Why Everything Is Getting Louder

[SEAWOLF97]

.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/the-end-of-silence/598366/

[Pigboat]

.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/the-end-of-silence/598366/

And I thought it was my Tinnitus:dont-know:

The Sonar Tech in me is always dissecting background noise, and eliminating it.
One of my Better abilities in younger years. Would hand over multiple audio sonar
contacts, only to have them lost by new operator, only to be designated as "NEW"
contacts later.

Always in trouble for treating my wife as background noise.

Would love to go into a "noiseless" room. They say you can hear your heart beat.

[macaroonie]

Would love to go into a "noiseless" room. They say you can hear your heart beat.

You don't hear it you feel it , there is no sound input to your ears so everything is internal. You can 'hear' your blood moving inside your head.
I hasten to add that I am a Scottish vampire and therefore attracted to blood so anechoic chambers are a favourite nesting place for me.

Halloween is coming kids :shocking:


OMG thats me at 2000 , woo hoo

[gasfan]

Would love to go into a "noiseless" room. They say you can hear your heart beat.

You don't hear it you feel it , there is no sound input to your ears so everything is internal. You can 'hear' your blood moving inside your head.
I hasten to add that I am a Scottish vampire and therefore attracted to blood so anechoic chambers are a favourite nesting place for me.

Halloween is coming kids :shocking:


OMG thats me at 2000 , woo hooThere was a display at the Ontario science center in Toronto in the 60's consisting of a corridor you veered into and back out of with this very feature. The abrupt silence caused panic in a lot of people.

[SEAWOLF97]

And I thought it was my Tinnitus:dont-know:

see the VA about the tinnitus (if you haven't yet) ..it's a compensatable condition.

I spent a lot of time with Navy helos. Have noticed in a group of cow-orkers that I will sense (hear ?) one coming long before anyone else (as did Radar O'Reilly on M*A*S*H - "wounded coming") . Always thought that I was just tuned into those frequencies, but now wondering if it's actually vibrations* that alert me :dont-know:

* yeah, yeah .. vibrations=sound.


There was a display at the Ontario science center in Toronto in the 60's consisting of a corridor you veered into and back out of with this very feature. The abrupt silence caused panic in a lot of people.

worked on a flight deck in a prior life ... 25 feet away from loaded jets going into full reheat to get off the deck. Hearing protector headsets worked pretty well (tho you can feel the sound in your gut) , but after they launched it was eerily quiet with them on .. now a dangerous condition in a dangerous place where you rely on sound to stay safe..

[nedseg]

Interesting article.
I worked in (the human side) of a new data center for quite a few years.
Even though this was the latest, most eco-minded (and anti-terrorist) design possible (VERY interesting forest of support pilons under the server area), the chiller noise does indeed permeate the place, even though they were place on the ground on insulated pads (earthquake shock absorbers) but is nothing compared to when they fire up the phalanx of backup gennies for testing.

The comments about it being worse late at night make a lot of sense - quite a few of my projects involved threading major application upgrades through the very complex schedule of backups (email was a real headache), nightly batch file runs and other regular patch maintenance - turns out that the heaviest network/server load was always after midnight - sometimes so bad that if some batch or backup couldn't complete by 8am it would cause slow network log-ins for arriving workers in the morning.

I often wondered about the effect of long term low level noise pollution on employees working there (half of the site was office space for those caring for and feeding the servers).

Curious trade off - data centers vs. shopping centers?

I've noticed a slight decrease in traffic noise from the nearby large strip mall which is now half vacant - and wonder about the trend of turning vacated malls into fullfillment centers (or new data center buildings!).
Very glad I'm not super sensitive to that noise (and have a super insulated home!)

Thanks for the article!

[SEAWOLF97]

On UNscientific hearing sweeps, I can still make it to near 14khz+ , which is great
for all the crap my ears have been subjected to.

