Posted on 08/23/2014 10:15:58 PM PDT by dennisw
There are two disciplines in which Silicon Valley entrepreneurs excel above almost everyone else. The first is making exorbitant amounts of money. The second is pretending they don’t care about that money.
If you have never been to Burning Man, your perception is likely this: a white-hot desert filled with 50,000 stoned, half-naked hippies doing sun salutations while techno music thumps through the air.
A few years ago, this assumption would have been mostly correct. But now things are a little different. Over the last two years, Burning Man, which this year runs from Aug. 25 to Sept. 1, has been the annual getaway for a new crop of millionaire and billionaire technology moguls, many of whom are one-upping one another in a secret game of I-can-spend-more-money-than-you-can and, some say, ruining it for everyone else.
Before I explain just how ridiculous the spending habits of these baby billionaires have become, let’s go over the rules of Burning Man: You bring your own place to sleep (often a tent), food to eat (often ramen noodles) and the strangest clothing possible for the week (often not much). There is no Internet or cell reception. While drugs are technically illegal, they are easier to find than candy on Halloween. And as for money, with the exception of coffee and ice, you cannot buy anything at the festival. Selling things to people is also a strict no-no. Instead, Burners (as they are called) simply give things away. What’s yours is mine. And that often means everything from a meal to saliva.
In recent years, the competition for who in the tech world could outdo who evolved from a need for more luxurious sleeping quarters. People went from spending the night in tents, to renting R.V.s, to building actual structures.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
The rich are flown in on private planes, then picked up at the Burning Man airport, driven to their camp and served like kings and queens for a week. (Their meals are prepared by teams of chefs, which can include sushi, lobster boils and steak tartare — yes, in the middle of 110-degree heat.)
Yep, but they probably donate loads of cash which allows burning man to continue. So deal with it, or no more burning man, idiots.
Do they bring their wives? Or will this cramp their style?
Who cares by what method these guys use to voluntarily redistribute their wealth?
Burning Man 2013 Time-Lapse: Seen Miles Away From A Mountain Top
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNrEqSAviTI
> Do they bring their wives? Or will this cramp their style?
Wives?! Surely you jest. These are super-rich, athiest, liberal types from California. I would lay bets they are probably Sodomites.
Burning Man this year runs from 25 AUG to 1 SEP. I’d rather wait a couple of weeks and attend the XPRS rocket launch (12-14SEP)
http://www.xprs.org/
or attend BALLS 23 rocket launch a week later (19-21SEP).
http://www.balls23.com/
(Note: at the first one some one joked around about the meaning of BALLS - Big Azz Load Lifting Suckers.)
Both rocket launches are held at the Black Rock Desert where Burning Man takes place.
Here’s a launch done back in 2011 at Black Rock that went to 121,000 feet.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvDqoxMUroA
And another launch that occurred in July of this year to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the first amateur launch into space. It went 72 miles the first time and 73 this time.
Launch (the spinning will suddenly almost stop at a certain point.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=001IXnp0ogc&app=desktop
Rocket recovered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF1puP-d_vc
my favourite was when a “prankster” decided to start the burning man fire early
http://laughingsquid.com/burning-man-set-on-fire-early-arson-is-to-blame/
instead of being cool with his expression of individuality, the burners called the Man and had him charged
Burning Man is still a thing?
I consider spending a week in the open Nevada desert in late August to be a good example of having more money than sense, no matter how much money you have.
The night scenes are stunning. Looks incredible on a plasma TV.
There is nothing like “roughing it” with the local aging 1960s hippies at Burning Man like flying in; picking up your chauffeured $3 million, mega, double deck RV with your executive chef; and cruising to the event in style. So what if the riff raff charge for a parking spot for the land yacht, it’s not like you can’t afford it. Besides, there’s no reason to give up creature comforts in the middle of the desert is there? Have some more Bollinger Champagne and Beluga Caviar hors d’oeuvres?
Other than the rich who go to party in their private jets and special acomodations, the rest are frigging worthless communist parasite hippies. Hated them back in the 1960’s; hate them now. Oops, I said hate. Guess Holder’s injustice dept will be knocking on my door. I couldn’t care less at my age.
My husband’s theater company is there. They rented a crummy RV with dicey air conditioning. I’m particulaly worried about a friend of mine who is over 60 and was sort of pushed into attending. Not everyone is a billionaire stoner at Burning Man.
I’m not sure why everyone is bitchin’ about Burning Man - the participants certainly know how to put on an amazing show. I marvel at some of the photographs of the event.
Is there an airport at Burning Man? Most of the people I know who are attending are arriving in Reno.
You can land small aircraft on the Black Rock Desert.
I started hating hippies in the summer of 1967 & see no reason to change that view. Got sent to Vietnam to fly choppers & came back in one piece, thank God. Afterwards came the Sucky Seventies and job interviews with longhaired H.R. punks who hated vets while telling me they had no use for those with combat skills. I went back into the Army.
So yesterday’s hippies of both sexes are now sporting gray ponytails? I hope the rocks fall on them while they are toking up.
Ok.
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