10 October 2012 10:44amLink to this comment
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Reading the descriptions of the noises has made my tinnitus worse.
10 October 2012 10:45amLink to this comment
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I get the first (although I quite enjoyed Ann Widdecombe's blast on the radio this morning) but what does the second sound like? Do they pop? Or are they a pop group? All best M
10 October 2012 11:05amLink to this comment
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You've also missed 'the sound of Julia Gillard'.
10 October 2012 11:21amLink to this comment
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Oh no, Ceiliog, many apologies. Maybe hearing the actual thing will have the opposite effect... It would be great if the research did its small bit for tackling tinnitus too. Sorry my previous comment was in response to MonkeyOverlord.
Julia Gillard's voice, eek (politics apart). Still, there'll no doubt be people who love it and maybe we'll hear from them too. Unless she's in that acoustic range mentioned by Dr Kumar
10 October 2012 11:36amLink to this comment
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While I have been a father and love my two sons you have left out high pitch child cry
10 October 2012 11:48amLink to this comment
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The bell that rings "last orders"?
10 October 2012 12:16pmLink to this comment
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Blackboards were just evil weren't they? I have upper frequency hearing loss (mainly corrected by HAs), and I've heard people say that lower frequency loss is preferable... not just because upper frequency loss is more disabling from a communication point of view, but because audio at lower frequencies tends to be more grating and annoying.
10 October 2012 12:20pmLink to this comment
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Response to TillyTonka, 10 October 2012 11:05am
How about the shrill sound of partisans?
10 October 2012 12:33pmLink to this comment
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"We're all in this together."
*Agonised screams*
10 October 2012 12:38pmLink to this comment
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The sound of a hoover tends to send me towards the pub, also cutlery being carelessly dropped into their tray. That YMCA song in the insurance advert has me reaching for the remote control, also the meerkat advert. My main bugbear has mercifully being removed from breakfast TV, sports presenter Chris Hollins and his smug, self-congratulatory tone, he used to drive me to despair. No offence like.
10 October 2012 12:44pmLink to this comment
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"We're letting you go" has to be up there...
But I have to agree with the last orders bell being a pretty horrible sound too!
10 October 2012 1:02pmLink to this comment
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When the wife says " My mothers coming for the week " can be pretty distressing !
10 October 2012 3:24pmLink to this comment
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Response to martinwainwright, 10 October 2012 11:21am
That's o.k.
Babbling brook (mentioned in the article)
is one of my favourites on my portable sound generator. Also, I like sea
waves on a shoreline.
'Action for Tinnitus Research' was merged with 'Deafness Research UK' in April 2009.
10 October 2012 3:30pmLink to this comment
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No. This is.
I want a Waldorf Salad..Apples, celery, walnuts, grapes....in a MAYONNAISE SAUCE!
10 October 2012 4:01pmLink to this comment
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The first one is by far the worst out of the five.
10 October 2012 4:06pmLink to this comment
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Buses. In particular, the sudden, loud expulsion of air from some pneumatic system or other as they pass by barely three feet away from you. The pop and gush of air is preceded by a sudden, high pitched mechanical whine, and the combination of all these sounds is both momentarily alarming, and hard on the ears.
I never noticed this 10 years ago. I attribute it then to either some new and devilish advance in the manufacture of buses, or, more likely, the inevitable degeneration of, and change in my hearing, attendant on life's ceaseless march.
I have wondered before whether these very common noises have ever been tested. It would not surprise me to learn that they peak at a level that is damaging to those unfortunate to be subjected to very close exposure.
10 October 2012 5:02pmLink to this comment
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Most painful?
My nails being dragged down a blackboard...after they've been pulled out by a CIA interrogator.
("I was only there for a wedding!")
10 October 2012 5:18pmLink to this comment
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"acoustically anything" = "any sound"
Can you hear my eyes rolling? Journalists need to take a course called, "How to write creatively without being a twat, whilst nonetheless writing in English."
10 October 2012 5:30pmLink to this comment
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Hi Tim57
Sorry to be dim and I'm happy to go on any course (though I'm retiring in March so it had better be soon). But what's wrong with the sentence you pick out?
Hope you liked the noises anyway, or at least found them interesting. All best, M
10 October 2012 6:35pmLink to this comment
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It's a bloomin' cockerel. Believe me.
10 October 2012 7:04pmLink to this comment
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The sound of a knife or fork skiting across a dinner plate makes my toes curl. Second only to that would be knuckles/fingers cracking. Yuck.
10 October 2012 7:36pmLink to this comment
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My mother's voice is effing annoying.
10 October 2012 7:48pmLink to this comment
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I thought it was already well established that vomiting is the worse sound in the world. Scraping noises didn’t make the top ten.
At least I’ve got some new samples for my next Grindstep toon!
10 October 2012 9:17pmLink to this comment
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"You missed 'politicians talking' and Black Eyed Peas."
Oh my god excellent job i'm lol'd
10 October 2012 9:50pmLink to this comment
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I know when our mother used to scrape the mashed potatoes out of metal pan with a metal spoon when we were kids, it used to go right though us, we could feel it in our teeth, it used to make us cringe every time, even if we were in another room.
