With Sanjaya Malakar no longer the force he once was, it seems the tender eardrums of America's youth are once again safe from unnecessary harm. But sadly, that's not the case, reports NPR.

Today's 'Morning Edition' broadcast spotlighted Dr. Sharon Kujawa of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and her crusade across Boston's school system to inform young people about the dangers of listening to music too loud.

A study by the CDC estimates that 12.5 percent of American kids between six and 19 years-old show signs of noise-induced hearing loss. That's more than five million nationwide. However, what's particularly alarming is the fact that the study is from 2001 -- years before iPods and other digital media players were as commonplace as they are in 2007.

But, kids are a tough audience to win over. So, to help her get the message across, Kujawa travels with Ben Jackson, a twenty-something kid who gets up and actually raps a song about hearing loss. His song is called "Turn it to the left," and encourages youngsters to turn their volume dials down (and to the left). According to NPR, the kiddies go nuts for it.

Jackson's diddy goes a little something like this:


Admit it. You're dying to listen for yourself (halfway down the page).

From NPR

The Apple iPod. Cultural icon. Technological revolution. Life saver...? Yes, according to Kevin Garrad, an infantryman deployed in Iraq. While on patrol in Iraq, he turned a corner and found himself face to face with an AK-47 wielding insurgent. Both fired and both took hits. The insurgent died, but Kevin was lucky enough to to have a 20 gigabyte iPod in his chest pocket in addition to his body armor. The iPod nobly took the round, its (scratched) metal backing slowing the slug before letting the armor finish the job of stopping it short of causing him any damage. The device is of course ruined now, but here's hoping Apple is good enough to send Kevin a replacement player. We might recommend a matching Kevlar carrying case.

From Flickr (via Engadget | Photo Licensing)

Panasonic's D-Snap line of products has always taken minimalist styling and flaunted it, resulting in some seriously nice looking but understated portable audio players. Their latest has been unveiled, the SV-SD850N, and it looks just as lusciously simple. Weighing just 45 grams and fitting into a svelte 91x35x12mm package, it's similar in size and weight to an iPod Nano if a bit thicker. With compatibility with all the popular music file formats (MP3, WMA, and ACC) it should play your music regardless of what format you store it in. It also sports a slot for SD and SDHC memory cards, meaning you can expand it all you like and never run out of storage. The player is shipping in Japan on April 30, but no word on whether it will officially hit U.S. shores or not.



From Akihabaranews.com