text:
2021 CE Pro Masters Honors Industry 'Lifers'
This year's CE Pro Masters is especially poignant with the passing of Chuck Schneider (CE Pro Masters class of 2014), who died in November 2020. The CE Pro Masters was the brainchild of Schneider, who believed CE Pro needed to recognize some of the "lifers" in the industry who have spent decades devoted to the market. Truth be told, "Old Farts Club" was Schneider's working title for this annual feature, now in its ninth installment with 100+ members.
Back in 2013, Schneider wrote: "About 40 years have passed for many of us since we installed our first phono cartridge. In my wildest dreams, I never thought consumer electronics would turn out to be my life's work. When I applied to the little stereo store near Boston University in April 1969, I was looking for a part-time job — beer and pot money. (Unlike Bill Clinton, I inhaled, and so did you.)
"The consumer electronics industry just sucked me in. It was fun. There was passion. And it was cool. Back in the 1970s, there were very few cool jobs. You could work in a record store, a camera shop, a head shop or a stereo shop. That was it. Any other employment was working for the establishment, 'da man.' Turns out I was hardly alone. We Baby Boomers built this entire industry," he wrote.
It was with that mindset that CE Pro and this year under the direction of Deborah Smith, one of the original CE Pro Masters, presents the 2021 class. As usual, there were multiple nominations from the industry.
Ron Calls, CEO, One Firefly
If there is a rock-star service company in our industry, surely it is One Firefly, not because they came flying out of the gate with a winning game plan, but because they were able to successfully apply hard lessons from a failed first business concept.
Says CEO Ron Callis, "I've been in business for 14 years and to be honest, the first seven or eight years were fantastically difficult. The company launched as Firefly Design Group, an outsource engineering firm for custom companies, providing CAD drawings, schematics and backup engineering support to help integrators sell more complex custom projects, he explains.
"I thought that if I built a crack outsource engineering team, integrators would rush to hire us — and then mark up the work," he says. "Unfortunately, I neglected to do any real market research to back up my hunch, and over time, the cold hard reality set in that the market did not really want or need our services, and the concept was not really viable or scalable.
"To boot," adds Callis, "as a first-time owner with no background in business, I just made it up as we went along and proceeded to make a series of novice mistakes, in particular, over-hiring staff before new business was secured, which at times left the company quite vulnerable."
Necessity is often the mother of invention, and as it turned out, Firefly Design Group started creating marketing materials and building websites for dealers to help them successfully sell an engineering line item … so Firefly's own business could survive. "Though by 2013 we had built the engineering business up to $1 million dollars, it was barely profitable — and all uphill. I couldn't work any harder and I finally realized I needed someone to help me with finance and operations."
Firefly hired Taylor Whipple, who has an MBA in Finance and experience with start-ups. He helped Callis realize that marketing was the more solid, growing, profitable (and fun) part of the business, "and that the engineering side had become exactly the opposite."
In late 2015, Callis closed the engineering side to double down on what was working. In Q1 2016, they debuted One Firefly, a company solely focused on being the best marketing agency to the custom integration channel.
Today, with more than 60 employees (including 10 in Mexico) and 30% year-over-year growth track record, One Firefly serves more than 500 customers for whom they create websites, collateral marketing materials, SEO, SEM, social media campaigns and more, including manufacturers that seek out the company to assist their dealers.
"I'm a lifelong learner and teacher," says Callis, "and I love that we are challenged every single day to solve new problems. I relentlessly strive for excellence in our products and our teams. We celebrate our wins, but we're constantly innovating to be a better value to our customers."
Charles Bock, President, Stereo Barn
The 50th anniversary of a retail CE company is not something you read about every day, but this year Charlie Bock is celebrating that milestone with Stereo Barn, located in Sinking Spring, Pa. The business was started by his father, Charles N. Bock Sr., who in 1971 opened a small retail AV store in a barn in the middle of a cornfield, hoping to offer customers a place to buy specialty hi-fi brands like Sansui, Akai, Teac and AR instead of the more pedestrian console brands.
As a teenager, the younger Bock loved hanging around the store. He worked at Stereo Barn part-time until he graduated college when he jumped in with both feet — and never looked back. "Basically, my entire adult life," he says.
The youngest of five brothers, Bock and an older brother worked together in the store throughout the 1980s, steadily growing the business by providing audio fans more premium options. "It's incredible to think back to the retail simplicity of those days, before custom and networking, when customers bought a receiver, cassette deck, turntable and speakers," he recalls, "and all we needed was an orange crate cart to wheel everything out to their car."
When Charles Bock Sr. died in 1991, he left the business to all five sons, and it wasn't until 2001 that Charlie Bock and his wife, Patti, finally bought everyone out to run the business by themselves. Though today 80% of Stereo Barn's sales are installation based, there has always been a strong retail component, and Bock remarks how the showroom remains an incredibly powerful tool for showcasing smart home technologies and upgrading customers to higher performance AV.
The showroom has always enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for its stylish architectural design and inviting look and feel. Bock used the Covid shutdown time to refresh their home theaters and audio displays.
During the late 80's, Bock realized he had a lot to learn about running a better business and set about meeting some successful dealers around the country. "One of my big lessons learned was never to think you know everything and always be open to learning new things," he says. "I was lucky enough to learn from my local reps and some of the true giants in our industry like Walt Stinson and Bjorn Dybdahl — and hopefully it was vice versa."
He also found PARA, a national management association for specialty CE dealers, which provided him a fountain of business resources and education in addition to being a great opportunity to meet, network and befriend some of the best minds in the industry. Always appreciated for his sharp mind and quick wit, Bock adds, "For me, the best thing about our industry is the people in it and the give and take among peers."
Bock sat on the PARA Board from 1996-2005 and was PARA's president from 2001-2003. After completing his presidency, he focused on doing more to promote himself and Stereo Barn to the local community.
Bock spent the next 12 years on the Board of the Reading Symphony Orchestra, the last four as president, where he was able to bring much needed business skills to help this non-profit music organization survive. "What an incredible experience that was — I learned a lot, met a lot of prominent people, heard a lot of great music, and put myself and Stereo Barn on the local map, big-time."
The caveat about volunteering, he notes, is that if you're not careful it can take over your life. "So to succeed," he says, "you need to find the balance between doing things outside and inside the company — and still have fun.
Richard Colburn, National Sales Manager, Fidelis
A lifelong music fanatic, Richard Colburn remembers the moment when he first heard a classmate's really great stereo system at the University of Maine in Orono. The sound quality absolutely blew his mind — and changed the course of his life toward what would ultimately become a long and multipronged career in high-end audio.
After graduation, Colburn felt he needed a break and passed on a teaching fellowship in English Literature to work in an audio store in Harvard Square and the rest, as they say, is history. "For me, this was my dream job. Listening to the likes of King Crimson and Pink Floyd all day long, reproduced through quality audio components, made my soul sing," he says.
After several years at Minute Man Radio, Colburn joined Cambridge, Mass.-based Suffolk Audio, one of the country's first truly super high-end audio stores, where his love of high-performance musical reproduction blossomed. After a return stint at Minute Man didn't go as planned, he tried his hand at repping and then stepped away from hi-fi, taking a job selling Saabs and Alfa Romeos (another lifelong passion). He enjoyed the work and always liked to say that "selling a Saab was easier than selling a $300 cassette deck, since people actually needed a car."
On a hunch, one day in 1978 he stopped into another suburban Boston hi-fi store, Natural Sound, where he heard a pair of Tangent speakers and within weeks was U.S. sales manager for the brand. On his way back from New York City one day with a giant Tangent PO in hand, he was informed that the company abruptly closed its doors.
"…Throughout my entire career I never really 'sold' in a conventional manner. I would just talk to people in an organic, non-scripted way. When you can really feel what people want, you hit the sweet note — and almost always make the sale."
He visited the Canadian distributor to see if he could buy Tangent, but when informed that he couldn't use the name, he immediately reset, moved to Toronto, called on ace speaker designer Kevin Voecks, and started up the design and production of Mirage Speakers in his living room. For a while, Mirage was jointly owned by five people and Colburn acted as U.S. sales manager for several years until Howard Heiber came along and bought both Mirage and Energy to form API.
