RATTLE & HUM: Mysterious Sounds Heard Across The Planet - The "Windsor Hum" Is Now LOUDER THAN EVER, A Strange Inexplicable Hum Is Haunting Residents Of A Canadian City; Like A "POUNDING ON THE WALL,... Incessant Sound,... SHOOK EVERYTHING,... Vibrating Beds Of Residents,... Rattle Windows,... It Can Get Real DISTURBING,..."?!

Windsor, Canada as seen from Detroit. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

March 7, 2016 - ONTARIO, CANADA - A droning, industrial hum that for years perplexed and disturbed locals in Windsor, Ontario, near the U.S.-Canada border, reemerged in recent months.

The monotonous, reverberating sound and its accompanying vibrations – known as “the Windsor hum”—has returned to haunt the city’s residents, according to the Windsor Star.

And this time it’s louder than ever.

Mike Provost, a resident on Windsor’s Hillcrest Boulevard, has kept records of the hums heard throughout his neighborhood, he told the newspaper. He noted a particular blast on Saturday, Feb. 27, that “shook everything … like a pounding on the wall."

“Some people complain about dishes rattling, windows rattling,” Provost told the Star. “It can get real disturbing.”

Concerns about the hum first arose several years ago on the western and southern ends of Windsor, which lies just south of Detroit across the Detroit River. One night in 2012, more than 22,000 residents phoned government officials about the hum during a call-in event.

A 2013 report in On Earth magazine described how the incessant sound disturbed thousands of residents in that time, “vibrating their beds, wrecking their concentration, making their toddlers cranky. Some even blamed it for killing their goldfish.”

The hum jolted resident Gary Grosse out of sleep at 2 a.m. one night, the magazine reported, driving him to try to hunt down the source in his car. Another resident, Sherry Kelly, heard the hum, too, but feared people would think she was crazy if she mentioned it.

The crew of a SyFy channel show even visited Windsor in 2013 and floated the idea that the hum was connected to HAARP, a U.S. communications program that conspiracy theorists said could control minds or the weather, depending on whom you ask. The show found no conclusions.

After myriad complaints, a 2014 report by the Canadian government linked the noise pollution to the work of U.S. Steel, based on Zug Island – a mass of land in the Detroit River just over the U.S.-Canadian border, the Star reported.

Experts think the hum could be the traveling sound of distant blasts from industrial furnaces releasing pressure on the American island, but jurisdictional complications have hamstrung Canadian officials in investigating operations there.

U.S. Steel, for its part, has cast doubt on the notion that it causes the hum.

An attorney of River Rouge, Mich., the municipality that oversees Zug Island, told the Star in 2012 that it didn’t have resources to look into the problem.

“We are not going to pay for something that is for somebody else’s benefit because this is not a problem affecting us,” David Bower said.

According to Provost, the Windsor resident tracking the hum’s return, the jolting noises have been worse around 8 p.m.

“Come on, give me a break,” he said. “Let us get some sleep. Let us get some peace and quiet.” - USA Today.

RATTLE & HUM: Mysterious Windsor Hum's Source Revealed As Zug Island - But Scientists Still Have No Idea What The Cause Is?!

May 27, 2014 - ONTARIO, CANADA -  A federally funded study confirms a humming noise in Windsor, Ontario, emanates from an island across the Detroit River but fails to completely solve the long-running mystery over the vibration.

National Post, Canada

Essex Conservative MP Jeff Watson, who revealed the findings Friday, says the acoustic monitoring study shows the rumbling is real and reaches Windsor from heavily industrial Zug Island in River Rouge, Mich.

But he says the investigation - done by scientists at the University of Windsor and Western University - fails to pinpoint just what has been causing the phenomenon.

Watson says Ottawa is now out of options to further zero in on just what's making the humming sound hum and that efforts now lie with authorities on the Michigan side of the river.

He says the study has been provided to officials there, including the governor, and that the Canadian consul-general in Detroit will push authorities in the state to get to the bottom of the matter.

