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GRAPHIC: PHOTO: The Suns acquired Shaquille O'Neal, who will soon be 36, in the hope that his strength would complement their speedy offense. (PHOTOGRAPH BY ROB SCHUMACHER/THE ARIZONA REPUBLIC, VIA A.P.) PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1090 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final The Greener Side of Recession BYLINE: By DAN MITCHELL SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; WHAT'S ONLINE; Pg. 5 LENGTH: 606 words TONGUE planted firmly in cheek -- or maybe not, it's a bit hard to tell -- Fion MacCloud of the British site Finance Markets recently offered ''10 Ways the Recession Can Help the Environment.'' A recession, he noted, means less waste dumped into landfills, fewer S.U.V.'s sold and fewer people taking vacations, in that way using less fuel. In response, Michael Graham Richard of Treehugger.comnoted several ways that the environment is actually hurt in hard economic times. Companies ''will reduce their investments into research and development and green programs,'' he wrote. Also, when consumers seek bargains, ''that usually means that greener products won't make it.'' If governments ''start taxing 'bads' instead of 'goods' (pollution, carbon, toxins instead of labor, income, capital gains),'' he added, ''the least expensive products will also be the greenest.'' And with less access to capital, ''start-ups working on the breakthrough green technologies of tomorrow can have trouble getting funds.'' Finally, during a recession, politicians may redirect their attention from environmental initiatives toward the economy. ''Massive corn subsidies anyone?'' Mr. Richard wrote. ''Don't even think about progress on global warming.'' UNLIKELY Has Silicon Valley become a hotbed of drug abuse, with hopelessly addicted venture capitalists demanding that would-be entrepreneurs supply them with OxyContin before they will agree to finance start-ups? Probably not, but that has not stopped Valleywag, the Silicon Valley gossip blog, from posting such allegations over the last few months. It began in December, when the blog flatly claimed, based on an e-mail message from a single anonymous ''tipster,'' that OC-80, a type of OxyContin, was becoming ''the Valley's next big drug.'' This week, Valleywag published the supposed account of an employee at a start-up who was fired because he could not secure OxyContin for his boss to give to a venture capitalist. The boss purportedly wrote an e-mail message to the employee saying: ''I told these investors we can get them OC. But just a couple days before I meet with them, you tell me you can't get it. They were counting on it, Joe. We are not going to get funded. You are fired.'' The stilted language aside, would a boss in this situation really fire ''Joe'' via e-mail, spelling out the reasons so frankly? Many Valleywag commenters thought not. ''O.K.,'' wrote one, ''I'm changing Valleywag's tag from 'News' to 'Fiction.' '' SECRET SALES According to Linsey Knerl of the personal finance site Wisebread, Target stores are often filled with bargains, but they can be hard to find. ''In addition to the fantastic finds on the end caps of most aisles,'' she wrote, ''there are fabulous hidden deals to be had for those of us who really want them.'' For instance, a product may be marked down, but there is no hint of its real price. ''The only way to really know if an item is on 'secret clearance' is to scan it, made handy by the self-scanning stations placed throughout most stores.'' These and several other hints are available at wisebread.com. PRE-'P.C.' TV Cracked.comoffers videos of some of the most unintentionally ridiculous television spots from the golden age of television. A spot for the Mattel Dick Tracy Tommy Burst toy machine gun features a young boy mock-killing a robber. And a 1963 commercial for Folgers instant coffee depicts a man hinting to his wife that ''the girls down at the office'' might steal his affections thanks to their superior brewing skills. Complete links are at nytimes.com/business. E-mail: whatsonline@nytimes.com
Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1091 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final In Northwest Colorado, the Workingman's Spa Town BYLINE: By HELEN OLSSON SECTION: Section F; Column 0; Escapes; AMERICAN JOURNEYS; Pg. 3 LENGTH: 1606 words FOR many Coloradans driving west from Denver, Glenwood Springs is little more than an exit ramp, its landmark hot-springs pool signaling the turnoff for Aspen, 40 miles to the south. But G-wood, as young hip locals call the town, is worth more than a pit stop. Situated in a T-shaped valley at the confluence of the Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers, this workingman's town is rich in history and low on glitter. The Hotel Colorado, where both Al Capone and Teddy Roosevelt counted sheep, sits next to a KFC outlet. In summer, outdoorsy types come for the rafting, fly-fishing and hiking. Winter enthusiasts come for the skiing, snowshoeing and snowmobiling at the Sunlight Mountain Resort nearby. Year round, visitors simmer in the pool (touted as the world's largest mineral bath), steam in natural underground vapor caves and explore the huge network of caverns that lace Iron Mountain. Once known as Defiance, Glenwood Springs was founded in 1885. Entrepreneurs took note of the hot springs, which the Utes had long seen as healing waters, and envisioned a world-class spa. After the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad arrived in 1887, hotels and the two-block-long pool, which still dominates the city landscape, were built, and Glenwood quickly became a summer vacation enclave for the wealthy. By the early 20th century, gambling halls, brothels and saloons had arrived, too. During Prohibition, the Chicago gangster Diamond Jack Alterie often came to Glenwood to fish and take the waters. Hank Bosco, a blue-eyed octogenarian, remembers taking a ride in the rumble seat of Diamond Jack's chrome-plated Model A Ford. ''My mother had a fit,'' he said. ''He always carried revolvers with pearl handles -- and he was a mean one.'' After a whiskey-fueled argument over a poker game, Diamond Jack shot two men through a door of the Hotel Denver, across the river from the hot springs pool. (Decades later, another notorious killer would come through town. In 1977, Ted Bundy escaped from Glenwood's jail by removing a metal ceiling plate and starving himself enough to squeeze through the opening.) Mr. Bosco's father, Mike, who had come to Glenwood from northern Italy in 1914 via Ellis Island, owned the hotel. In 1956, the Bosco family and several others from Glenwood formed Hot Springs Lodge & Pool Inc., which now owns and operates the pool and its huge sandstone bathhouse, built in 1890. Hank Bosco is still the chairman. The bathhouse originally held a spa with Roman baths and a men's gambling hall. Later it served in turn as a hospital and a hotel, and it's now being renovated to include a spa again. The 90-degree main pool measures 405 feet in length, with a diving section and Olympic-size swimming lanes; an adjacent 104-degree therapy pool is a mere 100 feet long. On a night last month, the pool glowed turquoise, steam rose 30 feet, and ''Le Freak'' by Chic played over the sound system. Bodies appeared and disappeared as the mists tumbled over the water's surface. A self-described worker bee talked about his commute to the hive (Aspen) and described the pool as standing-room-only in the summer. Wintertime is lower key. One good prelude to a soak is a trek above town to Linwood Cemetery to see the final resting place of Doc Holliday, the dentist turned gunslinger and gambler of OK Corral fame, who died at the Glenwood Hotel in 1887. After a big snow, you can snowshoe the half-mile to the graveyard, as my husband and I did; most days a pair of traction-enhancing Yaktrax over hiking boots will do. Holliday came to the hot springs pools to ease the pain of tuberculosis, but the sulfuric vapors may actually have aggravated his condition. Ancient junipers stand sentinel over a monument to Holliday that looks like a headstone framed by a petite wrought-iron fence. But the exact location of his body is unknown because cemetery plot records were lost over the years. Some theories hold that the body never made it to Linwood at all but is lying in somebody's backyard in Glenwood. For the back story on Holliday and Glenwood's early days, history buffs head to the Frontier Historical Society Museum, which has a detailed walking tour guide ($3) of the downtown. To hear about more recent history, we met up with a longtime resident and former mayor, Don Vanderhoof, over a breakfast of chicken-fried steak at the Daily Bread on Grand Avenue, Glenwood's main street. During World War II, Mr. Vanderhoof's brother, a navy pilot, was shot down over the South Pacific and badly injured. He ended up in the Hotel Colorado, which had been commissioned by the Navy as a convalescent hospital. In the late 1940s, the Vanderhoofs opened Holiday Hill, a ski area, where the Sunlight