What’s the Buzz?

For example, since the advent of the cell phone, a phenomenon known as phantom vibration syndrome has plagued users with the sensation that their phones are buzzing in their pockets when they're not. And In the study performed by German scientists at University of Bremen, subjects were asked to perform various tasks like shuffling cards or shaking a bottle of liquid. They were then shown videos of other people doing the same tasks, as well as others that they hadn't performed.

Two weeks later, the researchers asked the volunteers to remember which tasks they had completed. Most replied that they had done the actions performed on camera, even though they hadn't actually finished them personally, their brains had been implanted with false memories. But there's a sensation that affects a small subset of people all over the world and from all backgrounds. Imagine phantom vibration syndrome, but only on a larger scale.

And it doesn't just make you think your phone is buzzing. It makes the whole room vibrate. It's called the hum phenomenon. Now sometimes it's named after the place where it's found. In New Mexico, for example, it's known as the Taos Hum. In Sydney, Australia, they call it the Bondi hum. Locals to those areas described the sound as everything from a diesel truck engine idling in the background to a high

pitched wine. It isn't heard by everyone, only a small group of individuals, but to those people it can be maddening. The Taos hum, for example, was first reported in the early nineteen nineties based on a survey of people in the area taken at the time. Only about two percent of the population could actually hear it. What made things stranger was that the hum could not be detected on

any scientific equipment. Readings taken in the homes of those afflicted didn't pick anything out of the ordinary up and not everyone heard the same humming sound. It varied in pitch and frequency from person to person. As a result of these incessant hums and buzzes, the affected people stay awake at night and developed mental illnesses such as anxiety. One person even took their own life because they couldn't get the humming to stop. Experts have tried to provide

reasons for these phenomena. For example, the residents of a town in Indiana had been plagued by two separate hums. It was eventually discovered that one had come from a car manufacturing plant, while the other had originated at a local airport. The hum on a Hawaiian island, for example, was caused by active volcanoes. Taos, New Mexico, however, didn't have a factory or a volcano to blame it's hum on.

The people affected by the sound, known as hearers, asked Congress to look into the cause, though no answer was officially given. It was believed that the buzzing they'd been hearing had been coming from a Navy communication system broadcasting at a special frequency just for submarines. According to one professor, it was possible that the hum phenomenon might have been caused by liquids and gases making their way from deep

inside the earth to the surface. It was also theorized that the hearers created the sounds themselves, not that they were faking it, but that in times of extreme silence, their ears had created something called spontaneous auto acoustic emissions as a way to compensate for the lack of background noise. And in a few cases, the humming had been caused by a fish. A fishy story, i know, but a creature known as the midshipman fish or the toadfish, had

a very distinct mating call. It was responsible for causing houseboat residents to lose sleep, and the vibrations were so resonant that they could be heard through the hulls of the boats. The hum isn't just one sound in one city. It's comprised of many sounds across the globe. Sometimes it can be explained away as machines working or the movement

of wind across various surfaces. Other times, however, the hum is a mystery, never ending enigma, plaguing a small slice of the population just trying to get a little shut eye with no way to pinpoint its origin, the hearers living in those areas are left with just two choices. Get used to it or buy some ear plugs. When it comes to cultural icons, sir and characters come to mind above all others. A particular cartoon mouse or a red headed plumber are both instantly recognizable, thanks mostly to

how they imprinted on us as children. Walt Disney's most famous creation, that mouse, starting countless cartoons and movies over the years. After staring at the screen on a Saturday morning, we might have gone to bed with a stuffed version of the Squeaky Voice rodent nestled under our chins as we dozed off to sleep. The Nintendo Company's mustachioed Man of Action was in arcades, on our TVs, on lunch boxes, and so much more from the nineteen eighties onward, and

his popularity shows no signs of slowing down today. But one such icon has survived even longer. His signature look is recognizable all over the world due in large part to the work of just one man. That man was Thomas and he was born in Germany in eighteen forty. His father was a member of the Bavarian military, but due to his contrary political leanings, he was forced to flee with his family in New York City. Now, Thomas wasn't much of an academic. His grades lacked, but he

had a talent for art, specifically drawing. After attending school until the age of fourteen, he studied with a few popular artists the day, and even enrolled at the National Academy of Design, who would count among its members Jasper John's and Norman Rockwell. Thomas found his calling, however, once he turned eighteen and began working for the local news outlets. Harper's Weekly, a popular political magazine at the time, was

the first to publish his cartoons and drawings. Thomas's style started out complex, with so much going on in his images that they required the reader to examine them multiple times in order to catch everything. As he got older, he simplified his techniques, opting for cartoons that were more direct to their message, but just as artistic in their delivery. One particular cartoon, however, published in eighteen seventy four, would cement Thomas as one of the most important artists in

American history. A cartoon was titled the Third Term Panic. It was drawn in protest of the New York Herald's derisive reaction to the idea that Ulysses says Grant might run for a third presidential term. In the cartoon, he depicted news outlets and interest groups as various animals stampeding away from an elephant at the edge of a chasm. Imprinted on the side of the massive beast were the

words the Republican Vote. Thomas went on to use the elephant to depict the Republican Party in several cartoons after that, a connotation that ended up sticking for good after other cartoonists did the same. But Thomas's political animals weren't his only influence on American culture. The Civil War had brought with it an opportunity to put a new spin on a beloved character, one who had become the Union's greatest

recruiting tool. On the cover of the January third, eighteen sixty three issue of Harper's Weekly, this artist published an illustration of a large bearded man wearing clothes reminiscent of the American flag. In the drawing, the man held between his hands a puppet named Jeff with strings around its neck, a mocking representation of Confederate leader Jefferson Davis. Surrounding this figure were Union soldiers holding packages in their arms, and as the war went on, this character made more and

more appearances in Thomas's cartoons. In later years, he was depicted as heavier, often with a long, thin pipe in his hands. He became more jovial, as evidenced by his reddened cheeks, a rosy nose, and a childlike smile. Eventually, the character, who had been living in New York was moved north way north. Other artists and companies eventually incorporated

Thomas's character into their own products. Printer and publisher Lewis Praying put him on several greeting cards, wearing a large coat and carrying an overflowing sack full of toys, and in the Coca Cola company hired an illustrator to recreate Thomas's bearded man as a red suited elf with a large belly who lived at the North Pole in doing.

Coca Cola may well have brought Thomas's creation to mainstream audiences thanks Stuart's impressive team of marketers, But it was Thomas Nast the man who had turned democrats into donkeys and Republicans into elephants. Who had given the most important makeover in history to one of the most beloved characters of all time, an invention that's influenced how the character has been depicted for the last one fifty years. Thanks to Thomas Nast, children everywhere now stay up late on

Christmas Eve to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus. I hope you've enjoyed today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Manky in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you to learn all about it over at the World

of Lore dot com. And until next time, stay curious. Yeah h