Buffalo Bloviator

The BuffaloBloviator wormed his way into the Op-Ed page of the Buffalo News today by being mentioned in a nationally syndicated story about GPS and cheating spouses.

Gee, if I knew that this story was going to be reprinted in the Buffalo News, I would have said something deeply profound and meaningful to our city’s forward advancement such as ”No Goal!”.

 http://www.buffalonews.com/248/story/280517.html

New York Sun Interviews the BuffaloBloviator for Valentine’s Day story about love and covert GPS vehicle tracking systems.

By LENORE SKENAZY
February 13, 2008

…”If somebody has somebody on the side and they don’t make contact with them in the course of Valentine’s Day, they’re in deep trouble,” the owner of a Buffalo-based surveillance equipment company, BuffaloBloviator said. “So if you’re going to follow somebody, you should really follow them on Valentine’s Day, because that’s the time you’re going to hit pay dirt.”

His company, christened Goldman Computers so it would look innocuous on credit card bills, always sees interest peak at this time of year, he said, and at Christmas.

…Read Entire NY Sun story…

Elmwood Avenue’s venerable music store, New World Record,  announced this week they are planning on closing their doors after 24 years.

Buffalo Pundit wrote

BuffaloRising.com wrote

BuffaloBloviator writes:

Govindan Kartha,

Congratulations New World Record founder, Govindan Kartha, for 24 years of success. That may not be a “world record” - but it’s a hell of a record for any private enterprise. That doesn’t happen without the right chops and a lot of hard work.
You may be leaving an expired industry but you certainly are not leaving behind the business experience and instincts that come from 24 years in the trenches.

My own specialty electronics e-commerce (mail-order before WWW) business happens to be 24 years old this year also. 10 years in, I started losing money because the nature of the home and studio recording industry changed, just as the record store industry now has changed. I hung on until the end because I really didn’t think I knew how to do anything else, it was all I had ever done since college. I quickly learned that the experience easily transferred to new industries. In fact, I am convinced that the experience I gained during the tougher years was even more valuable than the experience gained during the successful years. Looking back, I wouldn’t trade that painful experience for anything.

You are battle hardened my friend. I hope that you decide to remain self-employed because you will be amazed at the resources that you discover within yourself. As in physical exercise, when talent is exercised one day at a time, over the years, you don’t realize or notice all of that development and power until you have the opportunity to test your strength on something new.

Congratulations again, and may your next venture bring 24 years of success.

Howard Goldman

Buffalo Geek wrote the post “The $3 Billion Dollar Spreadsheet” rewritten below this bloviation.

That’s a great set of numbers that Commissioner Tobie compiled. It makes my day to see that. Thank you, Buffalo Geek.

Personally, I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of the cynics lately. Some of my close friends still think that Buffalo is sinking. They cause me to wonder if their overly negative opinions should become less relevant as a concern of mine. After all, they’re sitting on the sidelines, aren’t they? Doesn’t that fact alone make them irrelevant in a sense? Despite their negativity, the city is moving forward at a great pace. We all see the values and opportunities rising, but they can’t.

Maybe that’s ok.

I’m beginning to believe Buffalo bashers actually serve a valuable purpose in the healthy market we are currently enjoying. In the stock market there is a rule that it is time to get out when every Joe gets in. When everybody decides to put their money into a market, there is no room for upside, because all of the available money is already in. A little fear in a market is good because caution keeps some of the money out and there is still potential upside for those who are up to the challenge of investing. The Buffalo skeptics may actually be contributing a service to the local market by keeping the opportunities from running away from the rest of us before we can get fully invested ourselves. It takes a certain amount of time to raise money and to evaluate the opportunities. If they were selling too quickly, they would all be gone by the time we decide on the one we like. A nice steady upward price trend presents a better opportunity for us regular guy investors because we can still catch the bus -it isn’t moving too fast yet.   I recently decided to quit trying to change their minds. In fact, now I thank them.

The $3 Billion Dollar Spreadsheet

 

 

A reuse for aging Buffalo grain elevators was detailed on page one of yesterday’s Sunday Buffalo News.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20060730/1048952.asp

This is exciting news indeed. The Buffalo Bloviator has been investigating the feasibility of utilizing the idled capacity of our inner harbor for ethanol production ever since we learned that a plant was announced earlier this year for the Town of Shelby. Observing that General Mills uses huge lake freighters to deliver their grain and provide Buffalo with the wonderful aroma of roasting Cheerios, we reasoned that it must be more cost effective than rail or truck. We knew that our elevators could be upgraded because other cities still use theirs. Our elevators did not become obsolete, rather they became irrelevant when the St. Lawrence Seaway opened and took Buffalo out of the commercial shipping corridor.

We are not reinventing the wheel with ethanol. Brazil has already done it. Brazil began their ethanol program in 1973 during the oil embargo. It took them 30 years but they have made themselves energy independent. They have equipped their national fleet with ethanol burning vehicles and have developed the necessary fuel delivery infrastructure. Brazil is so efficient at producing ethanol that the USA can actually import it cheaper than we can ever produce it domestically. Brazil’s climate allows them to use sugar cane instead of corn or grass. Sugar cane requires fewer energy units to produce a given amount of ethanol than does corn. The USA may never be able to get over that production cost disparity. Our government has demonstrated a commitment to restrict ethanol imports from Brazil in order to foster our agricultural industry. The markets have interpreted the government’s commitment to protectionism as reliable enough to rationalize investment in the domestic ethanol industry. That is why we believe there is tremendous growth potential for our nascent ethanol industry.

The Buffalo Bloviator predicts (and hopes) that there will in fact be ethanol production in Buffalo taking advantage of our harbor and grain elevator capacity. The question is, will the Buffalo ethanol industry really be kicked-off by RiverWright Energy, LLC?

Here are some hints that the public records have thus far provided:

1) The New York State Department Of State has no record of a domestic entity or a foreign entity doing business in New York State called RiverWright Energy, LLC.  There is no record of an entity name reservation for RiverWright Energy, LLC.

2) The Erie County records do not show any change of ownership activity on the parcels on Childs Street where the plant location was announced. It is still owned by Conagra Maple Leaf of Omaha, NE. The property is currently occupied by “RiverWright, LLC”, a processor of wood chips. RiverWright has been advertising for help wanted so they appear to be a going concern.

3) “Ethanol industry veteran” KL Process Design Group was named to manage the project’s design, completion, and operations. We found information that KL typically takes an ownership share. As a major part of KL’s service, they manage the formation of capital. In this case the capital requirements were announced to be around 80 million dollars.

Ground breaking is scheduled for September 2006. Production is scheduled to begin September 2007.

Now either these amazing fellas can raise money and construct an 80 million dollar ethanol factory faster than Mark Croce can say, “I’m building a new restaurant”, or there are some missing pieces to this puzzle.  

Either way, I salute them for having the rare vision, which is sometimes required to see the obvious.

Good luck guys, and let us take a look at your prospectus. We will certainly consider investing.