Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
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benfigura.bsky.social
Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
@benfigura.bsky.social
45 followers 180 following 52 posts
Board certified forensic anthropologist in the Bay Area. R enthusiast, runner, cyclist, family man. Views expressed are my own!
Posts Replies Media Videos
benfigura.bsky.social
"Shitted Hen" may be the funniest line on a show I've heard in a long time. #Loot.AppleTV
November 25, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
jbgruber.bsky.social
After a long time in development, {traktok} #rstats is now finally on CRAN!

Whether you have access to the Research API or just want to scrape some pages, traktok has you covered

jbgruber.github.io/traktok/
November 24, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
mickael.canouil.fr
🎉 The magic is real: Quarto Wizard 1.0.0 is LIVE!

Wave goodbye to complexity, pure enchantment awaits:

🪄 Magical extension browsing (250+ spells available)
✨ One-click wizardry
🔮 VS Code & Positron enchantment

quarto.org/docs/blog/po...

#DataScience #Quarto #QuartoPub #VSCode #PositronIDE
Quarto Wizard 1.0.0: Democratising Quarto Extension Management – Quarto
Introducing a game-changing extension for VS Code and Positron that transforms Quarto extensions management with an intuitive GUI for extensions and templates.
quarto.org
October 20, 2025 at 4:41 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
marisakabas.bsky.social
SCOOP — Pennsylvania prosecutors were alerted to possible voting irregularities by one of MAGA's leading voices against voter fraud. A long paper trail shows Jack Posobiec has been living in Maryland but voting using his parents' PA address for years.

From @jsweetli.bsky.social, @slate.com + me:
MAGA’s “Voter Fraud” Watchdog Votes in a Swing State. He Doesn’t Live There.
A long paper trail shows that Jack Posobiec casts a ballot in one state and lives in another.
slate.com
October 3, 2025 at 11:39 AM
benfigura.bsky.social
So much good wrapped in a single person.
cnn.com CNN @cnn.com · Oct 1
Jane Goodall, a conservationist who broke barriers for women and revolutionized the study of primates, has died at 91. https://cnn.it/4o44cxf
October 1, 2025 at 6:54 PM
benfigura.bsky.social
L'État, c'est moi
September 26, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
markhamillofficial.bsky.social
HORRIBLE. SICKENING. UNACCEPTABLE.

In a democracy we settle our differences with words, ideas & actions, not hatred, guns & violence.

#ShameOnUS
September 10, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
nickwhithorn.bsky.social
Three months after filming ended for Christopher Nolan's new film "The Odyssey" in the Aeolian Islands, divers continue to find dummy skeletons that were evidently dumped in the sea after filming finished.
Nei fondali delle Eolie i manichini abbandonati dopo le riprese del film
Altri scheletri di plastica rinvenuti da due sub romani: si mette in moto la Capitaneria di porto per imporre la bonifica alla società che ha prodotto il kolossal “The Odissey”
messina.gazzettadelsud.it
August 13, 2025 at 12:42 PM
benfigura.bsky.social
"The lesson of Hungary is this: We cannot claim to care about democracy only when it costs nothing."
Opinion | I Watched It Happen in Hungary. Now It’s Happening Here.
www.nytimes.com
July 23, 2025 at 5:06 PM
benfigura.bsky.social
Identification in these types of cases is tricky. It should be viewed as a purely humanitarian effort led by medical examiners, not law enforcement.
A DNA Technique Is Finding Women Who Left Their Babies for Dead
www.nytimes.com
June 3, 2025 at 4:56 PM
benfigura.bsky.social
Great assessment of the Ive-Altman / io-OpenAi (OpenIO?). My thoughts exactly.
May 23, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
brendelbored.bsky.social
This is the hardest I’ve ever been owned online
Brendel @brendelbored.bsky.social • 1h Going to become "the bad boy of Jeopardy" and by that I mean "I'm going to use my phone to look up the answers" until "Ken Jennings beats my ass" 9 • 176 Ken Jennings @kenjennings.bsky.social You mean look up the questions.
May 16, 2025 at 1:46 AM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
alexkirshner.com
this is a letter to the editor from a high school track runner who came in second to a trans girl in a race. her state house rep in maine started talking about it. so she wrote this: www.pressherald.com/2025/05/14/r...
Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, recently used my second-place finish in the 1,600-meter run, and that of my teammate in the 800-meter run, to malign Soren Stark-Chessa, the trans-identified athlete who finished first. One of the reasons I chose to run cross-country and track is the community: Teammates cheering each other on, athletes from different schools coming together, and the fact that personal improvement is valued as much as, if not more than, the place we finish. Last Friday, I ran the fastest 1,600-meter race I have ever run in middle school or high school track and earned varsity status by my school’s standards. I am extremely proud of the effort I put into the race and the time that I achieved. The fact that someone else finished in front of me didn’t diminish the happiness I felt after finishing that race. I don’t feel like first place was taken from me. Instead, I feel like a happy day was turned ugly by a bully who is using children to make political points. We are all just kids trying to make our way through high school. Participating in sports is the highlight of high school for some kids. No one was harmed by Soren’s participation in the girls’ track meet, but we are all harmed by the hateful rhetoric of bullies, like Rep. Libby, who want to take sports away from some kids just because of who they are. Anelise Feldman Freshman, Yarmouth High School Yarmouth
May 16, 2025 at 3:25 AM
benfigura.bsky.social
Great story about the dirty work performed by dermestids!
#forensky #science

