Sun 16 Sep 2012
The Hummadruz
Posted by anaglyph under Blogs I Like:, Skeptical Thinking, Sound
[15] Comments
Those of you who visit the Cow to read my skeptical take on all things weird and woo might be interested in my new blog Hummadruz. On Hummadruz I’m focussing exclusively on matters of sound & music – my own fields of expertise – and the huge amount of nuttiness that can be found therein. To kick off, I’m taking a look at a phenomenon that’s currently in the news: The West Seattle Hum. The Hum is a strange vibrating buzz that appears in West Seattle from time to time, but has manifested quite significantly over the recent Labor Day holiday.
I hope you’ll come and join the discussion over at Hummadruz. I am always on the lookout for weird and wacky audio phenomenon to examine, so if you have any favourites, be sure to let me know.
Are you gonna go into how spending more money on stuff makes it sound better?
In test after test, people who spend more money…. heeey. I wonder if they need to even be buying stuff? I should register http://www.pay-to-percieve-richer-sound.woo!
Dewi – do you have ANY IDEA of the genius concept you just had. If we could register the .woo domain WE WOULD BE RICH!
Oh wait. They don’t think it’s woo. I keep forgetting.
But yes, I am fascinated by the idea of perception of quality being influenced by its monetary value or status. I’m not sure of any studied done with audio equipment though – wine, yes, but not sound. Although I am totally sure that the phenomenon holds across any topic that has enough subjective floppiness.
The hum phenomena is from a magic, giant beehive from outer space, the beeings of which are trying to spread the religious idea that god is a stamen in the heavenly flower of the universe, and space nectar is the manna from heaven. If you deny its existence they insert their rather pointy nether parts into your skin so you can get a taste of their burning, painful hell!!!
You have been warned!!
Whoa! Timothy old chap… might be time to ease off on the coleus leaves….
Is that what I’ve been chewing? The guy said they were mint leaves. Damned expensive mint leaves. Do bees like mint leaves? thEre is A giaNt pinK one Here rigHt now!!
Heh.
Speaking as one collector of woo to another, do you remember the woo-hoo about the Hueytown Humadruz (sic) in Jan 1992? Mining town in Alabama…weird sounds in the middle of the night…caused nausea, headaches, migraines, bad tempers, people hitting each other with big sticks…
Unfortunately, I threw out a lot of my reference sources several years ago. My one remaining photocopy mentions similar noises and stuff happening in Gloucester, England, around the same time. British Gas and tinnitus were eventually exonerated.
Will be following Hummadruz with interest.
I will eventually do a full post on the mysterious ‘hums’ of the world. I hadn’t actually intended to launch with a hum post, it was just apropos since the Seattle Hum was right in the news, coincidentally.
To my great surprise, one Australian reader pointed out that we even have a local version: The Bondi Hum. In this article (in that most reputable of journals The Telegraph) the descriptions sound awfully similar…
…which makes the fish theory interesting, as the world can’t be infested with humming fish. I still think there’s a large dollop of mass hysteria in there somewhere.
Or whiskey, of course.
It’s the main reason I opted for the third explanation as the most likely. I think the fish must play a part, and the recording by Julie Schickling shows us there is a real physical phenomenon of one kind or another, but once you wind in a little hysteria then everything becomes THE hum.
Re. dodgy expensive wine marketing, I read the other day that Chivas Regal was another shitty whisky blend in a shitty oversaturated market, until one day they tripled their price and got a funny-shaped bottle – then suddenly they were worth it!
Does Hummadruz have a feed someone could subscribe to?
There’s a lot of that in the whisky market, for sure. Even among the high end single malts it often comes down to who has the best spin.
I’ve installed RSS feeds on Hummadruz. Meant to do it the other day, just forgot. You can also subscribe via Comments to blog & comments, although you won’t see the options until your first comment. Also, first comment goes through moderation – once you’re approved then you will always post up immediately.
JR, you might like this story on high end wine fraud:
http://nymag.com/news/features/rudy-kurniawan-wine-fraud-2012-5/