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The article offers suggestions for how to bring variations in vocal range of one's voice for improvement of speeches. Topics discussed include use of storytelling which stretches vocal skills, use of different characters in which each has different voice ranges, use of puppets which have different accents and speaking styles, use of different personas in speeches as it connects people to speaker, and use of animal sounds and accents in speeches.

The article reports on London, England-based research, for his nonprofit hobby site London Sound Survey, which revealed the declining number of human voices heard on the street while noise from airplanes and cars are increasing. Topics discussed include the possibility that supermarkets and stores are chasing away street vendors, the increasing prominence of women's voices in the sonic landscape, and the rising number of people uploading sounds on the audio-sharing site SoundCloud.

The article discusses lessons learned in using the power of the voice to convince clients and build up a financial advisor practice. These include using three components of the human voice to maximize its power including the chest voice, the head voice and the middle voice and developing tonality with component parts such as volume, melody and pace. It also notes the technique of turning a nasal voice into a deep and commanding voice through adjustments in breathing.

The article offers news briefs as of September 23, 2016. British actor David Oyelowo played chess Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama to become a chess champion. Studies related to sound such as transmission of the human voice through wires. Nicholas Stoller wrote and codirected a movie on the topic of freedom.

The article focuses on research published in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" studying words for 100 basic concepts and the consonants and vowels used in them. It states that a greater consistency was found across languages than expected, with the words for nose often involving either an oo or an n sound, or an s sound in the word sand. It reports nearly a third of the 100 concepts had similarities in the sounds used by the languages and mentions theories for the commonalities.

The article discusses aspects of the use of an unconventional methodology for internal reading voice with pitch or emotional tone. It highlights the identification of emotions through the voice of the character or in a text message or email. It also cites the implication of inner reading voice as inner voice that used for thoughts.

The article reports that the wearable device maker Fitbit would now make its stats available via Amazon Echo's digital assistant Alexa. It is stated that for Fitbit the integration offers a completely new way to engage with its users beyond the tiny screens on some of its wrist-worn trackers and its smartphone app.

This article explains why each species of animals makes a similar sound, but humans do not. For example, English-speaking Americans hear a cat "meow." In Finnish, the same cat would be described as saying "kurnau." Using onomatopoeia, or words that imitate sounds, people have determined ways to express animals sounds in many different languages.

The article reports on the results of a mass online science experiment conducted by the University of Salford wherein visitors to a website called BadVibes listened to different sounds and rated them for unpleasantness. Based on the study, vomiting is the most horrible sound ever. Author Trevor Cox reported that fingernails scraping down a blackboard came only 16th out of 34 sounds that were listened to. Microphone feedback was rated second unpleasant sound, followed by many babies crying.

Observes that sounds that were once such an essential part of life are disappearing. Comments of Daniel Sheehy, director and curator of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, a collection of tens of thousands of musical examples from around the world; How the trove that Sheehy manages is built on the work of Moses Asch, an audio engineer and collector; Background on Asch, who founded Folkways in 1948 and recorded such legendary folk music figures as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger; Importance of the preservation of sound; Question of what should be recorded today.

The article cites that according to a research, muscular, nimble tongue of parrots may help explain their uncanny ability to mimic human speech. The birds can modulate the sound coming from its voice box by adjusting their tongue — the only animal known to do this other than humans. Birds and humans share the ability to make complex vocalizations. But what's different about humans is that their vocal tract filters the sound produced by the vocal cords, helping to enable speech. Researchers believe the finding represents a new example of convergent evolution.

The article offers step by step instructions in controlling the personal computer (PC) with the voice through the use of the free program VoiceBot.

An untitled poem by Dorothy McLaughlin is presented. First Line: turning off the bedside lamp; Last Line: waits for my voice.

The article discusses research on the possible hemispheric bias of dogs when listening to human sounds. Topics include an explanation of hemispheric bias among humans who are listening, details of the methods used in the research with dogs and the findings of the study reported in the journal "Current Biology."

