Day to day, ear plugs are nice when I have to spend any time in a server room. Some of the new Dell rackmount servers develop thrust, I think. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Loud, anyway. And a whole room full of 'em... yikes.

I always wear a pair when I mow the yard. I'll put 'em to do any hammering or banging I need to do. When I was younger, and cared to go, I'd always wear 'em at concerts to (get this) hear the music better! I don't know why, exactly, although my guess is that at really loud volume levels our ears aren't as sensitive to the differences in frequencies. All I know is that, with the plugs in, the music sounded better.

You never know when you'll be in a dangerous acoustic environment. We talk about goggles for our eyes, a dust mask for our lungs, gloves for our hands... why not throw in a pair (they take zero space) of ear plugs?