The Road to Civilizations: A visit from China

` Yesterday, I came across three Cadillac SRXs driving on west I-94, heading past Detroit Metro Airport. Driving around Southeast Michigan, we see odd vehicles all the time, but I've never seen anything quite like this! Each of the three vehicles were decorated like race cars and were covered in writing that appeared to be a combination of English and Chinese. I knew that Cadillac began producing vehicles in China (for the Chinese and Asian markets) a few years back, so I wasn't sure if this was related or not. The SRXs clearly were not made for the US market. They had unique tail lights and a wider opening for a license plate. Originally scheduled for January, the SRX went on sale in China this month. It still is not clear if they are imported from the USA or if they are produced domestically.

Some research on the subject revealed an interesting story behind the trucks. A Taiwanese car publication provided some more information here. CCTV, a Chinese television station, is producing a documentary by sending these vehicles around the world. In all, they will visit 54 countries in 500 days covering a distance of 150,000 km. Their aim is to explore places that, "may not be popular tourist spots". As of now, broadcast is only planned inside China. Surprisingly, any more information is hard to come by. One would think the local police would be notified of three Chinese registered vehicles driving through their jurisdiction.

This is pure speculation, but my guess is that they arrived via ship to either Alaska or Canada and drove eastward until they crossed the Detroit/Windsor border. They were driving West towards either Ann Arbor or Chicago so they may be making a counter-clockwise path across the United States.

In an interview, one of the crew said that not only had the Cadillacs been very reliable for them, but that locals have been very supportive of the project. The vehicles clearly draw a lot of attention and it's been positive. Apparently, people are always offering to help and have even given free meals and shelter to the crew. It was great to hear that. With all of the "China fear", especially in a manufacturing region like Detroit, I suspected more than a few drivers might feel that we are being invaded by the Chinese on yet another level. The truth is, China and the United States are dependent on one another and have a lot to offer each other. This is an example of the "connectivity" that global strategists like Thomas P.M. Barnett are always talking about. If you are really aching for change and freedoms to occur in China, small steps like this are how it's done. A Chinese film crew, sponsored by American companies, being given the freedom to travel the world and report back on what cultures and people they find was unimaginable even a few years ago.

The documentary isn't scheduled to air until 2009, so we'll have to wait to see how it turns out. Hopefully PBS or a cable channel will be interested in it as well.

EDIT: Continued reading here.

Jury Duty

Most of you will probably think I'm odd, but personally, I really dig serving on a jury. Back in 2000, I served on a civil case that really had an effect on me. Ever since then, I've looked forward to getting a jury summons. After several years of not getting picked, I was selected Monday at Wayne County Circuit Court in Detroit and served for the last two days. However, this time, the trial was a criminal case. It involved felons, assault rifles and drug raids. And you thought jury duty was boring!

Even if the case had been boring, I do buy all of that "civic duty" mumbo jumbo. It's cool that 12 of us, all from different backgrounds, ethnicities, ages and educations, are put together to judge the outcome of a contested event. Perhaps even more significant for a city like Detroit is the fact that the jury is a mix of suburbanites and Detroiters. Ever since I was a teenager, hanging out in Detroit at every chance I had, I was aware of some tension between the two groups. Yeah, the amount of tension is overblown, but it's there.

So, back to the trial. According to testimony, the Detroit Police had made a controlled drug purchase at a home and returned the next day for a raid. When they burst into the house, they found two young men playing a video game while seated on a couch. What they found next came as a surprise. The home was a two residence home. Oops. Even though the upstairs residence was completely separate with its own locked entrance, it was only apparent once you entered the front door. From the outside, the house looked like a single family home. So which home was involved in the drug sale?

But that's not all...

While clearing the home, an officer found an SKS rifle leaning up against the wall. The gun, a predecessor to the AK-47, was fully loaded with a second magazine attached to the first and a round cocked in the chamber. Yes, the weapon is dangerous and yes, whoever owns it is an idiot for leaving it armed like that, but it is legal to own this weapon. Unless, of course, you're a prior felon.

And that was the gist of this whole case. There were no signs of dealing found in the home so no charges related to the drug deal were made. But when the police found out that one of the men in the house was a prior felon who was not allowed to possess a gun, they arrested him. For the most part, both sides agreed to everything I've written so far. The man's guilt or innocence rode on the legal definition of "Possession", whether or not he lived at the home and whether or not he had access to the room that contained the gun.

After a day and a half of testimony and arguments, the case seemed pretty clear cut. In fact, I assumed that we'd deliberate for about 5 minutes and be on our way. If deliberation went on a bit longer, I suspected which jurors were likely to agree or disagree with me. I was wrong on both accounts. It looks like the case wasn't so clear cut! Further, I had assumed if anyone was going to have sympathy for the defendant, it'd be the women on the jury. Again, I was wrong.

