September 04, 2004

Fraud Frond - It's a conspiracy! Fake trees hide cell phone towers. Here are some pics. They're springing up everywhere in the US. What about the rest of the world? Nicked from Boing Boing
posted by Nostrildamus 20 years ago
  • The fake trees we have here in New England look like the braches are made out of cartoon moose antlers. None the less, I bet there are a few less birds dying from flying into cell towers
  • I love them, they should be mandatory.
  • It seems just a tad wasteful. Good roadtrip game, though.
  • I believe fake-tree cell towers would actually prevent the problem A22lamia points out. Unless birds are fond of crashing into big trees also. The new problem would be birds nesting on the towers (and getting microwave-cooked). But that could be prevented quite easily with plastic mirrors.
  • Isn't this a natural outgrowth of pylon spotting? Get it? Natural outgrowth? I kill me!
  • I think these sound like a great idea, but in reality they look entirelty silly, and I think a22lamia put a finger on preciesly why. Nonetheless, I hope they make it easier for some of those holdout communities to accept a tower. One of my friends lives in a neighborhood that has been fighting a tower for years and it has always been a pain to try and reach her, but w/ fake trees.... Wait, didn't Radiohead write a song about this?
  • Not around here yet, but there were a couple around Santa Cruz. Damn they were ugly.
  • In Gainesville, Florida, a church agreed to put a cell tower on their property, disguised as a big-ass cross. I hope you can use your cell phone to call 1-900-MONEYCHANGE.
  • Couldn't they just put the antennae up in real trees?
  • shotsy, I had the same reaction re fake plastic trees! :)
  • But shotsy. a22lamia talks about unnadorned, "natural" cell towers which can't be recongnized by birds as an obstacle to evade during normal flight. Faking them as trees my prevent this. Anyway, we need real studies as a22lamia points out.
  • i love this game, too! me and my boyfriend are massive dorks and we play the game together on road trips. we even bought shirts! I actually bought one fore him and he for me -- both trying to suprise each other. it was sappy and sweet. anyway, i bought my doggie a shirt, too. very funny. as for the fake trees (the radiohead song is different), i love em. my cell phone service sucks, so i'm for anything that will help. anyway, kudos to the site maker. it's a really original idea -- wonder if this could catch on? have like, a tree-spotter contest? and yeah!! -- what about a fake weeping willow?? i wanna see THAT.