Being a fast walker is almost a burden in New York City. I'll be walking along, and my thoughts will be interrupted because there's a person in front of me that just isn't moving. Then I have to awkwardly walk around them.... It's kind of neat how crowds sometimes work themselves out. For example, on the escalator, there's a spontaneous convention that people who want to walk up the elevator go on the left, and people who want to stand go on the right. Does this come from fast lanes on the highway? I love walking next to the trains as they rush by. I have already helped several people with directions on the subway. Mostly I can do it because I've just figured everything out, so the difficulties are fresh on my mind. In one of the stations, to distinguish the letters, the announcer (who is so good that she sounds like a recording) says "A as in apple", "C as in Charlie", and "D as in delta". The subway service is okay. Sometimes it's impossible to determine which train to get on, and you just have to try your luck. Also the trains and station are fairly dirty. Often times a train will be delayed. I'm pretty sure the free market could do better. But it definitely gets me around well enough. One day there were so many white people in the subway station that I concluded that they must be in a group. And they were. It was interesting that their style of interaction rang familiar, probably only noticeable because I haven't seen it in so long. I'm definitely a minority here. And they just seemed... happier.
I'm still being surprised at how late and early things open and close. I was up at 8 and didn't think I needed to check if the library would be open. I also learned that free nights at the museums are popular. I got to the Museum of Modern Art .5 hours after free night started, and there was a line halfway down the block. They had barriers specifically for the free-night line.
More thoughts on the subway:
If the American economy is going to collapse, most production is futile. Some production which is not futile:
1) Spreading the correct philosophy as much as possible. This writing or influence on minds cannot be lost as easily, and is extremely valuable.
2) Scientific research. In this great age of information, I do not believe important research will be lost, even in an economic collapse. At least I would know it, and would be able to spread it then.
-Alex Powell
06 January 2009
01 January 2009
New Year's Resolution
On this first day of the new year of twenty-aught-nine, I, Alexander Scott, student of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, resolve to achieve the following goals, for the good of myself, and by implication, for the good of others.
- To become a Scientist. The most mutually beneficial exchange I can make is to explore and discover the deepest truths of the universe, forwarding the development of Science. This goal shall be advanced every day of the new year, and shall become the breath that is my life.
- That I will, in the mean-time of developing my scientific career, create a wealth by other, more immediate, productive means, using my ability to reason to solve problems and create passive income.
- To develop a social network, online and offline, at WPI, personal and professional, to maximize the opportunity for mutually beneficial exchanges.
Turning Over
So on New Years in New York City I decided to go to Times Square. This was fairly fun, and was worth seeing it, but it would have been significantly more worth it if I had someone with me. It was pretty cold, so I didn't head out until 10PM. Mom and Dad, that coat you bought me at MSSM is definitely starting to pay off. The subways were definitely crowded. I got off at 59th street, because the 50th street stop was closed. For reference, Times Square is at 45th street. Then I followed the crowd. There were dozens of police officers around, and they did a pretty good job with crowd control. The line for security check was actually more squished than anything else, probably because it was temporary. It was definitely beyond sustainable human density. After getting through,
there was a lot of open space. But then I walked, and walked, down past 57th street, and this is where I hit the solid wall of people. Again let me illustrate where this is with respect to Times Square.
A is where I was, just outside Carnegie Hall. B is where the ball was. That's about one kilometer away. But I could still see Times Square.
The sidewalks were separated off so that businesses could operate, and people who had hotel rooms or restaurant tickets could get into them. But besides that, it was a solid layer of people. Standing in the crowd for 1.5 hours wasn't that cold, probably because we were all heating it, and blocking the wind. It was said by a few people that toes were the coldest, and my data confirms that. This kind of human density makes me wonder about things like the maximum weight a street can take, or whether the subway was desined with this pressure in mind. There were more foriegn conversations than English ones. Some completely inconsiderate people were smoking. Here's the countdown and ensuing fireworks show. It's taken sideways because I forgot that videos can't be rotated in youtube.
I'm gonna have to say that what happened in Hong Kong was more awesome. The open-harbor location allows for a lot more than does the constricted Times Square.
Makers of silly 200X New Years glasses; your reign is over.
-Alex Scott
there was a lot of open space. But then I walked, and walked, down past 57th street, and this is where I hit the solid wall of people. Again let me illustrate where this is with respect to Times Square.
A is where I was, just outside Carnegie Hall. B is where the ball was. That's about one kilometer away. But I could still see Times Square.
