Earplugs Review. No-Roll Foam Earplugs. Hear no evil...

Let those who want to hear, hear. For those who do not want to, well, you can use an earplug as an aid.

I've been busy studying for my exam for the past few days (maybe weeks) and I realized the importance of SILENCE.

Not only silence is important to me during my studies, but also during my bedtime. Why? Certain sound such as the footsteps of your family members, or the noisy revving of your neighbours' Subaru/Evo, or even the mating mourns of stray cats can disturb/disrupt my sleep.


To counter this, I use my faithfully foam ear plug, the EAR Taperfit2.

This is a extremely soft and gummy foam ear plug. Very effective at noise control. (More on that later). For foam earplug, you need to roll it into a small piece so that it can enter into your ear canal and expand to effectively block out (a certain level of)the noise. One slight disadvantage of Taperfit2 is that it expands rather quickly when rolled, hence you need to insert into the ear canal quickly (With 2sec).

For those who are new to earplug, I would like to say that foam earplug is the best available portable noise controlling equipment. Even active noise cancellation technology, custom fit silicone earplug and ear muff cannot beat this. Of course if you use a ear muff and a foam earplug, it is more effective than using any of the mentioned above. However, singular noise control, it is still foam.

However, there is the hygiene concern. If you roll the foam earplug with unclean hand, your ears may get infected. As such, I recently got a few sets of no-roll foam earplugs that do not require the use of hand to roll the foam into the ears, I will test out the effectiveness.

For sound reference, here is my control variable.
-Ear Taperfit2
-Window XP, full 100% volume
- Youtube Comedy Talk show @ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOWlpvOPKXc 100% volume at the youtube software.
-Creative Gigaworks T3 @ 40% of the volume (considered loud)
-Sitting 1 m away from the speaker

So using my Taperfit2, the noise level was reduced approximately by 40%.

Note: I have average size ear canals.


Now let us take a look at the performance of no-roll foam.

1) EAR Express Pod Plugs (NRR25 - Higher the number, theoretically the better.)

The foam are soft but expand very fast. Small round head means that it does not go deep into your ear canal. In fact, it does sit just inside the ear.

Noise Reduction: 10%

Comfortable.



2) EAR Push-Ins ComforTip (NRR26)


Spongy big head with the foam characteristics the same as Express Pod. I cannot insert them inside them into my ear without them sliding out. As a result, they sit just outside my ears. Maybe these are for those who have HUGE ear canal. And I mean HUGE.

Noise Reduction 2%

Not Comfortable.



3) EAR Push-Ins (NRR28)
Slightly smaller head than Express Pod, again, same foam characteristics as Express Pod (not surprisingly since they are all from EAR). Cannot go deep into my ear canals.

Noise Reduction: 20%

Comfortable


4)Peltor Next No-Touch (NRR29)

Very soft foam. Softer than the above three. And more meat/foam. Insert deeper than the previous three.

Noise Reduction: 35%

Very Comfortable


5) Peltor Skull Screw (NRR30)

Interesting name. Not as meaty/foamy as Next No-Touch, but use the same foam as Next. Insert as deep as Next, but with a slight pain.

Noise Reduction: 35%

Comfortable


6) EAR Push_Ins With Grip Ring (NRR30)

Almost the same as Peltor Skull. Skull have a softer foam. Slight less deep than Skull.

Noise Reduction 30%

Comfortable.


7) EAR Softouch (NRR31)



Softest Foam among the EAR brand. Even though its head is bigger than skull or Grip Ring, it has a foam tip head, hence it is comfortable.

Noise Reduction: 35%

Comfortable.


Here are all 7 of them.






To conclude: out of all 7, I would choose Peltor Next No-Touch as it is the most comfortable among all of them and offer the highest noise reduction among the no-roll foam earplugs. Second in place are EAR SofTouch and Peltor Skull Screw. However, both their sizes mean wearing them overnight to sleep may not be comfortable.