I hear many things that the better half cannot. She just thinks I'm crazy and "just hearing things" .... well, yes I am (hearing things)

In the military or even the data centers I've worked in, there are noises that are not common in daily life .... IMHG , these may imprint on you and your sensitivity to them remains for life. :dont-know:

Guess that's why headphones appeal so much to me ... can virtually get away from most ungood sounds (as far as open backs will ..)

HEY PB: do you use headphones for music or have you overdosed on them :confused:

[Pigboat]

I hear many things that the better half cannot. She just thinks I'm crazy and "just hearing things" .... well, yes I am (hearing things)

Ditto: And now with these 4311's Played Longer Than by Dan Folgelberg heard all
kinds of new stuff, nice recording(plus wife gets gussy)

see the VA about the tinnitus (if you haven't yet) ..it's a compensatable condition
Thanks to many PDC's "or" loud music Will check it out, under impression no relief.

yeah, yeah .. vibrations=sound
Agree

HEY PB: do you use headphones for music or have you overdosed on them

Picture of me in the "shack" looking at you. In front of me is a guy sitting at
the BQR7 sonar "stack" wearing a set of those grey headphones.
85 days wearing those damn things. One over 1 ear, the other pushed back to comm. with watch. Of course back then you had to have a set of Koss Pro4 AA's
HEAVY beast but nice.

" a dangerous condition in a dangerous place where you rely on sound to stay safe.."

My world. When your the "eyes and ears" of a 8000 Ton Nuke Submarine, $$$$$$$$$ of
dollars, 128 Lives, Sound was EVERYTHING!!! 21 year old heavy responsibility.
Grew up REAL fast.

Back to the picture. We may LOOK casual but that's because were GOOD. I probably just came off the stack. What looks like a screen in front of the guy listening is a BTR,
Bearing Time Recorder, which is actually paper burnt by stylus. With all the lines I can tell it busy, so probably the MED. The guy I'm looking at is actually monitoring a
BQR-20 "Black Box" at the time. Can't tell you why or what purpose, as I've been
"Debriefed" till I'm 108, so would have to kill you.:D
But this is cool, it's a spectrum analyzer !!! cover 20 to 20K, with a real time or waterfall display. Sittin on stack you listen to "broad band", the "20" you looked for "narrow band"
Tones generated by machines travel farther than you can hear. Knowing "Charlie"s"
Narrow band signature we look for that for LONG range detection.BUT if we saw a "Certain" line The pucker factor went WAY UP !!! Nough said.
We would patch it into the mike, FART into it and watch on waterfall display:blink:LMAO
Whales and Dolphin make some CRAZY Displays.

2 quick stories.I personally was run over by Two contacts.

1 a "Merch" was coming straight at us. "0 AOB-0 BR", Bad sonar condition, sound is confusing, requested conn to change course, Didn't Listen. needed a "Burn Pass" on this course.
Next thing you know, CHUG CHUG CHUG, could hear him through the hull:eek:
Cuts our floating wire, VERY bad, all kinds of alarms going of in Radio Shack
loss of comm. Captains phone up the passage way goes off Very BAD.

" Conn/Sonar Range to S364- 120 feet "straight up":D (Smart ASS)
(Keel Depth SOOOO +/- 60 feet top of sail:eek:)
" Sonar conn Sonar Sup to the Conn":dont-know:

Captains first stop, ME !!! To the conn, Showed him my log, RIPS the OD for not
taking my "Advice"

Second in the MED, Coming to "PD" (periscope depth) I'm on the stack for another "Burn Pass" shooting a satellite for position info. 120 to 60+/- feet. Cleared "Baffles" everything
great, up we go, Collision alarm 20+ down angle, SWISH SWISH SWISH, over the top:eek:
"Sonar Conn, we are cavitating. BAD
"Supervisor to the conn" WTF They had popped the scope up to see a British Submarine
0 AOB !!! right in front of us. He passed over,we turned, could not hear him.
Called a "Surface Thermolcline" first 50' gets heated and traps the sound and channels it.
Because of this "incident", we did a Unauthorized "Ship ALT" by putting a Hydrophone in the top of the sail, patched it down to the shack. COOL Next thing you know we get
BQR19 "Top Hat", that was my first "digital" in 1974. Leading edge, and had
something to do with it

