Tag Archives: 2010

Sep 6 2012

Great Idea for Preventing Bike Theft

Lose your bike on the Playa? So did at least 3000 other people. In 2010, our camp had 12 bikes stolen within the first 3 days. This year, using cheap Wal-Mart combination cable locks, we didn’t lose one. Of course, we picked up a few at the end, as careless Burners abandoned their bikes as our camps like one big MOOPS.

Over at the unofficial Facebook, Burner Mark has come up with what we think is an excellent idea.

Oh!! Oh!! Oh!! Why don’t we start a new idea in our community?!! Since clearly it doesn’t work to tell everyone to lock their bike. Half the folks never do, and then get stuck without theirs… 

So we start saying this: “New Burning Man Rule: Locked bikes are personal property. Unlocked bikes are considered a gift and rideable by anyone.” That way, you can be part of the “gift biking” program (along with all the other “bike gift takers” that come every year) OR you can start locking your bike?!! Everybody Wins!

,,,

Amsterdam’s famous “black bikes”

Burners.Me is all about embracing change, rather than resisting it or bureacratizing it. We also believe, don’t fight battles you can’t win. And that to win without fighting is best. It’s a shame that things have come to this, but this idea would work. Look at Amsterdam – there are so many bikes for free, if you steal one, someone else will just take another.

Forget providing green bikes. Let Burners gift their own – or lock them up, so it’s clear that they weren’t meant as a gift.

Aug 2 2012

Chance Favors the Connected Mind

This is both one of the best TED talks I’ve ever seen, and one of the best endorsements of Burning Man I’ve ever heard. Ever wondered why so much innovation is connected to Burning Man?

 

 

 

 

bliss dance treasure island
Jun 6 2012

After Bliss, comes Truth and Beauty

After yesterday’s rare transit of Venus, we thought it would be good to highlight the work of an artist who supports the divine goddess energy. Bay Area sculptor Marco Cochrane created the amazing Bliss Dance to highlight feminine power:

“What I see missing in the world is an appreciation and respect for feminine energy and power that results when women are free and safe. Bliss is intended to focus attention on this healing power and as 60’s as this sounds….make the world a better place.”

Bliss Dance, 40 ft high, was made by the self-taught artist without the aid of  computers:

Bliss Dance is an original 40-foot sculpture by artist Marco Cochrane. Without the aide of computers, the artist constructed Bliss out of steel rod and tubing utilizing two (2) layers of geodesic triangles, covered by a skin of stainless steel mesh and lit from both inside and outside by 1,000 LED lights controllable by a customized I-Pad application, with spectacular results. Held together by 55,000 welds and supported by six (6), 2.5-inch solid steel rods in the weight bearing ankle. Weighing in at 7000 pounds , Bliss was a manifestation of the artist’s goal to marry the masculine feel of triangles, trusses and steel with the feminine form and spirit.

Although Bliss Dance was inspired by (and created for) Burning Man, it is available for all the world to enjoy at Treasure Island.

Marco’s follow up piece is called Truth and Beauty, using the same model. The statue will be more than 60 foot high. Here’s an interview with Marco about both pieces:

Truth and Beauty was half-finished for 2011′s Rites of Passage, and the torso made an appearance on the Playa.

ephemerisle noodles
May 17 2012

A floating Burning Man on the Sacramento Delta

Ephemerisle is a Burning Man inspired event on the Sacramento River, this year from June 6-10. A number of floating platforms are constructed, with art attached. Need to cool off, or take a leak? Just jump in the river.

We construct a floating city on the Sacramento River Delta and live on it for four days. You could think of it as Burning Man on water, but there’s a lot more to it. Burning Man is now a large, polished, centrally organized, and carefully controlled event. Ephemerisle has elements of Burning Man in the early 1990s: a new adventure into an alien environment, with discoveries, adventures, and mishaps along the way. There are no tickets, no central organizers, no rules, and no Rangers to keep you safe. It’s radical self-reliance. New to life on the water? So are we! We’re figuring it out as we go.

Since there’s no central organizer, the event only happens if people contribute. Here are some things you can do: bring art, give talks, build your own boats and platforms, make music, help build this wiki, go wakeboarding and enjoy being a pioneer.

This event is related to the anarcho-capitalist offshore island Ephemerisle, a plan being pursued by the Peter Thiel-backed Seasteading Institute. It began in 2009, with about 100 people. The Seasteading Institute later backed out when they learned that they would have to pay $300/head for insurance; the Ephemerisle community decided to press on and have the event anyway. Seasteading have now given the Ephemerisle name back to the community.

Ephemerisle 2009, photo by Dav


Originally the event was organized by the Seasteading Institute (http://seasteading.org/) to promote the cultural concept of seasteading – the construction of autonomous floating nation-states – in a hands-on and accessible way. TSI bravely did this event with no insurance the first year (2009).

In the second year, TSI abandoned the event about a month before it was to begin because the insurance costs turned out to be around $300/person. As a community we decided to show up anyway and create an unofficial self-organized event. Despite the lack of central organization, it still worked quite well, and around 120 people showed up and had a great time.

For 2011, there were no central organizer, but things came together great for another Not-Ephemerisle Event.

After the 2011 event, TSI officially abandoned the Ephemerisle name and handed it over to the community.

Wired Magazine covered the event in 2010:

When participants weren’t trading visions of their utopian futures, they floated around and enjoyed art and music. Pirate accordionist Jason Webley and trapeze artist Miriam Telles regaled spectators. Interactive art bobbed beside the boats. And a heady gathering called “Memocracy Conference” gave festival-goers a chance to share radical ideas (or memes) about the future of biotech, telepresence, life extension, secessionism and robots.

373 mile high image ESA
May 3 2012

The History of Burning Man, in one picture

Found this interesting infographic that charts Burning Man’s progress from birth through to 2010. If anyone has an updated version for 2011, please let us know in the comments.

Here’s an interview with the creator of the infographic, Flint Hahn.

Over the course of two weeks, from conceptualization to final graphic design, Flint Hahn, a six-year veteran of the event, put together this infographic. He gathered the data needed from post-event after reports on the Burning Man web site, contacting various departments in the organization, the Nevada Bureau of Land Management, NASA historical astronomy data, online population sources, Flickr, Wikipedia, among a variety of other sources.

Click on the picture to make it bigger.