At that point, Colburn married and moved to California where, over the next 30 years, he cycled through many stints as national or regional sales manager for Plateau, Rogers, Nakamichi, Proton TVs, Bryston, Shunyata Research and Auralec, plus more major stretches as the first national sales manager for AudioQuest for five years, a 10-year tenure as Western regional manager for API, and currently as national sales manager for Fidelis, selling very high-end brands like Harbeth and Exposure. He also spent the last year writing a memoir called 'Adventures in Hi-Fi," due out by year's end.
"Mostly, I am eternally grateful that I got to fly all around the world, making friends with colleagues in Japan, Italy, Canada, China and England, many of whom I've stayed in touch with for close to 50 years. We bonded over music, then it became about hi-fi, then we were real friends. In fact, throughout my entire career I never really 'sold' in a conventional manner. I would just talk to people in an organic, non-scripted way. When you can really feel what people want, you hit the sweet note — and almost always make the sale."
Mark Cerasuolo, Director of Marketing, Morningstar Corp.
When it comes to having a well-rounded and well-traveled career in consumer electronics, Mark Cerasuolo might win the prize. Cerasuolo's nearly 40 years in the industry cover 13 brands with various retailers, audio and smart home control manufacturers.
Starting in 1972 while still in college, Cerasuolo's first "job" in the industry was a non-paying position as part of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst Stereo Co-op.
"We were volunteers in this student organization, receiving an academic credit. Members joined for a small fee and could buy stereo components at 8% over our cost (kind of like an early warehouse club). We'd set up a demo system on a table in the Campus Center along with literature and a price sheet and take orders, with components picked up monthly. It was a lot of fun. One of the founder's dad was an executive at Acoustic Research, so we got overstocked and seconds of AR speakers and turntables," he recalls.
That experience led him to a local retailer, Lafayette Radio Electronics, selling everything from stereo gear to electronic educational kits, color organs, scanners, antennas and CB radios. The stores also carried Pioneer, Sansui, TEAC, McIntosh, Bose, JBL, AR and many other brands.
"It was about as much electronics diversity as you could get under one roof," he says.
Cerasuolo worked his way up from a part-time employee to the sound room to doing tech work including light repairs and assembling connectors, inventory, setting up scanners and installing antennas.
"The store was managed by a very colorful guy who had a lot of side interests with local restaurants, student groups, and more, and, as it turned out, many of them weren't exactly above-board. One day there were these guys in suits taking inventory and going over all the paperwork. Turns out they were a security firm hired by the chain's management, and they'd fired almost everyone else and walked them out the door! I asked the assistant manager what that meant, and he answered, 'It means I'm the new manager. Do you want to be the new assistant manager?' I said, 'Sure!' That's how I started. I had to withdraw from UMass to work full time, figuring I'd 'go back in a few semesters' and finish. I did just that, but not until 2010 (and got to speak at my much-delayed graduation)!"
From that humble beginning, Cerasuolo went on to spend three years as a store manager for Tweeter and later a few smaller firms in New England. In 1983, he made the leap to the manufacturing side working for Technics and later Bose Corp. in the advertising department. In 1988, he joined Marantz in the marketing department. When his job was going to be relocated to Chicago, Cerasuolo instead moved to a much warmer climate — Los Angeles — where he joined the JBL and Harman Kardon team for the next four years. There, he was tapped to head up corporate projects, one of which was to help build up the company's custom electronics/homebuilder business.
In 1994, he worked for a marketing firm where he became involved with several audio firms, including Clarion, Velodyne, Onkyo and Carver Corp.
Related: CE Pro Masters Are Top of the Class for 2020
"I had three periods with Carver. First, as one of their original dealers in New England, second while at Bose who distributed Carver internationally and in the military exchange system, and finally joining the company," he recalls.
In 1997, Cerasuolo joined Leviton Manufacturing and spent a dozen years in a marketing and communications management role for its telecom division in Washington. Leviton was one of the pioneers of structured cabling.
Cerasuolo's last industry stop was with Xantech from 2009 to 2011. Today, he works for solar company Morningstar.
So what has his well-traveled journey taught him?
"One is that reputations, like many other things, are local," he says. "By that I mean they are highly individualistic and transitory and need constant work. That lesson came from a scolding I got from an audio store customer in the 1970s, who wasn't happy with our performance. I started telling him about our reputation. He said, 'Stop! Your reputation is a measure of how happy you've made your other customers; it's something between you and them. But right now, your reputation is something between you and me, and it's not too good. So, let's work on that, instead of telling me how happy everyone else is.' I never forgot that, or him."
His other advice is to treat your customers as equals. His last piece of advice is to encourage "action and not perfection" in terms of product development. "If it's genuinely innovative and there's a need for it, it doesn't have to be perfect — practical and deployable are the baseline. That's something Dr. Bose taught: 'Get new products to the market. Once they're sellable, and when you've made enough improvements to command more of a premium, then that's your series II.' I still hear that on every new product launch I'm involved with," he says.
Robert Cole, Founder & CEO, World Wide Stereo
Always a jack of all trades, in 1979 Bob Cole opened World Wide Stereo in Montgomeryville, Pa., with a $16,000 loan, no money and no employees. A gifted salesperson by nature, he simply did everything himself from building out the store to buying and selling an initial assortment of audio gear and sewing machines. "Even by the time we were doing $6 million/year with four guys, I was selling $3 million of it myself," he says.
The rest of his skills came from a young adulthood spent working all manner of construction jobs through the HOD Carriers Union in New York and New Jersey where he learned carpentry and electrical. After he graduated Temple University with a degree in Psychology and Philosophy, he spent 10 years as acting director of the Albert Einstein Community Mental Health Center, an experience that would serve him well throughout his audio career.
After funding was cut for the Center, he found a job as national sales manager for a franchise-based electronics company and was sent all over the country to turn around failing stores, during which time he hatched the fantasy to open a store of his own.
"I was very lucky to have two very smart reps when I was just starting out who showed me the ropes and saved me from myself. If I had it do over, I might have found a partner with a strong business background, but as it were, we found our way and grew year over year," Cole recalls.
"From the beginning, my mantra was always 'Do well by doing good,' and I always told my people, 'You are not just selling a box. Your goal is to improve the quality of people's lives, and when you do that, they will keep coming back. As for reps and vendors, our relationships are built on well-earned trust — we always do what we say we will do, and we always pay our bills."
"In many ways, I've never really stopped being a psychologist — doing my best to keep everyone happy through what is essentially a grand ongoing group therapy session."
Over the years, the business branched out in unconventional ways as opportunities presented themselves. Around 1980, the company got into custom by installing 6 x 9-inch car stereo speakers in customers' in-house spas. Also in the early '80s, a rep went out on a limb and bought $16,000 of Atari's Space Invaders games and Cole thought it was going to be a catastrophic mistake … instead, they wound up selling out in the first weekend, and had repeated that success with Pac-Man and other titles.
"Then, one day, when someone's game broke, Atari opened us as an authorized service center," he notes, "and in many ways, that is what really put us on the map." In 1994, WWS did their first online sales (the same year Jeff Bezos started Amazon) and in 2008 launched a transactional website. With the custom business growing as well, that year they doubled sales.
Along the way, Cole served as president of the HES Board for nine years and was named 2019 ProSource Dealer of the Year. In 2018, he was inducted into the CTA Hall of Fame.
Today, World Wide Stereo is a three-legged company with 95 employees. E-commerce comprises 60% of revenues and the balance comes from retail and custom. "I used to do everything and micromanage everyone," adds Cole, "but now, though still founder and CEO, I have five excellent managers who run our day-to-day operations — and I give them plenty of free rein. I'm also proud to say our president, chief merchant and director of marketing are all women — each one strong as all get out!"
All these years later, Cole's business continues to give him great satisfaction. "My life is abundant. I have a grandchild, a new home, great friends in the industry and I love my work on the ProSource Board," he says. "In many ways, I've never really stopped being a psychologist — doing my best to keep everyone happy through what is essentially a grand ongoing group therapy session."
Greg Hanson, COO, CFO & CMO, Hanson's Audio Video
One would be hard-pressed to name as well-run a company as Dayton, Ohio's Hanson's AV in any industry, but especially in the custom integration industry where most owners start out as hobbyists or technicians and blindly feel their way into the business end of operations. Equally rare is an owner who starts out with a 40-year stint at a Fortune 500 company already behind them before open the doors of a CE company.
That explains some of the phenomenal success Greg Hanson has achieved alongside his son and business partner Troy, whose idea it was to start the company back in 1999. Says Greg Hanson, "I had a long and varied business career with one amazing company, but I always told my kids to follow their passion, do what they love and, if possible, try to do it for themselves rather than work for someone else."