We deliberated for about an hour with most of us contributing unique perspectives or questions to the discussion. Coincidentally, I had done quite a bit of research on the same rifle a year ago after seeing my brother-in-law's SKS. One woman offered some insight based on her husband's former police service and another young man seemed to know quite a bit about police raids. All of it was a very interesting process. With both trials I've been a juror on, it never breaks down to an "us against them" debate. People will agree with you on one subject and debate with you on another. I even found myself debating someone who I agreed with simply because I thought his argument was flawed.

In the end, we found the defendant not guilty. Before deliberation, I was pretty confident of his innocence, but some of the other jurors brought up some good arguments that make me question that. Still, it wasn't enough to overcome the prosecution's weak case. Interestingly, all of us seemed to agree the prosecuting attorney was the better of the pair. Unfortunately, she was given a weak case to work with.

I can only speak for myself, but I always seem to feel a small bond with fellow jurors after the whole process. From different walks of life and different views of the case, we all managed to come to an agreement with everyone being able to vet their concerns. Before deliberation, jurors aren't allowed to discuss the case, but we ended up taking the opportunity to get to know one another a bit. Two of us had a conversation about the book I was reading, Friedman's "The World is Flat". She loved it so much that I recommended Thomas P.M. Barnett's "Pentagon's New Map". I really hope she checks out Barnett. Another young woman, a nurse from Oakwood hospitol with a LOT of interesting E.R. stories, had everyone talking about a few YouTube.com videos including this one and this one. However, like I said, maybe I was just speaking for myself about the bond between jurors. Nobody was up for getting lunch or a drink at Greektown. Everyone just left and headed to their cars. It's that weird anti-climatic feeling you get like the last time you walk out of class on your last day of school.

As Mel and Christian would say, "Fail!" Maybe I should stop looking at every group activity with people of different backgrounds as a scene from the Breakfast Club. Oops! Oh well, it'll still be an experience I'll carry with me for a long time.

Vegetarian Chopped Liver

` Continuing our pursuit of the world's best Reuben sandwich, uncle Duwayne and I stopped at the Star Deli in Southfield. While in line, I took this picture to be a smart ass. "How can chopped liver be vegetarian?" I asked with a laugh. Over the weekend, I even showed the photo to a few people and everyone just chucked. Ends up that the joke is on me! Vegetarian chopped liver IS in fact vegetarian! The stuff is "frequently served as a Sabbath appetizer in Ashkenazi homes." Being a Jewish owned deli, that makes pretty good sense. I was vegetarian for 11 years. You think I would have known better!

In retrospect, I really wish I had blogged our hunt for the best reuben. We've had so many that it's hard to remember each one. Matti's Deli in Dearborn, MI was definitely one of the best with Louies's by the Airport the best sit-down. If curious, read the entry over at wikipedia.org about the history of the Reuben and the controversy over who created it.

It's official: Nikolai loves sledding!

` This kid is going to be an adrenaline junky when he gets old. Heck, he already is! Even after getting a face full of snow (on every run!) and a scratch on his chin, he kept asking for "One more time!"

Gallery: Niko Sledding

Winter is getting old..

`
Not much to say. Just getting tired of winter.

Kevin Tenglin

About a month ago, this commercial for the new iPhone appeared on my television:

Holy cow! My old co-worker Kevin is in an Apple iPhone commercial! The commercial features the iPhone's ability to view FaceBook profiles and someone picked Kevin's profile to highlight. Judging from the photos they had in the commercial, it was hard to tell if it was him or not, but how many Kevin Tenglins in Boston can there be?

Kevin and I worked together at Dunworth Pool from about 1995 to 1997 (I was there from 1993 to 1998 or so). Too bad none of us had a digital camera back then, but I do have some video tape of a group of pre-teen girls getting all dreamy eyed about how Kevin was their favorite life guard. They'd even pool their money together and buy him pizza. I know, I know, it sounds creapy that an 18 year old man had a pre-teen "fanclub" but Kevin is such a great guy that you knew it didn't bother their parents one bit. Kevin's sister Lauren worked their too and both of them were super smart, super funny and just great people. How many teenage lifeguards can you say that about?

Kevin ended up graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Geology. Yep, he studied rocks. But the next thing I heard, he moved to Boston was writing commercials for TV. Someone brought it to my attention because apparently Kevin wrote the number "32" into the script for a Roxio commercial. "32" being an inside joke for us Dunworth Pool workers. But, the production crew saved some money by painting "33" on the airport runway instead. At least that how the story goes. The commercial used to air frequently and yep, there was a giant 33 painted on the runway!
So, even though I couldn't confirm this is the same Kevin as the iPhone commercial, the possibility that he either a) worked on the commercial or b) was friends with someone at another ad agency who did it as a joke seems feasible. Another clue was that Kevin worked on an iPod Touch ad a while back.. Oddly, I nobody seems to be able to get a hold of him, myself included. Googling his name, I found a few blogs complaining that Kevin wasn't responding to their friend requests. Some even accused "Kevin" of being a made up person. Other than his Myspace profile, you can check out his professional site and his blog. According to the blog, he's traveling in South East Asia at the moment. Maybe the internets are a little spotty where he's at.

