Jeff Stevens

Adding alt text to figures in quarto with Claude Code Alt text is a very important thing to make sure you do right when making websites. Using AI agents such as Claude Code can help with a lot of the heavy lifting.

Wrote a new blogpost on how to use Claude Code to help generate alt text in quarto projects.

alt text is very valuable and should always be a priority, AI agents help you get 90% of the way there!
emilhvitfeldt.com/post/claude-...
#quarto

Natasha Donovan is a phenomenal illustrator--color is her superpower! Available for preorder now! us.macmillan.com/books/978125...
For a signed copy, order from my local indie: francieandfinch.indielite.org/book/9781250...
@steamteambooks.bsky.social @mackidsbooks.bsky.social @akaweiss.bsky.social

One of the questions in our @rainbowr.org 📊 workshop, was "could you make the beeswarm chart interactive?" 🐝 The answer is "yes, you can" and here's how: nrennie.rbind.io/blog/interac...

#RStats #DataViz #ggplot2 #VisLGBTQ

Do Great Apes Know Each Other's Names? Probing Great Ape Comprehension of Social Vocal Labels — Animal Behavior and Cognition

New article out exploring great ape name recognition! We find partial evidence that zoo-living chimps & bonobos know each other's names 👀 Huge thanks to Animal Behavior and Cognition (a great open-access journal) & co-authors for your collaboration!🎉🐵

unsvr1.com/web/abc/work...

Interpreting Confidence Intervals Interactive visualization of confidence intervals

#stats Here's a nifty interactive demo of confidence intervals by
Kristoffer Magnusson

rpsychologist.com/d3/ci/

Pace of ecology drives the tempo of visual perception across the animal kingdom Nature Ecology & Evolution - Using phylogenetic comparative methods across 237 species from disparate phyla, the authors show that species with fast-paced ecologies have higher temporal...

Our new paper is now out showing how time perception in animals is linked to their ecology. Using data from 237 species we show temporal perception is faster in species that fly and pursuit predators www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌐

Postdoc Position in Animal Behaviour Does intergroup conflict shape intragroup (parochial) prosociality in primates? If so, what behavioural, neuroendocrine, and (epi)genetic mechanisms drive it.

#Postdoc #Job opportunity in #AnimalBehaviour with Jorg Massen at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social. Check out the position here: www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

I love R for everything statistics, but I've always been a little jealous of statisticians using SPSS Complex Samples or SAS SURVEYSELECT to design their samples.

So I decided to build samplyr, a tidy and pipe-friendly grammar for survey sampling design in #rstats.

dickoa.gitlab.io/samplyr/inde...

📢 Preprint alert

TD;LR 🐶 ❤️ 🟨

We replicated methods from Roy et al. (2025) who studied color preferences in free-ranging #dogs in India. We replicated their results, finding that young pet dogs in the US also prefer the color 💛yellow💛.

Big goals can feel overwhelming. Here’s how to stay on track Aiming for something big? Break that big goal into smaller, manageable steps. Then narrow your focus. This will keep your eyes on the prize.

What makes new goals difficult to reach? As I discussed with @alisonpstevens.bsky.social for @sciencenews.bsky.social,
the issue might be holding precise but costly memories of the target. As we internalize rules for what success looks like, goals become more attainable. @annecollins.bsky.social

Characterizing the heritability of cognitive and behavioural traits across development in domestic dogs Abstract. In humans, many behavioural and cognitive traits are moderately-to-highly heritable, with cognitive measures tending to increase in heritability

New dog paper out! 📢 #CanineScience

We used 2 timepoints of behavioral testing, a population pedigree, and genome-wide sequence data to estimate the heritability of various cognitive & behavioral traits in a population of assistance dogs. 🐕‍🦺🧬

royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article...

A graphic that days “Happy Darwin Day! Here are some of his handwritten notes about dogs.” There is a picture of the handwritten notes, which are hard to read. There is also a picture of Darwin himself in older age with a long white beard.

Here are some things he took note of: -Dogs were bred for color in Ancient Greece -Ancient dogs tended to have upright ears rather than hanging ears -Newfoundlands have partial webbing between their toes -Native American dogs in Florida resembled wolves -One pointer once held a point for over an hour -Native dogs in the Pacific all went extinct

Happy Darwin Day to those that celebrate! In these handwritten annotations you can see how Darwin was fascinated by dogs

Building a Robust .gitconfig Explore how to optimise your Git workflow with a well-crafted .gitconfig file. From commit signing and branch management to conditional includes for work-personal separation, learn the settings that t...

