The news after the event has happened. That's normal these days. There were no headlines over the weekend for the Burning Man Festival It was Aug 25 - Sep 2.
Looking at the pictures, it certainly takes up a vast expanse of desert. In fact what it seems to be is a fantastic photo opportunity. Great pictures everywhere - and everywhere included more than 70,000 people. There have been some celebrated artists involved in the sculptures. The first Burning Man was 8 feet on Baker Beach near San Francisco. In 2019 it was an astonishing 61 feet high.
The theme this year was Curiouser and Curiouser. That's a reference to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Can you imagine that this is 38 years old now?
I've made the first mistake. It is not a festival. It says that: "It's a city wherein almost everything that happens is created entirely by its citizens, who are active participants in the experience."
The website is HERE. It is more interesting to watch one of the video - it looks like a 1960s event! The title is Sparkly Things and Fire at Burning Man 2024. If you want to see the "burning man" this is the video HERE. A lot of fireworks - I expect way more than Niagara Falls. And then of course -the 61 feet or more of burning man burns.
Potholes are emerging. Traditionally potholes develop in later winter / early spring when nighttime temperatures are below freezing and daytime temperatures are above freezing. The temperature cycle results in several freezing-thawing that causes potholes.
So our mild winter is like spring, and we can look forward to an extended pothole presence. In 2019, the City of Toronto fixed a record 110,595 potholes in time for spring. The "Pothole Promise" is that the City will repair potholes in four days from the date they are reported on the busiest roads.
There are large potholes in the landscape. I found a picture of a large pothole at Foster's Flats in the Niagara Glen. "This Pothole was formed in the ancient Niagara River Bed, now Wintergreen Flats. Later the rock layers around it were undercut causing it to fall to the terrace below." The most famous is the Devils arch.
Claims of the largest glacial Pothole comes from Eynon, PA - found by miners in 1884. It is located in the Archbald Pothole State Park. It is 38 feet 11.6 m) and 42 feet (12.8m) wide. Right near WilkesBarre are the Seven Tubs - a series of potholes.
Back to roads, I went looking for the largest potholes ever. Britain' Guardian led the headlines with a pothole so large that the council road repair van became stuck in it. It was 10 feet long. Then there's Detroit's claim of Pothole patrol: We find the biggest and deepest. They sent junior journalists out to find and measure the biggest.
A novel approach to potholes comes from Russia a few years ago with Russian activists painting mocking caricatures of local officials over gaping potholes. Here's the link HERE. They call it "road shaming".
Our pretty picture comes from my workshop a few years ago, learning to do macros of water drops.