Troy had already been in a few CE jobs and knew he enjoyed the work. Greg, who was then in a position to retire if he wanted to, told Troy he would love to step in and help him start up a new business. "I said to him, "You're young, you have nothing to lose. You know your products and how to sell and install them, so you take care of starting up the sales, installation and customer support teams, and I'll set up banking relationships, handle the build out and take care of all the back-end accounting functions, as well as HR and marketing."
That same division of responsibilities continues today, "though of course everything has become so much more complex," he notes.
Hanson's has enjoyed growth every year except one (2008, a small 2% dip), and today supports 32 employees, two stores (in Dayton and Cincinnati), plus stand-alone custom operations and installation facilities. "I've always been a firm believer in owning your own buildings so no one can ever surprise you with a cancelled lease. We have put down strong roots in both of our trading areas with good-looking buildings where we proudly hang our sign, host multiple events and participate in community activities," Hanson explains.
He says the company's biggest growth has come from lighting and shade control, outdoor, wholehouse control and even golf simulators. But Hanson's also sells serious audio systems, inviting customers to sit and listen for hours.
"We sell $150 Sonos speakers and $200K Magicos, so we can compete with Best Buy on the low end and walk customers all the way up to the top. We have nearly 100 pairs of speakers on display!"
The company was one of the first Control4 Certified Showroom Dealers and remains one of its top accounts in the country, Hanson notes, and in 2018 Hanson's won the coveted CEDIA Showroom of the Year award.
"We strongly believe you can't buy what you can't experience," he says. "In both stores we incorporate a home-within-the-store concept showcasing lifestyle environments in different sized rooms where customers can 'try before you buy' all manner of smart home technologies as well as furniture, cabinetry and home theaters."
Another of Hanson's proudest achievements has been creating custom performance review software to help evaluate, train and develop employees.
"We work hard, have great systems and excellent people, but this is a tough business and on any given day we feel like frantic plate jugglers trying to keep all the plates spinning," he says. "Never a dull moment."
Lucette Nicoll, President, Nicoll PR
Similar to Cher, Madonna or Adele, in the custom electronics industry all you have to say is the first name "Lucette" and immediately everyone knows exactly who you are talking about. And like those famous females, Lucette Nicoll is a single-name star in her own right in consumer electronics.
She got her start in CE in 1972 with the iconic Acoustic Research (AR) brand, where Nicoll worked in various roles, eventually managing public relations. In 1987, she started her own public relations firm and has been going strong for 34+ years.
"It has always been important to me that I surround myself with people of integrity. We spend many hours during the course of our professional careers at work — and I have been blessed to work in an amazing CE community alongside my husband John and some wonderful and innovative clients," Nicoll says.
She credits Ron Fone from AR for giving her the opportunity to manage PR, and Andy Oxenhorn and Bill McGrane of MB Quart for choosing to be Nicoll PR's first client.
"I have always been more than grateful to have learned the media business from such gifted professionals as Rebecca Day, Terry Shea, Joe Palenchar, Nancy Klosek, Nick Mattarazzo, Tony Catalano, Scott Constantine and others," she adds.
As a pioneering woman in the male-dominated world of CE, Nicoll says it has been fulfilling to her to see so many other woman thrive in the industry, noting she is "honored to be a part of it!"
And ever-the-positive person, Nicoll believes this is one of the most exciting times to be in the industry.
"Today's innovative solutions have opened the eyes and ears of consumers while providing them with solace during a time of isolation. As more people look to work, play and relax at home, opportunities have presented themselves in every category of the custom electronics industry and I expect that trend to continue," he adds.
Her advice to others looking to get into this industry is to "be willing to give 100%. Be genuine, honest, humble and have passion for what you do. Nurture long-term relationships and take advantage of the educational opportunities that exist."
Dave Nauber, Brand Director, Classé
Dave Nauber's long career in the audio business started by pure happenstance. As a college student, he walked down to the local audio store in Champaign, Ill., because the store was launching a big sale. While he was waiting outside on a cold February day, store manager Mike Wesley opened the door asking him what he wanted.
"I asked him, 'By the way, would you need any help in the summertime?' He laughed and told me, 'No, but we could use some help right now,'" recalls Nauber. That encounter led to his eventual employment in the store and a 35-year audio career.
One of the store's big brands at the time was Madrigal, and when Wesley took a job as the marketing director there in 1986, Nauber followed. Over the next 17 years, Nauber rose to be director of sales and marketing at Madrigal. In 2002, he migrated to the B&W Group's Classé Audio brand where he served as the executive vice president of brand development for eight years, and president from 2010 to 2018. When Bowers & Wilkins was purchased by Sound United in 2018, Nauber assumed the role of brand director at Classé.
His 14-year B&W tenure meant he worked closely with owner Joe Atkins, who he cites as one of his mentors.
"Joe is a super smart guy … very hardworking and very forthright. When I look back at the people that have been influential to me, they have been people who led by example. They have integrity and honesty, which I think are super important," comments Nauber.
Try to work for people that you think you can learn from…work for people who are smarter than you are."
Nauber says the changes in technology have greatly influenced the audio industry, both positively and negatively. "Technology gives us access to music in a way that I never dreamed about back in 1986," he says. "People can listen to virtually any kind of music from anywhere very easily via streaming services. That's a huge benefit for everyone.
"On the downside, the retail environment has changed. There are fewer and fewer places where someone can have a demonstration and be educated about what it means to have good sound in your home. That creates a challenge for us all going forward because a certain percentage of people respond to great sound, and we're struggling to reach those people," he says. "The need to access a demonstration of great sound certainly won't ever go away. We have to figure out ways to make it profitable, so that people can stay in business and deliver that to their customers."
Nauber advises anyone new to the consumer electronics industry to focus on getting the necessary education to become an expert.
"You need to be prepared to deal with the technology, but also get the fundamental management, sales and marketing experience you need. Also, try to work for people that you think you can learn from," he advises. "Work for people who are smarter than you are."
David Young, President, The Sound Room
When asked, "What is the secret to your success in this industry?" David Young, owner of The Sound Room in Chesterfield Valley, Mo., jokingly refers to a conversation he had with D.K. Smith from Wichita, Kan., at an early PARA Conference.
"He asked me if I got into this business because hi-fi was my hobby (as was the case with so many early stereo store owners). I replied no, I was a media and photography major in college and I've always looked at this as a business first, not as a hobby. D.K. laughed and said, 'Lucky you. You just saved yourself at least five years of struggle.' And I know he was right," says Young.
"Over the years I watched as so many hobbyists made emotionally bad business decisions … and lose their hobby," he continues. "It turned out to be a great benefit that I was never so great at sales or installation. Knowing what I could and couldn't do allowed me to always seek out people who were very good at these things, which left me free to run the business — and that is something I really can do."
Young followed his belief in hiring the right people, getting them into the right positions, treating them well, and giving them room to grow. "Most of our employees have been here for 20 to 30 years," he notes.
With a group of investors and a skeleton staff, Young opened The Sound Room in 1983, the year of the CD. Right out of the gate, he made a business plan to open a second store in five years, but actually he opened the second store 18 months later where they first introduced home theater, started selling video and got into custom (selling the early multiroom Bang & Olufsen BeoLink system).
Another 18 months after that, he opened a third car stereo-only location, and over the next many years, he built another store in 1991, closed a store, and got out of car stereo to concentrate on custom and residential technologies.
"Things were going well, but all along I really wanted to be in Chesterfield Valley, which had become a gigantic retail Mecca, so in 2016 when we finally found the right building, we had a blank slate and a bigger space to create the total shopping experience we always wanted," Young says. "The store is great. The front area highlights popular name brand audio and video, priced right, that allows us to compete with Best Buy and the like to match our new slogan, 'Better Price/ Better Advice.'
"In the old store, we had lost focus on our audio sales in favor of custom, so we have now re-committed to audio with three audio sound rooms, several dedicated theater rooms, a major outdoor AV area and a fully merchandised home-within- a-store with a kitchen, dining, family and outdoor rooms where we also host parties for local charities and builders and produce our own events."
Today, The Sound Room has 40 employees and the main focus is still on streamlining operations. The company recently created a special Builders Team with a team leader and dedicated account managers and support staff toward that end, Young says. "
This worked so well that we have now created two more teams, one for custom and one for retail cash-and-carry, and four support teams, with the goal to shorten and simplify the decision-making process throughout the company," he says.