resort is now. ''We rigged up a rope tow using the rear wheels of a 1930s truck,'' he said. ''You can still see the chassis of the truck up there.'' Since its glamorous long-ago heyday, Glenwood has grown considerably, and not always in the most picturesque ways. Route 82, the two-lane artery to Aspen, runs straight through the heart of town, down Grand Avenue. In the 1950s, shop owners fought against a bypass, fearing business would dry up. ''The people won the battle,'' Mr. Vanderhoof said, ''but they lost the war.'' With an Interstate, two rivers and 30 or so mile-long coal trains running through town daily and mountains hulking in every direction, Glenwood splays out like a tripod -- with strip malls, fast-food joints and even a new half-million-square-foot mall. But it also has charming streets lined with red-and-yellow-brick Victorian buildings and neighborhoods filled with 100-year-old Queen Annes lovingly restored in bright purples, pinks and blues. Grand Avenue, once the site of three hardware stores, is now packed with ice cream and candle shops catering to tourists. One of the newest attractions is the Glenwood Canyon Adventure Park, which runs tours of the limestone caves inside Iron Mountain, at the north end of town. In the late 1890s, visitors dressed in their finest -- top hats and floor-length dresses -- rode burros up the mountain and clambered down into the caves. World War I effectively shut down the operation in 1917. The caves reopened in 1999. Today a tram whisks you 4,300 feet to the park. In winter, most of the amusement-park fare (zip-line, gemstone panning, mechanical bull) is closed, but the tours run all year -- the temperature inside the caves hovers around 52 degrees, regardless of the season. On the basic walking tour, we saw an otherworldly labyrinth of whimsical calcite formations: stalactites, delicate soda straws and, the most amusing, cave bacon -- little wavy drapes marbled with iron oxide. Like Rorschach inkblots, the formations assumed recognizable shapes. Our guide pointed out King Kong, a tiny fairy, even a garden gnome. The air in the caves is humid, but nothing like the hair-curling veil of steam in the subterranean grottos at the Yampah Spa. Inside the spa's dark and somewhat creepy vapor caves, we discovered contemplative types in the lotus position, deeply inhaling the mineralized vapors. As we sat on slick marble benches, a wiry, bearded man offered a sniff from his eucalyptus vial and spoke in hushed tones about politics and philosophy. In the light of day, we drove east on the highway that was shoehorned into Glenwood Canyon in 1992. To lay down four-lane Interstate 70 where once a narrow wagon road barely wedged between cliff and riverbank, engineers designed an elevated highway reminiscent of ''The Jetsons,'' with 4,000-foot tunnels bored through granite and 7,000-foot bridges high above the valley floor. If Glenwood is worth stopping the car for, this roadis equally worth the driving. Glenwood Springs is a three-hour drive west of Denver or six hours by train on the California Zephyr (800-872-7245; www.amtrak.com). The main sites can be reached on foot or a free bus. An all-day pass to the Hot Springs Pool (800-537-7946; www.hotspringspool.com) is $13. Nearby, the Yampah Spa Vapor Caves (970-945-0667; www.yampahspa.com/caves.html) offers unlimited cave and solarium time ($12) and a variety of spa services. The basic cave tour at Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park (800-530-1635; www.glenwoodcaverns.com) costs $20; the tram, $10. If you need outdoor gear, try Summit Canyon Mountaineering (732 Grand Avenue; 970-945-6994; www.summitcanyon.com). At the Hotel Colorado (526 Pine Street; 800-544-3998; www.hotelcolorado.com), built in 1893 and inspired by a 16th-century Italian mansion, rooms start at $169. The Lavender & Thyme B & B (802 Palmer Avenue; 866-526-3822; www.lavenderthyme.com), in a 1903 Victorian house, offers rooms starting at $105 and European hospitality with warm gluhwein from the Dutch owner, Peter Tijm. Carnivores can't miss in Glenwood. Try the New York strip (starting at $23.50) at Juicy Lucy's (308 Seventh Street; 970-945-4619) or the Rocky Mountain oysters ($7.95) at Doc Holliday's Saloon (724 Grand Avenue; 970-384-2379). The small but boisterous night life scene starts at Doc's and ends at the Club Roxy (701 Cooper Avenue; 970-384-2262). For regional libations, order the sampler plate ($9) of eight brews in tiny jars at the Glenwood Canyon Brewpub (402 Seventh Street; 970-945-1276; www.glenwoodcanyon.com) in