General flight from human contact that's rooted in the atomistic American conceptions of autonomy and freedom.
I'm waiting for your book-length development of this theme.
Hell, I can cure Prager's noise problem for the price of a box of ammo. The sensitivity to EM fields he'll have to work on himself. Perhaps sticking his head in a degausser coil might work but getting near an A-bomb blast will for sure.
How did that sentence get in there? I'm a little hazy this morning.
Furthermore, the infidels will be vanquished.
You know, earth-sheltered houses are remarkably quiet, even in urban and near-highway conditions....
the general unlivability of modern urban life
What kind of drugs are you on?
B, maybe his problem is that he isn't on drugs. Anti-depressants make things seem so nice.
I find too-quiet as annoying as too-loud.
10: Oh, I looooves me the quiet. Which is why I want to poison that goddamned dachsund next door.
9: Anti-ds help me tolerate non-urban life.
Anti-ds
Is it because he's black or Canadian?
I thought she meant Aunty D's. I didn't realize B hates black people.
I, um, happen to know someone who spent his career studying noise and annoyance (mostly airport noise). They aren't the same, for all the predictable reasons. People like low rumble-y sound and noise for which they have an emotional attachment (like trains) and get annoyed by unpredictable or high-screech-y noises.
He's done some neat work, doing airport complaint contour maps and overlaying them to flight paths. He's done sleep disturbance studies for communities next to runways. They give residents a little box they keep next to their bed; they're to push the button on it every time something wakes them in the night. They found that as long as the flights are on schedule, everyone sleeps through the night. But if an airplane approaches from the opposite end of the runway, everyone in the study will wake up, hit their button and go back to sleep. The next day, most of them won't remember the disturbance.
But yeah, noise sensitivity is real personal. Most airport noise complaints (like, >90% of them) will be generated by a single caller. The acoustician I know always played loud music when we were kids, so my sister and I wouldn't mind noise. It seems to have worked; I usually sleep fine in the noisiest room in the house and don't mind street noise. I like silence when I can get it, but don't mind noise.
One of the best-known anecdotes about John Cage concerns his visit to an anechoic (maximally sound-suppressing) chamber at Harvard. When he reported that he could still hear sounds inside, specifically a high ringing and a low pulse, the engineer running the place explained that the sounds came from Cage's own nervous and circulatory systems. Complain about the neighbors all you want, your problem starts with you.
As long as no ones SLURPING or BREATHING WETLY or is a wet, mouth-smacky DOG, I usually keep my murderous rages in check.
Most airport noise complaints (like, >90% of them) will be generated by a single caller.
Seriously? One guy? Can't we pony up and buy the dude some earplugs already?
Well, some of the noise I like is quiet to me. Like I really, really prefer to sleep with some white noise in the background, like a fan. Too-quiet makes it much harder for me to fall asleep than white noise. And I kind of like it when I'm able to open my window at work and hear street noise. It bothered the hell out of me when I first started working in New York but now I find it kind of soothing.
Aw yeah! He used to take us to the anechoic chamber at work and tell us to yell all we wanted.
Megan reminds me that I used to live with my window overlooking an active train track. The train would come by practically every morning and rattle the whole building.
Within a month it didn't wake me up and was, in fact, sort of soothing and familiar.
get annoyed by unpredictable or high-screech-y noises.
Just like the Cambodian home karaoke that my neighbors engaged in all day while I was studying for my qualifying exams! Oh lord, how I hated them.
Deaf people sometimes buy cheap houses near train tracks or in other noisy locations.
Blind people sometimes buy houses with ugly-ass paint jobs.
These sorts of reactions are all very individual -- I grew up in NYC with street noise, and I don't hear it at all -- I'll see Buck fuming sometimes, and will have to consciously start listening to figure out what's pissing him off (e.g., a booming stereo outside, a car alarm). White noise, though, makes me miserable instantly -- we have to have air conditioners running on high all summer because we have a hot apartment and a lot of servers that Buck's website runs off of, and I'm annoyed for four months straight.
Seriously? One guy? Can't we pony up and buy the dude some earplugs already?
That's is actually a great strategy for an airport if the guy looks to be an activist-type. Airports aren't obligated to anyone outside a certain 24 hour average sound level contour, but if a person looks to be trouble, it would probably be worth spending the $30,000 to soundproof his house. But there is nearly nothing you can do about the outside, and some people don't like the sounds of airplanes while they're in their gardens.
When I first moved to Germany, I was really bothered by the comparative lack of noise in my apartment there. I would wander around wondering whether there were any other people in the building because it was so damned quiet. About four months later, I realised I could hear an eight-lane freeway about a quarter-mile off.
