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Martyn Plummer

@martynplummer.bsky.social
645 followers 202 following 110 posts

Statistics. Computing. Cancer Epidemiology. Public health.

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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
JAGS 5.0.0 is now available for macOS This is a guest post by Matt Denwood. After a longer-than-anticipated delay, the macOS installer for JAGS 5.0.0 is now available via SourceForge. There are some big changes for how the official binaries of JAGS 5.x are installed on macOS, which is the topic…
martynplummer.wordpress.com
JAGS 5.0.0 is now available for macOS
This is a guest post by Matt Denwood. After a longer-than-anticipated delay, the macOS installer for JAGS 5.0.0 is now available via SourceForge. There are some big changes for how the official binaries of JAGS 5.x are installed on macOS, which is the topic covered by this news post. Multi-threading and BLAS linkage JAGS now has multi-threading support to allow parallel execution of independent chains, which uses Apple’s Grand Central Dispatch for the macOS binaries.
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The Alternate Histoween 🎃 @althistorian.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Petrov Day. Today we celebrate the life of a man who saved billions by not believing a computer. May we all learn this valuable lesson.
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Mr. Joshua @pantspants.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Pen, watercolor, black & white charcoal pencil.

Another featured piece from the Spooky Pants book.

A man in a sweater stands with his hands on his hips looking out of a large window with the curtains open. Things aren’t looking good outside, reader. A massive winged demon is emerging from the clouds as dozens of little ghosts and bone demons rip through the sky. On the ground below we see townsfolk running through the grass. Our man in the window is in no mood for this. He lets us know, “Oh, I am in no mood for this.” His dog looks out the window as well, wagging its tail. 

