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I switched to an artificial tree many years ago. 
No more needless killing of the only thing that gives us breathable air. (I know algae are helping as well)
It has 500 LED lights build in, sets up in under an hour, and looks good.
It doesn't have the 'smell' but at least it doesn't interfere with the Christmas cooking.
Stop killing our friends, they deserve life too.
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Quote:
Regardless, I think a fuse and
ground connection might come in useful.
Grounding, certainly - it will prevent electrocution of people touching the tree in the event that a live wire closes a circuit with the tree.
Fuse? Not so much. It can't prevent a fire started by arcing because the arc will jump before the fuse is involved, hence a fuse is not going to help with arcing. It can't prevent a fire from a non-arc short because your house's breaker will trip before the element in question heats up enough to start a fire (breakers typically trip within milliseconds of overcurrent).
After all, with almost 100m American households having a flammable[1] tree at christmas, it's still almost unheard of for house-fire statistics to rise in December.
In fact, I don't think they ever did!
So the dangers are less than one would think (numbers don't lie).
Quote:
The question I can't answer is, why? Does it symbolize
something? What meaning does it have, and what amount
of importance supports that meaning?
Why do modern people do it? Because tradition!
Why did the tradition arise? Because, in order to propagate, Christianity leaders chose existing holy days as christian holy days (after all, no one had a clue what month Jesus was born in, let alone what day of the month that was. I'm pretty certain that they weren't quite sure of the season either), and the day they chose as Christ's birthday was an existing Pagan holy day that involved Trees.
[1] Plastic is flammable too!
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Member 13301679 wrote: Grounding, certainly - it will prevent electrocution of people touching the tree in the event that a live wire closes a circuit with the tree.
Are you talking about a natural, wooden tree? Wood is quite insulating. Besides, if you have a wooden floor (which is the most common around here), you have no electrical contact with ground. You are like a bird sitting on a power line: There is no reason why the electricity would run through your body. Where should it go from there?
[1] Plastic is flammable too! Some plastics are. Around here, plastic Christmas trees must be made from inflammable plastics. (The plastics may melt from strong heat, which may be bad enough if you get it on your skin, but being inflammable implies that it won't help flames spread.)
the day they chose as Christ's birthday was an existing Pagan holy day that involved Trees. The birth date of Jesus was set around 300 CE. The Christmas tree tradition developed in Germany and neighboring countries in the 1500s, and had no effect on what happened 1200 years earlier.
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Queen Victoria said that was the way to do it. Who are you to say "no"? 'Course, she was using candles not electrical lights... but the principle of dangerous stuff in the house is basically unchanged.
I heard a joke this year too - Christmas tree joke - guy said he was calling his tree "Amy Winehouse" cause he knew it was going to die and leave lots of needles laying around.
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Killing trees: I used to not feel so good about the use of live trees for this myself. I later realized that these trees are farmed. i.e. they wouldn't exist if there wasn't a market for them, just like heads of lettuce and other vegetables. So, although yes, it's still killing of a perfectly good plant, it's not like Christmas tree purveyors are buying forests up constantly to feed to their customers.
Electric lights on trees: There is a small fuse in the plug of all strings of lights (UL listed anyway which is about all you can find I think now-a-days). Also, the wires are really thin so even if you touched two raw wires of it together right from the plug I'm talking, before the string's fuse blew it'd be a pretty small arc. And lastly, since 2017, in the US the national electric code requires the use of an arc fault circuit interrupter (AFCI) in nearly every home circuit (some exceptions for large appliance circuits). This would exist in the central panel. So, the circuit breaker would detect the arc and trip.
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There are several reasons for a Christmas tree in the home. Some of those reasons mix together.
For me, it is primarily the Christian religion for what a tree means in my faith (a whole other story), combined with family traditions that are pleasant to my memories.
When we used live trees, the relationship part of finding and cutting down a tree with a family member is a precious memory. The smell and the shared effort and time together meant something.
As for the electrical and fire issues, we took precautions to minimize the probability of an incident to make the outcome more valuable than the risk.
Later, we shifted to artificial trees, and like the real trees, enjoyed the time decorating together. Each day we see them, it reminds us of the real reason for Christ in Christmas, and for how much we enjoy this time with family.
So, by both having a defined and understood purpose, and mitigating risk to a safe level, we can put up a Christmas tree and not have any worries about it.
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I to was curious about the Xmas tree, and did some research about 15 years ago.
