Here’s why I can’t wait for the month to end and will be welcoming 2010 with open arms.

The Music of the 00’s

It all started off with this and has just gone downhill.

Linkin Park: Pure awful on a disc

In 2000 the #1 album was “The Beatles: 1″, and by 2005 it was a 50 Cent album. That’s how fast things went downhill. The rest is history. Year after year we are treated to another piece of repetitive trash, a new Britney comeback album, or something else that just makes you dumber every time you hear it. It’s gotten so bad that we now consider a song who’se only lyrics are “Tonight’s gunna be a good night” to be perfectly acceptable. Excuse me while I go barf.

It’s ridiculous how much 90’s music I listen to now just because today’s “artists” have driven me in another direction so rapidly.

The music industry as a whole became something we all hated. Nothing like hearing record labels cry poor from piracy only to find out now that they use unauthorized recordings in compilations all the time.

Cars and The Auto Industry

Car companies gave us piece of shit after piece of shit after piece of shit. Ugly cars like the Ponitac Aztek, Cadillacs that look like they were rendered with an N64 instead of AutoCad, and where do we end up? The strongest domestic car company today produces a car that looks like a mini cooper on steroids. Only more box-like.

It’s no wonder that the auto industry tanked and took Michigan down with it. Especially Detroit, with everyone now scrambling to find a solution for what to do with a one-horse city when the horse dies out.

The Movies

We watched the Matrix get ruined. We watched 45% of all film produced go to movies about hobbits. We saw way too much crap, and more remakes that just had us asking “Why…?”

The saddest part is that the movie-making technology has gotten better, and the movie watching technology has gotten substantially better. And what do we do with all of this new found technology hiding in 1080p and Blu-Ray?

From Wikipedia: "Jesus' modern-day struggle to protect the lesbians of Ottawa, Canada, from vampires with the help of Mexican wrestler El Santo"

Certainly no 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The Abundant Rape of the Constitution by multiple people

This was a rape, bukkake, and hog tie all in one with our country as the bitch. Our government decided Habeus Corpus was suspended, it was cool to wire-tap citizens, blatantly ignore the 4th amendment, pass a bunch of unconstitutional provisions, and nationalize numerous industries. All while running the national debt up through the roof. The saddest part is that all the presidents are guilty, each for their own reasons. But there’s no denying it, it’s at the point where one has to wonder if the country’s founding principles can ever be restored.

People attempted to scare us about everything at every turn

First it was Clinton’s dealings with the Chinese. Then it was “Bush Stole the ELECTION! The system is flawed”. Then it was a whole series of nonsense meant to scare the hell out of everyone. Terrorism. Anthrax. Global Warming. Crashing Economy (actually frightening) Avian Flu. Swine Flu. And all that other jazz.

Nothing sums it up as well as the argument that the government made saying that swine flu is more rampant than we thought…because so many people had it and didn’t realize it. What an absurd amount of stupid.

We were taught to live in a constant state of fear from assorted randomness that could kill us at any time or place. No, I’m not amused. And much of this fear led to…

War. Lots of it.

Since 2001 we have been engulfed in a new gulf war that has ridiculously expensive. Afghanistan, Iraq, and who knows what is best. It started with terrorism and has come full circle to a president who is awarded a Nobel peace prize only days after he escalates these wars. If you’re saying “what the hell?” you’re not alone.

We constantly lost the battle against nature

Between the great Tsunami, hurricanes all the way up to Katrina, earthquakes, and more. All that’s missing is for a volcano to blow up sometime soon and we can call it all complete.

The stock market went boom. Hard.

Unemployment runs rampant and the best we can come up with is bail out the banks with money we don’t have, buy up the car companies and put the whole damn country under construction at once. From Bernie Madoff to Ben Bernake to Kenneth Lay, corporate greed and a broken federal reserve system destroyed the notion of “American Prosperity”. Two market crashes?!? It’s a miracle we’re doing as well as we are.

I’ll be looking forward to the end of 2009. Not to turn another year older, but to put behind the decade of broken dreams and hope to start new. Cheers to 2010 and what is to come!

