h e l l . o r g

This article probably only makes sense to folks familiar with the annual Burning Man festival, which just took place last week, where some guy named Paul Addis took it upon himself to set fire to the eponymous structure early in the week…

“The man burns early” meme has been going around for years and years. Someone finally decided to just do it.

Part of me really appreciates the anarchistic spirit of actually doing it. The burn itself for me is the least interesting, most contrived part of the whole event, but it’s just that sort of “thing” that hangs over you the whole event, sort of a vague anticipation like waiting for the cake to be brought out at a birthday party. It’s the centerpiece of the event, but if it’s the best, most important or memorable part of the party for you, then you’re doing something wrong. So fucking with it, particularly in such an environment like burning man, might be a good thing every now and again, sort of like what ben Franklin said about holding revolutions every now and again, just to keep things from getting too comfortable.

BUT…………………………………………….. he did two canonically, unforgivably bad things with his little stunt: 1) he endangered other people’s lives, and 2) he fucked with other people’s shit. He’s trying to claim that he organized it beforehands to make sure it was a safe, controlled burn with no one underneath there, but I talked with some rangers who were personally involved with dragging people who had passed out[1] under there. There very well could have been lots of deaths because of his self-absorbed disdain, both the people passed out and the rangers who had to run in there to do a search & sweep. I have no faith in his “I organized people on the playa to make sure it was safe” story; trying to organize people on the playa is the very definition of herding cats. Cats on mushrooms, no less.

And people worked long and hard on getting the man up there. Like it or not, that’s their art. Don’t like it? Stay away from the man; look at all the other stuff out there, or just stay home. Start your own counter cultural festival. Don’t break shit you don’t like; make something better. His little tantrum ruined the event for a lot of people in a lot of ways; from the DPW folks who ripped out a full-sized, fully adorned replacement in 20 hours to those of us who didn’t get to see the art and displays underneath, we all had something taken away from us because he had to prove some vague, “political” point about “what the burn ought to be”.  Pissing in everyone’s cherrios is not an effective way to get some point across.  Burning Man depends on the notion of the social contract that people won’t bust up each other or each other’s shit, and it’s one of the rare places on earth where you can have a pretty good chance of people simply and cheerfully following that social contract[2].  I’m tossing around an idea for an art project next year, called the Art Dozer.  Essentially it’ll just be a bulldozer parked in the middle of the playa, fully gassed up and a missive encouraging people to bulldoze art they don’t like.  It’s a social contract similar to the one tested by the folks behind the youniversal trust project[3] in 2006.  Of course, the proper behavior is that no one’s art deserves to be bulldozed, but can all of 50,000 people resist that urge?  Given the number of people who are rallying behind Mr. Addis, I suspect that we as a community now support destroying art that’s not up to our standards, so we might as well make it easy for the tourists.

 I hear a rumor that he may very well be looking at over 20 years in federal prison for arson on federal land. I think that’s completely out of line, but hey, he took the risk (or, to quote his apparent hero, Hunter S. Thompson[4] “buy the ticket, take the ride”) and at this point his fate is well out of his hands. I suspect he will do some short time, pay an appropriatly whopping fine (which his fans will probably pay, anyway), and get a metric shit ton of public service, hopefully doing something that opens his eyes to the fact that there’s a hell of a lot more important shit in the world that needs earnest attention than anything concerning a silly little party in the desert.

I’ve seen a couple videos & scraps of writing by the guy who did it in the last few days since I first posted this missive to a local mailing list, and I’m increasingly unimpressed with him.  Hint:  Being Hunter S. Thompson is cool.  Aping Hunter S. Thompson is lame.  Actively casting yourself as a latter-day Hunter S. Thompson by name while aping the man is fucking pathetic.  Jesus dude, you’re 35 years old.  It’s time to grow a personality of your own, rather than leasing one by the hour from the local rent-a-center.  You probably have no idea how much of a self parody you are; you’re precicely the boring cliche you claim to rise above.