The Windsor hum has been the subject of speculation for several years and has even rattled houses in the city.

An earlier seismographic study by Natural Resources Canada identified Zug Island as the likely source of the noise pollution. - National Post.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Six-Car Oil Train Derails In Colorado - Leaks Crude In La Salle! [PHOTOS]

May 10, 2014 - COLORADO, UNITED STATES -  Six cars of a 100-car crude train derailed near Le Salle, Colo. Friday.

Clean up crews were on scene to clear the derailment. Some crude oil leaked into a ditch, officials said.

The train loaded in Windsor with Niobara crude and was headed to New York. The cars derailed around 8 a.m., officials said.

It’s not yet known why the train derailed, reported the Greeley Tribune.

Union Pacific Spokesman Mark Davis said the spill was contained in a ditch and no waterway was threatened.

A vacuum truck was ordered to help suck up the oil.

Colorado Senator Mark Udall released a statement saying the spill is an example of why he has been pressing for the Department of Transportation to update train-safety regulations for cars carrying crude oil.

“While we are fortunate there was not an explosion, this incident in Weld County shows why I have been fighting so hard to have the U.S. Department of Transportation update its safety regulations,” Udall said. “The federal government needs to do more.” - KDVR.

RATTLE & HUM: Unexplained Phenomena - Researcher Declares That Mysterious Windsor Hum Is REAL?!

August 02, 2013 - CANADA - Colin Novak has hunch about where hum is originating, but won't reveal location until fall.

A University of Windsor professor studying the Windsor Hum is convinced it's real.

Colin Novak set up a state-of-the-art, $250,000 recording station in a woodlot in the western part of the Ontario city in February. It's a virtual ear, tuned to record the hum 24/7.

Novak and a group of fellow scientists and researchers from the University of Windsor and London's University of Western Ontario received federal funding to study the mysterious noise.

When the sound he's looking for rises above a certain level it's registered on the equipment and Novak gets an email.

He said for the last month or so, his inbox has been full.

Ottawa is funding research of the mysterious Windsor Hum.CBC News

"Some of the evenings, we may get 30 or 40 emails in a given night, mostly between midnight and about 3:30 a.m.," Novak said.

That's enough to convince him the hum is real.

"We're in a pretty remote area in the night time. There's some construction activity happening right now, but at night, there's not too much out here.... when we're getting levels as high as we are, there's definitely some activity," he said.

The equipment's location hasn't been made public, but it's located in an area where the hum has been heard by Windsor residents.

Novak said he has an idea where the sound is coming from, but he won't speculate until his research is finished.

He and his partners will report their findings to the federal government by the end of the year.

"And from that point forward, I think it may become more of a political, and an engineering problem," Novak said.

People who live in the area have some theories of their own as to where the sound is originating.

Archie Cormier is a Windsor resident who claims to hear the noise.

Google.

"It's on the American side, and it doesn't do it all the time," he said of the noise. "So, if they can pinpoint the problem, then maybe they could find a solution."

Last year, a federal study suggested the hum may originate from the U.S. side of the Detroit River, in the general area of Zug Island, an area of concentrated steel production and manufacturing in River Rouge, Mich.

The mayor of River Rouge said in 2011 that his city didn't have the funds to investigate the hum.

The map below shows the location of Zug Island, southwest of Detroit. - CBC News.

RATTLE & HUM: Unexplained Phenomena - Mysterious Hum Driving People Crazy Around The World!

July 26, 2013 - EARTH - It creeps in slowly in the dark of night, and once inside, it almost never goes away.

It's known as the Hum, a steady, droning sound that's heard in places as disparate as Taos, N.M.; Bristol, England; and Largs, Scotland.

But what causes the Hum, and why it only affects a small percentage of the population in certain areas, remain a mystery, despite a number of scientific investigations.

