This Country Has Ayn Rand Written All Over It

Peter Suderman | August 13, 2010

But where to start? The Fountainhead? Atlas Shrugged? Anthem? How far would you go to tell people to read Ayn Rand? For Nick Newcomen, the answer is measurable down to the mile: Newcomen drove 12,238 miles across 30 U.S. states to pen a message using GPS tracking that can only be read using Google Earth. The message? “Read Ayn Rand.” Here’s Gizmodo with the story:

Nick Newcomen did a road trip over 30 days that covered stretches from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean. First, he identified on a map the route he would need to drive to spell out the message. He put a GPS device in his car to trace the route he would follow. Then, he hit the road.

"The main reason I did it is because I am an Ayn Rand fan," he says. "In my opinion if more people would read her books and take her ideas seriously, the country and world would be a better place - freer, more prosperous and we would have a more optimistic view of the future."

Lots, lots more from Reason on Ayn Rand here.

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spur|8.13.10 @ 1:54PM|#

Its a little known fact AR got poor marks for penmenship in Mother Russia and was one of the major reasons she left the country - this guy obviously is so in love with her he's copied her poor handwritting - next project - READ AYN RAND in Cyrillic in brighton beach

|8.13.10 @ 2:35PM|#

Oh, of course Warty. Rand took the WPA dough, too. All to write prose so purple, it was Tennessee Williams before Williams decided he could stick to guys. But these Rand groupies will never unhand their cranks. Take this Newcomen; I'm amazed he could stand to be out of his rented basement at Mom's to pull this sophomoric stunt off.

|8.13.10 @ 3:33PM|#

Would someone please explain how a narcissistic Russian speed-freak with her own personality cult became the face of liberty in the US? That never made sense to me.

Her books don't even do that good a job of promoting libertarian ideals. Her depictions of life in a collective, totalitarian state are dead-on. But her take on capitalism probably turned more people to socialism than Marx did.

Give me Madison, Mason or Smith any day.

Jesse Walker|8.13.10 @ 1:08PM|#

If past is prologue, I suppose we'll now see a big GPS flame war between the Randians and the Scientologists.

Almanian|8.13.10 @ 1:15PM|#

...and that will be awesome

|8.13.10 @ 1:10PM|#

It's our inane obsessiveness that makes us the laughing stock of the entire Orion Arm.

Jeff P|8.13.10 @ 1:27PM|#

I'm think those letters in that order actually spell out something in an alien language, like in Hitchikers Guide.

|8.13.10 @ 1:30PM|#

Anti-Matter Dump.

|8.13.10 @ 1:31PM|#

"Free Snacks."

Urkobold™|8.13.10 @ 1:47PM|#

SHOW US YOUR ALIEN TITS!

|8.13.10 @ 5:13PM|#

To our coming alien overlords:

I AM NOT WITH THESE PEOPLE. NOT ASSOCIATED.

|8.13.10 @ 1:28PM|#

At least it wasn't "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine."

Jeff P|8.13.10 @ 1:29PM|#

"Burma Shave"

Tb|8.13.10 @ 1:10PM|#

This is just amazing. I am happy, jealous, and proud all at the same time.

Hugh Akston|8.13.10 @ 1:15PM|#

This is actually pretty cool.

|8.13.10 @ 1:20PM|#

With your handle, it would've been funnier if you'd said "Loooser."

I wonder what sights he got to see on this convoluted path?

Jeff P|8.13.10 @ 1:23PM|#

I'm gonna hire a band of mexicans to add "(just the non-fiction)" below the border.

|8.13.10 @ 1:23PM|#

"The main reason I did it is because I am an Ayn Rand fan," he says.

No shit.

|8.13.10 @ 1:24PM|#

Good thing he wasn't a big Guy de Maupassant fan.

Ron Paul|8.13.10 @ 1:25PM|#

I heard he wanted to do Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises but settled on Ayn Rand. Don't know why.

|8.13.10 @ 2:30PM|#

He wrote about Rand and eschewed Mises because the latter requires one to be able to read at grade level.

