With the Games almost upon us in Melbourne there is a big effort to make sure the city looks good. This includes lots of `stern words' from people in power about the evils of graffiti. Sure, tagging can look a bit vandalistic and pointless to the masses when there are some good creative images around. There's a good selection of websites and books around on street art in Melbourne. Famed UK stencil artist Banksy has displayed his wares around the place, as this website attests (the image of Child in Diving Helmet is actually in Cocker Alley, just opposite the Flinders Lane police station. I had a look at it this afternoon).

I find this somewhat bemusing...iPod lawsuit over hearing damage. My first reaction was: "you're several decades late, mate!" I reckon they weren't listening to Mozart. Ever since the invention of headphones, and perhaps particularly with the introduction of the walkman there has been a risk of hearing damage due to having the level up too high. Many music players of all types have some sort of volume limiting system.
Perhaps the good sound quality of modern music players makes it tempting to turn up the level to enhance the enjoyment factor. I remember when I got my AKG monitor cans in 1996 and, when connected to a good amplifier, they sounded fantastic, so I turned up the level...and afterwards my ears felt like I'd been in a club.
Listening to a portable music player in noisy, commuter environments does lead one to want to turn up the volume to get over background noise. I find my Shure E4 isolating earphones to be good at blocking out outside noise (great on the plane and train), so you can listen at a lower level. The downside here is that you'd be unwise to wear them when walking down a busy street as you may not hear that wayward car until too late...