[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Sound Off | Columns | eagletribune.com Eagle-Tribune[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Can Your Hear Sound in Space? | Arena | albanyherald.com The Albany Herald[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Sound Transit takes ownership of aging downtown Seattle tunnel The Seattle Times
In this week’s episode, the ACLU responds to a statement from South King County mayors regarding police reform amid an increase in murders and other crime statistics.
LISTEN HERE:
You can also listen here.
Each episode of the King County Local Dive podcast features original watchdog reporting from our local journalists with a focus on how we hold our public entities and public officials accountable.
Stories for the King County Local Dive are first reported in Sound Publishing’s King County newspapers: Federal Way Mirror, Auburn Reporter, Kent Reporter, Renton Reporter, Enumclaw Courier-Herald, Mercer Island Reporter, Snoqualmie Valley Record, Kirkland Reporter, Issaquah Reporter, Redmond Reporter, Bothell-Kenmore Reporter, Bellevue Reporter and Seattle Weekly.
Talk to us
Please share your story tips by emailing editor@kentreporter.com.
To share your opinion for publication, submit a letter through our website https://www.kentreporter.com/submit-letter/. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. (We’ll only publish your name and hometown.) Please keep letters to 300 words or less.
Tampa Bay's consecutive losses are head-scratching
Tom Brady has not experienced a lower moment than this during his tenure with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Brady and the Buccaneers were completely outclassed by the woeful Panthers in Week 7, despite Carolina working with an interim coach and having traded its best player, Christian McCaffrey, just three days prior. Todd Bowles and his staff were among the most glaring problems as Tampa Bay’s offense went 2-for-12 on third down, and 1-for-3 on fourth down all while the Panthers averaged 6.9 yards per play and 6.4 yards per rush against a Buccaneers’ defense which entered having allowed the seventh-fewest yards per attempt. Again, Carolina was without its All-Pro running back and instead looked to D’Onta Foreman and Chuba Hubbard to lead the way.
And the fact that Sunday’s loss followed up a defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers, another team which entered its game against the Bucs with a mere one win, makes it all the harder to fathom. Twice staring down “get-right” spots, the Buccaneers lost both games to fall to 3-4 and became the first team to lose consecutive games as a double-digit favorite since the 2009 Pittsburgh Steelers, per ESPN. The two-week stretch also marked the first time Brady has lost consecutive games when entering as a double-digit favorite in each of those contests.
“It’s about as dark as it’s going to be right now,” Bowles told reporters after the 21-3 defeat in Carolina, per the team.
Brady, who fell to 3-4 for the first time since 2002, added: “Anytime you lose one game it’s no fun, you lose two it’s worse. We just got to figure it out, dig deep, try to do things a lot better.”
Could the Buccaneers turn things around if they start to do a number of things better? Well, sure. But it sure feels like Brady and company are in trouble.
Tampa Bay is one of worst rushing teams in the league, having ranked dead last in rushing yards and rushing yards per attempt entering Week 7, with an inability to gain on early downs proving a major issue. Tampa Bay ran for just 2.9 yards per carry on 16 attempts against the Panthers one week after getting no push against the injury-plagued Steelers. And while it’s probably unfair to say Brady looks washed up, the 45-year-old quarterback isn’t performing his best either. He had a pedestrian stat line of 32-for-49 for 290 yards in Week 7, though a bad drop by receiver Mike Evans might have changed the complexion of the game and certainly would have bettered his numbers. A red-zone opportunity in the fourth quarter, though, went for three Brady incompletions as the Buccaneers’ offense again stalled.
On the other side, the defense now has allowed Mitchell Trubisky and P.J. Walker to shred them in back-to-back games. The Panthers scored touchdowns in each of the final three quarters Sunday behind 343 yards of offense with a balance of 170 passing and 173 rushing. Bowles cited some defensive mistakes that allowed Carolina to break a pair of long runs, depicting the inconsistencies the Bucs have showed in recent weeks.
And the injury excuse is gone for Tampa Bay. Julio Jones and Ryan Jensen remain out, but the majority of the roster is healthy while injuries at this point are something every team is dealing with.
Tampa Bay sits in a tie for first place in the AFC South along with the Atlanta Falcons, who they defeated head-to-head in Week 5. It looks like the division winner might not even need to get to double-digit victories. But for a team which entered the season with Super Bowl hopes, the Buccaneers don’t appear close to competing on that stage.
MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – An armed thief broke into a southwest Miami-Dade County home while the homeowners were sound asleep in the next room.
The thief quietly took electronics and other items before quickly leaving.
It happened Friday night on Southwest 75th Street.
This fellow was hooded, (wearing) gloves, came in with a weapon,” said homeowner Roark Monahan Mijaras.
Security cameras captured the masked man armed with a gun.
“It was quick, maybe ten minutes,” said Mijaras, who said the thief got into the home through a back door. “He stole my briefcase, two computers, had my credit cards.”
The thief also found keys for the car parked in the driveway.
“He came into the car with these keys that were hanging in the front,” said Mijaras, who added that the crook then helped himself to what was inside the car. “I had keys for my office and I had $200 in there, and he took the items and left this in here and left the keys in, parked and laughed.”
He wants police to catch the dangerous crook quickly.
The theft was reported to Miami-Dade police, who came to the home to collect evidence.
“You pay for your crime that’s all I can say,” Mijaras said.
