( Read more... )

A few years ago I had a girlfriend who told me about "mumia critical mass". Any given political protest over a certain size M will have at least one person advocating for freeing Mumia. On one hand their group shows remarkable organization, and I can understand why they'd be incentivized to do this, but they're not exactly doing the protest's real ( Read more... )

It was no coincidence that Burning Man started as a campout in the middle of what may be the most inhospitable, least-civilized, least-habitable place in the continental United States. The early days of Burning Man felt like you were back in the Bronze Age living a life of "radical self-reliance" living with only what you could carry with you. ( Read more... )

I started going to Burning Man in 1995 or so, back when there were 5000 participants and not very much in the way of planning. Everyone would just drive in, find a place, and set up your camp. I think there were outhouses and a perimeter at that point, but that's about it. Living in the desert really felt like you were living in the desert. The ( Read more... )

Back in 2001 the US Government had a problem. Terrorists had attacked two major cities in a violent and terrible way that shocked the world. In a hasty reaction the White House drafted the Patriot Act providing the government with sweeping new powers, supposedly to protect our nation and its citizens from further attack. But they didn't just use ( Read more... )

http://www.flickr.com/groups/lolburners/

Make your own if you feel like being funny. Tag:lolburner.

(This is totally rwx's idea which I have shamelessly stolen.)

Last year my friend "Bounce" was killed by a car while trying to help the victim of another car accident.

Today I learned that Bounce's widow has just lost her legs in a freak Austrian train accident. I wish I was making this up.

This just in on the Burning Man tribe ( Read more... )

This year's Burning Man featured live TV coverage of the burn, which seems to be the most overt violation of the "no spectators" policy possible, put on by TV Free Burning Man Public PlayaNet internet access mocks pranks from previous years where people pretended to be talking on cell phones. As mentioned previously, what was called the ( Read more... )

Spoken by office ladies at a friend's workplace:

"I read in the L.A. Times about The Burningman. Apparantly they had 37,000 people this year!"

"Wow, I was expecting only 30,000!"

"What was it?"

"The Burningman. Its a big arts and crafts show in Nevada."

This year's Burning Man theme is "Hope and Fear", represented by this illustration on the ticket:


( Read more... )