Why do we still have the beep, beep, beep when trucks back up? We have backup cameras now. Everyone within half a mile is continually alerted that there's a truck backing up or a piece of construction equipment moving.
Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
61–70 of 531 posts
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#62Anecdata but I recently got headphones with noise cancelling and my quality of life shot through the roof. According to my smartwatch, my heart rate is lower and stress levels are down. Unfortunately, I have to take my headphones off to go to sleep and I'm immediately reminded of the shoddy fridge in my apartment, vent noises, and my neighbor who doesn't realize it's 11:30 PM.
I was able to sleep with bose noise cancelling earbuds
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find by far the biggest disruption in US suburbs is lawn equipment. Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. Often for hours. Moving from Palo Alto to SF things got way quieter.
It drives me absolutely insane. I can’t record audio virtually anywhere unless I treat the hell out of the room. I shouldn’t have to turn my room into a soundproof bunker to be able to record some voiceovers. It’s ridiculous. My previous home office had spray foam insulation with double layer sheet rock and bass traps on the walls, yet I still had to have a small homemade box around the microphone when I was doing an…
Yeah - the joke is people say they move to suburbs to get 'peace and quiet' compared to a loud city, but city life is so much quieter (at least where I live). I'm sure that's not always the case, but I really hated the lawn equipment.
Sure in a city a loud motorcycle may go by, but that's like 10 seconds of noise? Compared to a revving leaf blower for an hour (and usually there are a bunch of them going).
They're even banned in Palo Alto, but it's not enforced.
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#64Quoted post unavailable.
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Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#65Anecdata but I recently got headphones with noise cancelling and my quality of life shot through the roof. According to my smartwatch, my heart rate is lower and stress levels are down. Unfortunately, I have to take my headphones off to go to sleep and I'm immediately reminded of the shoddy fridge in my apartment, vent noises, and my neighbor who doesn't realize it's 11:30 PM.
Earplugs can help if you want something less bulky when you sleep
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
*/5 * * * * osascript -e 'set volume output volume (output volume of (get volume settings))-1' Speaking of tinnitus, and since this is Hacker News: I've entered the above in crontab (crontab -e) on my mac. It lowers the volume a small amount every 5 minutes. I have to press the volume up button once every 30 minutes to keep a roughly equal volume level. This prevents me from accidentally listening to something that i…
Thanks for this. Really great idea! I normally don't set my headphones that loud but it's happened that I raised the volume during a meeting because someone was talking too quietly and forgot to lower it.
Another nice bonus is that if you're listening to a song at room filling volume during the day, and then later at night you want to quietly watch a video, by then the volume will have decayed to zero so you wont be surprised with a really loud video.
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
People are so unbelievably disrespectful with noise in the US. Peaceful hike? Here's Katy Perry crackling out of my iPhone at full blast! Luxury apartment at $4k a month? No insulation between units, and the guy above you comes home at 2am and never takes his shoes off. Small country street? Here comes Chad with his straight-piped civic with the muffler removed!
I find by far the biggest disruption in US suburbs is lawn equipment. Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you. Often for hours. Moving from Palo Alto to SF things got way quieter.
>Suburbs are louder than cities imo because there is always a leaf blower, lawn mower, and weedwacker going at all times during the day within 100 yards of you.
That's hugely hyperbolic.
But in the city there really are constant sirens, car horns, diesel trucks, construction noises, roadway noise etc...
The most comprehensive study done on this (admittedly a long time ago in 1970) shows a clear correlation between population density and noise pollution.
https://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/gtr/gtr_ne25/gtr_ne25_183.pdf
I think the most likely explanation is that you moved from a particularly noisy suburban neighborhood to a particularly quiet urban one.
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not only do people not care, they actively push down and belittle people who do. They'll say it's just something that's notmaly and anyone trying to change it should move. Most source of noise pollution wouldnt be that hard to fix. Society just doesn't want to.
I had this "conversation" with my neighbor (it was more like me being yelled at) It kind of blew my mind they didnt care about noise interruptions at all hours and told me its my problem. Like maybe if you got a full night of sleep you wouldn't be so angry? I guess this study supports that. The noise in my current apartment is endless, car alarms, screaming and crying kids along with their loud toys, idling cars, the…
One thing I remember from living in Puerto Rico for a few years was the vans with huge loudspeakers on top that would go around blaring political messages. This was 30 years ago, so maybe it is different now. I’m so thankful that kind of thing doesn’t fly on the mainland.
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#69And helicopters, those are incredibly loud. I don't understand why we allow non-emergency trips in those things.
Re: Sounding the alarm: How noise hurts the heart (2021)
#70> road noise during the day My understanding is that the vast majority of road noise is caused by vehicles outfitted with non-standard tires. Where I live, 90% of the road noise is caused by lifted trucks using massive off-road tires on local roads and highways. It isn’t clear if this against the law all over the country, but in various US states, the police will issue tickets. There are several employees of local bu…
I live several miles from the freeway but can hear it 24/7/365 when outside. I don't know what percent of freeway noise is from vehicles as you say, would love to know amount of noise by vehicle type.