Etc...
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Links
Here are links to my main projects:
- The Jury and Democracy project catalogs research I am doing with colleagues on the civic impact of jury service.
- The Cultural Cognition project. We're trying to clarify how culture shapes public attitudes and deliberation.
- Washington Citizens Initiative Review (CIR). This project is headed-up by Ned Crosby and is seeking to implement citizen panels to improve the information voters have during elections. It develops ideas Ned and I have both written about previously. Click here for more info on the CIR within my website.
- Desktop Democracy is a collaboration with John Wilkerson (UW Political Science) to bring simulation software into high school and college classrooms.
Other Odds and Ends I've Created
Many years back, some of my friends in Madison, Wisconsin and I recorded a children's story about my childhood cat, Furry. It's a simple morality play about civil rights, I suppose, set to the music of Philip Glass and the like. I have now uploaded to this site a copy of "Furry the Positively Amazing Singing Cat."
Okay, it's not what you'd maybe expect from the likes of me, but I've had a hand in creating and maintaining the TullyBevilaqua.org website. She's one of the Australian members of the Seattle Storm, our fair city's World Champion WNBA team. Tully's an inspiration. Visit the site to learn more.
The World of Deliberation
The principal deliberation-related associations I have worked with include:
- Deliberative Democracy Consortium
- National Coalition for Dialogue and Deliberation
- Logolink: Learning Initiative on Citizen Participation in Local Governance
- International Association for Public Participation
Check out the Fielding Institute's online certificate program in Dialogue, Deliberation, and Civic Engagement.
Citizen Assemblies are one of the neatest and newest forms of deliberation. British Columbia's already held one. Now, Ontario is doing one in 2006.
The Outside World (of My Choosing)
To all who crave serious news, I recommend The Onion, an outstanding source for information on current issues. A few years back, they transitioned from primarily wacky to more satirical. They're like a more extreme version of the Daily Show. Also check out this bit of Prez. Bush satire: a remix of his "Let's go to war" press conference.
For those who believe there has been no good television since "All in the Family" went off the air, you have clearly missed out on The Tick, and The Simpsons. Though The Tick is cancelled, you can now watch the Aqua Teens, though it might have slipped in its last season. The Simpsons was on a many-year downward spiral in quality, but we've seen hope in some of the 2004 episodes.
If you still haven't found a use for the Internet, you should use it to learn more about your favorite sports team, which for me is the lowly Detroit Lions. Or get in touch with the best musicians of our time, such as, say, Weird Al or Todd Rundgren.
Want to get to know the larger Gastil family? Visit the web page of my uncle, Raymond Gastil, who studies democracies around the globe. Or go to my mom's page for her real estate business, Mountain Farms Realty. My brother George is running for State Assembly in California, which necessitated the inevitable gastil.com.
We can't make the busses run on time in Seattle, but we can watch them arrive late using the latest technology -- the Busview Map.
Native American comedian Charlie Hill and his friends made a funny NPR show, and you can check out some funny bits at Club Red.