Reports started trickling in during the 1950s from people who had never heard anything unusual before; suddenly, they were bedeviled by an annoying, low-frequency humming, throbbing or rumbling sound.

The cases seem to have several factors in common: Generally, the Hum is only heard indoors, and it's louder at night than during the day. It's also more common in rural or suburban environments; reports of a hum are rare in urban areas, probably because of the steady background noise in crowded cities.

Who hears the Hum?

Only about 2 percent of the people living in any given Hum-prone area can hear the sound, and most of them are ages 55 to 70, according to a 2003 study by acoustical consultant Geoff Leventhall of Surrey, England.

Most of the people who hear the Hum (sometimes referred to as "hearers" or "hummers") describe the sound as similar to a diesel engine idling nearby. And the Hum has driven virtually every one of them to the point of despair.


WATCH: Taos Hum.

"It's a kind of torture; sometimes, you just want to scream," retiree Katie Jacques of Leeds, England, told the BBC. Leeds is one of several places in Great Britain where the Hum has recently appeared.

"It's worst at night," Jacques said. "It's hard to get off to sleep because I hear this throbbing sound in the background. … You're tossing and turning, and you get more and more agitated about it."

Being dismissed as crackpots or whiners only exacerbates the distress for these complainants, most of whom have perfectly normal hearing. Sufferers complain of headaches, nausea, dizziness, nosebleeds and sleep disturbances. At least one suicide in the United Kingdom has been blamed on the Hum, the BBC reports.

The Hum zones

Bristol, England, was one of the first places on Earth where the Hum was reported. In the 1970s, about 800 people in the coastal city reported hearing a steady thrumming sound, which was eventually blamed on vehicular traffic and local factories working 24-hour shifts.


Another famous hum occurs near Taos, N.M. Starting in spring 1991, residents of the area complained of a low-level rumbling noise. A team of researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, the University of New Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories and other regional experts were unable to identify the source of the sound.

Windsor, Ontario, is another Hum hotspot. Researchers from the University of Windsor and Western University in London, Ontario, were recently given a grant to analyze the Windsor Hum and determine its cause.

Researchers also have been investigating the Hum in Bondi, a seaside area of Sydney, Australia, for several years, to no avail. "It sends people around here crazy — all you can do is put music on to block it out. Some people leave fans on," one resident told the Daily Telegraph.

Back in the United States, the Kokomo Hum was isolated in a 2003 study financed by the Indiana city's municipal government. The investigation revealed that two industrial sites — one a Daimler Chrysler plant — were producing noise at specific frequencies. Despite noise-abatement measures, some residents continue to complain of the Hum.

What causes the Hum?

Most researchers investigating the Hum express some confidence that the phenomenon is real, and not the result of mass hysteria or hearers' hypochondria (or extraterrestrials beaming signals to Earth from their spaceships).


As in the case of the Kokomo Hum, industrial equipment is usually the first suspected source of the Hum. In one instance, Leventhall was able to trace the noise to a neighboring building's central heating unit.

Other suspected sources include high-pressure gas lines, electrical power lines and wireless communication devices. But only in a few cases has a Hum been linked to a mechanical or electrical source.

There's some speculation that the Hum could be the result of low-frequency electromagnetic radiation, audible only to some people. And there are verified cases in which individuals have particular sensitivities to signals outside the normal range of human hearing.

Medical experts are quick to point out that tinnitus (the perception of sound when no external noise is present) is a likely cause, but repeated testing has found that many hearers have normal hearing and no occurrences of tinnitus.

Environmental factors have also been blamed, including seismic activity such as microseisms — very faint, low-frequency earth tremors that can be generated by the action of ocean waves.

Other hypotheses, including military experiments and submarine communications, have yet to bear any fruit. For now, hearers of the Hum have to resort to white-noise machines and other devices to reduce or eliminate the annoying noise.

Leventhall, who recommends that some hearers turn to cognitive-behavioral therapy to relieve the symptoms caused by the Hum, isn't confident that the puzzle will be solved anytime soon.

