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O Christmas tag, O Christmas tag ...

Hashtag Christmas tree

A Twitter-enabled Christmas tree in the lobby of Boston City Hall lets anybody around the world change its colors just by tweeting at it.

The Wicked Cool Tree, a project of the Mayor's Office of New Urban Mechanics and the city IT department, involves 720 LED lights wrapped around your basic tree, connected to three WiFI-enabled Arduino boards that control the lights based on commands from a server that is constantly scanning tweets that are sent to #wickedcooltree with a color name in them. The reason the lights are green in the photo is because ye editor sent out a tweet reading "#wickedcooltree green" just to see what would happen.

You don't have to be in City Hall to watch your color request take effect: There's also a live Webcam feed for people on the other side of the city - or the planet - who want to adjust the mood of the City Hall atrium's steps.

The tree is also apparently part of the city's effort to keep as many art installations in the lobby as possible at once - the steps are striped as part of a project called the Stairs of Fabulousness, while the presents behind the tree are zealously guarded by some of the headless dummies who now frequent the atrium (and who presumably roam the halls of City Hall at night).

This particular project is an experiment in using interactive design and the Internet of Things to improve public space. While the lights are initially decking a tree, they will be reused for other future projects. The City expects to learn from this experiment to see how similar approaches should be employed in the future.

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Comments

What kind of tree is that, again?

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Our esteemed host has properly deemed it a Christmas tree.

Our dear city, however, must remain politically correct and refrain from such a divisive, incendiary term.

If there is actually such a thing as a "holiday tree," a) I've never knowingly seen on , and b) I would love to know the name of the holiday connected with it.

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You do know where hash (not the breakfast kind) comes from, right? Mari Christmas anyway.

IMAGE(http://weedtracker.com/cannabis/uploads/8ec6390bd30fdc18643c4097d66e099c.png)

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celebration of Christmas. :)

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     Is it a satire on mindless shopping and seasonal commercialism?

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i miss mumbles

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I miss the real Enchanted Village and the model trains and the subway blueberry muffins !

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I'm not the only one who recognizes that neither Big Bolated Furniture Guy's "Enchanted Village" nor the "Enchanted Village" that used to sit on City Hall Plaza are NOT the real Enchanted Village. Why do I say this? Because the design and form of the figurines and buildings in these iterations of the Village bear no resemblance to the original Jordan Marsh one.

Last time I saw the REAL Enchanted Village was in 1975. Jordan Marsh had sold it off to the owners of North Shore Shopping Center, who broke it up and displayed the separate pieces at various locations within the then newly expanded and enclosed mall.

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Oddly fascinating.

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I fell for this silly thing last night, and it didn't work.

And yeah, the creepy, headless mannequins really make creepy City Hall, more inviting and engaging. I mean, put the fucking lotion in the basket.

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And they shorted out the system last night.

It worked for me twice this afternoon - although the first time, it waited just long enough to make me thing it was broken. I'm assuming it only polls Twitter every X seconds and I happened to request something at the beginning of that cycle the first time (the second time, the change happened more quickly).

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what is up with the headless mannequins? Are they there to symbolize the craziness of the holiday, felt by some? I'm so confused.

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"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, 'Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.'"
—Matthew 2:1–2 (KJV)

Leave it to the far-left in Boston City government to top the tree with the hash character instead of the traditional star. Worse, they "adorn" the stairs surrounding the Christmas tree with the colors of the gay flag during the highest of Christian holidays. Can't wait for Ramadan in June to see if our Muslim brethren are treated with such indignity.

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I just see a rainbow. I didn't realize it had to be a "gay rainbow"--when you see one in the sky, do you get mad about the injustice of the gay flag flying over your city?

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... because he's the one who created rainbows (according to Genesis), right. O-FISH-L's post seem to be getting wackier (and more unpleasant) than ever.

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Maybe he did swear off socialized medicine and stopped using his medicare and going to the clinic for mental health treatment.

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I thought you were just one of those ragey types who makes everything into a political screaming match. I mean, after all, you did turn a post about corgis at a wedding into a mouth foaming rant about President Obama or Ted Kennedy or something like that ( kind of glazed over, so I don't really remember what it was about). Now, it's apparent that you're a religous nut too. Awesome. I bet your life is very relaxed and enjoyable.

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#1 Not all Christian sects hate gay people
#2 Isn't Easter a bigger deal than Christmas?

Trees are a pagan thing co-opted by the Christians who couldn't stand the competition. Get a grip and just enjoy the pretty.

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were you abused as a child? If so, I am very, very sorry.

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A Genny Cream Christmas: NY brewery builds tree out of 300 kegs
Maybe they can get Sam Adams to donate a few of these , put one up at Roxbury Crossing , if there still is one ,
https://mobile.twitter.com/sdowdphoto/status/542707973219704832/photo/1.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/12/11/brewery-builds-christmas-...

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