More than one guy's word for it, filtered through the voice of a hundred marginally employed English BAs, I guess?
The Random Crap Thread 2: It Hits the Fan.
- Thread starter North_Ranger
- Start date
GasBandit
Staff member
Fair enough.
Chad, there's no scientific proof that you will go insane from sitting silently in an anechoic chamber for over 45 minutes. There's also no scientific proof you won't, and consider me one anecdotal subjective assertion that you will.
I'm aware that synesthesia is basically impossible to know firsthand if you don't have it. In general, those are all pretty unlikely experiences for me to have.
The reason the anechoic rooms appeal to me, is that I've felt most comfortable in rooms that extraordinarily quiet; I wonder if the complete silence would be a kind of calm euphoria or too far/too much.
Also when they say 'drive a person crazy' it sounds like they're mentally crushed forever, but it seems to be people can't stand the sound of their own organs, and some reports of hallucinations, but that stops when you're out of the chamber. So even then... I've had hallucinations before
The reason the anechoic rooms appeal to me, is that I've felt most comfortable in rooms that extraordinarily quiet; I wonder if the complete silence would be a kind of calm euphoria or too far/too much.
Also when they say 'drive a person crazy' it sounds like they're mentally crushed forever, but it seems to be people can't stand the sound of their own organs, and some reports of hallucinations, but that stops when you're out of the chamber. So even then... I've had hallucinations before
GasBandit
Staff member
The adaptive nature of human hearing, however, will just make whatever's in the room (including you) seem comparatively louder, beyond a certain point.
That said, I love that the walls in my office here at work are carpeted.
My interest is more in the fact that my ears will finally get a large enough portion of the day when they are not exposed to >70dB that I might derive some benefit from it. When your noise floor is 70-80db for 12hrs/day, it makes one...antsy.
--Patrick
I enjoy the quiet, that's why I enjoy staying up so late. But I don't think I could go into one of those rooms, I doubt I would last very long. I'm kind of more interested in trying a sensory deprivation tank over an anechoic chamber.
GasBandit
Staff member
Relevant and maybe slightly more acceptable to MindDetective's palate:
http://phys.org/news175504269.html
The hallucinations start within 15 minutes, apparently.
http://phys.org/news175504269.html
The hallucinations start within 15 minutes, apparently.
Speaking as someone who lives in a country where magnitude 7 and higher earthquakes are a fairly regular occurrence... you probably don't want to be in an earthquake.
Well, okay, maybe try one on for size. Magnitude 4 or less, to start with. At first it just feels like you're a bit dizzy, like the ground's unstable. You're not sure if the world really is shaking, or if you've just been working too hard lately and you're feeling too tired. And then you hear the rumble. That's the actual earth making sounds, the sound of the ground beneath your feet. You usually don't think of the ground making sounds, how could it? It's just there. It sits there, silent, stable, unmoving. Saying the ground is making sounds is like saying a piece of paper just got up and painted my ceiling. It's just not something paper does, just like making sounds is not something the ground is supposed to do.
And then you hear the creaking. That's the sound of the concrete, steel, and glass in the buildings around you. Did you know concrete can creak? If you're indoors, you hear the sound coming from the walls themselves. If you're outside, you hear the buildings around you groaning and faintly cracking.
And then everything's kicked up a notch. Up to magnitude 6 or so now. Items are starting to fall over and get knocked off shelves. You want to reach out and steady everything, but you only have two hands, and inevitably something's going to fall off its perch and shatter on the ground. Maybe it's a glass of water. Maybe it's your laptop. Maybe it's a priceless Ming vase. So you stabilize what you can, while trying to stay on your feet as much as possible. Because now it's harder to stay on your feet. The oscillation of the earth takes a few seconds to get used to, and until you do, your balance is completely out of whack. Maybe you stumble and fall over, accidentally dragging your other priceless Ming vase down with you. It shatters too.
If you're outdoors, you can definitely hear the concrete cracking now. The sky starts to rain man-made objects: flowerpots from windowsills, ceramic tiles detached from their bases, poorly secured television antennae and satellite dishes. You try to look up, to make sure nothing lands on you, but at the same time you have to look around you too, to make sure no one runs into you and accidentally shoves you into traffic, or that you don't accidentally trip over something. You feel intensely vulnerable, because you could be attacked from literally any direction, including above and below.
