New research has found that scientists studying sea-level rise have been using methods that underestimate how high the water already is. One result is that hundreds of millions more people worldwide are already living dangerously close to the rising ocean than Western scientists had previously estimated.
The new study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature, has found that the vast majority of scientific studies have made this mistake. Coastal sea levels are, on average, eight inches to a foot higher than many maps and models of the world’s coastlines indicate, the research found.
R remains my favorite program language. It also is a favorite of many programmers, especially in the data-analysis and processing and academia. It remains a highly popular programming language for data science, statistics, and visualization, experiencing a resurgence in 2025 by returning to the TIOBE index top 10. It also is number four now on PYPL. It thrives in academia and research-driven industries, with strong adoption in bioinformatics, finance, and data analytics, despite facing competition from Python.
PyPL March 2026
Rank
Change
Language
Share
1-year trend
1
Python
34.87 %
+4.4 %
2
C/C++
13.66 %
+6.6 %
3
Java
9.82 %
-5.4 %
4
R
6.49 %
+1.9 %
5
JavaScript
4.9 %
-3.2 %
6
Swift
3.5 %
+1.1 %
7
Rust
3.08 %
-0.0 %
8
C#
3.03 %
-3.1 %
9
PHP
2.9 %
-0.8 %
10
Ada
2.66 %
+1.3 %
TIOBE Index March 2026
Mar 2026
Mar 2025
Change
Programming Language
Ratings
Change
1
1
Python
21.25%
-2.59%
2
4
C
11.55%
+2.02%
3
2
C++
8.18%
-2.90%
4
3
Java
7.99%
-2.37%
5
5
C#
6.36%
+1.49%
6
6
JavaScript
3.45%
-0.01%
7
9
Visual Basic
2.50%
-0.02%
8
8
SQL
2.00%
-0.57%
9
16
R
1.88%
+0.94%
10
10
Delphi/Object Pascal
1.80%
-0.36%
Key Popularity Trends (2025-2026):
Rankings: As of late 2025, R has returned to the top 10 in the TIOBE Index, which measures popularity based on search engine results.
Use Cases: R is widely considered a leading language for advanced statistical analysis, data visualization, and research, often favored for its specialized, comprehensive packages (e.g., Tidyverse, Shiny).
Industry Niche: It is highly popular in data-intensive fields like bioinformatics, genomics, and financial technology (FinTech) for risk management.
Vs. Python: While Python is generally more popular for large-scale production, R is often preferred for exploratory data analysis (EDA) and rapid, specialized analysis.
Community: R has a strong, dedicated user base in academia, though it is sometimes criticized by traditional software engineers for limited scalability.
R’s resurgence suggests it remains an indispensable, powerful tool for domain experts in data-driven fields.
With gas prices going up, I’ve been thinking more about the fuel costs of a big ol’ SuperDuty gasser truck. It seems like the internet consensus is you’ll get around 15½ miles per gallon, though much lower if idle, off-road or drive in the city a lot, as big block pushrod engines guzzle gas doing all of those things due to pumping loses in the engine. Highway driving, moderately gets you maybe 17 or maybe up 19 miles per gallon depending on terrain and how easy you are on the gas pedal.
As the slogan goes, “Smiles Per Gallon, Not Miles Per Gallon” as I saw on one of SuperDuty groups I’m part of on Facebook which either reminds me of every single problem that can go wrong on a big Ford and how truly bad gas millage some people are getting. Plus some people who actually love their trucks. Driving an ginormous SuperDuty ain’t going to be much fun in the city, with parking and getting through traffic with the blind spots, but I mostly plan to use it on trips out on the open road.
Americans with their EPA-style fuel economy comparison unit, the miles per gallon, doesn’t tell you much. You bought ten gallons of fuel. You can go 155 miles. But nobody plans their lives around how far they can go on 10 gallons or even one gallon of fuel. They want to know how much fuel their truck is going to use for their 100 mile trip. At 15½ MPG that works out to be 6.5 gallons of fuel per 100 miles.
If gas costs …
$3 a gallon, then it’s $19.50 per hundred miles
$4 a gallon, then it’s $26 per hundred miles
$5 a gallon, then it’s $32.50 per hundred miles
$6 a gallon, then it’s $43 per hundred miles
If you’re focusing on smiles per gallon, namely how much it costs to drive an hour at 45 mph …
$3 a gallon, its $8.78 per hour
$4 a gallon, its $11.70 per hour
$5 a gallon, it’s $14.75 per hour
$6 a gallon, it’s a $17.70 per hour
Obviously, $6 a gallon gas is twice as expensive as $3 gallon. For a recreational trip, by definition, the trip is optional, so it’s pretty easy to calculate the likely fuel cost of any trip. So you have a set cost, and you can fit it into your budget, or not take the trip. Paying for gas for recreational driving isn’t mandatory if you don’t take trip.
Maybe these days that I make good money and are pretty frugal in most parts of my life, I am less concerned about the cost of gas. Or when i break down the cost per hundred miles of intentional driving to a recreational destination it shows what a trifling number it is. Obviously, if I was planning to drive 10,000 miles a year, it does add up at $6 gallon – a fairly steep $4,300 – but I don’t plan to do that many miles anytime soon, using my bike and city bus mostly around town. I think last year I barely put 6,000 miles on Big Red. I also doubt such high gas prices are sustainable for long, as people, myself included refrain from driving.
I know I am making excuses in my own mind for the ginormous truck that gets bad gas mileage as gas prices soar as the Middle East blows up. Still, numbers seems more reasonable when I keep it in context.