Reflecting on his 38 years in business, Young opines, "I love that I got to grow up in such a young industry and meet so many of the audio pioneers like Saul Marantz, Paul Klipsch and Noel Lee. For us, the passion is still on the audio/video side of the company.
"I actually feel an obligation to succeed for both our customers and our quality vendors," he continues, "because where else would customers go to experience the thrill of hearing a great song on a great stereo in the right environment? It's convenient and pleasant to live with lighting, shading and temperature control, but that's not the stuff of goosebumps."
The post 2021 CE Pro Masters Honors Industry 'Lifers' appeared first on CEPRO.
New Nortek Control CEO Outlines Future Vision
Understanding Artificial Intelligence and How It Can Benefit AV Integration


text:
Past General Assemblies
Ft. Lauderdale 2008
General Assembly 2008 Latest Reports
Creating Congregational Covenants
General Assembly: GA Presentations: Presenter views and opinions do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the UUA.
General Assembly 2008 Event 3035
Presenters: Eunice Milton Benton, Connie Goodbread
What is a congregational covenant? Eunice Benton, District Executive of the Mid-South District, and Connie Goodbread, Program Consultant for the Florida District, answered this question, and gave some tips for creating a congregational covenant.
"It's about making respectful behavior the norm," said Benton, describing a congregational covenant in plain language. "It's about good manners, what your momma taught you when you were small.... It's about valuing your religious community."
Benton added, "It's a good investment" in helping maintain the individuals and the whole community.
"We've struggled with this word [covenant] for a long time," said Goodbread. "Why is this so?" Because Unitarian Universalists come out of the Abrahamic religious traditions, the idea of covenant can be traced back to the story of Abraham and Isaac in the Hebrew Bible. "We don't like this story," she said, because Abraham offers to sacrifice his son Isaac to Yahweh in order to maintain the covenant with Yahweh. "We don't want to be submissive in this way," she said.
But the definition of covenant has changed considerably in the thousands of years since the Hebrew Bible was written. Goodbread said that Unitarian Universalists directly inherit the definition of covenant set forth in The Cambridge Platform, a document drawn up by Puritans in Massachusetts in 1648. The Cambridge Platform is available in a contemporary reader's edition through the Unitarian Universalist Association bookstore.
"The piece we understand completely," said Goodbread, speaking of the definition of covenant set forth in the Cambridge Platform, "is that you're not the boss of me." But the Cambridge Platform also defined covenant to include promises for mutual support. Goodbread said that means that covenant also means "We are all in this together, building a better world."
Today, Unitarian Universalists also understand covenant to mean that each Unitarian Universalist congregation is in covenant with all other Unitarian Universalist congregations. The Principles and Purposes of the bylaws of the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) explicitly state this, according to Goodbread.
"Covenant is a promise, not a statement of belief," Goodbread said. Unfortunately, the children's versions of the UUA Principles and Purposes often begin with the statement "We believe...", but this is incorrect wording which tends to make the Principles and Purposes sound like a creed. Instead, the Principles and Purposes are "a spiritual path we try to follow," according to Goodbread, "and when we fail to live up to them, we beg forgiveness and begin again."
After defining covenant, Benton and Goodbread then turned tips for implementing a covenant in a local congregation. Benton suggested that the first step to implementing a congregation-wide covenant is to begin by implementing a covenant among church leaders, specifically the governing board and staff. She suggested that church leadership start by naming "common values." She said that it is important to come to a common understanding of values, before putting a covenant into writing.
"A board and staff can practice and maintain a covenant," Goodbread said, setting an example for the rest of the congregation. Goodbread said that it is important to include newcomers who join the board or staff after a written covenant is implemented. "Read the covenant together regularly," she said.
Both Goodbread and Benton emphasized that establishing cultural norms takes time. Congregational leadership has to understand and practice covenant before the whole congregation can do it. "It ain't the finished document," said Benton ."It's the talking about it and the practicing it."
"This is a sacred document," Benton added. "Talk about is as new folks come join your congregation." Revisit a written covenant every five years or so, to be sure it still applies to the congregation.
After the congregational leadership has worked on establishing a covenant for a time, the rest of the congregation can be included in the process. Benton said that congregations should expect the whole process to take plenty of time. "People may feel that this is just a document to beat them over the head with, and that is not the point," she said. "Take time to do this."
Reported by Dan Harper; edited by Jone Johnson Lewis.
Ministry for Earth and Green Sanctuary
OWL: Everything You Need to Know
Organizing, Advocacy, and Voter Mobilization: Faithful Democracy 2008
Meg Barnhouse's Mango Thoughts in a Meatloaf Town
It's Not Rocket Science
Welcoming All: When Ex-Prisoners Join Our Congregations
Justice in the Tomato Fields
Ware Lecture
UUA Presidential Candidates' Forum
Youth and Adult Partnerships: Comprehensive Sex Education
Greater New Orleans UUs: Cluster for Social Justice
Grassroots Organizing for a New Century
Self and Society in American Transcendentalism
Breakthrough Congregation: Pacific Unitarian Church
Generation to Generation
Civil Liberties and the 'War on Terror'
John Murray Lecture: The Future of Human Rights
Gathering with Congregational Presidents
Exploring the Gifts Among Us
Orchestrating the Rhythm of Worship
Gulf Coast Recovery & Advocacy
Appreciative Inquiry on UUism
Beyond Just War and Pacifism
Empowering Children as Peace-Makers
The Challenges of Engaging in Interfaith Social Justice Work
Valuing ALL Families
CDs/ DVDs for Sale
The Theology of Peacemaking
Theology of Immigration
General Assembly 2008 Business & Social Witness
Ministry of Love
Peacemaking and the Questions of Jesus
Welcoming the Stranger
Compassionate Communication Consciousness
Congregations Come First
Preparing for Multicultural Ministries
General Assembly Journal: "GAdding About"
Listening to Experience
Revisiting Our Principles and Purposes
Weaving Our Stories of Change
Worship at General Assembly 2008
Beyond Darwin and Lincoln
A Voice of Economic Populism
Cutting Across Oppression
A Family of Slave Traders
Truth, Repair, and Reconciliation
See "The Minister's War" at UUA General Assembly
In 1939, Waitstill and Martha Sharp left behind the safety of their home in Wellesley, Massachusetts and flew to war-torn Europe.
American Universalism
George Hunstons Williams's keynote address to the 1970 UUA General Assembly examines the richness of American Universalism and its many expressions in American life and thought.
More from Skinner House Books
Once, many grey autumns ago, I came upon a tree. The tree, a poplar, had dropped all of its leaves but for one, just one. Exactly one leaf remained near...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Argelia fue uno de los países que participó en los Juegos Mundiales de 2017 celebrados en Breslavia, Polonia

La delegación de Argelia estuvo compuesta de un total de seis deportistas, cuatro mujeres y dos hombres, que compitieron en tres disciplinas y ganaron una medalla.

Bochas

Karate

Levantamiento de potencia

Países en los Juegos Mundiales 2017
Argelia en 2017

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
For Football Club Jerseys, Jackets and Tracksuits, Kindly Contact us on WhatsApp.
TECHNOSPORT T SHIRTS
MEN'S TRACK PANTS
FOOTBALL + -
CUSTOMIZED JERSEYS + -
All CUSTOMIZED JERSEYS
BLUE DESIGNS
BLACK DESIGNS
WHITE DESIGNS
GREEN DESIGNS
RED DESIGNS
YELLOW DESIGNS
CRICKET + -
TShirts + -
All TShirts
DRI FIT T SHIRTS
DRI FIT POLO T SHIRTS
FOOTBALL T SHIRTS + -
BASKETBALL T SHIRTS
GYM T SHIRTS
CRICKET T SHIRTS
RUNNING T SHIRTS
FOOTBALL JERSEY + -
All FOOTBALL JERSEY
FULL SLEEVE JERSEYS
FOOTBALL DECOR
FOOTBALL T SHIRTS
Top 10 Premier League Scorers of All Time
No one can vouch for the more popular sport in England- cricket or football. The Premier League, referred to as the English Premier League (EPL) is the top level of the English football league system. It was founded as the FA Premier League in 1982. When it comes to the Premier League scorers of all time, some legendary names make the list. Let us take a look into the top 10 Premier League scorers of all time: List of Top 10 Premier League Scorers of All Time 10. Les Ferdinand [Image Source: goal.com] Leslie Ferdinand, the centre forward from London is...
