Monday, September 29, 2014

A War Within My House

A virtual war seems to be raging in my house.  I am doing my best not to be engaged in it.  I have hidden my artillery.  I have adopted a philosophy of solidarity, although part of me is incensed by the phrase, "Ignorance of the law is no excuse."  Years ago an overzealous police officer nicknamed "Pineapple" gave me a traffic ticket for motoring my Trail 70 across the Vanstory Hills Elementary School playground.  I stepped into John McCollum's snare.  It was said he had been breaking into the school, and on that particular day both the principal and an investigating Fayetteville city policer officer were standing in the playground.  Ridiculously I made a beeline right toward them without a thought.  Of course he had to ticket me.  I was their obvious sacrificial lamb.  It had to be me that was breaking into the school.  After all I was riding a motorcycle.  John rode one too, and so did Bo Bo (David) Cane who lived on the corner.  I never gave much thought to the break in's until our white Chevy Malibu Classic station wagon's rear window was penetrated by a large yellow brick.  Gone was my gig rig, my professional keyboard system upon which I performed in jazz-oriented bands.  It was a harsh reality.  Thefts of these kinds have great and grave consequences, because it is with these instruments musicians may earn their livelihood.  We used to when live music still was a viable commodity.  It is not anymore.  I have learned from the years of experience.  While I still ride my motorcycle on the playground, I am more careful with my musical instruments.  They really cannot be replaced.  Instruments can fall into the category of "vintage," because there was a time in history their manufacturing was more skillful and their components were of a higher quality.  This would be the difference between a Bach Stradivarius trumpet made in Mt. Vernon, New York and a Bundy.  I have neither, but I understand the concept.  Things of value need to be preserved and maintained.  While you may not be earning money with them currently, they are worthy of investment.  The war that is raging in my house is daunting.  I hear the antagonizing buzz of a surveillance aircraft that never seems to stop.  This began as two Beechcraft King Air 350's flying in two parallel circles above the Vanstory school.  They would fly for hours at a time both during the week and on the weekend.  I have written about them before.  Lately in addition to the low-flying circling surveillance plane that makes its rounds over Fayetteville's downtown area, there has been a new presence.  I think in all likelihood it is Cessna Kodiak belonging to the Dayton, Ohio-based company Persistent Surveillance Systems.  It's president Ross McNutt invented a complex digital camera array that attaches to this hearty aircraft.  They fly for eight hours at a time at eight to ten thousand feet taking photographs of the ground below every second.  This digital data then is relayed for analysis to a land-based command center often working with local police.  It sounds like a viable business, but if this is what I am hearing continuously daily, I would like for it to stop.  I am not at war.  I am not in law enforcement.  Murders in Fayetteville do occur each day like a real war.  Usually they are drug related.  The sound of aircraft only is the start of the war.  What has been raging incessantly non stop for weeks are trains.  I have complained about these trains often.  Then I stopped, but their recent proliferation is perplexing.  Luckily with the help of Google Satellite, I was able to reacquaint myself with the seemingly humble state of North Carolina.  Believe me, this state is not humble.  While we put on airs of down-home hospitality, North Carolina is anything but grassroots.  It used to be until local industry decided to chase the dollar in China and India.  What we have now is the largest military presence in the country.  Not only has Base Realignment and Closure chosen Fort Bragg as the new headquarters for the army's Ground Forces Command, all ready the fort houses Special Operations responsible for training other countries' forces.  While these changes and the construction of a new outer loop, activity at the base has increased.  It is home for 50,000 American troops.  Many are deployed.  More importantly this seemingly rural wet scrub land hosts STRACNET, America's Strategic Rail Corridor Network.  In short Cape Fear Railways at Fort Bragg supplies much of our military might overseas.  They load two mile long military trains at their Honeycutt Marshalling Yard, and with the help of CSX-T shuttle them to MOTSU for loading onto waiting cargo ships.  Sunny Point is the largest military terminal in the world.  It seems if America is at war, or at least bombing ISIL, my house hosts a war of its own.  I would think that the beginning of yet a new bombing campaign in the Middle East would require munitions.  Fort Bragg is hard at work keeping up the supply.  While the Cape Fear Railways website says they only are operating during normal business hours, I know better.  I know how the railroads operate in America.  How have I come to acquire this special knowledge?  During my tenure in Columbus, Ohio working on my Doctorate of Musical Arts at The Ohio State University, I was not so fortunate enough to live a mere two blocks from both CSX-T's and Norfolk Southern's mainlines.  