The new Halifax Central Library opened this month with not one but two coffee bars, comfy seating, and lots of light. The ratio of bookshelves to square footage is considerably reduced in comparison to older public libraries. I imagine this reflects the increasing importance of Internet access, but in some ways I am disappointed. My idea of a great library is one that is full of books. As an amateur academic I still require a good-sized university library if I want to do any serious research and AFAIK public libraries have never attempted to acquire comparable collections.

The Internet itself will one day be "the" portal to the putative entirety of human knowledge, so it is difficult to say what will become of "the library" as a public/private institution. At some future date molecular memory technology should enable storage densities such that the entirety of mankind's published works might be contained in a conveniently portable appliance, which would be nice for several reasons. What is to become of libraries proper is anyone's guess.

#PETA# [celebrity] dilettantes annoy the living snot out of those of us who actually know everything. If they had a truly intelligent strategic platform, they'd be screaming bloody murder about the quality of public education -- which is where civilized ethics ought to be taught, and taught properly at that.

Raise a generation or two of critical thinkers who have intelligent and civilized ethical principles drilled into their heads in school and problems like Detroit would never occur in the first place[*]. PETA is mostly about band-aid solutions and copious amounts of media exposure. Poorly educated college students are easy meat for celebrity propaganda; trolling them should be almost too easy but you might get laid anyhow if you play your cards right.

[*] non-trivial political objective. I think we'll have to get rid of organized religion first.

The principle is not necessarily completely unsound. I bought a pair of Quadral Chromium 50 speakers a while ago. I replaced the foil tweeter element with copper leaf, which is approximately 3.5 zillion times thinner than the original material. I made a tool to make a jig so I could form a strip of copper leaf into the /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ shape which would allow it to flex as it is suspended between the two magnets in the driver. (With me so far? Current through the strip of leaf interacted with the fixed vertical magnets to make it flex.) Long story short: about a month after installation, the speakers opened up and the 'sound stage' exploded. The quality of sound produced was then about 1.8E7 zillion times better than factory original speakers.

I don't know what the technical term is for what happens when metal becomes 'accustomed' to limited flexing, but that is what seemed to occur. (It is also possible that the new foil was lightly rubbing against one or the other magnets, but anyhow.) After a time, the sound improved more than just considerably.

Depending on the drivers involved in the manufacture of specific ear buds and the materials involved, it may be that so many thousand hours of use works the materials such that they require less energy to move, which would allow more accurate reproduction of the signal. With crappy MP3 files, the loss of detail resulting from compression is not noticeable under normal circumstances, but when accurate reproduction is possible the difference in quality may astound. Whether or not "burn in" will improve any given headset will depend on materials and construction, so a crap shoot at best. But I would not discount the notion completely out of hand as per my experience with full-size speakers.

(P.S. Do not buy Quadral products from the Canadian distributor or Mount Pleasant Stereo. They both suck. Otherwise, the kit is really good.)