Top 10 Champions League Scorers of All Time
The Champions League popularly known as the European Cup organised by UEFA since 1955 is arguably the most popular football tournament across Europe. Taking a look into the Champions league top scorers of all time; well it does include a bunch of legendary players from all across the globe: List of Top 10 Champions League Scorers of All Time 10. Filippo Inzaghi [Image Source: bleacherreport.com] The Italian stands 10th in the Champions League top scorers of all time. He played as a striker for many Italian clubs, the most notable ones among them being with Juventus and Milan. The Champions League...
Top 10 Fastest Goals in Football History
Football is a game of many styles. Some teams play possession play while others focus on counter attacking football. Some play elegant while the others play physical. A viewer can expect anything from this game from half line shots to blazing volleys, but one seldom expects the game to start and boom a goal. Nothing upsets the opposition fans more than your team scoring a goal in the initial moments of the game. Now lets narrow things down a bit. When one talks about the initial moments of the game, the usual thought is a goal scored in the first...
Top 10 Fastest Football Players In The World
The essence of football lies in its unpredictability, where an unexpected move changes the course of the game and the major weapon in the arsenal of talents of football players is their speed. Be it a fast counterattack, a diagonal move across the enemy lines, or defending against an oncoming onslaught, the fastest footballers in the world usually dominate the proceedings. Let's look at the fastest football players in the world (before they swift past our eyes) based on their average speed clocked during matches. List of Top 10 Fastest Footballers In The World 10. Nacho Fernandez - 34.62 km/h [Image...
Serie A Top Scorers 2019-20
[Image Source: dailymail.co.uk] A season to be remembered by all in the years to come; football was never the same as it is during this pandemic of Covid-19. The virus spread across Italy like thunder and affected thousands which ultimately lead to the competition being hauled for the time being. Let us take a look into the top scorers in Serie A 2019/2020. List Of Top 20 Scorers of Serie A 2019-20 20. Robin Gosens [Image Source: fifaultimateteam.it] Playing for Atalanta, the German 25 year old scorer in Serie A already has 7 goals to his name along with 5 assists...
Exchange of a particular product is available in case of sizing issue or if the product is found to be defective.
Copyright © 2022, TheSportStuff. Powered by Shopify


text:
Urban Fishing Pole Cigars
Cigar Blogger, Cigar Thoughts, Cigar Reviews, Cigar News, Fitness, Music, Lifestyle
Cigar News you can use: Cigar Journal bringing it down the line
December 13, 2017 Urban Fishing Pole Cigars News Leave a comment
Cigar News: The excitement is building , Cigar Journal getting close to their version of the best cigars of the year. Some you may know, others are worth trying.
Keep smoking
CIGAR JOURNAL: TOP 25 CIGARS OF 2017: #13 TO #8
2 hours ago Cigar Journal
Each year, our panelists smoke hundreds of cigars in blind tastings so that in our tasting notes we can give you the most objective impressions possible of our smoking experience. For the Top 25 list published at year's end – that is, the cigars that particularly stood out for us – we asked numerous panelists to pick their personal favorites from the tastings of 2017.
Only the cigars that received a combined score of 91 or more, and those that were initially released less than two years ago were eligible for selection.
#13 | MONTE BY MONTECRISTO AJ FERNANDEZ TORO
Altadis USA, which in the United States has the trademark rights for this iconic brand, has repeatedly expanded the Montecristo several times in recent years with new, exciting lines. For example, the Espada by Montecristo, and Espada by Montecristo Estoque, produced by Plasencia. In 2017, Nicaragua's rising star A.J. Fernandez was allowed to add a further line: the Monte by Montecristo AJ Fernandez. It is available in the four box pressed formats Belicoso, Corona, Robusto, and Toro, and costs between USD 10.50 and 11.25. There was a small test run between Altadis USA and A.J. Fernandez: in 2016 the company launched the Montecristo Crafted by AJ Fernandez, which, however, was only available through JR Cigars and Santa Clara Inc.
Tasting notes: A very tasty cigar with forest floor, grassy, roasted, and cedary aromas. A complex blend, with notes of fruit, chocolate, and cereals. It is creamy in the smoke, and complex.
Owner: Altadis U.S.A., Inc
Factory: Tabacalera A.J. Fernandez Cigars
Origin: Nicaragua
Wrapper: Ecuador
Filler: Nicaragua, Dom. Rep.
Size: 6 x 55 | 152 x 21,8 mm
#12 | JOYA BLACK DOBLE ROBUSTO
The Joya Red line, released in 2014, is joined by its dark-colored twin sister, Joya Black. In its overall brand identity, both embody the arrival of the new generation at Joya de Nicaragua. The final result, however, came about through close collaboration of the young management team and experienced master blenders. For the first time in the company's history, Joya de Nicaragua used a Mexican San Andrés Negro wrapper, which gives the Black line its velvety, dark touch. Joya Black is available in the formats Robusto, Toro, Doble Robusto, and Nocturno.
Tasting notes: The sumptuous sweetness of dried fruit, caramel, and fruitcake accompany this cigar. It is underscored by wheat tones, pepper and coffee. Now and then in the creamy smoke there are also notes of citrus.
Owener: Joya de Nicaragua, S.A.
Factory: Joya de Nicaragua, S.A.
Wrapper: Mexico
#11 | A.J. FERNANDEZ NEW WORLD PURO ESPECIAL ROBUSTO
Since the brand New World was launched by A.J. Fernandez three years ago, the classic line has been expanded by the New World Connecticut and, this year, by the New World Puro Especial.
A.J. Fernandez, who originates from Cuba, is – literally – on everybody's lips. Not only has he had success with his own, strong brands, he also mixes successful blends for major cigar companies such as Altadis USA and General Cigar. The New World Puro Especial is on the market in the formats Robusto, Short Churchill, and Toro. The blend – a Puro made with Nicaraguan tobaccos that are entirely grown on company-owned plantations – was created by A.J. in conjunction with his father, Ismael.
Tasting notes: Following the pepper in the first few draws, a pleasant sweetness comes through. Coffee, cedar, and leather aromas then develop. The spiciness of ginger and the sweetness of honey. Exciting.
Owner: A.J. Fernandez Cigars
Wrapper, binder, filler: Nicaragua
Maße: 5 1/2 x 52 | 140 x 20,6 mm
#10 | BOLÍVAR TESORO ER 2016 5TA AVENIDA
The origins of this brand, named after the South American freedom fighter Simón Bolívar, lie in Havana around the year 1900. At first the brand wasn't a leading export, but from the 1950s it became very popular, particularly in Great Britain. Today, it's considered a "connoisseur" brand, known for its earthy, full-bodied flavors. For this Edición Regional an elaborate format was chosen: the Double Figurado Salomones. Unfortunately, there are only 6,000 boxes of this fantastic cigar in circulation!
Tasting notes: At first, this cigar releases intense nutty and woody aromas, which is accentuated by a fruity sweetness and delicate peppery spice. In the second half, in the creamy, velvety smoke, a lot of spice is added.
Owner: Habanos S.A
Factory: Cubatabaco
Origin: Cuba
Wrapper, binder, filler: Cuba
Size: 7 1/4 x 57 | 184 x 22,6 mm
#9 | EIROA THE FIRST 20 54×6
With the Eiroa The First 20 series, the "Master of the Corojo," Christian Luis Eiroa (CLE), is celebrating his first 20 years in the cigar business – years that mark his meteoric rise. With his youthful age of 45, Eiroa is one of the world stars in the industry. In 2015, his Eiroa Prensado 48×4 was named cigar of the year. This year, he has managed to reach the very top once again. All tobaccos are aged for at least four years and are considered the best that the family has cultivated, with a century's worth of experience in tobacco growing. The tobaccos, as well as the cigars, come from Honduras.
Tasting notes: The first impression: hazelnut, cedar wood and cane sugar, followed by a spice explosion with a pepper kick. Then, increasing sweetness, several roasted and bitter tones. Complex and harmoniously blended.
