The Tech of Burning Man 352
Marc Merlin wrote:"Some of you have probably heard of burning man, but most of those
who haven't gone probably don't know that saying that it's just a
bunch of naked hippies meeting in the desert to smoke pot, is a
very unfair description of the event. I have been writing reports of it for the last 4 years now (akin to
the linux show reports I used to do), and my 2005 report is the biggest one yet (1440 pictures, and a fairly complete overview page, showing the highlights) You can also look at the burning man index page (with pictures from the sky), and look at my first 2002 report for a view as a first timer."
Boligatory South Park Quote (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Boligatory South Park Quote (Score:5, Funny)
Seemed like a pretty straight-forward hippie festival; I'm cool with that. Then I get to this part:
At this point my irony meter pegs and I giggle incessantly through the remainder of the article.
Re:Boligatory South Park Quote (Score:5, Funny)
Dorm room hippie: Fuck capitalism, man. Who needs that shit, when we can all just share the wealth, you know? Live off the land and pool our resources and shit.
2nd dorm room hippie: Hey man, can I get a dime bag?
Dorm room hippie: Sure man, $25.
2nd dorm room hippie: Thanks.
Dorm room hippie: It's like Huey Long and Karl Marx said, we should just share everything, man--just work together, you know?
-Eric
Re:Boligatory South Park Quote (Score:5, Informative)
And as any Burner knows, the cost of the ticket is a drop in the bucket.
Re:Boligatory South Park Quote (Score:3, Insightful)
When it comes to ice, however, the hardware to produce it in any quantity would get expensive rather quickly. Which is the pretty much the point of them charging for it (can't clean up the desert after the party if you're broke).
I do think that the burning man planners would like nothing less than to eliminate these two m
Re:Boligatory South Park Quote (Score:2)
Burning Man exists in the real world, and naturally has expenses that it has to deal with; however, inside, it's a different story.
Not a hippie fest. (Score:5, Interesting)
Burning Man is one of those events that a lot of people have heard of but few have any in-depth knowledge of unless you've actually been. So here's a thread to try and explain as many lingering questions people have about this strange phenomenon.
How big is it?
There were more than 35,000 people there last year.
Here [google.com]'s a shot of the Playa (the place in Black Rock desert where it's held) from outerspace:
And 's a random crowd shot to give you an idea of how many people are around any given street corner. [blairerickson.com]
Is everybody there all peace love and happiness type hippies?
Nope. In fact quite the opposite. There are entire groups built on nothing but raw rage. But there are plenty of hippies [blairerickson.com] too. For some people who go, a lot of Black Rock City is described as a cross between Survivor and Mad Max. Mad Max is the most common answer. Here's some photos to better explain why:
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/Muytator2.jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/Thunderdome.jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/mutantvehicle.jp g [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/Spinning.jpg [blairerickson.com]
Oh and then there's a group called the UberCarneys who built a giant device called the "Roaster Coaster" where they dropped spinning cages full of riders through a flame thrower while screaming over a megaphone about the sloppiness of its construction.
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/roastercoaster1. jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/roastercoaster2. jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/roasterfire.jpg [blairerickson.com]
Supposedly they're doing something this year called "Unsafety Town"
In addition to the flame throwers and anarchy, you can also expect a heavy dose of insane behaviour, giant displays of sexual debauchery, and liberal drug use. Just plain good fun.
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/blowtorch-burn-b arrel_f.jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/IMG_1079.jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/IMG_1116.jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/IMG_0617.jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/BarbieDeathCamp. jpg [blairerickson.com]
http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/amacker-and-frie nd_f.jpg [blairerickson.com]
Is it all easy and fun?
Not at all. Surviving in the middle of the Black Rock desert is pretty goddamn tough. You have to bring plenty of gear, supplies, water, and anything you can think of. And you will probably be injured at some point. Goes with the territory. Almost everyone I was with last year was injured. I ended up with a pretty gruesome stab wound (http://www.blairerickson.com/bman/kneescar.jpg [blairerickson.com]) on my leg and a sprained ankle
Re:Not a hippie fest. (Score:3, Funny)
is the portal for that in the Depths or the Spire?