From the article: "I do think people have the right to live in places that have good sound privacy"
I think this "right" was forgotten by the UN. It's right up there with my "right" to own a poodle.
The deal with this story and its emphasis, though, is that it's in the Home and Garden section, so its ultimate payoff is going to be on the "news you can use" end. The different anecdotes are just human interest stuff to provide a couple of narrative hooks for giving you an overview of the various technologies on offer for making your own home quiet. Maybe you want it to be quiet because you're ultra sensitive! Or maybe because you think quiet is luxurious! Or maybe you have a bowling alley in your McMansion! This could be you! Now enjoy these different options for home improvement; see if any of them appeal to you.
29: Cambridge was like that for me -- my co-op was on a quiet street, and I couldn't sleep properly for the first month or so.
Yeah. That same acoustician calls aircraft noise "a disease of the rich."
People where I work are all upset about this loud new fan that's in the women's bathroom and putting in maintenance requests to have a quieter one installed. I don't get it.
1. How long are you in the bathroom anyway?
2. Isn't the fan more pleasant to hear than the gastric problems of the person in the stall next to you?
"a disease of the rich."
Don't the yellow journalists get worked up over "afluenza" from time to time, too?
11 is very nice. I could totally picture Becks playing Goldilocks or Rotkäppchen in the Mineshaft production of Mother Goose. Who do we cast as the bears or the wolf? Is George Washington in the cast of characters?
"Affluenza" was an annoying book. Read any page at random and you would get the basic idea, much like with the average investment advice book.
16 -- Hey Megan, are you busy getting the humpback whales back out to sea?
I'm not sure why bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans bother me so, but they do. The sound of the ceiling fans and oscillating fans in my house are soothing, and I can completely tune out the computer fans and even the laundry machines, but the exhaust fans are deeply annoying.
"a disease of the rich."
But isn't there evidence that children who attend schools near airports (which are generally in less affluent communities) suffer learning problems due to plane noise?
I'm with Apo and the ladies at Becks' workplace -- bathroom fans bug me. I would rather listen to the melodies of my neighbors pooping and farting.
Who do we cast as the bears or the wolf? Is George Washington in the cast of characters?
If Washington is in the cast, this will complicate the task of casting the bears.
16 -- Hey Megan, are you busy getting the humpback whales back out to sea?
You mean by singing to my whale sister? It'd be totally cool to be part of that, but no.
I'm with Apo and the ladies at Becks' workplace
And we're all naked.
I think 31 is missing the full obnoxious of that sentence:
"I do think people have the right to live in places that have good sound privacy," he said. "Especially high-end residences."
Hey, don't cetacean-block my cob-logger!
I think there's one form of noise pollution all of us can agree is obnoxious: the people right above you having sex. Especially if their bed frame is creaky.
Even better when the guy who lives upstairs is a clown, and you have reason to know that he's having sex by himself, and still making enough noise to be obnoxious.
44 -- thanks for making that explicit. 46 -- Yeah, that's why I figured you would be the natural one to pick for the job. 48 -- that is a totally awesome quote.
50: Think of it as free porn, pdf23ds. Be a glass-half-full kind of guy.
I really don't understand people who don't have music on 24/7
53: better yet, install a webcam and make a few bucks
I have an Ask the Mineshaft question. Say I don't really care that my roommates can probably guess that the buzzing coming from my room is from a vibrator. Am I obligated for the sake of their comfort--not because they'd mind the noise, but because they don't want to know I'm masturbating--to do something to mask it, like put on music? I usually don't want to bother.
55: I've seen my neighbor. It'd have to be a niche site.
I'm incredibly sensitive to white noise - I fall asleep almost the instant I sit down on an airplane because of the fans, and never could stay awake as a subject in MRI experiments when I was in grad school.
I do have very pleasant memories of drifting off at night to the ocean roar during seaside vacations as a kid.
56: Are the walls that thin? Is the buzzing that loud?
Unless you are unusually quiet, I would guess that at some point you would be making more noise than the vibrator.
I wouldn't worry about it. Most vibrators aren't all that loud -- to be aware of it your roommates would have to be actively listening -- and if they're doing that, then going into your room, shutting the door and playing music is going to have exactly the same effect.
Did I ever tell you people about the first time I visited Buck's parents, when I put my bag down a little hard and it made my electric toothbrush start buzzing? Good times.
I actually can't stand white noise, but true white noise is very bright. Mellower noise is actually called pink noise, and is more like what floor fans and such make. (Fans also usually have a 60 hz hum from the electric motor, but better ones don't.)
Brown noise is deep rumbling, closer to an ocean, and it can help with noisy apartment neighbors.