Owner: C.L.E. Cigar Company
Factory: Aladino
Origin: Honduras
Wrapper, binder, filler: Honduras
#8 | PLASENCIA ALMA FUERTE GENERACIÓN V
The tobacco tradition of the Plasencia family spans five generations and five countries: the Canary Islands, Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The family employs 6,000 people, runs four factories as well as eight plantations, and produces around 40 million cigars per year. The youngest generation, with Nestor, Gustavo, and José Luis Plasencia, presented the Alma Fuente line in summer last year. It encompasses three powerful vitolas called Sixto II, Néstor IV, and the #8 in our Top 25 of the year 2017, named Generation V.
Tasting notes: A tangy box pressed salomón with a nutty impact, subtle roasted aromas and slightly peppery mint. Its earthy and woody aromas increase during the smoke; likewise, the sweetness of dried fruit. Full-bodied and balanced.
Owner: Plasencia Cigars S.
Factory: Fabrica de Puro Plasencia Cigars
Size: 7 x 58 | 178 x 23 mm
TOP 25 RELEASE SCHEDULE
December 11, 2017 (Monday): No. 25, 24, 23, 22, 21, 20
December 12, 2017 (Tuesday): No. 19, 18, 17, 16, 15, 14
December 13, 2017 (Wednesday): N0. 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8
December 14, 2017 (Thursday): No. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2
December 15, 2017 (Friday): Cigar of the Year 2017
FacebookTwitterLinkedInCopy LinkPrintEmail
CIGAR JOURNAL'S TOP 25 CIGARS OF 2017: #13 TO #8
Altadis USA, which in the United States has the trademark rights for this iconic brand, has repeatedly expanded the Montecirsto several times in recent years with new, exciting lines. For example, the Espada by Montecristo, and Espada by Montecristo Estoque, produced by Plasencia. In 2017, Nicaragua's rising star A.J. Fernandez was allowed to add a further line: the Monte by Montecristo AJ Fernandez. It is available in the four box pressed formats Belicoso, Corona, Robusto, and Toro, and costs between USD 10.50 and 11.25. There was a small test run between Altadis USA and A.J. Fernandez: in 2016 the company launched the Montecristo Crafted by AJ Fernandez, which, however, was only available through JR Cigars and Santa Clara Inc.
Cigar businessCigar JournalCigar newsLifestylenew blogtop rated cigars of 2017
Previous Post: Cigar news you can use: Self policing works best/ Tobacco Business Magazine
Next Post: Cigar news you can use: Villger Cigars press release
Top 30 Cigar Blogs
Business Partner: Cigar Page
Business Partner: Famous Cigar, Deals
Business Partner: Amazon Great Deals
Follow the blog via email, thank you for your support.
Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. We appreciate you letting your friends know.
Follow the site
View Frank Gerechter's profile on Facebook
View @FrankGerechter's profile on Twitter
View urban_fishing_pole's profile on Instagram
View Frank Gerechter's profile on LinkedIn
View Franklin Geechter's profile on Google+
View Bo1251's profile on WordPress.org
View @FrankGerechter's profile on Tumblr
Archives Select Month July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013
Categories Select Category Alec Bradley cigars (1) Cigar humor (1) cigar lifestyle (21) Cigar reviews. Punch cigars (2) cigar thoughts (1) cigars (1) Eventd (1) Events (336) lifestyle (7) Music/Lifestyle (55) News (498) Reviews (174) reviews to follow (1) urbanfishingpolecigars.com (460)
Cigar news you can use: Counting heads
Cigar news you can use: Press Release from General Cigar
Cigar news you can use: You need to be informed
Cigar events: Shoes for industry
Cigar review: From the vault
Reviews, News, Events, Music and Lifestyle
Reviews, News, Events, Music and Lifestyle Select Category Alec Bradley cigars (1) Cigar humor (1) cigar lifestyle (27) lifestyle (7) Cigar reviews. Punch cigars (2) cigar thoughts (1) cigars (1) Eventd (1) Events (336) Music/Lifestyle (55) News (498) Reviews (174) reviews to follow (1) urbanfishingpolecigars.com (460)
Business Partner: Cigar Rights of America


John W. Boudreau, Ph.D., is a professor at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business and the research director of its Center for Effective Organizations, where he conducts breakthrough research on human capital, talent and sustainable competitive advantage.
He also consults and conducts executive development with companies worldwide.
Before his current position, Dr. Boudreau helped to establish and direct the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University, where he was a professor for more than 20 years.
He has written more than 200 publications, including Retooling HR: Using Proven Business Tools to Make Better Decisions about Talent, and Investing in People with Dr. Wayne Cascio.
Dr. Boudreau's research addressing topics such as the future of the global HR profession, HR measurement and analytics, and organizational staffing and development has been published in Management Science, Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, and Human Resource Management to name a few.
His research received the Academy of Management's Organizational Behavior New Concept and Human Resource Scholarly Contribution awards. He is also a fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources, the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, and American Psychological Association.
Dr. Boudreau has served as a strategic advisor and board member to a range of organizations. He is a foundation trustee of the National Academy of Human Resources. He has served as a member of the board of advisors for the Human Resource Planning Society and WorldatWork. He chaired the advisory board of the California Strategic HR Partnership.
Dr. Boudreau holds a bachelor's degree in business from New Mexico State University and a master's degree in management and a doctorate in industrial relations from Purdue University.


text:
The Terminal
Steven Spielberg's 'The Terminal' is the worst film I've ever watched. We rented it from the library of 64 DVDs that are available at Tokyo's Hundred Stay hotel. We chose this film because we came to believe that it was a film about a number of spies, counterspies and criminals trapped in a train terminal. That sounded fun and stupid. Unfortunately 'The Terminal' is actually not fun, and much stupider than I'd hoped.
'The Terminal' is a film about a stateless person who gets trapped in an airport departures lounge and is slowly ground to dust beneath the heels of American bureaucracy.
The film which is OVER TWO HOURS LONG, stars Tom Hanks who puts on an entirely incomprehensible faux Russian accent. You can never tell what he's saying, but it doesn't matter anyway because all of his lines in the film consist of the words 'Krakozhia', 'Unacceptable', or 'payless shoes' re-arranged randomly. If the writers ever let him say anything else, it's so they can have him amusingly conjugate a verb incorrectly.
The film is as structureless as a deboned chicken. Our man, Tom, has a reason to visit New York - but this reason is only revealed to us in the last twenty minutes of the film, and is then immediately resolved. For the rest of the running time he just wanders around an airport because, as far as we know, he really wants to go to New York.
There is a subplot to the film where Tom Hanks helps one of the workers in the airport seduce another one. He does this by asking them one question every day, and eventually delivers a wedding ring for them. As far as the audience knows, the two characters involved in the romance never speak to each other until the marriage proposal - despite working in the same building every day for years. They decide to get married because it turns out they both like Star Trek.
Before watching this film I vaguely thought that I liked Tom Hanks as an actor, but on reflection I realise that I've not seen anything he's in besides Forest Gump, which I don't remember, and this, in which he is awful.
The film is somewhat inspired by the real life of Mehran Karimi Nasseri. I knew this watching the film and having a quite disturbing story turned turned into a 'heartwarming romantic comedy' feels somewhat icky to me. Here are some interesting things about the real events that this film was based on which I learnt from Wikipedia:
The Ostensible reason that Mehran had to remain in Charles De Gaule airport for 18 years was that he was expelled from Iran. However it appears that he was never expelled from the country.
France and Belgium both offered Mehran residency 'but he refused to sign the papers as they listed him as being Iranian (rather than British) and did not show his preferred name, "Sir Alfred Mehran".'
Steven Spielberg's production company paid him something like 275,000 dollars to make a film of his life, and then decided to make this film, which is a bit like his life, instead.
His autobiography is called 'The Terminal Man'. There is a 1974 novel with the same title by Michael Crichton, which Crichton described as being his 'least favourite work'.
After 18 years Mehran left the airport because of a medical emergency.
At some point he became homeless. In 2022 he returned to living in the airport terminal, where he died.
Want to receive email updates from me?


A Huntsville City Schools spokesman said they didn't have time in their schedule to comment about the disciplinary report numbers and arrest numbers.
Ms. Rushton went on to claim that for the first 20 days of school that the district's in school suspension and out of school suspension rate had been cut by approximately 56% when compared to last year. She made no mention of the number of arrests made during that time.
And I asked the principals why that would be. Three of them volunteered, right off the bat, the students are engaged. They are now engaged, and uh, we don't have discipline problems anymore. That's what we expected to see. What drove us in this direction was Project RED study which was done nationally, 2,000 observations across schools, school systems. And the key findings are when you take this [digital conversion] approach, not just one to one technology, but content, professional development, leadership, uh, the key pieces have to be in place, uh, the things you're going to see, uh, dramatic decrease in student discipline problems, dramatic increases in student achievement.
