Fire, Dust Storms, and Scorching Heat: This Year's Burning Man Sounds Like the End of Days

gizmodo.com ^ | 8/31/2017 | Rhett Jones

[Zathras]

I’ve been to Blackrock but not for Burning Man.
Cool place but once the Playa gets traffic, it can get very dusty.
I was there for LDRS (Large Dangerous Rocket Society)

[Enchante]

It started out as a temporary (one week) Hippie commune/festival for radical artists, has vastly expanded in popularity over the past 30 years, and gets around 70,000 Leftards attending now. Due to my past sins I know some who are regulars there, though I have never been very tempted to try it myself. Nowadays there is a lot of tension between the anti-commercial anti-consumer traditions of the event and the increasing encroachments of ultra-rich people such as tech entrepreneurs, who want to take part but with the highest degree of luxury attainable in that desert:

Burning Man Apparently Took American Class Warfare to a New Stage Last Week (Sept. 2016 article)

[bgill]

Too bad they couldn’t have done something useful and come to Texas to volunteer as rescuers. Nah, their mj joints would get wet.

[mad_as_he$$]

May be a long wait.

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5566/

If they road closes again they will try to send them through Alturas. There are other choices. Freep mail me if you want options.

[Dr. Thorne]

FireNado!

[Disambiguator]

Is burning man a gathering of liberals?

It's a giant pagan ritual. Do the math.

[Ozark Tom]

Sandburn!

[Billthedrill]

The thing's a commercial knockout. I'm thinking of starting something like it this winter up near the ski resort - we're gonna call it "Freezing Man". There'll be a frostbite clinic for the nudists. At the end of it we're gonna have a giant snowman - snowperson, sorry - and melt the bugger with flamethrowers to symbolize all the cares in the world disappearing into a sizzling puddle of ash-tainted slush. Well, I think it sounds inspiring...

I mean, what the heck, if people will pay money to get sunburnt, smothered in smoke, and dance nekkid in the desert, they'll love hypothermia. Anyone turns up missing, we'll find them in the spring. I'm working up a business plan now.