Re:Not a hippie fest. (Score:5, Insightful)
I've met smoked up hippies out there, and more burn-outs that I've ever met anywhere else, but at the same time, i've camped with a criminal psycologist that works with violent criminals, a group of cirqeu du soleil clowns, seattle politicians and grade school teachers.
The event is not about what's there, but what you can add to what's there. It's a stone soup sort of gathering and when you have 35,000 people bringing out all of their cool stuff to show off, it's hard to describe. Do anything you want, be a rock star for a week, take on a new identity, exchange bad ideas with brilliant people, or simply spend an evening looking for someone with a high intensity laser to light a cigarette for you. Go be a barista, go play some live action pac-man, go be a bartender, a pole dancer, or a mystic.
Lots of drugs, lots of art, lots of cool tech, lots of sex, but lots and lots of enthusiasm and good will. Someone posted that they'd not seen people get along so well except during disasters - that's not a bad comparison. I think the phrase that's used over and over is orchestrated chaos.
If you don't see the point, don't go. If you're curious and have the cohones to make it out there with a few bad ideas of your own, you'll be welcome.
Work safe or not work safe (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Work safe or not work safe (Score:5, Funny)
If your job involves naked hippies, then, yes, it's fine.
Also, if your job involves lots of naked hippy chicks, I would like a job interview.
Re:Work safe or not work safe (Score:5, Funny)
Most of them are so un-photogenic, your boss can't reasonably claim you had an prurient interest in them. And given the hairiness and man-boobs, you often can't even tell the women from the men.
It's as safe as looking at photos of some Stone Age tribe in National Geographic. Except, in this case it's a tribe of "Aging Stoners".
Re:Work safe or not work safe (Score:3, Funny)
'Nuff said.
Yikes! Pagan rituals! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Yikes! Pagan rituals! (Score:5, Insightful)
Uh. Ever consider that the whole Christmas season has its roots in paganism....
Re:Yikes! Pagan rituals! (Score:2)
No Pagans! (Score:2)
At least, that's the story I heard N-th hand
I don't know if she was a pagan.
--LWM
Re:Yikes! Pagan rituals! (Score:3, Interesting)
Besides Burning Man is full [taniwha.com] of [taniwha.com] religion [taniwha.com], drunken debauchery [taniwha.com], wierd [taniwha.com] forms [taniwha.com] of [taniwha.com] transport [taniwha.com] but most important FIRE [taniwha.com]
Re:Yikes! Pagan rituals! (Score:5, Informative)
OK http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween [wikipedia.org]
The holiday was a day of religious festivities in various northern European pagan traditions, until it was appropriated by Christian missionaries (along with Christmas and Easter, two other traditional northern European pagan holidays) and given a Christian reinterpretation.
oh man (Score:4, Funny)
"Burning Man"? no: "Burning Servers"!
Re:oh man (Score:2, Funny)
Re:oh man (Score:2)
Re:oh man (Score:2)
The coral cache is still working, however.
http://marc.merlins.org.nyud.net:8090/perso/bm/20
Peace, love, (Score:5, Funny)
I'm missing something (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I'm missing something (Score:2)
Re:I'm missing something (Score:4, Funny)
Re:I'm missing something (Score:2)
Re:I'm missing something (Score:2)
Re:I'm missing something (Score:5, Informative)
This is a lot of very interesting home-made tech out there.
I resisted the urge to build any large-scale project, though I did do a couple little things. I built some custom lighting for our two bikes, using a couple handfuls of LEDs and a little microcontroller and already-present wheel sensors (from those little bike trip monitors) to switch gradually between different colors as we ride.
We stayed with a camp called Burnstream court. They had a sign that'd broken. They had a mail list, which we'd been on much of the year, and the guy who was working on repairing the sign was using little light bulbs and dreaming of someday "animating" them. Being an electrical engineer (and not being able to resist a cool project), I broght a little microcontroller board that I had solder several high current MOSFETs (and associated circuitry) into a prototype area. On the second day out there, he was working on putting all those little lights on the sign, and I gave them the board, hooked all the lights up to it, and wrote some code to sequence the lights. Everyone in the camp was really excited about the flashy sign. It was cool. It was fun.
