I thought the first article was pretty interesting. Its not really a surprise that they complain alot though, because everyone here complains about the same things. It doesn't really matter how good some of their systems are, they could always be better, so people will continue to complain about every miniscule thing that goes wrong.
I'm not really sure what to think of the second article, as it said, if you stare at people here it could end in a homicide. I guess the "watching over eachother" part is kind of cool, unless its my car that was parked illegally. People not caring if they are being stared at does make it pretty easy to people watch though, which can be entertaining.
The brutally honest article doesn't surprise me much. I know alot of people who are first or second generation Americans that have moved here from Germany and are just like this. Maybe thats part of the reason people think Germans are always so angry is becuase they are very honest and the things they say that are polite to them are very rude and borderline offensive to us.
I love statistics so this last article was perfect for me (maybe is has to do with the fact that I'm half German). But it sounds like Germans are into different statistics that I am. I guess I will have to brush up on the population and size of Lake Orion before I ever visit Germany. I do know one interesting stat about LO though, according to Freakanomics, Lake Orion, Mi has the highest number of hair salons per capita than anywhere else, I bet I can get them on that one.

-Ryan