As someone who spends about eight hours a day listening to music on headphones, I found this report to be a real day-darkener, for there are few more pleasurable activities known to humanity than blocking out the rest of the godforsaken world with glorious music.

AP’s Martha Irvine reports in an article titled “Headphone Use May Worsen Hearing Loss”: “One telltale sign that you’ve done damage to your ears is when you leave a loud venue with ringing ears. If you rest your ears, they might recover, at least partially, doctors say. But with repeated exposure comes more damage to the hair cells in the inner ear, which are key to good hearing.”

To counter this problem, one local music aficionado recommends these earplugs. What what?