It's the UK fleet.

Navy’s entire fleet of submarines out of service while waiting for maintenance

Tom Cotterill

Sun, June 7, 2026 at 9:10 AM EDT

The Navy's entire available fleet of nuclear attack submarines is stuck in port, leaving Britain vulnerable to Vladimir Putin's underwater fleet.

All five of the UK's Astute-class hunter-killer boats are awaiting maintenance and repairs. A sixth, which was commissioned into the fleet, is not yet ready to deploy.

Naval commanders have said the situation makes the UK look "toothless" in the eyes of Russia, which has ramped up naval activity around British waters by a third in the past year.

Cdr Ryan Ramsey, a former nuclear submarine captain, said the lack of available attack boats was a "serious wake-up call" for Britain.

Urging Sir Keir Starmer and "major industry players" to "get a grip", he told The Telegraph: "We look toothless. The Russians know we can't put submarines to sea.

"None of this makes sense to me. You lose credibility against the Russians if you can't maintain that deterrence at sea.

"This problem has been hidden for decades. Everyone knew this was coming, but it got kicked down to the next person in charge."

Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord and Labour security minister, said the situation was "unacceptable" and "very worrying" that Astute-class subs were stuck in port.

"The attack submarines are fundamental for looking after our ballistic missile submarines," he told the Daily Mail. "They are fundamental for frightening and terrifying the Russians."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/world/articles/navy-entire-fleet-submarines-while-131000399.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall

Sound danger inside Data Centers.

Conservation: What EHS Directors Need to Know [2026]

Soundtrace (excerpts)

April 13, 2026

The global data center market reached an estimated $384 billion in 2025 and is projected to more than double by 2033, fueled by AI infrastructure buildouts, cloud migration, and hyperscale expansion. That growth means more facilities, more workers, and a noise exposure problem that most EHS programs have not caught up with.

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Primary Noise Sources

Server cooling fans are the dominant noise generator. Each rack contains dozens of high-speed fans spinning at thousands of RPM to move air through densely packed components. As rack density increases to support AI and GPU workloads, fan speeds increase proportionally. A single high-density rack can generate 75–80 dBA on its own; rows of racks in an enclosed aisle push aggregate levels into the 85–96 dBA range.

HVAC and cooling systems add a constant broadband noise floor. Computer Room Air Conditioning (CRAC) units, chiller systems, and air handling equipment operate continuously. Cooling towers associated with data center operations can generate noise levels up to 85 dBA, and rooftop air handling units may generate 85–100 dBA depending on size and configuration.

Backup generators represent an intermittent but extreme exposure risk. Small diesel generators operate at approximately 85 dBA, while larger generators run closer to 100 dBA. Monthly testing is standard practice, and data centers typically run multiple generators simultaneously during testing or actual power events, compounding the exposure.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) and power distribution units contribute additional noise, particularly in older facilities with less efficient designs.

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AI/GPU Rack Density: What 30–100 kW Does to Your dBA

Rack power density is the single biggest variable in a modern data center’s noise profile, and it has moved fast. A general-purpose enterprise rack ran 5–10 kW for most of the last decade. Cloud and high-density compute pushed the typical envelope to 15–20 kW. AI training clusters now routinely land at 30 kW, with NVIDIA HGX and GB200-class deployments specified at 50–100+ kW per rack. The thermal load scales linearly with power; the fan speed required to remove that heat does not.

Server, switch, and PDU fans are variable-speed. Below a thermal threshold they sit at 30–50% duty cycle and contribute modestly to the room. As inlet temperature or workload climbs, controllers ramp fans toward 100% in seconds. At full speed, blade tip speed roughly doubles and acoustic output rises by 8–15 dBA per rack. A hot aisle that measured 87 dBA TWA behind a general-purpose row can measure 94–98 dBA behind an adjacent GPU pod running training jobs — without any change to the building, the CRAHs, or the staffing model.

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The Two Thresholds That Matter

85 dBA TWA (Action Level): Triggers the full hearing conservation program requirement. This includes noise monitoring, audiometric testing (baseline and annual), hearing protection provided at no cost, annual training, and recordkeeping. Data center server rooms routinely exceed this threshold.

