Burning Man

LAS VEGAS--When you come to CES here, you expect to see computers and TVs galore. Mobile phones, sure. Printer and speakers? Check. But a 50-foot-long mechanical snake?

Though we're in an arid, desert-like Nevada environment (never mind all the cement and golf courses), this isn't Burning Man. But sure enough, just behind the CNET trailer here, Titanoboa is strutting its stuff. And indeed, Titanoboa is a 50-foot mechanical snake.

Created by EatArt, the Vancouver arts collective, Titanoboa seeks to invoke the promise -- or the threat -- of global climate change, and the kinds of things we might start to see happen on this wonderful planet of ours. According to the Titanoboa project page: … Read more

You've probably been a little too busy to have heard, but the world will end on December 21.

Some would say this is not before time. However, many might still be unprepared for the event.

As part of Technically Incorrect's public service program, I would therefore like to inform you that a single alien spaceship is ready and waiting to lift you from the Earth when the apocalypse heralds the last calypso.

I am not sure how many people can slip into the spaceship, but -- given that it is of alien origin -- perhaps you will be … Read more

Burning Man organizers are scrambling to quiet a loud and angry response to its recent ticket lottery, a drawing that resulted in less than a quarter of its most ardent community members getting selected.

And while the organization behind the countercultural arts festival that's held annually in Nevada's Black Rock Desert didn't offer any specific solutions to upset members of the Burning Man community, they did say they are looking for ways to ensure that most artists and others involved in "key" projects will be ensured of being able to attend.

The problem arose after … Read more

Imagine: You're walking down the street at night. You turn a corner, and suddenly, coming your way, you see someone with "Avatar" playing on their jacket.

It's a futuristic notion, but according to the folks at open-source hardware maker Adafruit Industries, it's one that's just months away.

That's because Adafruit has just unveiled Flora, its brand-new Arduino and Arduino-compatible wearable electronics platform. Designed to give anyone the ability to craft a matrix of up to hundreds or someday, more than 1,000 small LED "pixels," Flora is meant to make it possible to easily craft custom wearable multi-LED pixel designs perfect for art events like Burning Man, or even the streets of whatever town you live in. … Read more

There's no telling where you might encounter the U.S.S. Enterprise.

Since 1966 it's been on a many-year mission to explore strange new worlds of the pop psyche, to seek out new life as a pizza cutter or a Halloween costume for a dog, to boldly go where no spacecraft--fictional or otherwise--has gone before.

So while in LA recently, exploring the beachside neighborhood of Venice and its canals (vestiges of the Italianate fantasy the area had been in the early 20th century), we weren't exactly surprised to round a corner and run into our beloved starship.

The Enterprise as a gondola? Why not?… Read more

Here at Geek Gestalt, every day is different. The world of geek culture is broad--sometimes bewilderingly so. A typical year's coverage can easily include stories on everything from Burning Man to Lego, aviation to 3D printing, NASA to tech startups, MythBusters to Pixar movies, and so on.

That makes coming up with predictions for next year in culture a difficult task--but we're here to serve, so that's just we're offering. Of course, trying to settle on just five ideas for 2012 means leaving a lot of things out.

Still, prognosticating culture's next steps meant talking … Read more

I've been going to Burning Man for many years, and each time I've struggled to figure out a good way to make a home in the desert that's shaded, ventilated, stylish, and comfortable.

Over the years, I've tried nearly everything: tent, carport, dome, truck, RV, van, and combinations of all of the above. And I've even finally gotten to the point of making a space that I feel proud calling my living room. People come to visit, there's room for plenty of seating, and if someone wants to make dinner, they can do it. … Read more

I confess I'm a bit anticar these days. Hey, if you need one, you need one. Sometimes it's unavoidable. But I tend to side with those who think that too much of our shared public space has been given over to the motorized monsters.

Still, I'm not immune to a touch of the ohhs and ahhs when it comes to a cool auto. And I readily admit to being seduced by quaint old vehicular contraptions like the cable cars that are so famous here in CNET's home town of San Francisco.

So if I had a spare $2 million lying around, I might be tempted to scoop up a beautiful little gizmo that's going up for auction early next month.

It's the oldest running car, or so says RM Auctions, the house that's overseeing the sale. And as you can see from the photos here, it's a steampunk lover's dream come true. Can you envision puffing down Main Street on cruise night in this black beauty? Or bringing it to Burning Man and quite simply crushing every other "art car" like a grape?… Read more

After 15 years of hard work documenting (and hosting) the development of tech culture, there is one person whom many see at the epicenter of tech culture: Scott Beale.

The founder of Laughing Squid, a company that offers Web hosting to the tech stars (and anyone else), a well-read tech culture blog, a Twitter feed with 100,000 followers, an influential events list, and more, Beale calls himself the "primary tentacle" of his operation.

In a 2007 article on SFGate, he was called "the official photographer of Web 2.0," a title that anyone who's … Read more