Local 10 News ran a crime map through the Miami-Dade Police Department and found that in a half mile radius of where this crime happened, in the last three months at least two other burglaries were investigated.
Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS.
The plane carrying the owner and president of a construction company was flying low and its engine didn't sound healthy moments before it crashed in Arundel, Maine on October 5, according to a preliminary report by the NTSB.
The pilot, Eldon Morrison, 81, of Yarmouth and passenger Paul Koziell, 55, from Scarborough, were killed upon impact, according to York County Sheriff William King. Morrison is the founder and CEO of CPM Constructors and Koziell was its president.
They were returning from a morning business trip to Presque Island.
Several witnesses told the NTSB that they could not see the Beech A36 as it made its approach to Biddeford Airport. According to the report it was flying at 550 feet, which was 750 feet below the minimum descent altitude for that segment of the approach and had slowed to 58 knots ground speed.
The report said the plane's initial impact point was a tree about 40 feet above the ground.
Scene of a plane crash in Arundel 10/5/22
One witness told the NTSB they felt the ground shake when the plane crashed and that the sound of the engine was “not the normal rhythm of a piston engine… it would sputter and die out.”
Another witness said that he was inside his shop when he heard it coming very low.
"It didn’t sound good. It wasn’t sputtering, but it didn’t sound good. It was steady, but it didn’t sound healthy to me," the witness said.
At the crash scene the cockpit, cabin area and nearly all the empennage were consumed by a postcrash fire. The tail section remained largely intact. The wings displayed impact damage consistent with a collision with trees and terrain.
Flight control cable continuity was confirmed from the cockpit to the flight control surfaces through several breaks consistent with impact and thermal damage. The engine was separated from the airframe.
The preliminary report did not disclose the cause of the crash.
A visitation was held Thursday for both Koziell and Morrison in Portland.
Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNH
We reached out to New Hampshire residents on Facebook to ask their favorite seafood joints. These are the ones that came up.
SALT LAKE CITY – A couple of local NFL players, including a former Cougar standout, shared their thoughts on BYU’s play during a game against the Liberty Flames.
The Flames hosted the Cougars at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday, October 22.
After taking a 14-3 lead in the first quarter, BYU was outscored by Liberty in the second and third quarters. The Flames responded to the early deficit by scoring 31 unanswered points. Late in the third quarter, Liberty owned a 34-14 lead and had 439 yards of total offense with 22 first downs compared to 204 yards and only eight first downs by BYU.
During the game and amidst the Cougars’ struggles, a pair of NFL players with ties to the state of Utah commented on the contest and BYU’s performance.
Former BYU and current Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Kyle Van Noy shared his opinion on the Cougars’ lack of defense.
“I mean ain’t no way we can keep watching this and be like … you know what let’s keep this defensive strategy up…” Van Noy tweeted. “I mean the offense has to play perfect and the defense just needs to play tougher and stop being soft. Hit s*** ! Pick s***! Run s*** on defense! Easy formula don’t see enough guys fly around.”
“So it’s a joined group effort! I’m not here to bash scheme or players that’s not what I wanna do …” Van Noy added in another tweet.” I’m just saying in general that something has to change up when stuff isn’t working for a couple weeks. I’m not lookin for perfection let’s just get some fight!”
I mean ain’t no way we can keep watching this and be like … you know what let’s keep this defensive strategy up…
— Kyle Van Noy (@KVN_03) October 22, 2022
Former Brighton High standout and current Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Simi Fehoko tweeted about BYU’s offense.
“Byu need to just throw jump balls to @AsapPuka dude is a freak,” the wideout posted on Twitter.
Byu need to just throw jump balls to @AsapPuka dude is a freak
— Simi Fehoko (@Simi_Fehoko) October 22, 2022
BYU’s game against Liberty is broadcast on ESPNU and KSL NewsRadio.
A game that is important for both teams for different reasons.
BYU is facing much scrutiny for how poorly the defense played last week. After losing two winnable games, will they get their season back on track?
For Liberty, today’s game is a Super Bowl for the Flames. They are walking into the vision once set by Jerry Falwell Sr. 50 years ago when he established the university in Lynchburg, Virginia.
BYU is 4-3 overall on the season, while Liberty is already bowl-eligible with a 6-1 record.
#BYU’s 2022 season is on the line today at Liberty.#BYUvsLIB #BYUFootball @kslsports x @kslnewsradio pic.twitter.com/54hIWhBEs9
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) October 22, 2022
Kyle Ireland is a Locals in the NFL Insider for KSLSports.com and co-host of the Yards After College Podcast. Follow him on Twitter (@kyleireland) and Instagram (@kyleirelandksl).
SALT LAKE CITY – A couple of local NFL players, including a former Cougar standout, shared their thoughts on BYU’s play during a game against the Liberty Flames.
The Flames hosted the Cougars at Williams Stadium in Lynchburg, Virginia on Saturday, October 22.
After taking a 14-3 lead in the first quarter, BYU was outscored by Liberty in the second and third quarters. The Flames responded to the early deficit by scoring 31 unanswered points. Late in the third quarter, Liberty owned a 34-14 lead and had 439 yards of total offense with 22 first downs compared to 204 yards and only eight first downs by BYU.
During the game and amidst the Cougars’ struggles, a pair of NFL players with ties to the state of Utah commented on the contest and BYU’s performance.
Former BYU and current Los Angeles Chargers linebacker Kyle Van Noy shared his opinion on the Cougars’ lack of defense.