Yeah, I'm into creating stuff. Geeky, perhaps? (as opposed to the other geeky... playing video games... or ooggling over shiney new products).
Thousands and thousands of other creative and highly inspired people (must moreso than me) so there every year. And you just can't imagine all the amazing and wacky things they create and build out there.
Well, maybe you can sit back and imagine all sorts things. Surf though the tens of thousands of pictures people post, and feel like you know. But it really is something to see in person.
There's amazing displays of technology, like the cubetron art piece, which had a 9x9x9 cube of LED-lit pingpong balls suspended on wires in a big cube shape, which lit up in mulitple colors in all sorts of interesting animated patterns. There were many, many other very interesting things people created and brought out there, and made work in such an unforgiving environment. It really is quite amazing.
So if you're the sort of person who see tech and wonders "that's really cool, how'd they do that", or "I should of thought of that", or "I'd love to make something like that"... then you'll probably really like burning man. But if you're one of those people, who I personally wouldn't call true geeks but saddly inhabit slashdot, who sees tech and thinks "I can get that cheaper at walmart", then burning man is defintely not for you.
Burning man is also about lots of other things than just building art and viewing and playing with art (much of the art is intended to be played with, unlike traditional art).
For many people, burning man is about partying all night long. There's lots of people who set up bars, which give out free drinks when they're open (pretty much when they feel like it). There's also lots of camps that set up night clubs with lights and large sound systems. Perhaps hundreds of little ones for about 20 to 80 people to party, and on the ends of the city, dozens of huge ones where hundreds of people are dancing and partying all night long.
For others, it's a more mellow social gathering. Lots of people hang out, play some musical instrument or just lounge around and be mellow. It seems like there's some pot smoking, but the cops to drive around and mionitor from the streets, so any drug usage is well out of ordinary sight.
Some people, mostly those who've never been and will never go, just can't seem to see past nudity. Yes, some people go around with little or no clothing during the day, others wearing something provocative. And some are even "hotties" by conventional mass-media standards. But it really isn't that big a deal.
There is a hippie
yeah, I know (Score:4, Funny)
This group of hippies is different, man ... they're deep ...
Stereotype? (Score:4, Interesting)
Not that dissimilar to the more bandwagon-jumping hippies in the 1960s, who went on to found large, corporate companies and sell out (a la "Ben and Jerries", one of the worst examples of corporate hippie culture), whilst living off their supposed hippie credentials. Plus ca change...
(*) Okay, iPods are *way* mainstream now. Replace with whatever that pretentious rag is recommending they buy this month.
Re:Stereotype? (Score:4, Interesting)
My stereotype was: Tons of pyromanics gather and burn down everything they can carry there....
(might be biased because i first heard about that even on the website of one guy who wrote about how be burned 20 magnesium engine blocks from cars in a pit)
Re:Stereotype? (Score:4, Interesting)
Judging from the (somewhat less then 1400) pictures that he brought back (and that we endured in our weekly department meeting), he wasn't atypical.
It looked like a bunch of drunk and stoned rich kids (and more than a few parents) camping out in the middle of nowhere for a week and worshipping a few hardcore hippies.
-h-
Re:Stereotype? (Score:3, Insightful)
Though I fail to see what it is.
Looks to me like a few tens of thousands of people had a great time for a week. And yet all we can find to do is criticise.
Me thinks you all need to take a freaking vacation.
Re:clarification (Score:2)
One way to do this is to head off into the woods on your own.
Another more familiar one around here is to lock yourself in a room and filter your contact with the world through a computer.
My point being, it's good to get out in the real world, with the real people, poseurs and non poseurs that they may be.
Firefly (Score:2)
"Burning Man: It's like those villages in 'Firefly', but with more SUVs and naked hippies"
fucking sterotypes (Score:5, Interesting)
And regarding Ben & Jerry's... The same B&J that dropped a few products because making the product was giving the factory workers RSI? The B&J that started in a garage? The same B&J that donates 7.5% of its pre-tax profits to charities? The same B&J that's still doing this so many years later, even after having gone public and being acquired by a larger corporation? I don't know, maybe they have become corporate scum and should be hated by hippies, but I can't find any evidence of that after googling for a couple minutes. In fact, the only criticism of B&J's that I've found so far is by conservatives attacking their ideals. Forgive me if I'm a little skeptical of criticism of Ben & Jerry's coming from the fucking Cato Institute.
