LABJ’s LA Stories
Tax Write-Offs
With the state desperate for ways to plug its $38 billion budget deficit but wary of criticism for any new tax proposals, lawmakers in Sacramento are coming up with creative names for their revenue enhancing ideas.
In a recent e-mail, Assemblyman Charles Poochigian, a Fresno-area Republican, cataloged some of the nomenclature being used for the various proposals being floated: “Assessment, clarification, co-payment, fee, levy, license fee, narrowing, reassessment, revenue augmentation, revenue enhancement, severance tax, suspension, tax simplification and trigger.”
What do “narrowing” and “clarification” have to do with a tax increase? Poochigian refers to the proposed Manufacturers Investment Credit Narrowing. “The governor’s budget proposes to clarify who is an eligible manufacturer for the manufacturers investment credit. In actuality, the proposal would inappropriately eliminate an entire classification of otherwise eligible entities.”
Howard Fine
Geeks and Athletes
Who knew the guys with pencil holders could get down and dirty in the world’s most grueling cycling event, the Tour de France?
For the past two years, information technology giant Computer Sciences Corp. of El Segundo, has sponsored its own team in the race, which started July 5th and runs through July 27th. The 20-cyclist Team CSC finished third at last year’s event, and was ranked fifth in the world heading into it this year’s.
The impetus for the endeavor came from the company’s European operations.
“We think it’s good for the company to maintain a brand image that is cutting edge and nimble,” said Mike Dickerson, a company spokesman.
The company is listed as the official information technologies partner of the Tour, and CSC has created a “live tracker” service in five languages that offers news and 24-hour coverage of the race.
Unfortunately for Team CSC fans, lead cyclist Tyler Hamilton of Salem, Mass., suffered a major crash on July 6, cracking his collarbone.
Kate Berry
Hollywood Culture
With its wax museums, lingerie shops and other tourist traps, Hollywood Boulevard doesn’t seem like much of a spot to locate a serious museum.
Unless, perhaps, you’re talking about The Erotic Museum in which case it seems perfect.
The brainchild of a pair Russian & #233;migr & #233;s, the museum is scheduled to open in the fall, and is believed to be the first of its kind on the West Coast and only the second in the United States.
Mark Volper said he and his partner Boris Smorodinsky welcome the crowds, though they hope tourists from Middle America and elsewhere will not be put off by the content.
“There will be a sign on the door and people will have fair warning that this is not Disneyland,” said Volper. “We’re not on Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard for a number of good reasons.”
Laurence Darmiento
Walking in L.A.
If you were downtown on a recent Sunday and thought you saw people actually walking on 4th Street, you did. A group of programmers, designers and artists have created a virtual walking tour called 34 North 118 West (the area’s coordinates).
The tour guide is a tablet computer decked out with a global positioning satellite system unit. Even more incongruous is that the tour doesn’t highlight 2003’s L.A. but the city as it stood in 1906.
The half-mile amble, aided by an audiotape tour guide, tries to transform the city to one dominated by turn-of-the-century characters and the railroad industry.
“We don’t think of L.A. as loaded with that kind of history,” says one of the designers, Jeff Knowlton, who teaches art and programming at University of California, San Diego. “It’s got buildings that have been there for 100 years or more. In your car you would never look at the architecture details of these buildings, but by walking you do.”
The tours, which depart several times on Sunday afternoons, are free, but Knowlton and his partners designed the project as a proof-of-concept that they plan to market to museums, tourism companies and educators. “We call it location-aware solutions,” he said.
Rachel Rosmarin
The Roving Eye
Business Propulsion
Apparently, it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that people can work harder when pampered.
Hilton Hotels Corp. has just commissioned a study by a Cupertino firm run by Mark Rosekind, a former director of NASA’s fatigue countermeasures program, to prove scientifically if rest, food and leisure affect productivity among the hotel industry’s meat and potatoes weary business travelers.
“We’ve never really been able to quantify the actual impact of stress, loss of sleep, shifting moods on a person’s overall performance on the road,” said Bob Dirks, senior vice president, brand management and marketing at Hilton. “If you can develop some product to ease that stress, then that would add to the value proposition of why you might want to stay at a Hilton.”
For Phase One, Rosekind’s Alertness Solutions designed surveyed 2,400 business travelers online. Of those, 30 will be selected to wear a device resembling a wristwatch that measures sleep and activity patterns and tracks their behavior during business trips.
The test subjects, dubbed “road warriors” by Hilton, log their sleep, activity, eating, exercise patterns and moods on a personal digital assistant.
The study employs a number of measurements that distinguish it from Rosekind’s work at NASA.
“In the old days at NASA, we had to wire people up with all kinds of devices,” Rosekind said. “We can get pilots and astronauts to do that, but not businesspeople.”
The subject’s business trip must be at least two days and span at least two time zones to ensure a minimum level of rest pattern disturbance.
Hilton expects to complete the study in the fall and will publish the results on a special Web site.
Matt Myerhoff
