Leaf blowers emit 34 times the hydrocarbons of a typical automobile per hour of operation. Fumes are compounded by noise. Cities from New York to California are banning them. Seems a straight forward issue, but what about time and money?
posted by mikoroshi on May 12, 2010 - 136 comments

There's nothing like the husky growl of an automobile engine. Of course to some people its just noise. But what if cars were quiet? That's right .... we'd complain they were too quiet. Then we'd have to fix that.
posted by ElvisJesus on Jul 6, 2009 - 62 comments

Noiseways. Listen to New York City and Portland Oregon. "The negative effects of noise—stress and the disruption of work, sleep, learning and other activities—are well established by scientific research. And of course it comes as no surprise that there is a lot of noise in New York City. The Noiseways Project intends to complement this knowledge by letting visitors to this Internet site experience the effects of noise through the use of pictures and sound recordings. Instead of presenting data, Noiseways engages the senses."
posted by Tin Man on Mar 19, 2004 - 12 comments

Were the Mayans expert sound engineers? Perhaps we could learn something from them to aid our pursuit of technological solutions to modern noise pollution problems.
posted by rushmc on Dec 9, 2002 - 16 comments