Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Rob Hyndman @robjhyndman.com · 5d

We're looking for a new actuarial professor. careers.pageuppeople.com/513/cw/en/jo... @monashebs.bsky.social @monashuniversity.bsky.social #actuarial

Job Search

careers.pageuppeople.com

9 7

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 7d

Web access to R-Forge is live again! 🎉

r-forge.r-project.org

R-Forge: Welcome

R-Forge.R-project.org

2 6

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 12d

📢 PSA: The R-Forge server is under attack from hackers and hence web access (e.g., for package installation) is currently down. #rstats

The team at WU Wien is working on it. I'll report here when it is back up again.

1 8 16

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 15d

Where was tinyplot alll my #rstats life?

Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 16d

`tinyplot` 0.5.0 is now available from CRAN & R-universe. Alongside bug fixes & internal improvements, this release includes some cool new features like bubble chart + dual legend support, element dodging, & ephemeral themes.

Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW...

#rstats #dataviz

tinyplot bubble chart example with dual legend, using penguins data. Taken from https://grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/vignettes/gallery.html

1 1 13

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 14d

Alternatively you can export R/exams also to learning management systems like Moodle, Canvas & Co. This also enables embedding individualized data sets for download.

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 14d

Thanks for the feature and the very kind words about #rexams, very much appreciated!

Quick comment about the "low-tech" format of written/scanned exams: These seem to be becoming more popular again because it's easier to control access to AI tools and prevent cheating etc.

1

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

R-Podcast (Eric) @rpodcast.bsky.social · 14d

Episode 211 of R-Weekly Highlights is out! serve.podhome.fm/episodepage/...

🏗️ Parse & edit #markdown documents @ropensci.org
🤖 Vibe-coding a package @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy
🏫 R-Exams quality control @zeileis.org

h/t @mike-thomas.bsky.social & Jon Carroll 🙏

#RStats #DataScience

Issue 2025-W39 Highlights

Fresh off an amazing experience at posit::conf(2025), the R Weekly Highlights podcast is back with episode 211! Eric and Mike share their experiences at…

serve.podhome.fm

2 3 6

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 14d

🚨 PSA for R/exams users.

New StackOverflow post showing how to generate interactive overviews of all your exercise files. In response to the question by @luca-scr.bsky.social #rexams #rstats

stackoverflow.com/questions/79...

Create a document with an overview of all available R/exams exercises

I have several .qmd files with R/exams exercises. I can select a subset and include them in a PDF file using exams2pdf() without any problem. However, I would like to produce a PDF file with all the

stackoverflow.com

1 4

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Michael Friendly @datavisfriendly.bsky.social · 15d

#dataviz #StatsSky
A fun new game: dataguessr.com
Place countries in order based on some variable

Dataguessr

Update your knowledge of the world. One quiz at a time.

dataguessr.com

1 1 9

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · 16d

`tinyplot` 0.5.0 is now available from CRAN & R-universe. Alongside bug fixes & internal improvements, this release includes some cool new features like bubble chart + dual legend support, element dodging, & ephemeral themes.

Detailed changelog: grantmcdermott.com/tinyplot/NEW...

#rstats #dataviz

1 14 58

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Andreas Steinmayr @andreassteinmayr.net · 16d

Next year, we will host the VfS Annual Meeting in Innsbruck. I look forward to seeing many of you on our beautiful campus in the Alps. #VfS_Conf2026

Verein für Socialpolitik e.V. @vfsecon.bsky.social · 16d

📢 After the Annual Meeting is before the Annual Meeting! We are very much looking forward to #VfS_Conf2026! Where? @uniinnsbruck.bsky.social
🔗https://www.socialpolitik.de/de/termin/annual-conference-2026

3 10

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Jonathan Carroll @jonocarroll.fosstodon.org.ap.brid.gy · 17d

The latest issue of @rweekly is now live!

https://rweekly.org/2025-W39.html

This week's highlights:
✏️ All the Ways to Programmatically Edit or Parse R Markdown / Quarto Documents by @rOpenSci
🈂️ I Vibe Coded an R Package by @jonocarroll
☑️ Quality Control for Scanned Multiple-Choice Exams by […]

Original post on fosstodon.org

fosstodon.org

10 16

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 21d

Whoa—my book is up for pre-order!

𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐭 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭 & 𝐌𝐋 𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐬 𝐢𝐧 #Rstats 𝐚𝐧𝐝 #PyData

The book presents an ultra-simple and powerful workflow to make sense of ± any model you fit

The web version will stay free forever and my proceeds go to charity.

tinyurl.com/4fk56fc8

9 84 270

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 22d

Nice blog post, just discovered it today, thanks!

