Covidiots - Rishi Sunak Waives the Rules

The chancellor served customers at a Wagamama restaurant in central London on Wednesday.

Photograph: Simon Walker/HM Treasury

About half of health care workers positive for COVID-19 by serology have no symptoms | VUMC Reporter | Vanderbilt University

The discovery by a team of researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Centre, that almost half the healthcare workers tested for Covid-19, tested positive but displayed no symptoms is evidence, if any more were needed, of the importance of wearing a face-mask in all public places.

Among 249 front-line health care workers who cared for COVID-19 patients during the first month of the pandemic in Tennessee, 8% tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies by serology testing, suggesting they had contracted COVID-19 in the first several weeks of taking care of COVID-19 patients. Among these health care workers with positive serology results, 42% reported no symptoms of a respiratory illness in the prior two months. This suggests that front-line health care workers are at high risk for COVID-19 and that many health care workers with the virus may not have typical symptoms of a respiratory infection. These results were published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on July 6.

Rats! Penis Enlargement Homeopathy Fraud!

Coming up short: Journal retracts penis enlargement paper after realizing it was homeopathy – Retraction Watch.

In a nice example of the self-correcting nature of science, the editor of the International Journal of Impotence Research - a Springer Nature title - has retracted a paper despite the disagreement of all the authors, because he realised it was a homeopathy promotion with no basis in science.

The paper had slipped past the peer-review process but, when examined in detail fell far short of the standard science normally expects of medical research. It had purported to show that a drug, Impanza, manufactured by OOO NPF Materia Medica Holding, of Moscow, gave rats an enlarged penis and might therefore be useful in treating erectile dysfunction in humans. There were also claims that it increased libido and enhanced intercourse satisfaction!

The Paranoia that Causes Americans to Hate Atheists

Why Americans Hate Atheists | Psychology Today

It probably comes as no surprise to most American Atheists that Atheists rank even lower than Muslims in the American Christian demonology. 43% of Americans would not vote for an Atheist for president against 40% for a Muslim, 30% for a homosexual, 18% for a mormon with Latinos, Jews, Catholics, Women and African Americans getting 7%, 6%, 5%, 5% and 4% respectively. Incidentally, that 43% figure is close to the percentage of American adults who believe Noah's Ark was a historical event and that humans were created by magic out of dust and ribs.

Institutionalised 'Secularphobia' is normal in the USA with people giving a lower priority to an Atheist or agnostics waiting for a kidney transplant then for believers and Atheists are much less successful in custody battles after a divorce that religious parents. In addition, despite the First Amendment which guarantees freedom from religion as well as freedom of religion, it is illegal for an Atheist to hold public office in seven states. Atheists are barred from membership of the Boy Scouts, the American Legion, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Humanist chaplains are barred from serving in the US military.

Covidiots - Kenneth Copeland Keeps On Scamming

Scamvangelist’s Church Tells COVID to “Cease and Desist NOW”… Again | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

Should we blame covidiot televangelist frauds like Kenneth Copeland for continuing to scam fundamentalist Christian simpletons, or should we blame the fundamentalist simpletons for allowing him to continue to scam them?

The fact is that these simple-minded fundamentalists have created the environment (the market-place) in which these parasitic frauds operate with the moral scruples of a bed bug and the manipulative tactics of a snake-oil peddler, in their desperation to shore up their fragile beliefs. And they will keep coming back for more the more they are rewarded for their dishonesty.

Covidiots - Israel "Has Lost It"

Israeli Covid-19 Daily Cases

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Israel public health chief quits amid rise in coronavirus cases | World news | The Guardian

Being the 'Chosen Ones' has proved to be no more protection against the Covid-19 virus in Israel, than it's proving to be in Bible Belt USA. As with America's most religious states, Covid-19 cases are rising exponentially again in Israel.

The top Israeli health official, Siegal Sadetzki, has resigned in protest at the government's handling of the affair following a 'broad and swift' opening of the economy. All the gains from the original strict lockdown appear to have been lost.

Covidiots - Texas Turnips

Pastor Ron Arbaugh, Calvary Chapel San Antonio.
"Responsible for 50 Covid-19 cases"

'I accept full responsibility:' Calvary Chapel pastor talks church's COVID-19 outbreak | WOAI

Pastor Ron Arbaugh, of Calvary Chapel San Antonio, Texas, has belatedly accepted that he is responsible for the fact that 50 of his church congregation have Covid-19, including himself, due to inadequate social distancing precautions when he decided to reopen his church.

One person is now on a ventilator. The church has contributed to the high and rising second wave now requiring strict lockdown measures to be reimposed in Texas, due to a bungled lifting of the first lockdown. New cases in Texas were above 8,000 yesterday and the trend is relentlessly upwards.

Trumpanzee Christian Fruitloop Saves the Day

Kat Kerr, Christian "Prophetess"

Christian “Prophetess”: I’m the Reason Satan Didn’t Disrupt Your Holiday Weekend | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

With news of science papers that debunk creationism again, of child-abusing Catholic priests and of Christian covidiots spreading Covid-19, being thin on the ground today, I thought I'd write about the deranged Trumpanzee "Prophetess", Kat Kerr, who featured in this blog a few days ago when she announced her measures for defending the GOP National Convention. She has ordered 100 million angels to station themselves around the town to keep the evil demons out.