Still, roll-down foam, in my opinion, is better. But still, if you have problem with hand hygiene or do not want the hassle of rolling and inserting the foam, no-roll foam can be a good alternative.

How to get rich without much repercussion

Previously,

Get the Green Card,

Join a major "nationalized" bank.

Work your way up.

Invest using banks money in extremely risky assets etc.

Pocket fat bonuses and perks if the investments turn out well.

Ask government to use taxpayer money to aid the bank if the investments incur heavy losses.

Either way, you will not lose much...

It will not work now since everybody is aware of the situation.

Wait for 4 years, when the economy recovers, then you try your luck again.

GOOD LUCK....

and look out for taxpayers hunting you down by means of golden bullet envelop threat, stabbing you from behind with penknife etc..

Sincerely,
Shengjie - "Small fry Economist"

The Blind Side of Blandishment

To those who had a religion,

At times, you were (or still are) surprise(d) or truly amaze(d) at how "obstinate"(subjective) some people can get when you tried to tell the good news of your religion to them.

Some people may give you the friendly nod or (Duchenne) smile, some may brush you off, some may even reverse the process by telling you about their own views.

I've experience many of such encounters and I come to a realization that there are certain issues that were never brought on the table.

First - Some people simply do not believe in external life. I've many friends whom when probed(asked), told me that. Death, is just like sleeping. 75% of my non believer friends told me that.

Note: Before I continue, I wish to clarify that what you encounter may differ from mine.

Now, imagine that you are an insurance agent. You are trying to sell a saving plan to Mr X. This saving plan requires him to set aside $500 per month, and continue to commit to do so for 25 years (Total commitment = $500 x 12 x 25 = $150,000). In return, he will get one lump sum of money at the end of the 25 years, and this sum is greater than $150,000. Once he signed up for the plan, failure to commit(perhaps due to financial crisis), will incur a penalty fee and may end worst off than his initial position.

Will he buy?

Going back to my point, if Mr X did not believe that he will (or have a high chance) live beyond 10 years, persuading him to take up the plan due to the higher pay-off is not going to work. In fact, in real life, I've come across insurance agents enticing me with this carrot of high payoff.

Instead, the agent should try to convince Mr X that he will live for the next 25 years or more.

How to convince? Well, that is the difficult part....

One thing for sure though, try sleeping without breathing, and I think sleeping may not be pleasant after all.

Second - Social forces are more visible and evident than "religious forces".

Try telling Mr X that God will hunt or punish (angrily/lovingly/benevolently) him for his sin by striking him with a bolt of lighting or sending an earthquake with the epicenter directly below his feet. Mr X will label you as "off-the-mark".

Telling Mr X that the mysterious incurable disease that he had was due to God's punishment or even that God is sending his 'crusade' from Country Y to kill him have a higher 'impact' than the natural forces.

(Some) people tend to look at the olden history of religion and associate them with the natural forces. It is understandable. Ancient people worshiped many natural elements of the earth. And a good portion of ancient people also worshiped God that control such forces. In olden days, people could not understand why natural disasters happen to them and how it happen.

Nowadays, people studies and know why and where is can occur, so they can be "unreachable".
Which may explain why no one or perhaps(more optimistically), some still worship the Sun in the modern day.

The notion 'almost everything is in our own control' is a difficult barrier to break...


Third - The negative/false impression of religious leaders.

I understand from some, that is also one of the barrier that they had.

Inevitably, quite a number of non-believers create some sort of money "flowchart" - people do offerings -> religious institution gets the money ->religious people who control the institutes get the money-> religious leaders needs more money -> preach and ask people to give more/be faithful -> Repeat cycle. Admittedly, this is a generalized and perhaps narrow view and there may be a better flowchart to incorporate a wider range of views.

(Some) people expect religious leaders to be frugal, humble etc... somehow similar to Muhammad Gandhi, Mother Theresa, _________(fill in the blank).

But, sorry to disappoint.