This cool post on .gitconfig by @csgillespie.bsky.social (@jumpingrivers.com) is incredibly useful, especially the conditional includes tip.

www.jumpingrivers.com/blog/recomme...

#rstats #databs

dplyr 1.2.0 was released last week and since I use {dplyr} a lot in my work, I wanted to take some time to try some of the new functions.

This post provides some supplemental examples of the new functions, beyond what is provided in the new Posit materials.
#rstats

cghlewis.com/blog/dplyr_u...

dplyr 1.2.0 dplyr 1.2.0 fills in some important gaps in dplyr's API: we've added a new complement to `filter()` focused on dropping rows, and we've expanded the `case_when()` family with three new recoding and re...

dplyr 1.2.0 is out now and we are SO excited!

- `filter_out()` for dropping rows

- `recode_values()`, `replace_values()`, and `replace_when()` that join `case_when()` as a complete family of recoding/replacing tools

These are huge quality of life wins for #rstats!

tidyverse.org/blog/2026/02...

Toy exploration in gifted word learner dogs and typical dogs - Animal Cognition Labelling has a pronounced effect on increasing infants’ attention to objects. At the same time, infants actively seek social cues when presented with novel objects and early signs of communicative in...

After years of working with Gifted dogs, this paper marks the end of that chapter for me 🐕

We compared gifted and typical dogs and found that what sets gifted dogs apart may not be curiosity, but their social motivation

Grateful to the dogs and their humans 💙

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Books | A. Solomon Kurz Clinical psychology researcher

You can find all the new links on my website at solomonkurz.netlify.app/book/

2/3

ARTE

Attention folks in the weather, climate, disaster, wildfire, and Earth science communities: NSF has just published a new "Dear Colleague" letter inviting feedback (by Mar 13) on the proposal to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR). www.nsf.gov/funding/...

Do you use SEM because it looks cleaner?

SEM vs. SD = one of the most quietly damaging figure-making habits in biology

Let’s clear it up

(a thread)

Internships are now available with the Cornish Jackdaw Project! 🐦‍⬛

Duties will include assisting with nest monitoring, bird ringing, data entry, and the potential to help with ongoing research projects.

You can specify relative position in ggplot with I(x) I(y).

E.g. annotate("text", x = I(.5), y = I(.5), label = "hello!") will place the text in the middle of the plot.
This, combined with alignment arguments is like 87% of the magic for me.

Open-Rank, Tenured/Tenure-Track Statistics Faculty - Fairfax, VA, Virginia, United States Department: Col of Engineering and Computing Classification: 9-month Instructional Faculty Job Category: Instructional Faculty Job Type: Full-Time Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk) Locatio...

To anyone who is on the job market in Statistics this academic year: the George Mason University (GMU) Department of Statistics is hiring for open-rank, tenure-track or tenured positions!

For full consideration, apply by January 14 at this link: tinyurl.com/6mjs8fye

I went through it last year to learn SQL!

Great interview! And there's still time to grab a copy as a Christmas present!

Graphic of interconnected colorful loops with the word "CONNECT."

We invite applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to support the project “Building a Network of Networks in the Big Team Social Sciences" @connect-btss.bsky.social

Learn more & apply: psych.ubc.ca/job-opportun...

Adorable dog Zelda, dressed like Sherlock Holmes, gazes at the camera while lying next to a copy of DETECTIVE DOGS. In one paw, she holds a magnifying glass while three spotted lanternflies scurry across the floor in front of her. Outstanding Science Trade Book and Best STEM Book seals can be seen on the left.

THANK YOU to the National Science Teaching Association and Children's Book Council for naming DETECTIVE DOGS an Outstanding Science Trade Book *and* a Best STEM Book for 2026!

Thx to @alexace.bsky.social for the photo. 😍
@steamteambooks.bsky.social

#dogs #conservationdogs #STEM #STEAM #kidlit

Looking for a gift for a budding paleontologist? RHINOS IN NEBRASKA by Alison Pearce Stevens. Order from francieandfinch.com to get a signed book and a vial of ash from the Ashfall Fossil Beds for a gift they'll never forget.

If you've got fossil-loving kids in your life, they might want to know what happened after dinosaurs went extinct. Rhinos in Nebraska tells the tale! Order from francieandfinch.indielite.org/book/9781250... to get a signed copy. @mackidsbooks.bsky.social

#paleontology #kidlit #holidaygiving #STEM

Despite Prepublication Peer Review being a core part of science, training materials for it are sparse. This open source guide is very valuable for ECRs!

ecr-reviewers.gitlab.io/guide/