It's really more about signal-to-noise ratio I'd say, if there are often loud noises then your brain will have to attend to them, if there is constantly a fan noise, for example, then your brain will actually focus since there is no signal--but I've definitely found it's best to get rid of both in almost all domains.
Noise pollution hurts the heart
81–90 of 286 posts
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#82I live near a highway in Colorado which is very quiet except for summer weekends when the noisy motorbikes turn up and it becomes borderline intolerable (I’m not against motorbikes, I ride, I just hate the lack of consideration for others piece and quiet). On a thread about air pollution a few days ago [1] I mentioned sensor.community [2]. They are promoting crowdsourced environmental data, including noise and I’m cu…
Some unicode issues on that site "â ï¸"
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#83There are few things that make me angrier than when a Harley-Davidson style motorcycle (or a pack of them) drive past me while I’m walking down the street. I can’t believe cities haven’t prohibited them, especially at night. Those things are specifically designed to create noise pollution. They’re so fucking obnoxious, even just thinking about it while I’m writing this is working me up.
Harleys stock are actually under the legal noise limit (80 decibels i think?) and are generally that loud due to straight exhaust and a specific cam shaft they use to squeeze more performance out of them. My understanding is folks prefer them to be loud so that they can be better noticed by cars and get hit less often. Dirt bikes are around 100 decibels, perform like trash and shouldn't be on the freeway near cars in…
If “loud pipes save(d) lives”, your insurance company would give a discount for straight pipes. Instead they give a discount if you’ve taken a training course and have ABS. It is bullshit spouted by man-children that just want to attract attention, dishonestly disguised as a safety issue.
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#84There are few things that make me angrier than when a Harley-Davidson style motorcycle (or a pack of them) drive past me while I’m walking down the street. I can’t believe cities haven’t prohibited them, especially at night. Those things are specifically designed to create noise pollution. They’re so fucking obnoxious, even just thinking about it while I’m writing this is working me up.
I think this is just not a concern for the general population. There are solutions available if we wanted to address this issue.
There could be a restriction on the vehicle. Some European cities have zones with restricted access to vehicles based on their CO2 emissions. There are stickers that you have to put on your windshield to drive into those areas.
We could have some "noise emission" regulations that ban some vehicles from driving at certain times, like before 9am or after 7pm.
It would be similar to the CO2 emission regulations, there's no need to measure the emissions because you have a sticker that already say what your emission levels are.
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#85Damaging the heart sounds right. My neighbor has a unique obsession with his leaf-blower. It's like his daily 30-120 minutes of exercise at random times of the day. Even with all the noise-cancelling technology in the world, it ruins me for at least 2-3 hours and makes both video-conferencing and deep work basically impossible. Here's the thing: Nobody cares. The neighbor can say no to polite requests to figure out a…
leaf blowers are such a pox on neighborhoods.
we really need to find an alternative. is it possible to make an electric leaf blower that is both powerful and quiet?
or forget the leaf blower altogether and pay kids to rake up leaves instead. make it the new paper route. $N per bag.
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#86Damaging the heart sounds right. My neighbor has a unique obsession with his leaf-blower. It's like his daily 30-120 minutes of exercise at random times of the day. Even with all the noise-cancelling technology in the world, it ruins me for at least 2-3 hours and makes both video-conferencing and deep work basically impossible. Here's the thing: Nobody cares. The neighbor can say no to polite requests to figure out a…
Are these gas powered blower? I wonder if electric ones exist. If not maybe there's a better design for small homes / lawn.
Looking forward to those electric blowers
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#87I feel the sound -> stress connection palpably. Especially sudden loud noises like a horn honking cause me to feel upset for a long while after being startled. Seems like a convincing argument to me for car-free spaces, although honestly I just wish we had stronger social norms against unnecessarily using a car's horn.
I have this wild pet idea that we should be have a meter connected to a car's horn and at the end of the year you have to pay a bill for the amount you used. Something like $0.10 / second. You'll still honk when you need to but think twice before using it to annoy other drivers.
Spanish drivers surely go bankrupt after a week :) It's common here to toot the horn to greet a friend. And since everyone knows everyone, everyone toots all the time.
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#88There are few things that make me angrier than when a Harley-Davidson style motorcycle (or a pack of them) drive past me while I’m walking down the street. I can’t believe cities haven’t prohibited them, especially at night. Those things are specifically designed to create noise pollution. They’re so fucking obnoxious, even just thinking about it while I’m writing this is working me up.
I think this is just not a concern for the general population. There are solutions available if we wanted to address this issue. There could be a restriction on the vehicle. Some European cities have zones with restricted access to vehicles based on their CO2 emissions. There are stickers that you have to put on your windshield to drive into those areas. We could have some "noise emission" regulations that ban some v…
Hard to enforce those in the US
We could make re-registering more difficult or impossible for people with addresses in areas with those kind of ordinances
Enthusiasts will have nominal addresses but it can be a deterrent
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, it's frustrating that some people just don't believe in the human right to peace and quiet. That's one reason why I have no hope for self-organizing models of society. There are griefers who only respond to force, and it doesn't take many of them to fuck up the whole game.
You believe we need a more authoritarian society because some people live lives that are louder than you deem appropriate and enough so that you are willing to 'respond with force' and you somehow see them as the people who are "fucking up the whole game"?
Counter-example:
Sounds are pressure waves that transmit through the air.
Given enough pressure, those waves could even kill someone (bomb).
If we say that there should be no legal limit to sound pressure, then making a bomb explode and killing people should have no legal consequences.
This makes no sense, so we should put a threshold of maximum allowed sound pressure. The discussion now is where is that threshold.
Re: Noise pollution hurts the heart
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
What do you mean by it's a luxury? That it's nice? or rare? or should be rare?
I think rare in the sense that few can afford to have it.
I'm sure that every country have tiny villages with cheap land. Buy enough land, build a house in the center, grow some trees around and you'll have peaceful house.
Of course there are other issues with that lifestyle which is why it's not adopted widely, like no work, issues for children, issues with healthcare, but for some people it could work, IMO.