Res.I.P. – an unprofessional science (and other things) blog: September 2017

Add-On zur Landtagswahl in Niedersachsen: Die Standpunkte im Wahlkompass als Übersicht

Hier noch ein paar Infografiken für den interessierten niedersächsischen Wähler. Ein Plot der 30 Punkte im Wahlkompass zur Übersicht.

Ein paar Infografiken für die Wahl in Niedersachsen

Im Gegensatz zu ihrem Bundespendant, bietet die Niedersächsiche Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (NLpB) keinen Wahl-O-Mat an, sondern einen echten Wahlkompass. Eine wunderbare Gelegenheit für ein weiteres politisches Netzwerk.

Another Don Quixote gone: Beall’s List of Predatory Journals

Open access publishing is an exploding market, and, hence, has attracted many predators trying to make a quick buck selling the corpse of scientific credibility. But there was one riding against them, but no more.

Changing sides – voter migration mapped in 2- and 3-dimensional space

Migration of voters in elections is usually figured as a 1-dimensional graph, showing on one side what voters voted in the last election, and on the other, their new party. But this hardly show how far (some of them) migrated.

Bundestag election 2017 – the likely unlikely new government

The result is out and Angela Merkel will get her next coalition government running with the centrist-ecological Green Party and the neoliberal FDP. But how does this compare to the parties’ official agendas?

Two papers you may want to read before inferring trees from morphological (or other) data

In this post, I'll advertise two probably undercited papers published in 2004 by Richard H. Zander regarding “Minimal values of reliability of Bootstrap and Jackknife proportions, Decay index, and Bayesian posterior probability”, and Matthew Spencer and co-workers on the “Phylogenetics of artificial manuscripts”. Two papers that should have been read by anyone trying to infer trees from morphological data including fossil taxa, or non-trivial data in general.

Subtropical ⊊ warm temperate

In this post, I will give an introduction into the main climate zone concepts, which are too often confused in non-climatic literature.

One date that is missing in many scientific publications

In most journals, the peer-review process is poorly documented. Typically, one is provided only several dates, and possibly the name of the editor. I'll share some light onto the dates found on some of my papers. Review process transparency is, ultimately, the only choice, when these dates should have any value for authors (producers) and readers (consuments).

Add-on zur Wahl-O-Mat Distanzanalyse: Die Antworten der Big-Six in einem Bild

Hier noch eine kleine Spielerei für die, die auf einen Blick sehen wollen, wie die Big-Six, die Parteien mit realistischen Chancen in den Bundestag reinzukommen, zu den 36 Wahl-O-Mat Fragen stehen.

Wahl-O-Mat 2017 – wie nah sind sich eigentlich die Parteien?

Als in Frankreich (EU-Land) lebender Deutscher (anderes EU-Land), habe ich leider keinen Einfluß auf die Zusammensetzung des Parlaments und der Regierung, deren Politik mein tägliches Leben bestimmt. Aber – zumindestens theoretisch – könnte ich an der Bundestagwahl teilnehmen.

Liberal denial and diving into another reality

Are you also suffering from liberal denial as I do? When you read this post, you will find out soon enough. But the most important thing first: When you suffer from liberal denial illness, and are eligible to vote: Don’t forget to do it next time! Particularly, if you are a U.S. citizen.

The review process should be transparent not confidential

A few days ago, I was alerted to a paper on Zelkova by Zhang et al., published in Tree Genetics & Genomes, because the authors cited our study from 2005 (Denk & Grimm 2005). Although, I’m out-of-business, I had to look at it (old habits), and I lost it. How could this pass the review process?