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There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

nytimes.com

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Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#221

Post by ultimape »

stuntkite wrote: post #219
blunte wrote: post #101

As one who can hear these sounds, I can attest to how maddening it is. It's even worse when (most of) the people around you can't hear it, and they don't believe you. Earplugs only make it worse, because they filter out ambient noise that otherwise helps distract you from the incessant hum. Daytime is not as bad as night because of the natural activity sounds of a city. I have read that waves and underwater currents…

I have been working on a project to use some DIY bone conduction "headphones" to do directed noise canceling because I'm on the autistic spectrum and loud places bug the shit out of me and make it so i can't focus. Bone conduction is neat because it works inside your head and doesn't cover your ears. I think BC noise canceling is really under explored for audio related stress issues. I'm putting a mic on the back of…

Could you link to the low frequency drivers? There's a bunch of stuff like that on adafruit and I wanna make something similar.

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#222

Post by chch »

Johnythree wrote: post #181
blunte wrote: post #101

As one who can hear these sounds, I can attest to how maddening it is. It's even worse when (most of) the people around you can't hear it, and they don't believe you. Earplugs only make it worse, because they filter out ambient noise that otherwise helps distract you from the incessant hum. Daytime is not as bad as night because of the natural activity sounds of a city. I have read that waves and underwater currents…

I was plagued by the Hum for years. At times it became astonishingly loud. But I was able (eventually) to figure it out. Short version: I made many attempts to track it down. Used low frequency Microphones, filters, amplifiers, etc, as well as PC Spectrogram programs to try and and visualise and record it. Visited many nearby industries etc to try and find it. But none of my attempts did any good. As I'm a Radio Engi…

This reminds me of the story of how composer John Cage was inspired to write his piece 4′33″ [1]:

'In 1951, Cage visited the anechoic chamber at Harvard University. An anechoic chamber is a room designed in such a way that the walls, ceiling and floor absorb all sounds made in the room, rather than reflecting them as echoes. Such a chamber is also externally sound-proofed. Cage entered the chamber expecting to hear silence, but he wrote later, "I heard two sounds, one high and one low. When I described them to the engineer in charge, he informed me that the high one was my nervous system in operation, the low one my blood in circulation." Cage had gone to a place where he expected total silence, and yet heard sound. "Until I die there will be sounds. And they will continue following my death. One need not fear about the future of music." The realization as he saw it of the impossibility of silence led to the composition of 4′33″.'

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4′33″

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#223

Post by acct1771 »

vonzep wrote: post #55
fenwick67 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wikipedia page mentions this but doesn't make the obvious connection to the cause of the vibrations... > it served as an uninhabited Native American burial ground for thousands of years

Well damn ... Punishment for my ancestors stealing their land and whatnot ... seems fair through that lens ... should make my decent into madness a tad more comforting

descent*, FYI!

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#224

Post by acct1771 »

tsomctl wrote: post #203
DoofusOfDeath wrote: post #201

From my time working for the U.S. Navy, I find this very reminiscent of the problem of finding a submerged submarine at a distance, based on its low-frequency sound emissions. Their solution is to use a very long array (i.e., a towed array) of microphones (i.e., transducers), and perform algorithmic beam-forming to narrow down the possible points of origin for the sound. This seems like a pretty obvious approach, but…

The ocean has a lot fewer objects for sound to reflect off of than a town full of buildings.

So put it on something above the buildings.

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#225

Post by ajwin »

Has constructive interference of multiple low frequency sound sources been considered? It could be that they are all undetectable on their own but cause localized areas to have a much higher amplitude sound? I guess reflections of the sounds in the right areas could have a similar effect?

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#226

Post by vortico »

ClassyJacket wrote: post #174
vortico wrote: post #59

Garbage, sensationalist title with mentions of "unknown origin". Even the article says the likely source is Zug island, but of course this wouldn't get as many clicks. According to the mentioned University of Windsor report ( http://www.international.gc.ca/department-ministere/windsor_... ) "A previous study confirmed the existence of the low frequency excitation and estimated the source to be in the vicinity of Zug…

> If all of the above is impossible for whatever reason, why doesn't the article mention the reasons I'd say you didn't read the article. They're pretty clear that it's because Zug Island is in the USA while the sound problem affects a city in Canada.

See this sister comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16425313

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#227

Post by vvdcect »

phyller wrote: post #207
blunte wrote: post #101

As one who can hear these sounds, I can attest to how maddening it is. It's even worse when (most of) the people around you can't hear it, and they don't believe you. Earplugs only make it worse, because they filter out ambient noise that otherwise helps distract you from the incessant hum. Daytime is not as bad as night because of the natural activity sounds of a city. I have read that waves and underwater currents…

That's funny, when I moved to Colorado was the first time I started hearing it. My wife can't hear it at all but it's so loud sometimes at night it drives me crazy. It's not in my head, it's definitely coming from a certain direction. Its very low, I can barely see it on an app I put on my phone, "Spectroid". I'm pretty sure I know what it is, the coal trains moving down the front range. The tracks are like 10 miles…

Was this near Fort Collins by any chance? I could have sworn I was hearing something similar.

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#228

Post by fudged71 »

stuntkite wrote: post #219
blunte wrote: post #101

As one who can hear these sounds, I can attest to how maddening it is. It's even worse when (most of) the people around you can't hear it, and they don't believe you. Earplugs only make it worse, because they filter out ambient noise that otherwise helps distract you from the incessant hum. Daytime is not as bad as night because of the natural activity sounds of a city. I have read that waves and underwater currents…

I have been working on a project to use some DIY bone conduction "headphones" to do directed noise canceling because I'm on the autistic spectrum and loud places bug the shit out of me and make it so i can't focus. Bone conduction is neat because it works inside your head and doesn't cover your ears. I think BC noise canceling is really under explored for audio related stress issues. I'm putting a mic on the back of…

That sounds like an awesome project

Re: There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why

#230

Post by stordoff »

ateesdalejr wrote: post #117
hammock wrote: post #62

@dang why did you delete the "And no one knows why" from the title? Did it sound clickbaity to you? Seems pretty critical to the article to me. The whole thing is about the search for what the hum is, not what the hum is.

That sounds clickbaity to me too. If it sounds even clickbaity in the slightest I'm sure they'd remove it.

It's a debatable one in this case IMO. "There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario, and No One Knows Why" tells me what I need to know -- it's a mysterious hum akin to what I've read about many times, so there's little need to click. "There's a Persistent Hum in Windsor, Ontario" suggests it may be an article about a known cause/why there is a persistent hum, inducing me to click to find out the reason.

A better solution might be to rephrase (e.g. "There's a Persistent Hum of Undetermined Origin in Windsor, Ontario") to avoid the clickbaity style phrasing, rather than just deleting the clause outright, but then you start editorialising which brings its own set of problems.

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