Navigation

Archive | Full-on Aural Assault Wednesdays

Thrashing awesome etiquette!

By on October 27, 2009 in Full-on Aural Assault Wednesdays, Monkeys!

Tuesdays is cheap movie night again. (I’m not sure how long it has been so, but I was surprised this summer to discover this quaint tradition has returned.)

Now, in case you plan on wading through the crowds to see some fine cinematic entertainment. (Your odds are low, actually, to see something fine, though if you lower your expectations enough, you may leave entertained. Recently, some movies have dropped below even the lowest of thresholds, leading some to posit the Fallacy of Lowered Expectations.)

Lowered expectations or not, there are certain polite behaviours that are expected of you, even in this Age of Incivility. And now, for the musical explanation:

YouTube Preview Image

Click here if the embedded video started to bleed from the ears.

Alltop and humor-blogs.com are exceedingly polite. Apologies for publishing the aural assault a day early.

Painful, painfully funny sounds.

By on February 18, 2009 in Full-on Aural Assault Wednesdays, Odd Science

Aural Assault WednesdaysFew scientists have done as much as Professor Trevor Cox, University of Salford (Manchester, UK) in helping us understand which sounds are really, really bad. So, his work is key to bringing you another Full-on, Aural Assault Wednesday.

Several years ago, he did some groundbreaking work in a study he called, “The search for the worst sound in the world.”

Topping the list were:
1. Vomiting
2. Microphone feedback
3. Multiple babies crying
4. Scraping of train wheels
5. Seesaw squeaking
6. Violin (played badly)
7. Flatulence
8. One baby crying
9. Soap opera argument
10. Electricity hum

Somewhere on the list was the sound of a Tasmanian Devil. I would definitely put it in the top five, probably just below multiple babies crying and above the train wheels squeaking. Lest you think I am making this up, here is a sample [mp3]:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Yeah? Yeah?

Now you have a chance to help Professor Cox with his latest experiment — to see which whoopee cushion noise is most amusing. You can go to his Sounds Funny site to give it a go (and you can donate to Red Nose Day, for Comic Relief). Before doing this, you may want to check out this video which will give you some important scientific background in understanding the critical whoopee cushion equations [YouTube]:

YouTube Preview Image

Read more on the painful sounds study at ABC. Alltop and humor-blogs.com are music to anyone’s ears. Thanks to Boonie for the Tasmanian Devil pic.