> From: Paul Hoffman [paul.hoffman@xxxxxxxx] > > Instead, I propose that we simply designate the terminal room (which > is already reserved for future meetings) be designated as meeting > areas where talking is allowed / encouraged. Earplugs could be > provided for people who really want a quiet Ethernet connection; the > cost of those for the Secretariat will be about $25/meeting. I agree with Mary here, we really don't want to turn the terminal room into a talking room. The problem with the earplug idea is that earplugs don't dampen human voices to the point where they don't cause your brain to try to track conversations, because earplugs uniformly cut the volume of both voices and background noise. Since your brain's audio processing system has an excellent AGC (automatic gain control), the recognition of voices is unimpaired. Dale