Fucking hell man, I don't even LIKE hippies. They're extremists, and they piss me off. But don't even try to call them out regarding their integrity... 'cause damn, most criticism directed their way is from people who have no goddamn legs to stand on.
Re:fucking sterotypes (Score:5, Insightful)
The myth of the Hippies going whoreporate is a coping mechanism for cube dwellers. It makes them think that everyone eventually will adopt their lifestyle.
What did happen in the 60s was a large number of maleable individuals tried adopting the Hippie lifestyle. Then they became disco freaks in the 70s before putting on collars and dress shoes to work as cogs in the great mill of capitalism.
These were not the hippies. These were simply boomers. And if the ascetic lifestyle of Tibeten monks suddenly got popular you'd see a pile of 50 year olds on the street corner bumming rice.
Re:fucking sterotypes (Score:2)
That was pretty much the people I was referring to; the people who pretended to be hippies, who *thought of thems
Re:fucking sterotypes (Score:2)
It's been my experience (and, no, I'm not a hippie by any definition of the word) that most stereotypes about hippies come from experiences with people who claim to be hippies, but in all actuality are not.
This is just like stereotypes about Christians (and, yes, I am a Christian) or Islamics or any number of other social groups.
Just because a person claims to be part of a specific group or demographic, and no matter how much that pers
Re:fucking sterotypes (Score:2)
My criticism wasn't directed at all hippies; it was directed at the bandwagon-jumping rich Californian-types who played hippie for 3 years in the late 1960s (a good excuse to smoke pot and sleep around, but don't tell me they meant it more than that) then we
Check out stereotypes at San Francisco Chronicle (Score:2)
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/ 08/28/burningfaces.DTL&hw=burning+man&sn=002&sc=89 7 [sfgate.com]
THere is a tremendous amount of diversity at B.M.: Naked hippies on drugs with lots of money, naked hippies on drugs with less money, naked hippies on drugs in the visual arts professions, naked hippies on drugs who are attorneys, naked hippies on drugs who come from other countries, naked hippies on drugs from San Francisco . . .
moron (Score:2)
Right... because lots of companies are in hot water over workers getting RSI syndrome...? The money made from the products they dropped would certainly compensate for any risk. Otherwise, the product wouldn't be worth keeping in the first place. So I submit that you're completely wrong. Either they wanted to put a spin on the dropping of a product that wasn't worth keeping to bolster their already excellent public image, or they really didn't want t
Re:moron (Score:2)
Of was simply economics too complicated?
Look, it's easy to paint anyone as evil if you try hard enough.
They make ice-cream? They're making our kids fat! Bastards
They give 7.5
Re:fucking sterotypes (Score:2)
No. Once you 'realised' (call me a sceptic, but I don't believe that those in power ever seriously believed that) that there were no WMDs, you (or rather, 'we'; I'm from the UK) had already invaded the country. It would have been grossly immoral to leave the country in that chaotic state; doubly so, since the premise of the war was flawed, if not falsified (i.e. turns out you/we didn't have the right to "kick down the door").
Yep, I'm glad
Re:Stereotype? (Score:2)
Other than the that hippie-fied a Mercedes, I didn't see a hole lot that really screamed moneybags. Even the prop airplanes looked pretty old, and old airplanes really aren't as expensive as people seem to assume.
Re:Stereotype? (Score:3, Funny)
Of course not; that's "so four years ago", which I believe I alluded to in the original message.
If they have iPods, they're probably iPod Nanos which are discreetly stored up their left nostril.
Re:Stereotype? (Score:2)
There are plenty of smaller communities where Yuppies are found. For whatever reason when they tire of the city the ALL seem to move to Town X, Village Y, or community Z.
