of polygamy (and the right of their men to abuse women and children).

Utah decriminalises polygamy. Opponents are outraged | Barry Duke

According to this report by CNN, the state of Utah has reduced to penalty for polygamy from being a third degree felony punishable with up to 5 years in prison and a $5,000 fine to that of a misdemeanor on the same scale as a traffic offence.

Polygamy, allowing a man to have several wives, had once been a central tenet of Mormonism and the practice that led to their moving to Utah to found their own colonies, free from the persecution of the mostly Christian states which outlawed the practice. It was the issue that kept Utah out of the Union until, in the nick of time, God revealed to the leaders of the church that marriage was now the union of one man with one woman, for life, just as it was in the other states.

Malevolent Designer News - How Malaria was Designed to Maximise the Harm

The malaria parasites growing inside this infected red blood cell (blue) will eventually burst out in unison with millions of other parasites lurking in red blood cells around them. This feat of timing is coordinated by the parasite’s internal clock.

NIH.

Malaria Parasite Ticks to its Own Internal Clock | Duke Today

A paper published a couple of days ago in Nature explains just how meticulously, creationism's intelligent [sic] designer has designed the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum to maximise its ability to harm and kill people - if you believe that superstition that is.

So successful has its design been that it randomly kills a child every two minutes.

Unkind Monster Problem for Creationists

A reconstruction of the Tully Monster as it would have looked 300 million years ago, swimming in the Carboniferous seas. Notice the jointed proboscis, the multiple rows of teeth, and the dorsal eye bar.

Illustration by Sean McMahon / Yale University

Solving the mystery of the Tully Monster | YaleNews

The natural world can be so unkind to Creationists sometimes.

The case of the so-called Tully Monster, Tullimonstrum gregarium which has puzzled taxonomists for years might have been solved, according to a paper published today on Nature, which seems to end the debate, coming out firmly on the side of it being a vertebrate.

This is based on A combination of new evidence and modern approaches to phylogenetic analysis by a team from Yale led by Victoria E. McCoy of the Department of Geology and Geophysics.

Fossils of Tullimonstrum gregarium are found in the Mazon Creek fossil beds which have been dated to 309 million yeas ago. It had been variously classified as a molluscs, an arthropod, a conodont, a worm, and a vertebrate. About the only thing that could be agreed on was that it was a soft-bodied bilaterium.