3. "Of the more than 1000 bicycling deaths each year, three-fourths are caused by head injuries. Half of those killed are school-age children. One study concluded that wearing a bike helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by 85 percent. In an accident, a bike helmet absorbs the shock and cushions the head." From "Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers," Consumer Reports (May 1990): 348.
Every year, there are about 1000 deaths resulting from bicycling accidents, and roughly half of the victims are young children. Studies show that wearing a helmet could lower the rate for these accidents, since helmets reduce the “risk of head injury by 85 percent,” and since about 75 percent of bicycle deaths result from a head injury. Wearing a helmet helps protect the head and reduce the impact on the child’s head (Bike Helmets: Unused Lifesavers, 348).
4. "Matisse is the best painter ever at putting the viewer at the scene. He's the most realistic of all modern artists, if you admit the feel of the breeze as necessary to a landscape and the smell of oranges as essential to a still life. "The Casbah Gate" depicts the well-known gateway Bab el Aassa, which pierces the southern wall of the city near the sultan's palace. With scrubby coats of ivory, aqua, blue, and rose delicately fenced by the liveliest gray outline in art history, Matisse gets the essence of a Tangier afternoon, including the subtle presence of the bowaab, the sentry who sits and surveys those who pass through the gate." From Peter Plagens, "Bright Lights." Newsweek (26 March 1990): 50.
Matisse, a modern artist, remains one of the only painters able to transport the viewer into the painting and experience what he depicts. His realistic abilities create feelings and smells that mimic the scene. “The Casbah Gate,” one of his great works, portrays “Bab el Aassa” outside a sultan’s palace. He brings the afternoon to life with his soft, gentle rose and ivory colors, and the aqua and gray linings add more life as well. HE captures the “bowaab” that waits at the gate for people to come through. His subtle, yet lively details make the painting feel alive (Plagens 50).
5. "While the Sears Tower is arguably the greatest achievement in skyscraper engineering so far, it's unlikely that architects and engineers have abandoned the quest for the world's tallest building. The question is: Just how high can a building go? Structural engineer William LeMessurier has designed a skyscraper nearly one-half mile high, twice as tall as the Sears Tower. And architect Robert Sobel claims that existing technology could produce a 500-story building." From Ron Bachman, "Reaching for the Sky." Dial (May 1990): 15.
Can skyscrapers keep getting taller? Have we reached the peak of architectural ability with the Sears tower? William LeMessurier, a structural engineer, thinks we have not achieved the maximum height yet. He designed a skyscraper twice the height of the Sears Tower (roughly half a mile). Robert Sobel, an architect, thinks that the technology of the modern world could potentially create a building as tall as 500 stories (Bachman 15).
