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Monday, January 16, 2012Online Shoppers Are Rooting for the Little Guy
"Harold Pollack used to spend $1,000 a year on Amazon, but this fall started buying from small online retailers instead. The prices are higher, but Dr. Pollack says he now has a clear conscience."
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Saturday, November 19, 2011Support Small business Saturday
Small Business Saturday is just around the corner. Check it out here and be sure to be signed up to our newsletter for all of the specials.
Posted By: Cliff Whitney @ 3:57:00 PMTop
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Friday, November 18, 2011Earth from Space
Check it out
Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.
Posted By: Cliff Whitney @ 8:30:16 AMTop
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Monday, October 17, 2011A bugs life..
While it might seem like just a cute, silly commercial that gets attention, it really does spark these questions and more and it's electric!
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Wednesday, January 20, 2010I am Feeling small and Insignificant today!
The Known Universe
Credit & Copyright: American Museum of Natural History
What would it look like to travel across the known universe? To help humanity visualize this, the American Museum of Natural History has produced a modern movie featuring many visual highlights of such a trip. The video starts in Earth's Himalayan Mountains and then dramatically zooms out, showing the orbitsof Earth's satellites, the Sun, the Solar System, the extent of humanities first radio signals, the Milky Way Galaxy, galaxies nearby, distant galaxies, and quasars. As the distant surface of the microwave background is finally reached, radiation is depicted that was emitted billions of light years away and less than one million years after the Big Bang. Frequently using the Digital Universe Atlas, every object in the video has been rendered to scale given the best scientific research in 2009, when the video was produced. The film has similarities to the famous Powers of Tenvideo that has been a favorite of many space enthusiasts for a generation.
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Friday, January 08, 2010From a Birds Eye View
Now if you don't think this is cool........ Since the beginning of time, people have envied birds. They can fly high over the world at will. For most of history, we could only dream of what that’s like. Of course, today we can just jump in a plane. But is that really the same thing? What does it really feel like to fly with the birds? The BBC will show you. In Scotland, a Golden Eagle was outfitted with lightweight cameras. Then, it was set loose. You’ve never seen soaring like this. I guess we’ll have to keep dreaming.
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Sunday, November 08, 2009The Big Five 0, Birthday reflections
Yesterday was my birthday, it was a big one, you know one of
those birthdays that ends in a 0. This year it was particularly big as it
started with a 5, yep the big 50.
I had a shock on Friday when I came home from the shop and while looking through the mail saw the letter, it was an invitation to join AARP and I was hit with a shocking reality that I was really going to be 50 the very next day.
I have to say that I had a simply fantastic day yesterday and as my big 50 day progressed I was thinking that as a kid I would of never dreamed of being 50 or of being so blessed with such a wonderful life.
I was, as Steve Martin once said, (in the movie The Jerk) well he said it slightly differently, born a poor white child. But I would take that statement further and add that I was born a poor white ugly boy as I was also born pretty ugly or at least I was told that one of my aunts went home and cried after I popped out because I looked so bad. Never the less I was here and my parents were both very young with my father working in a radio station on his way to Shaw Air force base and my mother having grown up doing hard labor as the middle of three sisters on a fully working farm in SC. I never knew it but I am told we were also very poor and in fact when my father needed to buy gas to go to work he would trade a few silver dollars he and mom had saved to the man at the gas station who would save them for him until pay day so he could trade them back for paper money.
I grew up as most kids my age and we moved from a very small rental home to a nice neighborhood in Florence SC and then to Charlotte NC where dad had taken a job in a growing television station. With three younger brothers mom had her hands filled as she took care of us, made most all of our clothes and made sure we were growing up with the right values.
As I got older I was introduced to aviation by my dad and we built and flew control line model airplanes. At about 15 via a Popular Science magazine I was introduced to Hang Gliders and was hooked on the sport. It was free flight and I had to do it and in fact became consumed by it.
After having paper routes, driving a school buss and various fast food jobs my new girlfriend (soon to be wife) found me a job at a young but growing photo company as a part time sales person. With no formal collage I got a real education in business here. I learned from the owner of the company that the key to being successful was to surround yourself with smart successful people and to let them do what they were good at while leaving them alone to get the job done. I did just that and the photo company grew from two stores to over 700 (with help from a talented team of folks). My growth in this company afforded me the privileges of private jets, and other perks that come with corporate success. I moved the the wife and I to Chattanooga TN where I could continue to work in my newest position and to fly. While doing this I started a Hang Gliding company called Sequatchie Valley Soaring Supply. A few years later I was moved to Atlanta and was fortunate to be able to guide the company now as the President of it's new dot com from the analog world of film to the digital photo word all the while with aviation playing a larger part of my life from Hang Gliders to Sailplanes to powered planes and the ultimate of being to live on a small grass strip with partnerships in a couple of small planes.
Alas the family owned (not my family) photo company went bankrupt ( I should write a book about the adventures with this company) and my family lost all that we had invested in my 26 year tenure there. I took it in stride and set out to start over again in the hobby business. I have once again surrounded myself with more successful people and will not go back to the corporate world to be disappointed again..
Now before this starts sounding like an obituary instead of a birthday reflection and thanks, my point is that I can see that I have had a wonderful life and am not sad to be turning 50 in fact I am so thankful and have been blessed beyond what any man could deserve. I have a great family with a fantastic wife, two wonderful children and a dog with an airplane name (Katana) .
My birthday was a simply fantastic day. The weather was great and I was able to take all of the visiting family on airplane rides and see the beautiful fall colors and the clear water in lake Lanier. Then I was able to fly my hand-launched sailplanes with a great group of friends at the local club. Last night there was a party at our home and many many friends came by and celebrated the day with my family.
What a great time I had and did I mention that I share the same birth day with my now 11 year old daughter, and as I reflect on the day and my past fifty years I think my old boss had it right but only partially so when he advised me to surround myself with successful people. I think that is was Clarence (it’s a wonderful life) instead that had it right and that the real key to success is to have real friends. No man is a failure who has friends.
I am blessed to have the best of the best of friends and I thank you all for sharing in my day!
Posted By: Cliff Whitney @ 12:14:24 PMTop
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