rostasi Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 The "sound 101" site mentioned below is pretty amusing - take the test! [links and formatting in original] http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/2...d-in-the-world/ January 24, 2007, 10:00 am Most Horrible Sound in the World By Tom Zeller Jr. A British researcher says he has uncovered what he believes is the most horrible sound in the world — or at least it was rated the most horrible of 34 sample sounds listened to by over a million Internet participants over the last year. A professor at Britain’s Salford University, Trevor Cox, claims to have reached a new plateau in the understanding of human hearing and acoustics, based on a year of input from of over a million online test subjects: Vomiting is the worst sound ever. Or, at least, vomiting as recorded for Professor Cox’s acoustics tests, and as performed by a hired actor using a bucket of diluted baked beans to recreate the sound of cascading slop. “I am driven by a scientific curiosity about why people shudder at certain sounds and not others,” Professor Cox said at his Web site. “We are pre-programmed to be repulsed by horrible things such as vomiting, as it is fundamental to staying alive to avoid nasty stuff but, interestingly, the voting patterns from the sound did not match expectation for a pure ‘disgust’ reaction.” (Readers who feel brave, and wish to listen to the foul sound clip can do so here, but be warned: it sounds, well, like someone vomiting.) As Britain’s Guardian newspaper put it today: The study … sought opinions on 34 sounds at the Web site http://www.sound101.org in the hope of learning what makes certain noises so objectionable. … The researchers expected sounds that evoke disgust to be near the top of the list, such as vomiting, coughing and spitting, eating an apple with the mouth open and a lengthy blast from a whoopee cushion. Revulsion to such sounds is partly governed by culture and partly an evolutionary legacy that helps us avoid picking up diseases. Indeed, the question of just how much of the “disgust” response is nature and how much is nurture has been a matter of some speculation. In 2004, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, writing in the journal Biology Letters, suggested that they’d found evidence that the human proclivity to become disgusted by certain things — say, feces or rotting meat — was an instinctive and evolutionary response, developed to protect us from the risk of disease. Other researchers, BBC News pointed out at the time, attribute the disgust response to learned behavior. Clark McCauley, a professor of psychology at Bryn Mawr University College in Pennsylvania, spoke to The BBC: “What people today find disgusting goes far beyond what can be understood in the evolutionary sense,” Professor McCauley told BBC News Online. “This biological mechanism was taken up and extended to produce a much broader mechanism of revulsion at different cultural horizons. “For example, what counts for appropriate care of hair in our society is not the same as in some other societies.” (Readers who want to test their own stomachs can take a “Disgust Test” at the BBC, in which they are invited to rate a series of images — from a dirty soccer ball to rotting teeth — on a scale from “Not Disgusted” to “Very Disgusted.”) As for Professor Cox’s disgusting sounds study, it’s worth noting that the classic bad sound — fingernails on a chalkboard — ranked only 16th among the field of 34 horrible sounds. (Note, too, that researchers have explored whether human revulsion to that sound derives from its similarity to the warning cries of macaque monkeys — the idea being that our response to the scraping might be some residual reflex handed down from our ancestors.) Ranking No. 2, just after vomiting, was the sound of microphone feedback. And tying at number three were the sounds of many babies crying, and what was simply called a “horrible scraping” sound. Quote
clifford_thornton Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 Yeah, I hate the sound of it, but it is sometimes quite the relief to engage in the act oneself... Quote
Scott Dolan Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 The most horrible sound in the world? Skeeters buzzing in your ear! Quote
bichos Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 country and/or western music. german "schlager-musik". keep boppin´ marcel Quote
Dan Gould Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 I haven't gone to the site but is "horrible scraping" equivalent to "nails on blackboard"? Because that has to rank #1 or #1A. Quote
Joe G Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 Nails on chalkboard never bothered me, but here's one that does: a maul or an ax that gets stuck in a log and is then jerked free -- that hideous reeeet sound! <shudder> Quote