In other words, he was specifically using the "dramatic decrease in student discipline problems" to support his unplanned and poorly implemented digital initiative that even has the Secretary of Education talking.
As I pointed out about a month ago, it's fairly easy to show a dramatic decrease in student discipline problems when you control the reporting of incidents.
And that is exactly what Dr. Wardynski and the district have done.
He has hired consultants (despite falsely claiming that he hadn't), who train teachers on the importance of reducing discipline referrals.
He has engaged in a systematic attempt to blame the victim when someone is attacked and bullied while at school.
He denies any responsibility, and the board ignores physical abuse of at least 5 Huntsville City School middle school students whom he placed at The Pinnacle Schools.
While he may control the teachers and principals in his schools through fear and intimidation, he does not control the Huntsville Police Department. He does not control their data and actions.
Arrests have not gone up. Arrests have not gone down. And they certainly haven't been reduced by "nearly 60%" as Wardynski likes to claim.
So now we know that Dr. Wardynski has been manipulating the data to serve two purposes: to make himself look good and to make teachers jobs even harder so that record numbers of them quit or retire.
Dr. Wardynski likes to call himself a strong leader.
Strong leaders don't blame the victim.
Strong leaders don't use fear and intimidation to run off amazing teachers.
Strong leaders don't manipulate data to make themselves look better.
What a shame that he has no idea what leadership actually is.
If you want to be a part of a group that is working hard to stand up to bullying in our schools, please go like S.O.S. – Support Our Students and volunteer to help get the word out. When we work together, we can change the world. Changing this school system is easy by comparison. Especially when it's being led by someone who is scared to answer questions. But then I guess tonight is Halloween.
Has anything been done to the Pinnacle security guard who abused the students? I know if any employee from HCS had abused any students like that, it would have hit national news! I am totally disgusted at how the board continues to "sweep wrong doings under the rug" in order to make the big "W"look good. However, maybe they don't want the public to know how incompetent they really are!
Before you run to far with the idea that the Pinnacle Security guard did what was said I suggest you look at the home life of the young man. A history exists with his family and DHR. That will be all I can say for now.
That there were at least two boys with similar enough injuries that a nurse at the ER commented on hearing that the second boy had been beaten at Pinnacle that she had tended to another boy who had also been beaten there suggests that whatever has happened with the family in the past of one of the kids is irrelevant.
It seems highly unlikely that two families beat their kids in the exact same manner despite having no connection with one another besides their kids being taken to discipline room at Pinnacle, doesn't it?
And would you not expect Pinnacle to have CCTV throughout its facility? I would. And thus if the accusations could be easily proven false by reviewing the tapes, why weren't they immediately shown to be just that?
Finally, it doesn't follow that because a kid has been abused at home in the past — which is what you seem to be implying — that it is impossible or even unlikely that he could be abused out of his home as well.
True, I understand how difficult these students are…but the security guard HAD NO RIGHT to beat that child. What if it had been your child?
The bottom line is that at the end of the day every school in Huntsville City is unsafe. Teachers and staff are crazy and students are growing more and more worse in terms of behavior. For instance Huntsville High School is a problem waiting to happen. I see it everyday. These admins have no clue about how to keep these kids safe. And how can you its 1700-1800 kids in here. I've heard from several teachers that dr. w does want to limit referrals which equals to more problems for teachers. He is an idiot who has screwed me and my family before and is about as bad a leader as you can get.
He is not comparing numbers of suspension in fall 2011 to number of suspensions in fall 2012.
He is comparing DAYS of out/in school suspensions.
To achieve a 50% drop in DAYS is easy — just half the time of the suspension.
Say you had an offense that carried a 2-day suspension in 2011, and you had 50 cases of this offense. 50 suspensions x 2 days = 100 days.
Now assign that same offense a 1-day suspension instead in 2012. You still have 50 cases, but 50 cases x 1 day = 50 days.
But as far as discipline and safety are concerned, nothing has changed — or at least not for the better.
If what once carried a 2-day suspension now carries a 1-day, then in theory the deterrence effect of suspension would be compromised (and if it has no deterrence effect, why bother?).
All speculation of course, since facts needed to compare offenses and penalties case-by-case for the two years are not available nor are they forthcoming.
Don't forget that last year's "Freshman Friday" events at Huntsville and Grissom High Schools netted the other 200+ out of school suspensions. Those were unusual events that were way outside the norm and got an unusual level of response under a newly installed military superintendent. His comments use that aberration in the usual pattern to portray improvement.
My point was we simply don't have all the facts. Lets not damn a man before we have all the details. Something happened. The marks in the picture show that. What exactly happened and we can only speculate. If the gentlemen is at fault then he should pay the price. To the person that mentioned camera I would also expect that they would have them but for no other reason but security.
I knew it was just a matter of time before the good name and character of the victm was going to be drug through the mud as a weapon of mass distraction from the real issue, and to send a clear message to other silence other victims.
I'm with you Redeye, and how can we be damning an un-named guard?
The accusers have been willing to be named. If the guard is being railroaded, why doesn't he fight back?
The camera are needed for security — Concerned Dad, you are right there — but not just to protect the owners. They are needed to protect the kids. Or they should be considered as needed to protect the kids. Why would I not be one bit surprised to learn that the cameras weren't working that day. . . we'll see.
Actually, since it's the rich and powerful Lees vs. a kid whose family hasn't managed to stay off DHR's books, I won't be at all surprised if the whole matter mysteriously vanishes in the same way that the Lee brothers' bust for trafficking didn't rate a mention in the Times or al.com at the time, when the same week a burglary of some utensils at a Chinese restaurant was deemed newsworthy.
Evidently there is enough evidence of "torture and willful abuse of a child" to warrant his arrest.
I agree that we should not destroy a man's character without evidence. There appears to have been at least enough evidence to warrant his arrest at this point.
I was told later one child was from a documented abusive home environment. I however, obtained information from a very reliable source the incidents did occur at Pinnacle and there are several children involved. Families and agencies are attempting to protect the children. It is apparent HCS and Pinnacle neglected they duties. Concerned Dad I have to say in this case this incident is true and the identies are silent to protect the innocent.
Just because one child was "from a documented abusive home environment" doesn't mean they should be abused at Pinnacle or any other place.


text:
Share this Story: When the CRA's bullying came back to bite it: Offshore tax audit results in $5 million in damages
When the CRA's bullying came back to bite it: Offshore tax audit results in $5 million in damages
Opinion: As this case highlights, ordinary Canadians without deep pockets are often at the mercy of the CRA
Allan Lanthier, Special to Financial Post
The Canada Revenue Agency headquarters in Ottawa. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
How do so many wealthy Canadians avoid tax on offshore income? And why isn't the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) more aggressive in its pursuit of offshore tax planning? A recent decision of the Quebec Superior Court offers some answers. The court ordered the CRA to pay damages of close to $5 million to a group of taxpayers following an overzealous offshore tax audit.
Irving Ludmer and the late Arnold Steinberg were friends and successful Montreal businessmen. In 1987, a company was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands to manage a global portfolio of investments. Ludmer and Steinberg were among the initial investors, and were directors of the company. In 2001, the company was reorganized under the name SLT. SLT had approximately 160 Canadian shareholders, and assets under management of about US$1 billion. Its structure was intended to defer Canadian tax for 15 years, and to result in capital gains rates for any accumulated income and gains at that future time.
When the CRA's bullying came back to bite it: Offshore tax audit results in $5 million in damages Back to video
In 2005, the CRA undertook a project targeted at high-wealth individuals and, as part of that initiative, shareholders of SLT came under audit. After a long and tortuous audit, a number of holding companies belonging to Ludmer and Steinberg and family members were assessed for the years 2005 to 2010. In 2014, the CRA abandoned and reversed most of those assessments.
Philip Cross: The Canada Revenue Agency, a black hole that swallows up small-business dreams
Jack Mintz: Sin taxes are far too valuable for cannabis to dodge the bullet
Ottawa has turned income-splitting rules into an absolute nightmare for small businesses
The taxpayers took the position that the assessments never had a reasonable prospect of success, and that the CRA had taken the strongest possible assessing positions simply to gain leverage for a possible settlement. The taxpayers sued the CRA for damages.
