This is an outstanding view of the city of Paterson where I grew up went to school and made many memories. The city is filled with history and great people. Below is a little history provided by Wikipedia, if you can take time to read because you will find out that this is truly a historical city. Paterson is a city in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the city population was 149,222. Census population projections indicate a population of 146,545 as of 2007, making it New Jersey's third largest city. It is the county seat of Passaic County. Paterson is known as the "Silk City" for its dominant role in silk production during the later 19th century. Paterson was originally formed as a township from portions of Acquackanonk Township on April 11, 1831, while the area was still part of Essex County. Paterson became part of the newly-created Passaic County on February 7, 1837. Paterson was incorporated as a city on April 14, 1851, based on the results of a referendum held that day. The city was reincorporated on March 14, 1861. In 1791, Alexander Hamilton helped found the Society for the Establishment of Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.), which helped encourage the harnessing of energy from the Great Falls of the Passaic, to secure economic independence from British manufacturers. Paterson, which was founded by the society, became the cradle of the industrial revolution in America. Paterson was named for William Paterson, Governor of New Jersey, statesman, and signer of the Constitution. French architect, engineer, and city planner Pierre L'Enfant, who developed the plans for Washington, D.C., was the first superintendent for the S.U.M. project. He devised a plan, which would harness the power of the Great Falls through a channel in the rock and an aqueduct. However, the society's directors felt he was taking too long and was over budget. He was replaced by Peter Colt, who used a less-complicated reservoir system to get the water flowing to factories in 1794. Eventually, Colt's system developed some problems and a scheme resembling L'Enfant's original plan was used after 1846. L'Enfant, meanwhile, brought his city plans with him when he designed Washington, and that city's layout resembles the plan he wanted to develop for Paterson. The industries developed in Paterson were powered by the 77-foot high Great Falls, and a system of water raceways that harnessed the power of the falls. The city began growing around the falls and until 1914 the mills were powered by the waterfalls. The district originally included dozens of mill buildings and other manufacturing structures associated with the textile industry and later, the firearms, silk, and railroad locomotive manufacturing industries. In the latter half of the 1800s, silk production became the dominant industry and formed the basis of Paterson's most prosperous period, earning it the nickname "Silk City." In 1835, Samuel Colt began producing firearms in Paterson, although within a few years he moved his business to Hartford, Connecticut. Later in the 19th century, Paterson was the site of early experiments with submarines by Irish-American inventor John Holland. Two of Holland's early models — one found at the bottom of the Passaic River — are on display in the Paterson Museum, housed in the former Rogers Locomotive and Machine Works near the Passaic Falls. The city was a mecca for immigrant laborers who worked in its factories as well. Paterson was also the site of historic labor unrest that focused on anti-child labor legislation, and the six-month long Paterson silk strike of 1913 that demanded the eight-hour day and better working conditions, but was defeated by the employers with workers forced to return under pre-strike conditions. Factory workers labored long hours for low wages under dangerous conditions, and lived in crowded tenement buildings around the mills. The factories then moved south where there were no labor unions, and later moved overseas. In 1932, Paterson opened Hinchliffe Stadium, a 9,500-seat stadium named in honor of John V. Hinchliffe, a former Paterson mayor. Hinchliffe originally served as the site for high school and semi-professional athletic events. From 1933–1937, 1939-1945, Hinchliffe was the home of the New York Black Yankees and in 1936 the home of the New York Cubans of the Negro National League. The historic ballpark was also a venue for many professional football games, track and field events, boxing matches and auto and motorcycle racing. The track was used for filming by Abbott and Costello. Hinchliffe is one of few Negro League stadiums left standing in the United States, and is on the National Register of Historic Places. In 1963, Paterson Public Schools acquired the stadium and used it for public school events until 1997, but it is currently in a state of disrepair, while the schools have been taken over by the state SN. During World War II Paterson pla

