Andy writes:

A few times a year liberal publications will promote a "new missing link." You can count on the NY Times running this type of story in its bogus "Science" section several times a year. Roger just circulated such a story from the Murky News (San Jose Mercury News).

Each of these stories has the following characteristics:

1. It gives the impression that the artifact is "human" when it really isn't. (Liberals have redefined "human").

2. It quotes "scientists" who likely supported Kerry and would believe in evolution regardless of the evidence, creating enormous bias.

3. It claims to have old dates for the artifacts but never tells you what was actually dated (usually the dating is NOT based on the artifacts themselves).

4. Usually the artifact is a collection of separate pieces put together by evolution promoters, but the article will not convey that impression.

5. There is a lucrative market for these alleged artifacts, giving greater incentive to fake them, that is never disclosed in the articles.

6. Independent scrutiny of the artifacts by skeptics is usually not allowed. Access to the Piltdown Man was limited for years, for example.

These pseudoscientific articles are supermarket tabloid stuff. They give science a bad name.

The article said:

Scientists have discovered the remains of a tree-climbing creature that lived 13 million years ago in what is now northeastern Spain and may be the last common ancestor of modern-day great apes and humans, according to a report published today.

Scholars greeted the discovery as a spectacular find, bringing together 83 skull fragments, vertebrae, wrist bones, ribs and other bones from the same animal, a rarity in a field that often bases its analyses on a few skull fragments and teeth.

The fossil also is the oldest of a primate displaying traits shared by modern great apes, but not by monkeys: a broad, flat chest; shoulder blades fixed to the back rather than the sides; a spinal column suited to vertical climbing; a relatively flat face; and wrists that make it easy to grab and hold branches and tree trunks.

In all, the remains represent a landmark addition to a fossil record that seeks to trace primate evolution from a 55 million-year-old lemur-like creature to the monkeys and great apes -- chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and human ancestors -- and finally to the appearance of modern humans only 100,000 years ago.

Andy is misusing the term "artifact" -- all artifacts are made by humans.