“I mean ain’t no way we can keep watching this and be like … you know what let’s keep this defensive strategy up…” Van Noy tweeted. “I mean the offense has to play perfect and the defense just needs to play tougher and stop being soft. Hit s*** ! Pick s***! Run s*** on defense! Easy formula don’t see enough guys fly around.”
“So it’s a joined group effort! I’m not here to bash scheme or players that’s not what I wanna do …” Van Noy added in another tweet.” I’m just saying in general that something has to change up when stuff isn’t working for a couple weeks. I’m not lookin for perfection let’s just get some fight!”
I mean ain’t no way we can keep watching this and be like … you know what let’s keep this defensive strategy up…
— Kyle Van Noy (@KVN_03) October 22, 2022
Former Brighton High standout and current Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Simi Fehoko tweeted about BYU’s offense.
“Byu need to just throw jump balls to @AsapPuka dude is a freak,” the wideout posted on Twitter.
Byu need to just throw jump balls to @AsapPuka dude is a freak
— Simi Fehoko (@Simi_Fehoko) October 22, 2022
BYU’s game against Liberty is broadcast on ESPNU and KSL NewsRadio.
A game that is important for both teams for different reasons.
BYU is facing much scrutiny for how poorly the defense played last week. After losing two winnable games, will they get their season back on track?
For Liberty, today’s game is a Super Bowl for the Flames. They are walking into the vision once set by Jerry Falwell Sr. 50 years ago when he established the university in Lynchburg, Virginia.
BYU is 4-3 overall on the season, while Liberty is already bowl-eligible with a 6-1 record.
#BYU’s 2022 season is on the line today at Liberty.#BYUvsLIB #BYUFootball @kslsports x @kslnewsradio pic.twitter.com/54hIWhBEs9
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) October 22, 2022
Kyle Ireland is a Locals in the NFL Insider for KSLSports.com and co-host of the Yards After College Podcast. Follow him on Twitter (@kyleireland) and Instagram (@kyleirelandksl).
Soundside is a show built around YOU – our listeners.
Every other week, we bring you a segment called "Sound it Out," to broadcast your thoughts about the show and answer questions about stories we've covered.
Today, we're diving back into a conversation we had last week with Joshua McNichols about how the small Whidbey Island town of Langley has rolled out a slew of zoning reforms, meant to encourage the production of new homes. You can check out that story here.
We received a question from Anne, who asked:
Architect Ross Chapin used the term community land trust. Exactly what is that? Can people own equity in their homes? Equity they can pass on to their families? Where around here are community land trusts and how do they work?
We reached out to Kathleen Hosfeld, the executive director of Homestead Community Land Trust, which is based in Seattle and serves King County. Hosfeld is also vice president of the board for the Northwest Community Land Trust Coalition.
Hosfeld answered our questions, but started with what a community land trust is not:
"This is not a 'land trust' that is a tax shelter. Nor is it a conservation land trust, which is primarily used to hold land to prevent it from being developed," Hosfeld explained. "A community land trust is a private, nonprofit, community governed and or membership corporation that exists to acquire, hold, develop, lease, and steward land for the benefit of low income households and communities."
In other words, a community land trust builds and subsidizes affordable homes. The people who buy those homes own them, but the land trust owns the land those homes are on — the homeowners just lease it.
That means those homes are kept affordable. If the people who bought a home later need to move, the resale price of the home is controlled by the land trust. For the Homestead Community Land Trust, that means selling to another person or family who earn less than 80% of the area median income.
This isn't a new idea. As Hosfeld explains, these organizations were designed to help historically underserved populations.
"They were created by civil rights era leaders in the Deep South, out of concern for the difficulties that African Americans were experiencing with land ownership," Hosfeld said.
"It was very difficult for black Americans to own homes or land. And even if they did, it was very difficult for them to retain ownership of that land for variety of reasons," she added. "So this model was created to make it easier for them to own land, collectively. At the same time, they could own appreciating assets on the land, primarily homes, that would build equity and allow people to build assets.
"The same model would become a platform for other cooperative initiatives that would benefit low and moderate income communities, such as farming or offering lower cost business spaces and that type of thing."
But times change. As of last month, according to both Redfin and Realtor.com, the average home price in King County was just north of $800,000. That's far more than homes typically cost when land trusts were first developed.
Hosfeld said that just makes land trusts even more vital.
"The point of the model is to create access to a first-time home buying opportunity for someone who is income qualified, that they could not achieve on their own. We hear a lot about people saying, 'You should just bootstrap your way to homeownership,'" she said.
"That's something that you can do when the gap between what's available on the market, and what you can afford is $50,000. But when the gap between what you can afford and what's on the market is $400,000 or $500,000, you're not bootstrapping that."
So, a community land trust model can get a person into home ownership who probably would not get there otherwise. But a home is also meant to be an investment — something that is accruing value, and can later be sold or passed on to a future generation. Which, gets to one of our listener, Anne's, excellent questions:
Can these home owners own equity in their homes? Equity they can pass on to their families?
"One of the hallmarks of the community land trust model is to make sure that homes stay affordable over successive resales," Hosfeld said.
"We call that permanent affordability. So the way that works is when someone buys into our program, they get that very below market rate price. But in exchange for that, they agree to restrict their equity gain on the home to a formula that allows them to build wealth, build assets every year that they own the home.
