I had never seen a Fisher Karma automobile before yesterday – but there they were – three of the gorgeous vehicles parked on a street near the Willis Tower in Chicago.  Just wish I could have driven one of them.

I recently signed up to receive an “Image of the Day” from NASA.  How fitting that a rare second Full Moon of the month, known as a “Blue Moon,” could be seen over Cincinnati on Friday, Aug. 31, 2012.

The family of Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong held a memorial service celebrating his life earlier in the day in Cincinnati. Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon during the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, died Saturday, Aug. 25. He was 82.

Meme: “an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture.”

The Wikipedia article on Meme further states:

A meme acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena. Supporters of the concept regard memes as cultural analogues to genes in that they self-replicate, mutate and respond to selective pressures.

The book I recently finished, “The Information,” devoted an entire chapter to the meme concept, with an intriguing title, “Into the Meme Pool (You Parasitize My Brain)”.  The chapter starts by quoting Douglas Hostader:

When I muse about memes, I often find myself picturing an ephemeral flickering pattern of sparks leaping from brain to brain, screaming, “Me, me!”

Jacques Monod, the Parisian biologist who shared the Nobel Prize for working out the role of messenger RNA in the transfer of genetic information opined that memes were somehow independent of the organisms (we humans) who create, distribute and alter ideas:

Ideas have retained some of the properties of organisms.  Like them, they tend to perpetuate their structure and to breed; they too can fuse, recombine, segregate their content; indeed they too can evolve, and in this evolution selection must surely plan an important role.

I can’t quite buy into the philosophy of memes being the controlling entities looking for willing hosts in which to perpetuate, morph and re-launch themselves, but there is no doubt that memes can quickly emerge, travel and transform rapidly into new memes that capture the popular consciousness.  The empty chair meme, launched by Clint Eastwood at last week’s Republican National Convention (or was it the other way around), has taken flight around the world in many forms in a few short days.

I didn’t put an empty chair in my front yard or otherwise take part in today’s “#EmptyChairDay,” but find it intriguing how quickly this meme has spread.  Just take a look at Google images for “empty chair“:

So, if you have some time, pull up an empty chair and have a chat with the President.  And of, course, publish a photo of your conversation on Facebook!

Great quote from an article about Apple’s near $700 stock price:

Will the iPhone in 50 years look like so many tail fins on those old Cadillacs?

It is hard to imagine what the next 50 years will bring in technology innovation, but I think it is a safe bet that the the iPhones of 2012 will seem like quaint relics of the ancient past when viewed from that distant vantage point.

I just finished reading a fascinating book, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood, by James Gleick.  My two favorite statements in the book occur in the first chapter and the last:

The first statement is attributed to Claude Shannon, who is generally recognized as the father of information theory.  He wrote a letter to a colleague in 1939, which included this explanation:

I have been working on an analysis of some of the fundamental properties of general systems for the transmission of intelligence.” (emphasis added)

Although “information” has been accepted over “intelligence” as the commonly-used term in this area of science, the concept of transmitting and receiving intelligence has long fascinated me – from a scientific perspective because of my chosen profession and from a theological perspective related to the revelation of intelligence from God to man.

The second statement comes from Gleick himself in the final chapter, as he opined ever so succinctly on our life in an information-overloaded society:

The truth seems harder to find amid the multitude of plausible fictions.

I highly recommend the book. It is, as a USA Today writer stated, “Like the best college courses: challenging by rewarding.”

“I think we’re going to the moon because it’s in the nature of the human being to face challenges. It’s by the nature of his deep inner soul… we’re required to do these things just as salmon swim upstream.” (Neil Armstrong, 1930-2012)

When I was a little boy, my first career choice was Astronaut all the way.  The engineering thing came later.  In fact, my earliest recollection of being reprimanded at school was for stealing extra paper so I could draw rockets and space ships.  So, in every sense of the word, Neil Armstrong and his compatriots were my heroes.  Paradise gained a great man this week.  We who are left behind are much better people for what Neil Armstrong and the space heroes contributed to us all.

Plus … You’ve gotta admit.  That is one cool airplane!

I couldn’t help but see the irony of the two leading topics in the “Evening Wrap” email I received from the Wall Street Journal this afternoon:

Microsoft Swings to Loss

Google’s Profit Rises on Growth in Search

It hasn’t been too many years ago that Microsoft was the darling.  Now newer companies have emerged to dominate.  What will the next 20 years bring?

Maria von Trapp, please meet David Letterman and Merriam-Webster.  You have often graced us with your uplifting song, “… these are a few of my favorite things.” May I share with you a top-ten list of my favorite words, each the embodiment of a profound concept I cherish in my life?

1. Life
2. Freedom
3. Light
4. Faith
5. Integrity
6. Infinity
7. Identity
8. Innovation 
9. Compassion
10. Redemption

As often is the case, I find brevity to be more difficult than verbosity.  I place high value on many more concepts, but for today’s few moments of personal introspection, here is my short list.  What’s yours?

How many times have you caught yourself choosing coffee shops, hotels and other venues, based on availability of free Wi-Fi?  How do you feel when you are caught in the middle of a Wi-Fi desert without a connection?

I have spent the week with my North American information security colleagues from Oracle, meeting on the historic Oracle/Sun Microsystems campus in Santa Clara, California.  What a delight it was to visit this beautiful campus once again as I mingled with so many friends and professional associates.  This business campus was built on the site of the former Agnews Insane Asylum.  Several of the elegant old buildings remain, suitably updated and equipped for modern use.  But I heard flitting comments today that some people think these buildings are haunted.

Back in the day, the Clock Tower building was known as the Treatment Center.  It makes you wonder what went on there … and what ghosts the “treatments” left behind.

Here are a couple of photos I took of the Clock Tower building with my iPhone this week.

 

It was interesting that a Sun Microsystems sign/monument still occupies a prominent position in the rear of the Clock Tower building, near another smaller monument honoring a Sun Microsystems leader who perished in the 9/11 bombing in 2001. What irony!

All the other signs were brightly accented with bright Oracle red – a fitting reminder about whose campus this really is.

But it has been suitably nostalgic to visit this place today.  As I participated in an hour-long conference call while sitting on the concrete bench surrounding the beautiful fountain near the rear of the Clock Tower building today, I couldn’t help but think of the many, many hours I spent on this campus during my five years with Sun Microsystems, the wonderful colleagues I worked with, and the dreams we shared together.