Well, he wasn’t the least bit pleased about the idea of putting lessons online for people to see. He didn’t think it fair that “some kid in Oklahoma” could view the lessons and “learn for free”. Realistically, if schools like Yale, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, etc. all do this and see no threat, than Oakland University has absolutely no argument and no reason to be threatened. Lets take a look at why.

There’s nothing wrong with videotaping lectures and putting them online, and the lectures are property of the school not the professor, that’s how the real world works. My mom, who works for St. John Health System has to forfeit any and all rights over her intellectual property. If she invents something at home, St. John has the rights to it, regardless of what it is, unless she convinces them to sign an official release document releasing the rights to it.

Such things have been the way of the world for some time. When Steve Jobs and Steve Woz started Apple Computer, Woz worked for HP and as such, the Apple I belonged to HP. Woz showed it to them and they thought it was a joke and a toy, so they released the rights to it. While that was a massive mistake on HP’s part, they could have just as easily kept the Apple I and marketed it. Nonetheless, this is what happens.

Many colleges and universities offer course material online, and it doesn’t damage the school or the Professor’s integrity, on the contrary, it adds to it. A kid doesn’t get a degree for free via this method, but they do get to see what is being taught and it adds a lot of credibility to the school if people can go online and find, say, Oakland University experts for whatever they need. It builds a reputation and it’s just a fact that it does not decrease enrollment or anything else.

It doesn’t matter what they see, hear, or learn, without an actual degree it makes little difference other than for personal enrichment or research. Otherwise, we could put down “I spent 3 months in the library researching this, I know all about it” and that would be sufficient enough to land a job. But alas, in many cases it doesn’t matter if we have hands on experience, without the degree nothing matters in the eyes of Human Resources Departments around the world.

Take for example Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They offer what is called openCourseware.

Many other schools offer similar things online, and sure, anybody can just go online and look at lectures, course material, assignments, etc. To reiterate my point, I can’t put down “I looked at a bunch of courses online through MIT” on a resume and expect it to count. Not to mention, the “attendance” policy at Oakland is a joke. Anybody can just walk in there, sit down, and learn with the rest of the class. I know, I’ve done it before. If anyone can just stroll on in to class, what does it matter if material is online?

When I was prepping for grad school, I knew little, if anything about Urban Planning specifics. So what did I do? I went here and gave myself a crash course in undergraduate urban planning. I went though the lessons, not doing it all of course, but reading through the material, looking at maps, and ordering books to read through. One week into classes I can tell you that it has already paid off. There’s a good mix of people in my courses who are professional planners, and others who brand new to this, so thanks to the people at MIT and the fact that I can see their course material online, I’m prepared and, in many ways, ahead of the game as far as my classes go. I can answer questions and have intelligent discussion right away, while other students are obviously still adjusting, and I can keep up discussion with people who already do this for a living.

Online access to lectures and courses is also a great service to current students. Lets say you go to Oakland and are taking an early American History course. You wonder if the professor has some kind of bias or if there is another angle that isn’t being covered. It would be a great convenience to be able to pull up lectures from another school anywhere in the country to see what their angle is, get a different point of view, and enrich your learning experience. You can become better rounded and gain a deeper understanding of your subject with ease and convenience.

Published lessons also keep teachers honest and on point. People, especially parents who shell out hard earned cash for their kids to be educated, often wonder what really is being taught in college classrooms. This can give them direct insight into what is going on in these classrooms. Last week, I had my first course with a professor who wanted to spend a great deal of time picking a fight with someone who wasn’t on board with the Canadian health care system. Not only did this have nothing to do with the course, lesson, or material, but the girl whom he was engaging was Canadian and he was not. Nonetheless, I can’t help but wonder if such a phenomenal amount of time would have been wasted had the class been recorded and put online (for now I’ll just chalk this up to being day one nonsense and we’ll see if it continues).

Such insight can also serve students when they go to choose a school or are looking to transfer schools. Let’s be honest, the “campus tours” and meetings with Professors and department heads are all the tip of the ice burg as far as what things will really be like. Maybe you’ve thought that chemical engineering was for you, if you watch a few lectures before you jump right in you can decide if you like it or not before you’re out time and money on a class you end up not liking. Maybe you don’t like the way that things are done at your school, wouldn’t it be disheartening and painfully frustrating to transfer across the state because someone else told you things are different, only to find out for yourself that it’s an even worse situation for you?

