before and after

before and after Originally uploaded by rfin.

Before I rode Jim's high-end street bike in the Salt Lake Marathon Bike Tour, I was used to my beater mountain bike. Now getting on the old Schwinn seems a bit strange.

This is the second year I've done the tour. Last year I rode the Schwinn. Although it's great for trails, there's nothing like the right tool for the job, and that tool today was a street bike. Thanks for giving me a taste of elite riding, Jim.

Trying out the bike was fun, but introducing a loved-one to such a great activity made my whole day. You see today was my first-born son's first Bike Tour and he was definitely tuned in to the spirit, the beauty, the energy, the comraderie, the Zeitgeist of the event. Here's what he had to say. Glad you had such a good experience, Joe!

birds do it, conduit

birds do it, conduit
Originally uploaded by rfin.

I been workin' on the LambdaRail

What do Promontory, Utah and the fiber optic LambdaRail network have in common?

They're both about connecting people and commerce, technology and trade. They're both about vision, achievement and big ideas that change the world. But it goes even deeper than that.

Promontory's the spot where the first US Transcontinental Railroad was completed in 1869. The railroad right-of-way which started 137 years ago in northern Utah still impacts us today as Utah connects to National LambdaRail, an ultrahigh-speed fiber optic network for education and research.

Without the physical railroad to literally pave the way, the fiberoptic rail might have taken a much different pathway to Utah. Railroad rights-of-way are not only about tracks for trains, but routes and land for natural gas pipelines, electric power transmission lines and fiber-optic cable.

Until a few weeks ago, I didn't realize I had several personal connections to both the old rail and the new one.

Connection 1: As kid growing up in the sixties I always liked May. It's the month of my birth. It's the month that school gets out. And a hundred years earlier it was the time when the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads met each other in my home state. I remember liking the subject as a kid, perhaps because I had my own electric trains, and certainly because I'd been to the historic spot for tailgate breakfast of bacon and eggs with my aunt, uncle and cousin.

Connection 2: Skip ahead 35 years to 2002. I'm working at the Utah Education Network which shares space with KUED,TV, KUER-FM and KUEN-TV at the Eccles Broadcast Center. Emmy-award winning producer Ken Verdoia produced the first-ever TV documentary about Promontory. I got a chance to do a few voice-over lines of historial narration for program.

Connection 3: Then just a few weeks ago, I got involved in writing a news release on LambdaRail's arrival in Utah thanks to UEN and the University of Utah. I sat in on an interview as the U of U's science writer, Lee Siegel talked to Steve Hess, the U's Associate VP for Info Technology. When Steve told Lee about the physical routing of the LambdaRail fiber, a chill went up spine, as I realized the train story of my childhood and the 21st century story I sought to tell were so tightly connected. Read more:

• A Super-Fast Link to Cyberspace (U of U media release)
• National Lambda Rail (home page) (Wikipedia)
• Research at the Speed of Light (KCPW story)
• Promontory (KUED documentary)
• Alternate Uses of Railroad Rights-of-Way (Wikipedia)
• Box Elder County (UEN Counties of Utah)
• Utah Education Network