The sidewalks were separated off so that businesses could operate, and people who had hotel rooms or restaurant tickets could get into them. But besides that, it was a solid layer of people. Standing in the crowd for 1.5 hours wasn't that cold, probably because we were all heating it, and blocking the wind. It was said by a few people that toes were the coldest, and my data confirms that. This kind of human density makes me wonder about things like the maximum weight a street can take, or whether the subway was desined with this pressure in mind. There were more foriegn conversations than English ones. Some completely inconsiderate people were smoking. Here's the countdown and ensuing fireworks show. It's taken sideways because I forgot that videos can't be rotated in youtube.I'm gonna have to say that what happened in Hong Kong was more awesome. The open-harbor location allows for a lot more than does the constricted Times Square.
Makers of silly 200X New Years glasses; your reign is over.
-Alex Scott
28 December 2008
Inside
I am currently blogging from just outside the New York Public Library. It's quite a beautiful day, barely even cold, and no snow or water at all. I am sitting between beautiful views of the Chrysler Building
and the under-construction Bank of America Tower.
The library and other buildings shoot above me while the subway rumbles below me. I am being passed by dozens of people and cars per minute.
I'm waiting for an Objectivist meet-up to start. So excited!
-Alex Scott
and the under-construction Bank of America Tower.
The library and other buildings shoot above me while the subway rumbles below me. I am being passed by dozens of people and cars per minute.
I'm waiting for an Objectivist meet-up to start. So excited!
-Alex Scott
26 December 2008
Exploration
On Christmas my first action was to sleep in. 1) I have no money, 2) the only person I love is very far away, and 3) I don't feel any obligation to adhere to arbitrary social conventions. My second action was to go to FAO Schwartz. Just to look around. It was pretty neat, and almost completely full of people, but I think I missed some parts, because it wasn't grand. And the Big Piano was surrounded by people and was being rationed. How lame. I might go back at a less busy time to improvise on it and watch the performers.
Then I wandered into Central Park, which was surprisingly enjoyable in the winter. I absolutely love seeing the buildings contrasted with the natural setting, because I love being reminded how wonderful the city really is. This counter-intuitive comment comes from my recognition that the buildings and city support millions of people, allowing and enhancing their lives, in a way that took untold effort from an untold number of men, acting in accordance with principles of rationality and freedom. I took a video showing the buildings on all sides.
After totally getting lost in Central Park, and taking as long to find my way out as it took to get tired in the first place, it was pretty late. Apparently things are closed on Christmas?
The next day (after some more "The Art of Fiction", which is really high quality), I went to a FREE SCIENCE MUSEUM, known as the New York Hall of Science. Can it get better?? So it turns out this place was really for little kids, but there was still plenty of cool in it. They had an exhibition on "Is there life elsewhere?", which contained very contemporary concepts such as life on Europa, and extremophiles. I was also very impressed by a whole section on networks, a very important and fast-growing subject relating things like mathematics, computer science, neuroscience, and social sciences. Their diverse exhibits included: behavior of groups of animals, a kinetic sculpture that distributed stresses, a floor that dynamically projected a network between the people standing on it, a model of how power grids are redundant,
-Alex Scott
Then I wandered into Central Park, which was surprisingly enjoyable in the winter. I absolutely love seeing the buildings contrasted with the natural setting, because I love being reminded how wonderful the city really is. This counter-intuitive comment comes from my recognition that the buildings and city support millions of people, allowing and enhancing their lives, in a way that took untold effort from an untold number of men, acting in accordance with principles of rationality and freedom. I took a video showing the buildings on all sides.
After totally getting lost in Central Park, and taking as long to find my way out as it took to get tired in the first place, it was pretty late. Apparently things are closed on Christmas?
The next day (after some more "The Art of Fiction", which is really high quality), I went to a FREE SCIENCE MUSEUM, known as the New York Hall of Science. Can it get better?? So it turns out this place was really for little kids, but there was still plenty of cool in it. They had an exhibition on "Is there life elsewhere?", which contained very contemporary concepts such as life on Europa, and extremophiles. I was also very impressed by a whole section on networks, a very important and fast-growing subject relating things like mathematics, computer science, neuroscience, and social sciences. Their diverse exhibits included: behavior of groups of animals, a kinetic sculpture that distributed stresses, a floor that dynamically projected a network between the people standing on it, a model of how power grids are redundant,
many pretty pictures of real-life and important networks,
a web of pulleys that could be manipulated with the wheels below,
This may be my personal favorite part of the museum. Not only is this an important and modern model in mathematics, game theory, and emergent behavior, but it's also really fun! On the computer you could input initial states, or choose from a selection of interesting ones discovered by scientists (including the Glider Gun shown here), and then hit play to see the Game resolve on the large board in front of you. I could play with this for hours.
