1 I read this story the other day and thought of it while listening to a Jack Johnson cd earlier today. Thanks for saving me the trouble of tracking it down.

2 This is interesting, particularly in light of early research by NASA that suggested the most compelling voices for astronauts to hear announcements, etc. in were female voices. Beyond all the scientific fiddle-faddle, there may be (may be) a tendancy for women to be a bit more loquacious than men. This is as it should be, since we're very often the primary caregivers for young children, who need to hear a steady torrent of spoken language in order to learn to speak. Of course, as with all good things one can have too much. Sometimes my mother is talking talking talking and I'm using the blender or something and just really can't hear her very well. Then I'll often announce that I can't hear her, and if she says something important she should let me know. 'Cause a lot of it is just, well, stuff. There's sort of a wheat/chaff problem. Hypothetically, let's say a male was raised by a chatty female. Presumably, he'd either have to learn to tune her out, or become an axe murderer. Furthermore, let's suppose the man then got married. There might be an enormous temptation to tune his wife out as much as he sometimes does his mother. I'm not saying this isn't understandable, but I would caution that he should try not to get caught.

3 Let me say you don't have to be married to tune out the lady friend. I've tuned out many a girlfriend (99% of the time during televised sports), as a result if I don't have any idea what she said I'd divert to a standard response "I love you too." The key is fguring out the ratio of background information to important information and just tuning in to get the important parts. As far as NASA using female voices, it makes sense personally becuase if its quite then the voice starts I'll hear the words, its as the talking runs on that I begin to tune out. Of course for me its not female specfici, I can have the tv and radio on at the same time and go back and forth between listening to them, drives many a people nuts. So that answers why I'm not married pretty well....

4 I hate it when people like you turn on the TV or the radio (not music--words) and expect me to then converse with them. I always want to say, "if you wanted to talk, you wouldn't have the television on, would you?"

5 Oh see I shoudl clarify, if I am having a 'serious' converstion radio or tv get turned down. With the roommate (or other friends) we'll just ignore the game (or radio) and talk with pauses to watch the game, then go back to tuning it out. The worst is the girlfriends that want to talk in instances liek the bottom of the 9th with the winning run up to bad and 2 outs. it kind of applies to anyone who wants a converstion when I'm obviously paying attention to somethign else. So really the tune out applies more so when the converstion is start when I was paying attention to something else. Its also occured in other cases, like when I am working on a school assignment and the gf would want to talk on the phone..then getting in trouble for not paying attention.

6 I've learned that if I want to talk during a football game, I should wait for a commercial, or at least a point wherein the ball is not in play.

7 Actually, if there's a football game on, the only thing Attila the Hub really wants to hear is, "I brought you some Diet Coke." Or: "here's some chips."

8 Hahaha Every man's dream. Well some would substitute Beer for Diet Coke, but nevertheless the feeling is the same. :p

9 He's not a Neanderthal, but he does like his football.