Natures wonders: seabirds food finding flight patterns (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, April 14, 2020, 15:58 (1474 days ago) @ David Turell

Thank you for a variety of posts and comments:

DAVID: A new discovery about seabirds using flight patterns to locate food at sea:

QUOTE: "Food is scattered thinly in the open ocean, and seabirds often need to search far and wide to find sustenance. Now, researchers think they’ve found a new cooperative strategy among the birds, one that may help them survive on the high seas."

DAVID: There is no clear finding of these lines collapsing on schools of fish, so presently all we have are human guesses on how all this might work. This is not how birds of a feather flock together normally.

It always amazes me that people should be surprised when organisms find new ways to help them survive. It takes just one tiny intellectual adjustment to understand it perfectly: humans are not the only intelligent species on this planet.

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DAVID: Monkeys in South America are directly related to monkeys in Africa. How is that possible? The theory is vegetable rafting 32,000,000 years ago!

Amazing to think of monkeys using rafts to go and explore new territories. Nice to think that our ancestors already had some sense of adventure. Or do you think they climbed aboard because God told them to?

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DAVID: Clever Plasmodium falciparum that learns these tricks to cause black water fever, the common name. My view is it came in the beginning with these attributes present. Otherwise the human immune system might have destroyed it. dhw will ask about God's role. Well, He obviously allowed it to evolve, assuming our braininess could handle it.

Having had blackwater fever myself, I can vouch for its unpleasantness, but since it resulted in my meeting my future wife, I’m not complaining! As for God’s role, what do you mean “allowed it to evolve”. I thought he specially designed everything. You’re not telling us all of a sudden that he gave organisms the freedom to evolve themselves, are you? Well, that’s a U-turn if ever there was one. Previously, I seem to remember you “humanizing” your God by telling us that he designed these things to test us – but I can’t be sure of that. In any case, you certainly wouldn’t say that now, would you?