I go to the Philadelphia Folk Festival every year. When I was 8 years old, the concert grounds where the middle of nowhere. Today, the grounds are at the same field, but it's surrounded by Yuppie farms. I wouldn't mind so much, if the neighbors didn't complain about
Re:Stereotype? (Score:2, Interesting)
Here is how the Conversation goes:
Folkfest: "we're going to do it again this year"
Residents: "No you arent, we cant stand the hippies"
Folkfest: "Fine, then the poole family is going to sell the farmland to low-income housing deveolpers."
Residents: "Dont be so hasty... we'll just ignore you for the weekend"
The only reason that section of shwenksville is country-like is because of the poole farm. if that goes, it will be just anot
You got a problem (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You got a problem (Score:2)
How about sunburn? How about fat, old and naked don't go well together?
Ick.
mirror mirror mirror! (Score:2)
http://data.coolnicks.co.uk/burningman [coolnicks.co.uk]
&@%$# HIPPIES! (Score:3, Funny)
(Sorry, had to get the Cartman quote out of my system.)
Seriously though, who really cares about a bunch of brain damaged losers trying to save the world one reefer at a time?
Re:&@%$# HIPPIES! (Score:3, Funny)
Let me get that straight
Hippie Cool (Score:2)
Consider how much computer technology you're using right now that was invented by potsmoking hippies, often naked, though only occasionally in the desert. Then consider how useless and lemminglike are so many of the people who survive a week on the Burning Man Playa (and how useless are those who don't survive). Then consider how unfair to hippies is that comparison.
"Why don't we do it in the road?" [thebeatles.com.hk]
-
Re:Hippie Cool (Score:3, Insightful)
A discussion I once had (Score:5, Funny)
Acquaintance: "Hey I went to Burning Man last week!"
Me: "Why?"
Acquaintance: (stunned by my question) "It's BURNING MAN!"
It's so clear now.
Re:A discussion I once had (Score:3, Insightful)
Meh, one could easily put ...
Acquaintance: "Hey I went to a Shuttle Launch last week!"
Me: "Why?"
Acquaintance: (stunned by my question) "It's A SHUTTLE LAUNCH!"
It's so clear now.
It is entirely possible that for some people it is of a sufficiently cool magnitude as to be self-evident as to why you'd go. Replace Shuttle Launch with Stone's Concert
Re:A discussion I once had (Score:5, Funny)
I agree, but we were talking about Burning Man, so I don't really see how that applies.
Re:A discussion I once had (Score:2)
Meh. I've always thought Burning man looked really cool. And while it's thousands of kms away and not something I'm really ever likely to attend, it's cool to see some of the wierdness that happens there.
Re:A discussion I once had (Score:2)
Re:A discussion I once had (Score:2)
Me: Why?
Acquaintence: (stunned by my question) To test my TIME MACHINE!
I'll bite... (Score:2)
OK. Considering the page is nuked (and consisted of the image equivalent of 1.4E+6 words anyway), what would be a fair description in 100 words or less?
Re:I'll bite... (Score:2)
TBH, it does look kinda cool... (Score:2)
What'd be newsworthy though, is to maybe have an idea of the infrastructure behind such an event, since they have danceclubs in the middle of nowhere, which is kinda cool.
Mirror (Score:5, Informative)
A very technological experience indeed (Score:5, Informative)
If you go to Siggraph just looking to see the people who made Spideman's butt look tight, that's all you'll see - but the hundreds of tiny forums and sessions with researchers exploring the edges of science is both enlightening and frightening.
BurningMan may look like a big party in the desert, but unless you go, you just cant understand the experience. The most striking and important thing about BM is the "gift economy" - aside from ice and coffee, there is no money-based commerce. It's not even a barter economy - you can almost always find whatever you want or need, and quickly find yourself getting engaged in the societal lovefest. Even the law enforcement officers we met (and had to deal with after an assault in a neighbooring camp, a very unusal occurence there) were outstanding examples of restraint and respect. The only time Ive seen that level of public harmony and effort outside of BM has been in disasters, my personal experience being the volunteers for the Columbia Debris efforts and here at home on Houston, the Katrina relief efforts.
