Several pieces of news and info for you on this June afternoon - the 2007 Afterburn Report, the latest info on the arson, and a few notes from around BMHQ.

Yes, the 2007 Afterburn report is ready for the world! This comprehensive post-burn report is our annual soup-to-nuts rollup of everything it took to make Burning Man in the previous year, and the 2007 report is fresh from the oven and linked at Afterburn.burningman.com.

With dozens of teams reporting, plus the annual Census results, we hope this report helps to answer the question, “What do those Burning Man staff and volunteers actually do, anyway?” and gives you some insight into the inner workings of your other “hometown” in Black Rock City.

Indeed, if you’ve ever wondered why the Placement team made the blocks smaller last year, what the Earth Guardians do year-round, or what percentage of Census respondents really do say that Black Rock CIty “feels like home” to them, check it out.

In other post-2007 news, we’ve heard a report from Pershing County, where Paul Addis’s restitution hearing and sentencing were held yesterday afternoon. Addis recently pled guilty to charges related to setting fire to the Burning Man figure days early at last year’s event. At yesterday’s hearing, the judge found evidence beyond a reasonable doubt showing the damages were in excess of $5,000 and thus Addis was convicted of a felony arson charge. After hearing Addis speak on his own behalf, the judge sentenced him to 12-48 months in prison and ordered him to pay $25,000 in restitution. (EDITOR’S NOTE: the preceding paragraph has been updated to add corrected information on the exact charge to which Mr. Addis pleaded.)

We’re also told that our three staff members who are at Glastonbury in the UK are studying their infrastructure and operations and planning to send back a report from the field soon for the Blog, so stay tuned here for that. The population numbers at Glasters make BRC look downright small-town by comparison, so we just bet they’re going to learn a thing or two from their organization, and it’s always interesting to hear about how many Burners our folks run into at other events (see also the Bonnaroo stories from earlier this week). Meanwhile, around here at HQ, the Survival Guide stuffing begins tomorrow, which means yours will be on its way soon. Wow, right? We’re really getting there!

Hope you’re loving the new blog. We’re loving you loving it, and thanks for all your comments! We’re enjoying hearing from you all, truly truly. (BTW, if you haven’t commented yet, you might want to visit our Comments policy and check that out in case you’d ever like to leave a little note on any of our posts.)