It's a boutique manufacturer, I would be pretty surprised if it had more than $0.5M in annual revenue. The English translation has the 9.7 million Yuan number which is definitely 1.5. Doesn't mention assuming any debt which I would assume is required to be mentioned if it's being done.
I did some looking around after KG said he was a tenured Physics prof (not true as best I can tell, definitely not true now) and ran on his website. It's a fun read, business speak is there in spades:
http://www.alexandercavalli.com/
It's almost certainly true looking through all the stories. Their stated goal is to gain access to the high end of the market and the trickle down exclusivity that implies. My guess is they may not change much as far as quality but they may move manufacturing to China. Who knows.
Banks have become a massive PITA for mortgages (the mortgage for the lake house was possibly one of the most frustrating things I have ever done) but I think that I rather this than they making a lot of stupid ass loans/taking hughe volume bonuses and then getting bailed out.... just my two cents.
I have had great luck with my Nikon 70-200 on a Nikon 2X teleconverter. I even did some test pics with a tripod and bill a while back and I was very happy with it: in other words I preferred the loss of sharpness rather than having to crop. It wasn't even close.
The oath was no big deal at all. The guy from USCIS gave a short speech, we said the oath and then pledge and then got our certificates. My wife didn't make it so it was a bit of a non-event. I am just glad I'm able to vote and get a clearance to work on some cooler stuff.
Your experience is exactly what I would expect and reflects my experience as well (well not the input part) but I was just pointing to places where you can hear the differences with apodizing filters (i.e. the listen setting on Ayre players).