In the united states, shortwave listening is an obscure hobby, and listening for pirates is even more obscure. I have heard a rumor that in the late 1940s, some congressmen pressured radio receiver manufacturers to stop including shortwave in their consumer receivers, and to include instead FM. FM, of course, is higher quality, but can only be received within 50 or 60 miles at most, whereas shortwave can be heard around the world. I have heard that the congressmen stepped in because they did not want americans listening to radio moscow, or news from any source outside the US for that matter.

How do the longshoremen calculate employer contributions to the pension fund in new york and in charleston, South Carolina (local
1422).

I'm a student doing a research paper about homeless people. I have some questions for Food Not Bombs, but could not find a contact person. These are my questions about food not bombs:
1: Who is your organization?

Can you check into how many school counselors there are in the NYC public school system? I'm editing an article which says there are only 300, which is much fewer than I would expect.

I am looking high & low for a list of the owners, corporate & individual, of the radio stations in my area which is eastern Washington state. HELP!!!

Shout Out to radical
library workers!

Library workers are launching
a project in support of the demonstrations surrounding the Republican National
Convention in New York City August 29-September 2, 2004. We will offer blog,
chat, street, and news reference, responding to questions from demonstrators.

Sound ambitious? It is,
so we need help.

Please contact info@radicalreference.info
if you would like to:

• answer e-mail reference
  questions
• use your foreign language
  skills to answer questions and make the site more accessible
• perform chat reference
• participate in street
  reference
• be a news librarian,
  teaching and researching for independent media journalists
• help with the website
• gather "Quick Facts
  & Contacts" info for street reference
• rally together as library
  workers at the protests
• send us money (for hats
  to identify us, materials, technical costs)

All will be welcome to
participate regardless of skill level or proximity to NYC. Indicate in your
message in which areas you will participate.

NOTE: our website is under
construction. We hope to have it ready to receive reference questions by the
end of the week.