Bricks Thru Windows Don’t Open Doors

I am not sure how many rioters would be dissuaded by such a mild-mannered advertising campaign.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Aug 23, 2023 - Comments (2)
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, PSA’s, Riots, Protests and Civil Disobedience, Advertising, 1960s

How to clean your ears

Composer and acoustic expert R. Murray Schafer came up with the idea of "ear cleaning." It had nothing to do with physically cleaning the ear. Instead, it was about wiping clean the acoustical palette in order to be able to better listen to and play music.

Here's an example of an ear-cleaning exercise (via Trevor Cox's book Sonic Wonderland):



For more info, Schafer's short book, Ear Cleaning, is available as a free download.

Posted By: Alex - Fri May 05, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, Cacophony, Dissonance, White Noise and Other Sonic Assaults

Sounds of My City

Say you're on vacation at the beach, and you inexplicably long for urban noises. Well, this album has you covered!

Embedded player at bottom.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Sep 26, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, Urban Life, Vinyl Albums and Other Media Recordings, 1960s

Drunken Dancers Arrested In Street

A more-innocent era. Not a single gun confiscated!

Source: The NYT for July 8, 1923.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Jun 17, 2022 - Comments (1)
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, Urban Life, 1920s, Alcohol

A Swishing Sound

A letter to the editor that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine (August 18, 1994):

Posted By: Alex - Tue Mar 29, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Body Modifications, Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace

Head-Ticking Scam

Robert Sanders of Loogootee, Indiana would get a job with a railroad, fake an injury, and then claim that, as a result of the injury, he had developed a ticking noise in his head.

Doctors who examined him would confirm that he did, indeed, have a "peculiar ticking" like a "great big alarm clock" coming from inside his head. Sanders would then collect insurance money.

Sanders repeated this scam multiple times, collecting around $28,000 over the course of 12 years, until finally the Union Pacific Railroad charged him with fraud.

He was found guilty and sentenced to Wyoming's state penitentiary.

What I can't figure out is how Sanders managed to produce the ticking noise in his head, because the doctors who examined him seemed to hear something.

Billings Gazette - Feb 12, 1952

Posted By: Alex - Fri Dec 17, 2021 - Comments (6)
Category: Frauds, Cons and Scams, Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, 1950s

The Onstage Death of Leonard Warren

Article source: Wilkes-Barre Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania) 05 Mar 1960, Sat Page 2

As his Wikipedia page summarizes:

on March 4, during a performance of La forza del destino with Renata Tebaldi as Leonora and Thomas Schippers conducting, Warren suddenly collapsed and died on stage. Eyewitnesses including Rudolf Bing reported that Warren had completed Don Carlo's Act III aria, which begins Morir, tremenda cosa ("to die, a momentous thing"), and was supposed to open a sealed wallet, examine the contents and cry out "È salvo, o gioia" (He is safe, oh joy), before launching into the vigorous cabaletta. While Bing reports that Warren simply went silent and fell face-forward to the floor,[3] others state that he started coughing and gasping, and that he cried out "Help me, help me!" before falling to the floor, remaining motionless. Roald Reitan, singing the Surgeon, was on stage with Warren at the time of his death, and attempted to render aid.[1]

Posted By: Paul - Sun Dec 05, 2021 - Comments (3)
Category: Death, Music, Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, 1960s

Balloonfest ‘86

From Wikipedia:

Balloonfest '86 was a 1986 event in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, in which the local chapter of United Way set a world record by releasing almost one-and-a-half million balloons.[2] The event was intended to be a harmless fundraising publicity stunt, but the balloons drifted back over the city, Lake Erie, and landed in the surrounding area, causing problems for traffic and a nearby airport. The event also interfered with a United States Coast Guard search for two boaters who were later found drowned.[1] In consequence, the organizers and the city faced lawsuits seeking millions of dollars in damages,[1] and cost overruns put the event at a net loss.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Jul 18, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Charities and Philanthropy, Disasters, Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, Urban Life, Air Travel and Airlines, 1980s

Hot Chocolate Effect

As defined by Wikipedia:




via TYWKIWDBI

Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 12, 2020 - Comments (3)
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, Science

Air Raid Noise Experiment

These pictures in the Google Arts picture archive don't come with any explanatory text, except that they're from an "Air Raid Noise Experiment" conducted in Nuneaton in 1941. But I suspect that the experiment was part of a series of psychological experiments conducted in the UK in 1941 that attempted to "harden Britons to bomb shock." The idea was to expose people to the sounds of air raid sirens and battle sounds so that they would lose their fear of them. As described in the news clipping below:

The Greenfield Daily Reporter - Nov 28 1941

I've been aware of these experiments for a while. I previously posted something about them back in 2009. But I just came across these photos and realized they must be from one of these experiments.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Nov 02, 2017 - Comments (2)
Category: Noises and Other Public Disturbances of the Peace, War, Experiments, Psychology, 1940s