10 October 2012 10:07pmLink to this comment
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I would imagine hearing the alarm going off in the morning would be right up there for most.. reminding you to get up from a comfortable slumber to go out and spend time with a bunch of complete ass-holes, doing repetitive mindnumbing shit so you can feed yourself and crawl back into your little hole each day. Rinse and repeat. Living the dream!
10 October 2012 10:18pmLink to this comment
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The sound of a relentless screaming baby while you're stood in the slow moving check-out queue of a life sapping flourescent lit supermarket.
10 October 2012 10:19pmLink to this comment
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Those might be the most awful noises - but the most annoying noises would have to be - house alarms, car alarms, leaf blowers, cars running for ages outside a house at night when you're trying to sleep, drills and or roadworks near your house, kids bouncing balls of the wall of your house over and over and over... I work from home!
10 October 2012 10:54pmLink to this comment
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The sound of someone at the next table, or on the bus, eating with their mouth open, slurping and slopping their food. Absolutely intolerable.
Also hawking and spitting. But then I'm a Westerner who's just returned from Asia, where those sounds are common and culturally acceptable, so I may be somewhat over-sensitized. Am still surprised by how prevalent these displays of disgusting (in the West) mannerisms are over here though.
10 October 2012 11:00pmLink to this comment
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The sound of someone elses crap music, played very loudly on a phone with a really tinny speaker whilst on public transport by a youth that you dare not confront for fear of reprisals (says a 24 year old coward)
10 October 2012 11:03pmLink to this comment
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Response to lambda, 10 October 2012 11:36am
Your own childrens high pitch screams are second only to other peoples childrens high pitched screams.
10 October 2012 11:29pmLink to this comment
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Barking dogs. Why can't dogs be bred to be quiet?
11 October 2012 12:55amLink to this comment
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Screaming babies and toddlers drive me out of the room. I have absolutely no aptitude for motherhood unless the babies have fur and tails.
"I follow the instructions on the aspirin bottle: 'Keep away from children.'"
11 October 2012 10:12amLink to this comment
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Response to RedPanda, 11 October 2012 12:55am
The thing is, most small animals are quiet so as not to attract the attention of larger animals. I keep telling my babies "shoosh, you'll wake the lions" but they don't take me on.
11 October 2012 4:53pmLink to this comment
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Waitrose "partners" in the fruit and veg section loudly snapping those collapsible plastic crates.
12 October 2012 6:52amLink to this comment
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Being trapped on a 9 hour flight to Mumbai with a screaming 2 year old.
12 October 2012 9:40amLink to this comment
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Commenters on The Guardian whining about politics.
Closely behind those of The Daily Mail.
12 October 2012 10:07amLink to this comment
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The *CRRRRUNCH! snorf snorf snorf snorf ...pause...CRRRRUNCH! snorf snorf snorf....* sound of people eating crisps, second only to the horrible smell.
12 October 2012 10:13amLink to this comment
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People hawking as they are about to spit, particularly on public transport.
12 October 2012 10:31amLink to this comment
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Pity i didn't know about this study in advance. One of my colleagues constant non stop talking/singing/noisy eating would have topped that list hands down
12 October 2012 7:04pmLink to this comment
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Vacuum cleaners, traffic, city hum, babies crying, washing machines, all washing machines, every washing machine, drills, fireworks, loud typists, mouse clicks, scraping chairs, doors creaking, busses, motor bikes, car exhausts, creaking stairs and baying donkeys and magpies. Slurping, chewing noises, squelching, burping, toilet noises.
12 October 2012 7:07pmLink to this comment
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Vacuum cleaners, traffic, city hum, babies crying, washing machines, all washing machines, every washing machine, drills, fireworks, loud typists, mouse clicks, scraping chairs, doors creaking, busses, motor bikes, car exhausts, creaking stairs and baying donkeys and magpies. Slurping, chewing noises, squelching, burping, toilet noises. ---if all these noises are combined, amplified and then emitted, a new weapon has been discovered useful during riots and anarchy, good idea, no?.
12 October 2012 11:35pmLink to this comment
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Yes, they are irritating noises but how often do you hear them compared with the inescapable, brain-numbing, offensively loud “background music” that is played in nearly every shop, shopping centre, cafe and restaurant?
They even have a radio blaring through loud speakers in my doctor’s waiting room.
13 October 2012 10:29amLink to this comment
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shrieking, squealing toddlers in a very large hotel lobby recently in Greece. Immediate reaction is for me to put my middle fingers to my ears, which I certainly do. An orchestra conductor recently said, if something unsightly is before our eyes, we can close them. Loudness and irritating sounds are much harder to shut out.
13 October 2012 5:07pmLink to this comment
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Something about the low vibrating pitch of the streetcleaner truck that passes, infinitely slowly, by my window in the middle of the night, a deep, turbo-growl-from-hell, terrifies me. If black holes made a sound, this would be it.
10 October 2012 10:27amLink to this comment
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You missed 'politicians talking' and Black Eyed Peas.