Beauty and destruction.

The issue was brought to my attention when one of the guys noticed that they had dropped from Googles good graces and didnt even rank for their name.  We have since added the site to webmaster central to see if Goog had tired to warn them, nope.  We next submitted a new sitemap with the 40 actual pages and that looked to go smoothly but it has been 7 days and still the Googlebot has not made a return visit. I think we may try to pick up some links by either writing a few articles and pushing those out or doing a Press Release.

I will keep this post updated with any updated and see how long it will take to get things back up in Googles eyes.

I am thinking that the political arena is full of sites at this time so I may just have a political section though I would worry about that taking away from the general discussion that used to take place here. I am still undecided so if anyone has any ideas please leave a comment and all suggestions will be taken into consideration.

This is not going to happen now. The music industry has ‘promised’ Congress that they will not enforce the new rates, for now.

There is a lot of information on this subject but the basics are that the RIAA pushed for royalty increases in an attempt to shut down internet radio as they were not in control of the music distribution. The royalty rate hike was approved without much fanfare and once people realized what was going on it was too late, the appeal was just denied minutes ago. This blow to internet radio will force people to go back to the standard methods for listening to music, allowing the RIAA to once again control the music airwaves within the US.

Read more here: SaveNetRadio.org, and here: Gizmodo.com

Im not sure how this affects Last.fm but I will be looking for a replacement as soon as the site is down. Good luck to Tim over at Pandora, it was refreshing for a CEO to be so in touch with the users.

Who Killed the Electric Car is a documentary about the birth and death of the electric car in the 90′s. It is a fascinating look at how influential politics, special interests, and money can be. Remember the tax breaks for large vehicles that were going around (Hummers, SUVs, etc), they were being pushed while this eco-friendly electric car was being silently killed.

I wont get into the details of the movie as you should go and watch it but there is good news on the horizon…

Here comes the Tesla Roadster and soon to follow 4 door passenger sedan. It was developed by the co-creator of Paypal, Elon Musk.

These gorgeous vehicles are based on the Lotus Elise and will outperform many super cars in head to head competitions with 0-60 time in 4 seconds. They provide exceptional cornering and handling abilities while at the same time capture energy while braking and reuse the energy created to re-power the vehicle. These vehicles dont come cheap with a starting price point of 92,000 USD. The upside is you no longer need to visit a gas station and will care less if gasoline hits 10 bucks a gallon.

One of the lesser known things about TeslaMotors is the fact they are planning on releasing a passenger sedan and an economy vehicle:

“Without giving away too much, I can say that the second model will be a sporty four door family car at roughly half the $89k price point of the Tesla Roadster and the third model will be even more affordable. In keeping with a fast growing technology company, all free cash flow is plowed back into R&D to drive down the costs and bring the follow on products to market as fast as possible. When someone buys the Tesla Roadster sports car, they are actually helping pay for development of the low cost family car.”

The electric car may have been killed but its coming back stronger than ever.

Nearly 70% of people have a “twitch” as they fall asleep. This is most likely the result of your brain misinterpreting the relaxation of your muscles as they prepare for sleep. Your brain, thinking your body is falling down, instructs your muscles to jerk yourself up.

2. If you can’t sleep, what’s better: counting sheep or getting out of bed and being productive?

Its best to get out of bed if you can’t sleep. If you stay in bed and do non-sleeping activities (e.g. watch TV, read a book), you can subconsciously train yourself to not be able to sleep in your bedroom. You shouldn’t count sheep either, as counting stimulates your brain.

3. Why do we yawn?

There is no definitive explanation for why we yawn. One possibility is due to low levels of oxygen in our lungs. When the air sacs in our lungs don’t get fresh air, they stiffen the lungs by collapsing, which signals the brain to instruct the body to sigh or yawn in order to receive more air in the lungs.

4. Why do animals walk in a circle before they lay down?

Certain animals (dogs, for example) walk in circles before laying down because their ancestors did in order to flatten down grass to make for a comfy bed.

5. Is there any effect of eating before you go to bed?

MSN Health studied what happens if you eat right before bedtime. The couple who ate a few hours before they went to bed slept fine, whereas the couple who ate before they went to sleep reported “tossing and turning all night.” The poor sleep was attributed to your body digesting food when it should be winding down in preparation for sleeping, which results in reflux. Conversely, going to bed on an empty stomach will also result in disruptive sleep . The best thing to do is to have a light snack before going to bed, which will provide fuel for your body as it rests for the night.

6. How many dust mites are there in beds? Are they harmful?

100,000 to upwards of 10 million mites can live in your mattress. They sustain off dead skin cells. Some people are allergic to a protein found in dust mites’ droppings , but otherwise dust mites pose no harm or health risk.

7. Why do we have dreams about falling?

Falling dreams are typically the result of our sense of balance shifting from laying down in the real world to being mobile in our dreams. Falling dreams can be especially common when you’re drifting off to sleep, since at this time your body is adjusting to the new sense of balance.

8. Can blind people see in their dreams?

Most agree that the simple answer is no. If you weren’t born blind, then you can have visual dreams, as these images can derive from memory; however, people who are born blind will have auditory dreams that are coupled with the feeling of emotion and movement, whereas people who are legally blind will be able to see whatever they can distinguish when they’re awake.

9. Do deaf people hear in their dreams?

Deaf people can establish an auditory inner voice because of the brain’s ability to develop phonological representations, though these “sounds” may be different than what noises actually sound like. When asked about their dreams, deaf undergrad students responded that sometimes they sign and sometimes they speak, although their speech seems to be transmitted mentally rather than through actual speech.

10. Why do kids wet the bed?

Children wet the bed simply because their bladders are still too small to hold the amount of urine their bodies make overnight. A lot of children are heavy sleepers, so they may not yet be able to wake up when it’s time to go to the bathroom.

Now if I can only get it to stream off my cell phone!