Some people try to get away with the most absurd things come tax time. Bankrate.com wrote a classic piece on the nine weirdest tax write-offs individuals have tried to take, such as the Amish fellow who pimped out the buggy he used for business and tried to deduct the accoutrements, including a velvet interior and tinted windshield, or the landscaper that deducted the expense of his dog because it would pull the wagon at jobsites.

Tax time can result in temporary insanity in the best of us. The Bankrate story just reminds us that reviewing legitimate tax write-offs and being aware of the newest tax rules can help you file a tax return that won’t raise IRS eyebrows — or make your CPA fall over from laughter.

“Leave the driving to us” was a clever slogan for Greyhound buses - but Sebastian Thrun foresees a day when it’ll work for the auto industry.

The 39-year-old Stanford professor of electrical engineering is the world’s most successful manufacturer of self-driving vehicles: He and his graduate students built Stanley, the first car to complete the DARPA Grand Challenge, a 131-mile robot car race across the desert near Las Vegas organized by the research arm of the Pentagon.

That historic success in 2005 netted Thrun a $2 million prize. He reinvested some of it in an even more intelligent Stanley, which will be unveiled at the next iteration of the robot car contest - one that takes place on city streets. Obstacles include stop signs, lights, and cars driven by humans.

Thrun is confident that Stanley is the Model T of self-driving cars. “It might take 20 years, but people said we would never fly massive numbers of people over the Atlantic,” he says. “There’s an enormous waste of productivity in commuter traffic. We could increase the capacity of highways with precision driving.”

That means the auto industry gets to sell us more cars, not to mention safer ones - there were 43,443 U.S. highway fatalities in 2005, and Thrun thinks self-driving vehicles, equipped with cameras and motion sensors and all networked with one another, could reduce that number by 50 percent.

Read complete story here.

Imagine using Google Earth to get information on Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address or to visit civil war trails in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania Governor Edward G. Rendell says state officials will be using Google Earth to promote tourism. The state will provide a $285,000 grant to be used for an “unprecedented” partnership among Google Earth, Carnegie Mellon University, NASA, the state tourism office and the National Civil War Museum.

Eventually, Web users will be able to do virtual interactive tours of historic events and places in Pennsylvania. For instance, people “could see a panoramic view along a trail, zoom in to read the inscription on a Civil War monument, or go back in time to witness the change of seasons on a historic battlefield,” the governor’s statement says.

New technology developed through a partnership among Google, Carnegie Mellon University and NASA’s Ames Research Center combines thousands of digital images to create panoramic images that, when merged with time-lapse, let people explore the space through time.

news.com

The Naperville City Council is cracking down on home-based business activities encroaching on residential neighborhoods.

On Tuesday, the council voted 7-2 to amend the home-based business ordinance so that it no longer restricts the number of employees working in the home, but limits activity outside the home.

Complaints over the last year about home businesses disrupting neighborhoods prompted the city to review its existing ordinance, which allowed only one person to work in the home. Complaints have targeted a variety of home-based businesses, including a resident who runs an accounting business from home. And on Tuesday a resident complained about a neighbor who appears to be running a moving company.

“The business across from my home is a moving-and-relocation business. There are large trucks in front of the home. Workers come and go, posing a safety risk to children in the neighborhood,” Abby Mansfield said.

The new law prohibits the number and kind of vehicles at the residence and outdoor equipment storage. Other councilmen weren’t sold that the revised law would address the problems and believed enforcement would become an issue.

chicagotribune.com

In service-oriented businesses, customers should understand exactly what they’ll receive and at what cost. Each sales order or contract should include:

1. A clear description of the service you’ll provide
2. The anticipated results
3. All costs that are included
4. Any special situation or exception
5. Payment terms and conditions

Meet with your attorney and accountant to make sure you’re protected against potential liability and consumer action. Most situations concerning customer disputes arise when a written agreement of understanding wasn’t provided

businessweek.com