The next Pavel Datsuyk and Henrik Zetterberg

` Cousins Joseph (front) and Nikolai sporting their Detroit Red Wings jerseys aiming to be the next Pavel Datsuyk and Henrik Zetterberg.

The freshness and quality of Brad B's solo work..

` My good friend and former college roommate Nate shot this with his camera phone somewhere in Denver, CO.:
I got a kick out of this quote:

Brad B is undoubtedly a rising star of underground hip-hop, and his sophomore effort, Drifter, is highly anticipated all over the U.S. In 2005, Brad B is going to conquer new grounds, both at home and abroad... ..The freshness and quality of Brad B's solo work can be attributed to the close working relationship between himself and Foundation- this understanding of two minds coming together seamlessly is evident with a first listen to Brad B's albums.

Yeah. I'm cool like that. I don't like to write about it much, but here it is. You can check out previews here courtesy of Amazon.com.

Presidents Day!

`
You can stop checking your mailbox to see what the mail man brought you: It's President's Day! A worthless holiday created so some people can have a three day weekend... much preferred to celebrate Lincoln and Washington's birthday, but oh well. To celebrate, E.M. Zanotti of the American Princess blog posted the following presidential factoids. I stole the picture too. Click here to read the rest.

There will be more LOLPresidents later, but first, some facts about the people who ran your country:

-Richard Millhouse Nixon was the first president whose name contained all the letters of the word criminal.

-The second was William Jefferson Clinton.

-President Truman sent his laundry to Missouri to be washed.

-President Benjamin Harrison was afraid to touch lightswitches.

-George Washington had a dog named Drunkard.

-James Madison weighed 100 pounds.

-President Grover Cleveland’s nickname was “Uncle Jumbo.”

-Geroge Washington had size 13 feet.

-Thomas Jefferson was the first president to shake hands in greeting. Earlier presidents bowed.

Taste Test: Bud Light vs. Molson Canadian

`
After a few rounds of the non-alcoholic brews, it's about time for some traditional beer. Right off the bat, I have to admit that I'm breaking two of my own rules here.. First, I always say, when doing these taste tests, only campare samples of the same "type." But, of course, one of these beers is a light beer and one isn't. Further, one of these beers is from a can and one is from a bottle. My excuse? The Red Wings game was about to start and I only had one of each. And if you're about to have two different beers back to back, why not take the opportunity and do a taste test? Even if this one won't count, it'll be fun.

Upon initial pours, the two beers begin to distinguish themselves. One is slightly darker with a slight head and decent carbonation and the other... well, it's lighter with only a trickle of bubbles coming from the bottom of the glass. Who wants to guess which one is the light beer?

Now that "which is which" isn't a mystery anymore, the question remains which is the better beer. Let's start with what's probably the best selling beer in the world - Bud Light. In the confines of my basement, I was transported to any "Area Bar" sipping every draft Bud Light that I've ever had. Love it or hate it, you have to be impressed with Bud Light's consistency. Order one at a hockey game in a plastic cup, pick up a six-pack of bottles from a party store that's an hour from the nearest interstate or grab a can from you dad's fridge. They will all taste the same. And you can get it anywhere. Taste wise, it was a little flat and absent of flavor. But isn't that what light beer is all about?

The Molson Canadian, on the other hand, had none of these problems. It had about three times the carbonation of the Bud Light and plenty of flavor. Unfortunately, the Molson did have a problem and it was a significant one. While the Bud reminded me of every decent if mediocre Bud I've ever had, the Molson reminded me of every lousy Molson I've had from a plastic cup at a Red Wings game. Before, I had always blamed it on the plastic cup, but it appears that was just an excuse. I have to admit that I was bummed out as the reality sank in. I had always been a bit sentimental over the Molson because it reminded me of all the Wings games I had been to. There's a bit of irony there since Molson is part owner of the Montreal Canadians - one of Detroit's historic rivals. Gotta love the Original Six though.

All of this speaks pretty higly of the Bug Light. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of light beer, but it's consistent and "non offensive." I'd be a safe beer to order wherever you are and in whichever form it's available, be it draft, bottle or can. It's like the Big Mac of beer. And like I said, whether you love it or hate it, you gotta respect it.

To be fair however, I'll have to pit Molson Canadian against a regular Budweiser (which I think the Canadian would win hands down) or Molson Canadian Light against the Bud Light. And both will be from bottles.


Disclaimer: The Molson Canadian available here in the States is not the same beer you can buy in Canada. Being 15 minutes from the Windsor, Ont. border, I can attest to this! The alcohol content is higher and the flavor is much better. I guess they save the good stuff for domestic consumption! And for the record, bartenders in Canada will look at you like you're an idiot if you try to order "a Molson." Despite having the same label, it's simply called a Canadian. They'll pretend they don't know what you're talking about until you say it right! - Thanks Anonymous for correcting my typo.