"In the military or even the data centers I've worked in, there are noises that are not common in daily life .... IMHG , these may imprint on you and your sensitivity to them remains for life"
There are certain "Alarms" that trigger me. Home Depot has one that sounds just like
the "MOSKVA's" VDS Sonar and that bitch had those damn helicopters, with dipping sonar.
Died in a trainer because of her !!! Another one that sounds like a "Tritium" alarm,
Bend over and kiss your ass goodbye. Still gets my attention today.

A the time thought "Sea Stories" was only for "Lifer Dogs"
And hear listen to me:blink:

Thanks
PS Any misspells/punctuation errors Are because of deep contempt of English Class,
please understand and bear with me

[SEAWOLF97]

My world. When your the "eyes and ears" of a 8000 Ton Nuke Submarine, $$$$$$$$$ of
dollars, 128 Lives, Sound was EVERYTHING!!! 21 year old heavy responsibility.
Grew up REAL fast.


OK , Mr. P. Boat .... here is a USN sonarman story that you may not know. :eek:

Did a Glowing Sea Creature Help Push the U.S. Into the Vietnam War?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/giant-pyrosomes-vietnam-war/532893/

[Pigboat]

OK , Mr. P. Boat .... here is a USN sonarman story that you may not know. :eek:

Did a Glowing Sea Creature Help Push the U.S. Into the Vietnam War?

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/giant-pyrosomes-vietnam-war/532893/

QUACK QUACK QUACK

Biologics
Took some turn counts on "Carpenter Fish"
Slowly lose contact, and hope the other techs didn't notice, that
S34 was a FISH.:dont-know: Never live it down!

Most fascinating phenomenon, Phosphorescence in Salt Water.
You've seen it, right Wolf?
Picture a dolphin coming out of the water at a distance,
All aglow Dark, Scared as Hell, young non warriors.
Turns into ANYTHING. Like a Torp.

1 Bad situation, felt the burn up the back of my neck from FEAR.
Being shook awake with "There SHOOTING at US"
Whole crew had to be debriefed. But was it what we ST's thought?
We knew, but got blown off by brass. Classified High Speed "Trawler":blink:
We had the finger on the trigger. Battle stations "Torpedo" This is NOT a DRILL !!
For a Trawler.:dont-know:

Plus in the end "they" were SKIMMERS(water bugs, what sub sailors call surface craft)(Or Targets):D
Sub Sailors Go Deeper/Stay Longer :bouncy:

Ain't SHE Pretty, Now razor blades:crying:

And Don't call me Mister, It's Petty Officer Barclay, Wasn't made a Gentleman by Act of Congress;)

[SEAWOLF97]

Plus in the end "they" were SKIMMERS(water bugs, what sub sailors call surface craft)(Or Targets):D
Sub Sailors Go Deeper/Stay Longer :bouncy:

Ain't SHE Pretty, Now razor blades:crying:

bet my skimmer made more razor blades :)
Constellation was scrapped at Brownsville, Texas, in 2015–2017.

Displacement: 82,538 short tons
Length: 1,088 ft (332 m) overall
Beam: 282 ft (86 m) extreme
Draft: 39 ft (12 m)[1]
Propulsion: 8 boilers, 4 steam turbine engines, totaling 280,000 shp (210 MW)*
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Complement: 3,150 – Air Wing: 2,480
Aircraft carried: 72 (approx)

*The typical American home uses about 840 kWh per month. Megawatt: One megawatt equals one million watts, or 1,000 kilowatts, roughly enough electricity for the instantaneous demand of 750 homes at once.

much better use for that thang ... powering 1,500 homes. :)

[Pigboat]

bet my skimmer made more razor blades :)
Constellation was scrapped at Brownsville, Texas, in 2015–2017.

