The Endless Struggle
Yes, every once in a (long) while I resort to dramatic clickbait-type headlines, but the title is actually quite accurate. Over the past few months I have received a number of emails from people asking about HAARP, The Schumann Frequencies, foil shielding helmets (seriously), and on and on. I sat back and I wondered if, over the past 10 years, our project has made the slightest impact or move forward.
It has. One article alone has reached over 1 000 000 people, in addition to the probably tens of millions of others through other media. And then I sat and thought about the students who walk into my classroom every year who know little to nothing about certain subject areas. I start from scratch every year with all of them and, if the taxpayers got their money’s worth, I make a small dent in ignorance, superstition, and lazy thinking. My efforts on the Hum seem to parallel this in many ways.
Until we make an important theoretical or experimental breakthrough, there is little this project can do except teach, advocate, and keep this issue alive. We think we know what the World Hum is, although we have no solid theories about why it started when it did or why it seemed to propagate the way it did. We need the effort and support of others to push through to a conclusion.
One more time, I ask for a university or serious private laboratory to get interested in this serious topic and help us bring a definitive answer to all this. Two other major historical efforts were made on this topic, but ours is the first in the internet age, and it is time to solve this. I wouldn’t mind retreating from the public eye and returning to a more typical life.
Cheers
Glen
2020 UPDATE – A theoretical logic flow map for Worldwide Hum researchers and interested scientists (Author: Henrik)
Here is Henrik’s latest Logic Flow Map for those seriously interested in World Hum research.
I have the pleasure of presenting this work by Henrik, one of our forum contributors with serious scientific credentials. (Henrik, along with Bernie Hutchins, played a major role in developing the new version of our Hum Map Survey). It is a logic flow diagram that sorts out the logic and decision making regarding the source of the Worldwide Hum. It will prove valuable for scientists new to the phenomenon, those who are scientifically literate, and those who have already invested time and energy into this issue.
We’re back online with the new World Hum Map 3.0. www.thehum.info
Apparently the Chrome Browser is rendering things a bit strangely sometimes. What a great opportunity to dump it and start using what is far and away my favourite, The Brave Browser – private, full-featured, and ultra-fast. I have no relationship or connection whatsoever with the company.
The new Hum Map 3.0 Website is being uploaded – the site will be down for up to 24 hours
The Hum Map 3.0 Website is being uploaded – the site will be down for up to 24 hours.
Glen
Finally, the March 2022 World Hum Map Update
Two quotes set the stage for this post.
First, “If you are unhappy with your volunteers’ work, cut their pay in half” – Anonymous
Second, “Customers never remember a delayed meal, but they always remember a bad meal” – Chef Marco Pierre White
The delay on this update falls somewhere between a crime and a scandal, but it has arrived. As time permits, I and other volunteers will take second and third looks at the new points to ensure their validity and quality, and fresh statistics will be generated.
Cheers
Glen
Looking for a last bit of technical help to finish a significant update to the Hum Map.
I’m swamped with teaching right now and I wouldn’t mind passing on a task to somebody. If you know something about MySql and can do basic tasks with it, I need help tweaking a column or two in order to make the Google Forms input match the database that drives the Hum Map. Let me know if you can help. glen.macpherson@gmail.com
The World Hum Map has been updated
Thank you to Henrik for his careful filtering of the raw data, and to Jason Lewis for his programming assistance on this one.
We’ve added just over 600 high quality data points to the World Hum Map. I’ve enlisted the help of a SFU Psychology student in generating the new statistics for Hum Hearers, and one early result is that we know the mean and median ages of Hearers are 43 and 45 respectively. I’ll release the full set of statistics when they are ready.
Technical Assistance Required (MySQL and geocoding)
The latest Hum Map update (the first in a long time) is waiting to be published, but the new 600+ Hum reports in the database are not geocoded and therefore are not appearing on the Map. If you know how to geocode an address column in a MySQL table, then please contact me. Note: addresses are from around the world.
Thanks
Glen
Vanessa Lowe has done an excellent piece on the Hum
With all the low-quality stuff out there, this one stands out – professionally produced and properly-researched.
