I was walking towards Times Square from Pier 83 (around where the USS Intrepid is, cf. prior entry), when I saw a crazy man kicking a guy seriously in the crutch. I reported it to the Police, and he is, fortunately, behind bars now thanks to my continuous shooting of the incident.

Nah, just kidding. This is a setup scene – but you must admit – it is a little funny.

Finally, here’s your “City by Night” picture, albeit it is not the view from Brooklyn, but from the top of the Empire State Building. You will get views from Brooklyn later, don’t worry… on those you will also be able to actually see the Empire State Building, which is one of the flaws by taking a picture from the Empire State; but hey, you can’t have it all.

As I mentioned before, the view is from the top of the Empire State Building when looking South. On the far left, you can see Manhattan Bridge and Brooklyn Bridge close to each other (recall the picture of Manhattan Bridge from the other day). The road starting in the bottom of the photograph turning left and crossing Manhattan is Broadway. Once upon a time you would have seen the Twin Towers in this picture.

If there is something that has always fascinated me, it must be hangar ships. They are enormous – populated by app. 6,000 people when at sea. Even though these ships seem very long when you walk on their deck, they are very short to land a jet plane on, but somehow the pilots manage.

Yesterday I was on board the USS Intrepid (pictures above and below), a hangar ship, which served just before and during WWII, during the Vietnam War, and during the Space Race. During WWII, the USS Intrepid was attacked numerous times by Japanese Kamikaze pilots, but survived all attacks, however, at casualties.

Today it is an Air Space museum complex, consisting of the hangar ship itself, the USS Intrepid, another military ship, a submarine, numerous aircrafts on the deck of the Intrepid and the Concorde (below).

I made some remarks on 9-11 before, in conjunction with the picture of the New York Stock Exchange. 9-11 comes to the surface again, when you are on board the USS Intrepid; on the ship, a (short) film about 9-11 and the aftermath is running every half-hour. The main focus of the film is the US Forces stationed abroad, and what they do to defend freedom and America, which, to some extent anyway, tells us something about how much this event still represents in the mind of an American – which, by the way, is also reflected in the Presidential Campaign.

As mentioned before, New York is much more than just Manhattan, and yesterday was my second time off of the skyscraper island. Me and two friends went to the Museum of Modern Art, which temporarily has moved to Queens, while their premises on Manhattan are being renovated. This meant that their enormous collection had been down-sized considerably, however, it was very interesting with both a very, very, very modern art exhibition – I cannot show you pictures, because we were not allowed to take pictures in that exhibition. Neither could we take pictures of the very fascinating “Tall Buildings” exhibition. But, we were allowed to take pictures from the remaining exhibitions (which amounts to exactly one), and below you can see a photograph from where we allowed to photograph.

MoMa, as they call themselves, will reopen on Manhattan end-September, if any of you should be interested ;-)

It is almost midnight – I have watched President Bush’s speech at the Republican National Convention (see one of my prior posts to learn more about the conventions). It was a good speech – it is going to be even more exciting when we get closer to the elections – I am looking forward to establishing the difference between the candidates even more firmly, and I’ll try to pass my knowledge on to you (as objectively as possible), when I know more.

What I really wanted to say was that, actually, I find that New York is more quiet than, for instance, Copenhagen, when it comes to sirens. I hear sirens much more often in Copenhagen than I do here in New York. I think, but this is my own theory, that they have a “minimum siren policy” – because when they turn it on, they quickly turn it off again – and sometimes this results in a siren “rap”, when they turn it on and off quickly in a row – but, still, in minimizes the use of sirens.

Just a note. Good night.

I would have liked to entitle this entry “New York City by Night”, but my camera ran out of battery before I got to the other side of the East River (I was walking on Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan to Brooklyn)…so I didn’t get any city pictures – another time then. Anyway, my camera ran out of battery, but luckily I got a picture of Manhattan Bridge, below, which, like Brooklin Bridge, connects Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Manhattan and Brooklyn are both part of New York City, as are Staten Island, the Bronx, and Queens. So New York is much more than just tall buildings; at my earliest convenience I will try to visit some of the outer boroughs and give you an impression of the state of the city.

One of the first nights in New York, when I was staying in the Financial District, we walked a lot around downtown. Below, is a picture of the New York Stock Exchange. What is not apparent from the picture, is the rather heavy security in that area, and that building in particular. On Wall Street we were told not to photograph certain buildings.

The large flag covering the entire front of the New York Stock Exchange was put up after September 11, and has been there ever since, which is quite symbolic. I have yet to find out more about how New Yorkers feel about September 11, now three years after. I will get back to you on that one.

While I have been in NYC, not a single day has passed by without a Zeppelin hanging above the city – well, if one can do it. The one you have a snapshot of here below, even has an NYPD (the police) ad on it (albeit a small one, just underneath the FUJIFILM sign).

For those of you who want to know more about these airships or Blimps as they’re also called, go to HowStuffWorks.

Well, I do not know whether my headline is entirely correct, still, Lonely Planet calls crime figures historically low, whereas other guidebooks say that they are the lowest in 30 years. One of the drivers behind these low crime rates was former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (you may know him from the press around September 11, biography), who, according to nyc.gov, reduced crime by 57 pct and murder by 65 pct. In fact, also according to nyc.gov, the past five years, FBI has called NYC the safest largest city in the US.

Also, in the Sunday edition (August 29) of the New York Times, it says that of the 230 cities with more than 100,000 residents, NYC ranks 211th in crime rates; having 2,000 murders a year – the same as Chicago……. but Chicago has less than half the inhabitants that NYC has.

Today was the day, when I had to move out of the very nice Hilton on the Southern tip of Manhattan – going uptown to Midtown – where my dorm is situated. Below, you can see a picture of it from the outside.

I live on the 20th floor in a two room apartment (small apartment) with four guys – two from Bocconi University in Milan (probably among the best 10 business schools in Europe) and one Swede, which studies in Manchester. The dorm is filled with “normal” NYU (New York University) students, and it is very fun to chat with them in the common areas. New Yorkers are very friendly indeed, and I think I will make another post later today or tomorrow coming up with numerous examples of how friendly New Yorkers are. Back to the subject matter; me moving. So, to give you an impression of my room, I have attached two pictures below, which is from the inside of my room.

From my room I have a terrific view. I can see the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building.

I have about 20-25 minutes to school from here (by foot and by bus) – but maybe it will get worse, when I travel in rush hour. The neighborhood in which I live does not really have a name – and all the taxidrivers and locals I have spoken to thus far have not been able to help me out, but it is North of the East Village (which is the most criminal part of town; however, there is not much crime in this town – I’ll make another post on this later), East of Chelsea and the Flatiron district, and South of Midtown. Maybe these names do not make much sense to you, but it gives you an impression of the fact that New York is composed of many small cities within the city. Put more down to Earth, I have a 10 minute walk to the water on the East side.

I will talk to you later – feel free to comment or ask through this website. If you need my address, just e-mail, as I’m not super inclined toward posting it online ;-)