59: The walls are that thin, and the buzzing is that loud, but no, I am not making more noise than the vibrator if my roommates are home. I don't mind them being able to figure out I'm masturbating, but I would mind them hearing little happy noises emanating from my vocal chords.
You mean your "electric toothbrush"?
56: They honestly don't care, Smasher.
63 -> 60. Or -> 62, really.
Of course, "white noise" can also mean all sorts of broad-spectrum noise, including pink noise, but when you're being technical the term is used more specifically.
If it is genuinely, truly unmistakably a vibrator, I would prefer not to hear it, if I were your roommate.
"brown noise" sounds a little dirty, like what Becks was referring to in 36.
57: Can't possibly be more niche that what is there already....
I would prefer not to hear it, if I were your roommate.
And there's one of the big differences between men and women.
61, 69: Brown noise is not to be confused with the brown note, which, in theory, could also be used against noisy apartment neighbors.
You're thinking of the brown note, assClown.
Excuse me while I change my clothes, I have fallen victim to the brpwn note.
Inpwntinence is no laughing matter, people.
Well anyway, you can easily detect whether the vibrator is audible through the walls by turning it on and then wandering around the apartment to see if you think it would be noticeable. The best way to do it would be to stand in another room and enlist a confederate to turn it on at a random moment, and see if you can detect when it has been turned on.
Exhaust fans are generally designed not to be quiet, for exactly the reasons noted above. Plus, their size and air-moving requirements makes designing them to be silent really expensive. Pay some attention around kitchen exhausts, and you'll find that only really high-end are fairly quiet (and even in the kitchen, knowing that the fan has been left on can be advantageous, while the activity of cooking is loud enough that the fan noise isn't bothersome to most).
In Japan, some public bathrooms have installed push-button speakers to make running-water noises, so that users don't waste water running it to cover up their personal noises. I may be repeating this anecdote from the water-waste thread.
I'm incredibly sensitive to white noise
Me, too. Turn on a vacuum cleaner and I'm out like a light.
But noise isn't the only thing bothering the rich these days. Bono is squabbling with Billy Squire over the smoke from a distant fire.
Presumably, for at least some vibrator designs, there would be a built-in damping effect.
Hey, are you guys having problems finding good help?
Falling asleep on planes seems like a great thing, certainly better than sensitive in the sense of "driven batshit".
26: Funny, that. So do people with no sense of taste.
The article in 79 is hilarious. I'm not sure who to be more annoyed at: the people who think they should be able to have a fireplace in Manhattan, or the people who think they're entitled not to breathe pollution in Manhattan. Meh.
I can't help but side with Billy Squier.
60. it made my electric toothbrush start buzzing? Good times.
How did you explain the accessories?
http://www.gadgetcandy.com/archives/2007/02/tingle_tip.php
That video has a great example of manly shirt-throwing. MANDOM!
Mitch Miller is still kicking. Amazing.
I grew up atop a small ridge across a valley from a larger mountain with a two-lane state highway running along its base. At night it would be so quiet where we were that if the windows were open I could hear cars pass on the road on the other side of the valley, a couple of miles away. It was just one of those weird things of natural acoustics. Family lore is that the brothers who comprised one of my greats and assorted uncles, when they worked all that land as field and pasture, developed a code of calls and yawps they would yell across the valley to signal time for lunch, time to bring in the animals, to call it quits for the day, to signal that they'd spotted a storm coming in, etc. It was really, really, really quiet there, so of course I couldn't sleep for the first couple of weeks of college and now on the rare occasion I visit my family and stay the night I lie awake for hours waiting to hear something, anything. I find the quiet kind of creepy.
On the other hand, we could also hear the train pass through town, miles further away than that, and as a result I love the sound of a train in the distance. We live a wooded half-mile or so from some train tracks now and I love that sound in the evening when the train goes through.
Rah plays music all the time, as do I. I also tend to forget I have music playing and so we'll be downstairs watching TV or something and all of a sudden a thump-thump-thump will come from my office and I'll note, oh yeah, iTunes.
The absolute fucking worst sound in the world is that goddamned Mr. Softie jingle. I hear hallucinatory echoes of that audiotrash ALL SUMMER LONG and it drives me mad. MAD!
89: More like twitching.
Anyway, heavily wooded country quiet is close to that eerie anechoic chamber quiet. I did NOT like hearing my heart pump.
what about a partner snoring? does this ever cross over into the realm of acceptable, even comfortable background noise for people? i had a roommate for one year that snored and it never became anything less than a source of bitter hatred (influenced perhaps by the fact that i didnt like her even when she was awake though)
I grew up in Mountain View, CA, half a mile from the train tracks, and basically directly under the Moffett Field (former) Naval Air Station flight-line. The train noise wasn't so loud. The constant P-3 overflights weren't so loud. The wind tunnels at Ames research center (part of the Moffett field complex)? Loud.
