Dirk Eddelbuettel
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eddelbuettel.com
Dirk Eddelbuettel
@eddelbuettel.com
3.8K followers 260 following 1.1K posts
Code, Data, Analysis, Teaching, Running, Breadmaking ... https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com

"God doesn't know, and the devil isn't telling." xkcd.com/2867/
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eddelbuettel.com
Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · Aug 3
Tom Fishburne cartoon from https://marketoonist.com/2023/03/ai-written-ai-read.html aptly describing how AI creates messages from three bullet points into expanded text ... which is fed at the other end into AI to extract three bullet points. Lossly, one assumes.
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
eddelbuettel.com
chronometre: A new package (pair) demo for R and Python
Efficient yet simple object exchange between R and Python
dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/02...
#rstats #rcpp #python #datascience
Screenshot one of three describe a new pair of R and Python packages demonstrating easy object interchange between R and Python. Screenshot two of three describe a new pair of R and Python packages demonstrating easy object interchange between R and Python. Screenshot three of three describe a new pair of R and Python packages demonstrating easy object interchange between R and Python.
February 8, 2026 at 6:16 PM
eddelbuettel.com
chronometre: A new package (pair) demo for R and Python
Efficient yet simple object exchange between R and Python
dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/02...
#rstats #rcpp #python #datascience
Screenshot one of three describe a new pair of R and Python packages demonstrating easy object interchange between R and Python. Screenshot two of three describe a new pair of R and Python packages demonstrating easy object interchange between R and Python. Screenshot three of three describe a new pair of R and Python packages demonstrating easy object interchange between R and Python.
February 8, 2026 at 6:16 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
esghound.com
this dude rules
February 8, 2026 at 12:56 PM
eddelbuettel.com
Last evening's "outcore" of the 50th anniversary of Marvin Gaye's "I Want You" at the CSO by José James featuring Lizz Wright along with Marcus Machado (g), BIGYUKI (p), Ben Williams (b), and Jharis Yokley (dr) closed it out with "What's Going On". Timely.

photos.app.goo.gl/9B2FpJAL57Jj...
New video · Friday, Feb 6 🎬
Tap to view!
photos.app.goo.gl
February 7, 2026 at 6:49 PM
eddelbuettel.com
With a little bit of help from friends ... namely a good pinch of dry yeast as my sourdough is in the process of restarting. Last loaves were very 'meh'. This one looks promising. #breadsky
Photo of a fresh round loaf of sourdough wheat / wholewheat / rye / multigrain mix bread, this time with a little cheating of dry yeast.
February 7, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
troyhernandez.bsky.social
For our recent package releases, I’ve been using a lightweight, AI-friendly R workflow built around `littler` and 4 new tinyverse-inspired development packages we released today!
#rstats #tinyverse #ClaudeCode
cornball.ai/posts/tinyve...
The Tinyverse Development Toolchain
Every R package we’ve released over the past two weeks was built with the same set of tools. Today we’re making those tools public. The sidequest eraCLI coding tools like Claude Code (and even llamaR!...
cornball.ai
February 6, 2026 at 4:27 PM
eddelbuettel.com
rfoaas 2.3.3: Limited Rebirth
A RESTful interface for R to the excellent FOAAS service
dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/02...
#rstats
Screenshot of blog post at https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/02/04#rfoaas_2.3.3 describing release 2.3.3 of CRAN package rfoaas
February 5, 2026 at 2:05 AM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
cwebbonline.com
Heads are going to explode 💥

Cato Institute just nuked the lie. Immigrants have cut U.S. deficits by $14.5 TRILLION since 1994, slashing the national debt by a third.

All that “immigrants are bleeding us dry” noise? Absolute bullshit.
1/3
February 4, 2026 at 7:08 PM
eddelbuettel.com
littler 0.3.23 on CRAN: More Features (and Fixes)
Everybody's favourite way to rock R at the command-line and in scripts
dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/02...
#rstats
Screenshot of blog post at https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/02/04#littler_0.3.22 describing release 0.3.22 of CRAN package littler
February 4, 2026 at 1:39 PM
eddelbuettel.com
Alt text: "There's also a proof without content of a conjecture without content, but it's left as an exercise for the reader."
xkcd.com Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 6d
Proof Without Content

xkcd.com/3201/
Comic. Conjecture: It’s possible to construct a convincing proof without words, pictures, or content of any kind. Proof: [empty box] [caption] Proofs without words are cool, but we can go further.
February 3, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
gsimpson.bsky.social
🚨 GAMs have moved on—so it’s time for an update.

