It's not as if Meiguo hasn't been dogged enough for lackluster Expo efforts. But these pavilion plans were too saccharine to go unmentioned:

USA Pavilion is going to feature a show, "The Garden," about a 10-year-old girl who inspires her neighbors to turn a vacant lot (yes we can!) into an urban oasis.

Because in America little girls are always inspiring their neighbors to do stuff like that. 

No dialogue, but there will be "4-D" effects: vibrating seats, misting and lightning. Oooh. Aaah. 

Checkout the press release here.

Local families open their homes for the Expo

Whether its language barrier, culture shock or just shyness, when you’ve only got a few days to visit, it can be a pretty hard to make a real connection with a city and its people. Luckily for visitors to the Expo, a number of generous-spirited families are doing their best to remedy this, opening their homes and hosting tourists during the festivities. We paid them an early visit and asked why they decided to throw open their doors. 

 OMG! If you couldn't get excited for the Expo before, do so now: the Japanese Corporate Pavilion is promising to bring us the world's cleanest, most comfortable toilets. 

"People will feel as happy and relaxed in the toilets as they would in a comfortable living room," said Sakaiya Taichi, comprehensive producer of the Japan Industry Pavilion, according to an Expo press release.

The luxury toilets will feature aromatic scents and 24-hour cleaning.

Oooooh. Let me in, I might not ever leave. 

Sisters, a series of documentaries about 21 Australian and Chinese women who are making a difference to their communities, is going to be shown in the Australian Pavilion during the Expo. The filmmaker Annie Venable had an exclusive chat with Urbanatomy about her films.

With just a few months left before Expo begins, Shanghai's authorities are cracking down on foriegners living illegally in the city.

As part of the campaign, 11 foriegn nationals were arrested - six for overstaying their visa period and five for performing in bars without the proper permits.

Gu Wen, an officer with Shanghai exit-entry administration bureau said: "As the Shanghai Expo approaches, we launched a half-month long campaign at the end of January to inspect foreigners living in the city."