porcy62 Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 Maybe they should start a research about the Most Horrible Human Voice in the World. When I am watching TV I sense sometimes howful feeling listen to some particular person. Quote
Chas Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 The sound of a needle moving quickly perpendicular to the grooves is one that really horrifies me . The more expensive the vinyl the worse the noise seems ! Quote
bertrand Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 9 posts and the name 'Kenny G' has yet to pop up. I admire my fellow organissimo members' restraint. Bertrand. Quote
Scott Dolan Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 Nails on chalkboard never bothered me, but here's one that does: a maul or an ax that gets stuck in a log and is then jerked free -- that hideous reeeet sound! <shudder> Now I'll always laugh whenever I hear that sound. reeet Quote
Hot Ptah Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 Irene Aebi If not the most horrible, way up there near the top of the list, for me. Quote
rostasi Posted January 25, 2007 Author Report Posted January 25, 2007 I haven't gone to the site but is "horrible scraping" equivalent to "nails on blackboard"? Because that has to rank #1 or #1A. You don't have to go to the site. In the original post, it states that it's at #16. Quote
porcy62 Posted January 25, 2007 Report Posted January 25, 2007 The sound of a needle moving quickly perpendicular to the grooves is one that really horrifies me . The more expensive the vinyl the worse the noise seems ! Definitely! Quote
alocispepraluger102 Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 matt wilson playing ornette! Quote
alocispepraluger102 Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 Irene Aebi If not the most horrible, way up there near the top of the list, for me. an acquired taste, but i love to hear the aebster croon. Quote
alocispepraluger102 Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 (edited) being at an animal shelter and hearing the barks of dozens of doomed animals is something i cannot bear. Edited January 28, 2007 by alocispepraluger102 Quote
WD45 Posted January 28, 2007 Report Posted January 28, 2007 squeaky styrofoam sends me to the hills Quote
Kalo Posted January 29, 2007 Report Posted January 29, 2007 9 posts and the name 'Kenny G' has yet to pop up. I admire my fellow organissimo members' restraint. Bertrand. How about Kenny g's bones being scraped against a blackboard? Actually, that might sound kind of good. matt wilson playing ornette! Like actually hitting him with sticks? That would be prettty disturbing, I guess. Otherwise, I really dig Matt Wilson. Quote
Kalo Posted January 29, 2007 Report Posted January 29, 2007 (edited) country and/or western music. german "schlager-musik". keep boppin´ marcel I like country and/or western. Ignorant of "schlager-musik." Irene Aebi I've come to like Irene over the years. She's far from the most horrible sound in the world. I like her a lot more than, say, Phil Ochs. Edited January 29, 2007 by Kalo Quote
Kalo Posted January 29, 2007 Report Posted January 29, 2007 I have to admit that I'm adverse to most Celtic music. Anyone ever see the Celtic Women on PBS? I was unfortunate enough to stumble across it today. Pretty ridiculous and far from educational. Quote
BruceH Posted January 29, 2007 Report Posted January 29, 2007 I have to admit that I'm adverse to most Celtic music. Anyone ever see the Celtic Women on PBS? I was unfortunate enough to stumble across it today. Pretty ridiculous and far from educational. Funny you should mention that. I was wondering recently just why it is that I'm so averse to "Celtic" music myself. I think it was a profile of the Pogues by Ed Ward on NPR that initially got me wondering. (They were the group that got their 15 minutes of fame by supposedly mixing Irish music with punk.) Once a friend from work lent me a tape of Irish folk music and I couldn't listen to it for more that 30 seconds at a time. I've gotten into "traditional" or "ethnic" music from all sorts of other countries----Afican, Asian, Indian, Indonesian... I like bluegrass, and country, and honky-tonk... But I often can't stand so-called "Celtic" music. And chances are I probably have some Celtic blood in my veins, so that doesn't seem to make a difference. BTW, I've never seen the "Celtic Woman" on PBS, and something tells me I don't want to. Quote
alocispepraluger102 Posted January 30, 2007 Report Posted January 30, 2007 9 posts and the name 'Kenny G' has yet to pop up. I admire my fellow organissimo members' restraint. Bertrand. How about Kenny g's bones being scraped against a blackboard? Actually, that might sound kind of good. matt wilson playing ornette! Like actually hitting him with sticks? That would be prettty disturbing, I guess. Otherwise, I really dig Matt Wilson. i really like matt palmetto, too, but i cant stand him stepping 'outside' Quote
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