Jeff P|8.13.10 @ 1:25PM|#

The freemasons have been secretly scribing arcane runes and glyphs across the continents with torches and virgin blood for centuries. The elder ones are already on their way.

|8.13.10 @ 1:50PM|#

And boy! Do I ever have writer's cramp!

Tim|8.13.10 @ 1:26PM|#

Sugarfree must never learn of this technique.

|8.13.10 @ 1:46PM|#

Too late. I will write "SHITCOCK" on North America. Or maybe just Canada.

Hugh Akston|8.13.10 @ 1:57PM|#

I was under the impression that the shitcock is Canada's national bird.

Brett L|8.13.10 @ 2:06PM|#

Mosquito.

Jeff P|8.13.10 @ 1:30PM|#

I should add, here, that I have been peeing the exact same message in the snow in front of area churches for years now and Wired has yet to do a story about me.

Jozef|8.13.10 @ 1:32PM|#

I'd envy him if he didn't have to drive through Mississippi and Louisiana...

Law Student|8.13.10 @ 1:54PM|#

Hey when you stop for gas in Louisiana you can pick up some jack daniels at the same time to ease the drive. That's not so bad.

Ragin Cajun|8.13.10 @ 1:56PM|#

Yeah, but you have to get out of the car to get that. Much easier to get daiquiris.

¢|8.13.10 @ 1:36PM|#

It's also a map of places where "I'm tracing READ AYN RAND across the continent with my GPS logger" has horrified a friendly stranger.

Fist of Etiquette|8.13.10 @ 1:42PM|#

He was trying to write "DON'T READ AYN RAND" but ran out of US, and Canada wouldn't let his GPS gadget across the border, the hoser.

Tim|8.13.10 @ 1:44PM|#

He wisely stayed completely out of the northeast.

joe|8.13.10 @ 2:13PM|#

How many interstate highways does that include?

Warty|8.13.10 @ 2:23PM|#

Not only that, but he was using public roads, while the nation was being protected from invasion by the US armed forces. Ayn Rand is disproved!

Fucking shitclown.

|8.14.10 @ 12:01AM|#

I've never met a Randroid who actually made enough money to rent their basement from Mom... most just freeloaded.

joe|8.13.10 @ 2:45PM|#

I make GIANT MR. POOPY! Honka-honka!

kilroy|8.13.10 @ 2:25PM|#

Doing this in crop circles would also be cool.

MWG|8.13.10 @ 2:25PM|#

Meh, I could've done the same thing with MS Paint.

bohica|8.13.10 @ 2:27PM|#

He does the entire thing in capital letters except he cheats on the "n"s to save a few hundred miles? Slacker.

Bee Tagger|8.13.10 @ 2:31PM|#

I don't understand why you all see this, phonetically, as Reed instead of Red. I see this as the ultimate in literary snobbery.

|8.13.10 @ 2:32PM|#

Why would he tell us this? Her books suck. I guess to justify the time he wasted reading her by convincing space aliens to read it.

Birds and rocks and things|8.13.10 @ 3:41PM|#

... of course, if he were smart, he'd just have figured out the way the GPS recorder's files are written and hacked up his own data saving thousands of miles of boredom, wasted time, and gas money.

|8.13.10 @ 3:54PM|#

I would have done "Don't Panic", in large friendly letters.

kilroy|8.13.10 @ 4:13PM|#

Win!

Laura|8.14.10 @ 2:24AM|#

...but...not everyone agrees with Miss Rands perspective, if we all did we would cease to be a unique and interesting county.

Kevin Raffay|8.14.10 @ 2:36PM|#

Writing "Who is John Galt?" would have been more clever.

|8.14.10 @ 6:13PM|#

At least he actually made a statement, a lot more than most here! My wish is to live to a 'C' and watch the pity people suffer and whinge.

|8.15.10 @ 3:28PM|#

Guy must hate libertarians - he wants more people to read the author that will turn people off libertarianism forever.

Jerk.

e'|8.16.10 @ 3:52AM|#

good

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