these headphones are like a bridle. if i am not watched i will convulse my head and spit them out. still they are necessary for me because when i am wearing them i cannot go off the path and eat the sweet grass that would only give me indigestion. one time the person talking retracted his tongue blade too quickly, but the tongue body was still in place. the sound produced was still quite close to the target.

the cochlea (latin for snail) is shaped like a snail's shell. if you uncoil it then there is a triangular cross section through the middle dividing it along its length into three compartments. the acoustic properties of the tube cause the fluid within to to swell at different locations along its length for a given frequency of vibration. within this triangular ridge there are hair cells connected to neurons. the neurons fire in a random pattern, but if a swelling is localized near a particular cell, then its neuron will fire differently. the hair cells send a signal to the brain, but there is also a fiber through which the cells receive feedback. nobody knows exactly what this feedback does. this is how people are able to perceive sound quality. the cochlea of a cat or a dog is just as complicated. most of what is known about the cochlea was determined by killing cats and dogs.

i have found what i suspect may be an honest mechanic in this city. the asian store proprietress told duylinh, "sure there's a viet mechanic, but there's only one, and he's had my car for a month now, so i can't say i'd recommend him." we had to tentatively revise our racial theory of honest auto mechanics to include certain types of people with polish names.

other muscles in the inner ear act to dampen the intensity of sound. it seems that they evolved that way so that animals' hearing would not be damaged by their own cries. i would like to develop a theory of speech production that is centered around the pleasure of hearing oneself talk.

if people are to peaceably decapitate animals and scrutinize their internal organs, they should have a clean and well-lighted place to do it, and they should not be subjected to too much mental distress or physical distress outside of the workshop.