Online, open course platforms offer the chance for students to make the best, well-informed decisions about their education before they move far away, spend a ton of money, and end up in a world of frustration. Knowledge is power, even more important is having the power to control your knowledge.

Let us not forget as well that we are discussing Public Universities. As such, they conduct public research, take federal and state money, and are expected to make numerous contributions to our lives. Open course platforms do such things as a low cost and high volume solution. By doing this, we accomplish:

• More transparency as to where federal and state dollars go.
• Better and more informed choices in education
• More resources for students
• More resources for the general public
• A higher standard to meet and greater quality education

Literally nothing is lost except for the small cost it takes to set something up and the bandwith to keep it running, which is marginal at most. It’s win for everybody. More credibility for the professors, a higher profile for the University, and better education for the students.

So before we get all zealous about what we pay for our education as students, or what rights these tenured professors feel they deserve, let’s look at the big picture and see what good it does for everyone.

To see other schools that do this sort of thing, check out 101 Killer Open Courseware Projects and see for yourself.

As you can see, the city desperately needs a new flag:

The Flag of the City of Detroit

The flag is divided up to represent French, British, and American rule over the city surrounding the city seal. There’s also some latin words, representing the mottos of the City of Detroit: “We hope for better things” and “It will rise from the ashes”. Despite the fact that the motto represents a fire from the 19th century, that motto has proven to become more and more true over time, sadly enough.

House of Burgundy Coat of Arms

As I said before, I was convinced that this was the worst flag ever concieved by man. It’s as though it was designed by committee, everyone had their own idea and nobody could decide, so all the ideas made it in. Putting the terrible city seal aside, it looks like an awful patchwork of scattered history. Nobody ever could be proud of this flag. However, history has proven me wrong: another flag exists that upon first glance one could assume that it was the inspiration for Detroit’s.

However, it does not.

It represents the flags of the territories of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. His flag was based on the family coat of arms, which we can assume was so absurdly elabourate as to distract the opponent in battle with an array of flying colors and as such, gain the upper hand. You can see it to the left. Tell me you can look at that and not be distracted?

Frighteningly enough, the flag was based on the coat of arms. The patchwork shield became the predacessor of what may be the worst flag in history.

The Flag of the House of Burgundy

Words can’t even describe how bad it is. You just have to see for yourself. It belonged to this guy:

Charles the Bold: Not a Flag Designer

Charles the Bold, in retrospect, I’m sure could have done whatever he wanted as far as a flag went. While he’s not a household name, the amount of land that fell under the house of Burgundy was once massive: rivaling that of the Holy Roman Empire. However, the lands were never unified, and Charles’ vision for his own kingdom never came to be. You can see the absurd amount of land he covered here.

In many ways, there are too many similarities between the land holdings of Charles The Bold and the City of Detroit. Both tried to unify a large, diverse group of people. Both faced an amazing amount of obstacles. Both became powerful before falling drastically, and neither realized their long term vision.

The difference is that it’s too late for Charles the Bold, but not for us. The recent city council primary election results are a slim shred of hope that there may be some competent people left willing to take charge.

But either way: we really, really, really need a new flag. Let’s get something that businesses will be proud to fly, not something so shameful that nobody even knows waht it is.

The S80 has an abundance of features that make it easy to fall in love with. And with the elegant dashboard, the blind spot warning system (aka, blinking lights), and the absurdity of putting 6×9 speakers in the front doors, it’s pretty hard not to.

As I was discovering more and more things about the car that were just common sense, I discovered an extra feature: The Personal Car Communicator (PCC).

It looks something like this, only with an extra button

This is the key to activate the Volvo. I didn’t check to see if my particular model was PCC equipped as I was having too much fun driving it. But that’s more or less what it looks like, with a perimeter that looks invisible until you activate it and little LEDs turn on.

Here’s the run down of what the PCC does, with a series of LED lights:

• Can lock / unlock the doors
• Turn on lights, interior lights
• Remembers your history, so you can see if you locked your car or not
• Tells you if the alarm has been activated
• Has a heartbeat sensor, to tell you if there is someone hiding in your car.
  

Just when you think they’ve thought of everything, they throw in something to detect if a ninja is waiting to kill you.

