paskino.com Here to make the world a little better - maybe

Over the years I hoped for a marriage of the TV, computer and internet that would allow me to watch content from the internet and my home servers.  My first foray into the streaming media space was with Apple TV.  I bought ATV version 2, the one with the internal hard drive, a few years back.  It was enjoyable to buy or rent movies and have them either downloaded to my ATV or my home Mac Pro Server and stream them with iTunes.  The

Last weekend I was zip lining with a bunch of friends in Charlemont, MA, which is located in Western Massachusetts.  It was more than just zip lining, but an adventure with 11 zip lines, 3 repels and 2 sky bridges.  It did feel like an Indiana Jones adventure in some parts, but there was no boulders chasing us out of caves.  The guides that help us were just plain awesome and fun.  I am looking forward to do it again sometime soon and I want to bring more friends!  Check out Deerfield Canopy Tours.  More photos here.

The town of Yarmouth, Maine is a small classical New England town.  While Main Street has some shops, it is mostly sparse.  The side streets contain houses that people would associate with New England, with each house painted in different colors with white picket fences.  An old mill and a beautiful park lie along the Royal River.  Yarmouth is just a very relaxed town with very friendly people.  Everyone I passed said "hello" or started chatting with me.  Overall a place where old America still exists.

Shelburne Falls is in the the towns of Shelburne and Buckland, MA.  The two towns are connect by a truss bridge that allows cars, bikes and pedestrians cross.  The other bridge that connects the towns is called the Bridge of Flowers, which is a pedestrian bridge that has all types of different flowers planted along both sides of the bridge.

The main part of Shelburne Falls is actually in Shelburne, which has a small street of shopping with classical New England style architecture.  There are a few restaurants, cafés and other services along the street.  On the Buckland side there is a few shops and a pub. 

The other attraction are the glacial potholes.  The potholes are on display as the Deerfield River has been dammed off and partially diverted.  They are interesting and the spilling water from the dam adds a unique sound in the area.

I lived in Rome for quite a long time and have been to several of the hills overlooking the city, but I never took a picture of the sunrise or sunset.  I decided that one morning it was time to do just that.  I woke up early and walked over to Gianicolo (Piazza Giuseppe Garibaldi).  While this is not considered one of the seven hills, it does give a spectacular view of the city.  The picture is unedited and is an HDR photo taken with 2 shots within 1 second of each other, but with different EV settings. 

Has the Industrialized World Reached Peak Travel? - Harperdog sends this excerpt from Miller-McCune: "A study (abstract) of eight industrialized countries, including the United States, shows that seemingly inexorable trends — ever more people, more cars and more driving — came to a halt in the early years of the 21st century, well before the recent escalation in fuel prices. It could be a sign, researchers said, that the demand for travel and the demand for car ownership in those countries has reached a saturation point. 'With talk of "peak oil," why not the possibility of "peak travel" when a clear plateau has been reached?' asked co-author Lee Schipper ... Most of the eight countries in the study have experienced declines in miles traveled by car per capita in recent years. The US appears to have peaked at an annual 8,100 miles by car per capita, and Japan is holding steady at 2,500 miles." [Slashdot.com]

The State of Vermont is very unique and very New England.  Most of the places I have visited have only a few thousand residents, at the most.  In some cases, the hamlets had only a few residents.  Most of the towns date back to the early 1700s.  There is no place in the United States that I have visited that really feels like I am really walking in colonial times, but every place I have visited in the State does so beautifully.

Brattleboro

The town of Brattleboro is the oldest in the State of Vermont.  The town was originally created around a fort that was used to help Massachusetts defend against the French, when the United States were only colonies of England.  

This weekend I went out to the western part of Massachusetts to see some small villages that make up the town on Montague.  Unfortunately, the weather was not very cooperative and I could not stay any longer.

The small village of Turner Falls is located on the Turner Falls Canal and stems from the Connecticut river.  The village could be located in any part of the country.  The main road is filled with little shops in red bricked buildings.  The end of the main road contains a shopping center giving some semblance of city life. Off of the main road there were amazing colonial houses draped in bright colors and rolling green lawns.  There was a little park in the center of the village that offered children a place to play and what appeared to be a meeting center.  A library stands on a hill just off of the main road and appeared to be more of a recent construction.  For such a small village there were more than a few churches.   The village is calm and relaxing.

GOP asks high court to undo 'soft money' ban - The Republican Party is asking the Supreme Court to allow political parties to raise unlimited contributions, the latest outgrowth of the court's decision to unleash corporate and labor spending in federal elections. [MSNBC - Politics]

This is a travesty.  The United States political system is bought and paid for by legalized bribery.  Why else would the GOP praise corporations, who care only about making money, being able to use their own money to wage campaigns?  There is no correlation between a companies profits and the number of workers, as many of the large companies have hired workers in third world countries at the expense of their US counterparts and are making record profits.

Is there are any doubt that the GOP is the fascist party with this move?