Displacement: 82,538 short tons
Length: 1,088 ft (332 m) overall
Beam: 282 ft (86 m) extreme
Draft: 39 ft (12 m)[1]
Propulsion: 8 boilers, 4 steam turbine engines, totaling 280,000 shp (210 MW)*
Speed: 34 knots (63 km/h; 39 mph)
Complement: 3,150 – Air Wing: 2,480
Aircraft carried: 72 (approx)

*The typical American home uses about 840 kWh per month. Megawatt: One megawatt equals one million watts, or 1,000 kilowatts, roughly enough electricity for the instantaneous demand of 750 homes at once.

much better use for that thang ... powering 1,500 homes. :)

More but NOT HY80:D
How those don't roll over top heavy.
Flight deck Death valley, Not for me.
Plus that's the Real Navy, you know what I mean.
I scrubbed shitters with a !st Class(he was short, so on the planes as a watch station)
after watch duties for planes man, scrub shitters he loved every minute of it.


Tomcats on Her Ass? Love TC's(for a "2 Seater)
Where are they hiding you little "Whirly Birds" ?:dont-know:
Mr. Wolf

[brutal]

Interesting article.
I worked in (the human side) of a new data center for quite a few years.
Even though this was the latest, most eco-minded (and anti-terrorist) design possible (VERY interesting forest of support pilons under the server area), the chiller noise does indeed permeate the place, even though they were place on the ground on insulated pads (earthquake shock absorbers) but is nothing compared to when they fire up the phalanx of backup gennies for testing.

The comments about it being worse late at night make a lot of sense - quite a few of my projects involved threading major application upgrades through the very complex schedule of backups (email was a real headache), nightly batch file runs and other regular patch maintenance - turns out that the heaviest network/server load was always after midnight - sometimes so bad that if some batch or backup couldn't complete by 8am it would cause slow network log-ins for arriving workers in the morning.

I often wondered about the effect of long term low level noise pollution on employees working there (half of the site was office space for those caring for and feeding the servers).

Curious trade off - data centers vs. shopping centers?

I've noticed a slight decrease in traffic noise from the nearby large strip mall which is now half vacant - and wonder about the trend of turning vacated malls into fullfillment centers (or new data center buildings!).
Very glad I'm not super sensitive to that noise (and have a super insulated home!)

Thanks for the article!

I'm pretty certain that the greater portion of my tinnitus is me being dumb and not wearing hearing protection often enough while working in DC's over the past 30 years. The worst one by far was a Verizon DC (was an old MCI Worldcom DC) I spent a week working at in Aberdeen, MD. After the first day there, I heard rushing water sounds and had ear pain trying to sleep that night. I realized then why there were muffs hanging on the wall in every pod. Since then, I always try to wear hearing protection, even if it is just earbuds.

ETA: After going back and reading the articles, it's amusing that' I've been in those CyrusOne DC's, and too many other small to mega DC's coast to coast to recall every one. There are a few Tier-4 and Tier-5 DC's that stand out above many. Some private DC's I can't divulge, but Switch SUPERNAP's are pretty cool colocation facilities.

[SEAWOLF97]

I've worked in computer rooms/switching centers for 20+ years. The coolers are obtrusive, the systems themselves are always producing HF sounds. We always had FM radios to drown out the noise.

Tho those are minor next to jets spooling up (115-120db) 20 feet away. Although I had hearing protection while on deck, the sounds permeated the environment. And jets arresting at 120mph to zero in not much space made a huge thud (small shipquake ?) that shook the boat. The spools that held the 4 inch arresting cables also let out too much destructive HF sound.

Oh, and then there was sitting 4 feet below a Bell turbine for hours on end. The pilots did play the AFVN rock station through our headphones, it helped/distracted.

