My guess is that somebody brought quicksand into the Bermuda Triangle and they canceled each other out. And that's why I don't hear much about those dangers anymore. Anyway, happy new year.

Happy UTC New Year!! 🎉 🥂

Not sure this is the right vibe, but yeah #rstats 🚀

A silly little thing I did to wish everyone a little joy in this dark time. #rstats #gischat

Great and easy to understand post on using LLMs, i.e. in #positron #rstats

I need you to know that your contribution, your voice, your perspective, your way of explaining something, YOUR whatever, is valuable. Just because "it's been done before" doesn't mean you shouldn't do it. Nothing is new, everything's been done! But not by you. Yet. #databs #rststs #python

Please stop spamming #rstats with your bots Use a descriptive tag so we can can choose to follow, and not have to trawl through so much churn I can't see any option other than blocking the accounts, I'm interested in CRAN updates (and others) but gee, it should be about humans and actual ideas

Anyone an idea where I can find the source code of ardata.fr/ggiraph-book/ ? The github link on the website is dead. #ggplot2 #rstats #ggiraph. Thanks!

I agree with a lot of this, especially that the AI bros calling it "PhD level intelligence" shows a fundamental lack of understanding about what intelligence is. On that topic, see the original post. But slightly on a tangent: while we're having this conversation, we need to avoid the false 1/

Eugene.

"PhD-level experts in your back pocket" is a completely nonsensical description of AI but a pretty good description of social media if you follow the right people

Americans are relearning the lesson we learned during the Gilded Age of the late 1890s, when robber barons ran the government and the economy for their own benefit: Oligarchy is incompatible with the common good. I'm hopeful we'll respond with a new progressive movement.

Serious shout out to these reps because organizing at least 51 out of 62 people to do something that risks fines and threats of arrest is not nothing, especially now. Red state reps go so hard. 💖

If you couldn't reach me in the last couple weeks, it's because I've been with @v0max.bsky.social in California in federal court... www.courthousenews.com/meta-violate...

I love when I can see the work in a piece of art. Practical effects in film, brush strokes on canvas, strange sounds in music, "impossible" visuals in games. It puts me in conversation with the artist. That's why - ethics aside - art created with AI is just so disappointing. There's no work to see.

I'm sad and angry that the CPB is the latest casualty in the burn -everything-decent show that is the Trump administration. But I will outlive Trump (and, God willing, Trumpism). And it will take decades, but we will survive, and we will rebuild.

Every #Rstats user should read this post from @jennybryan.bsky.social‬. Especially beginner to intermediate-level ones. www.tidyverse.org/blog/2017/12...

Love this feature!

Just this morning, data exploration saved me in working with a spreadsheet that was supposed to contain 4 semesters of data but only contained 3. (The fourth semester tab was a copy of the third semester tab.) It was a normal and innocuous mistake, but it would've caused problems down the line!

Friends don't let friends collect data without adding data validation. From Rebekah Jacob 😉

My #tidytuesday this week: How often are four common materials used in MTA art? (Constructive feedback is appreciated. I did this in about 1/2 an hour and I'm in the middle of a move and a job search, so please also be patient with any mistakes) Happy to share my code if anyone is curious 😀

Facepalm

Hugely agree with Richard here. IMO, the root of most problems in "reproducibility" is that "we" too often treat study design, statistics, and data skills as specialists concerns, rather than as the core of so many areas of science. statsepi.substack.com/p/a-brief-hi... (my take/Richard's take)

People PAID MONEY to download ringtones.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about what folks should know about using LLMs to generate #rstats: I've summarised the feedback with a few of my thoughts at gist.github.com/hadley/77d42...

paradox, you say

@nikitagill.bsky.social Fighting the good fight Hold space for your sisters #Resist

It’s always “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, drop out of the public sphere and become a tradwife” and never “Ladies, if you are alienated by overwork, form a union.”

ITS OFFICIAL. MURDERBOT SEASON TWO. #Murderbot reactormag.com/murderbot-ha...

News articles? "Cool, I didn't need to know that bad." Academic articles? "Cool, someone probably summarized or responded to this, or uploaded a PDF somewhere, or maybe it's not that important."

next time you're in a national park, take some photos of the signage and upload it to help these archivists www.404media.co/save-our-sig...

Why do we "call" functions? Here's an interesting blog post with some answers: quuxplusone.github.io/blog/2025/04... (via news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4450...). I'm curious #rstats folks, what phrase do you use? I lean towards 'call' a function, but 'invoke' gets peppered in from time-to-time.

They want it to look like they’ve read a gazillion books or made a gazillion paintings. They want it to look like they have a gazillion followers. They want it to look like they have a a gazillion clicks—even when nobody’s there. We’re in a gilded age, but the gilt this time is people and attention.

"Plastic software" is the perfect term for what's happening right now. Cheap to produce, convenient to use, terrible for the ecosystem. We're creating massive technical debt landfills that future devs will have to clean up.

John Naughton (writing in The Observer) asked Claude the question: "Large language model (LLM) machines like you are described as forms of artificial intelligence. What is the implicit definition of intelligence in this description?" The intelligent answer...

You can usually see this by looking at the order of things. Whenever these "AI related" Layoffs happen, its always 1. Firing a lot of People -> 2. "Embracing AI"/"EXPECTING a big productivity boost" It's never 1. "We have embraced AI" -> 2. And now see that 20% of our workforce is no longer needed

"For example, the researchers found that enthusiasm for an AI-enabled refrigerator was weaker than for all the other products in the low-risk category. It could be that people just don’t see the point of AI in a fridge, Gursoy says." My sentiment exactly.

‘Chaotic and deeply frightening’: Once a global gold standard, U.S. government health guidance is falling apart Government-provided health information now comes with disclaimers that the government can’t be trusted. @corinnepurtill.bsky.social www.latimes.com/science/stor...

"It seems to me that as long as people cannot communicate their needs clearly, developers will keep their jobs." Love this.

"Hello #pydytuesday" I downloaded #Positron, followed the PydyTuesday tutorials (link below) and made my first ever graph in Python! As a longtime #RStats user, it was fun. I love that I'm good enough that I can understand the tutorials. Past me would be proud. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRfY...)

The administration is proposing a new rule that threatens to undermine the integrity of the federal statistical agencies by opening them up to political control. Please take a few minutes to learn more and to take action. bsky.app/profile/aaro...

Maybe I am just of the apparently “unpopular” opinion that politicians should have actual policies to offer that will improve society in a meaningful and peaceful way and not just gin up hate against minorities before they are allowed to campaign for office.

Jamie Raskin with the "We shall fight on the beaches..." energy that smart Dems are taking into the second 100 days. Whole (short!) statement is here, and worth reading: democrats-judiciary.house.gov/news/documen...

A little joyful one today, I think given the news from Canada.

AI helpfully changed "error" to "blunder" and "linear regression" to "straight relapse" in this lovely example of AI assisted publishing that you can share with your students and colleagues #LLM #ChatGPT #LOL #research #rstats 🤣🤣🤣

Economic uncertainty update: The thing about veering wildly between policy positions, favouring and then discarding a new maverick advisor each week, and using contradictory justifications at every turn, is that even if one particular pivot is in the direction of sanity, chaos is the constant.

I had to adjust the y-axis after remaking this chart only one day later 🫠