A critique of the film "The Wind Rises" by Hayao Miyazaki, with a focus on the use of human voices to create the sound effects in the film, is presented. Details related to the film's plot, themes, and animation are provided. Other topics include the use of vocalized sound effects to produce the sounds of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the evocation of the film's human dimension, and the use of breathing to reflect the depiction of tuberculosis in the film.

The article reports on a study conducted by behavioral ecologist Karen McComb and her team on Loxodonta africana elephants at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya, as of 2014. Topics include the elephants' ability to discriminate and identify voices of Maasai men from Kamba men, their fearful reactions towards the former and related cognitive aspects. The elephants' adaptive learning abilities and use of the study in their conservation are discussed.

The article discusses an experiment by Yasuhiro Oikawa of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan and colleagues in which the skin vibrations of a person's neck were video-recorded using a high-speed camera while they spoke and turned into sound waves using a computer program. Topics include how standard lip-reading computer software works, the team's experimental design, and skepticism on the method's ability to reconstruct speech.

The article offers step-by-step instructions of simulating the human voice using very simple technology in electronic music.

The article offers several tips on handling a child who screams in public. According to speech-language pathologist Elaine Weitzman, toddlers use shrieking as a means of communication due to their limited vocabulary. When a child is upset, parents may appeal to his or her short attention span by distraction.

The article discusses various factors that affect vocal physiology which includes vocal folds, anatomical structure, and pharyngeal cavities.

The article explores a study on the ability of chimpanzee to understand speech. A Georgia State University team led by cognitive psychologist Lisa Heimbauer observed 25 year old chimpanzee Panzee to see how it perform in understanding English word sounds using the methods, noise-vocoded synthesis and sine-wave synthesis. They revealed Panzee was able to perform well, which they say contradicts the idea that humans only evolved its speech-recognition skill after splitting from the chimps line.

The article discusses how noted women tennis players emit loud grunts while making strokes during competition. The practice, which originated with men's player Jimmy Connors in the 1970s, has become widespread among women tennis players such as Serena Williams. It has been criticized by some former players and fans, and the International Tennis Organization is considering a rule to ban grunting.

The article evaluates the Sonivox Anatomy human body sound sample library from Sonivox.

This article explains some of the sounds produced by one's joints. In most cases, popping occurs when a joint dislocates and then pops back into place. The danger is that one day it may not go back where it belongs, and the very movement may also irritate tissue around the joint. Normally, any sort of grinding noise is harmless. The exception is the knee. A snapping sound is the result of friction between two structures gliding past each other. If the area also feels stiff or tight, the tendons are constricted and could benefit from regular stretching.

The article offers information on different baby sounds. Many babies breathe irregularly during their first few months-often even pausing, then sighing deeply before they resume. The sigh is kind of the brain's way of taking control over the breathing again, according to pediatrician Kim Giuliano. For the first month, a newborn breathes only through her nose, if it gets stuffy, she may grunt or snort. By experimenting with her tongue and voice, starting at around two months, she is warming up for her first word.

Presents guidelines for teaching different sounds to children. Experience of the sound of nature by children; Description of machine sounds; Comparison between loud and soft sounds.

Reprints the article "Laughter Scores," by Edward Jessen, which appeared in the arts magazine "Cabinet." Categories of laughter; Difficulty in transcribing laughter; Strategy used to by Jessen to develop a musical notation of laughter.

Examines the high-pitched vocal practice of ululation in Levantine society. Vocalization as aesthetic, affective and corporeal practice; Meanings, contexts of performance and stylistic variations of ululation; Designation of "zaghareet" as part of local turaath heritage.

Discusses the audubility of screams in outer space according to physicist Andrew Melatos from the University of Melbourne's School of Physics. Overview of the process of sound vibration; Importance of air molecules for the conduction of sound vibrations; Insufficiency of air molecules in space to carry sound vibrations.

The article reports that Rio Grande Robotics has discovered that customers seem to prefer a distinctly artificial voice to the good simulations of human voices. It states that clarity seems not to be the issue. For people, the artificial voice seems less deceitful, brings familiarity, and does not pretend to be something it is not. It was also discovered that people will tolerate an unpretentious mechanical voice than from a slick human simulation.