"It's been a mystery for 40 years, so it may well remain one for a lot longer," Leventhall told the BBC. - NBC News.

RATTLE & HUM: "The Sounds of the Apocalypse" - Government Investigating The Mysteriously Loud "Windsor Hum"?!

January 24, 2013 - CANADA - The federal government is committing $60,000 to help two universities investigate a mysterious humming vibration in Windsor, Ont.  The Windsor Hum has been the subject of much speculation for almost two years in the industrial city, which sits on the Detroit River across the U.S. border from the Motor City.

A seismographic study by Natural Resources Canada has identified Zug Island on the U.S. side of the river as the likely source of the noise pollution, but talks between Canadian and American authorities have failed to resolve the matter.

U.S. Steel re-opened a mill on Zug Island about the time the hum became bothersome to Windsor residents, but has not taken responsibility for the hum, which at times rattles homes.

Now the federal Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is stepping up with funding for an acoustic study in an effort to further pinpoint the source of the sound vibration.

Researchers from the University of Western Ontario and the University of Windsor will team up for the study. - Globe And Mail.

RATTLE & HUM: "The Sounds of the Apocalypse" - Canadians Make a Racket Over Mysterious 'Windsor Hum'?!

Last month, Bob Dechert, a senior aide to Canada's foreign minister, was dispatched to Detroit with an important diplomatic mission: To stop a highly annoying noise.  The so-called Windsor hum, described as a low-frequency rumbling sound, has rattled windows and knocked objects off shelves in this border community just across the Detroit River from the Motor City. Locals have said it sounds like a large diesel truck idling, a loud boom box or the bass vocals of Barry White.  Windsor residents have blamed the hum for causing illness, whipping dogs into frenzies, keeping cats housebound and sending goldfish to the surface in backyard ponds. Many have resorted to switching on their furnace fan all season to drown out the noise.  Even weirder, Americans can't seem to hear it. Canadians find that suspicious—especially since their research suggests the hum is coming from the Yankees' side—and accuse U.S. officials of staying silent over the noise.

"The government of Canada takes this issue seriously," Mr. Dechert said after his recent fact-finding trip, which included a visit to a heavily industrialized area on the American side of the river that some Canadian scientists believe is to blame for the hum.  Unexplained noises have tormented city dwellers for centuries. Residents west of Green Bay, Wis., have been trying to identify an occasional loud boom that they say sounds like a cannon blast—geologists have said earthquakes made the noise. Locals in upstate New York and other places have described similar episodes.  But few such cases have become international diplomatic incidents.  After three months of seismic studies conducted by Canada's natural resources department, scientists said the noise was likely coming from Zug Island, a nearly 600-acre man-made island on the Michigan side of the Detroit River. The coal-blackened industrial zone is dominated by steel mills, including facilities operated by U.S. Steel Corp. and others whose blast furnaces belch out steam and flames.  The area is off-limits to the general public and surrounded by wire fences, with the only access via a guarded gate. A spokeswoman for U.S. Steel didn't respond to requests for comment.  The sound has been plaguing Windsor residents on and off for two years. Last May, a particularly loud eruption shook Windsor resident David Robins as he watched the National Basketball Association playoffs. The room began to vibrate with a loud throbbing noise.  Mr. Robins hit mute, fearing he had gone overboard on volume. But the noise persisted. Stepping outside, Mr. Robins said he found the "entire neighborhood pulsating."  "To be honest, I was scared," he said.

