Warning: Listening to Rock and Heavy Metal Can Seriously Damage Your Health!

Researchers in Brussels report three young men who experienced sudden chest pain and shortness of breath while attending rock concerts or standing near an amplifier in a dance hall. All had developed pneumothorax. A fourth patient sustained the condition while listening to a 1000 watt base box situated in his car boot.

A pneumothorax occurs when air leaks into the potential space between the lung and the chest wall, and can cause the lung to collapse. The researchers speculate that repetitive pressure changes in the high energy-low frequency range of the sound exposures, found in heavy metal and rock music, are likely to be responsible.

Soon to fill our lungs the hot winds of death. The gods are laughing, so take your last breath... - Metallica (Ride the Lightning)

naive and dangerous?

How can Bush profess to value the sanctity of life whilst condemning millions of women to die?
How can a nation be blind to the inherent contradictions in their leader's policies? How can the world survive another term of GWB? America pays dearly for its leader's decisions, at the cost of world respect. For the world however, the price is heavier.

Festival Diaries #11: Ross Noble

..had to be performing in the most comfortable venue by far. The soft padded seats of the EICC were enormously soporific, so Mr Noble had his work cut out trying to keep his audience from falling asleep. Fortunately this funnyman truly surpassed my expectations, and I was bent double with laughter during the first half of his show.

Somehow after the interval, his spark was a little less bright as he went on to cheaply jeer at religions, politics, etc. During the whole second half it seemed Ross wanted laughs so much, that he went a little too close to the wire.

However; I loved the Princess Diana Fountain/Memorial Truck bit - "she was just a posh lass who died" - and Ross' portrayal of the Scouse seag-girl was spot on. The venue was perhaps a bit odd for such a gig, but it didn't alter the fact that, for the most part, Ross Noble was brilliantly funny.