Disqus - Latest Comments for ebenthurston

Re: Bonuses

fredwilson — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:46:24 -0000

I am with you

Re: Bonuses

ebenthurston — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 10:38:29 -0000

I haven't heard a compelling argument for why government bailouts were a better solution to AIG's insolvency than to let them file Chapter 11. Bankruptcy served the economy well for hundreds of years. What changed in 2008?

Lehman's liquidation seemed a lot more efficient and less destructive to taxpayers than the handling of AIG. Bankruptcy seems like the best way to deal with bankrupt firms.

Re: When Government Funds Business

simonstudio — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:50:39 -0000

we solved Iraq with a surge. more investment (blood) and selling off parts to he worst element. perhaps our present economic war is no different. we need to put trust in the bad guys.

Re: When Government Funds Business

ebenthurston — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:47:23 -0000

"The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups."

-- Henry Hazlitt
Economics in One Lesson

Re: Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury - Video of shadow flicker from the Beaver Ridge Wind...

Mark Henry — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 12:17:33 -0000

I do not know what, if any, due diligence was performed by the developers of the Freedom, ME installation. I do know, however, that distance and topography, along with siting compared to the sun's path are what determine shadow flicker. Simply put, flicker should not be an issue for Roxbury due to the significant differences between the two developments. If you want to call that dumb luck, then so be it.

Re: Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury - Despite the narrow 87-81 victory of those in...

Mark Henry — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 11:51:49 -0000

Eben,

Glad to help. Do you have the Jan 12th mailing handy? I'll refer to the green page presented in bullet point format. Here's a quick list of items which are presented in such a fashion as to appear as fact, but are either entirely incorrect or written to be misinterpreted by the reader:

1. Wind power is not a viable energy source...
- What is the definition of "viable"?
- Using similar criteria, how does wind power compare with other renewable energy sources?
- Using similar criteria, how does wind power compare with all other energy sources?

2. There are no guarantees your property taxes will go down...
- Several mathematical models have been created, both with the current school structure and with the future proposed structure. Both indicate significant reduction in property taxes.
- How would you have this guaranteed?

3. This is the first wind turbine project to be erected in a mountainous area surrounded by bodies of water...
- There are tens of thousands of industrial scale wind turbines in use around the world. Many are located in mountainous regions surrounded by water.

4. There is no plan to monitor the Swift River or Roxbury Pond for phosphorous...
- The statement suggests that the development would create phosphorous and leach it into the groundwater. Phosphorous is a by product of agricultural fertilization and (to some extent) home septic systems. So where would hte phosphorous come from?
- The Planning Board has had several discussion internally, and at a very high level with the Board of Selectmen, to finance water quality testing for the pond starting summer 2009. I am not sure what this would include, but I would recommend nitrogen, phosphorous, oxygen level, and particulates at the least. This request, however, is not being driven by the development, but rather by the overall poor quality of septic systems found at homes within the watershed.

5. The noise analysis drastically overstated the nigh time ambient levels...
- Having spent ten years in the US Navy studying and teaching sound propagation theory and application I would be happy to discuss the methods and equipment used to conduct these tests with anyone who cares to step forward.

6. ...Route 17, which is designated as a Maine Scenic Highway...
- I will concede that I may be incorrect here, however, it is my understanding that the Scenic Highway sign located on the stretch of R17 in Mexico was placed in error. It should be much further north of Byron.

7. Lawyers for Independence Wind wrote the changes to the comprehensive plan.
- The tone and language of this statement suggests that something underhanded is in progress. The truth is much simpler...
- The Planning Board and Selectmen requested that Independence Wind submitted proposed language
- That language was reviewed and edited by the Planning Board
- That version was then reviewed not once, but twice by the townspeople during public hearings. Ample discussion was held and substantive changes were made based on those discussions.

8. Independence Wind owners and investors all stand to make huge amounts of money...
- The suggestion here is that investors and entrepreneurs should not make money from their investments.

There's ample more there to discuss, but I've already exceeded your request for a single point of contention. I hope that my response meets your requirement and helps to generate additional worthwhile discussion.

Regards,

Mark Henry

Re: Who removes the turbines when they stop working?

ebenthurston — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:43:30 -0000

So the towns people need to skip family dinner and "develop language" at meetings, or they can expect to look at rotting turbines for the rest of their lives?

I'd hope Independence Wind would care enough to plan removal of dead machines without being asked.

Re: Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury - Video of shadow flicker from the Beaver Ridge Wind...

ebenthurston — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:28:19 -0000

If the situation is "unfortunate", why didn't the developers move that tower to a spot that wouldn't damage this person's home and property? I guess folks have nothing to worry about -- unless their house is in an "unfortunate" location.

