Posted on 09/02/2006 6:02:00 PM PDT by wagglebee
Easy...it's simple creative math!
~ Blue Jays ~
"...Just the construction, transportation and burning of the 40ft, 38-ton wood and neon man releases 114 tons of greenhouse gases, the team estimates..."
I guess they also added the impact of all those peculiar people driving and flying to reach the event. Plus the trucks required to haul all that wood into the middle of the desert...simply to burn it.
~ Blue Jays ~
Simple: Count the air it mixes with. Same way a teaspoon of instant coffee "makes" 12 ounces of coffee. Ya gotta be creative.
After I returned to San Francisco from my first Burn in 1996, a hippie friend asked me what it was like. I told him "It's just like the Rainbow Gathering but with gasoline and meat." Best of both worlds, really.
If there are government grants then this is something quite new of which I have not heard. I'd be surprised. The gate fee is quite hefty and pays for everything, so far as I know. People can bust on Burning Man for a number of reasons if they so choose, but I don't think mooching off of non-participants is one of them.
Actually I kind of like the burning man festival. Some oddballs, sure, but they seem to appreciate art. Its also (shudder) a private, capitalistic venture, with expensive entry fees, etc.
I'd be interested to hear of your experience. I think I'd enjoy going, but I have a job.
It is not easy to go to Burning Man. The site is remote and harsh and you must bring everything you need. The only thing you can buy there is ice and coffee. (Seriously.) It is expensive and time-consuming to participate at all, and most who participate have good, demanding jobs. It really cuts down on the day trippers and lookey loos. The level of participation and contribution is astounding. People will bring all of the structures, fixtures, and equipment to create a throbbing, pulsating nightclub on a piece of flat dirt, create that nightclub, and then run it for free, with entertainment and refreshments for all comers and not even say a word about it. Others will create unbelievably beautiful interactive sculptural installations with an ongoing performance component that rock for days, and then culminate their work in the piece's utter destruction by fire. There is simply no limit to what can be done. Each year there are Burning Man threads on FR where the uninformed belittle the burners for being hippies and bums. Nothing could be further from the truth. These are Americans doing their own thing in their own way. We should all be proud of them, in my opinion.
Glad to hear about this event from your boots-on-the-ground perspective. What percentage of Burning Man attendees do you estimate voted for conservative candidates during the past decade?
~ Blue Jays ~
What other semi-interesting sub-cultures like this are there one can participate in? Parrot-Heads (Buffet fans)? Phish-heads? Motorhome (especially Streamline) enthusiasts? Volkswagen buffs? Mary Kay cosmetics cults? ...others?
These Greens are the worst sort of liberal. Any kind of fun is bad. I am starting to use the term liberal fundamentalism. A de facto religion. And one of the tenets of this religion is that any form of enjoyment is a sin, and everyone must be miserable. Sound familiar? What's next, the Greens distribute burkas?
Highly unlikely that you would find me at Burning Man. However I would not be surprised to hear that some libertarian types go there.
They helped GWB to win, by voting for Nader.
When someone spills their hot coffee will they be able to file suit?
I see no reason to be "proud" of someone doing their own thing in their own way. They should feel proud that they live in a country that tolerates them.
Suit yourself. As for me, I often take pride in the accomplishments of my fellow countrymen, whether it is in the arts, or music, or sports, or industry, or science and technology, or whatever. Yes we have a great system, but it is great people who accomplish great things. And I feel that Burners need and receive no "toleration" above what baseball players or software industry executives do, e.g.
Probably about the percentage you'd expect from young urban west-coast hipsters, artists and yuppies, which is to say very few.
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