Strange Connections

Sometimes when your running, you see things. I mean your out on the roads for 6-8 hours a week, your bound to see stuff, right?

One day as I was out running  my route that cuts through downtown Palo Alto I came across this plaque mounted on a concrete slab next to the sidewalk.

I read it and suddenly had a flashback to when I was 9 or 10 years old.

You see, I was given this book called "Men of Science". Lots of stories about the famous discoveries of science, Fleming and penicillin, Pasteur curing a small girl of  rabies...

And... the story of "Lee de Forest and the "Audion Tube."

This kind of gave me goose bumps because I've lived in this general area since 1990 and I had no idea that this story I read about as a kid was played out right here.

I'm an electrical engineer, so I was kind of impressed and thrilled in a small way. It also caused me to remember carefree childhood times playing with electronics...and that's a good feeling 8)

Lee de Forest

He's the inventor of the triode (what we call it now), which is basically a very fast switch, and it started the path that led to the stuff your using to look at my blog right now.

And there's your strange connection!

7.3 miles at about 9:30 pace today...

I also signed up for the LA Marathon in March.