"But it also keeps the resale price of the home within that formula, which will remain affordable. So that when they go to sell to the next income qualified household, they're passing on or paying forward on affordable price to that next generation owner," Hosfeld said.
In our original story with Joshua McNichols, discussing the folks who are considered low-income and looking for the housing in Langley, we talked about service jobs — bartenders, cooks, waiters, etc..
But Hosfeld pointed out, there are a lot of people who fall into that category of 60 to 80% of average median income here in King County — people you might not think of.
"When we use that term, low- and moderate-income, people get a picture in their mind that's not actually accurate to what's happening or who we're serving," she said.
"The people that we serve in our program are nonprofit employees, teachers, firefighters, health technicians, transit drivers, the people that restore power during a storm. And what people don't quite get is that these are good jobs with good wages. It's this egregious mismatch between incomes and housing prices, that makes this model necessary and and makes it really useful to communities that are experiencing this type of housing crisis."
If you have a question about a show segment we've aired, please reach out to us by emailing soundside@kuow.org, or call and leave a voicemail at 206-221-3213.
Joshua McNichols contributed to this report.
If I was ever to define a "Mount Everest of soundbars" it would be one with great dialog, excellent streaming capabilities and fine music replay. The Sennheiser Ambeo Max is right there, but also comes with an insurmountable $2,500 price tag. What if you're looking for something a little closer to Earth?
Enter the Bose Smart Soundbar 600. This TV speaker features all the things most people care most about -- excellent sound quality, wide format support, even voice control -- and it does so for a much more affordable price. It also offers HDMI connectivity and music streaming over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
It's a close tussle, however, between the Bose 600 and the rival Sonos Beam, which offers a similar feature set for a similar price. In my book the Sonos squeaks ahead due to its established multiroom ecosystem, a choice of voice assistants and its ability to sound best without a sub. That said, if you're looking for a soundbar with excellent speech clarity, "true" Dolby Atmos capability, and a clear upgrade path, the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 really is a one-stop-shop.
The Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is a follow-up to last year's Smart Soundbar 900, and while the new unit has made cuts to size and cost, it performs many of the same duties. That is, this is a Dolby Atmos soundbar with an onboard voice assistant (Amazon Alexa) and music streaming.
At its sub-$500 price, the Soundbar 600 is able to offer something we haven't seen outside of Vizio's range -- dedicated Atmos height speakers. Competitors such as the Denon DHT-S217 and the Sonos Beam can decode Atmos but then use signal processing to simulate height.
The soundbar is medium-sized at 27 inches long and a TV IR-friendly 2.2 inches tall. The top of the unit is 4.1 inches deep and features a couple of controls for the assistant and a large grill that hides the Dolby speakers. In addition to these two upfiring transducers, the unit includes two angled fronts and a center tweeter for dialog. Like many soundbars at this price, the Bose bounces sound off walls and the ceiling to get a huge soundstage that isn't usually possible with traditional loudspeakers.
The 600's physical connectivity includes HDMI, optical, an IR trigger and a subwoofer out. The unit also boasts Bluetooth and Wi-Fi -- the latter of which lets it offer Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and onboard Amazon Alexa built-in for voice control. Sadly there's no Google Assistant option, unlike the Soundbar 900 or the Sonos Beam. You can also manipulate your music with the Bose Music app.
The Bose Music multiroom lineup isn't as comprehensive as that of its rival Sonos, with only four soundbars and two smart speakers at the moment (plus peripherals like rears and subs). Sonos, on the other hand, has over a dozen products available, and even more if you count the ones going back to the mid-2000s. Interestingly, Bose offers an existing subwoofer upgrade at a similar $499 price to the new Sonos Sub Mini.
The soundbar also includes Bose SimpleSync to pair it with compatible Bose headphones and Bluetooth speakers.
Lastly, the 600 comes with a simple, premium-feeling remote with some straightforward controls, though most people will turf it to use their own TV or cable remote.
Last year I tested Bose's competitor to the Sonos Arc, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900, and found it to be a compelling alternative. It's no surprise to me to find that the step-down Soundbar 600 does the same do-si-do with the Sonos Beam Gen 2. But how much of a difference do the Bose's dedicated height speakers make?
I started with the Thanator Attacks scene from Avatar (at 26:54), using the eARC output of a Vizio TV. I found that the Bose struggled a little with the dynamics of this scene, but on the upside it managed a glorious sense of the jungle floor with insects buzzing around my listening room. The Bose swapped boom and bang for a wide image and crisp dialog, so this could be a good contender for improving dialog on your TV.
When I replaced the Bose with the Sonos Beam Gen 2, I found the Sonos to be a better performer from a home theater perspective. For instance, in Avatar when Jake touches the shell trees, they make a procession of deep thunk sounds, like something out of a Blue Man Group skit. The soundbar gave a more satisfying wallop with the trees and the feet of the hammerhead titanotheres as they stomp around the forest. In this scene, the surround soundtrack at times seemed to come from behind on the Sonos, whereas the Bose was only wide.
When it came to height effects, though, the Bose had the edge, and this was particularly clear during the opening of Mad Max: Fury Road. I found that compared to the Sonos, the Bose offered better steering of the Atmos-enriched voices that open the movie, and dialog was generally a little clearer. In addition I found that by boosting the Bose's bass control I was able to gain back some (though not all) of the dynamics that had been missing previously.
