That people back then believed the earth was flat is myth that just refuses to die. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Earth_mythology

The dinos with feathers is not something new in the scientific circles, like this comment on the Phyrangula blog says on this issue:

"Okay, so osteological traces exist for primary feather insertion. Great.

Can we get over the "oh man, another feathered dinosaur" thing? We've been finding feathered dinosaurs for what, a decade now? We already knew from basic phylogenetic inference that feathers were most likely present in all dromeosaurids. Hell, we know they're basal for all coelurosaurs.

I'm not trying to rain on the "OMGs we have the smoking gun for bird origins" people, but come on, we've heard it all before. Over and over and OVER."
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/09/steven_spielberg_call_the_spec.php