The Xmas tree comes from the Germans, or Germanic tribes back in earlier days, perhaps during the days of the Roman Empire, when during the winter or shortest days of the year, they would cut a tree down and put it in the house. They just wanted to bring a part of the outdoors inside, to brighten things up inside the house or shelter. The legend or story of the tree goes back to the Santa Klaus days, where Germans swear they saw a chubby man in a fire lit sleigh fly across the skies during the darkest of dark days.
Then the Germans brought the idea to America during immigration in the early 1800s on the east coast. I think the concept took decades, but it caught on. One day, a famous American women thought the tree was boring and made some decorations to put on the tree, and published the idea in a famous magazine, and women in America started making Xmas Tree ornaments. They became popular, and the Germans quickly capitalized on the idea and started making ornaments, and sold them on the streets of New York during Xmas. Soon women across the East Coast were buying ornaments instead of making them, and then it went retail at stores such as Macy's. Soon everything was being decorated at Xmas time.
I didn't check into the lights, but would imagine it probably occurred in the 1920s, when light bulbs were more available. So to the best of my knowledge, it's a New York thing, that they made popular. It's funny how these things or traditions start, and somehow become mandatory by our parents as unbreakable traditions that are concrete and cannot be refused.
Xmas is a trip to me, where there are two versions of it, one being Pagan that I call Xmas, and the other that competes with the Pagan version called Christmas, which is promoted by the Christian Church. I believe I read that Christmas was promoted as a substitute, for what they use to do in London, where during the darkest of dark days or Xmas eve in general, they built a large fire in town at night called the Yule Log, which was the Pagan tradition of that time, and gather warmth while drinking spirits late into the night with friends and family.
The Germans also brought the Easter Egg and Easter Bunny to America as well, and that company that makes the Easter Egg coloring kits is German, called "PAAS" I think. The legend of the Easter Bunny is German as well, and that's all I know about it, I'm sure it's related to the melting of snow, and welcoming of spring, and is not religious in any sense, but Pagan in general.
I personally after reading up on the history of Xmas and Christmas, don't do the tree anymore, or the lights on the house, I'm over it, but I like the Yule Log idea.
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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jkirkerx wrote: One day, a famous American women thought the tree was boring and made some decorations to put on the tree, and published the idea in a famous magazine, and women in America started making Xmas Tree ornaments.
Decorating Christmas trees started in the 1500s in Germany, often apples and sweets, and kids were allowed to "harvest" the goodies on the thirteenth day of Christmas.
We did the same in my childhood: My birthday is on the 18th day of Christmas. An essential part of the decoration was small paper baskets, filled with nuts, almonds, raisins, small chocolates ... In my birthday party, we made a last walk around the tree, then the guests were invited to harvest it, removing all the decorations and eating whatever they found in the baskets. Finally we opened the living room window to throw the tree out, with everybody cheering.
In my childhood, the decorations where 90% home made. Making baskets, chains of colored paper rings, balls of yarn, figures of rye straw - split them with a razor blade to fold them out, glue them onto a sheet of paper edge to edge, and iron the sheet at medium heat, and they turn blank, golden, very nice for cutting figures of horses or squirrels or whatever to put on the tree. When cracking walnuts, we always tried to open the shell without breaking it, so that it could be glued together and painted with silver or gold paint, to put on the tree. For the baskets, there was a range from very simple to make, kindergarten level, to advanced models requiring a lot of cutting and folding, for the older kids.(Wikipedia: Pleated Christmas hearts[^]
Making tree decorations was a common advent activity in kindergartens and primary schools, as well as a family activity. We tended to frown at families who didn't have a single home made decoration; those trees were simply boring! (We also saw it as a way of showing off, in a negative sense.)
I didn't check into the lights, but would imagine it probably occurred in the 1920s, when light bulbs were more available. The Norwegian Wikipedia entry on the Christmas tree quotes Johann Wolfgang Goethe: The Sorrows of Young Werther[^] from 1774 (Google translation of the Norwegian edition - maybe the wording is different in a proper translation):
He spoke of how much fun it would be for the little ones, and of the time when the long-awaited moment when the door suddenly opened to reveal a tree decorated with candles, sweets and apples had filled him with paradisiacal rapture
So in 1774, indoor decorated trees, with candles, appears to be a well known phenomenon.
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I had no idea it went back that far, but that sounds like loading the tree up with delicious foods that kids can't resist, like hanging a salami or cheese on the tree, rather than a cheap glass ornament, in which the first sounds like a better idea. But you did make ornaments as well with the family, so these traditions do go way back in time, and seem to be present today as well. You have a nice family!
My source claimed to be the source of sources, but most likely just another story of how it started in America at least. I never looked into the 12 days of Xmas, and how that started, but it must be German as well. There are so many stories and traditions that are lost today, that one can write a book about it to refresh our memories.
