MIT's Great Dome, situated as it is in the heart of Main Campus and with a clear view of Boston, is a prime target for hacks. Some of these hacks involve unexpected objects being placed on top of the dome; others involve the dome being transformed into something else entirely, such as R2D2.

Objects placed on top of the dome have included:

• A fiberglass cow
  
• A giant firecracker for the Fourth of July
  
• A Campus Police squad car
  
• A giant propeller beanie with working propeller
  
• Several snowmen
  
• A small house, in order to ease dormitory crowding
  
• A telephone booth, with a working phone which rang when workers came to investigate
  
• A giant weight with "48 units" (an average MIT courseload), complete with a fabric 'crack' through the dome
  
• A giant American flag appeared on the front of the dome the week after the September 11 attacks.
  
• On December 17, 2001, a banner replica of the One Ring, complete with inscription in Elvish script, appeared around the base of the dome, in honor of finals week and the Lord of the Rings movie premiere. Those complaining that the writing was only visible when the ring was in the fire were informed that MIT during finals was, after all, a reasonably good approximation of Hell. The hackers did not, however, succeed in turning Building 10 invisible.
  

There are also stories of a hacker who once wooed his girlfriend with a candlelit dinner and a great view of the Boston skyline-- on top of the dome.

For more information and photographs about hacks in general or Great Dome hacks in particular, try searching for "hack" on the MIT web site at http://web.mit.edu. Or, visit http://hacks.mit.edu.