We all crave a bit of peace and quiet every now and then; just some time to be alone with our thoughts. But silence isn’t as golden as we’ve been led to believe, according to the people who’ve been to the quietest place on Earth. You might expect this to be in a remote part of some great desert whereas, in actual fact, it’s located in a research lab in Minnesota. Inside the anechoic chamber at Orfield Laboratories, it is so silent you can hear your own blood flowing and bones moving. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Made of 3.3ft-thick fibreglass acoustic wedges and double walls of insulated steel and thick concrete, the room absorbs 99.99 per cent of sound. The conditions within its Fort Knox-style walls are so intense that the longest amount of time anyone’s been able to endure in there is 45 minutes. “We challenge people to sit in the chamber in the dark,” the lab’s founder Steven Orfield told Hearing Aid Know. “When it’s quiet, ears will adapt. The quieter the room, the more things you hear. You’ll hear your heart beating, sometimes you can hear your lungs, hear your stomach gurgling loudly. “In the anechoic chamber, you become the sound." What he means by this is that, with the absence of external noise, your ears are forced to adapt to unimaginable silence and start to focus inwards on your own mind and bodily functions. Furthermore, after as little as 30 minutes subjects begin to hallucinate. Orfield explained that it is also impossible to stay in the room for more than half an hour without sitting down because a person’s orientation is largely grounded in the sounds they make when moving. "How you orient yourself is through sounds you hear when you walk," he told the Daily Mail. In the anechoic chamber, you don't have any cues. "You take away the perceptual cues that allow you to balance and manoeuvre. If you're in there for half an hour, you have to be in a chair." The Quietest Place on Earth: Orfield Laboratories youtu.be For anyone who reckons they could top that 45-minute record, it is possible to experience the chamber for yourself. The Laboratories offer a tour, named “The Anechoic Experience”, which enables participants to take on the challenge, provided they’re willing to fork out a cool $600 (around £470) per hour for the privilege. The Orfield website states: “We have witnessed many seeming miracles, some of which have explanations and some of which remain mysteries, as a result of time spent in our anechoic chamber. “We remain curious about the nature of the chamber's impact on all people, its therapeutic properties, and how it can influence human perception. While anechoic chambers are traditionally used to study products, ours is becoming also about the people. “The Anechoic Experience is designed to be an opportunity to personally inquire about the chamber's therapeutic and spiritual effects.” We reckon we might be better off just lying in bed with the duvet over our heads next time we want a moment's peace. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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The EU has opened an investigation into Elon Musk's X over the possible spread of terrorist and violent content, and hate speech, after Hamas' attack on Israel. The EU's industry chief, Thierry Breton, confirmed on Thursday the bloc had sent Twitter/X a "formal request for information" to determine whether the platform was complying with the Digital Services Act (DSA) - a law designed to protect users of big tech platforms which came into effect November, as misinformation about the conflict between Israel and Hamas spreads on social media. In a statement on Thursday, the EU said “the European Commission services sent to X a formal request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA)”. “This request follows indications received by the Commission services of the alleged spreading of illegal content and disinformation, in particular the spreading of terrorist and violent content and hate speech. The request addresses compliance with other provisions of the DSA as well.” In his letter to Musk, Breton said "violent and terrorist content" had not been taken down from X, despite warnings. Breton did not give details on the disinformation he was referring to in the letter, but said instances of "fake and manipulated images and facts" were widely reported on the social media platform. Responding on X, Musk said: "Our policy is that everything is open and transparent, an approach that I know the EU supports. "Please list the violations you allude to on X, so that the public can see them." X chief executive Linda Yaccarino also said earlier on Thursday the platform had removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts and taken action to remove or label tens of thousands of pieces of content since Saturday's attack. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Debates around the legalisation of cannabis have existed for years, with cannabis currently considered a class B drug in the UK. This means you can be prosecuted with up to five years in prison or a fine of up to £2,500 if you're found in possession of it. Different factors can affect how cannabis will affect you. For example, smoking weed will meant the effects kick in a lot faster than if you were to take an edible. Age, height, weight, and tolerance levels can also change how you experience the effects of cannabis. However, here's a quick breakdown of how cannabis effects you, minute-by-minute: It can take anywhere between 2 and 10 minutes for the effects of smoking weed to kick in. However, according to Healthline if you take an edible, you could be waiting for half an hour to two hours before you start to feel the effects. One of the first effects you'll begin to feel is an increase in pulse rate. WebMD suggests that your heart rate can rise by 20 to 50 bears from the normal rate of 50 to 70 bears per minute. Your heart rate can stay at the increased rate for up to 3 hours after you use cannabis. Next, the blood vessels in your eyes will dilate, likely turning your eyes red as a result. If you smoked the cannabis, the THC (the main psychoactive compound in cannabis) will be fully absorbed into your blood around the 20-minute mark. However, if you took an edible this takes longer due to the THC needing to be absorbed by your liver. The body's neural chemistry can be altered once the THC is fully settled in your system, stimulating the part of your brain that responds to pleasure. This releases dopamine, resulting in the relaxed state often associated with smoking weed. However, some individuals can also feel anxious and have a panic attack as a result. Around this time is when you'll be hit with the 'munchies'. This is because the THC finds the olfactory bulb (which impacts your sense of taste and smell) in you brain, and can convince you that you're hungry, even if you're not. Roughly 30-minutes in is when the effects reach its peak, lasting up to five or six hours. You may begin to feel sleepy or confused, as well as getting the giggles. Depending on the strain of THC used, these effects can last longer, resulting in lasting impaired judgement. Although the effects mostly wear off within a few hours, traces of cannabis can still be prevalent in a urine test two or three days later. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 23, 2023--