It's a drier, noisier, smellier experience, filled with white-washed wooden shops, wooden schools, wooden houses and a great, cast-iron market.
Formula One is planning to bring back refuelling and noisier engines in an attempt to make the sport more exciting for its declining fan base.
France's six-month-long bank battle reached a conclusion so inconclusive that the arguing over who won is even noisier than the battle cries that preceded it.
In case his government doesn't stick to this promise, somebody should remind him that in terms of money per watt, Melbourne's live music scene is a better deal than the Australian Grand Prix a much noisier sort of event, which cannot just be heard next door but across several suburbs.
India's hawks mock that their bitter rival can never again be trusted; noisier American congressmen want Pakistan's $3 billion military and civilian aid budget slashed.
Stress caused by lack of privacy and workers' inability to control their surroundings played a part, too.Open-plan offices are noisier and more interruption-prone.
Yet a local furniture-maker says residents are not personally attached to Mr Assad: "We have no problem with a different leader, as long as we stay protected".Lebanon's Sunnis are noisier but appear no more keen on conflict.
IF Spain has become a noisy place, with protest against austerity now a daily event in some cities, the soccer match on October 7th between arch-rivals FC Barcelona and Real Madrid threatens to be noisier still.
India's capital is suffering a silent airpocalypse while the noisier citizens of Beijing holler and splutter about dangerous concentrations of particles in every lungful of air.
As one Airbus executive put it: "Willie would have had trouble explaining to the neighbours why he'd bought a noisier, dirtier aircraft [the 747-8] even if was a bit cheaper".
The rumble of tanks through Beijing on August 16th, rehearsing for a giant military parade to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic on October 1st, helped make its anger seem noisier.
