Acoustics & Climate Change

I have to admit that I'm somewhat reluctant to jump on any bandwagon, let alone the most recent one related to global climate change. Of course, I am trying to be a responsible citizen of Earth. I am not a "climate change denier." But neither am I an avid Algore-ite. It's actually quite simple: My mental gag-reflex kicks in when anything scientific becomes overly politicized. But that's just me...and I am NOT going to bLog about my opinions on the quagmire of issues.

Nonetheless, here is a bLog for you with some blurbs about how the whole climate change thing has overlapped with the acosutics world:

• For an entertaining exchange amongst acoustics folk (Savant included) on the issue, you can visit at least one (there are too many, lol!) hijacked Studiotips thread. :)
• If you're in the green building biz - LEED and all that (not to be confused with LEDE, of course 8^) ) - then check out Michael Noble's piece in the Summer 2005 ASA newsletter, Echoes.
• Finally, a favorite acoustical foam manufacturer of mine has now incorporated, of all things, soy components into their products to reduce carbon emissions, etc. (You still can't eat it, though.) Check out Studiofoam-eco at the Auralex site!

Elucidation Request

Today's Cross•Spectrum blog post left me wanting, if have to say. And since I cannot figure out a way to comment there, I do so here. :)

First, I would like to know what's not to like about Cloverfield? Unless you suffer from motion sickness, I thought it was a very clever movie built around a tired old theme ("bad-thing-destroys-Manhattan"). My thought for the sequel: Another video is found that documents the same event from a different person's perspective. IMO, the whole thing wouldn't get old for at least 2 or 3 more movies.

Second, I have to concur, at least partly, about the B&K 2250. I say partly because I do like the sound recording to compact flash option. If you get a compact flash card with, say, 64 GB capacity, you can record (according to B&K's specs) over 185 hours of audio as 16-bit, 48 kHz WAV file(s). If all you need is a few hours - or even a full 24 - that leaves plenty of extra space for data. However, the major drawback to this (IMO) is that a 44.1 kHz sample rate does not appear to be an option. Guess the folks at B&K don't like to burn audio CDs...

(Of course, if someone would simply develop a way to attach a Type 1 mic and preamp to an somehow-record-enabled portable music player... But that's another bLog for another time...)

Another reason I concur is that there is HUGE feature that has been left out of the 2250: GPS capability. IMO, this needs to be a standard feature on all new SLMs from this point forward. At least on SLMs of B&K caliber. If they had included GPS and a way to access the meter remotely (Bluetooth, anyone?), it would deserve the hype.

Of course, over the years, a colleague and I have gone back and forth adding all sorts of bells and whistles to imaginary SLMs, only to conclude that what we really want is an acoustical automaton that replaces not only our bulky field survey equipment cases, but also replaces the operators (us), thus removing the need for us to have to travel with our bulky field survey equipment cases and go poking around cornfields, deserts, and well-to-do suburbs at 3 a.m.

But back to the real issue: What's not to like about Cloverfield???!!! :):):)

Dressed for (Acoustical) Success

A little too late for Christmas, but I recently came across this garment, something all noise geeks will want to have in their closets.

Of course, if they develop matching pants, where do you think the microphone will go?

And, now that I think about it, wouldn't a hat make more sense? I mean, who listens with their chest hairs?

And speaking of chests (uh-oh), if a woman should don the Noise T, shouldn't there be some way to account for, um, "shielding" effects?

OK, I'm going to stop now.

Happy Asimov Day!

On this day in 1920*, in that sleepy little burg we all know as Petrovichi, Russia, a sci-fi legend was born. If you've never read any Isaac Asimov - and even if you're not a fan of sci-fi - you owe it to yourself to at least add one (or seven) of his great works to your "to-read" pile. If you prefer galactic sagas, I suggest the Foundation novels. If you're a closet R2-D2 or Data fan, you can't go wrong with any of the Robot books.

Asimov was one of the genres most prolific writers. Even his non-fiction is simply oustanding.

So, I declare this Asimov Day - I hope yours is a good one!!!

*At least, this the the day that Mr. Asimov himself celebrated - his exact DOB is not known with any certainty. See Asimov's Wiki entry for more.