With music I found that both were pleasant performers, especially with the folk of Field of Flowers by Grand Salvo. The song is quite dynamic and the Sonos was better able to reveal that, but on the flip side the Bose captured Paddy Mann's emotive voice with even greater clarity. Both approaches worked well, though rock fans will more likely like the Sonos for songs with even more punch.
Returning briefly to Avatar, I wanted to see how the addition of a sub -- in this case the Bose Bass Module $499 -- would help the Soundbar 600. I had been disappointed by the Sonos Beam's blend with the equivalent Sub Mini, and found it was still wanting on this scene, especially in comparison to the Bass Module. The Bose sub offered deeper, more resonant bass in this scene, and was more articulate with it.
With music -- I tried some rock this time (Shellac's Didn't We Deserve a Look at You the Way You Really Are) -- I found that the sub transforms the soundbar into a music dynamo. The Bose combo offered better dynamics and better presence with Steve Albini's vocals, plus a bit more cymbals. The Sonos was also strong, but Albini's vocal delivery came across as spookier, and less finely imaged.
Ever since Sonos began, competitors have tried to fashion their own versions of the company's speakers. Yes, the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is eerily similar to the Sonos Beam in size, price and capability. Yet it's still able to offer a different spin with a better upgrade path and a more dialog-centric approach.
If you're buying this soundbar it's entirely possible that you won't use the multiroom music features, or even set up the Amazon voice assistant. That's OK, because these are secondary considerations compared to its strengths -- vocal clarity and an enveloping soundstage. If you're a music streamer or a Hollywood blockbuster fan, the Beam is still marginally better, but if you simply want to make your TV, movies and music clearer, the Bose 600 is a supremely confident soundbar.
If I was ever to define a "Mount Everest of soundbars" it would be one with great dialog, excellent streaming capabilities and fine music replay. The Sennheiser Ambeo Max is right there, but also comes with an insurmountable $2,500 price tag. What if you're looking for something a little closer to Earth?
Enter the Bose Smart Soundbar 600. This TV speaker features all the things most people care most about -- excellent sound quality, wide format support, even voice control -- and it does so for a much more affordable price. It also offers HDMI connectivity and music streaming over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
It's a close tussle, however, between the Bose 600 and the rival Sonos Beam, which offers a similar feature set for a similar price. In my book the Sonos squeaks ahead due to its established multiroom ecosystem, a choice of voice assistants and its ability to sound best without a sub. That said, if you're looking for a soundbar with excellent speech clarity, "true" Dolby Atmos capability, and a clear upgrade path, the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 really is a one-stop-shop.
The Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is a follow-up to last year's Smart Soundbar 900, and while the new unit has made cuts to size and cost, it performs many of the same duties. That is, this is a Dolby Atmos soundbar with an onboard voice assistant (Amazon Alexa) and music streaming.
At its sub-$500 price, the Soundbar 600 is able to offer something we haven't seen outside of Vizio's range -- dedicated Atmos height speakers. Competitors such as the Denon DHT-S217 and the Sonos Beam can decode Atmos but then use signal processing to simulate height.
The soundbar is medium-sized at 27 inches long and a TV IR-friendly 2.2 inches tall. The top of the unit is 4.1 inches deep and features a couple of controls for the assistant and a large grill that hides the Dolby speakers. In addition to these two upfiring transducers, the unit includes two angled fronts and a center tweeter for dialog. Like many soundbars at this price, the Bose bounces sound off walls and the ceiling to get a huge soundstage that isn't usually possible with traditional loudspeakers.
The 600's physical connectivity includes HDMI, optical, an IR trigger and a subwoofer out. The unit also boasts Bluetooth and Wi-Fi -- the latter of which lets it offer Chromecast, Apple AirPlay 2, Spotify Connect and onboard Amazon Alexa built-in for voice control. Sadly there's no Google Assistant option, unlike the Soundbar 900 or the Sonos Beam. You can also manipulate your music with the Bose Music app.
The Bose Music multiroom lineup isn't as comprehensive as that of its rival Sonos, with only four soundbars and two smart speakers at the moment (plus peripherals like rears and subs). Sonos, on the other hand, has over a dozen products available, and even more if you count the ones going back to the mid-2000s. Interestingly, Bose offers an existing subwoofer upgrade at a similar $499 price to the new Sonos Sub Mini.
The soundbar also includes Bose SimpleSync to pair it with compatible Bose headphones and Bluetooth speakers.
Lastly, the 600 comes with a simple, premium-feeling remote with some straightforward controls, though most people will turf it to use their own TV or cable remote.
Last year I tested Bose's competitor to the Sonos Arc, the Bose Smart Soundbar 900, and found it to be a compelling alternative. It's no surprise to me to find that the step-down Soundbar 600 does the same do-si-do with the Sonos Beam Gen 2. But how much of a difference do the Bose's dedicated height speakers make?
I started with the Thanator Attacks scene from Avatar (at 26:54), using the eARC output of a Vizio TV. I found that the Bose struggled a little with the dynamics of this scene, but on the upside it managed a glorious sense of the jungle floor with insects buzzing around my listening room. The Bose swapped boom and bang for a wide image and crisp dialog, so this could be a good contender for improving dialog on your TV.
When I replaced the Bose with the Sonos Beam Gen 2, I found the Sonos to be a better performer from a home theater perspective. For instance, in Avatar when Jake touches the shell trees, they make a procession of deep thunk sounds, like something out of a Blue Man Group skit. The soundbar gave a more satisfying wallop with the trees and the feet of the hammerhead titanotheres as they stomp around the forest. In this scene, the surround soundtrack at times seemed to come from behind on the Sonos, whereas the Bose was only wide.
