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Weird Wednesday, January 23rd 2013 at 3:00 pm

Full Power of Canadian Government Thrown Behind Effort to Identify Source of “Windsor Hum”

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Contrary to your very safe assumptions, the Windsor Hum is not a well-regarded shoegaze band. It is not a deviant sex act practiced exclusively on the frozen tundra of Canada. And not, it’s not the plaintive wail of the Yeti across the lonesome plains. Okay, actually it might be that last thing — we don’t really know. The Canadian government is aiming to find the source of the mysterious “Windsor Hum,” an unexplained sound plaguing Windsor, Ontario that is slowly driving residents of the city insane. Okay, well, maybe not insance, but it’s definitely irking them.

The recurring noise, a low hum accompanied by a reported vibration, has been bothering Windsor residents for nearly two years now, Interfering with their sleep and making them generally a crankier people. And not only are local administrators no closer to bringing it to a stop — they haven’t even been able to pinpoint the source of the troubling treble. The hum is not to be confused with it’s neighbor across the river, the less well known Detroit Sigh, which has been identified as the sound of tens of thousands of people simultaneously wondering just what the hell went wrong.

Now, the Canadian government has granted the University of Windsor and Western University in nearby London, Ontario $60,000 to study the hum, which is reportedly strong enough to wake people up and shake house windows. They still won’t be allowed to investigate researchers current best suspect — Zug Island, a nearby island on the U.S. side of the international border that is home to a steel mill, and also probably building giant killer robots. I mean, we don’t know that they are, but we dont’t know that they aren’t, either. That makes us wonder what Zug Island has to hide. A machine that produces hums, perhaps?

(via WSJ)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Bruce-E-Screws-Jr/5200506 Bruce E. Screws Jr.

    Another great article. I definitely liked the Detroit reference, but what does “insance” mean?

  • Anonymous

    Windsor “hums” because it doesn’t know the words.

  • Anonymous

    Somebody definitely needs to find some audio or simulated audio of this hum. There must be a Windsor resident who posts YouTube vids at 3 am, right?

  • MDS0LDI3R

    Why exactly is it difficult to pinpoint the source of the hum/vibration? The source of the sound should be easy to identify with several Arduinos, microphones, a laptop, and a physics student(plus a computer science student because honestly we get distracted and the programming is the bottleneck).

  • Ghetto Grammar Nazi

    “Okay, well, maybe not insance, but it’s definitely irking them.”

  • Tijuana North

    The belief is that the hum is likely caused by the mill at the island, though there has been speculation about the salt mines as well as other industries that have plants in the area. Part of the problem in identifying it was simply that no one really believed it existed for the first little while. Fortunately, after many complaints from people in the west end, a few politicians began to take notice. So far the equipment used has really pointed towards the aforementioned mill….and I do believe there are videos (or there were) of the reported hum. BTW…We know the words but everyone in Windsor has a screwed up voice from all the pollution.

  • Cameron

    I think its a kind of humming fish living nearby. There have been several cases of it in north america one being the Midshipman fish causing a hum in Seattle. There we go I just saved them $60k!