Universal Service from the Bottom Up: A Study of Telephone Penetration in Camden, New Jersey

Ethnographic methods and geographic information systems were used to investigate the extent, causes and consequences of telephone disconnection in Camden, NJ. The results have significant implications for public policies intended to promote universal telephone penetration. Universal service is usually perceived as an issue for rural areas and the elderly, but the most extensive pockets of low telephone penetration are found in inner cities, where the problem is associated with the young, the transient, and ethnic minorities. The basic monthly rate paid by subscribers is usually thought to be the most important factor affecting affordability, but the data suggest that most marginal users are driven off the network by usage-related costs, and more generally by the problem of credit-worthiness. Given prevailing consumption patterns in low-income urban areas, 'electronic redlining' seems less of a threat than that poor Americans will, upon exposure to the advanced features of the national information infrastructure (NII), buy services that they cannot afford. Intellectuals and policy analysts value telephone service more than cable television service, but residents of inner cities frequently do not agree with this evaluation. In reformulating universal service policy, we must take account of the growing heterogeneity of telecommunications services, and keep in mind the importance of credit risk as a factor affecting the public's ability to access and use telecommunication networks.     

Tianshanbeilu and the Isotopic Millet Road: reviewing the late Neolithic/Bronze Age radiation of human millet consumption from north China to Europe

The westward expansion of human millet consumption from north China has important implications for understanding early interactions between the East and West. However, few studies have focused on the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, the vast geographical area directly linking the ancient cultures of the Eurasian Steppe and the Gansu Corridor of China. In this study, we present the largest isotopic investigation of Bronze Age China (n = 110) on material from the key site of Tianshanbeilu, in eastern Xinjiang. The large range of δ¹³C values (–17.6‰ to –7.2‰; –15.5 ± 1.2‰) provides direct evidence of unique dietary diversity and consumption of significant C₄ resources (millets). The high δ¹⁵N results (10.3‰ to 16.7‰; 14.7 ± 0.8‰) likely reflect sheep/goat and wild game consumption and the arid climate of the Taklamakan Desert. Radiocarbon dates from four individuals indicate Tianshanbeilu was in use between 1940 and 1215 cal bc. The Tianshanbeilu results are then analysed with respect to 52 Bronze Age sites from across Eurasia, to investigate the spread and chronology of significant human millet consumption and human migration. This isotopic survey finds novel evidence that the second millennium bc was a dynamic period, with significant dietary interconnectivity occurring between north China, Central Asia and Siberia. Further, we argue that this ‘Isotopic Millet Road’ extended all the way to the Mediterranean and Central Europe, and conclude that these C₄ dietary signatures of millet consumption reflect early links (migration and/or resource transfer) between the Bronze Age inhabitants of modern-day China and Europe.     

Releaser-induced recognition learning by amphibians and reptiles

This review evaluates the bases of the widely held assumption that amphibians and reptiles possess impoverished learning abilities. Procedurally defined forms of learning (instrumental conditioning, Pavlovian conditioning and autoshaping, imprinting, and social learning) are reviewed, as well as evidence for the involvement of learning in various behavioral phenomena, including aversive stimulus and predator avoidance, noxious and palatable food recognition, conditioned aversion formation, search image, conspecific recognition, habitat recognition, and cultural transmission of stimulus recognition. The evidence reviewed suggests that amphibian and reptilian learning, for the most part, consists of a releasing-stimulus-induced redirection of innately organized released responses. Amphibians and reptiles appear to learn what stimulus to respond to rather than how to respond to a particular stimulus.     

Heterogeneous Effects of Charter Schools: Unpacking Family Selection and Achievement Growth in Los Angeles

Disparate findings on whether students attending charter schools outperform peers in traditional public schools (TPS) may stem from mixing differing types of charters or inadequately accounting for pupil background. To gauge prior family selection and heterogeneous effects, we distinguish between conversion and start-up charter schools, along with a third site-run model operating in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). We find that TPS campuses converting to charter status (conversions) attracted more experienced and consistently credentialed teachers, and served relatively advantaged families, compared with newly created charter schools (start-ups), after tracking 66,000 students over 4 years, 2007–2011. Charters overall attracted pupils achieving at higher levels as they began a grade cycle (at baseline), relative to TPS peers, most pronounced among conversions that remained affiliated with the district. After matching students on their propensities to enter a charter school, we find that pupils attending charters outperformed TPS peers over the 4-year period. These benefits are most consistent and moderate in magnitude for middle school students. We observed significant though small effects in English language arts for pupils attending charter high schools. Latino students, mostly attending start-ups, enjoyed consistent benefits from attending a charter school.     

English lessons: children’s poetic perspectives

Children from eleven PGCE partnership schools participated in a poetry writing competition. In writing a poem entitled An English Lesson they have provided an insight into what they experience in the English classroom. The poems, published in-house as an anthology, have been analysed using the key concepts of the National Curriculum for English ( QCA, 2007 ) – competence; creativity; cultural understanding; and critical understanding. This article accompanies some of the children’s poems.     

General Mass Communications

Ben H. Bagdikian's The Information Machines: Their Impact on Men and the Media.

R. Buckminster Fuller, I Seem To Be A Verb (Bantam D5235, $1.65).