That said, technologically, BM is a treasure trove of ideas and thoughts - there are many amazing technologies, it's many of the same people that I saw at Siggraph, but this time using their advanced knowledge and resources to delight and amaze their fellow citizens of Black Rock City.
Siggraph and Burningman - I recommend both heartily and without reservation. Look for the beauty, it's not hiding at all.
Re:A very technological experience indeed (Score:3, Interesting)
Agreed.
The thing that has struck me both the times I've been to Burning Man has been how nice everyone was. In today's all too cynical world, it's surprisingly refreshing to spend a week in a community that encourages people to be friendly and helpful to each other. Maybe it's the fact that the place is just so weird and the desert to hostile, people have more need than usual to be social. Or maybe it's a just an ongoing cultivated culture thing. Whatever, it works, and I like it.
Re:A very technological experience indeed (Score:2)
If you volunteer, you get in for free. So you get everything from RV's with decks on the roof, to folks showing up with a sleeping bag and not much else.
I've been going since I was an infant. (And slightly before.) I really don't kn
Nooooo! You've got it all wrong! (Score:2, Funny)
This is such a horrible misconception. There are many other kinds of drugs available besides pot!
Re:Nooooo! You've got it all wrong! (Score:2)
Yes and.... (Score:2)
"You Must Be This Cool To Attend This Event" (Score:5, Funny)
Imagine two people arguing through a thick mental fog of ecstasy, pot and a little ketamine over the question of which linux distro is more secure out of the box. Somebody would be bound to pants you.
Re:"You Must Be This Cool To Attend This Event" (Score:2)
If you are in a sufficiently stoned crowd that stuff is deep, man.
It's what you make it (Score:5, Informative)
Burning Man is one of those things that's very hard to describe, mainly because it's pretty unique. Trying to stereotype it into a "naked hippies" thing is sort of like stereotyping Slashdot into "geeks who can't get laid" -- probably accurate for a small percentage, but not all that illuminating.
This year was my second time there. It was different, calmer, but that's because of me not the event. Last year was mind-blowing -- and no, I didn't do drugs there (apart from a few random joints and lots of alcohol). This year I spent a lot more time socializing at camps and less time with the art, which left me feeling a bit art-deprived (but not too much).
My impressions of this year? Less dust storms, I almost missed the constant whiteouts. Great art, better than last year. Cool stuff -- a small dome in the middle of the playa with a microphone and software that played harmonics based on the feedback. Hard to describe but very cool. A huge 3d cube "screensaver". Burning windmills. A very moving & emotional Temple, proving size does not matter. Lots of very cool people. The Group W bench (and Math Camp). The Moroccan double-decker bus from the always wonderful Bee People. The Barbie Death Camp & Wine Bistro.
In other words: total gibberish to people who haven't been there. That's the way it is. It doesn't translate, even through pictures.
It's an experience. Most people will hate it, it's not an easy "entertain us!" event for idle spectators and attention-deficit mindsets... and hey, camping for a week in the desert can get tough. At times you could scream about the playa dust getting everywhere. But for the people who love it, it's worth it many times over.
Things I would change: the fucking motorized scooters. Annoying and they raise dust. Get rid of them. Also get rid of the tourists, the people who arrive just before the burn with videocams for shots of naked chicks. I'd tar & feather the bunch of them if I could. Spend the whole week there and get involved or keep out. It's not supposed to be an easy, convenient weekend experience.
Oh, and Center Camp should only sell ice, not coffee. Dammit. :)
Burning Man Festival? Man I was Way Off! (Score:2)
Re:It's what you make it (Score:4, Funny)
So what you mean by "didn't do drugs" is that you did, in fact, do a lot of drugs?
Jamie Zawinski said it better than I could have. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Jamie Zawinski said it better than I could have (Score:4, Informative)
Burning Man is NOT anarchy and has never claimed to be. Its not a free market, quite the contrary. Rules exist for a damned good reason, and this one in particular is supported by an overwhelming majority of participants. Until people think its "cool" for Fox News to broadcast live coverage from the Playa, until people think its "cool" for 2-bit pornographers to shoot footage of naked people for profit, that rule is not going to change. People go to Burning Man to have fun, not to be the animals in a media circus.
