Today is the 4th of July. In addition to being a holiday known as "Independence Day" in the United Sates, the 4th of July is also the first anniversary of the World Listening Project.

Once the sun begins to set, the noise begins with fireworks exploding throughout the neighborhood. Anyone can link and listen to the Locustream Soundmap. My stream is named "chicago_westside".

If you haven't visited and used the map before, here's what you need to do. Drag your mouse above orange dots (active streams) and click on the names of locations to listen to the audio streams. All the streams are mono 96kb ogg audio standard. The first time you launch the ogg java player, when you click on a location, you have to wait a few seconds and to sign the applet's certificate to be able to listen to the sound.

I expect that other U.S.-based streams (in Chicago, Boston, Baltimore, and elsewhere), being located in urban places, will pick up the sound of fireworks, too.

(However, if it continues raining that’s what you’re likely to hear instead.)