Consulting, Acoustics. ASA, INCE Emeritus, ASCAP. Relax with my bestselling soundtrack (thousands do) at https://xitter.cf/t.co/NSMuRYryHs.
Brunswick, ME
Joined September 2010
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A central tenet of the Soundscape concept is that humans immersed in sonic environments are objective measuring instruments (New Experts), whose reports and descriptions must be taken seriously and quantified by technical measurements. -Wade Bray, 2012.
acoustics.org/pressroom/http…
High Prairie Renewable Energy Center (a bunch of wind turbines) - a FIFTH wind turbine in three years self-destructed.
Note: The NEPA Environmental Assessment conducted by the US Fish and Wildlife Service completely ignored sleep disturbance from the wind turbine noise. Completely. Neighbors health ignored. There is no specialized, publicly advertised High Prairie project-specific noise or community-complaint portal, hotline, or form.
Grok: The High Prairie EA shows that the Service defined significant noise impact in a way that excluded sleep disturbance and then found no significant impact under that definition.The document states that a significant noise impact would be noise substantially different in type or intensity such that injury to humans or wildlife is expected, or that violates local regulations. It applied the Applicant’s Leq numbers (maximum 49 dBA, most ≤ 45.5 dBA) against that definition, referenced the hearing-damage threshold, noted the lack of local numerical limits, and concluded no significant impact. Sleep disturbance is not analyzed.That is a documented choice by the Service in this review. The EA did not evaluate sleep impact.
Worth the read. Then evaluate the grid in your area. Ask hard questions. Be persistent. You’re paying for your electric bill!
energysecurityfreedom.substa…
Thanks @MeredithAngwin!
WIND TURBINE NOISE and PROFESSIONAL ETHICS.
Paul Schomer, May 2015:
"The Acoustical Society of America has created a public policy position relative to the acoustic emissions from wind turbines. This position calls for research that definitively will show if problems exist, and if so, who is affected, how are they affected, and why. Much of the research to date is based on assumptions, frequently contrary to fact or unproven. That is not the kind of research that the ASA desires. The money spent on this questionable research should have been directed towards definitive research such as that envisioned by ASA. This paper talks about some of the previous research and elucidates on their assumptions with the purpose of preventing mistaken test designs like these in the future, and with the purpose of improving the research program to be developed by ASA."
WIND TURBINES SHUT DOWN.
The only reliable noise control option for wind turbines once operating and compalints lodged.
"If an evidential basis for a solution, or combination of solutions, had been put forward by the defendants, that could have avoided the full shutdown of the turbines, he said."
Robert Rand retweeted
A Persuasion 101 lesson from the Master Wizard himself, Scott Adams.
(You can always read much, much more on the subject in my book tribute to Scott Adams, "Great Scott!": doc.thehypnologist.com/book)
Have you ever been persuaded even though you knew what was happening?
And nuclear is defendable, securable, and QUIET. THE QUIETEST power generation. Nothing else comes close.
If you want to harass whales and degrade fishing safety and national security in littoral waters, build wind offshore. If you want reliable, quiet power, build nuclear onshore.
xitter.cf/StopEnergySpraw/status…
The Siting Board reject a rehearing of the obviously defective noise modeling methods documented over multiple comment filings in 2025 and 2026. The defects were documented from the very data and methods submitted by the applicant in their PNIAs.
It looks like intentional regulatory capture.
cc @LinowesLisa @alex_fasulo
"The purpose of pre-construction compliance demonstration is to ensure adequate distance and appropriate design before construction proceeds and residents are exposed. Eliminating pre-construction requirements and hoping post-construction testing will catch problems inverts this protective sequence and ensures residents will suffer harm before mitigation is even considered." Rand Acoustics, May 5, 2026.
They are proposing cutting down 725 ACRES of forest for Town Line Solar across the Towns of Thompson and Forestburgh in Sullivan County, New York.
I don't think I've ever seen this much proposed forest-clearing for an ORES solar project. And I've seen some pretty messed up cases of 200-300 acres of forest felled for a form of energy in our climate that will only convert at 12-15% of its annual potential.
Remember that 1 acre = roughly the size of a football field.