Maybe it’s the brilliance of the engineers. Maybe it’s the hundreds of years of Viking blood running through their veins, but somehow, volvo has made a stylish, expensive, anti-ninja car. Did I mention the base engine has more horse power than the base models of the Dodge Charger and Ford Mustang? Making it a fast getaway car as well before you add the turbo option or the V8.

Not this time, bitch!

Needless to say, I’m impressed. The Volvo S80 is a prime pick for Vikings, Pirates, bank robbers,  or anyone else who may have ninja problems.

Since our strategic grassroots restoration effort to save the Michigan Central Station (MCS) began on June 30th 2009 volunteers have eliminated nearly three dumpsters worth of debris, planted over 1,000 flowers, and inspired a sense of hope in the heart of Detroit.

I have been working closely with the station owners, students, residents, businesses, elected officials, organizations, and volunteers to secure the future of the station. Many individuals have come out of the woodwork and needless to say we could never have made it this far without them.

To me the Michigan Central Station is a symbol for the city of Detroit. At one point it was known for its greatness and then slowly it slipped away into the decrepit state that exists today. It seems as if the more debris we remove from the building, the more corrupt and incompetent politicians we remove from office in the city of Detroit. After we remove the debris is when the real work begins.

After this Friday, July 10th, the MCS project will move into its next phase. In addition to various skilled volunteers, Home Depot corporate has expressed interest in sponsoring our efforts by providing equipment and professional volunteers to help us achieve our objectives. Assuming everything goes according to plan it will not be very long until the station comes to life. For this part of the volunteer effort we will need volunteers who are 18 and older with a decent background in construction.

Once the building is safe and secure, we will need skilled artists to help with the aesthetics of the building. I envision the second main room with the metal roof as a giant mural. As you can imagine this will be an enormous project and the College of Creative Studies (CCS) will likely play a key role.

In addition to saving the Michigan Central Station itself I am in the process of creating a proposal for a state of the art high speed train for the MCS. From my understanding the MCS is the only place in North America where five separate railroad tracks come together. This would make it ground central in the American high-speed train effort. The first project should be to connect Detroit with Chicago. From there we can expand to Toronto (which is made more attractive considering the Detroit International Bridge Co. already owns the bridge and can easily accommodate high-speed train tracks given the early stages of construction on the second bridge), Ann Arbor, Lansing, New York, and Washington D.C.. The current obstacle with implementing a high speed train is that the technology is prohibitively expensive. It just so happens that I am an inventor by nature and like all seemingly complex problems the solution I came up with is deceptively simple. I cannot share it with you at this time, but essentially it will be faster, safer, and cheaper to implement (in theory). If you would like to help me design and prove my theory please feel free to shoot me an email at JcMohyi@Gmail.com

In return for all the help Senator Cameron Brown has provided in helping us get where we are I would like to try and return the favor. He is currently running for Secretary of State and if you would so kindly vote for him on http://gopyouth.org/ I am sure he would greatly appreciate it.

Last but not least if you have not already signed up to volunteer on www.SaveMichiganCentral.com please do so. Signing up puts you on the official volunteer email list so we can let you know what volunteer days and events are coming up.

Thanks again for all your work and dedication to the station.

Best Regards,

-John Mohyi
JcMohyi@Gmail.com

With that in mind, there are essentially two kinds of historical preservation:

Practical and Productive Preservation

This is where the idea of preserving a piece of history is put on the table so that the ailing artifact can once again come alive and become something that will make the world a better place. Also, the newly restored building will serve a function that is useful, and has some kind of real potential.

A great example is Michigan Central Station in Southwest Detroit. Often the structure is the first thing people see coming over the bridge from Canada and could be used for a wide array of things.

The newly-restored DoubleTree Fort-Shelby Hotel as well as the Westin Book Cadillac are prime examples of historical preservation that offer a great benefit. Both of these places were shells of past glory just a few years ago and are now gorgeous bright spots in the city.

Preservation for the sake of preservation

This is where people rally around preserving an artifact just because they want it to be preserved. It has some kind of special historical or personal significance that makes people want to save it.

Something like the log cabin Abe Lincoln was born would be a good example.

But a better one is Tiger Stadium.

