How much is one trillion dollars?

A co-worker and I today figured out that if a person had one trillion dollars (hypothetically, of course), and they decided to give it away to someone, but give it to them one dollar at a time, taking about one second per time, and sleeping 8 hours a day (because you gotta have your sleep), then it would take that person between 47,000 to 48,000 years to give away all that money.

But I think the average person only lives to be seventy-something so maybe that wouldn't work out?

More facts for you (from www.letfreedomringusa.com):

"A stack of one trillion one-dollar bills would reach 68,000 miles in space. If you spent $1 million dollars a day from the day Jesus was born until now, you would only have spent about three quarters of a trillion.


If you laid one trillion one-dollar bills end to end, it would make a chain from the earth to the moon 200 times. One trillion dollars would stretch nearly from the earth to the sun. It would take a jet flying at the speed of sound, reeling out a roll of dollar bills behind it, four years before it reeled out one trillion dollar bills. A million seconds is 11.5 days. A billion seconds is 32 years. A trillion seconds is 32,000 years.


Record Spending In The Budget: The budget increases spending to $3.9 trillion in 2009, or 27% of GDP – the highest level since World War II.

Historically High Deficits For The Next Ten Years: the budget promises historically high deficits stretching out until 2019, when the budget deficit will stand at $712 billion.

A Record Deficit In 2009: The budget would produce a $1.75 trillion deficit, or 12.3percent of GDP, in 2009. This deficit level is more than three times the previous record deficit.

$24 Billion Spent A Day: Over the first fifty days of the new Administration, approximately $24 billon has been spent a day, most of it with borrowed money.

Doubling The National Debt Over The Next Eight Years: The budget doubles the national debt over the next eight years."

Okay, so when are we spending too much? Is there really a limit? Why can't we just spend a zillion dollars? We're the richest (supposedly) freaking country in the world. There's a problem with that however- the Federal Reserve knows it is taking a huge risk because any time you print money, you have to back it up with something of value. The problem now is that the value of all of our goods and services is currently going down and is not projected to go up any time soon. The gamble is spending all this money to get these goods and services to go back up in value.

But what if they don't.

In addition, we are borrowing billions from China (not to mention countless other countries). What if they decide to stop loaning us money? Who says China will need us much longer when their economy is caught up with ours?

News flash: China's economy expanded by 6.1 percent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2009. That's right. While our economy is shrinking, their's is expanding.

Jake Russell Band - "Turning to Dandelions"

The Jake Russell Band is weird, and I think they are darn proud of that fact. On their latest, Turning to Dandelions, they seem to be at their most weirdest yet. There are no boundaries on this album. One song, the epic title track, goes on for over 16 minutes, but it's hypnotic enough that you barely notice this fact. What drives the band is Jake Russell's voice. He sings out of tune often on purpose, but he does so in such a warm and charming way. He's like a quirkier Stephen Malkmus. The arrangements are often soft and acoustic-based, and Josh Koleszar's guitar and accordion playing that compliment the arrangements often offer more beautiful and unique melodies than anything Pavement ever did. My favorite track by far is "Candide’s Blue Period," a great indie pop tune with minimalist drums that fit the mood of the song just right. I wish all of the tracks had drums, but unfortunately only some of them do. Another strength of the album is Jake's lyrics, which are conversational, insightful, and just plain refreshing compared to most bands out their today. Overall, it's safe to say that there is no band out there that sounds like the Jake Russell Band. They are doing their own thing, and while sometimes their music might be slightly hard to digest, you absolutely have to admire what they are doing.

Almost done

The semester of madness is almost over. One more month.

What can be done to slow or even stop gang violence?

First of all, you have to look at the root of why and how gangs form. Every human being has a tendency to join groups. We like belonging to something bigger. We need social interaction. We need others to love and for them to love us- we need a family. Many of these young kids who join gangs do not feel like they have a family of their own. Many feel like outsiders who feel like they need to belong. This is how gangs recruit so many young people.

Crime is most commonly linked to people who are either poor or are facing hard times. Economic hardship inevitably linked to gang crime. Selling illegal drugs or weapons are booming and prosperous businesses in many cities. The demand is quite for drugs in a society that is impoverished, and in a society dominated by gangs, security is a necessity in order to survive, so guns of course sell well.

An entire industry has sprouted in large part due to our laws. It's easier to get an illegal weapon or an illegal drug than it is to get legal ones. Many of these gang members actually work hard within this industry. Imagine if all drugs were legal. How would this change the game? What would be the point of buying drugs from a dealing gang member when you could purchase it from the government. In no way am I promoting the legalization of drugs, but that makes you at least think about the concepts of supply and demand. Gangs would not thrive without the illegal drug trade. So ending the drug trade somehow would probably help stop gang violence.

Gang violence only comes after gangs have matured to a point where respect, pride, revenge, and competition become major factors within their society. There was a great quote from this police office in an article I recently read. He said that the shootings were always about three things: drugs, money, guns, and respect. In my opinion, if you take drugs out of the picture, the other three will not exist.

UNO Mavradio's Website

www.unomavradio.com

What I Have Accomplished over Winter "Vacation"

Well classes start up again next week at UNO. I've really just started to get used to not having to worry about classes. Oh well. One more semester. And then student teaching! I can't wait to get started with that. 

Anyway, over my "break" (I still worked full-time and the holidays were still a busy time of course) I accomplished a bit. I recorded again. Got a couple songs done for the Felt Show and Daniel Lewis Diedrich and I got some stuff of his recorded. Other than that, I finally converted all of my CDs to digital files on our computer. Ok, you may not understand...this is a process that has taken 3.5 years to complete...pretty much as long as Shannon and I have been married. It feels pretty good.  I have a total of 16, 814 songs, or 44.6 days, of songs on our computer. I could listen to my Ipod for 44.6 days straight and not hear the exact same song. Pretty amazing, eh?

Anyway, I will wrap this up while I watch the Arizona Cardinals- the ultimate underdog- who I am rooting to beat the Carolina Panthers.

Until next time.

The Untitled Record "Silent Film Soundtrack"

The second full-length album from Colorado native Drew Miller, aka The Untitled Record, hints at the heavily ambient sounds often heard by artists such as Brian Eno or Boards of Canada. Each song on the album, cleverly titled "Silent Film Soundtrack, has a mystic feel to it. As I listened to it I often was overwhelmed with a calming, almost hypnotic feeling. I probably would not advise listening to this record while driving, because it'd probably put you to sleep.

  

Not that "Silent Film Soundtrack" is boring. Quite the opposite really, for there are a lot of interesting things going on in each song that can be missed if only listened to casually. For example, in one of my favorite tracks, "Sea of Chaos," there are many so sounds loaded into the song that I've never quite heard anything like before. At only a minute and a half, you have to listen to the song multiple times to get it all in. "Sunset Lagoon" features a snarling beat with ringing sounds that all sit nicely on top of each other in pure ambience confusion. Another one of my favorites, "Soundwave Information," recalls early Moby, with striking piano chords hovering over gentle strings and hypnotic beats.