This time of year in central EU, I am reminded that the root meaning of "sky" is cloud. The color of the sky is gray, the heavens unseen are blue, and space is a radioactive void. In March, the Sun may appear once more. Until then, we eat potatoes and dream.

I built a web tool so anyone can design and evaluate ridership and costs of high speed rail networks anywhere in the world: railmapper.net

Accurate. #academia #academy #philsky #philosophysky #philosophy #science

Whoever invents a silencer for leaf blowers will become a millionaire overnight.

AI company alignment chart.

If you ask someone today to name the builder of Hadrian's Wall, they would give you a funny look. But historical memory is odd, and right up to the 1800s we forgot who built it. Until in 1840 John Hodgson, an obscure Northumbrian clergyman, published the LONGEST footnote in history... 1/22

Actually... from my reading of the artists' basic income report, the government did not earn money back from the scheme (although its costs were offset 37%) Most gains were societal and came from putting the artists' improvements in wellbeing in € terms assets.gov.ie/static/docum...

Just discovered the {gm} package, which lets you programmatically create sheet music (and audio!) with #rstats (with MuseScore as the backend) flujoo.github.io/gm/index.html

BTW this "Frequency Reduces Difficulty" post from @martinfowler.com is the origin of the mantra "if it hurts, do it more often" (at least, it's where I learned it). It's amazing how broadly this applies. martinfowler.com/bliki/Freque...

Andrew Ng: "AI is the new electricity!" Cory Doctorow: "AI is the asbestos we are shoveling into the walls of our society and our descendants will be digging it out for generations." ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (pluralistic.net/2025/09/27/e...)

Can I interest you in some lakes?

{tinytable} 0.14.0 for #RStats makes it super easy to draw tables in html, tex, docx, typ, md & png. There are only a few functions to learn, but don't be fooled! Small 📦s can still be powerful. Check out the new gallery page for fun case studies. vincentarelbundock.github.io/tinytable/vi...

“Is 90% of code going to be written by AI? I don’t know. What I do know is, that for me, on this project, the answer is already yes.” lucumr.pocoo.org/2025/9/29/90...

This only happens to you once

I got introduced to @randyau.com's 'Data Cleaning IS Analysis, Not Grunt Work' post during the #dataBS Conf this week: www.counting-stuff.com/data-cleanin... . I just finished--it was a great read. Here are some quotes and thoughts I'm walking away with 👇 1/9 #RStats

Some of you monsters will like this: Brutalita Sans - a custom font editor. I recommend a font in which every vowel has a random diacritical mark. As a treat. brutalita.com

Watched the 'Election Night Reporting Using R & Quarto' #positconf2025 talk on how @gosterhout.bsky.social & @andrew.heiss.phd created an auto-updating website with custom tables, interactive maps, and a dynamic 'Close Races' page #RStats #ddj GitHub: github.com/andrewheiss/... 1/2

More outstanding maps in this Mercator / 'Correct The Map' explainer by Reuters 😍 www.reuters.com/graphics/AFR...

I am super hyped to finally share the first release of plumber2 with all of you. This has been the center of my attention for a big part of 2025 and I hope you'll find it a worthy update to the venerable plumber package. The blog post will tell you more #rstats

`tinyplot` 0.5.0 is now available from CRAN & R-universe. Alongside bug fixes & internal improvements, this release includes some cool new features like bubble chart + dual legend support, element dodging, & ephemeral themes. Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW... #rstats #dataviz

I am still trying to collect bioinformatics blogs rss feeds for the aggregator at bioinf-bloggers.com suggestions repo at: github.com/novica/bioin... - new blogs can be added via a PR on feeds.txt

If you were thinking about #ducklake in #rstats here is a blogpost that can help you get started.

UN treaty to protect marine diversity in the #HighSeas was struck this week after Morocco and Sierra Leone ratified the agreement, clinching the threshold of at least 60 ratifications needed to enact it as international law www.france24.com/en/live-news...

CRAN (un-officially) endorses the {bracket} notation of referencing packages! #RStats

Did you know your MacBook has a sensor that knows the exact angle of the screen hinge? It’s not exposed as a public API, but I figured out a way to read it and make it sound like an old wooden door.

@b0rk.jvns.ca hi. somehow, I found your brag document template. thanks! a very useful way of thinking about work. For no particularly good reason, I am playing with Notion and trying to set it up there. Can I ask for your permission to publish it as a free template, with attribution of course?

Monarch butterflies lay their eggs almost exclusively on milkweed. It's easy to find and propagate. Such a fun science project and magical experience for kids (and adults!).

Out of work-related curiosity, I started following r/bioinformatics, and in particular blogs found at www.reddit.com/r/bioinforma... But then I though, there should be an aggregator for those. So I built one: a static page hosted on gh-pages that aggregates blog in the bioinformatics space. 1/2

An Arch linux package for the Air R formatter #rstats discindo.org/posts/2025-0...

Gives a whole new meaning to “personal software.” Scrappy, by @jrcpl.us and Pontus Granström, is a research prototype that helps you make software for just you and your friends. Hat tip: @scripting.com. pontus.granstrom.me/scrappy/ #software #scrappy #LittleApps

hey #rstats world: a shiny app that can help kids in need of visual routines. feedback is greatly appreciated. visualroutine.org

OK. Let's have some fun. #30DayMapChallenge Day 1: Points

Making things "pretty" has never been where I find the most joy in data work. So, I'm super excited about @posit.co 's {brand.yml} framework for adding unified styling across Quarto, Shiny, and more at minimal effort 🤩 posit-dev.github.io/brand-yml/ Site also featuring best at-a-glance roadmap