Hundreds of other sleep-deprived locals have demanded action from politicians in Windsor and Ottawa.  Locals blamed earthquakes, local salt mines, an underground river and wind turbines in the past. But Canada's seismic study last summer narrowed the likely source down to approximately 250 acres in the vicinity of Zug Island.  American officials say they aren't so sure.  "It may not be actually emanating from Michigan," said Hansen Clarke, the U.S. Representative for the East Detroit congressional district that includes Zug.  Michael D. Bowdler, the mayor of River Rouge, Michigan, the municipality with authority over Zug, said his cash-strapped government doesn't have funds to investigate further. Mr. Bowdler suggests the city of Windsor pay for a survey that could isolate the noise to its exact location.  American officials contend there haven't been complaints on the U.S. side of the border. Michigan's Department of Environmental Quality looked last year at whether the companies at Zug started up any new machinery in the past two years that might be causing the noise and found nothing.  "The only place I am hearing noise from is Canada—from politicians complaining," Mr. Bowdler said.  Mr. Dechert, Canada's parliamentary secretary to the minister of foreign affairs, concedes the source may not be Zug Island, given there are a "number of operations" in the vicinity that could be responsible. But he wants his U.S. counterparts to investigate further to help quiet down the border ruckus.  "There is definitely something going on that's affecting people on the Canadian side of the river," he said.  Canadian diplomats formally raised the issue with the U.S. Department of State last September. They took up the cause again at a meeting on Thursday. A State Department spokesman declined to comment on the meeting.  "We do sympathize with the plight of those affected but, unfortunately, the federal government doesn't have regulatory authority over noise pollution," the spokesman said. 

Canadian authorities have also hoped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would investigate. But a spokesman for the EPA said it doesn't have the authority to assist.  If U.S. officials don't help find a solution, "there will be a lot of upset people," said Brian Masse, a Canadian New Democratic Party member of parliament, whose Windsor constituency sits across the river from Zug Island.  Studying the hum, much less its origin, is challenging. It is difficult to capture the mainly nocturnal sound on tape, since it doesn't hum all the time.  During a recent visit to Windsor by a Wall Street Journal reporter, Windsor resident Gary Grosse played several recordings he said came from the noise, which modulated from metallic grating to a pulsing beat.  On a visit to the area around Zug Island, a fainter version of similar sounds was audible. But Americans nearby said they still can't hear it.  Fishing under the shadow of some of the large mounds of coal that fringe Zug Island, Samson Jenkins says that in 20 trips here he has never heard a noise like that described in Windsor.  "And they say they can hear it all the way in Canada?" said the 45-year-old maintenance worker. "No way."  Nearby, an industrial chimney belched out a twist of sulfurous-smelling smoke. Mr. Jenkins joked the only noise pollution he has heard of late is Canadian singer Celine Dion.  In Windsor, nobody's laughing.  In January 2011, Sonya Skillings's nocturnal baby-feeding sessions were disturbed by what she said sounded like an underground subway beneath the house. Over a year on, it has become so loud sometimes she worries the windows will blow out.  "I just want to be in my rocking chair with my baby asleep on top of me," she said. But "all I can hear is 'vrump, vrump, vrump.' " - Wall Street Journal.

WATCH: Canadians Make a Racket Over Mysterious 'Windsor Hum'?!

RATTLE & HUM: "The Sounds of the Apocalypse" - Mysterious Hum in Canada Coming From the United States?!

A mysterious humming sound that has drawn hundreds of complaints in Windsor, Canada, for more than a year is emanating from Michigan, testing has determined.

The low-frequency, rumbling noise dubbed the Windsor hum is coming from the area of Zug Island, an industrial site, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.  But officials in River Rogue, Mich., where Zug Island is located, have said they don't have the money to find the precise source of the noise.  "The government of Canada takes this issue seriously," Bob Dechert, a conservative member of Canadian Parliament, said in a news release. "It is important that we find a solution that works for the people of Windsor." 

Jim Bradley, Ontario's environment minister, said the ministry has received nearly 500 complaints about the noise, and about 22,000 residents took part in a telephone forum in February about the hum.  Bradley has sent letters to municipal, state and federal officials in the United States asking them to take action, while Dechert has met with representatives of the Great Lakes Commission, the Council of Great Lakes Industries, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments and the Regional Office of the International Joint Commission to discuss the hum.  Gary Gross said he's had his fill of the hum.  "I was in bed, it was about 2:30 a.m. and I could just hear this pulsing noise," he told CBC News. "I decided to get up. It disturbed my sleep and I couldn't get back to sleep."  - UPI.

