Don’t you just love misleading pictures?

It’s all about the hearing these days. I remember those crazy sound-tests when I was a little kid. They put these enormous headphones on you, and told you to raise your hand whenever you heard something. Fun at first- but simply annoying after listening to high-pitched frequencies for a full ten minutes. I remember going back to class with the ringing still in my ears.

Little did I know that I was hearing frequencies most adults probably could not of. According to research, children and young teenagers can hear higher frequencies then adults. Well, a shopkeeper in Wiltshire, England has decided to utilize this information. The man developed a mosquito-type noise that plays outside of his shop to keep away troublemakers. Apparently, the noise is unbearably annoying for anyone under the age of 25. You can even try listening to the soundwave yourself.

(Something to note about the BBC article above: The caption on the picture of the mosquito reads, “A Mosquito, yesterday”. Whatever happened to pictures actually relating to the articles?)

Anyways, someone who noticed this article decided to create a sample of different frequencies to test their own hearing. Test it on their website for yourself. See how high up you can get before you can’t hear anything at all! The highest I can hear is 17,000 Hz- and I challenge you to beat it.

(Note: Try this around animals for extra fun )

I think Dose published some genuinely interesting features during their run, providing a more national focus than most. This was especially true compared with the other free dailies, which were largely press-release driven and Toronto-centric. Ultimately, though, their desire to reach profitability led to sponsored front-pages and pushes to include a younger segment, putting me off completely.

The main spread features a collection of articles that try to solve the commuting problem that has been steadily getting worse in the GTA. Jennifer Wells writes about the idea of the Velo-City, a series of highways for biking (and perhaps roller-blading as well). Gabe Gonda references Andrew Alfred-Duggan’s Toronto Rapid Transit Guide of the TTC. This popular imagining of a subway map set in the future includes express lines in the downtown core, an Eglinton line that stretched from the airport to Guildwood, extending the Bloor line to Square One and the zoo, and a few new lines as well. This map was notably featured in uTOpia.

To top it all off, Rita Daly writes about the idea of a inter-connected mini cities built around train hubs, such as Oshawa, Peterborough and Barrie. The idea of building places of work directly into these destinations reduces the need for last-mile bus networks and allows urban transit providers to focus on dedicated regular service between major hubs, reducing the need for workers to commute from suburb to suburb.

The awards for best new weblog and weblog of the year went to PostSecret, a site where people mail in anonymous home-made post cards. They are then posted up on the blog for all to see. There are also awards for various general interests (food, technology, entertainment, politics) and for many regions (Africa and Middle East, Australia and New Zealand, Britain and Ireland, Canada, Continental Europe). The rest of the winners along with the nominees are also listed on the official site.