On March 3, 2026 (17:00–19:00 CET) I’ll be livestreaming an updated introduction to Generalized Additive Models in R

📺 YouTube livestream link: youtube.com/live/A9U8e1K...

#RStats #mgcv #GAMs #gratia #statistics 🧪
What's new in the world of Generalized Additive Models
YouTube video by Bottom of the Heap
youtube.com
February 3, 2026 at 12:57 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
eddelbuettel.com
Rcpp 1.1.1 on CRAN: Many Improvements in Semi-Annual Update
Seamless R and C++ Integration
dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/01...
#rstats #rcpp

/cc @enchufa2.es @kevinushey.bsky.social
Screenshot 1 of 2 of blog post at https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/01/10#rcpp_1.1.1 describing release 1.1.1 of CRAN package Rcpp Screenshot 2 of 2 of blog post at https://dirk.eddelbuettel.com/blog/2026/01/10#rcpp_1.1.1 describing release 1.1.1 of CRAN package Rcpp
January 10, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
fiveman.bsky.social
Here is a better angle of this sign. I originally received this from a friend, but it came from the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Anti-ICE protest sign saying: DEARLY BELOVED. WE ARE GATHERED HERE TODAY TO DISMANTLE THIS THING CALLED ICE with a picture of Prince in the lower left hand side of the sign.
February 1, 2026 at 9:00 PM
eddelbuettel.com
SVN commit r89366 brought two new and very interesting accessor for CRAN state internals and history to #rstats 'R-devel'.

We can probably build on these: history of 'actions', and history/state of 'issues'.
Screenshot of use of two newly-added accessors for CRAN state / history from SVN commit r89366: tools:::CRAN_package_actions() and tools:::CRAN_package_issues()
February 2, 2026 at 1:08 PM
eddelbuettel.com
American Exceptionalism, continued. "Melania" IMDB rankings by country, updated.

US 1.6 / 10, n = 9.9k
UK 1.0 / 10, n = 1.5k
Canada 1.0 / 10, n = 1.2k
Germany 1.0 / 10, n = 0.9k
Australia 1.0 / 10, n = 0.5k

Overall 1.2 / 10, n = 19k
eddelbuettel.com Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 8d
American Exceptionalis, "Melania" edition. Per country IMDB ratings score and count:

US 1.5/10, n=8.2k
UK 1.0/10, n=1.2k
Canada 1.0/10, n=1k
Germany 1.0/10, n=0.6k
Australia 1.0/10, n=0.5k

I.e. "what's wrong with us?" No, don't answer that...
eddelbuettel.com Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 9d
IMDB score of 1.0. A record (in the way you don't want to have a record....). So limits to astroturfing discovered.

And maybe, just maybe, the movie wasn't worth USD 75 million? Who knew. [ Hint: Everybody did. Still just one of 10^umpteen bribes ... ]
February 2, 2026 at 1:00 AM
eddelbuettel.com
American Exceptionalis, "Melania" edition. Per country IMDB ratings score and count:

US 1.5/10, n=8.2k
UK 1.0/10, n=1.2k
Canada 1.0/10, n=1k
Germany 1.0/10, n=0.6k
Australia 1.0/10, n=0.5k

I.e. "what's wrong with us?" No, don't answer that...
eddelbuettel.com Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 9d
IMDB score of 1.0. A record (in the way you don't want to have a record....). So limits to astroturfing discovered.

And maybe, just maybe, the movie wasn't worth USD 75 million? Who knew. [ Hint: Everybody did. Still just one of 10^umpteen bribes ... ]
February 1, 2026 at 4:12 PM
eddelbuettel.com
IMDB score of 1.0. A record (in the way you don't want to have a record....). So limits to astroturfing discovered.