the Hotel Denver. For breakfast, try Rosi's Little Bavarian (141 West Sixth Street; 970-928-9186), where the display case is filled with strudels ($2), but locals come for the huevos ($7.95). Just 12 miles south of town, Sunlight (800-445-7931; www.sunlightmtn.com) is a folksy anachronistic ski area -- with free parking and $48 lift tickets. URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: MOUNTAINS (90%); RIVERS (76%); TRAVEL HOSPITALITY & TOURISM (75%); FAST FOOD (75%); RESORTS (73%); SEDANS (71%); SPORT FISHING (69%); GAMING (69%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (67%); WINTER SPORTS (88%); SKIING (69%) GEOGRAPHIC: DENVER, CO, USA (92%) COLORADO, USA (94%) UNITED STATES (94%) LOAD-DATE: February 8, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTOS: WATERS AND LEGENDS: The Hot Springs Pool & Lodge, above, in Glenwood Springs, where the Hotel Colorado, right, once played host to Al Capone and Teddy Roosevelt. Doc Holliday's Saloon, far right, pays homage to another well-known visitor, who's interred in a local cemetery. Or is he? (PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL BRANDS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES) MAP Map details area of Glenwood Springs, Colorado. PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1092 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; TODAY IN BUSINESS; Pg. 2 LENGTH: 722 words RATINGS AGENCIES TRY AGAIN Under fire for assigning triple-A ratings to many bonds backed by risky subprime home loans, Standard & Poor's and Moody's are scrambling to restore confidence in their credit ratings. Their proposals have met with skepticism. QUANDARY AT YAHOOJerry Yang, Yahoo's chief executive, faces enormous pressure as he decides whether to try to rescue the company from the clutches of Microsoft, which intends to buy it, or accept the offer and watch the company he founded become part of Microsoft's no-holds-barred brawl with Google. [C1.] PICKING UP THE PIECES At the American Securitization Forum this week in Las Vegas, promoters of the kind of wizardry that aims to turn risky mortgages into gilt-edged securities came to sip Cabernet and lick their wounds. They also looked for ways to profit from the economic mess their industry helped to create. [A1.] CONGRESS PASSES RESCUE BILL Moving with uncommon speed, Congress gave final approval to a $168 billion economic rescue package, including rebates for taxpayers and tax breaks for businesses, that lawmakers and President Bush hope will spark the slowing economy. [A1.] TALKING BEHIND THE SCENES The boards of the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East may end their walkout as early as next week, and the breakthrough appears to be the result of two intermediaries who worked as conduits between the unions and management. [C1.] A TANGLED ESTATE A lawsuit filed by two court-appointed trustees of the estate of James Brown, the legendary soul singer, accuses his longtime business managers of looting millions of dollars from Mr. Brown. [C1.] EXXON VS. VENEZUELA Exxon Mobil has won court orders freezing as much as $12 billion in petroleum assets controlled by Venezuela's government. [C2.] DEUTSCHE BANK UNSCARRED Deutsche Bank can be added to the short list of global banks that avoided being badly burned by the subprime bonfire. [C3.] BAIL HEARING FOR TRADER Jerome Kerviel, the Societe Generale trader accused of losing $7.1 billion in illegal trades, faces a pivotal hearing Friday that will determine whether he remains free pending a trial. [C5.] RATE CUT IN EUROPE'S FUTURE? The European Central Bank hinted that it might soon follow the Federal Reserve's lead and cut interest rates. [C3.] A GAZPROM THREAT Gazprom, the world's largest natural gas company, threatened to halt fuel supplies to Ukraine unless that country settled a $1.5 billion debt by Monday or offered assurances that it would pay. [C4.] SEATTLE'S FERTILE SOIL Many communities dream of becoming the next Silicon Valley. The Seattle area is actually doing it, with a ''start-up ecosystem'' that encourages off-shoots from giants like Microsoft, Amazon.com, and Google. VC Nation. [C6.] WASHINGTON POST'S PUBLISHER Katharine Weymouth will become publisher of The Washington Post, its parent company announced. Ms. Weymouth, who has worked in the company since 1996, is a niece of Donald E. Graham, the chairman of the Washington Post Company, and the granddaughter of Katharine Graham. [C3.] A NEW AUDIENCE Jay-Z, below, the Grammy-winning rapper and entrepreneur, is joining forces with another