[Ichneumon]

The ERVs being talked about in your cited article aren't of the same type. Ichneumon probably knows a lot more about this, so I'm pinging him in in case he wants to add any more detail.

Exactly right -- creationist "so_real" tried the same stunt with the same study. This one must be floating around on some creationist site somewhere (I *know* they didn't find it by perusing science journals), since I'm seeing more creationists attempt to (mis)use it as "rebuttal" to the ERV evidence of common descent, even though it doesn't actually apply. (Gosh, creationists flinging studies they don't actually understand, we've *never* seen that before!)

Ah, there it is, a Google found it being flung around on ARN, a "design" forum...

For my prior explanation of why it causes no problems for ERV phylogeny reconstruction, see this old post.

[mlc9852]

So you want people to learn something before you will give them any credit at all, yet when they try, you insult them. That hardly promotes the interests of science. That's why so many people get turned off to science - attitudes of those who use their knowledge to embarrass and insult people rather than trying to actually become interested in learning on their own. Attitude means a lot.