160th Anniversary of the First World's Fair Photos | Google Doodle Today 01 May 2011

Google's doodle on 01 May 2011 celebrates the 160th anniversary of the first world's fair, the 1851 Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Crystal Palace

160th Anniversary of the First World's Fair and Google doodle today is special to remember it.

World's Fair, World Fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo (expo short for "exposition"), are names given to various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom in 1851 under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations". "The Great Exhibition", as it is often called, was an idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, and was the first international exhibition of manufactured products. As such, it influenced the development of several aspects of society including art and design education, international trade and relations, and even tourism.^[1]

Also, it was the precedent for the many international exhibitions, later called "World's Fairs", which were subsequently held to the present day. In Acapulco, New Spain (Mexico), annual fairs took place for several centuries where countries from Asia exhibited their products brought to the New World by the Spanish Royal Navy

The main attractions at World's Fairs are the national pavilions, created by participating countries. At Expo 2000 Hannover, where countries created their own architecture, the average pavilion investment was around €13 million. Given these costs, governments are sometimes skeptical about participation as benefits are often assumed not to outweigh the costs. Tangible effects are difficult to measure; however, an independent study for the Dutch pavilion at Expo 2000 estimated the pavilion (which cost around €35 million) generated around €350 million of potential revenues for the Dutch economy. It also identified several key success factors for world exposition pavilions in general

Scottish Folk/Punk Explosion With The Real McKenzies

Cheers mates!

There isn't many bands that sound good when you're drunk and when you're sober. The drinking music has to be always loud and alive, full of sing-a-long anthems to brighten your day or just make your drink more enjoyable (or an excuse to act as an idiot). Now few bands can actually gather enough strangers in one place and make them sing songs that they're not custom to. One of those bands is the canadian Real McKenzies who successfully managed to blend scottish folk with punk music in a way that'll make you wanna jump and shout "Bugger Off" as loud as you can. It's understandable that I was pretty excited when I heard that the Vancouver based punks are gonna come to Sofia for a one night concert. That's a thing not to be missed as the canadians would probably never again set foot on these lands again so it was absolutely obligatory for me to go see them. And that I did. Oh boy, what a concert it was. The vibe, the weather, the atmosphere was perfect for the event. I remember being super-excited about it and there was a pretty good reason for it. The band itself went on stage without much noise and started playing. I was overwhelmed when I first heard the bagpipe. Absolutely massive. It' like a dream come true for me as I always wanted to see live a combination of irish/scottish folk with punk. And I was definitely not disappointed by them. Except their well-known songs Paul McKenzie sang some acapppela songs that really made me think that this guy's into it. It seemed like McKenzie was having fun until some fool tried to ruin the show but to no avail. As a true pro Paul McKenzie kept singing while the security guard beat the shit out of the poor fellow dared to interrupt the concert. Can't say that he doesn't deserved giving his actions towards McKenzie. Good thing that the latter turned to be a sport and just kept singing and drinking. How not to love a screaming drunken punk with a kilt. I think that at the end Paul and the lads gave their best to make the local crowd happy. And happy they were. If only the band could bring some gals in kilts next time that'll be a complete bliss. Alas only time will tell if such thing is to happen again in Sofia.

The Real McKenzies myspace