For a while I was musically productive at this location in my home studio.  Over time the "weirdness" became difficult to ignore.  My Prophet 600 synthesizer would dead short.  There would be so much electro-magnetism in the air the poles of the audio signal would arc bypassing the volume pot.  I began to get disc errors on my computer from the nearby rumbling of diesel locomotive consists.  I became engaged in a new hobby.  I stalked these trains for months accruing a large box of artistically shot 35mm photographs.  I found the NS terminal.  I found the CSX-T terminal.  Each were south of Columbus' outer belt.  The two lines utilized a high speed interchange allowing their mainlines to cross. I learned a lot observing these trains.  It was at that time I solved the "Taos Hum" along with inventing the internet.  In all candor I did discover the source of this then widely publicized annoyance.  Many people were complaining of a sound that was occupying their homes, cars, and businesses.  It was continuous, aggravating, and unavoidable.  I had been hearing the same sound from my townhouse in Upper Arlington.  After quite a few months of research via the world wide web, I put it together.  General Electric had come in and built an underground conveyor belt to carry mined molybdenum to its refinery miles away.  This conveyor belt out of necessity moved at slow speed and utilized newly developed AC synchronous motors.  They could rotate exactly at the supply frequency or a sub-multiple.  It was the "inverters" that were necessary for supplying this AC current that were the culprits.  It seems AC Traction relies upon these same devices for their alternating current traction motors.  Imagine a portable version of the Taos Hum freely traversing America's backyard completely unscrutinized and un-policed by any regulating agency.  This sound was what I was hearing. With the necessary curse of being a musician sensitive to sound, also I was feeling it.  What does any of this have to do with war, the War in Viet Nam, or the war raging in my house.  It is simple.  Anyone would understand it if they listened to my recording of a CSX-T locomotive equipped with AC traction.  As it pulls out of its temporary berth toting over one hundred fully loaded hopper cars of coal, the effort is sizable.  The tractive effort is sizable.  While the product of this AC powered traction is awesome in terms of efficiency and control, there is a down side.  Processing that much electricity is going to produce side effects.  Not only are there the traditional requirements of producing filtered and stable electric current traditionally DC, there is a new challenge.  It has yet to be solved, because it is invisible.  Evidently General Electric and General Motors choose to ignore the side effects produced by AC Traction, because no one is requiring they be substantiated.  What would this take?  It would take a small government sponsored survey to asses the possible damages from the transmission of both low frequency electro magnetic waves and infrasound.  A similar study all ready has taken place.  The Ground Wave Emergency Network was rejected for similar dangers.  The trouble is now the source of these disturbances are mobile.  They travel four hundred and fifty miles  on one gallon of fuel.  [sic]  The war that rages in my house includes both of these phenomena.  I know there is rogue electricity in the air from a simple alert.  My Macbook Pro's white indicator light becomes possessed and suddenly undulates with a brightness of the Star of Bethlehem.  The other alerts I observe with my ears.  Throughout the day and night I hear the wood structures in our house unhappily contract and expand at the ridiculous amount of barometric pressure created from the infrasonic pollution created by diesel "prime movers."  While it has been proven EMF's cause cancer by their vibration causing cells to mutate, (read the GWEN study, I have it) intense barometric pressure or pressure from low frequency sound waves has a more aberrational effect on the human body cavity.  Not only does it cause the eyeballs to oscillate sympathetically, it impedes circulation, triggers the body's heat sensors, and overwhelms the inner ear's ability to navigate gravity.  In essence it robs the human being of the skins traditional tactile sensory perceptions.  We are battling tsunami-sized sound waves modulating one another and dumping their trash on our bodies.  It is such an epic human invasion yet to this day their effects have not been properly studied and documented.  Fully I understand the need to equip the American military used to scavenge oil (I mean fight ISIL) abroad.  Fully I understand and appreciate the tremendous awe and might of one of GE's AC6000's.  There never has been a more powerful freight locomotive.  In fact in compliance with new United States emission standards GE is tooling down this locomotive's prime mover with a more environmentally friendly GEVO engine.  That is dropping the horsepower down to around 4400.  Still if a closer look was taken at why American youths are shooting up schools, extreme Muslims are favoring decapitation, and retired G.I.'s are committing suicide, surely living in America "Ain't What It Used To Be."  Things ain't what they used to be.