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/13/n...
Behind a Museum Door, These Beetles Are Eating Flesh for Science
www.nytimes.com
May 13, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
posit.co
We’re excited to announce the release of Posit Workbench and RStudio 2025.05.0!

The latest release includes Quarto 1.6 support, genAI integrations, better errors/warnings in the console, and other improvements.

Read more in the blog post: posit.co/blog/rstudio...

#RStats #Python
Announcement for the latest version of RStudio (2025.05.0) and Posit Workbench, highlighting new features likely related to console output and package management, as illustrated by the console screenshots showing warnings, informative messages, and package installation details
May 8, 2025 at 7:14 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
t-kalinowski.bsky.social
Just made promptdown public. It's a plain-text interface for working with LLMs using literate programming.

See and edit the full prompt each turn.

No cramped input boxes, no hidden context, no append-only chat.

Still early alpha, feedback welcome!

github.com/t-kalinowski...
The package logo, a small cute elephant holding a quill and writing promptdown
May 8, 2025 at 3:36 PM
benfigura.bsky.social
Polygraphs are completely unscientific and are nothing more than an interrogation tactic that relies on the interviewee's belief that they work. They are an excuse to intimidate people and will result in too many false positives and careers ruined.
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · Apr 28
National security agencies across the Trump administration are ramping up investigations into alleged leaks to the news media, in some cases using polygraph tests that current and former officials say are creating a climate of fear and intimidation.
FBI, national security agencies using polygraphs for ‘leak’ hunts
Current and former officials say the crackdown at the FBI, Pentagon and Office of the Director of National Intelligence is creating a climate of fear and harming national security.
www.washingtonpost.com
April 28, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
apnews.com
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law.
Supreme Court blocks, for now, new deportations under 18th century wartime law
The Supreme Court has blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th century wartime law.
bit.ly
April 19, 2025 at 5:12 AM
benfigura.bsky.social
Wow. This is terrible violation of the trust between the decedent and their families, and the University as the custodian of their remains.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Apr 18
A former manager of the morgue at Harvard Medical School will plead guilty to stealing body parts that had been donated for research and selling them for thousands of dollars to people who collected them as macabre curiosities, according to court documents.
Ex-Harvard Medical School Morgue Chief to Plead Guilty in Sale of Body Parts
Cedric Lodge stole organs from cadavers that had been donated for medical research, prosecutors said. The university fired him in 2023.
www.nytimes.com
April 18, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
ajfmp.bsky.social
Announcing Video Abstracts

journals.lww.com/amjforensicm...

#4n6 #forensicpathology #forensicmedicine #forensics
April 16, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
codifybaseball.bsky.social
THE ALBUQUERQUE ISOTOPES SCORED THREE RUNS ON A BASES-LOADED WALK AND THERE IS VIDEO
April 16, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
mollyjongfast.bsky.social
This from @anneapplebaum.bsky.social

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
April 15, 2025 at 11:54 AM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
posit.co
We are thrilled to announce Air, an extremely fast R formatter!

This super speedy tool written in #Rust ensures consistent, readable #RStats code.

Read more on the tidyverse blog: www.tidyverse.org/blog/2025/02...
Whimsical illustration featuring a hot air balloon carrying cartoon animals (lion, giraffes, elephant) flying through a starry sky with planets and clouds. The word 'Air' is integrated into the balloon's design. The 'posit' logo is present, and the overall design is contained within a yellow-outlined hexagon on a textured light blue background.
April 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by Benjamin J. Figura, PhD, D-ABFA
leolaporte.me
Paris is THE BEST. What an opportunity to hire a super talented investigative reporter.
paris.nyc paris martineau @paris.nyc · Apr 11
after ~5 years at The Information, i've been laid off, alongside 2/3rds of our features team. i am devastated.

if you're looking for an experienced investigative reporter with a knack for producing high impact features about tech and business, please reach out: [email protected] DMs open
April 11, 2025 at 11:20 PM
benfigura.bsky.social
😢
April 10, 2025 at 9:12 PM