Now, Kerr has retrospectively claimed the credit for everyone staying safe on the 4th July National holiday. Kat cast a magic spell that ensured everyone's safety.

It needed her sister Jen to repeat the spell line by line to make sure God got the instructions.

Covidiots - California's 'Persecuted' Christians

California Covid-19 timeline

Data Sources: Cases and deaths data from JHU CSSE. Policy actions from the National Governor’s Association, D.C. Policy Center, and Washington, DC’s Coronavirus website.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

Evangelicals Are Furious That California Temporarily Banned Singing in Churches | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

In addition to the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in California, there has been an resurgence of persecution mania amongst California's evangelical Christian community.

This time, their indignation is over not being allowed the privilege of spreading Covid-19 in the manner of their choosing - by gathering together in an enclosed space and bellowing at the top of their voices.

The cause of their self-righteous outrage?

The attempt by the governor, Gavin Newsom, to introduce measures intended to bring under control the serious and accelerating second wave of Covid-19 cases in the state. The new guidelines include discontinuing singing in church services:

Malevolent Designer News - More Malevolent Designs

Black-legged or deer tick, Ixodes scapularis.

Photo:Scott Bauer.
This image was released by the Agricultural Research Service, the research agency of the US Department of Agriculture, with the ID k8002-3 (next).,
Public Domain, Source: Wikipedia

Repression of tick microRNA-133 induces organic anion transporting polypeptide expression critical for Anaplasma phagocytophilum survival in the vector and transmission to the vertebrate host

Here's a real treat for the followers of the intelligent [sic] designer and those who appreciate the length this malevolence is going to to make humans and other creatures sick.

The first is an account of how the Anaplasma phagocytophilum, tick-borne parasite that causes anaplasmosis, manages to live in the tick which the intelligent [sic] designer has chosen as the means of injecting it into its target hosts.

Scientists at the Department of Biological Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, USA and Department of Entomology, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, Connecticut, USA have discovered that A. Phagocytophilum interferes with a tick gene. This gene normally produces a chemical which inhibits the production of OATP on which organisms such as A. Phagocytophilum depend. This results in more OATP and so more A. Phagocytophilum to infect a host with.

The team published their findings, open access in PLOS Genetics:

Evolution News - Beginnings of Snake Venom

Ringed caecilian, Siphonops annulatus

Dias, I - Dias I, Medeiros T, Vila Nova M, Solé M (2014) Amphibians of Serra Bonita, southern Bahia: a new hotpoint within Brazil’s Atlantic Forest hotspot. ZooKeys 449: 105-130.
doi: 10.3897/zookeys.449.7494, CC BY 4.0, Link

First evidence of snake-like venom glands found in amphibians -- ScienceDaily

Scientists believe they have found evidence that some amphibian ancestors of snakes could have evolved venom. What look suspiciously like venom glands have been found in the ringed caecilian, Siphonops annulatus. Caecilians are a group of legless amphibians that looks superficially like snakes and live mostly underground.

The discovery was made by Pedro Luiz Mailho-Fontana, of the Structural Biology Lab, Butantan Institute, São Paulo, Brazil while examining the mucous glands of the ringed caecilian. The Cell Press press release, quoted in Science Daily, explains:

Deeply Religious, Exemplary Christian, Hungarian Paedophile

Gábor Kaleta, former Hungarian ambassador to Peru and member of a paedophile ring.
"A deeply religious man who has led an exemplary life"

Photo: Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI

Hungarian Ambassador Charged with Child Pornography Pleads Guilty in Court - Hungary Today

If you're 'a deeply religious man who regularly exercises his faith', possession of 19,000 images of child pornography on your laptop will only get you a small fine of €1,535 and a 1 year prison sentence, suspended for 2 years and 6 months, in Catholic Hungary.

So Hungary's former ambassador to Peru, Gábor Kaleta, found when he pleaded guilty to the charge of possessing child pornography last Wednesday.

According to his lawyer, Kaleta had:

Covidiots - Republicans Abandon Common Sense.

"Wear a face mask to show you're smarter, more rational and morally superior to a Trumpanzee" Alex Castellanos

GOP Strategist Dismisses COVID Masks as a “Secular Religious Symbol” | Val Wilde | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

According to Covidiot Trumpanzee Alex Castellanos, one of the Republican Party's key strategists, wearing a face mask shows you're better than him. But then so would tying your own shoelaces if his pronouncements concerning facemasks is anything to go by.

Despite the unambiguous evidence that wearing a facemask in public places is the best way to reduce the person-to-person transmission of Covid-19, he has declared it to be both a political and a secular symbol. In other words, if you're a Christian and/or a Republican, you're a traitor if you take steps to avoid spreading any Covid-19 viruses you may be incubating unknowingly.