Leaders do have the freedom of using the money that was given to them. But if the religious leaders, especially those that are earning directly from the offerings of the people, have the wrong motive and use religious reasons to cover up or (sugar) coat such motives, then I believe it is not right.

It is hard to discern and distinguish between the white and black sheep...

And on a further note, I've come across religious leaders that say(somewhere along the line): In the secular world, with my qualification and capability, there are many better paying jobs that I can take up, yet I choose to work as a lowly paid religious leader.

What are they trying to invoke? It will only add more layers of barrier.......


Once again, I'll like to end off with this: What I saw or encountered may differ from yours. After all, we live in a diverse world, and you may be living in a world that is culturally/ethically etc different from mine, and you may not see or feel what I see or feel. You don't have to agree. :)

Rational Deterrence

Two days ago, I was traveling on the highway. The vehicle I was on was traveling slightly above the speed limit. During one part of the course, the traffic at my direction slowed down. To my left, I saw a police car parked at the side with its flashing lights on.

I wasn't surprised, because drivers were known to slow down in areas where there are hidden speed cameras. They would slow down near the location, and after they passed, they will continue their "beyond speed limit" speed. (Generalization here).

But what is surprising here was that the drivers, after passing the police car, did not speed up. In fact, the traffic remains within legal speed limits for quite some time before it resumed back to the "norms".

Some thoughts came to my mind.

1) Drivers were very rational and very "preemptive". A police car does not necessary mean that only that specific portion of the highway was being marked. It may just be a start of a series of law enforcements waiting for you right till the end of the highway.

(2)Traffic law enforcements may know the above point(pt 1), and hence may just employ one vehicle to achieve the effect, thereby saving on manpower.

(3) Some experienced drivers may know the above point (pt2), hence may be unfazed and may step up the gas after passing that single traffic police car.

(4) However, some drivers may not know point 2, hence they will take extra precaution and slowed down. And because of these drivers and the collective effects, it will overall, still slow down the highway speed.

(5) The law enforcement teams know all of the above, hence, their equilibrium strategy will still be - the deployment of one police car.

Does A Picture Say A Thousand Words??

Some may ponder about my previous Kevin Carter's photo. What has it got to do with the Cheetah's story?

Admittedly, there isn't much of correlation between them. It was the mentioning of the vulture that led to the derailment.

The only point I want to bring out is that because of my past experiences/encounters(though not physically up close) with vultures , my mind was "conditioned" in such a way that I formed a negative schema (ruthless, prey on weak, nasty, ugly) about them.

Therefore, when I first saw the Kevin Carter's photo, my first initial feelings were a mixture of hate and sympathy.

Many may have agreed with me that Kevin Carter's photo portrayed a situation whereby the girl was either in great pain or dying soon, and the vulture was eagerly waiting in anticipation(if you have thought of this, you may already has a schema about vulture) to devour or attack the little girl.

The sense of injustice, sympathy or the thirst to kill that vulture may well from within you. I had that too.. initially.

Looking back, reorganizing my thoughts and feelings, I would like to propose certain views, and this may not go too well with some of the readers.

First - Vultures are one of the misunderstood creature in the animal kingdom. They have this gift of spotting motionless creatures on the ground. They are able to differentiate between a sleeping animal and a motionless animal. When a motionless animal is spotted, they will circle above it, and land to further inspect and verify. In fact, some of the predators rely on this circling signal to find their food. If the animal is not injured or dying, they would take flight.

Second - This means that the vulture in Kevin Carter's photo (denoted as vulture KC) was merely inspecting the girl. Attacking/eating the girl is a possibility, but so is the reverse of this, depending on the situation.

Third - It may also means that vulture KC was inspecting some other creature nearby, but it wasn't caught(deliberately or not) by the photographer. An alternative report by Joao Silva reported that the girl was left alone briefly as the parents went to the plane to get food and supply aids, and the vulture eventually flew off. Hence the vulture may be interested in the commotion or enticed by the food supply.

