All posts by Raymond Tomlin

About Raymond Tomlin

Raymond Tomlin is a veteran journalist and educator who has written frequently on the political realm — municipal, provincial and federal — as well as on cinema, mainstream popular culture, the arts, and technology.

Turn Up the Quiet: Moving Toward a Noise Free World
The Quest for Sonic Bliss and a Good Night’s Sleep

Environment, Food & Health

HEARING-LOSS


NEWBORN-HEARING-SCREENING

It’s an epidemic, and it’s all around us. It’s in our bedrooms, in our rec rooms and living rooms, in our cars and even in our baby’s crib. It causes stress, isolation, sleep deprivation and increases our blood pressure. And it is literally making us deaf.
What is this monster? It’s noise. Noise is responsible for more than one-third of all cases of hearing loss, a life-altering disability that is eminently preventable. Hearing loss is Canada’s third leading chronic disability, affecting more than 3 million people — and the leading cause is noise, responsible for more than one third of cases.
According to a recently published study conducted by Timothy C. Hain, a Professor of Neurology and Otolaryngology at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, Illinois …

We are steadily losing our hearing due to over-exposure to noise at an earlier age than ever before. The number of people with hearing loss who are between the ages 18 and 44 increased 17 per cent. The greatest loss in hearing is found in people 45 to 64 — 20 years younger than expected and the reason: over exposure to noise.


Children are also feeling the effects of living in a noisier world and are especially vulnerable. According to the study, 15% of school children have hearing loss, increasing to 30% in young adults entering the work force.
In this month’s issue of Utne Magazine, writer David Schimke explores our quest for the creative and natural soundscape all around us — the music of nature, the laughter of friends and neighbours, and our own inner voice.

I didn’t know that cheaper housing was statistically linked to mind-numbing noise pollution: that city planners insensitive to the needs of lower-middle-class citizens typically build two-lane highways through neighbourhoods designed for the horse and buggy, or that airport runways literally begin and end in people’s backyards. When I first moved to the city, I didn’t expect that construction crews and street sweepers would rattle and hum before sunup, while schoolchildren and working families tried in vain to rest.


According to the U.S. 2001 Census Survey, 11.6 million households reported that street or traffic noise was bothersome, and an additional 4.5 million said it was so bad they wanted to move.
Schimke reports that there are 40 million cases of hearing loss in the United States, with 10 million cases attributable to excess noise. Besides contributing to deafness, at just 85 decibels (a human voice averages 65 decibels, while a hair dryer clocks in at 95), high sound levels lead to stress (the human pain threshold is 120 decibels), indigestion, high blood pressure, weakening of the immune system, and hypertension.
The relationship between noise and the natural soundscape is similar to the relationship between litter and the landscape. We need to get people to understand that, to create a new aural ethic. Dissonance is not inherent in the human condition. Noise induced hearing loss doesn’t have to happen to you. For now, practice safe listening — turn it down and use protection.

The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time

Pop Culture

TOP-100-GADGETS

Whether you read Gizmodo to gain insight into the latest “must have” gadgets, or you find yourself pining away at Best Buy for the latest tech toy, or you’re one of those “early adopters” who just has to have the latest innovation (think stereo VCRs way back in the early 80s, when they cost $2000, or CD players in the mid-80s, or the first Pentium-powered computer in 1995, or the mini USB flash drives only a year ago), Mobile Magazine’s The Top 100 Gadgets of All Time will be a must-read for you.
Here are the ground rules that were established before they got started …

  • It had to have electronic and / or moving parts of some kind. Scissors count, but the knife does not.
  • It had to be a self-contained apparatus that could be used on its own, not a subset of another device. The flashlight counts; the light bulb does not. The notebook counts, but the hard drive doesn’t.
  • It had to be smaller than the proverbial bread box. This is the most flexible of the categories, since gadgets have gotten inexorably smaller over time. But in general we included only items that were potentially mobile: The Dustbuster counts; the vacuum cleaner doesn’t.

