Issue 2026-W21 Highlights

Applying novel statistical and visualization techniques to predict war duration, why there is more than meets the statistical eye behind a classical model benchmarking statistic, and celebrating a major milestone for pioneers in open science with R. 
Episode Links 

• This week's curator: Colin Fay - @colinfay@fosstodon.org (Mastodon) & @colinfay.bsky.social (Bluesky) & [@_ColinFay]](https://twitter.com/_ColinFay) (X/Twitter)
• Durations of wars by @ellis2013nz
• Learning Data Science: Why a High R^2 Can Be Misleading
• 15 Years of rOpenSci, and We're Just Getting Started
• Entire issue available at rweekly.org/2026-W21

Supplement Resources

• Correlates of war data set: https://correlatesofwar.org/data-sets/cow-war/
• tidymodels https://www.tidymodels.org/
• Donation to rOpenSci https://ropensci.org/donate/
• Upcoming rOpenSci events https://ropensci.org/events/
• Software peer review https://ropensci.org/software-review/
• R Pharma Hangouts recordings https://rinpharma.com/docs/hangout/recordings

Supporting the show

• Use the contact page at https://serve.podhome.fm/custompage/r-weekly-highlights/contact to send us your feedback
• R-Weekly Highlights on the Podcastindex.org - You can send a boost into the show directly in the Podcast Index. First, top-up with Alby, and then head over to the R-Weekly Highlights podcast entry on the index.
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• Get in touch with us on social media
  • Eric Nantz: @rpodcast@podcastindex.social (Mastodon), @rpodcast.bsky.social (BlueSky) and @theRcast (X/Twitter)
  • Mike Thomas: @mike_thomas@fosstodon.org (Mastodon), @mike-thomas.bsky.social (BlueSky), and @mike_ketchbrook (X/Twitter) 

Music credits powered by OCRemix

• The Quick and the Blue - Mega Man 2 - The Megas - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02090
• Serenity & Grace - Chrono Cross - timaeus222 - https://ocremix.org/remix/OCR04143