{"id":79887,"date":"2019-11-05T19:50:25","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T02:50:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=79887"},"modified":"2019-11-13T21:39:23","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T04:39:23","slug":"little-birdies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/little-birdies.html","title":{"rendered":"Little Birdies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Bela<\/a>
We can rely upon scientists like this one. \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Should you watch your intake of caffeinated drinks? \u00a0Perhaps so.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCaffeine Update: Prenatal Risks\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019m neither a climatologist nor a meteorologist, but I share these items for your consideration:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c11,000 scientists warn of \u2018untold suffering\u2019 caused by climate change\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

(I confess that I could have done without the seemingly obligatory mention of Greta Thunberg.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a Climate Scientist Who Believes in God. Hear Me Out. \u00a0Global warming will strike hardest against the very people we\u2019re told to love: the poor and vulnerable.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not all bad news. \u00a0There are some promising developments:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMIT Engineers Unveil \u2018Revolutionary\u2019 Carbon Capture Tech to Absorb CO2 Using \u2018Significantly\u2019 Less Energy and Money:\u00a0MIT engineers have developed a new way to remove carbon dioxide from air.\u00a0The process could work on the gas at virtually any concentration\u2014from power plant emissions to open air.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIn New \u201cMind-Blowing\u201d Study, Planting Trees Reduces Carbon Better Than Carbon Taxes\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Arbor Day Foundation<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u2019s also this:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cReport: Lots Of Yelling At Each Other Expected To Fix Things Any Day Now\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"T-Rex<\/a>
Just when you thought it was safe! \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

A piece in the 13 December 2014 issue of the Economist\u00a0<\/em>reported on an article that had just been published in Science<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It seems that a major research project had recently sequenced the genomes of 48 different species of modern birds, showing that the Neoaves, the biological \u201cclade\u201d\u00a0that contains 95% of modern bird species (though not chickens and ducks), \u201carose in a spectacular burst of evolution and diversification just a few million years after the asteroid strike\u201d roughly 65 million years ago that killed the dinosaurs off. \u00a0But it didn\u2019t kill them all<\/em> off: \u00a0The study also appears to demonstrate what scientists had long theorized \u2014 namely, that most of our birds descended from the theropods, a category of two-legged dinosaurs that, among others, included Tyrannosaurus rex<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Next time you find yourself watching the sparrows on your lawn or the hummingbirds vying for domination of your bird feeder, think about that. \u00a0And shiver. \u00a0Maybe Alfred Hitchcock\u2019s The Birds<\/em> wasn\u2019t so far off, after all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, while we\u2019re thinking about birds, here\u2019s another item on the subject:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese birds form surprisingly complex societies: And that\u2019s despite not having particularly large brains.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not only birds:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVampire bat friendships endure from captivity to the wild:\u00a0The animals form social bonds that persist from a lab setting to the outdoors\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Should you watch your intake of caffeinated drinks? \u00a0Perhaps so. \u00a0 \u201cCaffeine Update: Prenatal Risks\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 I\u2019m neither a climatologist nor a meteorologist, but I share these items for your consideration: \u00a0 \u201c11,000 scientists warn of \u2018untold suffering\u2019 caused by climate change\u201d \u00a0 (I confess that I could have done without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2460,1902,1890,521],"class_list":["post-79887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-birds","tag-climate-change","tag-dinosaurs","tag-global-warming"],"yoast_head":"\nLittle Birdies<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Should you watch your intake of caffeinated drinks? \u00a0Perhaps so.   "Caffeine Update: Prenatal Risks"   ***   I'm neither a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/11\/little-birdies.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Little Birdies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Should you watch your intake of caffeinated drinks? 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