When it came to height effects, though, the Bose had the edge, and this was particularly clear during the opening of Mad Max: Fury Road. I found that compared to the Sonos, the Bose offered better steering of the Atmos-enriched voices that open the movie, and dialog was generally a little clearer. In addition I found that by boosting the Bose's bass control I was able to gain back some (though not all) of the dynamics that had been missing previously.
With music I found that both were pleasant performers, especially with the folk of Field of Flowers by Grand Salvo. The song is quite dynamic and the Sonos was better able to reveal that, but on the flip side the Bose captured Paddy Mann's emotive voice with even greater clarity. Both approaches worked well, though rock fans will more likely like the Sonos for songs with even more punch.
Returning briefly to Avatar, I wanted to see how the addition of a sub -- in this case the Bose Bass Module $499 -- would help the Soundbar 600. I had been disappointed by the Sonos Beam's blend with the equivalent Sub Mini, and found it was still wanting on this scene, especially in comparison to the Bass Module. The Bose sub offered deeper, more resonant bass in this scene, and was more articulate with it.
With music -- I tried some rock this time (Shellac's Didn't We Deserve a Look at You the Way You Really Are) -- I found that the sub transforms the soundbar into a music dynamo. The Bose combo offered better dynamics and better presence with Steve Albini's vocals, plus a bit more cymbals. The Sonos was also strong, but Albini's vocal delivery came across as spookier, and less finely imaged.
Ever since Sonos began, competitors have tried to fashion their own versions of the company's speakers. Yes, the Bose Smart Soundbar 600 is eerily similar to the Sonos Beam in size, price and capability. Yet it's still able to offer a different spin with a better upgrade path and a more dialog-centric approach.
If you're buying this soundbar it's entirely possible that you won't use the multiroom music features, or even set up the Amazon voice assistant. That's OK, because these are secondary considerations compared to its strengths -- vocal clarity and an enveloping soundstage. If you're a music streamer or a Hollywood blockbuster fan, the Beam is still marginally better, but if you simply want to make your TV, movies and music clearer, the Bose 600 is a supremely confident soundbar.
Campus & Community
Sound Beat: Access Audio, a storytelling initiative of the Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries, is launching a 12-part podcast series titled, “The Land You’re On: Acknowledging the Haudenosaunee.”
The first three episodes will be released on Wednesday, Nov.9, 2022, at a launch party at Bird Library in the Peter Graham Scholarly Commons from 3 to 4 p.m. and through the Sound Beat: Access Audio website and WAER 88.3’s website. Subsequent episodes will be released weekly on those two platforms, Soundbeat.org and WAER.org, which will also make the series available on popular podcast platforms such as Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.
The podcast launch party will include an overview of the series, a preview of the first three episodes; remarks from Neal Powless G’08, University ombuds; and traditional Haudenosaunee food and drink from Angela Ferguson, seedkeeper of the Onondaga Nation.
The podcast series features candid conversations with Haudenosaunee students, alumni, staff and community members. Learn about the history and the people who were the first residents of our area. Why is a lacrosse stick so important to the Onondagas? What is it like being an ancestor of the Indigenous people of the land but going to college with mostly white students and faculty? How did matriarchal societies work for Native American groups and what is their connection to women’s suffrage? These are some of the topics covered in the podcast series. The first three episodes released include:
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
The Solo Jumper Who Shattered the Speed of Sound Voice of America - VOA News
Imagine yourself sitting comfortably in a calm room, with a soft mask over your eyes, and the soothing sounds of beautiful voices all around you.
Late this past summer, the Vermont Arts Council awarded 25 Vermont artists Creation Grants … (read more)
This year’s series, with a “Larger Than Life” theme, will feature seven films about indivi … (read more)
Mark your calendars for a roaring night of dance, drink, food, bag raffles and “best dress … (read more)
“Hay un ruido que no logro, que nunca he logrado identificar: un ruido que no es humano o es más que humano.” (“There is a noise that I cannot, that I have never been able to identify: a noise that is neither human nor more than human.”)
In his most renowned book, Juan Gabriel Vásquez wastes no time to probe the readers’ mind. Like many of his other titles, “The Sound of Things Falling” (2011) takes a very common verb and uses it in a nothing but confusing manner to preface Vásquez’s work. The reader may know the sounds of many things, but what could the sound of things falling be?
Vásquez is a Latin American writer, journalist and translator, from Bogotá, Colombia. Although he has spent most of his professional writing years abroad, his pieces aim to narrate and feature the realities of the Colombian and Latino peoples, just like his predecessors from the “Boom” — a movement in the 1960s and 1970s when Latin American literature became greatly popularized worldwide. Mostly recognized for his contemporary imagery and superb representation of human interactions, Vásquez has earned his place into the Latin American canon, as well as being considered one of the most influential active Latin American writers.
“The Sound of Things Falling” could be deemed as Vásquez’s ode to the city that birthed him: Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. Using Bogotá as an essential character, instead of a setting, this piece presents a short memoir of Antonio Yammara. Antonio, as the narrator, remembers the worst portion of his life by focusing on telling the story of another man, Ricardo Laverde. Antonio meets Ricardo, a mysterious ex-convict and retired pilot, playing pool. Although their relationship revolves fully around playing pool, one day, Antonio helps Ricardo find a tape-player in the city. When they walk out, Ricardo is shot to death, and Antonio catches a bullet in the crossfire.
