“One man drove 12,238 miles across 30 states to scrawl a message that can only be viewed using Google Earth. His big shoutout: “Read Ayn Rand.”
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.”
Newcomen, unlike previous GPS artists, actually travelled the lines he traced on the map. He used a GPS logger (Qstarz BT-Q1000X) to “ink” the message. Starting his trip in Marshall, Texas, he turned on the device when he wanted to write a letter and turned off the device between letters. The recorded GPS data was loaded into Google Earth to produce the image above.
“The first word I wrote actually was the word ‘Rand’, then I went up North to do the word ‘Read’ and finished it with ‘Ayn,’” says Newcomen.
And for those who don’t know, Ayn Rand is a Russian-American writer whose books Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead are among the world’s best-selling novels.
Newcomen’s venture sounds pretty crazy, though he gets points for ambition.
What message would you write using a GPS?”
Read more at Wired (Thanks @XxLadyClaireXx and @UKgnome)
My GPS message would say “Nick Newcomen is an idiot”
Too bad he couldn’t have done it in service of something more worthy than naive laissez-faire capitalist elitism.
Just when you think you have too much time on your hands….
What message would I write?….’Hey, Earth. Why won’t you return our crop circles?’
I’m thinking Derren could use this somehow. Either have someone think of a word, and find that it’s been inscribed on the face of the planet (envelopes just aren’t enough anymore
) or just simply write the message ‘Watch Derren Brown’. 
P.s. Just thought of another one…’Hello mankind. This is God’.
“Will anyone bother reading this”
he scrawls the world’s biggest msg, & it’s THAT?
sheesh. i guess this will discourage all those aliens who’ve been visiting. :/
He could have chosen a less retarded author,
“What message would you write using a GPS?”
A massive “DON’T” across Western Canada.
I’m 150 pages away from finishing Atlas Shrugged. I can’t think of a better sentiment, the world would indeed be a magnificent place if its inhabitants read Rand’s work.
The points Newcomen gets for ambition I’m instantly taking away for his recommendation of Ayn Rand. Teaflax nailed it: “Naive laissez-faire capitalist elitism….”
“Ignore recommendation below. Instead read ‘Hard Times’” I’d write ALL OVER CANADA!
LOL,
I haven’t bothered to look at the author.
Be nice guys, he was thinking of something positive to say to humanity… Atleast.
I’d have to draw a giant cock….
The chapter on Ayn Rand in Shermer’s ‘Why People Believe Weird Things’ is great. It doesn’t necessarily have an impact on the validity of her ideas, but it’s still facinating to see how she formed what is basically a cult based on “reason”.
Concentric circles?
My message would read “Wanted – alien race of toilet cleaners for planet load of Captains Of Industry.”
‘I just died of boredom’ how cna anyone drive for that long?
Ayn Rand considered herself an advocate of reasoning. It occurs to me, that if this follower applied her level of reasoning logic to devise this stunt. Then it is little wonder that she is not well read.
Got it! This is clearly the ultimate way to propose! Imagine going on Google Earth and finding that your boyfriend has written the GPS message ‘Katie, will you marry me?’ and then a few weeks later going on Google Earth to find that your girlfriend has written ‘No’.
Ba-ba-booey
Seriously, though; how bout: “Still working shit out”
“If you lived here, you could be home already”
“Fragile”
Much more easily accomplished using Microsoft paint.
Alan,
Teaflax
“Too bad he couldn’t have done it in service of something more worthy than naive laissez-faire capitalist elitism.”
Cheers for that comment; I am now going to purchase a copy of Atlas Shrugged.
All publicity is good publicity, isn’t it?
Yeah to Tom O’Daighre’s wonderful idea above!
+1
Chris
“dance monkey”
I’d write something like ‘I can see you’ or ‘I’m watching you’ or ‘I’m right behind you’
or something to creep random people out