To me noise pollution is when you are next to an obnoxious person talking loudly on a cell phone and you must endure hearing a personal conversation . Another problem is living about 8 miles from LaGuardia airport .In the summer the jets are intolerable at night one right after another .The worst was many years ago when I worked in that airport on the ramp and had to wear earplugs most of the time .

I live in NYC... If things get quiet that means that something is really really really wrong.

Absolutely. I live in a small town in Kentucky, and I have a great back porch that gives the visual illusion that I'm living far out in the countryside. But that's the end of the illusion--noise-wise, I sometimes feel like I'm living in "the Hood," what with the traffic noise that comes up from down the hill and the non-ending sirens. In the fall, there's the constant WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE of the leaf-blowers that has me thinking about becoming the same kind of anti-noise vigilante Tim Robbins is in the 2007 movie "Noise."

Hell (and I use that term sparingly) yes! In fact, having discovered the condition of “Misophonia” a few years ago … I think I’ve got it… OK, inside my every jacket pocket (right side) I carry 3 ear plugs - cuz if you’ve lost one, one won’t cut it. When will I use them? - while shopping, not just the ‘music,’ but ‘store announcements’ startle me - at any ‘music’ event, they’re just too damn loud - walking city streets - dog barking in the neighborhood - driving with my windows down - when some creep thinks I enjoy his whistling ...and those fuckin bell-ringers about now -- my list goes on...

A Birder, I can (still) appreciate the most delicate sounds of nature. And having spent decades in the deep woods ..maybe I’m simply spoiled. But yes - society is polluted by noise ~

You know those cars with the big base speakers, playing what is probably music, but you can only hear the lowest of the base notes and they rattle your windows. My reaction to such scares me. Seriously, I'm an easy going guy but that shit makes me homicidal. On three different occasions I have almost attacked someone for it. Do you think they do that on purpose to annoy other people? I don't think they know just how much danger they put themselves in by doing it.