-mike

[1] fucking amatuers.
[2] well, at least until friday, when all the weekend warrior yahoos show up.
[3] essentially, they created a pyramid, covered with currency of assorted US denominations all over it, that people could just peel off and walk away with.  Amazingly, after a week, the vast majority of the money remained, despite the fact that tens of thousands of people had nothing preventing them walking away with all of it.  Cool shit.
[4] apparently he plays HST in a play, called Gonzo.  I was vaguely interested in seeing it beforehand, now I’d be unable to seperate the performance from the lame, half-assed fucktard behind the show.

Americans, it is time to come to the aid of your country.  The time to act is now.  Our legislators need to hear that Americans are increasingly calling for removal of Bush and Cheney from their offices.  Please write your representives.

Email is good, but US Mail is better.

This is the letter I just sent my representative.  Feel free to borrow from it.

The Honorable Jim McDermott
1035 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative McDermott:

I am a resident of Washington State’s 7th district who has been impressed with your leadership over your many years as a representative.  I am now asking you to take a leadership role towards the most somber act that congress may take; to start the process of removing the President and Vice President from office.  The many acts that the current administration has taken that subvert, ignore and show contempt towards this nation’s constitution, its people and our government are well established.  Amidst growing clamor and concern about the growing power of the so-called “unitary executive”, George Bush’s administration has only accelerated a pattern of usurping for itself powers that belong in the hands of the legislative branches, the judiciary, state and local governments, or outside the reach of the government entirely.  America’s greatest fears of a monarchy government are becoming very real today, and we find ourselves in an increasingly grave constitutional crisis.

The founders of the nation gave us a method of resolving this sort of constitutional crisis; impeachment via the House of Representatives, followed by a trial by the Senate.  Far from being a constitutional crisis in and of itself, impeachment is the cure for an existing crisis.  The time for action is now, and America is depending on your leadership to take the necessary steps to start the process and see it through to fruition.

I understand the political realities that make impeachment a difficult process to begin.  Impeachment has been used all too recently as a purely political, partisan tool, and the risk to America of the abuse of this process is great.  However, more and more Americans on both sides of the partisan aisle are genuinely and rightfully concerned about the risks the current administration poses to our nation.  Placing impeachment “off the table” only serves to undermine both our belief that the executive branch exercises respect for law and our belief that the legislative branch understands its role to represent the people.  You, Representative McDermott, have the luxury of representing a relatively “safe” district; we in Seattle will only rally behind you more strongly than before were you to take a leadership role in this.  Americans admire leaders who demonstrate willingness to take political risks for the good of America, and your ongoing leadership has granted you the overwhelming respect of those you represent. It is not enough to use the current presidential campaign as an excuse to avoid the responsibilities of an office in the House; to allow the Bush administration to complete its term in office unchallenged will only codify the notion of the unitary executive.  America cannot allow such standards to remain.

I know that you have similar concerns, and I have heard you express them on numerous occasions, most strongly in your support for H.R 333.  However, it has become plainly clear that the Bush White House is deaf to even the strongest of criticism, and will not respond to mere words.  It demonstrates interest neither in respecting the laws and the spirit of the nation nor in listening to the will of the people.  Given this ongoing petulance, the only solution is removal from office.

Please use your leadership to exercise the will of the people.

Thank you for your years of service

.

This is pure mechanical genius.

I could stare at these for hours, methinks.

Yeah, I’m deliberately trying to avoid the whole Hell theme here, but sometimes the spirit just sort of moves you.

It has been ridiculously hot here in Seattle for the last few days.  Check out this graph of yesterday’s temperature from the University of Washington’s Grey Skies project:

Yeah, it got to within a hair’s breath of hitting 100 degrees yesterday.  The day before wasn’t much better.  This in a region that rarely gets over 90 degrees.  I’m not used to these sorts of temperatures anymore.

I spent most of the day in the backyard, in a geodesic dome, with techno music playing and lit by a dozen strands of christmas lights, and cooled to about 80 degrees using a swamp cooler.  All powered by an array of solar panels. 

Kind of a nice way to spend the day.

