Polar Bear 1

[spurious]

Zaskoda MIA.....

Anyone notice no word since the Burn?

[Zaskoda]

I'm here... uploading over 150 pictures at the moment... I'm still not really totally here yet though.

[WVvan]

One quick question. I read an article where attendees were complaining of a, in their opinion, overwhelming police presence. Your thoughts? (when you get a chance)

[Christopher Thwaites]

As a former BURNER I am surprised anyone would be "overwhelmed" by one single thing at BM. EVERYTHING is overwhelming at BM at one point or another. That's just part of the experience in my opinion. 51,000 people is overwhelming. I quit going at 24,000. One cannot describe, quantify, or critisize BM. I may go again but I know it will be overwhelming at some point. Nobody leaves the Playa underwhelmed.

[Zaskoda]

Yes, I was very overwhelmed every year... and yes, there were more law enforcement officials on the playa this year than I've ever seen before. The camp across from us was raided with drug dogs. I ran into a lot of people who got busted, but as far as I know they all got tickets. It seems to be purely a profit motive.

Here's my batch of photos (nsfw, boobs):


So... we took our time coming home. I had a surprise rider at the last minute who was in a situation like mine... laid off, recently single, etc. Anyway, we checked out petroglyphs, Austin NV, and Moab on the way back. It took us a week to get back home. I was gone for 3 full weeks.

Polar Bear did really well except those JC Witney door seals I got. The doors are damn hard to close now. I think I need to puncture holes in them so the air escapes more quickly. I had hoped they'd settle in better but weeks in the desert sun weren't enough to get them to mold into place...

I'd tell more stories, but I'm kind of brain dead after editing all those photos... I also need to edit up my video clips from the trip.

Christopher might know what I mean, but it can be really hard coming back to the default world after a Burn.

[saline]

Great photos! Looks like an awesome time for sure. Next year maybe....
Might want to add NSFW on your album, but it's BM so everyone should know better.

[WVvan]

Thanks for posting those. Looks like you had fun. Lot of great photos. Especially this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaskoda...7624834052553/

I've never been through a sand storm before. Do you think you'll ever get all the sand out of the van?

[Christopher Thwaites]

Thanks for the pics and the memories. Looks like a you had a good time. I last went in 1999. There were no police, paramedics and firemen yes but no police.
For an event of this size and scope public safety becomes an issue when participants become unable or unwilling to police themselves.
BM is in the process of finding out what works/doesn't work with regard to law enforcement. A report will be released this fall after this years event is analyzed.
For me, the presence of uniformed, armed police with dogs would keep me away.
I suspect with the evolution of the event to the size it was this year means that some participants have brought an element of lawlessness to BM that is unacceptable. When I went there was no sense of danger from fellow burners. Perhaps BM has evolved to a point it now mirrors the world of today and how we treat each other.

And no, you will never be able to remove all of the Playa dust. It's not sand. It's more like talcum powder and it sticks to everything. When it's wet it's like glue. If you try to drive on it the buildup on your tires eventually reaches your wheel well and you stop moving. Same on your feet...you get taller and taller.

[Zaskoda]

I encountered under cover law enforcement a couple of years ago. They were pretty easy to pick out. I do get the feeling that they had everyone's best interest in mind, but I not real comfortable with it.

I found the police to be a problem not because they were there, but because of the way they presented themselves... it lacked respect. One officer was blocking the lamplighters and when signaled to move, he flashed his badge instead of getting out of the way. Another officer drove around the playa with lights so bright he was illuminating past the man from center camp.

The event is hugely beneficial to the local economy and one of the most responsible events of that size... if not the most... It would have been profound had law enforcement chosen to be respectful of what the event was rather than trying to make a statement of their own.

On the flip side, I heard of no one getting arrested and the only tickets I'm aware of were for drugs. Even for people distributing somewhat harder drugs, there were no arrests that I heard about... I suspect they did arrest some people, but not enough to be caught on my radar.

I'm not sure how I feel about them being there. Honestly, other than being annoyed at how they presented themselves, it didn't seem to effect my experience directly. Still, I honestly do like the idea of people having a safe place to explore some things I consider rather harmless but still seems to be illegal.

Since I've been back, I haven't given Polar Bear any attention. I will soon and I'll start reporting in.

[WVvan]

I hope Zaskoda will forgive me for turning his thread into The Burning Man thread but I just saw this photo and thought it was too cool not to share.

Burning Man 2010 as seen from the vantage point of the GeoEye-1 satellite.




Hey Zaskoda, Where are you in the photo?