And maybe, just maybe, the movie wasn't worth USD 75 million? Who knew. [ Hint: Everybody did. Still just one of 10^umpteen bribes ... ]
IMDB screenshot giving the 'Melania' movie the record-breaking (not in good way though) score of ... 1.0 out of 10.
February 1, 2026 at 1:13 AM
eddelbuettel.com
As Rotten Tomatoes might be getting astroturfed, a quick quiz:
- Amazon paid $40 million to make it
- Amazon paying $35 million to promote it
- Amazon own IMDB
What is going to be the opening score at IMDB?
Screenshot from Rotten Tomatoes showing 12 actual reviews panning the Melania movie while '99% score' on Popcornmeter smelling of astroturfing campaign
January 31, 2026 at 2:58 AM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
kenwhite.bsky.social
Sometimes this reminder is helpful on Bluesky:

It’s good to oppose Trumpism. Trumpism is evil. But there are plenty of people who oppose Trumpism who are also petty, shitty, annoying people. Block them or ignore them and go back to opposing Trump.
January 31, 2026 at 2:04 AM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
troyhernandez.bsky.social
This week’s project: a full text-to-speech stack in R.

Native R torch implementation (chatterbox), API routing (tts.api), Docker containers, and a Shiny app (cornfab).

Pick your backend, generate speech.

Write-up:
cornball.ai/posts/text-t...
#rstats #chatterbox #qwen3-tts
Text-to-Speech in R
Last week we released our speech-to-text stack. This week, we’re going the other direction. Today we’re releasing a text-to-speech stack for R: native inference, API wrappers, Docker containers, and a...
cornball.ai
January 30, 2026 at 8:32 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
kottke.org
This guy built an autonomous flying umbrella (powered by drones) that automagically follows you around in the rain. (A possible counter to a personal raincloud?) [youtube.com]
I Built a Fully Autonomous Flying Umbrella
Bambu H2D 3D Printer ($300 off): https://tidd.ly/3Yu0bHI Best Mid-range 3D Printer: https://tidd.ly/4qbxF9K Best Budget 3D Printer ($160 off): https://tidd.ly/4psCgDu Try Onshape Free – Engineers Get Up to 6 Months Pro: https://onshape.pro/IBuildStuff Thank you to HolyBro for providing most of the
www.youtube.com
January 29, 2026 at 9:42 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
sebkrantz.bsky.social
I'm excited to share the release and rOpenSci publication of dfms 1.0 (docs.ropensci.org/dfms), a high-performance, feature-rich implementation of Dynamics Factor Models for R, supporting mixed-frequency estimation and news decomposition for nowcasting. See also blog post: sebkrantz.github.io/Rblog/
Dynamic Factor Models for R
Efficient estimation of Dynamic Factor Models using the Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm or Two-Step (2S) estimation, supporting datasets with missing data and mixed-frequency nowcasting applic...
docs.ropensci.org
January 29, 2026 at 9:34 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
barrybutler9.bsky.social
Backlit Beauty. Thursday's start in Chicago as parts of Lake Michigan are still frozen.
January 29, 2026 at 2:13 PM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
dlknowles.bsky.social
My story, written this morning from Minneapolis, is part of The Economist's cover package this week

Inside the movement challenging—and disrupting—ICE

www.economist.com/united-state...
Inside the movement challenging—and disrupting—ICE
A non-violent network of activists is forming across America
www.economist.com
January 29, 2026 at 4:07 AM
Reposted by Dirk Eddelbuettel
jakemgrumbach.bsky.social
Read the highlighted sentence a few times, jfc

From @lukeferrell.bsky.social's "THE MEANS-TESTING INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX"

lpeproject.org/blog/the-mea...
Again, new work requirements for Medicaid highlight the profits to be made from adding complexity to the safety net. Since Georgia implemented work requirements in 2020, they have spent twice as much on Deloitte consultants and administrative costs as on healthcare for people. As the other 55 states and territories are now forced to join Georgia and implement new work requirements, millions will lose their healthcare and Deloitte will cash in.
January 29, 2026 at 12:23 AM