The UI for the ridefinder project is pretty much done, at least in a pre-tweek sense.  I’m rather pleased with it in lots of ways; I finally learned me some javascript and working with the DOM, and there are some nice little UI bits.  Essentially I’ve entirely rewritten the code from Noonhat, and I’ve passed the code back to Brian so he can use my work.  It’s a nice UI; clean and simple and clutter free.  I still need to add in some graphic elements around the sliderbars and add in some very basic instructions, but otherwise I think it’s mostly done, main UI-wise.

Tomorrow I’ll start making the server so that it can link riders up with drivers, and vice versa.  I have a prety snazzy UI worked out for that.  We shall see how well it turns out.

The OhMiBod:

From their website:

OhMiBod is a sleek, sophisticated new generation of vibrator that combines elegance of design with the excitement of your favorite music. The audio enabled integrated microchip allows the OhMiBod to vibrate to the beat and rhythm of your music while you listen. Measures 5 1/2″ long (insertable) and 1 1/8″ in diameter. OhMiBod comes with an additional multi-speed endcap for use without an iPod or music player. It really is 2 products in one! Our motor provides strong yet quiet, intense rhythmic vibrations. With polished chrome detail and pearl white body this product is the ultimate iPod acsexsory!

What will they think of next?

I have been told on good authority that it “works well, although it’s a bit loud”.  I suppose you can solve that problem by just cranking up the volume.

“I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job”
–John Wayne, on the election of John F. Kennedy

I never had any expectation that Bush would be anything resembling a competent president, but I never imagined that his gross incompetence could be so disastrous. So, after dismantling the anti-terrorism framework put together by his predecessor, subsequently leaving us wide open for the worst terrorism event in the nation’s, and potentially the world’s history, reigning over two catastrophic wars, appointing as leaders to government agencies a parade of baldly inexperienced cronies whose political beliefs are entirely antithetical to the proper operation of their agency, ceding an entire city to the snakes of the bayou, destroying the credibility and internal morale of our most important intelligence agency at a time in our history where boots-on-the-ground intelligence is needed most by outing an agent and destroying the network she had painstakingly constructed over the course of many years, and then making a mockery of the justice system by effectively pardoning the man who took the fall for that job, there is only one thing left for Bush & Cheney to do.

Resign.

Of course, neither Bush nor Cheney will, because they have no shame, dignity or sense of patriotism.

So I spent last Sunday immersed in the Seattle Geek Culture at the Seattle Mind Camp 4.0.  Met some neat people, saw some cool presentations & projects, and got a little more plugged into the Seattle Geek Culture.  Speaking of which, someone new to Seattle recently asked me about the local geek events and hangouts.  Here, roughly, was my response:
Read the rest of this entry »

A couple of years ago I made a posting to the local Burning Man list that described the state of my preparations for the festival o’ dust.  I had come up with a pretty good prep system, and some folks suggested that I write it up and share it with the world.  So here it is.  It’s essentially your basic, run-o’-the-mill planning process, geared towards the special needs of the frantic burner trying to git ‘er all done.

So, here we go.  Click to read more.

Read the rest of this entry »

Someone out there is going to power-lunch with Warren Buffett.

That’s not what this post is about.  This post is about lunches far more pedestrian and relaxed.

Brian Dorsey recently put together a website called Noonhat, which links people up for lunch.  It has a pleasently simple UI, simply asking you for a contact email address, a day, and a range within the Seattle area that you’re willing to travel for lunch.

And then his code links you up with other folks who match your exacting criteria.

It’s a nice model, particularly in Seattle where we have to deal with the so-called “Seattle freeze“.  People here are pleasent enough, but try to get them to actually open up and connect?  Balderdash!

So Seattle folk:  Lose the tepid attitude.  Lighten up.  Sign up at noonhat!

Maybe you’ll lunch with me!  Maybe you’ll lunch with someone else! Maybe you’ll lunch with a new friend!  Maybe you’ll lunch with a business prospect you would have never otherwise met!  Maybe you’ll lunch with who shares your common love of Balken folk dancing.  Maybe you’ll lunch with someone you would never choose to, but will turn out to be a really neat person in ways you would never know if you stayed in your rut, following your routine.  Heck, maybe you’ll lunch with one of our local billionaires.

Maybe.

You’ll never know unless you try.

Sign up, yo.