African-American entrepreneur, Steve Stoute, to open Translation Advertising, an agency that will help marketers reach multicultural consumers. Advertising: Stuart Elliott. [C4.] AN UPTURN, FOR A CHANGE Wall Street finished moderately higher in fitful trading as investors, still nervous about the economy, decided to buy back into a stock market. [C7.] CARBON COST OF BIOFUELS Almost all biofuels cause more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional fuels if the full emissions costs of producing these ''green'' fuels are taken into account, two new studies have concluded. [A9.] TOBACCO'S PROJECTED TOLL Tobacco could kill up to a billion people during the 21st century, as cigarette sales soar in poor and middle-income countries, according to a World Health Organization report funded by New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's foundation. [A6.] QUESTIONS OVER LIPITOR AD A Congressional committee investigating the Lipitor advertising campaign featuring Dr. Robert Jarvik wants information about payments to people who might have served as stunt doubles for the doctor in televised ads. [C3.] URL: http://www.nytimes.com SUBJECT: SUBPRIME LENDING (90%); BONDS (90%); MORTGAGE BANKING & FINANCE (89%); OIL & GAS INDUSTRY (89%); FINANCIAL RATINGS (89%); BANKING & FINANCE (89%); SUBPRIME MORTGAGES (89%); ECONOMIC DECLINE (78%); BAIL (78%); DECISIONS & RULINGS (77%); TAX LAW (77%); LEGISLATORS (77%); TALKS & MEETINGS (77%); INTEREST RATES (74%); ECONOMIC NEWS (74%); ECONOMIC POLICY (73%); APPROVALS (73%); US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (72%); LITIGATION (70%); TAXES & TAXATION (69%); LAW COURTS & TRIBUNALS (69%); PETROLEUM PRODUCTS (67%); CENTRAL BANKS (67%); SUITS & CLAIMS (65%); NATURAL GAS PRODUCTS (64%); SECURITIZATION (78%) COMPANY: OAO GAZPROM (63%); EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK (63%); MICROSOFT CORP (57%); GOOGLE INC (57%); EXXON MOBIL CORP (53%); DEUTSCHE BANK AG (53%); SOCIETE GENERALE SA (53%); AMAZON.COM INC (50%) ORGANIZATION: WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA WEST (55%) TICKER: OGZD (LSE) (63%); MSFT (NASDAQ) (57%); GOOG (NASDAQ) (57%); GGEA (LSE) (57%); XOM (NYSE) (53%); XOM (BRU) (53%); EXX (LSE) (53%); DBK (LSE) (53%); DBK (FRA) (53%); DBB (BRU) (53%); DBA (AMS) (53%); DB (PAR) (53%); DB (NYSE) (53%); SGN (LSE) (52%); GLE (PAR) (53%); 8666 (TSE) (53%); AMZN (NASDAQ) (50%); DBA (ASX) (53%) INDUSTRY: SIC1311 CRUDE PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS (63%); NAICS486210 PIPELINE TRANSPORTATION OF NATURAL GAS (63%); NAICS221210 NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION (63%); NAICS213112 SUPPORT ACTIVITIES FOR OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS (63%); NAICS211111 CRUDE PETROLEUM AND NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION (63%); SIC4924 NATURAL GAS DISTRIBUTION (63%); SIC4923 NATURAL GAS TRANSMISSION & DISTRIBUTION (63%); SIC4922 NATURAL GAS TRANSMISSION (63%); SIC1382 OIL & GAS FIELD EXPLORATION SERVICES (63%); NAICS511210 SOFTWARE PUBLISHERS (57%); SIC7372 PREPACKAGED SOFTWARE (57%); NAICS518112 WEB SEARCH PORTALS (57%); SIC8999 SERVICES, NEC (57%); SIC7375 INFORMATION RETRIEVAL SERVICES (57%); NAICS325110 PETROCHEMICAL MANUFACTURING (66%); NAICS324110 PETROLEUM REFINERIES (66%); NAICS211111 CRUDE PETROLEUM & NATURAL GAS EXTRACTION (66%); SIC2911 PETROLEUM REFINERIES (53%); SIC2869 INDUSTRIAL ORGANIC CHEMICALS, NEC (53%); SIC2865 CYCLIC ORGANIC CRUDES & INTERMEDIATES & ORGANIC DYES & PIGMENTS (53%); NAICS523920 PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT (53%); NAICS523110 INVESTMENT BANKING & SECURITIES DEALING (53%); NAICS522110 COMMERCIAL BANKING (53%); SIC6282 INVESTMENT ADVICE (53%); SIC6211 SECURITY BROKERS, DEALERS, & FLOTATION COMPANIES (53%); SIC6021 NATIONAL COMMERCIAL BANKS (53%); SIC5961 CATALOG & MAIL-ORDER HOUSES (50%); SIC6081 BRANCHES & AGENCIES OF FOREIGN BANKS (53%); NAICS213112 SUPPORT ACTIVITIES FOR OIL & GAS OPERATIONS (63%); NAICS519130 INTERNET PUBLISHING & BROADCASTING & WEB SEARCH PORTALS (57%) PERSON: GEORGE W BUSH (55%) GEOGRAPHIC: SEATTLE, WA, USA (92%) WASHINGTON, USA (92%) UNITED STATES (93%); EUROPE (92%); VENEZUELA (92%); SOUTH AMERICA (91%); UKRAINE (79%) LOAD-DATE: February 8, 2008 LANGUAGE: ENGLISH GRAPHIC: PHOTO GRAPH DOCUMENT-TYPE: Summary PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company 1093 of 1231 DOCUMENTS The New York Times
