Waste of money

Why can't the US Mint learn from its past mistakes?! The Susan B., the Sacagawea, and now this:

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/

The first two failed. The Susan B. because it was too much like the quarter. The Sacagawea failed because no one knew what they were. Both were gobbled up by the coin collectors. This new design is nothing revolutionary. It reminds me of the British Pound coin in its size and coloring.

However, we still have a paper dollar and all the coin machines will have to be updated to take these. These are two major obstacles that have never really been solved. Also what about the cash registers. Where do these new coins go. There are only so many slots and they are all taken. How about we scrap the penny? It is truly not worth making any more. It is worth more as scrap zinc.

I just wish the US Mint would stop wasting money designing new currency they is just going to fail like the other attempts. Besides, the portraits they chose for there new coins are just plain ugly.

It takes a News Anchor...

I watched the Bob Woodruff special the other night. It was very enlightening. At first I thought, "It is sad that it takes a news anchor getting wounded in specific way to shed light on an little know battlefield injury." I felt that there are other injuries that were just as note worthy that were not getting the same coverage simply because no well known person has been injured that way. It turns out that Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is very common.

The fact that a person can have TBI without showing external wounds makes it easy for doctors to misdiagnose as PTSD or simlpy miss it completely. Any person near an explosion can suffer from TBI. A helmet does not protect against the shock wave that rattles your brain.

The other part of the story was about how the VA Hospital system is unprepared to treat TBI. This was not a shock to me. The VA has never been good at its mission. There was some mention about the preparedness of the Military hospitals, but I don't remember any direct comment about it being adequate or not.

It was interesting that the Walter Reed Military Hospital scandal story broke soon after this special. I would hope that the Military and Civilian leaders of our country would listen to the media stories and investigate weaknessess in the system.

With more wounded coming home everyday, I can't see how the level of care is going to improve. The VA hospitals have always been a joke. I would say something needs to change. Less wounded would be a good start.

What *is* "pop" music?!

I have a problem with the categories that stores use for categorizing music. There are stores that lump almost everything into the “Pop/Rock” category and everything else is either “Country”, “Dance” or “International”. This does not help me find anything. Luckily they also alphabetize the sections and I only have to check a few sections. Further more, this only works if I know the name of the artist I am looking for. If I am browsing for new music I am left to search almost randomly.

I would love to simply ignore these categories as useless marketing tools, but I need to interact with people that have bought into this scheme of categorization. When I want to find new music I need to be able to map my scheme to the “popular” scheme that the masses use.

My scheme was developed during the digitization of my personal music collection. I categorize each artist based on musicological definitions. I have a Minor in Music and I am a trained musician, so this makes sense to me. My categories follow the development of music. I will use the last century of music development to explain.


Folk: Folk music is the origination of almost all modern music. It could be the Celtic music of the Irish and Scottish or the tribal music of the Africa. The instrumentation is varied, but the melody is generally simply and repetitive and the lyrics tell a story. The vocals are prominent.

Bluegrass: In Kentucky, Tennesse, and the Carolinas folk changed into what is now called Bluegrass. It is essentially the same music as the folk music of the Scottish and Irish immigrants of that area, but with different instruments such as the fiddle, guitar, banjo and little to no percussion. Vocals are still strong but there are instrumental interludes.

Country: Country is the modern derivitive of Bluegrass. Standard instrumenation is minimal drum set, bass guitar, acoustic/electric/steel guitar. Instumuments and vocals are equal.

Blues: This is the slow solemn music that grew out of the African tribal music. It has minimal instrumentation, such as a single guitar, which focuses the attention on the vocals.

Rhythm and Blues: If you speed it up Blues a little or a lot and throw in a piano, horns and some drums you have Rhythm and Blues.

Jazz: Jazz is a derivation of R&B. The signature of jazz is the looseness of the style. Swing is a type of Jazz.

Rock and Roll: If you combine R&B, Jazz, and Country you get the original Rock style. After the British Invasion the style changed but still has the same charcteristics. The band is usually a three or four piece: vocals, drums, bass, guitar. The tempo is moderate to fast and the song follows a typical Intro-stanza-chorus-stanza-chorus-outro pattern. More recently a solo occurs somewhere between a stanza and a chorus.

American Buddhism?

I recently had a debate with my wife about how Buddhist can live a productive life in the USA. This turns out to be a big problem and one that has been asked by many people, even the Dai Li Lama.

Let me define a few terms so things are clearer. I used the term "Buddhist" to mean anyone that follows the core principles of Buddhism: The Middle Way, The Four Noble Truths, The Eight Fold Path, Refuge in the Three Jewels. When I say "live a productive life" I mean work for a living and provided one's family with all the basic needs, i.e. food, warmth, shelter, etc..

The crux of the problem is the fact that one cannot survive in the USA without making money. The exception to this rule is to isolate oneself from society completely or live in an isolated community. This avoids the problem rather than dealing with it. Although it may end up being the "correct" solution. There a stories of buddhist retreats setting up shop as a bed and breakfast or a bakery to make money to run the actual retreat or provide other services to those in need. This apparently is what defines American Buddhism. The use of capitalism in the name of doing good for others.

I am skeptical if this is practical solution. I seems to me that this takes something away from Buddhism. It is basically the logic that Robin Hood used. Maybe the distinction here is the money is not bad, but rather the greed that it is associated with is bad.