Malevolent Design News - The Covid-19 Designer Fights Back

Newer variant of COVID-19–causing virus dominates global infections | Los Alamos National Laboratory

If you're a believer in intelligent [sic] design, you'll no doubt be full of admiration for the way your designer created the deadly Covid-19 virus out of a harmless (to humans) virus which normally infects bats.

So you'll probably be delighted to know that he then added a small refinement that made Covid-19 more infective, so it eventually replaced the less infective form.

More Loopy Trumpanzees for Racism

Sheila Zilinsky. Went full Trumpanzee.

Christian Host Posts Video Showing “Demons” Around Fallen Confederate Statue | Hemant Mehta | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

The Black Lives Matter campaign is exposing the sort of deranged fruitloops white Christian racist conspiracy theorists who support Donald Trump and who are against extending equal rights to black people.

One such is Conservative Christian radio host Sheila Zilinsky. Zalinsky is on record as claiming the NFL was brainwashing people with "alpha, gamma, theta waves, the delta waves lulling people into trances."

Catholic Priest Calls BLM Activists, "Maggots and Parasites"

Rev. Theodore Rothrock, "They are maggots and parasites"

Catholic priest suspended for comparing BLM activists to 'maggots’

Were you under the impression that Christianity is about caring and compassion and regarding everyone as equally deserving of life and respect as children of God, and that Christians are people who would burn with indignation at the idea of a fellow human being treated as an inferior, lesser being?

Well, it seems it's not just the fundamentalist white evangelicals who disagree with you when it comes to black people, but an ordained Catholic Priest, the Rev. Theodore Rothrock, of St. Elizabeth Seton Catholic Church in Carmel, disagrees with you too.

He has now been suspended by his bishop, Bishop Timothy Doherty, of the Diocese of Lafayette-in-Indiana, for writing in his weekly bulletin:

Christian Racist Gun-Nuts for Jesus

Church Faces Backlash for Giving Out Free AR-15 During Sunday Service

Preacher of hate, John Koletas of Grace Baptist Church, Troy, Albany, NY has hit on a new idea for spreading the teachings of Jesus. He gives away guns to people who come to listen to his sermons in which he explains why killing things is good, why Greeks [sic], blacks and Jews are cursed, and why gun controls are "Socialist" and anti-Christian.

But then, when you live in a society where at least three minority groups are 'cursed' you can't take any chances. What you need is the means to kill thine enemies, and the smug certainty that you're doing God's work when you pull the trigger.

Episcopalians For Bigotry and Race-Hate

Scott and Debra Volland

Mississippi Church Ousts Pastor For Taking a Stand Against Racism | Val Wilde | Friendly Atheist | Patheos

The Black Lives Matter campaign, following the casual public murder of George Floyd by a white police officer, while his colleagues stood and watch the crime being committed, has polarized America like few other issues could have done, and has force people to show their true colours and take sides. This is, after all, what polarization does.

Evolution News - How The Mammalian Jaw Evolved

When mammalian middle ear bones develop, they begin as part of the arch of cartilage that makes up the embryonic jaw. In reptiles, these structures remain connected to the jaw as developmental processes gradually convert the cartilage to bone.

Carl R. Woese Intitute for Genomic Biology | News

Hints at jaw evolution found in marsupials and monotremes | For the press | eLife

It's not a good day for creationists.

Back in 2017, researchers from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, King’s College London, and the University of Chicago showed how the mammalian ear evolved from the reptilian jaw, so, incidentally, showing how the mammalian jaw evolved.

Now researchers at King’s College London, UK, have found more evidence for this in the developing young of marsupials and monotremes.

Infant marsupials and monotremes use a connection between their ear and jaw bones shortly after birth to enable them to drink their mothers’ milk, new findings in eLife reveal.

This discovery by researchers at King’s College London, UK, provides new insights about early development in mammals, and may help scientists better understand how the bones of the middle ear and jaw evolved in mammals and their predecessors.

Common Ancestry - Monkeys and Humans Think Alike

Macaque monkeys. Think like humans.

Native Amazonians, Americans and monkeys show similar thinking patterns | Berkeley News

Humans and monkeys have similar thinking patterns, according to research from UC Berkeley, Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Recursive thinking - a cognitive process of arranging words, phrases or symbols in a way that helps convey complex commands, sentiments and ideas - was thought to be unique to humans - has now been shown to exist in macaque monkeys. This thinking enables us to arrange ideas into nested hierarchies, rather like a linguistic expression of a venn diagram or the nested hierarchies found in cladistics, for example. This ability is crucial to syntax and semantics in human language.

Talibangelical News - SCOTUS Strikes Down Louisiana Restriction on Abortion

Chief Justice John Roberts. Voted with the liberals.

US top court strikes down law limiting abortions - BBC News

Conservative Christian hopes of using the Trump-given conservative majority on SCOTUS to force their religious bigotry into law took another blow today when, by a majority of 5-4, with conservative Chief Justice John Roberts voting with the liberals, SCOTUS struck down a restriction on abortion services in Louisiana.

Only a few days ago, SCUTUS enraged fundamentalist Christians by confirming that all Americans, of whatever sexuality, are entitled to the full protection of the law, so cannot be sacked on the grounds of their sexuality.