As Antonio falls deep into depression and experiences PTSD, his daughter is born. He decides he will find out who Ricardo Laverde was and what got him killed. As he probes deeper, he finds the tape Ricardo listened to right before his murder. Finally, Maya, Ricardo’s daughter, reaches out to him. Together, they piece together her father’s life, while also uncovering themselves and the impact that living in Bogotá and being Colombians had on them.
The plot of “The Sound of Things Falling” is not intricate. Vásquez was able to create a humane prose — one that mirrors real people — by choosing a simple story and focusing on excelling the manner it is portrayed.
One must first note the use of the setting, Bogotá. The book has a beautiful description of the capital of Colombia, naming and showing to the reader many of the landmarks of the city, like La Candelaria, El Centro, la Casa de Poesía Silva and more. Nonetheless, Bogotá goes further than just being detailed imagery, it becomes an actor in the story. The violence, the fear, the weather and the characteristics of the city, all have influence over the characters and the actions. One of the characters even specifies that all raised in Bogotá during the ‘80s had some sort of connection — a mark — created by all the events they had to live through: the terrorism from the drug cartels, the corruption of the governments the murders of social leaders. Turning on the TV only showed more terrible news. By using Bogotá as an actor, Vásquez vividly depicts a reality of the Columbian people: deeply engraved in trauma created by the atrocious conditions and events of their homes.
Vásquez’s depiction of trauma in this piece is sublime. Not only the trauma mentioned above, but also through exploring the feelings and thoughts of the narrator. Similar to accounts of wounded-in-battle soldiers, the reader gets a peek of what an injury of that magnitude can cause to a human being. Additionally, Vásquez breaks a mental-illness stigma for Latino men by openly talking about PTSD and demonstrating how it sends Antonio into a downward spiral — developing fear towards his own home, madness, sexual impotence and more.
The beauty of how “The Sound of Things Falling” portrays trauma also lies in the lightness the narrator keeps while still depicting all these atrocious events. At its core, the narrator represents what life is in South America: the ability to take traumatic events lightly to keep going. To perform the latter, the reader follows a very conversationalist narrator, which is a contemporary trait. Vásquez mimics real life conversations by using simple language, slang and curse words. He can almost seamlessly change perspectives, delve into fully different accounts and jump between storylines. One more aspect of Vásquez’s light narration worth noting is his use of irony and comedy, which aids the “swallowing” of strong events. An example can be seen after Antonio’s wife gives birth, and she exclaims, “I think the glove really did belong to O.J. Simpson.”
The contemporary-style narrator from Vásquez breaks the long-standing notion that Colombia’s, and Latin America’s, suffering and problems are a matter of the past. The world can only remember Pablo Escobar, but now that he’s dead, what about all those who come after? Although the country has changed for the better, what about the generations that had to live through all that pain and suffering? That is exactly what the book tries to hint at. By using a contemporary setting and style as well as a superb depiction of trauma, Vásquez reaffirms that the troubles of the Colombian people are not gone; they linger far beyond, but the world has forgotten about them.
So, what is the sound of things falling?
In his search for the story of Ricardo Laverde, Antonio finds the tape he listened to right before he was murdered. The tape was the ‘black-box’ recording of the plane crash that Ricardo’s wife died on. As he listens to it, he details what he hears: a “more than human sound … a sound that never finished.” Antonio, and thus Vásquez, insinuate that the sound of things falling is that never ending desire for more information, for the ultimate truth; that’s why he never stops searching for who Ricardo Laverde was. When Antonio listens to the tape, he opens Pandora’s box; he becomes submerged in the infinite search of the truth, in the infinite sound of things falling. And that’s what Vásquez does with this book, he searches for the truth: the truth of the Colombian people, the truth of what Bogotá did to him. That intimate passageway between the story and its author is what has given his work much reputation, even landing him the prestigious Spanish Literature award “El Premio Alfaguara de Novela” (The Alfaguara Novel Prize).
Why, when “The Sound of Things Falling” has won this award as well as the PEN and Impac Dublin awards, isn’t it more widely known? If it was extensively praised in The New York Times, why isn’t it sold in more bookstores?
It seems as if the public has forgotten about the search for the truth — about the sound of things falling.
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters.
County jails across Pennsylvania lack the resources to address a growing mental health crisis, putting some of the most vulnerable incarcerated people at heightened risk, according to a statewide survey by Spotlight PA and the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism.
Responses from more than 20 Pennsylvania jails serving the majority of the state population described similar situations: a growing number of incarcerated people with serious mental health needs, a lack of medical staff, and a complex system for accessing the few resources available from the state.
Wardens, medical professionals, and other jail officials wrote frankly about the challenges they face in providing health care for thousands of Pennsylvanians awaiting their day in court.
“We simply are not trained…nor have a facility to hold those requiring mental health treatment,” said Angela Kern, deputy warden of treatment for Fayette County Prison, in response to the survey.
“It’s frustrating, stressful on all — the deteriorating individual and the staff.”
Spotlight PA and PINJ sent the survey to every jail in Pennsylvania to understand the state of mental health resources for people behind bars. The 25-question survey asked officials to describe their staffing levels, their ability to provide adequate health care, and any additional challenges they faced caring for people with mental health needs.