And then mother earth decides to go for the grand finale. The earthquake hits magnitude 7, or god help you, even more than that. If you're outside, you may be unlucky enough to witness buildings actually collapsing. Their collapses aren't controlled, like demolitions. Instead, they break apart at seemingly random places, depending on their design and the sort of structural damage they've sustained already. Some break apart at the base, with nearly the entire building toppling to one side, domino-style. Some break apart halfway up the building, and the top half detaches to smash into the ground below. Some of them are pulverized, with enough large cracks appearing in them to turn the building into powder. Some sink into the ground itself, their foundations weakened by the shaking earth, or hollowed out entirely.
And if you're inside one of these buildings at the time, there's nothing you can do. Earthquakes last for mere seconds. There's no time to run, no time to even hide under your desk. Either you survive, or the building you're in collapses with you in it, and you're crushed. Maybe you'll be lucky, and it'll crush your head so you die instantly. If not, though, you'll be pinned under the rubble, completely helpless, unable to see, or breathe, or move. Maybe someone will dig you out later. Maybe not. You have no way of knowing.
And then, when the earthquake's finally over, and everyone catches their breath... that's when the hard part starts.
The next major catastrophe is going to be in 2038, far before Y10K.It just occurred to me, as I finish up changing the dates on some audio assets here at work, that in 8000 years we're going to be so boned. Our systems are in no way, shape or form Y10K compliant.
--Patrick
fade
Staff member
I was going to say that a lot of legacy software that is still functional is going to hit the 16/32 bit wall, and with more than just dates. We are having that problem at work in fact. People indexed matrices with ints in a lot of this science code but think oh I'll just get more RAM and we can make our matrices bigger....
This was my one experience with a major earthquake. We were just over the border in CA and not that close to the epicenter. It was after dinner. We were walking from our house to a local park with our kids. Our garage doors were the old type that you had to lift to open. All of the townhouses had padlocks on the garage doors. That was the first indication of this earthquake. As we walked by our neighbor's house I could hear his padlock rattling. I looked at my husband (who is a CA native and has been through several major quakes) and he answered me before I had a chance to ask, "It's an earthquake". Just then the ground started to feel like I was standing on a boat caught in a large wake. I almost lost my balance. The cars across the street were very noticeably swaying back and forth on their tires, like they were giant rocking chairs. Fortunately we sustained no damage. Only a few books fell in our house. But the worst for me were the aftershocks. Not because they were big, but because I was already scared/anxious from the original event and they start happening minutes afterward (the Wiki article I linked says there were 90 aftershocks in the first 6 hours). The first aftershock happened maybe about five minutes after the first quake. Then we had another shortly after that. For days we had frequent aftershocks that ranged from really small to 5.0's. The frequency lessened, but we still had a few noticeable aftershocks even a couple months later.
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I mostly slept through the Northridge quake back in '94. I was at the ASW training base in San Diego, and it felt like someone was shaking the bed to wake me up. I did for just a moment to see that there was nobody there, and went right back to sleep.
It wasn't until later that morning that I turned on the radio and heard about what happened.
It wasn't until later that morning that I turned on the radio and heard about what happened.
BananaHands
Staff member
We're putting down our older dog today. She's 17, has a lump on her neck the size of an orange that makes it hard to breath, finally stopped eating, and now doesn't even want to move. It's clearly time to do it... but it's always emotionally devastating for me. *sigh* I know it's only so hard because of my emotional problems but FUCK!
GasBandit
Staff member
No, I'd say being emotionally devastated at having to put down a beloved pet of 17 years is normal, not indicative of problems.
I can't see the picture.
No, that's a normal reaction for having to do a really hard thing (even if it is for the best reasons) for a companion of 17 years. This is NORMAL.
GasBandit
Staff member
I think we (my radio station) might have just produced the second most racist commercial we've done in the last 10 or 15 years.
And on an unrelated note, if you ever listen to the radio, brace yourselves for the most awful Filet-o-Fish jingle ever to be running from tomorrow until the 16th.
And on an unrelated note, if you ever listen to the radio, brace yourselves for the most awful Filet-o-Fish jingle ever to be running from tomorrow until the 16th.
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N.J. teen sues parents for college costs
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/living/nj-teen-sues-parents-for-college-education/index.html
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/05/living/nj-teen-sues-parents-for-college-education/index.html
Hahahahahahahahahahaha
GasBandit
Staff member
Well, ok, I guess. Name and location bleeped out.
Hey, if Balki wants to buy a car from Eminem's dumber brother, more power to him.
--Patrick
GasBandit
Staff member
Neither voice in that spot comes from an actual white person. The "Balki" was a hispanic dude trying to do a generic middle east/indian accent.
Neither of them work here any more (but not because of that spot, it ran for 2 years straight).
... Wow.
Once they broke out the goat, it was ALL over. *shakes head in shame*
