Strange sounds are becoming part of modern life. In New Mexico, folks are getting sick of hearing a mysterious hum. In the suburbs outside London, people are being awakened by strange thuds. Claire Stott says, "Everyone is baffled. The noise is driving me mad. It's like someone beating loudly on a drum." In New Mexico, 81-year-old Phil Ciofalo says, "The sound got worse (with time) and now it's going on day and night. You hear a vibration like a truck idling in your driveway."

Kevins Barnes writes that residents of Epsom, a suburb outside London, haven't had a decent night's sleep in six months because they keep being awakened by mysterious thuds. They can't figure out where they're coming from. Stott says, "People say you can just get back to sleep, but it's not that easy. You are thinking all the time of when it will come back again. I just hope someone will recognize this problem and come forward."

Stephanie Garcia writes in Newscity that in New Mexico, Ciofalo, who has lived in the same house since 1984, only started hearing a hum three and a half years ago. At first people thought he was crazy—until they started hearing it too. He says, "People ask 'how can you live with the noise?' I have a cassette player and natural sound tapes to help me sleep."

Ciofalo suspects that the tram at the nearby Sandia ski area is causing the hum. Larry Buynak, of the Sandia Peak Ski and Tram Company, who went to Ciofalo's house at a time when the tram wasn't running, says, "It wasn't coming from the Tram. We eliminated everything that could originate from us."

Buynak says the noise is coming from inside Ciofalo's house, not from the outside. "You go into his house and you can feel it," he says. "You're aware of it constantly." Buynak suggested that Ciofalo contact Sandia National Labs.

Ciofalo did that and says, "People from Sandia Labs came out and had recording equipment, they got a modulated trace. Then they said they had no funds to continue the program."

Local utilties checked out his house. "They turned off the water, the electricity and the phone and they still heard the sound," Ciofalo says. A repair man couldn't stand being in the house because the sound was so strong. He even contacted his cable company, but they said "they didn't think it was a wiring problem."

Jennifer McGlothlin from the Bernalillo County Health Department says she could hear the sound. "I was one of the few (from her department) that could hear it," she says. She thought it might be coming from nearby cell phone towers. She says, "To me it wasn't intolerable. But I can see when you're sensitive to it and you're alone in your home, it would be very annoying."