The 20 officials that responded represent jails housing roughly 13,000 people.
The survey also asked jails to rank their ability to address the mental health needs of detainees on a scale of one to five, with one being not at all equipped and five being very well equipped. Only six counties — Allegheny, Centre, Chester, Huntingdon, Lawrence, and Philadelphia — rated themselves a four or higher.
The number of Pennsylvanians with mental illnesses has increased over the past decade, but the services needed to treat them have not kept up, wrote Jeffery Fewell, warden of the Washington County Correctional Facility.
As a result, he said he’s seen more people with more severe mental health needs in his facility.
“This population is severely addicted and is mentally ill,” he wrote. “Over 50% of our current population has a dual diagnosis of mental illness and addiction with high rates of suicide ideation.”
District Attorney Peter Acker serves as president of the prison board in Mercer County, where he said nearly half of the people incarcerated in the local jail are taking psychiatric medication. But other facilities told Spotlight PA and PINJ they have had difficulty achieving even that level of care.
“When individuals are not medicating, we have very little success in getting them started,” wrote William Schouppe, warden at the Beaver County Jail. “Many have been degrading, and we do not have the resources to care for those folks.”
Officials described a justice system that funnels people into jails even when their criminal behavior may be a symptom of their mental illness.
“The jail acts as a de facto social worker,” wrote David Kratz, director of corrections in Bucks County. “If services in the community are not easily available to law enforcement, jail is the easier alternative. Police do not have the time to spend often over 12 hours trying to obtain services.”
Officials in nearby Chester County said they train staff to recognize the difference between “willful disobedience and the inability to follow rules due to mental status.”
“While our county and involved stakeholders are continually making strides in appropriate diversion for the seriously mentally ill, the criminalization of this population continues throughout the United States,” wrote Rebecca Brain, a spokesperson for the county.
“The manifestations of [serious mental illness] in jail might translate to disciplinary infractions, while the same behaviors in a therapeutic setting would be viewed as symptoms of that illness.”
Others were more blunt.
“We appear to be a ‘dumping ground,’” wrote Scott Robinson, warden of the Snyder County Prison. “It is very difficult to get detainees with serious mental health issues into an institution where they can receive proper care. Some can not even control bodily functions and it is a serious drain, mental and physical, on our staff.”
Every jail that responded to the survey said they employ staff or contractors to treat mental health needs among incarcerated people. Yet the survey found that the level of staffing and resources varies by county, creating an uneven landscape where the level of care someone receives in jail largely depends on where they’re arrested.
Most of the metropolitan and suburban jails said they have full-time medical staff, including psychiatrists or psychologists, nurses, and licensed counselors.
The Philadelphia Department of Prisons, for example, runs four jails housing 4,400 people and employs about 325 clinical staff, “a third of whom are behavioral health clinicians,” said Bruce Herdman, chief of medical operations.
The department also runs a psychiatric hospital within the jail system and has real-time access to city records. This allows staff to consider a patient’s treatment history when determining a new course of care.
Mid-sized counties such as Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, and Westmoreland said they have dedicated in-house staff that are employed by the jail or provided by PrimeCare or another company.
But many of the smaller counties said they have just one or two staff members, some working part time, who handle all mental health needs, including initial screenings and follow-up. Some have doctors available via telehealth, but not in-house.
“Oh, do I wish we had a psychiatrist in house!” wrote Kern, the Fayette County deputy warden.
Even facilities with access to a large network of health care professionals identified problems with recruiting and retaining staff, a problem they said worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our facility is suffering like most facilities: Staff are hard to find and keep,” wrote Westmoreland County Commissioner Douglas Chew, who also chairs the county prison board.
Fewell, warden of the Washington County jail, echoed his colleagues’ concerns: “Staffing is everything.”
County jails shoulder an additional responsibility if a person’s mental or intellectual condition affects their ability to stand trial.
If the court finds someone “incompetent,” that individual may require specialized treatment before they can participate in any legal proceedings. This treatment is usually provided at two state-run hospitals with extremely limited beds.
Nearly every jail said it currently or recently housed someone who needs this treatment. About 70% of facilities scored themselves at a three out of five or lower for their ability to address competency issues.
In candid answers — some hundreds of words long — jail officials detailed the difficulties of trying to help their most vulnerable residents get the court-ordered treatment they need.
Officials said the process is frustrating and lengthy, and often extends incarceration for people who might not even understand why they’re in jail in the first place. They called on the state to provide alternatives to jail or increase the number of hospital beds available to treat people with competency issues.
When asked to describe the challenges they face helping someone deemed incompetent get treatment, Philadelphia called the process “quite cumbersome.” Beaver County wrote that after waiting months for state hospital beds for two people, jail officials took matters into their own hands and contracted with a company that would come to the jail to provide treatment.
“The system is broke,” wrote Robinson, the Snyder County warden. “It takes too long to get people the help they need. Jails are not equipped to handle serious mental health issues.”
This story is a collaboration between Spotlight PA and the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, published as part of a Pittsburgh Media Partnership project.
WHILE YOU’RE HERE… If you learned something from this story, pay it forward and become a member of Spotlight PA so someone else can in the future at spotlightpa.org/donate. Spotlight PA is funded by foundations and readers like you who are committed to accountability journalism that gets results.
Residents of Tampa, Florida have reported hearing strange noises coming from the bay for years, and now scientists believe it may be fish ...
