Has Burning Man Jumped the Shark?

A year of bad firsts for Burning Man, well, two of three are bad, the money isn't such a bad thing. Has Burning Man jumped the shark and lost some essential element that it had before it become the thing to do over Labor Day weekend?

First off, concerns about the estimated $10 million being made at this year's festival in the desert.
Second, some dude decided to light the "Man" a few days early.
And, now third, one attendee commits suicide while his friends think he's doing an art piece.

Hopefully that'll be the extend of the bad and the rest of the word from the event is good, fun, creative expression gone wild. Or somesuch.

In other bad news in thirds news,
One, my neighbor two houses up lost Drive and Reverse in their car. My neighbor one house up was able to repair it though.
Two, my neighbor across the drive broke his timing belt and scorched his cylinder head.
Three, my neighbor one house up just dropped $3K into his family car for maintenance and tuneups and then lost reverse today.

Bummer all the way around.

Hey, maybe I'll make a mini Burning Man for the backyard. I'm sure Grady would have fun with that. It has been too long since I used my dryer fire.

Oh yeah, we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today to see the new White Shark in the big tank. They were blowing bubbles up the glass wall to keep the shark from charging it and hurting himself. It was still cool to see the shark. And a sunfish swam right below us, which Grady thought was really neat. But he spent most of the time running from place to place and then running back again.

And then he couldn't or wouldn't go to bed tonight until almost 10. I expect he'll be sleeping in come morning. At least he had better!

Toy Recalls and Executive Suicides

The second toy recall in as many weeks by Mattel was announced this morning and one of the toys being recalled is sitting on my desk right now. Check the site to see if any Mattel toys you've got have been recalled.

Its Sarge from the Pixar movie, Cars.

He, apparently, has too high levels of lead in the paint on his roof or something. Which is interesting because I always thought his character in the movie was the barmiest of the bunch.

By the way, Mattel, trying to pop up ads while navigating your product recall pages is just plain stupid. Unless you're selling a lead decontamination kit and its free, I am most definitely not interested.

What I don't get is why any level of lead in paint is acceptable? Lead does bad, bad things to developing brains. I don't get how any lead paint can be used in any toy, it just makes no sense unless you're a Chinese conspiracy theorist and want to think that they are intentionally trying to dumb down America some more. But that's a little out there.

What does lead add to paint that makes it worthwhile to add? Can it be worth it when one executive has committed suicide over the recall already? And what a statement he has made about taking responsibility for the damage. Can you imagine an American executive doing the same thing? I know I can't, unless he was facing permanent jail time or worse (whatever that could be).

[Update: Here's a link to the government list of toy hazard recalls. Scary stuff!]