So, what are / were your favourite gadgets of all time? The now ubiquitous cell phone? Or, how about going back a few years to the advent of pop music when the Sony TR-63 transistor radio came on the scene, a gadget that was instrumental in spreading the gospel of rock ’n roll to all teens?

CBC Locks Out 5500 Employees After Talks Fail

Media

CBC-LOCKOUT

The CBC locked out about 5,500 employees at 12:01 a.m. Monday after no substantial progress was made in last-minute bargaining between Canada’s largest broadcaster and its union, the Canadian Media Guild.
The workers have been without a contract for more than a year, with the CBC saying it needs more flexibility to hire new staff on a contract basis instead of full-time.
The CMG, which represents producers, newsroom staff and technicians, says 30 per cent of the CBC’s workforce is already non-permanent, giving the network all the flexibility it needs.
In an announcement late Sunday evening, the CBC said “the rhythm of negotiation this past week has given no indication of urgency on the part of the union” which it says has not presented a comprehensive offer.
Programming on all CBC services — radio, television and online — will continue, though it will be scaled back. Management says the CBC will continue to broadcast CFL football and NHL hockey games — but possibly without play-by-play commentary or colour analysis. Local radio morning shows will be replaced by a single national broadcast. TV newscasts will be cut back, with more acquired programming and movies aired.
As background, last month, guild members voted 87.3 per cent in favour of giving their negotiating team a strike mandate. The employees have been without a contract since the end of March 2004. Negotiations for a new contract began in May 2004. Employees in Québéc and Moncton, N.B., belong to different unions and are expected to continue working but not to cross over into Ontario to help out.
The broadcaster’s last major dispute was late in 2001, when technical staff were locked out across the country. In some cases, the sound and lighting was not up to usual standards, newscasts were truncated or eliminated, and repeats filled the airwaves.
Among those locked out is Peter Mansbridge, anchor of The National, the country’s flagship television newscast.

Sustainable Communities: A Bright Future And A Glowing Past

Environment, Vancouver

ONE-DAY-VANCOUVER

One Day is a City of Vancouver initiative dedicated to making incremental changes in energy consumption that can be sustained over time.
Whether it’s for personal fitness, to be part of the solution for future generations, or to help Vancouver become recognized as a world model for how an urban centre can manage energy consumption, the folks at onedayvancouver.ca are there to help you find ways to take that first step.
For instance, in your home you can …

  • Install compact fluorescent light bulbs
  • Install low-flow showerheads
  • Set back your thermostat at night
  • Look for the EnergyStar label when purchasing new appliances
  • Take advantage of BC Hydro Power Smart programmes and incentives
  • Turn the lights out when you leave the room

On the road, you can cut down on your energy consumption by …

  • Leaving your car at home, just one day a week
  • Walking or cycling to work or school
  • Taking transit
  • Joining a car co-op

Cities are for people (not cars). John Naisbitt (author of High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Search for Meaning) had it right: the more technology distances us (telecommuting, distance education, e-mail, videoconferencing), the more we crave human contact. Today, walkable communities, stroll districts, green transit, multi-modal transportation, urban density … all point in the direction of people-centered planning.
Cities are for all people. For cities of the future, tolerance is passé; inclusion is critical. Young people are moving to cities where people ‘mix’: in clubs, at church, and in neighbourhoods. In Paris, housing projects require a set-aside of several units only for artists. Other cities (such as Vancouver) require that 10 to 15 perecent of all new residential buildings are affordable housing. When integration occurs, it can be transformative and magical.
Healthy cities are important, too: cities that are committed to diesel-hydrogen transit buses, more bike racks on the front of buses, more walking and biking trails within cities (not just outside them) and greater commitment to green / open spaces contribute to sustainability.
Much of our future, and our children’s future, depends on making our cities ‘sustainable’. The time is here to enable even greater access to community services and recreation; to enhance our social prosperity; to minimize our need to travel across broad stretches of the Lower Mainland in our daily commute, and to build sustainable and affordable mass transit for all; to ensure safety within our communities; to provide a clear city centre focus in each of our communities; and to protect and preserve the key features of our city environment — our historic buildings, nature conservation, and the parks, beaches and woods of our city’s natural landscape.