could this be the year that Burning Man jumps the shark? first the man is set on fire, and now a suicide.
despite all the media coverage, i think these 2 events are perfectly natural occurrences and not likely to affect the experience of burners. the real problem may be the 46k person population.
A Burning Man participant was found dead this morning, hanging from the inside of a two-story high tent, according to Mark Pirtle, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Land Management.
The apparent suicide would be the festival’s first in its 21 year history, Pirtle said.
Pershing County coroners are investigating the scene and preparing to remove the body. Pirtle said the man was hanging for two hours before anyone in the large tent thought to bring him down. “His friends thought he was doing an art piece,” Pirtle said.
A makeshift morgue is being set up at the law enforcement command center on the outskirts of Black Rock City. Pirtle said authorities can not release information on the dead man’s name until next of kin is notified.
The incident has gone unnoticed by most of the 36,000 revelers who have already arrived. The city’s population is on pace to hit 46,000, Pirtle said, a fourteen percent increase from last year.
CUPERTINO, California—August 31, 2007—Apple® today announced that it will not be selling NBC television shows for the upcoming television season on its online iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com). The move follows NBC’s decision to not renew its agreement with iTunes after Apple declined to pay more than double the wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current $1.99. ABC, CBS, FOX and The CW, along with more than 50 cable networks, are signed up to sell TV shows from their upcoming season on iTunes at $1.99 per episode.
“We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We hope they will change their minds and offer their TV shows to the tens of millions of iTunes customers.”
Apple’s agreement with NBC ends in December. Since NBC would withdraw their shows in the middle of the television season, Apple has decided to not offer NBC TV shows for the upcoming television season beginning in September. NBC supplied iTunes with three of its 10 best selling TV shows last season, accounting for 30 percent of iTunes TV show sales.
nokia had a press event today and presented a video of this groundbreaking device:
look a little familiar? they’ll get it out to market sometime next year. there’s innovation for ya.
From engadget: When pressed during the Q&A about the striking similarity to the little Cupertino device, Anssi Vanjoki — Nokia’s Executive VP & General Manager of Multimedia — said, “If there is something good in the world then we copy with pride.”
in past years, Apple has announced new iPods in September - in time for Back to School and the holidays. also, retailers are reporting supplies of existing iPods are getting low (which typically happens before new models come out). and also, the iPod lineup hasn’t seen a significant refresh in about 2 years. able to read anything from those tea leaves?
more to speculate about: the image above is of the CoverFlow feature that’s on the iPhone. CoverFlow uses a touch interface, and is not on any current iPod models.
08-28) 11:27 PDT BLACK ROCK DESERT, NEV. - A San Francisco man was arrested on felony arson charges today after the 40-foot-tall “Man” statue whose torching is the annual highlight of the Burning Man festival in Nevada went up in flames four days early, authorities said.
Paul Addis, 35, of San Francisco, was booked into the Pershing County Jail in Nevada on the arson charge and misdemeanor possession of fireworks, Sheriff Ron Skinner said.
Festival organizers, meanwhile, pondered the smoldering remains of the Man and promised to rebuild the big guy in time for Saturday’s regularly scheduled burn in the Black Rock Desert north of Reno.
[Here's something you're not likely to see again: firefighters putting *out* the burning man]
