Martin Lewitt - Google+

Martin Lewitt

539 followers - Complex Systems Analyst, using evidence based reasoning to debunk pseudoscience and racism.

Complex Systems Analyst, using evidence based reasoning to debunk pseudoscience and racism.

539 followers

Martin's posts

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

A year of ancient genomes keeps adding to the support for the "braided stream" analogy for understanding human evolution.

#anthropology #evolution

What is the 'braided stream' analogy for human evolution?

johnhawks.net

Post has shared content

Martin Lewitt

Public

Does google really intend to throw away profile information?

Originally shared by Kee Hinckley - 5 comments

Um. I had an entire essay of links and information in my About page. WTH did it go?

Guess I'd better go back to the old UI and grab it in case it disappears for good.

#ns

Martin Lewitt: I've been insulted by a wisecracking avatar again. This is too much. :)

Owlfred NightLong: insult? +Martin Lewitt the lack of any traffic on any of your posts is simply fact. :-)
If you need to reduce my humanity in order to make yourself feel better, than by all means, I understand why you would feel the need to do so. :-D

Martin Lewitt: Not only did the G+ upgrade throw away my profile essay, it discarded my banner pic.

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

The hunger striker at the U of Missouri is a marxist critical race theory radical from a rich family worth $20 million. He claims to have personally experienced some racial slurs on campus. That sounds pretty unlikely in this day and age, and since his philosophy is one of intellectual dishonesty he is likely lying. One evidence of this is his protest before his hunger strike at the residence of the college official he wanted to force to resign, where they were blocking his car. He was still using the "hands up" don't shoot mantra that had been shown to be false at the Ferguson shootings. Instead of being embarrassed by continuing to use that, he pushes forward with a sense of entitlement. The critical race theory activists don't have to be intellectually honest and long as they think their lying is justified by their higher purpose.

The absurd “one percenter” backlash against Mizzou’s hunger striker: Family money doesn’t disqualify him from protest

+Salon

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

Exciting times for the science of modern human origins: modern humans in China 80,000 years ago. Dienekes provides some perspective in the preamble, the picture is becoming more muddied it seems with each new discovery, when, of course, we hope for clarity.
#neaderthal #anthropology

Modern humans in China ~80,000 years ago (?)

dienekes.blogspot.com

Andre Hobbs: +Martin Lewitt o I thought modern humans existed for 200 to 187 to us and years. And with thier hip structure I doubt neanderthals would have been a threat but both are a little speculative since I haven't checked those facts in a couple of years.

Martin Lewitt: +Andre Hobbs Modern humans are still thought to have originated in south or east Africa a couple hundred thousand years ago and to have diverged from Neanderthals about 500,000 to 750,000 years ago. The 80,000 year date for China pushes back the time in which they emerged from Africa and may have encountered Neanderthals. Neanderthals, homo erectus and another group called Denisovans are all now considered human. We are still trying to understand what advantages or fortuitous circumstances allowed our lineage to be the most successful.

Andre Hobbs: +Martin Lewitt that sounds legit

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

Yes, acne is exacerbated by chocolate:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4025515/

and we have a mechanism, modulation of cytokines:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043466613000549

Which I don't find reassuring. There are may be times and tissues where these cytokines might increasing the inflammatory response elsewhere than just the skin.

Here is a good up-to-date review article:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjd.13634/full

I was checking out the latest acne research, because of its possible relevance to rosacea.

#rosacea

Double-blind, Placebo-controlled Study Assessing the Effect of Chocolate Consumption in Subjects with a History of Acne Vulgaris

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

Here is insight on the latest Denisova results provided by John Hawks. #anthropology #neanderthal

Another Denisovan from Denisova Cave

johnhawks.net

Post has shared content

Martin Lewitt

Public

Those who don't want Donald Trump for president probably should listen to this speech. This is what he gives on the stump in his grass roots campaign so important in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. His bombastic demagoguery and populism must be striking a cord, however ridiculous, disjointed and dangerously ignorant and extreme it seems to intellectuals on both the right and the left. He flatters, charms, seduces and frequently thanks the crowd.

