If you haven't been to the Nelson for this yet

If you haven't been to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art to see their World's Fair exhibit, you owe it to yourself to do so. It is one terrific, unique exhibit.

It is more officially and completely called "Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World's Fairs: 1851--1939" and it's a stunner.

Who knew anyone ever made a piano out of papier mache', aluminum and mother of pearl?

You can see either one of few or the only one, here.

Also, you can learn a lot, too, if you wish.



For instance, you can learn that the St. Louis' World's Fair in 1904 was the first in the Western Hemisphere.

Take your family.

Or take your friend or friends.

Heck, go alone if you must.

Just go.

You'll likely enjoy it a great deal.

Links: http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/worldsfairs/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Purchase_Exposition

Solar cells, all over commercial buildings, residences, cars--and clothing?

Further proof, I think and hope, that one day--and one day sooner than we thought--we'll be able to have solar cells all over our commercial buildings and homes in order to generate clean, renewable, solar electric power. Then we could also do away with the need for big power companies and, more importantly, electricity from coal-fired power plants, their very dirty air pollution and even nuclear power plants. This article today: Scientists develop ultra-thin solar cells "Austrian and Japanese researchers on Wednesday unveiled solar cells thinner than a thread of spider silk that are flexible enough to be wrapped around a single human hair. The thin-film device, comprising electrodes on a plastic foil, is about 1.9 micro-metres thick, a tenth the size of the thinnest solar cells currently available, the researchers said." One micro-metre is one millionth of a metre (3.3 feet).

"'The total thickness of this device is less than a typical thread of spider silk,' the researchers said in a report carried by online science journal Nature Communications. 'Being ultra-thin means you don't feel its weight and it is elastic,' said one of the researchers, Tsuyoshi Sekitani from the University of Tokyo. 'You could attach the device to your clothes like a badge to collect electricity (from the sun)... Elderly people who might want to wear sensors to monitor their health would not need to carry around batteries,' Sekitani told AFP." This is a pretty incredible discovery and revelation. This can make progess for clean electrical power that much sooner and more likely. As ever, here's hoping. Link to original story: http://news.yahoo.com/scientists-develop-ultra-thin-solar-cells-193214134.html

Not one American city is list of "top ten"

The consulting group Mercer took a survey of the "Top 10 Cities in Qualty of Life" and not one is in the United States. "Vienna's excellent infrastructure, safe streets and good public health service make it the nicest place to live in the world, consulting group Mercer said in a global survey which put Baghdad firmly in last place. German and Swiss cities also performed especially well in the quality of living rankings, with Zurich, Munich, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Geneva and Bern in the top 10." Let's see--excellent infrastructure, safe streets and good public health service. Well, naturally, if you look at THOSE things, American cities will never rank well. Lesson, anyone? Link: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/survey-says-the-best-place-to-live-is---.html

US Number 1?

Once again, not so much.

For the second year it has been named the world's best place to live, according to a report released Wednesday.

A company named Mercer, a global outsourcing and investment consultancy produces the annual "Worldwide Quality of Living Survey" and just released their latest edition.

European cities take seven of the top 10 spots for quality of life, thanks to their relative safety, political stability and cultural offerings. As for the U.S., Honolulu, at No. 31, has the best quality-of-life record and the continental U.S. makes its first appearance on the list at 32, with San Francisco tying Adelaide, Australia. Boston came in at No. 37, Chicago and Washington, D.C. tied for 45th place, and New York ranked 49. Philadelphia and Dallas were ranked for the first time this year, landing spots 55 and 61 on the list, respectively.


European cities take seven of the top 10 spots for quality of life, thanks to their relative safety, political stability and cultural offerings. As for the U.S., Honolulu, at No. 31, has the best quality-of-life record and the continental U.S. makes its first appearance on the list at 32, with San Francisco tying Adelaide, Australia. Boston came in at No. 37, Chicago and Washington, D.C. tied for 45th place, and New York ranked 49. Philadelphia and Dallas were ranked for the first time this year, landing spots 55 and 61 on the list, respectively.

Here's a silver lining for us, anyway:

Although the U.S. didn't do poorly by Mercer's standards--most American cities on the list had index scores above 100--weaker safety records kept them from competing with lower-crime Western European capitals.

But guns come 'round to bite us in the butt again:

"In the U.S., crime is typically more prevalent, and the availability of handguns is an issue," says Powers. "Many of the locations in Canada and Switzerland have a little more of social net that diminishes that kind of crime."

So we suck at health care--ranked 37th, internationally, behind Rush "Porkulus" Limbaugh's revered Costa Rica, for pity's sake and now we no way have any of the best places to live on the planet, according to this ranking.

We suck at mass transit--it's nearly non-existent here. We suck at crime, violence and the prevalence of guns.

But hey, we're number one at war, eh? And national defense spending. We blow everyone out of the water with that.

No pun intended.

This isn't merely to complain or just to put down the US. This is to say there are things we could, can and should improve on, that's all.

And we should get to work, all of us, together on them, as one, instead of splintered into our own little groups, fighting against one another.


Link to original post:
http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/worlds-best-places-to-live

US shut out of "Top 10 Cities" ranking

US "the best"?

The Economist Intelligence Unit doesn't think so.

Their survey "ranked 140 cities on 30 factors such as healthcare, culture and environment, and education and personal safety, using research involving resident experts and its own analysts" and decided the US doesn't have one city in the top ten.

Ouch.

Following is a list of the top 10 most liveable cities as ranked by The Economist:

1. Vancouver, Canada

2. Vienna, Austria

3. Melbourne, Australia

4. Toronto, Canada

5. Calgary, Canada

6. Helsinki, Finland

7. Sydney, Australia

8. Perth, Australia

9. Adelaide, Australia

10. Auckland, New Zealand

Neighbor Canada, however (you know the one--"Socialist Canada", the one with mass transit and national health care for all?) has 3 cities in the "top ten."

More ouch.

Between this and health care (we rank 37th in mortality rates, internationally, folks), we just keep getting put in our place, so to speak, don't we? So much for that "we're number one!" crap, huh?

The good news?

We didn't have any cities in the "bottom 10", either.

Thank goodness for that silver lining.