What was once a beautiful ballpark turned like most things in Detroit: A dilapidated building taking up space. Last time I’ve seen anything of substance happen in Tiger Stadium since the tigers moved to Comerica Park was was people who were apparently parking Cadillacs in there. It seemed like there was always an old Brougham going in or out for whatever reason.

The time for the old ballpark has come and gone. Ground Broke on Comerica Park on October 29, 1997, which means that talks of a new stadium must have been in development for at least a few years before. That gives us, at a minimum, 13 (some would say more than 20) years for people to start efforts to save Tiger Stadium.

And in at least 13 years, there is neither a concise plan of what to do with the site or the funds to save it.

The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy states:

For over a year The Old Tiger Stadium Conservancy has been quietly working on a plan to preserve the entire playing field and a significant portion of the beloved old ballpark.

A whole year! Come on guys, there’s no way you didn’t know this was coming.

Granted, the Conservancy does have a plan for the ballpark, but it’s lukewarm at best and despite the fact that the plan is a 6 page document, there isn’t a lot of substance in it. Instead of being filled with facts about how the site will sustain itself, any kind of study supporting what they want to do, or anything else that would impress any government official, it appeals to the “hey, look how cool this stuff is!” mentality.

The following is a direct quote from the plan.

The majority of the playing field, upon which trod Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Willie
Mays, Reggie Jackson, Al Kaline, and other baseball legends played, will be made available for
Little League and high school baseball and community events.

Anybody familiar with Tiger Stadium knows of the historical significance. Rattling off names won’t help. A study about how parks help urban development or something along those lines might have been good, but nothing of the sort.

Plus there are talks of maybe a museum, maybe restaurants, maybe this maybe that. No concrete plan other than the feel-good rantings.

On the notion of baseball parks for kids,  who can’t appreciate the awesomeness that Clark Park in Mexicantown has become! A rundown ballpark for young adults as well as lots of trees and open spaces…bonus points if you like broken glass and old cars that bounce 80 inches in the air.

Clark Park: Ground Zero for the Detroit Lowrider Culture (from the Detroit Free Press)

Since the plan has no real plan for making any revenue, it will become a burden on the City and/or State. And if the conversationalists have had 13 years to raise cash and are nowhere near what they need to even save the ballpark, then on what basis should we believe that there can be funds to sustain such a thing? We’re about to lose the Auto Show because Cobo Hall is getting too expensive to upkeep. The biggest success of this movement? Getting congress to earmark money just for this effort, which shows you how desperate things are.

You can download the plan in “detail” from http://www.savetigerstadium.org

I’m all for building parks and revitilizing Urban Areas. But what Corktown really needs right now is some economic development. Something should take the place of this ballpark that will benefit the city. Corktown bar and restaurant owners have suffered quite a bit since they lost the ballpark business, and this is a great opportunity to put something there that has a real chance of sustaining itself and becoming a force for economic development.

What has happened is that Michigan and Trumbull has become a modern day Tiananmen Square, with people fighting so furiously to save this ballpark.

Which, by the way, looks like this currently:

Lets go Tigers Lets go! *clap*clap* (from the Detroit Free Press)

With most of the site already demolished and cleared.

There has been ample time, but it’s time to let it go. Enjoy the memories of what once was and let it be. So many old stadiums around the country have gone to the wrecking ball. All were places of Glory and excitement for generations, and all could no longer serve their purpose.Not even New York cried such foul play when Yankee Stadium had it’s time to go.

Unmaintained buildings have been such a problem in this city. It’s better to let it go then to end up like some of the other places in the city.

Not what Tiger Stadium Deserves

I understand why people love the ballpark so much. I have some fond memories there myself, and as someone who loves historical preservation, this was a hard thing to come to terms with.

The ballpark should have closed, been renovated, then put back into use, but what is done is done. I highly commend the people who are working so hard to save Tiger Stadium, it’s impressive.

But realistically, what are we fighting for? Half of an old structure. Your memories won’t be gone; they won’t disappear with the building. The Tigers wont be gone, and all the good times that were had will still live in your mind for as long as you can hold on to them.

It’s time to say adieu, and focus efforts on something like MCS where we can actually turn a structure that can still be saved into something useful and self sustaining.

Till then, he stood there like the house by the side of the road, and watched it go by.