The court concluded that tax reduction was one of the main reasons for the SLT structure. However, the court also noted that, in principle, taxpayers are entitled to organize their affairs in order to pay the least amount of tax. The court then turned to the conduct of the CRA, and found it wanting in a number of respects.
The CRA's case rested largely on how best to interpret an arcane tax provision — regulation 7000. The CRA argued that this provision applied, and that Canadian-resident shareholders of SLT were therefore taxable on an annual basis. The court concluded that this argument was inconsistent with the CRA's longstanding position on this matter, and that the CRA had therefore applied an assessing position to the taxpayers that it had never applied to any other taxpayer.
The court was also troubled by other aspects of the CRA's argument. For example, the court concluded that CRA auditors had tried to "bully" the Rulings Division into supporting their argument, instead of acting with caution in the face of reservations expressed by Rulings. The court noted that this creates doubts as to whether, at a certain point, the audit started being conducted in a way to maintain the CRA's position, rather than to reach the correct conclusion.
The court found that the CRA was at fault in other matters as well. The CRA purposely bungled its foreign-exchange calculations (when converting SLT's annual U.S. income and gains into Canadian dollars) with the result that SLT shareholders were incorrectly assessed for total income of $434 million over the years, rather than an amount of $44 million. Separately, for the 2005 taxation year (the first year that was still open to assessment), the CRA included income that had accrued for many years prior to 2005, even though there was no legislative support for this inclusion.
In seeking information from the Bermudian authorities, the CRA stated that its request related to a "criminal tax matter" when it clearly did not. And the CRA was painfully slow in responding to the taxpayers' requests for CRA documents under the "access to information" provisions.
While the court concluded that the above were all faults committed by the CRA in the course of its audit, it rejected the taxpayers' argument that these faults were the result of any hostility or ill will on the part of CRA employees.
The taxpayers had claimed damages of $117.5 million. About $87.6 million of this total involved claims that the court rejected (including punitive damages of $40 million). This left a claim of $29.9 million. Of this amount, the court awarded the taxpayers about $4.8 million, representing a portion of lost interest on tax payments, a portion of professional fees, and $250,000 in total to Ludmer and Steinberg for reputational loss, and for stress, trouble and inconvenience.
The CRA's conduct in this matter is troubling. More troubling are the facts that ordinary Canadians without deep pockets are often at the mercy of the CRA and that, had the case been governed by the laws of any other province or territory instead of Quebec civil law, the taxpayers might not have prevailed: In 2017, the Alberta Court of Appeal held that the CRA cannot be sued for negligence in the performance of an audit.
Allan Lanthier is a former chair of the Canadian Tax Foundation, and a retired partner of Ernst & Young.


Citation: Gebhardt, S.E., Lemar, L.E., Haytowitz, D.B., Pehrsson, P.R., Nickle, M.S., Showell, B.A., Thomas, R.G., Exler, J., Holden, J.M. 2008. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference. Available: http://www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata.
Interpretive Summary: The USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21 (SR21) is the major source of food composition data in the United States and provides the foundation for most public and private sector food composition databases. SR21 contains nutrient data for 7,414 food items for up to 140 food components, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids. It replaces the previous release, SR20 issued in September 2007. SR21 includes new data for a number of foods analyzed under the National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP), a program designed to 1) identify those foods that are the major contributors of nutrients to the U.S. diet, 2) conduct a probability-based nationwide sampling of those foods, and 3) analyze the samples under USDA- supervised laboratory contracts. Major changes made to the SR database since the last release include the updating of many nutrient values in all food groups with new data from NFNAP, food companies, and the scientific literature. The following new foods have been added to the database: 28 brand-name soy milk items, 66 soy-based vegetarian items, 12 new breakfast cereals, 4 types of dark chocolate representing different cacao levels, pie crusts, pomegranate juice, refried beans, grass fed-bison and beef, rotisserie chicken items, new pork value-cuts, and USDA commodity egg mix and meats. As part of the American Indian/Alaska Native database, data on 6 stellar sea lion food items (meat and organs) were added. Data were updated for cottage cheese, sour cream, infant formulas, farmed Atlantic salmon, crème-filled snack cakes, snack crackers, chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pie crust, brand-name soups, and several snack items. A number of dry soup and sauce mixes (38 items) and beef items trimmed to ¼ inch fat (266 items) which are no longer on the market were removed from the database. Uniform Retail Meat Identity Standards (URMIS)is an industry program that simplifies and standardizes the perplexing array of fresh meat cuts and their names. URMIS identification numbers are now included for 190 beef and 44 pork items. Update files are provided for users who have incorporated SR20 or earlier releases into their systems and wish to perform their own updates. The data are available to search or download from the Nutrient Data Laboratory Web site (www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata) on the Internet. Currently the Web site is being accessed over 200,000 times a month. Major applications of SR include the development and revision of the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Surveys (FNDDS) by the ARS Food Surveys Research Group. The FNDDS is used to process dietary data records from the survey What We Eat in America, the dietary intake component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
Technical Abstract: The USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 21 contains data for 7,414 food items for up to 140 food components when a complete profile is available for a food item. It replaces the previous release, SR20, issued in September 2007. Data in SR21 supersede values in the printed Handbooks and previous electronic releases of the database. Major applications of SR include the development of the Food and Nutrient Database for Dietary Surveys (FNDDS) by the Food Surveys Research Group. The FNDDS is used to process dietary data records from the survey What We Eat in America, the dietary intake component of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Major changes made to the SR database since the last release include the updating of many nutrient values in all food groups with new data from National Food and Nutrient Analysis Program (NFNAP), food companies, and the scientific literature. The following new foods have been added to the database: 28 brand-name soy milk items, 66 soy-based vegetarian items, 12 new breakfast cereals, 4 types of dark chocolate representing different cacao levels, several types of pie crusts, pomegranate juice, refried beans, grass-fed bison and beef, several rotisserie chicken items, new pork value-cuts, and USDA commodity egg mix and meats. As part of the American Indian/Alaska Native database, data on 6 stellar sea lion food items(meat and organs) were added. A complete list of the added food items is in the ADD_FOOD file. Data were updated for cottage cheese, sour cream, infant formulas, farmed Atlantic salmon, crème-filled snack cakes, snack crackers, chocolate sandwich cookies, chocolate chip cookies, pie crust, brand-name soups, and several snack items. These can be found in the CHG_NUTR file. A number of dry soup and sauce mixes (38 items) and beef items trimmed to ¼ inch fat (266 items) which are no longer on the market were removed from the database. A complete list of deleted food items is in the DEL_FOOD file.Uniform Retail Meat Identity Standards(URMIS) is an industry program that simplifies and standardizes the perplexing array of fresh meat cuts and their names. URMIS identification numbers are now included for 190 beef and 44 pork items. The database is being provided in the two relational formats (ASCII and Microsoft Access). There are four principal files: Food Description, Nutrient Data, Gram Weight, and Footnotes, and six support files: Nutrient Definition, Food Group Description, Source Code, Derivation Code, Sources of Data File, and Sources of Data Link files. An update file for the database, intended for users who have obtained SR20 or earlier releases and wish to perform their own updates, is provided. An abbreviated file is provided as a flat file and as a MS Excel spreadsheet. The abbreviated file does not include values for alcohol, caffeine, phytosterols, starch, theobromine, vitamin D, individual amino acids, fatty acids, individual sugars, fluoride,or betaine. The data are available to search or download from the Nutrient Data Laboratory Web site on the Internet http://www.ars.usda.gov/nutrientdata.


Rent a Bike You like Whether you are travelling and want to see the sights, or are looking for a high performance ride in the back-country, we've got your bike.
Stan Coleman Real Estate is a California and Colorado licensed, independent boutique real estate brokerage firm with offices in Beverly Hills-Dana Point-San Diego,CA; Denver Metro, CO; Honolulu, Hi ; Jacksonville-Palm Beach-Miami, FL; and McLean and Norfolk, VA.
Splash through spring and into summer with fun water games and activities for the whole family to enjoy. We at aqua train has multiple events like water games , kids games, outdoor swimming pools gifts shops and many more.
Turn your love for fitness and helping others. As a certified personal fitness trainer, you don't just help people workout, you help change lives.
Vets Direct Real Estate Vets Direct Property Management Owned and operated by a retired career U.S. Military Officer who understands the specialized needs of veterans, Vets Direct was established for the exclusive benefit of serving those who serve America.