FULL Speech HD: Donald Trump BEST Speech EVER in Fort Dodge, IA (11-12-15)

thenewsinforming.blogspot.com

Originally shared by Rick Dany

FULL Speech HD: Donald Trump BEST Speech EVER in Fort Dodge, IA (11-12-15)

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

The Paris accord would require a big sacrifice and an increasing share of income spent on energy for barely detectable gain by 2100.
#climatechange

Lomborg: Paris climate pact will reduce temperature increase by the end of the century by a whopping 0.05°C

wattsupwiththat.com

Martin Lewitt: +J Bennett If you are going to apologize apologize for the generally unscientific uninformed belief in global warming on the left. The political masses and leadership in both parties do not have informed opinions. The GOP and tea partiers just happen to be closer to right because of their skepticism. The fact is that those that are part of the consensus like myself and Watts that are skeptical of the need for current action are on firmer ground, given the uncertainty in climate sensitivity. We've been presciently right about what we are ignorant of for decades, noting that the rapid warming of the 80s and 90s were associated with the positive phase of the PDO and the mid-century cooling with the negative phase and now that that we are in the negative phase again, we have had an extended pause. We don't know what the sensitivity is to CO2 forcing is, some published work as it as low as 0.7C, recent work based on IPCC data and model runs put the central distribution around 1.6C. Are you a denier that the IPCC AR5 puts the sensitivity range at 1.5C to 4.5C and refuses to give a best estimate?

J Bennett (The Speculating Ape): +Martin Lewitt I've got nothing to apologize to science deniers for. You people represent, through your attacks on science and science education in this country, through the delays you've caused in dealing with global warming, and through the intellectual and moral degradation your movement promotes, the greatest danger that America faces.

This country can't be destroyed from outside, but it can be weakened from within, and that's exactly what the GOP/TP anti-science agenda would do.

btw, you just marked yourself as a willful liar (again) by claiming that you and Watts represent the consensus. You've made anything and everything else you might say meaningless, because truth has no value to you.

Apologize? I'm a second-generation Marine, mother fucker. I don't apologize to any lying, propaganda-spouting enemy. And if you support science denialism in America, you're the enemy.

Anything else I can clear up for you?

Martin Lewitt: +J Bennett That is no way to defend science and you have just demonstrated that you don't know what the consensus is, and worse yet, an unwillingness to learn. But you are necessarily the only one here who can benefit.

The most cited 97% number is from the 2009 Doran and Zimmerman paper. paper which reported only those who had published in climate science recently:

"In our survey, the most specialized and knowledgeable respondents (with regard to climate change) are those who listed climate science as their area of expertise and who also have published more than 50% of their recent peer-reviewed papers on the subject of climate change (79 individuals in total). Of these specialists, 96.2% (76 of 79) answered “risen” to question 1 and 97.4% (75 of 77) answered yes to question 2."

But as you can see, they used the wrong denominator for the 97.4%, they should have used the original 79 instead of 77, and so the result should have been 94.9% (my 94.1% was a typo, apologies). Here are the poll questions:

Q1. When compared with pre-1800's levels, do you think that mean global temperatures have generally risen, fallen, or remained relatively constant?
1. Risen
2. Fallen
3. Remained relatively constant
4. No opinion/Don't know

Q2. Do you think human activity is a significant contributing factor in changing mean global temperatures? [This question wasn't asked if they answered "remained relatively constant" to Q1]
1. Yes
2. No
3. I'm not sure

Both Watts, I and probably most of the participants at WattsUpWithThat.com answered "Risen" and "Yes".

What is your evidence that we are not part of the consensus?
http://tigger.uic.edu/~pdoran/012009_Doran_final.pdf

Post has attachment

Martin Lewitt

Public

The USGS take on claims of a 1000 year flood.

USGS puts the kibosh on '1000 year flood' and 'caused by climate change' claims over South Carolina flooding

wattsupwiththat.com

Post has shared content

Martin Lewitt

Public

10w

Another promising Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)!!

Gene-editing record smashed in pigs

+Nature Publishing Group

Originally shared by Nature Publishing Group

By modifying more than 60 genes from pig embryos - ten times more than have been edited in any other animal - researchers from Harvard Medical School believe they may have produced a suitable non-human organ donor.

Wait while more posts are being loaded