Noise Pollution Hits New York

(iProzac/Flickr)

“My job is to put my hand deeply in your pocket as I can for as long as you like. It’s a manipulative business.” This quote is from Jon Taffer, a restaurant and night life consultant and host of the reality show “Bar Rescue” speaking about designing music programs for restaurants, bars and hotels in a recent New York Times article “Working or Playing Indoors, NewYorkers Face an Unabated Roar" Thanks to The New York Times we know that the noise levels in one-third of its researched 37 restaurants, bars, stores, and gyms in New York City are bordering on dangerous. Examples are given from Beaumarchais, a brasserie which averaged 99 decibels, a spin class at Crunch gym averaging 100 decibels, and an Abercrombie & Fitch store with music hitting 88 decibels. Just to compare: normal conversation is between 60-65 decibel and The Occupational Safety andHealth Administration requires that workers exposed to an average of 90 decibels for eight hours wear hearing protection. “ …repeated exposure to loud noise often damages.........

America's Heartland Turning into Ghosttowns

Gary,Indiana (Zachary Perlinski/Flickr)

"Once the centre of the country's booming steel industry and known as the City of the Century, Gary, Indiana now lies in ruins as a sad example of American industrial decline. Founded in 1906 by the US Steel Corporation, Gary's heyday was in the post-war boom of the 1950s when almost 200,000 people lived and worked in the bustling city, 25 miles from Chicago...". That's the start of an article in the British Daily Mail describing the.....