90 dBA TWA (Permissible Exposure Limit): Triggers mandatory HPD use and engineering or administrative control requirements where feasible. Server rack-level noise (96 dBA) puts workers above the PEL within approximately 3.5 hours of exposure under OSHA’s 5 dB exchange rate.

https://www.soundtrace.com/blog/data-center-noise-levels-hearing-conservation-osha-compliance

AI data centers’ “infrasound” pollution linked to nausea, insomnia in nearby residents

05/29/2026 / By Willow Tohi (excerpts)

• AI data centers emit noise up to 96 decibels 24/7, with low-frequency “infrasound” that humans feel as pressure but cannot hear.

• Residents report dizziness, nausea, vertigo, insomnia, headaches and anxiety they attribute to data center noise pollution.

• Infrasound at high volumes can affect the central nervous system and heart function, according to McGill University researchers.

-70% of U.S. adults oppose having a data center in their area, a March Gallup poll found.

• At least 11 states have proposed legislation since late 2025 to restrict or ban data center development.

The unseen threat: When silence becomes dangerous

Artificial intelligence data centers are generating a new form of pollution that residents cannot hear but can feel in their bodies, triggering symptoms from migraines to vomiting and raising questions about whether technology’s rapid expansion has outpaced basic public health protections.

Noise emitted by data centers—the humming of cooling systems, the rumbling of diesel generators and the whirring of thousands of fans—can be heard and felt hundreds of feet away. According to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), noise levels can reach 96 decibels for 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Sound exceeding 85 decibels is considered dangerous to human hearing.

But the more insidious threat may be what residents cannot hear at all: infrasound.

The body’s unwitting receiver

Infrasound—low-frequency sound below 20 Hertz—bypasses the ear entirely. The body feels it as pressure or vibration. Residents living as close as 50 feet from data centers report symptoms remarkably similar to electromagnetic radiation syndrome, the condition linked to cell towers and Wi-Fi networks.

Paul Héroux, associate professor of medicine at McGill University and vice chair of the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields, said the overlap is no coincidence.

“Sound, electric and magnetic fields of the same frequency have some overlap in their biological effects because they are similarly disruptive energy injections,” Héroux said.

Infrasound at high volumes can directly affect the human central nervous system, causing disorientation, anxiety, panic, bowel spasms, nausea and vomiting, according to Héroux. German researchers published an in-vitro study five years ago showing that after just one hour of exposure, high levels of infrasound interfered with the heart muscle’s ability to contract properly, raising questions about chronic exposure effects.

(and moar)

https://epawatch.org/2026-05-29-data-centers-infrasound-pollution-linked-to-nausea-insomnia.html

The World Hum Map and Database Project

What is the Worldwide Hum?

Most people find this website because they are disturbed by an unusual unidentified low-frequency sound that scientists now call the Worldwide Hum. The classic description is that The Hum sounds like a car or truck engine idling outside your home or down the block. Some people describe it as a low rumbling or droning sound. It is typically perceived louder at night than during the day, and louder indoors than outdoors. The sound can often be masked by background noise, such as a fan or keeping the radio on. We estimate that 2-4% of the global population can experience this phenomenon under certain conditions.

The typical characteristics of the World Hum are that sufferers hear it wherever they go, and that other people in the same place and time cannot hear it. This may be a type of otoacoustic phenomenon generated internally in the brain and auditory organs, through mechanisms which are not yet fully understood, but for which this project tries to find answers and possible remedies.

Another group of sufferers have exceptionally sensitive hearing (hyperacusis) and pick up actual environmental noises, which other people either cannot hear or are not bothered by. We try to provide the reasoning tools for distinguishing between these two types. For the latter there might not be a universal remedy, since each case has a different source, which may or may not be possible to remove or silence.

This website documents and maps the self-reported data from people around the world who can hear The Hum, and also provides a serious and disciplined forum for scientific investigations and commentary. This is a volunteer, non-profit effort. Fund raising barely covers the costs of web hosting and basic equipment.

This is not a place for pseudoscience or conspiracy theories. There are no discussions here regarding so-called "Targeted Individuals" or microwave weapons. There are many other websites and forums for those interested in such things.

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Dr. MacPherson can be reached at glen.macpherson@gmail.com. Due to the large volume of emails received, not everybody will receive a timely or full reply.

https://thehum.info/