Fantasia (1940) inspired drawing. I think I could’ve gone a little heavier with the chaos outside but we’ll try again with fresh drawings this October. I like how the clouds turned out. Trying to balance my sloppy lines with more detail can be tricky but I think we achieved a good result.
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Aparna Nair @disabilitystor1.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
if you are reviewing an unpublished manuscript and you have the sheer unmitigated audacity, cheek, gall and laziness to upload it into an LLM to generate a review, let me tell you, you should be shunned and tarred and feathered
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Peter Jukes @peterjukes.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Just a reminder, Professor James Orr, Reform UK head of policy, teaches 'ethics' to undergraduates at Cambridge University youtu.be/aXut3s90rUI
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Warwick Statistics @warwickstats.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
📣 We are recruiting! A 26-month postdoctoral position at Warwick as part of the “Probabilistic Artificial Intelligence” hub on the mathematical foundations of AI. 🔗 Further details available here: warwick-careers.tal.... Closing date: Sunday 6th September 2026 at 11:55pm (UK Time)
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The R Foundation @r-foundation.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
We invite #RStats users to contribute to a fund dedicated to helping the family of Tomáš Kalibera following his untimely death in April. Find out more and donate here: www.r-project.org/foundation/k...
r-project.org
R: Tomáš Kalibera Family Fund
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MꙬse Allain @mooseallain.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
Fibonacci Sequins - clusters of sequins forming a fibonacci sequence.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Have you tried a mobile car dent repair service? They can pull a dent and retouch the paint for a fraction of the price of a garage.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
PKD wasn’t trying to predict the future. His work was grounded in existential questions about the nature of reality and what it means to be human. His characters were often trapped in artificial worlds and interacted with simulacra of humans. @parallax2112.bsky.social
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Come and work with us! If you have a PhD in Statistics (or related subject) and are looking to develop a teaching focused career in academia then please get in touch. We have a very strong teaching team here.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
I'm sure this is Nolan's intended interpretation of the film. It's why the story of the return is framed in flashback with trauma and drug-induced amnesia providing cover for Odysseus's confabulations. Note that he never tells his story in public in this version.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 06/08/2026
Confusingly, some infinities are bigger than others. There are more real numbers than natural numbers even though both are infinite sets. We don’t know if there is a third kind of infinity somewhere between those two. It’s neither provable nor disprovable from the axioms of set theory.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
What's new in JAGS 5.0.0 part 2: Reproducibility martynplummer.wordpress.com/2026/08/04/w...
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
What's new in JAGS 5.0.0 part 1: Initial Values martynplummer.wordpress.com/2026/08/03/w...
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Jeroen Ooms @jeroenooms.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
R-universe now provides binaries and check results for Windows-ARM64 of all CRAN and BIOC packages: contributor.r-project.org/windows-arm64/
contributor.r-project.org
R on ARM64 Windows
R on Windows ARM64
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 02/08/2026
JAGS 5.0.0 is released martynplummer.wordpress.com/2026/08/02/j...
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Sam Power @spmontecarlo.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Registration is now open for this workshop! website: sites.google.com/view/newcast... registration: webstore.ncl.ac.uk/conferences-...
webstore.ncl.ac.uk
Non-Equilibrium Sampling: DiffusionsFlowsParticles | Newcastle University WebStore
The Second Sampling Workshop at Newcastle!This three-day workshop will bring together researchers at the forefront of modern sampling techniques and relate
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Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Emily Wilson showing the world what an academic peer review sounds/reads like. This is pure Reviewer 2 energy. www.theguardian.com/film/2026/ju...
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Jonathan Howard @joho.bsky.social · 22/07/2026
Here’s what the guys who “would have” perfectly controlled COVID delivered when given an opportunity to prove their real world mettle and competence.
= Ohe Washington post
Health
Health Care
Medical Mysteries
Science
We
U.S. measles cases hit 35-year record with months left in 2026
Data from Johns Hopkins University's U.S. measles tracker shows the nation reported 2,295 cases as of Tuesday. That count surpasses last year's total of 2,289.
July 21, 2026 at 7:18 p.m. EDT
Yesterday at 7:18 p.m. EDT
& 3 min
贝
口abc NEWS
Q 8
More than 11,500 cyclosporiasis cases
reported in 41 states: CDC
There are about 4,100 laboratory-confirmed cases,
CDC data says.
By Youri Benadjaoud and Mary Kekatos
July 22, 2026, 9:11 AM
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Charles Logan @charleswlogan.bsky.social · 18/07/2026
Instead of having students produce academic essays with GenAI and then critique the essays in the name of AI literacy, just have them read Ben’s thread.
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Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 11/07/2026
Norm Matloff (1948-2026) @matloff.bsky.social I was made aware of the post below made by his daughter. We lost another friend and valued long-time contributor the #Rstats community, gone far too soon, and sure to be missed. His memory will be a blessing.
Screenshot of post on X in the account of Norm Matloff in which his daughter announces his passing. Gone too soon, and sure to be missed.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 10/07/2026
Open the loft hatch. The hot air inside the house will rise up into the loft to be replaced by cooler air coming in through the windows.
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Maarten van Smeden @maartenvsmeden.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
😂
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Julian Sanchez @normative.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
It is seriously alarming how many of the world’s wealthiest and most powerful people are just screamingly mentally unwell in deeply toxic, dangerous ways.
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Ethan Marcotte @ethanmarcotte.com · 02/07/2026
“I’m here to tell you that there’s something very valuable in struggle. That there’s something very valuable in friction. Friction is good.”
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Windows binaries should be available from Friday 26. I apologise for the delay.