Another really impressive exhibit for this particle physicist was a one meter square cloud chamber. This showed tracks left behind by fundamental particles in real time. This was awesome to watch because there were on the order of 100 particle tracks at any given time, and you could see distinctly different tracks for particles of different energies. Now I can say that I've seen direct evidence of the particles I've spent so much time studying. I want to go back with a bunch of lead to show that the particles can be blocked, or a radioactive thing to see a bunch of trails explode from it. Or a giant magnet to curve the electrons! How cool would that be!
I ended up staying until closing, but didn't get to see the whole museum, largely becasue an employee stated talking to me after he discovered that I am a physics major. This was okay though. It was interesting to talk to someone who worked in a Science museum, and lived in New York City.
And for the walk home, a very amusing sign.
Another really impressive exhibit for this particle physicist was a one meter square cloud chamber. This showed tracks left behind by fundamental particles in real time. This was awesome to watch because there were on the order of 100 particle tracks at any given time, and you could see distinctly different tracks for particles of different energies. Now I can say that I've seen direct evidence of the particles I've spent so much time studying. I want to go back with a bunch of lead to show that the particles can be blocked, or a radioactive thing to see a bunch of trails explode from it. Or a giant magnet to curve the electrons! How cool would that be!
I ended up staying until closing, but didn't get to see the whole museum, largely becasue an employee stated talking to me after he discovered that I am a physics major. This was okay though. It was interesting to talk to someone who worked in a Science museum, and lived in New York City.
And for the walk home, a very amusing sign.
-Alex Scott
24 December 2008
Drafting
This is where I live!
My first action yesterday was to go read the only copy of Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction" in New York City accessible to me. Which was in Queens. Really far into Queens. This far into Queens.
But this was good because I got to see a whole different neighborhood of New York. All throughout Queens the subway is actually a superway, that is, it's above ground. So I got to see views of Manhattan as we rode away from it, and I got to see lots of brick houses with lots of graffiti. The Queens library was also pretty cool, and different from the other two libraries. It's neat how they each have a personality. "The Art of Fiction" was definitely worth it. It's amazing how much her philosophy explicitly affects her teachings about writing. And it's great to see philosophy in action. On the subway home I started writing a short screenplay. I also almost got severed from my backpack. "Please stand clear of the closing doors." They're serious, people.
After lunch I went almost to the end of Manhattan Island, to see the WTC. After 7 years, it's still mostly a big hole.
It's painfully obvious that there's something missing; it's surrounded by big, beautiful buildings of the World Financial Center, the Deutsche Bank, and others.
(This picture doesn't do it justice.)
Wandering around the perimeter leads you into the World Financial Center, but the only parts you can see are big, beautiful, empty halls and stairways, like the Winter Garden, which has it's own wiki page for some reason. Yes, those are real palm trees.
After that I went to the Rockefeller Center. The centerpiece, the GE Building, surprised me with how attractive it was. Many pictures were taken.
These two pictures together show you the full height of the GE Building from the side. I'm gonna say it's about 100 times more beautiful than the tree.
My first action yesterday was to go read the only copy of Ayn Rand's "The Art of Fiction" in New York City accessible to me. Which was in Queens. Really far into Queens. This far into Queens.
But this was good because I got to see a whole different neighborhood of New York. All throughout Queens the subway is actually a superway, that is, it's above ground. So I got to see views of Manhattan as we rode away from it, and I got to see lots of brick houses with lots of graffiti. The Queens library was also pretty cool, and different from the other two libraries. It's neat how they each have a personality. "The Art of Fiction" was definitely worth it. It's amazing how much her philosophy explicitly affects her teachings about writing. And it's great to see philosophy in action. On the subway home I started writing a short screenplay. I also almost got severed from my backpack. "Please stand clear of the closing doors." They're serious, people.
After lunch I went almost to the end of Manhattan Island, to see the WTC. After 7 years, it's still mostly a big hole.
It's painfully obvious that there's something missing; it's surrounded by big, beautiful buildings of the World Financial Center, the Deutsche Bank, and others.
(This picture doesn't do it justice.)
After that I went to the Rockefeller Center. The centerpiece, the GE Building, surprised me with how attractive it was. Many pictures were taken.
These two pictures together show you the full height of the GE Building from the side. I'm gonna say it's about 100 times more beautiful than the tree.
Doesn't this just scream Gotham?
Here's the GE Building sneaking out from behind the Atlas Statue.
And the Atlas Statue in full.
Here's the inside of the Rockefeller Center. This sign is telling you the floor is wet--with class.
Below this was a subway, so I took it as a sign from Rockefeller that I should go home.