Thanks for sharing that ...
Another lesson I learned today
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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There are fuses in each strand of lights.
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Observed highschooler , she wore ID ,
sitting in front of open laptop,
using all 10 fingers punching iphone
and chew noisy bubble gum
would not like to meet her on the road
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Wonder how many LOL's per minute she can type?
As the aircraft designer said, "Simplicate and add lightness".
PartsBin an Electronics Part Organizer - Release Version 1.3.0 JaxCoder.com
Latest Article: SimpleWizardUpdate
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Undoubtedly a so-called "influencer" - after all, she got OP to talk about her...
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Salvatore Terress wrote: would not like to meet her on the road
Just hit the gas and run her over.
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I've often felt like doing just that to the idiots who cross the road with their faces in their "smart" phones, but sanity has (so far...) prevailed. 
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.
-- 6079 Smith W.
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A couple of years back, I realized something while working on my website.
Looking at the same dull grey background was getting old.
So, I created a new feature.
I spent almost a day searching for only the best desktop wallpapers I could find.
At the end of the day, I had collected 384 unique background images. Then, I created
a feature that automatically places a new background wallpaper onto my site,
on each day of the year.
I ended up liking it so much, that I turned it into something anyone can use on any web page.
It seems as though you guys liked my snowfall script. This background feature is one of my
favorites, so you may like it, too. It's also something you can use. I made it super easy
to implement.
Just put this HTML into any web page. That's all there is to it.
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://chromosphere.com/chromosphere/scripts/content/dailybackground/setbg.js" id="chromosphere_background_script_js"></script>
The script even deletes itself once it completes. If you look at your page's
<body> element, you'll notice that the "style" attribute has something added to it.
The CSS "background-image" property should be referencing an image from
https://services.chromosphere.com. That's one of my other websites.
Also, a quick FYI - Every once in a while, the server doesn't send the background image file,
so hitting reload on your browser usually fixes the problem.
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For some odd reason this thread triggered a memory of fun times with wallpapers. When digital cameras were first introduced, a bartender friend of mine sent me a photo of herself completely unclothed. On a whim, I made that image my Windows wallpaper. It was quite a nice thing to see on my screen when I woke every morning, and helped to start my days out right. But by and by I acquired another love interest, and thought it might be a bit awkward to keep my wallpaper, so I deleted it.
It came back. I deleted it. It came back. After about a week of exploration I discovered that Windows stores multiple copies of one's wallpaper in all sorts of places, and if it can't find the one it's looking for, it will replace it with a backup. Never again will I mess with the default wallpaper!
Will Rogers never met me.
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Message Closed
modified 18-Dec-23 9:25am.
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Message Removed
modified 18-Dec-23 9:35am.
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How many different phobias are recognized by the APA[^]?
I know it's a lot, but I don't know the actual number.
In terms of unrecognized phobias, there must be billions.
If you ever get the chance, take a look at a list of phobias.
Some of them are funny. Take any person, place, or thing,
translate it into a Latin term, and append "phobia" to it.
Whatever it is, I bet it exists. Google it and see what
you get.
I was just reading through a list of phobias.
Here are a few rather interesting ones:
Catoptrophobia is the fear of mirrors.
Are people who suffer from this phobia still afraid of mirrors in the dark?
Wouldn't that just be something like photophobia? I'm guessing that the term
exists, but I don't know. It would be the fear of light. Could you
imagine the horror of seeing a disco ball? I bet there's even a phobia
specific to disco balls. I don't think the word "disco" has a Latin translation.
Ancient Rome probably didn't have many nightclubs.
Here's a good one. Its meaning is obvious.
Cyberphobia is the fear of computers.
Do we have any members who suffer from cyberphobia, here?
I wonder if any men suffer from
Lockiophobia. It's the fear of childbirth.
Megalophobia is an odd one. It's the fear of large things.
WTF is that all about? Size is entirely relative. If you're someone
who suffers from that, you're probably just insane.
As a small child, I had a mild phobia of forklifts. It's called
Forkliftophobia. I know there's no Latin term for forklift,
but what genius came up with that term?
Uh, oh. This is a scary one.
Octophobia. It's the fear of the number 8. That's almost as
terrifying as a moving forklift!
Oh, no. I think I'm having a panic attack.
I gotta get some fresh air.
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Phobophobia sums them all...
"If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization." ― Gerald Weinberg
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We can add a Codophobia, and place most of the QA folks there.
Or, is such a thing already there?
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I've developed (pun intended) a healthy VB(6) phobia during my career! 
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Octophobia sounds like a Discworld thing
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