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Zach Weinersmith @zachweinersmith.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Happy Father's Dad! www.smbc-comics.com/comic/number...
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The R Foundation @r-foundation.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The 2026 laureates are Brian Ripley, Martin Maechler, Kurt Hornik, Peter Dalgaard, and Luke Tierney who have made the longest sustained contribution to #RStats. Half of the $1m prize money is awarded to the laureates and half to the rest of the Core Team.
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The R Foundation @r-foundation.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
The 2026 Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics has been awarded to the R Project. #RStats www.rousseeuwprize.org/2026
rousseeuwprize.org
The Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics
The Rousseeuw Prize for Statistics is a biennial prize to celebrate outstanding contributions to statistics research.
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Richard Everitt @bayesianstats.bsky.social · 11/06/2026
Warwick Statistics is recruiting a Tutor. This is a one year fixed-term role for the academic year 26-27. Closing Deadline: Thursday 9th July 2026 at 11:55pm (UK Time) warwick-careers.tal....
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Richard D. Morey @richarddmorey.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
this flight safety card is all of us
image from a SAS A320 flight safety card showing a figure holding up a module phone that is on fire. The figure is saying “help”
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
What Carlson experienced is a classic case of sleep paralysis. It’s a genuinely terrifying experience but there’s nothing demonic about it.
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Sam Power @spmontecarlo.bsky.social · 30/05/2026
With friends at the University of Warwick (in particular, Rocco Caprio and @adriencorenflos.bsky.social), we've recently arXived some work (arxiv.org/abs/2605.30253) on a method for approximate inference known as "Coordinate Ascent Variational Inference", or "CAVI" for short. Let me explain:
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Brian Phillips @brianphillips.lol · 28/05/2026
Here's the serious bit for anyone who'd rather skip the 4000 words of jokes
Because the truth is, tech doesn't have an image problem. It doesn't have a message problem. It has an intention problem. What's wrong with the axe murderer who broke into my house is not that he hasn't successfully persuaded me to buy into his narrative. What's wrong is that he's trying to kill me with an axe. Similarly, when you launch a product that's designed to put millions of people out of work, block access to sources of verifiable truth, replace human creativity with slop, and lower the barriers to every sort of atrocity, the problem isn't that you haven't told the public a good story about those things. The problem is that you are trying to do them. (
There are things in the world that are more important than money. The fact that you seem not to believe this, that you seem to think any motive beyond ruthless acquisitiveness is fake, dishonest, or childish, is the heart of your problem. Your attitude is not by any means unique to tech, but the
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Dr Di Cook @visnut.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Super excited to get this at my door today! Ursula Laa and my book on exploring high-d data and models is in print! Book website is www.routledge.com/Interactivel... if interested I think my 30% discount code might work for you - msg me. Time to update dicook.github.io/mulgar_book/ too! #rstats
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
The confluence of the Rhône and the Saône. On the left bank is the Cité Scolaire Internationale where my kids used to go to school.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
martynplummer.wordpress.com/2026/05/04/j...
martynplummer.wordpress.com
JAGS 5.0.0-beta is available
JAGS 5.0.0-beta is now available from SourceForge. The beta release is for two groups of people: People who have written software depending on JAGS, in particular authors of R packages that depend …
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
I remember an earnest discussion in the pages of the Skeptical Inquirer about Scully gradually losing her skepticism. Some were very annoyed by this betrayal. Others pointed out that she is a rational character in a fictional world full of supernatural phenomena. I cancelled my subscription.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
It’s just a context window for a predictive algorithm. There is no underlying consciousness and nothing is lost when you end the session. If a former professor of the public understanding of science can misunderstand this technology then how is the general public supposed to understand it?
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
This would give you a finite (but large) number of game states. The question is how fine does the grid have to be to characterise the game play accurately? When you watch snooker on the TV you’re already watching a discretised (pixelated) representation of the game and people still enjoy watching.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Interesting question. If you characterise the game by the exact position of each ball (when they have all stopped moving) then there an uncountably infinite number of game states. Or you could divide the table into a rectangular grid and count how many balls of each colour are in each rectangle.
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Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
And, with error bars, no less
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
”What is best in life?”
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The Empty City @davidallengreen.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
When I started legal blogging I thought it would be a little bit of contract law or libel law, and the occasional judicial review with constitutional implications. Now: a constant stream of constitutional crises, fundamental human rights abuses, and war crimes and other crimes against humanity.
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 05/04/2026
Good spot! If you generate a Cauchy random variable as tan(pi*U) for U ~ uniform(0,1) then this reduces to Box-Muller.
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Physghoul 👻 🎃 @physgal.bsky.social · 03/04/2026
Going beyond the spherical cow approximation. The paper we all needed. 🎢 ⚛️ 🧪 ♾️ 🐄
pubs.aip.org
Higher multipoles of the cow
Editor's Note: The spherical cow is a useful approximation familiar to physicists. But what does it leave out? How can you systematically improve on this approx
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Martyn Plummer @martynplummer.bsky.social · 29/03/2026
Generative AI has raised difficult questions about the relationship between language and meaning, and between language and consciousnesses itself. You can now have a "conversation" with something that is not conscious. People have fallen in love, or been driven into psychosis. It's very troubling.
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