In California Desert, Living With Dial-Up

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Mike Anton, Darwin, Calif., Left Behind in Evolution of the Internet. Its few residents love the remoteness of the place — except when it comes to the lack of broadband. Even an $80-million plan to extend high-speed Internet to underserved areas will leave them high and dry. Los Angeles Times, Mar 12, 2012
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-darwin-20120312,0,5344983.story
(Broadband is this century's electricity. And the government wants to expand the nation's digital footprint the way federal subsidies brought power to every hamlet and holler under the Rural Electrification Act, enacted during the Great Depression")

Note:
(a)
(A) The "turnoff" in "a sign that marked the turnoff from California Highway 190 was stolen recently" is a noun that means
"a place where one turns off; especially : EXIT"
(B) turn off (vi): "to deviate from a straight course or from a main road <turn off into a side road>"

All definitions are from www.m-w.com, unless specified otherwise.
(b) The "amber" in "technological amber" is of the ordinary definition. Many fossils were preserved in amber.
(c) The pencil out" in the sentence "it doesn't pencil out financially" is a financial slang that is defined as
"Estimate in approximate figures whether a proposed investment is expected to be profitable."
Barron's Business Dictionary
http://www.answers.com/topic/pencil-out
(d) Inyo County, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inyo_County,_California
(Mount Whitney [14,505 feet (4,421 m)], the highest peak in the Continental United States, is on Inyo County's western border (with Tulare County); Named for "dwelling place of the great spirit" in Mono language [a Native American language})
(e) Barstow, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barstow,_California
(f) Carson City, Nevada
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson_City,_Nevada
(capital of Nevada)

quote: "The first European Americans to arrive in what is known as Eagle Valley were John C. Fremont and his exploration party in January 1843. Fremont named the river flowing through the valley Carson River in honor of Christopher 'Kit' Carson, the mountain man and scout he had hired for his expedition. * * * In 1858, Abraham Curry bought Eagle Station and thereafter renamed the settlement Carson City.
(g) Lone Pine, California
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Pine,_California
(h) Owens lake
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owens_Lake
(located about five miles south of Lone Pine, California)
(i) The "flat" in "salt flats of Owens Lake" is a noun that means
"a level surface of land —usually used in plural <sagebrush flats> <tidal flats>"
(j) The "wash" in "a country of dry washes, Joshua trees" is a noun that means
"WEST : the dry bed of a stream —called also dry wash)"
(k) For "creosote bush," see Larrea tridentata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larrea_tridentata
([The genus was] named after JA Hernandez de Larrea, a Spanish clergyman; The whole plant exhibits a characteristic odor of creosote [obtained by the distillation of a tar], from which the common name derives)

Quote: "The 'King Clone' creosote ring is another plant of the oldest living organisms on Earth. It has been alive 11,700 years, in the central Mojave Desert near present day Lucerne Valley, California.

* creosote oil
http://www.indiamart.com/aparnacarbons/creosote-oil.html

(l) Haupt Fountains
(A) Enid A Haupt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_A._Haupt
(1906-2005; daughter of Moses Annenberg, the founder of a publishing empire based on The Daily Racing Form and The Philadelphia Inquirer; her second marriage was to  Ira Haupt; Haupt contributed the Haupt Fountains at the Ellipse located between the White House and the Washington Monument)

(B) Click the "Ellipse" and you will see the familiar fountains.
(C) Enid (given name)  
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_(given_name)
(m) dolomite
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolomite
(calcium magnesium carbonate: CaMg(CO3)2)
(o) At the end, the report talks about "a microwave radio relay station could conceivably connect Darwin to Lone Pine and the coming Digital 395 broadband infrastructure" and "some batteries, a parabolic antenna."

(A) parabolic antenna
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parabolic_antenna
(The main advantage of a parabolic antenna is that it is highly directive; ; it functions similarly to a searchlight or flashlight reflector to direct the radio waves in a narrow beam, or receive radio waves from one particular direction only.)
(B) microwave transmission
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microwave_transmission
(Microwaves are widely used for point-to-point communications because their small wavelength allows conveniently-sized antennas to direct them in narrow beams, which can be pointed directly at the receiving antenna)
(C) electromagnetic radiation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_radiation
(table: microwave include both EHF = Extremely high frequency (frequency 30-300 GHz; wavelenth 1 cm to 1 mm),
and SHF = Super-high frequency (frequency 3-30 GHz; wavelenth 1 dm to 1 cm))