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Blas M. Benito

@blasbenito.com

2.2K followers 2.6K following 360 posts

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · Jan 9

After one year of intermittent development, version 2.0 of the #Rstats package {distantia} (URL: blasbenito.github.io/distantia) is finally on CRAN!

This is a FULL REWRITE of the original package, which now has a fast and efficient C++ core, additional tools, and a much more intuitive API.

Snapshot of R code showing the install of the R package distantia via the command install.packages(), and the version of the newly installed package as printed by the command packageVersion().

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 1d

I can hear it's internal monologue in my head.

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 1d

Hear hear! Demotivated applicants don't usually apply to soul-crushing selection processes anyway.

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 3d

Best two in the league? And the position is stacked with talent across the league: Kelsey Mitchell, Paige, Plum...

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 3d

Jewell Lloyd has one of the silkiest jumpers in the league!

Las Vegas Aces @lvaces.bsky.social · 3d

We love a good birthday bucket 👌🎉

Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 7d

#r2u had its first 'three million packages delivered' month in September (outside that two-day Sep 2023 outlier) bringing the total to over 54 million #CRAN #Rstats packages shipped as #Ubuntu .deb binaries.

#r2u. Fast. Easy. Reliable. Pick All Three.

Dual chart with #r2u cumulative downloads in millions on the left, and average weekly downloads (on a log scale) on the right.

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 7d

If it isn't in your "featured" section, you are doing it wrong.

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 9d

I had no idea, thank you!

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 9d

I am bummed for the Lynx, this amazing team deserved better. No shame though, this Mercury squad is freaking tough to play against.

On the other hand, the Hospital Fever got the Aces against the ropes. Go Fever!

#wnba

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 9d

I don't know, it's too hard to parse.

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 9d

I’m not letting an LLM write __MY_CODE__.
I’m perfectly capable of producing my own slop.

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Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Joe Mason @moreorloess.bsky.social · 10d

Since I'm thinking about it, here's the network of geologic test holes drilled by the Nebraska state geological survey since the 1930s. Detailed lithological and stratigraphic logs. The goal not always achieved, was to drill to the Pennsylvanian in the east, to the base of the Cenozoic in the west.

A map of geologic test holes across Nebraska, using green dots for the test holes and an outline map of Nebraska counties. There are more than 6000 dots.

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 10d

He's famous for being tough as nails with the girls. Ask Kelsey Plum about it (she mentioned it in her interview with Sue Bird)

Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Danielle Navarro @djnavarro.net · 10d

A few words on survey weights, why I'm embarrassed to have forgotten to take them into account in the past, and how I got lucky because I personally didn't get burned. Not a mistake I intend to repeat in the future

blog.djnavarro.net/posts/2025-0...

Some notes on survey weights – Notes from a data witch

An area of statistics in which the author is not strong, and really needs to up her game

blog.djnavarro.net

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 11d

Have you tried installing the older version using {remotes}? That might not work if the older version isn't compatible with the new R version, though. But it's worth a try.

Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Timo Conradi @timoconradi.bsky.social · 13d

if you are interested in using the process model for attribution or species distribution modelling, check out our R package: besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 2/3

TTR.PGM: An R package for modelling the distributions and dynamics of plants using the Thornley transport resistance plant growth model

An ability to predict the ranges and dynamics of species is central to ecological and evolutionary research. Despite species range modelling being an active area of research for the past three to ...

besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 11d

I was excited for a second seeing Amelia Earhart trending (maybe they found her?), but nope, it was just another shit stain on the wall.

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 11d

Is that package maybe calling another language (C, C++) to generate the random numbers?

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 11d

Congrats Timo 🚀
This is the kind of paper I'd love to write myself!

Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 11d

Very cool climate-change study using long NDVI/climate time series and process-based models by my dear @timoconradi.bsky.social l and colleagues.

Timo Conradi @timoconradi.bsky.social · 13d

Attribution of vegetation change to climate change: here we compared vegetation time series to simulations from a process model forced with observed and counterfactual (detrended) climate data. Trends in climate necessary for the model to emulate vegetation trends www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/3

Shifts in vegetation activity of terrestrial ecosystems attributable to climate trends - Nature Geoscience

An analysis fusing satellite data with a process-based model of plant growth attributes changes in vegetation activity across terrestrial ecosystems to climatic changes.

www.nature.com

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 11d

Just done with my early #rstats development session:

- 100% bug fixes.
- 0% new features.

Past me really outdid himself.

a cartoon cat is looking over a razer laptop screen

Alt: a cartoon cat is looking over a laptop screen

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Kieran Healy @kjhealy.co · 15d

If you introduce your students to the idea of Rubber Duck Debugging, then you have to give each of them a rubber duck; I don’t make the rules.

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Blas M. Benito @blasbenito.com · 14d

Here's mine!

A rubber duck wearing sunglasses and drinking a mojito or whatever.

Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Thomas Lin Pedersen @thomasp85.com · 14d

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

plumber2 0.1.0

plumber2, a complete rewrite of plumber, has landed on CRAN, providing a modern, future proof solution for creating web servers in R. Read all about the new features here.

www.tidyverse.org

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Reposted by Blas M. Benito

Robert Simmon @rsimmon.bsky.social · 16d

Stunning oblique satellite 🛰️ image of #Paris from BlackSky.

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

High-res oblique satellite view of the Eiffel Tower and central Paris, France.

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Reposted by Blas M. Benito

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · May 23

If you’re a climate/energy person, I will take your portrait pro bono.

George Monbiot @georgemonbiot.bsky.social · May 23

After far too many years, I've got myself a new Guardian byline pic, very kindly taken pro bono by Nick Bowring. It was getting like The Picture of Dorian Gray in reverse.
Embrace the ravages of time!

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