Won't even get into M16's with no noise attenuation. :eek:

Guess I'm a lucky survivor. ;)

[Pigboat]

:dont-know:"shook the boat" :( Maybe shook the Hotel:blink:, shook the airport:)
ONLY Blue Water "Boats" I know of "Submerge"(Airdale):D

Another Sea Story

We had this thing about noise/sound, DUH, woke up from dead sleep(we didn't get much),
Someone was "Pinging" on us. Heard it through the hull. Flash to shack, they were 80 miles away. War games, heard PDC's
WTF are we doing here:eek: Once woke up because a pump had shut down for PM's, lack of a familiar "noise"
WOKE ME UP !

Retired, bought convertible, wife, dog, and I took 17000 mile drive. The desert at night all alone in the middle of NOWHERE
Opened me to sensory tranquility, for the first time in +++years. You must try, off the road NO traffic, bird, lights, nothing but
your heart beating. So nice we joined the "Dessert Club" :bouncy:

[SEAWOLF97]

:dont-know:"shook the boat" :( Maybe shook the Hotel:blink:, shook the airport:)
ONLY Blue Water "Boats" I know of "Submerge"(Airdale):D


yup, a lux hotel, that's what it was ... boat & ship are interchangeable to USN sailors



So nice we joined the "Dessert Club" :bouncy:

https://dessertclub.com/

don't get too fat .... :)

old work pics seem to be in ... here's couple of mine from '69

[Chris Brown]

.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/the-end-of-silence/598366/

This article comes off as having been written about someone with paranoid delusions.

Click-bait headline reads:

Why Everything Is Getting Louder

The tech industry is producing a rising din. Our bodies can’t adapt.

Um, ok, so this "sound" is a result of the tech industry?


It was during one of these strolls that Thallikar first became aware of a low, monotone hum, like a blender whirring somewhere in the distance. It was irritating, but he wrote it off. Someone’s pool pump, probably. On another walk a few days later, he heard it again. A carpet-cleaning machine? he wondered. A few nights later, there it was again. It sounded a bit like warped music from some far-off party, but there was no thump or rhythm to the sound. Just one single, persistent note: EHHNNNNNNNN. Evening after evening, he realized, the sound was there—every night, on every street.

OK, background noise while this person is outside. Could be for many reasons.


And then it spread. In early 2015, Thallikar discovered that the hum had followed him home.

whenever he went out to cook or read, there was that damn whine—on the weekends, in the afternoon, late into the night. It was aggravating, and he felt mounting anxiety every day it continued. Where was it coming from? Would it stop? Would it get worse? He started spending more time inside.

Then it was in his bedroom. He had just closed his eyes to go to sleep one night when he heard it: EHHNNNNNNNN. He got up to shut the window, but that made no difference at all. “That was when I started getting concerned,” he observed later. He tried sleeping with earplugs. When that didn’t help, he also tied a towel around his head.

Each night, he’d will himself to sleep, ears plugged and head bandaged, but he could feel the whine in his bones, feel himself getting panicky as it droned on and on and on and on and on. The noise hummed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, like a mosquito buzzing in his ear, only louder and more persistent. He sensed it coming from everywhere at once. Thallikar began to dread going home. As the months passed, he felt like he was in a war zone. He wrote in a text message that he felt as though someone was launching “an acoustic attack” on his home.

Ummmm.... yeah. This person is crazy, or at the very least, suffering from something like Tinnitus which is not noise from the "Tech industry" :rolleyes:

[Pigboat]

yup, a lux hotel, that's what it was ... boat & ship are interchangeable to USN sailors



https://dessertclub.com/

don't get too fat .... :)

old work pics seem to be in ... here's couple of mine from '69

1975 Squadron Commendation, (Trying to ship me over)
2018 What can I say

[Pigboat]

"boat & ship are interchangeable to USN sailors"

Not to USN Sub Sailors. :)
Never heard a Sub Sailor call his "Boat" a Ship