• Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I’m seeing a lot less of that these days, thankfully. Los Angeles had fake palm tree cell towers when I was there. They’re even worse.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I think they’re uglier than cell towers. They look like what they are- fake trees trying to blend in with real trees and doing it badly. That’s worse than simply putting up a metal and concrete tower to me.

        • lunarul@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          The point is to not stick out on a cursory glance. As you drive by you see a bunch of green, you might notice there was something up with that particular tree, but that’s it. A plain cell tower would stick out from a distance, interrupting the natural view.

          It’s like those mirror covered buildings that reflect their surroundings, giving the impression of unbroken landscape as you drive by. They’re not invisible, you know there’s a huge building there, but it’s a hell of a lot less disruptive than a regular one.

          • Baku@aussie.zone
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            1 year ago

            It’s like those mirror covered buildings that reflect their surroundings, giving the impression of unbroken landscape

            And it can actually work well! Until they forget they’re meant to clean them

            Those photos don’t convey how genuinely hideous it is in person. It’s horrid

          • Mr_pichon@jlai.lu
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            1 year ago

            It’s like those mirror covered buildings that reflect their surroundings, giving the impression of unbroken landscape as you drive by. They’re not invisible, you know there’s a huge building there, but it’s a hell of a lot less disruptive than a regular one.

            Those buildings kill birds tho, thye don’t see the building and hit the mirrors at full speed

        • Fuck spez@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Or, consider that the ugly ones may be the only ones you’ve actually noticed. The rest would then be working as intended.

          • BastingChemina@slrpnk.net
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            1 year ago

            Just like wigs or esthetic surgery. We generally have the impression that wigs looks terrible, just because we only notice the bad one. The good one goes unnoticed.

    • Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I live in LA and to be fair, palm trees are basically fake trees in the first place, they’re mostly non-native Q-Tips that give no shade. The cell towers should just cover themselves with billboards, they’d fit right in and make extra cash from the side hustle.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I’m not a fan of the palm trees either, but a perfectly straight pole with fake leaves that do basically nothing to hide the fact that it’s a cell tower was even worse to my eyes.

        The craziest thing about billboards when I was in L.A. was the trucks driving around with billboards on them that were only being driven around because of those billboards. I guess the cost of a truck and fuel is still cheaper than paying for an actual billboard on Hollywood or Sunset.

  • onlooker@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    Oooh, it’s an antenna. For a moment I wasn’t really sure why someone would go through the trouble of making a fake tree.

  • saltnotsugar@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    “So you’re a REAL tree?”

    Yesh. I make worrie aboot Christmas time. Family cut me and make ornament on my face.

    “This dude is legit.”

  • HiddenLayer5@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    It’s not impressive to attach green plastic bits to camouflage a cell tower (which IMO makes it uglier and more noticeable than just a bare antenna mast).

    It would be extremely impressive if they could actually derive the required power from onboard photovoltaics though!

  • Num10ck@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    i wonder what we would come up with if there was a contest to design a beautiful cell tower. a giant tulip? space needle? treehouse? inconvenience store? a blinky scroll tower?