Combination of #rexams with quarto-live (or something along those lines) would indeed be nice. So far we haven't really tried to come up with anything, though...

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Andreas Handel @andreashandel.bsky.social · Feb 26

I was looking for a way to include quizzes in #Quarto and ended up writing down my thoughts in a brief blog post: www.andreashandel.com/posts/2025-0...
Would love to hear from experts like @andrew.heiss.phd and others if I missed (or misinterpreted) anything 😀

Quizzes and exercises for Quarto websites – Andreas Handel

Andreas Handel personal website.

www.andreashandel.com

1 3 7

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 22d

If the entire sheet was not scanned correctly, e.g., rotated too much or scanner markings were damaged:

nops_fix() can open an interactive form in the browser to enter all results.

Screenshot of a sheet that could not be scanned due to rotation and damaged scanner markers. The sheet is shown in a browser next to an interactive web form where all details from the exam sheet can be entered manually. The entered information includes the student registration number, the exam ID, the 3-digit type code, and check-boxes for all answers.

1

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 22d

Typical problems in multiple-choice NOPS exams:

Check-boxes are not marked correctly (with an X in the center) or not filled fully (to cancel the results).

nops_fix() can go through these and prompt interactively for corrections.

1 1

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 22d

📢 New #rexams tutorial: Quality control for scanned multiple-choice exams with nops_fix() in #rstats

- Automatic display of problematic sheets
- Prompting for manual corrections
- Special checks for implausible answer patterns
- Manual review of specific exam sheets

www.r-exams.org/tutorials/no...

Quality Control for Scanned Multiple-Choice Exams

Step-by-step guide to using nops_fix() for fixing problems that occurred during scanning written NOPS exams in R/exams.

www.R-exams.org

1 1 5

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Dirk Eddelbuettel @eddelbuettel.com · 27d

Every now and then someone is wrong on the interwebs. Every now and then we push back. A few years ago I set up github repo 'ldlasb' ('lies, damn lies, and selective benchmarks'). Today it was time for 'ldlasb2' which contains the note and four charts. #rstats

eddelbuettel.github.io/ldlasb2/benc...

Benchmarking cpp11armadillo and RcppArmadillo: But Correctly This Time

eddelbuettel.github.io

3 3 21

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Vincent Arel-Bundock @vincentab.bsky.social · 28d

This is a paper I really care about. I feel the core message is very important for social scientists in general, and political scientists in particular.

"Quantitative Research in Political Science is Greatly Underpowered."

(with A+ co-authors)

3 30 91

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · Sep 2

Just want to play the quiz 💡 and test your flag skills ⁉️

Click on ↺ in the bottom right corner for new random versions of each question ⚡

www.r-exams.org/assets/posts...

Fun with Flags

www.R-exams.org

1 2 3

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · Sep 2

🎉 R/exams Presents: Fun with Flags

How to: Create standalone quizzes with #rstats #rexams #quarto

Demo: Knowledge quiz about the flags of countries and their neighbors (honoring Sheldon Cooper)
🇨🇦 🇺🇸 🇲🇽 🇬🇹 🇧🇿

Useful for: Open educational resources for self-learning etc

www.r-exams.org/general/fun_...

R/exams Presents: Fun with Flags

A knowledge quiz about the flags of countries and their neighbors illustrates how R/exams and Quarto can be leveraged for standalone self-learning materials (and pays tribute to Sheldon Cooper).

www.r-exams.org

2 2 8

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 28d

📣 New blog post: Creating and managing Canvas quizzes with R/exams and vvcanvas

- Create quiz zip using exams2canvas() from #rexams

- Import in #canvaslms via API and vvcanvas pkg

- Manipulate settings programmatically from #rstats

By Niels Smits

www.r-exams.org/tutorials/vv...

Creating and managing Canvas quizzes with R/exams and vvcanvas

Canvas quizzes can be created with exams2canvas in R/exams and then imported and managed in Canvas using the R package vvcanvas.

www.R-exams.org

2

Reposted by Achim Zeileis

Grant McDermott @gmcd.bsky.social · Jul 18

#rstats #econsky PSA: The next release of `fixest` will include some important changes (plus cool new features).

E.g. Fixed-effects regs will now default to 'iid' SEs rather than clustered. github.com/lrberge/fixe...

You can install and test drive the dev version from R-universe; see the README.

From the fixest NEWS file: the new default VCOV is iid for all estimations. To change the default to the way it was, place setFixest_vcov(all = "cluster", no_FE = "iid") in your .Rprofile.

2 12 33

Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · Sep 5

🤩

1