@adamhsparks @mdsumner @koen_hufkens Yup! {geotargets} is designed to solve this problem! https://github.com/ropensci/geotargets

OK #rstats team - explaining to new #rstats users a nice way to drop the first and last values of a vector is surprisingly tricky - something like this still feels a bit involved to new users, I'm curious what folks would use to teach? This feels a bit much:

```r
slice_middle <- function(x){
drop_last <- head(x, -1)
drop_first_and_last <- tail(drop_last, -1)
drop_first_and_last
}

slice_middle(1:10)
#> [1] 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
```

Ursula Franklin—technology thinker, physicist, metallurgist, Quaker, and committed pacifist—is one of the people whose work I return to the most when things are bad.

I *tried* to write about her great short checklist for making decisions about technology and I ended up writing a whole post about just the first item, which the real foundational one.

https://www.wrecka.ge/ursulas-list/

"The viability of technology, like democracy, depends in the end on the practice of justice…"

🚨 After years of development, the new version of #rstats tmap (4) is now available on CRAN! 🎉 Huge thanks to author Martijn Tennekes and all contributors.

🔧 Install: `install.packages("tmap")`
📚 Vignettes: https://buff.ly/4aAYNbq
📖 Book Chapter: https://buff.ly/43TokaF

#maps #tmap #rspatial

#RStats PSA: If you have updated RStudio to the latest 2024.12.0, a new field ProjectID will be added to your .Rproj file. This only needs to be committed to version control once, but you'll need all of your collaborators to also use the latest version (otherwise the field will be deleted, and it is randomly generated each time). See the Posit Community post below for more details:

https://forum.posit.co/t/use-for-projectid-in-rproj-file/196345

Luis asked why have I chosen to develop packages for Bayesian SVARs in R. This is why:

💝 I really like the format of R packages how it’s standardised and checked at the CRAN assuring quality.

💖 R was missing tools for SVARs and particularly on Bayesian SVARs. There were some such packages, but the literature and users’ needs are much broader.

💘 The core code for most of algorithms in our packages is written in C++ which is much faster.

👇

#rstats #bsvars #bsvarSIGNs #foss

I recall that the @Posit Conf call for papers was supposed to go live on Jan 10th but I don't see anything yet.

Anyone know about it 👀 #rstats

Series of posts exploring key concepts related to missing data:

- Regression Imputation: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/joachim-schork_data-analysisskills-dataanalytic-activity-7287259213200818178-Ma2z/
- Predictive Mean Matching: https://x.com/JoachimSchork/status/1879869844905931010
- mice R Package: https://www.facebook.com/groups/statisticsglobe/posts/1550620072283981/

More: https://statisticsglobe.com/online-workshop-missing-data-imputation-r

#rstats #statistics #datascience

{gdalraster} 1.12.0 released on CRAN, #rstats package for API bindings to GDAL. This is a minor version update containing a small number of new features and bug fixes.

Work continues toward a larger release that will add full bindings to the vector API along with several other enhancements.

Changelog: https://usdaforestservice.github.io/gdalraster/news/index.html#gdalraster-1120

#rspatial #gdal

Introducing {mp4encoder} - an H.264/mp4 encoder for #RStats written in R itself!

https://github.com/coolbutuseless/mp4encoder

Features:
* Fast encoding e.g. 700fps for 800x600 native rasters
* Images may be RGB arrays or native rasters
* mp4 videos can be played on majority of OSs + browsers
* does not use 3rd party encoding libraries - meaning it will work anywhere you have R
* does all its encoding in R using {ctypesio} & {bitstreamio} for byte/bit manipulation

Caveat: it only writes uncompressed video

For WebR in #rstats, do we think we'll ever get to a place where wasm is an official build target for R?

🌟 We’re back! 🌟
R-Ladies is relaunching our Abstract Review system, connecting aspiring speakers with expert reviewers to help refine their conference abstracts and scholarship applications. 💜
🌠 For aspiring speakers: https://buff.ly/4anrPLy
🫶 For potential reviewers: https://buff.ly/4jpHdv4
Together, let’s amplify diverse voices in data science! 🎤✨
#rstats #rladies

#RStats #PositConf2025 is open for talk submissions!

I'm considering submitting any of the following titles:

* Intersections in real time
* The campaign for real time
* WTF?

https://posit.co/blog/speak-at-posit-conf-2025/

@Lluis_Revilla Potentially related is Nick Golding's https://github.com/goldingn/versions ?

@michcampbell Oh cool! I'm actually in Hobart now!

@josi `lares::markdown2df()` or `read.so::read.md()` ?

@millerdl @noamross Thanks Dave!

Yup so what Dave said about extending to more complicated models - there's dynamical systems support in greta with https://github.com/greta-dev/greta.dynamics

The TensorFlow back end also means it has nice speedups for some types of model, and scales well.

We are working on making more distributions accessible in greta (https://github.com/greta-dev/greta.distributions) - as well as thinking about making it easier for users to add and test new distributions. I haven't done a side-by-side comparison of what is in STAN and greta, but if there are any that are missing for you I'd be happy to work on adding them :)

Obviously I'm biased, but the thing that I really enjoy with greta is you get to write R code to fit and design models, and we have tried hard to provide informative error messages for the user.

There's more we are going to do with greta in 2025, one thing I'm particularly excited about is the marginalisation interface that Golding has designed.

Let me know if there's things you want to do or if I can help, Noam!

{greta.gam} is now on CRAN!

{greta.gam} is another addition to the {greta} universe, that lets you use {mgcv}’s smoother functions and formula syntax to define smooth terms for use in a {greta} model. You can then define your own likelihood to complete the model, and fit it by MCMC.

The {greta.gam} package has been around for some time, and was developed by @millerdl and Nick Golding. Thanks to Nick and David for their hard work on this!

See https://github.com/greta-dev/greta.gam for an example of how to use {greta.gam}

#rstats

There's a bug somewhere in the #RStats x11() device in Mac.

When rendering a few thousand frames to the device, it slows to a crawl.

Possibly a memory leak. Unknown if this is R, X11, xquartz or macOS's fault.

Happy 32nd anniversary to the best film adaptation of a book to have ever happened in the entire history of cinema and literature. One of the sweetest and most heartwarming interpretations of 'A Christmas Carol'. The first Muppets film to come out after the passing of Jim Henson and puppeteer Richard Hunt, dedicated to both their memories. The movie that gave us one of Michael Caine's most somber and emotional performances. The only version of the story featuring a blue, furry Charles Dickens of undefined species narrating his own novella. A masterpiece.

#TheMuppetChristmasCarol #Muppets #OTD #OnThisDay #Movies #Cinemastodon #FilmMastodon