Researcher: iPod earbuds could damage hearing

From this Reuters' story that I saw on CNN.com this morning: "The ever-popular earbuds used with many iPods and other MP3 players may be more stylish than the bigger and bulkier earmuff-type headphones, but they may also be more damaging to one's hearing, according to a Northwestern professor."

I've always hated the earbud. I never have been able to keep those in my ear well. They always fall out. That's a great frustration I have with iPods. You pay top price for these beauties but then they ship 'em with these cruddy earbuds rather than proper headphones like Starsky's (here at the left).

Apple should ship iPods with noise-canceling headphones of some sort lest iPod enthusiasts should end up like Pete Townshend. This is a post from his website's diary section yesterday explaining his hearing loss & his concerns for the future what with the popularity of iPods, MP3 players, etc. He observes that, "we use earphones at almost every stage of interaction with sound." And it's really slowing him down in the studio working on new material for the next Who project.

Holiday Greetings!

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I meant to get these photos up from the Major League Soccer Championship 2005 that I went to with my close friends, Ben, Brandon & Bryan way back in November. But I'm kind of glad that I procrastinated until the holidays. Firstly because I discovered BubbleShare - a worthy challenger to the Flickr Photo Upload & Share phenomenon. It allows for a set of photos to be uploaded easily & quickly without any account info hassles. Even cooler though, you can post your photos with 30-second Audio Captions. What a wonderful thing! I highly recommend you give it a shot (no pun intended). They make posting a set on your blog a cinch as well. I love it.

The holidays are a wonderful/dreadful time. Wonderful in that you get to see people you haven't seen in forever & catch up. Dreadful because you realize just how infrequently you get to see them otherwise. The wife & I have this week between Xmas & New Years' Eve off & it's terrific. But it's been so long since we had any time off that it's a bit overwhelming when you think of all the things that you need to get around to doing in these few days (not to mention the things that you'd like to get to do as well!).

What's everyone doing for New Years' Eve?

Banksy

Banksy is an English graffiti artist that I read about first in Wired Magazine & then later on in Esquire Magazine. On the whole, graffiti is a nuisance to the public's common interest- but if there should be any in your town, I hope it's as clever & artsy as this. And I hope Banksy inspires your local graffitizen to artistic accomplishment & to work with stencils rather than ego-marking a common wall with some indecipherable squiggle.

Have a look at some of his work. It's impressive. (Banksy - how about hawking some t-shirts from your webpage?)

The Deep Ellum Tunnel comes to mind when I think of some good local graffiti here in Dallas. But that's going away soon apparently. Shame really - hope they find a way to keep some of this homegrown charm in the future Deep Ellum. But I suppose that's the least of Deep Ellum's worries these days.

Anything You Ever Wanted to Know

With the recent passing of Dallas radio presence, Glenn Mitchell, I was reminded this morning on the way into work of his Friday talk shows on KERA 90.1FM. Anything You Ever Wanted to Know shouldn't have been nearly as fun as it was. And that's a testament to Glenn Mitchell's talent as a talk show host & also to his intelligent listenership. Many of you will agree with me when I call what Glenn Mitchell meant to Dallas - he was like a Public Utility. I will miss him terribly. I'm glad to see that KERA is moving forward with his legacy intact.

Here's a nice report from his memorial service from the Dallas Morning News. KERA 90.1 also has posted the audio of the memorial as a podcast here.