The Rockefeller Center has lots of Art Deco murals and artwork around. Here are a couple of examples.
Here's the GE Building sneaking out from behind the Atlas Statue.
And the Atlas Statue in full.
Here's the inside of the Rockefeller Center. This sign is telling you the floor is wet--with class.
Below this was a subway, so I took it as a sign from Rockefeller that I should go home.
-Alex Scott
23 December 2008
Approach
Recently, before this trip, an Objectivist friend and I determined a very probable cause of my inability to do schoolwork. This is the first time I have been able to attempt to solve the problem by addressing the cause. We considered both that a break from school may help and that it may be best to try to solve it while in school. I'll at least have this break.
So I went to the (science and business) library to do some quantum mechanics. It was a very good-looking library. At the top of the stairs there was a long wavy banner with lots of quotes.
There were more homeless people on the subway today. They're pretty good at making their speeches asking for help. They are practiced, refined, and aimed for maximum guilt. They make it clear that they have nothing to offer but their gratefulness. After reading Atlas Shrugged, it's clear how horrific this is. Afterward I unrelatedly found this quote from Galt's speech that sums it up pretty well.
Suffering as such is not a value; only man's fight against suffering, is. If you choose to help a man who suffers, do it only on the ground of his virtues, of his fight to recover, of his rational record, or of the fact that he suffers unjustly; then your action is still a trade, and his virtue is the payment for your help. But to help a man who has no virtues, to help him on the ground of his suffering as such, to accept his faults, his need, as a claim—is to accept the mortgage of a zero on your values. A man who has no virtues is a hater of existence who acts on the premise of death; to help him is to sanction his evil and to support his career of destruction. Be it only a penny you will not miss or a kindly smile he has not earned, a tribute to a zero is treason to life and to all those who struggle to maintain it. It is of such pennies and smiles that the desolation of your world was made.
It seems I'm not eating enough, but my body isn't good at telling me that I'm hungry. I'm sleeping too much, because I'm getting tired too late. I'll set an alarm tomorrow, because I want to get going at 900.
The Empire State Building is gorgeous. When I see it peeking up from behind other buildings, I am drawn to it. I stand by my statement that it doesn't look as big as I thought, but I'm not sure why this is. The middle section doesn't seem to be as tall. When I stop and evaluate it analytically, it's certainly more than twice as tall as any building around it. Maybe humans aren't used to the distance-length distortion applied vertically. I'd like to see it from the top of another building about halfway up.
I'll visit the top of the Empire State Building eventually. The officials said I can stay up on the observatory deck (including an enclosed heated part) as long as I want, and that I can bring a laptop. I plan to write at the top. Look forward to it.
-Alex Scott
So I went to the (science and business) library to do some quantum mechanics. It was a very good-looking library. At the top of the stairs there was a long wavy banner with lots of quotes.
There were more homeless people on the subway today. They're pretty good at making their speeches asking for help. They are practiced, refined, and aimed for maximum guilt. They make it clear that they have nothing to offer but their gratefulness. After reading Atlas Shrugged, it's clear how horrific this is. Afterward I unrelatedly found this quote from Galt's speech that sums it up pretty well.
Suffering as such is not a value; only man's fight against suffering, is. If you choose to help a man who suffers, do it only on the ground of his virtues, of his fight to recover, of his rational record, or of the fact that he suffers unjustly; then your action is still a trade, and his virtue is the payment for your help. But to help a man who has no virtues, to help him on the ground of his suffering as such, to accept his faults, his need, as a claim—is to accept the mortgage of a zero on your values. A man who has no virtues is a hater of existence who acts on the premise of death; to help him is to sanction his evil and to support his career of destruction. Be it only a penny you will not miss or a kindly smile he has not earned, a tribute to a zero is treason to life and to all those who struggle to maintain it. It is of such pennies and smiles that the desolation of your world was made.
It seems I'm not eating enough, but my body isn't good at telling me that I'm hungry. I'm sleeping too much, because I'm getting tired too late. I'll set an alarm tomorrow, because I want to get going at 900.
The Empire State Building is gorgeous. When I see it peeking up from behind other buildings, I am drawn to it. I stand by my statement that it doesn't look as big as I thought, but I'm not sure why this is. The middle section doesn't seem to be as tall. When I stop and evaluate it analytically, it's certainly more than twice as tall as any building around it. Maybe humans aren't used to the distance-length distortion applied vertically. I'd like to see it from the top of another building about halfway up.
I'll visit the top of the Empire State Building eventually. The officials said I can stay up on the observatory deck (including an enclosed heated part) as long as I want, and that I can bring a laptop. I plan to write at the top. Look forward to it.
-Alex Scott
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