Mark, are you saying the people of Roxbury just got lucky that the topographics are different than Freedom, ME?

Dumb luck seems like a bad safeguard to me, but I'm no expert.

Re: Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury - Despite the narrow 87-81 victory of those in...

ebenthurston — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 01:01:38 -0000

Mark, please provide one example of the "several down right fabrications."
No need for two. One will do just fine.
Much obliged.

Re: Concerned Citizens to Save Roxbury - Video of shadow flicker from the Beaver Ridge Wind...

ebenthurston — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 10:28:14 -0000

That would drive me insane.

Re: ABC's Charles Gibson at a wind farm

ebenthurston — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 16:03:26 -0000

Wow, those things are really imposing. You could probably hear the noise from a line of 27 of those things down the ridge all the way from the West Shore. What a shame that would be.

Re: My Web 2.0 Keynote

ebenthurston — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 23:22:12 -0000

Great presentation. Thanks for getting permission to post it and sharing.

Re: Shake Shack Without the Wait

ebenthurston — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:46:18 -0000

And who said Twitter was a waste of time?

Re: Open Systems, Open Data, Transparency

ebenthurston — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 12:38:03 -0000

TR, I can understand your frustration, but an investor's only objective is to return a profit. It's not philanthropy or gambling. Part of founding a new company or launching a product is picking a market appropriate to attract 3rd party investment if it's needed. Not every brilliant idea can become a company with the kind of growth potential required to warrant VC or angel backing, but there could very well be other sources of funding that are appropriate for your idea. Wealthy individuals with an interest in your space, government or state programs, university programs, etc. The problem might not be the idea, but the source of funding.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Re: Fred Wilson Dot VC

fredwilson — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:03:06 -0000

A few times but no luck so far

Re: Fred Wilson Dot VC

ebenthurston — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:58:38 -0000

Do you ever go fishing from that beach? You could catch big striped bass in the fall right from shore.

Re: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/08/is-geek-tech-go.html

ebenthurston — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 10:06:56 -0000

There are two main issues I think defines what tech services go mainstream and why. One is age. As some have pointed out many of our 30+ wives have become enthusiastic users of facebook, connecting to friends new and old. My non-tech wife has been on facebook for a few months and she loves it and just last night wondered how she ever lived without it. I have 300+ fb friends and my wife is jealous. My college age cousin however, has several thousand friends on FB and several thousand photos. That's not a function of my wife and I being less geeky, I'm definitely a larger geek than my cousin. It because way more mainstream kids use facebook than mainstream adults.

The other factor is the blockbuster effect. A single tech service taking off with the mainstream is more about product and marketing than the underlying tech category. Facebook's and youtube's success does not mean that social networks and video sites are now a mainstream phenomenon.

Tech services become more mainstream as more tech oriented younger generations grow up but it's still a hit driven market. Individual company iez break out, not entire product categories.

Mobile just makes everything seem more accesable for people who are scared of their PCs but not their phone. By the way, sorry for any typos, I'm writing this on my iPod Touch.

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

fredwilson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 09:27:15 -0000

Typepad won't support that. We've asked for it but they won't/can't do it

So we are using google's webmaster tools, sitemaps, etc to get google to
realize that avc.com is now the primary domain

It will take time, but I think it will work

Re: Blogging In The 'Burbs

ebenthurston — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:29:30 -0000

Fred, do you have a plan for migrating pagerank to the new URLs? It looks like the old URLs still resolve to blogs.com. I think you'd need to put 301 redirects on all the old URLs in order to transfer all the juice.

Re: Live At Leeds

fredwilson — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 11:04:05 -0000

Probably Israel historically, but I think China and India will be much bigger soon if they aren't already

Re: Live At Leeds

ebenthurston — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:37:17 -0000

What country has the most robust startup ecosystem outside of the USA? Israel seems to have a lot of activity.

Re: Venture Fund Economics: When One Deal Returns The Fund

ebenthurston — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:57:36 -0000

Or captured leading market share in a bad economy - Google in the post dotcom bust recession.

Re: Venture Fund Economics: When One Deal Returns The Fund

ebenthurston — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 23:27:21 -0000

That was as entertaining as it was informative.

Re: Top Signs Your Service is Going Mainstream

ebenthurston — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 22:14:56 -0000

#6 might be the most meaningful of them all.

Re: Venture Fund Economics: Gross and Net Returns

ebenthurston — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 19:05:50 -0000

These posts and comments are incredibly interesting and informative. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series and conversations. Thanks for pulling back the curtain, Fred.