A few years back on the radio I heard this science Q&A where the topic was background noise. Apparently cities make noise all on their own, it's down to everything going on no matter how slight it is. As sound's a vibration, all those little interactions slowly add up to one huge amount of energy constantly shifting.
So essentially at all times a city is humming softly. It's just that at night most of the obvious sounds that drown out the hum are gone, but the fundamentals to making the hum remain. If you've ever spent time in the country (proper rural, nobody for kilometres) & the city, chances are you'll be more aware of the background hum of a city.
Wish I could link the transcript but I can't find it without weeks of digging.
This is the radio show, but what I'm thinking of predates the downloads. Some interesting stuff in there anyway.
Of course that's a far less extreme/loud version of what you were talking about Don, but what you describe could be similar. Reckon I've got a little bit of tinnitus & it seems to be more noticable at night when there's nothing going near my house. Even though I live on the edge of suburbia, it can get scary quiet here.
Ill- Dude that would've been scary... I've lived under a flight path & been spun out by plane's headlights before (never thought they'd have them, but it makes sense when coming into land & it's foggy). Never seen lazers though.
thinking i was going insane
