Colour the future green?: The uncertain significance of global green politics

A major value shift in industrialized countries in the same direction as the core values of the Greens movements suggests that there is a cultural phenomenon involving far more people than the overt political manifestation of it. This article links such a value shift with something more fundamental, namely a movement away from confident scientific positivism towards some kind of ill-defined transcendentalism. Related cultural and social movements in the industrialized countries and global attitudes in the developing world are examined. It appears that even if the Greens movements weaken or disappear in their present form, they are political manifestations of a broader cultural thrust that seems unlikely to diminish.     

The human dimensions of wildlife tourism in a developing country: watching spinner dolphins at Lovina,Bali, Indonesia

The number of cetacean watching tourism operations in developing countries has doubled in the past decade. Practices are typically unregulated and not informed by research, especially research into the human dimensions of the tourist experience. Dolphin watching tourism at Lovina, Bali, started in the late 1980s when local fishers formed self-regulating cooperatives. Up to 180 dedicated operators use small fishing vessels to carry passengers to watch dolphins close to shore. Most tourists come from western countries, although the industry also attracts Asian visitors. Most visitors are tertiary-educated. Tourist satisfaction ranges from low to medium. While there was no significant difference between the average satisfaction of western and Asian tourists, the associated variables were different. The satisfaction of western tourists was associated with encounter management, preferred number of boats and the number of dolphins seen. Encounter management was the only variable associated with the satisfaction of Asian tourists. Satisfaction was positively associated with willingness to recommend the tour: western respondents who felt neutral to very comfortable with their dolphin encounters were more likely to promote the tour. Better understanding of the tourist experience is crucial in designing sustainable marine wildlife tourism in developing countries; such research appears to be rare.     

A local maximum likelihood model of crop yield distributions

In this note, we propose a local maximum likelihood estimator for spatially-dependent distributions. Our estimator adopts the Poisson regression approach for density ratio models and incorporates spatial smoothing via local regression. We also present a method of smoothing parameter selection. We illustrate this easy-to-implement estimator with an application to the estimation of corn yield distributions of Iowa counties. The usefulness of the approach is further demonstrated via an application to the estimation of crop insurance premium.     

On military RDT&E in Israel

Military research, development, testing and evaluation in Israel are described in historical perspective prior to the 1973 war. Emphasis is given to the advantages of short, informal lines of communication, flexibility in the process of weapons development and to the immediacy of perceived military threat as possible reasons for success of weapons developed by or weapons technologies adapted by Israel. Relatively small size of the nation and the military organization are also seen to be advantages for effective development or adoption of military technology.