IDM Mailing Archive

unfortunately you won't appreciate what earplugs are doing to save your hearing when they work. its when you get tinnitus (or some other hearing loss) that you will regret not wearing them... trust me, wear 'em. i understand that napkins/cigerette filters can actually do more harm then good though, as it will hold your ear canal open w/o actually filtering any of the noise?? i'm not too sure, but it was something to that effect. someone on here must know. and i, too, dislike the wax plugs. blah blah. -mike _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

quoted 2 lines and i, too, dislike the wax plugs.

> >and i, too, dislike the wax plugs.

Actually, it's good to carry these with you to a show so you can offer them to people. There's nothing funnier than seeing someone walk around with this perpetually cascading mass of gooey translucent wax filling up the entire ear cavity (and often overflowing down the lobe), which happens when said person takes 2 plugs instead of splitting 1 up. And if you get a whole box and split up the individual plugs into like 5 pieces, you could pawn them off to confused "kiddies" for $5 a pop as E(p) (earplug). Oh, the wonders of placebos. friend of mine sold some kids some pocket lint once. then they came back after an hour and asked for some more. cheers, /derek ------- eggytoast.com ------- now updated daily --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org

Kurt Hoffman wrote:

quoted 4 lines well, I'm sure that napkins etc aren't optimal but they certainly blot

> well, I'm sure that napkins etc aren't optimal but they certainly blot > some of the sound, especially if they've been dampened slightly. when > I've plugged one ear with a napkin and left the other open, it'll be the > open ear that's ringing like crazy the next morning.

actually, your ear canal doesn't contract to protect from loud noises - the muscles connected to your tiny ear bones constrict and damper the eardrum so that it doesn't oscillate (and therefore transmit sound) as much. you can test this - the same muscles dampen the eardrum when we swallow and yawn (otherwise you'd hear all sorts of nasty internal sounds.. i suppose it would sound a lot like that matmos album). also, this doesn't happen for prolonged periods of time, it's only a reflex action, so it only protects against short bursts of loudness. it also has a rather slow latency, which makes it useless against quick bursts of sound like say a gunshot (or a snare drum). -j --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: idm-unsubscribe@hyperreal.org For additional commands, e-mail: idm-help@hyperreal.org