Word: hirsh
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...Hirsh, research fellow in Acoustics, has developed a now hearing aid that enables the user to perceive and place the distance of sounds as if he had normal hearing...
...disadvantages of nonaural hearing become apparent in a lecture hall or cocktail lounge," explained Hirsh. "The listener never knows who is speaking." Using this new aid, sounds from the right will be perceived a fraction of a second earlier in the right unit than in the left, enabling the user to tell from what direction they are coming. This is the principle on which normal hearing operates...
...Hirsh says that there is now a U.S. total of some 3,750,000 "excessive drinkers." Another 56,000,000-odd are social drinkers, who can take it or leave it alone. About 60% of the problem drinkers are "symptomatic drinkers," i.e., they are mentally ill to start with, and drinking is a symptom, not a cause of their illness. With the other 40%, the trouble seems to start with their drinking rather than their personalities. They may be "occupational drinkers" (e.g., bartenders, salesmen, newspaper reporters), who fall into the habit because of their jobs; or "compensatory drinkers...
...Little Research. The U.S., Hirsh concludes, may as well admit that it is a "drinking society," and "make provision for those among us too ill to cope with it." Prohibition is "as unscientific as it is unrealistic." But Hirsh is no pessimist. Psychiatry can help, he thinks. So can such organizations as Alcoholics Anonymous...
...biggest long-range need is for research, Hirsh believes. Science still does not know why some people can drink safely and others cannot. The underlying cause may be psychological (e.g., immaturity) or physiological (e.g., a constitutional weakness). Excessive drinking costs the U.S. $1 billion a year in lost wages, jails, relief, etc., but the total spent for research in alcoholism is less than $500,000. Says Hirsh: "This glaring paradox continues year in & year out despite the fact that excessive and problem drinking affects the lives of almost as many people as tuberculosis, cancer and infantile paralysis combined...