Late Edition - Final Seattle Taps Its Inner Silicon Valley BYLINE: By JOHN MARKOFF SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; VC NATION; Pg. 6 LENGTH: 712 words DATELINE: Seattle Many communities dream of becoming the next Silicon Valley. This one is actually doing it. Stroll through the hip Fremont District and you will sense the Valley vibe. Google recently opened a research lab here, its second in Microsoft's backyard. Technology start-ups are sprouting up amid quirky neighborhood landmarks like a bronze statue of Lenin and the Fremont Troll, the giant concrete creature lurking beneath the George Washington Memorial Bridge. More young companies are moving in downtown, near the art galleries and bookstores around Pioneer Square. Still others are spreading into the surrounding suburbs. ''The Seattle start-up ecosystem is vibrant, and growing rapidly,'' said Oren Etzioni, an artificial-intelligence expert at the University of Washington and a serial technology entrepreneur. The University of Washington, in fact, is one of the big draws. It is fostering the entrepreneurial climate here the way Stanford University does in Silicon Valley. Another advantage is the tech-savvy talent at the Seattle-based Amazon and nearby Microsoft. Microsoft offshoots, sometimes called Baby Bills, after Bill Gates of Microsoft, are being joined by Amazon progeny called Baby Jeffs, for Amazon's Jeffrey P. Bezos. Baby Sergeys -- those formed by veterans of Google, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., and was co-founded by Sergey Brin -- are opening here, too, Mr. Etzioni said. The influx of entrepreneurs and of venture capitalists to bankroll them is slowly reshaping this city and a regional economy long buffeted by the booms and busts of the aerospace and timber industries. A start-up ecosystem needs social networks, support businesses and a business culture that views failure as a badge of honor, not shame. All of that is in place in Seattle. Tom A. Alberg, a partner at the Madrona Venture Group, one of Seattle's leading venture capital firms and an early investor in Amazon, says the city is now home to a growing community of technology innovators who are willing to take risks. ''People were more risk-averse in the '80s,'' said Mr. Alberg, who is on the board at Amazon. Madrona lost money on HomeGrocer, the Seattle-based online grocery service, he said, ''but if you never invest in a HomeGrocer, you will never invest in an Amazon.'' Money is pouring in. During the last 12 years, venture capital investment here has more than tripled, to about $1 billion annually. Last year Washington tied with Texas as the third-largest destination for venture capital money nationwide, behind California and Massachusetts. A crucial part of the chemistry is the University of Washington, in particular its computer science and electrical engineering departments. Washington State ranks first nationally in engineers employed for every 10,000 workers and in percent of total payroll in high technology. And then there are Amazon, Microsoft and their offspring. ''Now tons of companies are spinning off people,'' said Ed Lazowska, a computer scientist who holds the Bill and Melinda Gates Chair at the University of Washington. Veterans from Amazon, Microsoft, RealNetworks and other established companies are leaving to form start-ups and venture funds, he said. ''We're finally at the stage of becoming a perpetual-motion machine.'' Several generations of start-ups are beginning to cross-fertilize, fostering the kind of rapid growth seen in biological systems, said Mr. Etzioni, whose latest venture, Farecast, uses data-mining techniques to anticipate fluctuations in airfares. One example of the growing start-up economy is Jackson Fish Market, a Web software company founded by three veteran Microsoft software designers. Inside a windowless loft in Pioneer Square, the company is now working on starting its third advertising-supported Web service. The start-up culture ''is beginning to work now,'' said Walter Smith, one of Jackson's founders, who worked on Microsoft's Vista operating system but left before it was introduced. ''Seattle is like an adolescent version of Silicon Valley.'' Mr. Etzioni says Seattle has at least one advantage over its storied counterpart in California. ''People aren't distracted by too much sunshine,'' he said. ''They sit in their offices or garages and get creative.'' Directory: ~hesterj -> Entrepreneur Entrepreneur -> Byline: By richard siklos section: Section C; Column 5; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 1 Length Download 3.51 Mb. Share with your friends:
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