April 2008 This picture requires some explannation :) I bought my first plane the other day, a Savoia S.21 Seaplane built by Mifune Thibaud of EB Aeronautica. Beautiful detail with moving ailerons, rudder, tail, working cockpit instrumentation, flightstick and other controls. It is an exact duplicate of one of the planes flown in Hayao Miyazaki's animated film, Porco Rosso. I became a great fan of Miyazaki's wonderful films after seeing his "Spirited Away" some years ago. Just an amazingly beautiful, imaginative and touching film. I have seen all his films now except one. If you have never seen any yet, you definitely should...not to be missed. Before I bought this particular plane I demoed, at EB Aeronautica's airport, a Sopwith Camel, which was a British single seat fighter aircraft from WWI. I am so glad there were no onlookers at the airport when I did this, because they would have been laughing hysterically. The first try I never moved at all after accelerating the throttle but stood the plane on its nose with the engine racing full blast :) The second try, after figuring out that the forward arrow actually means "down" and the backward arrow means "up", based on the way an actual "stick" control would work on an airplane of this type, I finally got it off the ground, careening around crazily in the air, before crashing it in someone's back yard. Thankfully, no one was home :) On a third try, I was able to finally fly around a bit getting used to the controls although I lost my way in the process. I then went back and bought the Savoia seaplane, for sentimental reasons being a Miyazaki fan, although I probably should have bought a plane with wheels for my first plane. The one I have actually wanted for quite some time now is AM Radio's beautiful plane, that was in the Wheat Field for awhile, but is no longer on display. His plane is based on a 1912 Blackburn Monoplane, and I really love his plane with all the wonderful detail he puts into everything. I hope someday it might become available. Anyway, when you have bought a seaplane you need a place to fly it where there is water you can set it out on. I didn't realize this was going to be as much problem as it was, but I did finally find a place after some searching, and once I could figure out how to negotiate the tight squeeze between a huge aircraft carrier and a dock which I kept getting hung up on while taxiing out to open water, I finally figured out how to take off, and stay up in the air :) Those two RL flight lessons I had some years ago came into a play a bit in helping me have more control over the plane. It was fun once I got the hang of it, but after awhile I realized I had no idea how to get back to the spot I started from. Perhaps if I had used the SL map I could have figured it out. I am not sure if that is what pilots in SL use for navigation. I have a lot to learn. But before I could figure out anything more right then, SL crashed while I was flying the plane. When I logged back in hours later, I never changed my location figuring I would just find myself at the bottom of the sea, but to my great surprise I found myself instead in the livingroom of my rental still in my plane, which was quite funny :) Here are some details about this plane, for those who might be interested, from the builder, Mifune Thibaud's SL Exchange page: "The E.B. Aeronautica Savoia S.21 is a semi-fictional seaplane racer, inspired by the wonderful drawings and art depicted in Hayao Miyazaki's animated film, PORCO ROSSO. This animated film was set in the time period of the 1920's - 1930's; this is widely considered to be the Golden Years of Aviation. The seaplanes of Porco Rosso were inspired by the Schneider Cup seaplane races that occured between 1913 - 1931. Miyazaki's film also gives nod to the numerous successes of Italian Aviators and Italian aircraft manufactures of this time period. The Savoia S.21 is actually more closely based on an Italian seaplane from another well known maker of the time, Macchi and their M.33 seaplane. The Macchi M.33 was a Schneider Cup racer that entered in 1925, but lost to the American's Curtiss R3C-2, piloted by Jimmy Doolittle. In the movie, two configurations of the aircraft were present: a 1 seat model with the engine of the Macchi M.33, and a subsequent 2 seat model with the race winning engine of the Macchi M.39, which went on to defeat the Americans in a later race. Miyazaki's S.21 also resembles a prototype seaplane by Savoia, the S.12, which was cancelled due to poor forward visibility due to the location of the cockpit in relation to the wing and overhead engine. This model is very faithful to Miyazaki's fictional seaplane, with virtually all of the features found in the movie available in this aircraft."