10 things you didn't know about birds, reveals one thing you might have guessed.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/080626-bird-tree.html

This article reports that "..much of bird classification and conventional wisdom on the evolutionary relationships of birds is wrong."

This study:
(A) presumes T.C.A. (The Theory of Common Ancestry-- Usually thrown around under the name 'evolution') is true- with its foundations firmly on observations interpreted through a Darwinian lens, and
(B) concludes that the previous observations are wrong.

Is that not begging the question?

In other words,
(1) birds were categorized and grouped based on certain physical features and assumptions about TCA;

(2) The groupings of (1) are PREDICTIONS about how the birds evolved.

(3)This study finds that based on genetic analysis, many of the groupings of (1), and thus the predictions of (2) are wrong.

(4) thus, reasons for assuming that TCA is true were wrong.

Other fun quotes from the article:

"8. Owls, parrots and doves have few, if any, living intermediate forms linking them to other well-defined groups of birds, making it difficult to determine their evolutionary relationships." (emphasis added)

"10. Birds have had a complex evolutionary history after an early and rapid explosion of species that occurred sometime between 65 million and 100 million years ago." (emphasis added)

I could make some predictions of my own based on this article.

Finally!

Didn't you always wonder why the moon looks bigger on the horizon than in the sky above? Finally an explanation that makes sense (if not a little disappointingly boring). It turns out that its an optical illusion. We think of the sky as sort of a shallow bowl shape because we see clouds above us that are not so far away, but we see things on the horizon that can be very far away. our minds then interpret the "far-away" moon on the horizon as having to be HUGE, while the "high-noon" moon is regular size. In actuality they are the same size.

More about Intelligent Warming

This is an excellent, if not long, article about the Intelligent Warming Hoax.

Mike Huckabee: Life Saver

Here is a pro-life candidate putting his money where his mouth is. While Huckabee was visiting NC to campaign for the NC republican candidates, he saved Robert Pittenger life by administering the Heimlich Maneuver. Now that's watching out for a fetus in his 200th trimester. Way to go Mike!

Obama and Hamas

Not good news for Obama supporters. According to FactCheck.org McCain's recent comments about Hammas speaking favorably about Barry Obama are true. I hope he didn't plan on getting votes from the Jewish community. (Or the community of people who believe that there is such a thing as evil, that Hammas is evil, and that giving the dignity of a voice to a group like Hammas by meeting with them is not good, and not what we want from our leaders.)

On the other hand, I'm sure this will look great to people who are concerned with the 'image of America in the eyes of the international community', but not particularly concerned with whether the USA does the morally correct thing. How progressive of America to meet with terrorist organizations!

[UPDATE: As far as I know, Obama has never said that he would unconditionally meet with Hammas, and according to the article, he has criticized Jimmy Carter's doing so. ]