95: Hearing my wife snoring is not just comfortable but downright comforting. She's such a stress-monkey and working such crazy hours over the last year, just knowing she's actually asleep makes me happy.
I don't mind general urban noise and I grew up next to a railway gravel yard, so there were trains and noises all night.
However, my wife's village in her home country, on the other hand, is filled with infernal howling dogs -- huge slavering beasts chained up in the gardens. 'Hound of the baskervilles'-style frenzied wailing breaks out in the middle of the night and that is really disturbing.
93: Back before my neighborhood got all gentrified, it was frequented in the summer by the most run-down ice cream truck of all time, with a wheezing engine and a sound system so bad that it didn't produce any recognizable tune, just loud crackly noise. The driver became known as the Ill Humor Man.
When he was about 12 one of my son's friends was propositioned by the ice-cream man -- a defrocked priest, as it turned out. The guy really had a creepy vibe even with adult males.
Many years later the now-grown kid confronted the guy and scared the shit out of him. He found that very liberating.
Emerson has too many compelling stories. I vote for progressive taxation on anecdotes. Share the wealth!
Eleanor, music is probably fine as long as you don't only listen to music when you're spending quality time with your toys and if you mix up the musical selections a little. Otherwise, your roommates will be all, "Oh, Sinatra -- Eleanor must be using her vibrator. Again."
95: my wife loves to sleep with the radio on (which I hate) and then she snores. I am listening to this particular symphony right now. I often think if I tilted the mattress quickly enough at just the right angle, I could tip her right out the window into the front yard, and the radio could follow her out, possibly clonking her on the head in an amusing cartoon-like fashion. But I've never done it. Yet.
Someone said that the thing for kids these days to do is to roll around the neighborhood in their blinged out Escalades while blasting ice cream truck music.
Truly, the end times are upon us.
104: good to know. 97 made me rather ashamed of myself.
I don't know if 105 is earnest or jokey but either way I love it. If I ever direct a film that scene will figure prominently.
I think I'd sleep through the noise if it didn't sound like the animals clawing at the walls - and particularly at the backs of the electrical sockets - had a real chance of breaking through one day. I'm a bit worried that if they do get through, they'll do it when I'm out of town and have time to destroy my books and papers before anyone notices what's going on.
They found that as long as the flights are on schedule, everyone sleeps through the night. But if an airplane approaches from the opposite end of the runway, everyone in the study will wake up, hit their button and go back to sleep. The next day, most of them won't remember the disturbance.
This was my experience - except for the participating in a study and having a button to press - when I lived near an airport. I got used to the noise most days, but when flight patterns changed, usually when the weather changed, I'd notice and not sleep as well. That place was near a freeway and the constant noise was never a problem.
Anywhere in the Triangle is under an RDU flight path. The days after 9/11 when there were no flights were incredibly bizarre in their silence and when I heard what I assumed was a fighter jet go over in the middle of an afternoon through which I was utterly failing to sleep (I worked graveyard shift at the time) then that was even freakier.
Ok, I just learned that the animals crawling around in the walls of this house are racoons. Or so I'm led to believe by the fact that I just saw one - through a window in the kitchen - climbing up the outside wall. No wonder the landlord's strategy of "cutting branches" doesn't seem to be working. This is not comforting.
Raccoons make up a plurality of the wild animals with rabies in the US. It's very very very rare to get rabies from a wild animal, but if they are running around near you while you sleep, that's the situation in which it just could happen. If there's a chance of them getting through the wall into your room, your landlord needs to take this seriously.
That's even more comforting. I don't have a lot of faith in the landlord. On the other hand, with no security deposit or advance rent, I don't have to stay. Moving on short notice wouldn't be easy, though, especially since I'll be out of town next week. (If their going to get through the walls, next week is the week to do it.)
I would presume that they can't bite through the walls, though. Unless it seems like they've bitten their way to where they are now, rather than just finding a hole to go up.
The fact that they haven't gotten through by now makes me less worried, but there are holes in the walls where wires come through - and I can see the wires shake when the animals are clawing at the other side - which could be expanded with some effort, the electrical sockets are kind of loose, and there's a panel under the windowsill that could be dislodged with enough force (it's nailed in place). There's also a door, which is latched, that's been painted over that probably leads to a crawl space, and which must be a very popular place for them if the frequency of the clawing is any indication. Aside from that, the walls are really, really, thin, so they sometimes sound like they're already in the room.
I called my landlord and he says he'll try to do something about closing off whatever hole they're using on Monday.