THE GREAT DELUGE: The Australia Extreme Weather Phenomena - Catastrophic Flood Could Sink Sydney Suburbs!

As Queensland carries out an inquiry into deadly flooding in that state, the spotlight has turned to other parts of Australia and how well they would be prepared for a catastrophic flood.

Up to 70,000 people would have to be evacuated if a major flood was to hit. (file photo)

The Hawkesbury Nepean Valley in Sydney's outer suburbs has a history of massive floods, and while there has not been a big one for more than a century, plans are in place for such an event. The suburbs of Penrith and Emu Plains straddle the high banks of the Nepean River in what is a typical picture of Australian suburbia - lots of brick houses, probably built around the 1960s and '70s. But up to 70,000 people would have to be evacuated if a major flood was to hit the area. The suburbs sit in a flood plain, and if a flood like the one which hit in 1867 was to occur, the whole area could go under. Newspaper reports from the time describe an inland sea that destroyed houses, farms and crops and killed at least 13 people. The town of Windsor, downstream from Emu Plains, was submerged.

Steven Molino is principal of Molino Stewart, an environment and natural hazards consultancy that has been working on flood plain management for 20 years. "The 1867 flood was around 19.5 metres here. So all of these houses would be flooded at least to the eaves, if not higher, in a repeat of the 1867 flood," he said. He says a major flood today would probably destroy many houses in Emu Plains. Steve Opper, director of community safety with the State Emergency Service, says the Hawkesbury Nepean Valley has a unique shape that can lead to catastrophic flooding. "The Hawkesbury Nepean Valley is throttled down by a narrow gorge down near what's called Sackville, which is just upstream of Wiseman's Ferry," he said. "The result of that is that the water can flow into the top of the system very, very rapidly, can't get out, and so you get very dramatic rises in the level of the river. "So normal river level might be two metres; if you're at the town of Windsor and in the most extreme thought possible, that could rise up to 26 metres, which is a number that's quite hard to comprehend." That is seven metres higher than the 1867 flood which submerged the valley. Even if the 1867 flood was repeated, tens of thousands of people would have to be moved. Mr Opper has designed the evacuation plan for the valley. "Our contingency planning for evacuation for that valley indicates that we would have to evacuate between 40,000 and 70,000 people just depending on the level of flooding that we're expecting," he said. "It's a very large number; it would no doubt be probably the largest evacuation of its kind in New South Wales.

Alan Ashworth's house in Emu Plains overlooks the Nepean River and is in the firing line. It is a double-storey house set high on his block and seems way above the level of the river below. But the historic record shows his house could be flooded. Mr Ashworth says he does not have a detailed flood plan. "Basically anything downstairs you'd move upstairs. By the time we get water on this section of the road, basically you've lost Richmond, Windsor and all that," he said. Even so, Mr Opper says moving everything upstairs may not be good enough. "The difference with this valley is that if people stay there, then the depths the water could get to are almost certainly fatal," he said. "And so you can't even take an option of saying well, maybe if people don't get out it'll be OK because they'll be able to survive in their house; that's just not an option in this valley." Because of this, a spillway has been built on the Warragamba Dam upstream from the river and roads have been built and upgraded to help with the evacuation. These measures will help, but when a big flood comes - and the odds say it will - it will not be stopped. Mr Molino says the 1867 flood had about a one-in-200 chance of occurrence. "It can happen. And we have sedimentary evidence from the gorge upstream of Penrith that there's been at least one, if not more floods as large as or larger than a one-in-500 flood in this valley," he said. "Elsewhere in the country we've had floods of that probability. "These things do happen. They don't always happen where there's people or houses, but when they do we have a major catastrophe." - ABC News.