They want to cut down 725 acres of forest. There's a lot of money in this project for the logger, which, interestingly enough, the current ORES Executive Director, Jason Zehr, has family business ties to state logging contracts.
When you consider that there are, on average, 614 live trees per forested acre in Upstate NY, that means this solar complex would result in the felling of 445,000 live trees.
For those who need a 7th grade science reminder, trees lower localized temperatures through transpiration. Trees are also an important part of mitigating "climate change" by removing CO₂ from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and storing carbon in trunks, roots, other vegetation, dead organic matter, and forest soils.
This has never been about "saving the climate" or improving the environment.
It's entirely about money and control.
There is no off switch.
We all understand that we must live with the negative consequences of our own personal decisions. But when you coerce others into making those same decisions, the burden of responsibility becomes yours as well.
That is why those who once so forcefully advocated coercion are silent now. They know. They know that the weight of that responsibility will never leave them.
NOISE IMPACT ASSESSMENT:
Ethically conducted investigations must consider householder accounts of audible tones as authentic, and investigate accordingly even if the investigator doesn't hear the tones. (The investigator's hearing may be in the upper 2/3 of the population hearing theshold distribution and due to poor sensitivity, would not hear what the householder hears).
Robert Rand retweeted
The Shure microphone used on Johnny Carson's desk during his tenure on The Tonight Show.
"Best Practices" appeared in environmental science and engineering about the same time that environmentalists started promoting harm to neighbors apparently out of concern for... the environment. I never thought much of "Best Practices" until it started getting thrown in my face during hearings. It seems to be used by project promoters to rubberstamp blind procedures as gold standard that actually don't cover the situation if you have to get real work done.
Robert Rand retweeted
Thirty years of value chain strategy taught me these two things:
In any market, be it commodities, products, supplies, information/intelligence, equities, governance, currencies, or even science - always ask, "Who creates the value? Who bears the risk? Who captures the margin?"
The highest achievement of ethical commerce is not compelling participants to behave fairly. It is designing a market in which fairness becomes economically rational.
It is much easier to solve a value chain market imbalance problem than it is to be heard ...and harder still, to change minds over it.
The bifurcated, quasi-Hegelian rancor over Capitalism versus Socialism has, as usual, served as a red herring - conditioning minds to the point that they cannot comprehend what a value chain even is.
The problem is not capital - but rather, a poverty of mind.
Despite wind sound consultant assurances, wind turbine noise pollution is real and adversely impacts families. Some have to abandon their homes to get relief.
"Noisy and they don't work": look back at what happened when Town of Mapleton asked citizens if they were open to more #windturbines Answer: NO. Astounding 1/3 report health problems. #unwillinghost Noisy and they don't work anyway: Mapleton resident survey on industrial wind turbines leads to Unwilling Host vote - Wind Concerns Ontario share.google/lYMfwI791MzdymR…
Robert Rand retweeted
Elon Musk 一句话戳破现代教育最大的弊病：
“所有人都在教工具，没人教你问题是什么。”
现实里大家是怎么上课的？
先开一门“螺丝刀课”，再开一门“扳手课”，学生把各种工具名字背得滚瓜烂熟。
可真走到发动机面前，全都傻眼了：因为从头到尾没人告诉他，这台发动机到底是哪儿卡住了、为什么要拆它。
工具的意义，只有在你想拆开发动机的那一瞬间才会诞生。
先有问题，螺丝刀才是武器；没问题硬背，它就只是脑子里一个占内存的名词。
他还把“为什么我们学完就忘”这件事给聊透了：
手机可以存海量垃圾，大脑不行。维持记忆的生物成本极高，大脑整天都在疯狂“清空回收站”。
如果一个知识点回答不了“它跟我手头的问题有什么关系”，最多撑一周，脑子就自动给你抹掉了。
学数学和物理更是这样：
底层原理是树干，具体公式只是叶子。树干没立起来，硬往空中挂叶子，风一吹全掉光了。
现在网上铺天盖地全是“教你精通某个软件”的速成班。
可软件三年一换，甚至明年就被新工具洗牌了；但真实世界的问题不会变。
先搞懂你想拆的那台机器。
只要问题立在那儿，工具自己会来找你。