Four Art Exhibitions to View in N. Y. C.

“Arts of China” at the Brooklyn Museum (ongoing)

These exhibitions successfully combine attractive pieces by contemporary Chinese artists with the institution’s century-old collection, drawing 5,000 years of art into a single thrilling conversation. Look out for the 14th-century wine jar decorated with unusual paintings of a whitefish, a mackerel, a freshwater perch and a carp.

(Will Heinrich) 718-638-5000, brooklynmaseum. org

“In Pursuit of Fashion: The Sandy Schreier Collection” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (through May 17)

Featuring about 80 pieces of clothing, this exhibition is, more than anything else, the reflection of one woman’s love affair with fashion. Schreier’s collection contains all the major names, but what defines it more than anything else is her own appreciation of pretty things.

(Vanessa Friedman) 212-535-77l0, metmnseum. org

“Edith Halpert Alepert and one Rise of American Art” at the Jewish Museum (through Feb. 9)

This rare show covers the life of an influential art gallery, founded in 1926 by Halpert. Skilled at both business and publicity, she represented excellent pre-war American artists like Stuart Davis and Jacob Lawrence and promoted folk art.

(Roberta Smith) 2l2-423-3200, thejewishmuseum. org

“Nature—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial” at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (through Jan. 20)

Plastics transformed the material world after World War II. Today, they pollute our oceans. A better future will be made with... algae. “Nature” provides us with a post-consumption future.

(James S. Russell) 212-849-2950, cooperhewitt. org

After paying £20 for my racing red ukulele at a Denmark Street music shop, I happily turned up to the “Ukulele Hootenany” at a club near Liverpool Street. The host came around and tuned it for me. I went to get a drink from the bar and was about to start playing when the little man approached again and said, “Let me tune that again for you.” I hesitated, wanting to reassure him that I’d not touched it since its last tuning but he took it and returned a few minutes later saying, “I’ve tuned it, but it won’t be worth it—use this one instead. And he handed me a racing red version of a more expensive ukulele that I happily handled clumsily with that night.

You can master the basics online and come along expecting to be able to play the most commonly used chords. Just don’t expect to fluently flip (弹) between them without any mistakes. It is easier said than done.

What makes this hobby unique is the fact that it’s not seen as “serious” or “proper” instrument, so it all tracts those more likely to pick it up for fun. That night’s crew were a random collection of around 30 people ranging from 20 to 60, with various shaped and sized ukuleles and various levels of ability.

We sat around a table, with two song books in front of us, and the “leader” called out a page number as we flipper through to a well-known Johnny Cash or Queen tune and did our best to keep up. Later on we got to argue—a Lady Gaga here, an Eric Clapton there.

But the part I enjoyed the most and that I wasn’t expecting was the singalong. Everyone sang, and as no one eared about your singing abilities, people had lot of fun when they were harmonizing and putting on a heavy Southern accent even if it’s not a country song. What it resulted in was a hobby with a unique mix and thus one of my favorites; it was cheap, social, and above all great fun.

We’ve all heard of smart phones, but how about smart clothing? The Cute-Circuit company has stepped up the technology beat and invented the SoundShirt, which was designed specifically for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. How does this incredible shirt work?

First, let’s talk about a little science. People who have either all or some hearing loss don’t actually listen to music the way that hearing people do, but they can feel it. Sound is made up of vibrations, called sound waves, which hearing people can hear through their ears with the help of the brain. What’s really cool is that deaf people sense vibrations in the part of the brain that others use for hearing!

So how is this remarkable technology able to function? First, CuteCircuit had to figure out a way to send signals to the body, kind of like how you can feel when your phone vibrates in silent mode. Those connections the body can feel are called haptics (触觉学), a use of technology that simulates the senses of touch and motion. The SoundShirt has tiny sensors woven into the shirt to pick up sound and transfer signals to the brain and body.

To test this music-to-shirt-to-wearer’s brain connection, CuteCircuit set microphones around the stage of a symphony orchestra. The shirt’s computer system digitally received the sounds coming from the instruments. Then the sensors, working like little motors, changed the signals into vibrations and the shirt wearer’s brain did the rest.

The SoundShirt lets people who are deaf or hard of hearing enjoy music in a unique way. The very deep musical sound, or pitch, of instruments like drums and basses vibrates in the lower part of the shirt. Higher pitched sounds from instruments like the flute or violin vibrate higher, around the neck and arms. As the music plays, the sensations combine while the brain gets to work putting together all the different vibrations, allowing the wearer to “hear” the concert.

You might think this innovation would look like something out of a science fiction movie, but in fact, these shirts are wireless! And the decorative laser-lined design on the shirt looks like an image of sound waves.

Technology’s purpose is to help people and make life better. Think of all the amazing things designers, engineers, and producers of wearable tech will be able to do for humankind.

In November, 2008, voters in California approved one of the most ambitious government infrastructure (基础设施) projects in. U.S. history; a bullet train connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles, at a cost of $33 billion. For years, however people have watched the projected costs mount, with the last estimates over $75 billion.

On Tuesday, the governor of the state Gavin Newsom called for the state to scale back the project to a less costly rail that would run through the Central valley. California voters can stop seizing their wallets. But voters elsewhere should pay close attention, because what happened in California problem that face any U.S. rail project, or any infrastructure project that tries to meaningfully reshape U. S.

In other places of the world, major population centers are much closer to each other, which is a basic requirement far high-speed rail. Imagine what it would take to build a line from New York City to Los Angeles or to Chicago, Houston or Phoenix.

Of course, some cities look ripe for rail, but instead of high-speed rail between these cities, we have the Acela, which takes eight hours to travel from Washington to Boston and shakes like a maraca player. Why haven’t we built something better? Because truly high-speed rail needs to travel in a fairly straight line; you don’t want to be taking a sharp curve at 300 miles per hour. Building newer, better, straighter rail lines would require the government to buy all the land between Point A and Point B and tear down anything that happened to be in the way. But in fact, there are a great deal of highly valuable estates instead of farms.

For historical reasons, the U. S. legal system offers citizens rights with which they can attempt to block government projects. Any project bigger than painting a schoolhouse has to either fight out the constant reviews and court cases for years, or buy off the opponents.