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The recent debate surrounding the effects on marine mammals of the proposed Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate (ATOC) experiment has revealed sharp incongruities in approach by the public, their elected representatives and the scientists behind the program. Much of the current outcry has arisen as a byproduct of rapidly evolving environmental attitudes and information technology to which none of the key parties to the issue has yet fully adjusted. The process of dissemination and assimilation of scientific information that guides the progress of issues of increasing complexity is no longer in equilibrium with evolving technology. Specifically; this paper argues that there are two crucial components to an incipient instability in public and official response to emerging scientific policy issues: (1) The extremely rapid and broad dissemination of information made possible by the information highway, and (2) The great pressure to paraphrase and attempt to formulate a position without investing the full resources required to adequately comprehend the issues. The ongoing ATOC debate serves as an informative illustration of the vulnerability of scientific inquiry to policy shifts based on overly simplified analysis of complex scientific issues- analysis that may be abetted by recent advances in information technology.

Jennifer Fleetwood and Gary R. Potter introduce a Special Section on ethnographic research on crime and control.

This article reports on an empirical study into a group of drug dealers supplying cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, ketamine, and other drugs in and around a small English city. It reveals a market that is not overly structured or hierarchically controlled, and certainly not dominated by organized crime or characterized by violence. Dealers involved had often drifted into "real" dealing from backgrounds in "social supply." However, despite an increase of their dealing activity (and of their profits), they still maintained the "social supply" values of friendship and trust as the key elements to relationships with suppliers and customers. Escalation of drug dealing did not seem to be accompanied by any wider escalation in criminality or involvement with organized crime.

Rapport between interviewer & R is a factor thought to have an impact on the quantity & quality of information obtained in a personal interview. Few empirical studies exist, however; & sources reporting contradictory conclusions on the relationships between rapport & other variables (interviewer & R characteristics, properties of the interview) entering the interview situation can be located. After explaining the measures used, data are analyzed from 619 interviews conducted with Ind suburban & Ru residents. Contrary to a previous study using the same operational measures, rapport is directly related to previous interviewer experience; a brief explanation for this difference is delineated, with differential SS between R & interviewer as a key factor. Using regression analysis, rapport score is not strongly related to interviewer characteristics, R characteristics, nor structural properties of the interview; thus, rapport is not influenced by factors usually thought to be active biasing agents in interviewing situations. Interviewer perceptions, however, provide more efficient predictors of rapport; these perceptions could themselves be used as operational measures of rapport considering the looseness of previous definitions. Raport then is moved from the dependent variable category & examined as an independent measure contributing to interviewer performance. Rapport & interviewer performance are related positively, but the portion of total variance explained by rapport is extremely limited. Because rapport is not strongly related to other interview variables, further studies of the concept may be relatively useless unless agreement on a conceptual & operational definition can be reached. Modified AA.