Fourth - The picture shows the inequality of the world. And the people who sympathize these poor people are the people who in the first place create a social system and structured in a way that may be disadvantage to most of these people.

Fifth - Dying, may not be a bad option for the girl. I'm very sorry. But if I were to put myself in her shoe/situation, I would choose to die than suffer.

I would elaborate more on the 4th and 5th point in my coming entries...

Scavenger Instinct

This photo was introduced to me not long ago. Kevin Carter took this photo and became famous/infamous. A substantial number of people criticized him for photographing instead of helping the Sudanese girl - "The man adjusting his lens to take just the right frame of her suffering might just as well be a predator, another vulture on the scene."

I felt the pain in my heart when I first saw the photo. Perhaps it was the image of a innocent defenseless young child of the same species that was going to be torn apart by the scavenging creature.

I've watched countless of animals documentary. There was one video that I will always remember - and it is the first and only documentary that brought tears to my eyes.

In Brief: It was about the life of two male cheetahs in Africa that grew up together, hunting and looking out for each other. One fine day, one of the brother(Cheetah A) went out early to hunt for food for the both of them, in his course, he ventured too far away and got lost. When his brother (Cheetah B) woke up and realized that his brother (A) was missing, he went out to look for him. Every few metres, he would let out a high pitch sound (or chirping) to try to alert or call out for his brother. He combed many areas, for a few hours, under the hot desert climate. Eventually, all his energy was expended and he(B) took a rest near a tree.


During his rest, he continued to chirp out for his brother. As cliche as it sounds, his brother(A) happened to be nearby and when he heard the chirp, he chirped back and started to walk toward B. But Cheetah (B) chirping also caught the attention of a nearby lion and Cheetah B was attacked from behind by that lion. It turned out that the tree he was resting belonged to the lion and because of his tiredness, he failed to smell the lion's scent. In such a situation, typically, a cheetah can outrun and escape from the lion, but because of his languorous, was attacked and got badly injured.

His brother sensed something amiss, and started to sprint towards his brother's direction. Cheetah B managed to limp away and the lion didn't make further advancement(due to the fact that he wasn't hungry), but after limping a short distance, he collapsed as his hind area was badly injured. He(B) continued to chirp out so as to enable his brother to locate him. When Cheetah A reached him and saw that his brother was badly injured, his expression was painfully sad and confused at the same time. His brother(B-injured), was more of happy to see him, yet at the same time, you can see that he is in great pain.

They rubbed nose for a moment before they licked each other on the cheeks. This was the gesture of farewell. A flock of vultures was flying in circle over his brother. His death was imminent and the brothers knew that. Cheetah A reluctantly walked a few steps away from his brother, glancing back frequently. His injured brother kept looking at his brother, knowing that he will not have the chance to do that again. A few vultures landed near Cheetah B. Cheetah A stopped in his track(about 30metre away from his brother), and laid in such a way that he was looking perpendicularly away from his location. He just wanted to be close to his brother, yet at the same time, he could not bear to watch his painful (and cruel) death. The documentary ended when Cheetah B laid down his head..for the last time.

It was an extremely painful and sad video. The show lasted for an hour and was telecast many years ago. Yet I still remembered the story. I also remembered how much I hate vultures since that day. (And, yes, I knew it wasn't the vulture's fault.)

To be continued...

Are you really happy?

A short post in the midst of my busy schedule.

I was reading this article and come across this term called Duchenne smile, where it purports that you cannot fake a "real" smile. What it basically means is that if you are really happy, your smile will involve and activate the upper portion of the facial muscles (Orbicularis oculi muscle - for the science fanatics) , which is absence in fake pretentious smile.

With this, you may be tempted to analyse people's smile. But then, some people may also know this theory and can fake a real smile. and you can never know the true mix of the people who know or do not know this. So it leaves you wondering, perhaps even more puzzled now, whether the person is really happy or not.

That.. is the danger of knowledge/information. =)