Name Game

From the Department of It's A Small World:

Santa Monica is home to the headquarters of the research and analysis heavyweight RAND Corportation, which gets its name from a contraction of "Research" + "and" + "Development." More info.

Irvine houses the Ayn Rand Institute, which includes under its organizational umbrella the bi-coastal think tank called the Ayn Rand Center. The Russian-born author and Objectivist philosopher, pictured here, apparently gave herself that last name. More info.

And okay, maybe this last bit is a stretch, but there's also Mr. Rand J. Getlin to consider. He's the Chief Operating Officer and media liaison of the lower-profile Prometheus Institute. Here's his bio. We'll plan on adding more info. sooner or later about PI. If nothing else, it's hard to resist getting to know a joint that publishes an article titled, "Being Big Vs Being Powerful: Foreign policy lessons from the gym."

Coming Next Post: The Architecture of Ideas -- Visits to Santa Monica and Irvine

Photo of Ayn Rand in New York, 1957. Photo courtesy: The Ayn Rand [R] Institute.