Space Explorers' Forest

Looking for the gift for the space explorer who has everything? Want to let the world know that Space Explorers love Earth too? Wish that being a space lover could be good for the environment? Join with others who think space exploration and saving the Earth go hand in hand by planting a tree in the Space Explorers' Forest!

Yuri's Night and a consortia of other space organizations, in partnership with American Forests, have created a project to bring Earth and Space a little closer together. We are planting a Space Explorers' Forest near Mojave, California, replacing trees that burned in the 2003 San Bernardino fires through the American Forests Global ReLeaf program. It will be a place that everyone will know was planted by people committed to space and committed to making a difference on Earth.

Go to www.americanforest.org click "donate now", and when it asks for the project you wish the funds to go to click, "Space Explorers' Forest" or just click here. Every $2 donation plants a tree in the Space Explorers' Forest. All donations are tax deductible. A portion of the proceeds will go to continuing to make space programming available to the next generation of space explorers. You can get a certificate suitable for giving. A "Global ReLeaf" customized PDF is even downloadable for printing and instant giving over the holidays!

So plant your trees in the Space Explorers' Forest today and our earth will have a healthier tomorrow!

You can also purchase your very own Moon Sycamore seedling from American Forests' Famous & Historic Tree selection to plant at home or in your community.Your Moon Sycamore is a descendant of a tree grown from seeds taken into Moon orbit on the Apollo 14 mission by astronaut Stuart Roosa former smoke jumper with the US Forest Service. The original seeds were germinated, and Moon Trees now grow at the White House, the National Arboretum, and on the campuses of various universities. If you would like to buy a historic Moon tree for planting at your own house, they are available from the American Forests Historic Nursery. A portion of proceeds from your purchase goes to space programming. Use promotion code moonforest09 when ordering.

Getting Louder with Steven Crowder: Pansies, Fatties and Planet Fitness

Vote by Cell Phone?

Here in the United States people have problems using the Star Trek pad looking voting machine that is easier to use than most television remotes. However, over in Estonia not only do people already get to vote using the internet, but there is talk that they may start voting using their cell phones!

While we are quick to point out the security problems of on-line and even any form of electronic voting, we seem to gloss over the number of dead people who vote each year. "Estonian officials said the Internet voting system in 2007 proved secure despite worries about hacker attacks, identity fraud and vote count manipulation." So perhaps the US should get with the times? I mean, our per capita GDP is only twice that of Estonia...

Then again... they let kids vote, so can we really take Estonia's ballot security that seriously?

Getting Louder with Steven Crowder: Auto Bailout

1st Annual Texas Political Science Student Conference

University of Houston
Houston, Texas
May 22, 2009

• Call for Papers
  
• Schedule

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Call for Papers

Abstracts due: January 30, 2009

All graduate students are invited to submit papers for the 1st Annual Texas Political Science Student Conference seventeenth sponsored by the Political Science Graduate Student Association at the University of Houston and the University of Houston Department of Political Science.

The conference seeks to highlight the research accomplishments of graduate students in a collegial and professional setting. We welcome papers on any topic related to government and/or politics. All subfields and political science perspectives are welcome. If you are interested in participating in this exciting event, please e-mail you abstract to psgsa@uh.edu by January 30, 2009. Those selected to participate will be contacted in mid February and final papers are due by May 8, 2009.

If you would like to serve as a discussant on a panel, please send an email to psgsa@uh.edu stating your interest and main areas of scholarly knowledge.

* Yes, I am one of the organizers of this event...

Do Campaigns Matter?

I know you are thinking "Of course they do silly" but I wanted to share this last response paper written for my Political Behavior class anyways.

The class left me with this important question that I very much care about: Does campaigning matter? A quick review of many predictive models used by political scientists to determine the outcome of a race focus on non-campaign effects, such as overall preferences towards a particular party, incumbency, economic metrics and other factors that a political candidate and their campaigns have little to no influence over. However, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

Downs’ Economic Theory of Democracy argues that voters are rational actors and thus will vote for a candidate who will provide the voter with the most utility. This would assume that the voter is able to determine which candidate this would be, despite the likely use of information shortcuts, the costs to gather the information, and the potential that information used to weigh the decision is correct and truthful. With this in mind, a candidate needs to campaign in order for people to understand that only by voting for them will the voter be able to maximize their utility. However, this theory also promotes the value of deceiving potential voters, so that they by putting a particular candidate in office they would be maximizing their utility when in reality they may not be. Clearly then, campaigns exist to trick voters into voting more than to inform the public.

So then, who is responsible for helping to inform the public and ensuring good information? One might be quick to think of the media for this job. While there is a constant belief of media and elite opinion influencing the public, course readings have yet to show that the effect is anywhere near as strong as popular opinion would suggest. Gelman and King believe that the news media play a critical role in enabling voter to make decisions based on the “equivalent of explicitly enlightened preferences,” but that they waste their ability by focusing on polls and campaign events rather than the issues.

The information shortcut of political parties seems to provide some help with the issue, but even parties change over time and the people often take a long time to realize this. In addition to their conclusions on the importance of party in the voting decision, Miller and Shanks provide a very important key to the puzzle of the value of campaigns; campaigns are for activating. In other words, the value of the political campaign may not be to convert a person to the candidate’s views on an issue, but rather to entice and excite people who hold those views already to vote for the candidate in order to maximize their own utility.

It would appear that voters must rely upon the media of the campaigns themselves for the information needed. However, the theory of issue ownership implies that candidates will only inform on the issues they feel that the public would be on their side about. Thus, a voter only gets to know what benefits each side will bring but not about the deficits to the voters utility. Kaplan et al. point out that candidates do converge, at least some times, and thus provide the voting public with the exact information they need; both candidates views on the same issue, in order to determine which candidate would provide for the most utility.

So campaigns do matter, assuming voters are paying attention, and act based on the information they gather while avoiding influence of irrational information (information that will not allow maximization of utility) towards one candidate or the other along the way. While this theory, much like Downs’ is relatively difficult to test, further exploration of campaign effects may shed more light on the subject. Nevertheless, for now, it is safe to say, that candidates still need to campaign should they expect to win elections.

If you want more info on the subject...