Yes, Burning Man is a (non-profit) corporation. They annually raise and spend millions of dollars on the event. They deal with nasty legal problems and miles of beurocratic tape to make it happen. Comparing them to Disney is totally absurd.
If you don't agree to the terms then don't go there. Everyone knows the rules. They are published well in advance on their website. If you don't agree, then don't go. Its called a choice. If you are a pro photographer and you want to shoot naked people in funny costumes without rights-encumberment, then hire some models.
Brum brum brum!!! (Score:4, Funny)
No, I think he went to Birmingham [wikipedia.org] by mistake; that's why he was pissed off.
started in San Francisco (Score:3, Informative)
Not hippies (Score:3, Insightful)
Burning man caused global warming (Score:3, Funny)
dude, man, like... (Score:2)
Anyone says it's hippies smoking pot is wrong (Score:2, Insightful)
My Burning Man article and photos (Score:3, Informative)
Not really tech related, but it offers my virgin experience at Burning Man this year, so some of you may enjoy another perspective.
It comes from my heart:
http://lecter.org/fotos/BM05/ [lecter.org]
Enjoy!
Jim
Understanding (Score:2)
But this is art of the kind that some of us feel deeply within, without even being able to explain just why it touches us.
If there were a Burning Man Europe, I'd be there.
So old (Score:2, Informative)
Best Burning Man Quote Ever (Score:3, Interesting)
Shamelessly stolen from Pigdog [pigdog.org].
Burning Man Art Gallery (Score:3, Informative)
My online gallery is here. [theblight.net]
Truly, the art is largely done by a bunch of geeks -- from the 9x9x9 "display" of ping-pong balls with three LEDs in each that can display any color on the rainbow, running a whole slew of programs that showed off the three-dimensional aspect of the project (Cubatron [theblight.net]) (think rotating planes in the XYZ axes in three colors all at once) to the otherworldly Alien Semaphore [theblight.net], whose light/arm movements were user-programmable through a control panel near the front. Or The Machine [theblight.net] whose top would rotate and arms slowly raise when all three turnstyles were rotated in the proper direction simultaneously through a tremendously complex system of gears. It was all simply incredible.
Re:And the tech is...? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:And the tech is...? (Score:2)
It's just like DDR. But you wear full body flame proof suits while playing, so that you don't get incinerated when the flame thrower fires after you screw up a move.
Re:And the tech is...? (Score:2)
Flame Pendulum - It stand abot 20' high and is swung by the jets coming out of it. Quite impressive once it gets going.
http://www.voltagemagazine.com/galleries/BM05/ima g es/IMG_6309.jpg [voltagemagazine.com]
Some of the art cars made by the Houston art car guys are monstrosities of hydraulics, automotives and burning propane.
http://www.voltagemagazine.com/galleries/BM05/imag es/IMG_6703.jpg [voltagemagazine.com]
This art car is actually a pipe organ that blows flame out of the tubes as they ar
Re:Proving once again... (Score:3, Interesting)
That should weed out the suburbanites from the real pagans (^_^)
Re:Proving once again... (Score:2, Offtopic)
Dear Anonymous Coward,
We are currently unable to fullfill your request as at the moment we are already working at full capacity at our African and Asia sites as well as in Iraq and several other locations.
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Best wishes,
Natural Disasters Inc.
Re:1440 Pictures? (Score:2)
One of the last straws apparently was that a reality tv show was filmed there this year, and a discovery channel-related person was throwing eggs at the crew while it was assembling the man-to-be-burned.
Yet Another Man-Made Meltdown (Score:2)
Re:of course not (Score:2)
Good review, I just wanted to see the pictures. I coul;dn't so I posted such.
Re:One can only hope... (Score:2)
What I do know is that I was surprised when I first went - when you reek (I had to assume I did) of BO, when you smell so much burning stuff in the air (food, fuel, and "other stuff"), when everyone around you smells the same (or weirder) - you quickly stop smelling it. Same thing with the nakedness - when so many people around you are nude, and nobody cares, it is all cool. No problems, no issues - it just "is". Burningman for me was a glimpse into a world o