The World Hum Project Needs Expert Assistance
Please share this widely on all your social networks. I’ve never asked for that before. The time has come to ask for specialist help in bringing the World Hum Project to its conclusion, which is to conclusively identify the source of the World Hum and then discover how to ameliorate it. I’ve helped lift this upward so far, but now it’s time for the next generation of Hum researchers to step forward. Note that it is time-consuming, brings in no profit, and subjects oneself to mild online abuse.
We need people with post-secondary credentials who can help move this project to a serious private or university laboratory where it can be quickly solved. Once that happens, I can retreat back to my previous life. I won’t quit until then.
For anybody who has a degree in History, especially Post-Industrial Revolution, we have a serious and immediate job that needs tackling that could change everything. You’ll need full-text access to the earliest Times of London.
If you work in a facility that has a 24/7 MRI, preferably an fMRI, and you have significant influence over scheduling, then we need you.
If you are a medical doctor (MD or equivalent), we need you.
If you are an expert in non-profit marketing, we need you.
If you are a medical audiologist with expert knowledge of tinnitus, your expertise would be a major push forward.
If you own high-quality recording equipment, which includes as an example the family of Zoom recorders, and you are able to use Audacity or some other sound-analysis software and you happen to be travelling around North America, then we need you.
For those who have made it this far, you should realize that the Hum Phenomenon, and this project, have appeared seriously on most of the world’s major media, and across more than 30 countries. This phenomenon has now been normalized, and serious people are becoming interested.
Let’s solve it.
Glen
5G
I’m mildly concerned that so many people think I’m an expert on so many different things. It’s not true, of course. For the record, my expertise is in mathematics pedagogy, teacher education, and high stakes standardized testing. I am not a scientist. However, for over 30 years, I’ve taught mathematics, psychology, physics, general science, biology, and other subjects. Over the past eight years, my goal has been to bring serious and disciplined inquiry to the Hum phenomenon. A basic working knowledge in a broad number of academic fields has helped me and people I work with to make some progress in this regard.
Every week I receive a large number of emails from people around the world, most of whom want to discuss unusual sounds they have heard or are still hearing. In roughly three-quarters of these cases, they are hearing an anthropogenic noise, and I am able to help them by pointing to Henrik’s guide for tracking down environmental noise, although for some people this appears to be too much work. There are also people who write to me because they want my validation or support for their battles against wireless technologies, 5G in particular. There was indeed a point in time when I was investigating the possible role of EM energy in generating the Hum. VLF radio (3 kHz to 30 kHz frequencies) were of particular concern; we have enough evidence now to set aside that theory and move on to other explanations that better fit the data.
We may discover or confirm a few years down the road that some types of wireless energy, including 5G, have deleterious effects on living tissue. Apart from the unhinged commentary on the issue, I’ve also scanned a few seemingly serious papers that do indeed raise troubling questions. But there is absolutely no evidence that Electromagnetic (EM) or Radio Frequency (RF) energies cause the Hum. Some folks don’t want to hear this, probably because they think it means I’m somehow endorsing or enabling the widespread use of such technologies. I’m doing no such thing, but the distinction seems to be lost on some.
My advice to those who are concerned about wireless energy is to accept a few things. First, spending a couple of hours on the internet does not make you knowledgeable on a topic. Second, that scientists are among the bravest people I know, and they want nothing more than to discover the truth. There is no scientific cabal operating here. They arrive at consensus by sharing their results with their colleagues, who brutally examine and pick apart the data and logic. If experimental results can be replicated, and the claims validated, then science moves forward. Alas, far too many people today start with the conclusion that appeals to them emotionally and then they hunt for evidence or interpretations of data that fit what they have already assumed to be true. As a teacher of psychology, I am fascinated by this – that is, how intelligent and educated people can hold on to some beliefs even in the face of colossal and overwhelming evidence to the contrary. To avoid being gratuitously abrasive, I’ll refrain from listing specific examples.
I try to bring people together with enthusiasm and curiosity rather than through rhetoric, but I’ll repeat what I’ve written elsewhere. Science is arduous and challenging work, and often people’s lives are too full to take that on. Also, some people are intellectually lazy.
World Hum Map and Database Project 