I caught a much livelier performance on Solomon Islands national day, when a group of dancer/musicians, their bodies painted, clad only in loincloths, performed canoe paddling chants of their ancestors with infectious energy. The crowd loved them.

As at any world’s fair, participating countries took the opportunity to present messages about themselves beyond their devotion to algae and windmills. Cuba showcased its rum and cigars (sadly, I missed its national day, when it was giving out free samples). Finland wanted people to know that it is the most stable country in the world, and that it offers free school lunches. Russia wanted it known that, with the aid of President Vladimir Putin, it is protecting the Amur tiger. Russia also declared its strong interest in the Arctic, which, one display informed visitors, occupies 27 million square kilometers and, perhaps more to the point, contains 130 billion tons of oil and natural gas. Russia also displayed a purported four-meter-tall block of Arctic ice, which would seem to limit access to those resources. But not to worry, another display said: “The Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker ship Lider will be able to break ice more than 4 m thick.”

The U.S. pavilion was also a little ... different. The U.S. State Department solicited proposals for the project last fall. (It’s financed by corporate donors, primarily Chevron and General Electric; federal law, oddly, prohibits government funding of U.S. participation in world’s fairs.) The solicitation went out during the final months of the Obama administration and cited Expo guidelines that the pavilion should deal with combating climate change, reducing CO2 emissions, and promoting energy alternatives. Specifically, it said the pavilion’s theme “should reflect elements of the White House’s ‘all of the above’ energy strategy,” to which it provided an internet link.

That was then. When I clicked that link I reached a page that said “Thank you for your interest in this subject. Stay tuned as we continue to update whitehouse.gov.”

The main elements of the U.S. pavilion were two videos that posed the question, “What is the source of infinite energy?” And they provided an answer. Solar power? Nope. Windmills? Nope. “People are. You. Me. All of us together.”

The first video emphasized American ingenuity, with images of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, and the garages where they did their early work. For current examples of ingenuity addressing energy needs, it cited teeny-tiny windmills that can power a mobile phone, a flashlight powered by the heat of the hand that holds it, and a soccer ball that generates and stores energy while being kicked and can be used, postgame, to light homes in the Third World. (The teeny-tiny windmills were developed by scientists at the University of Texas and remain a concept. The flashlight was the creation of a Canadian high school student who appeared with it on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”; it too remains a concept. The soccer ball, invented by a Harvard undergraduate, was produced for a while but is no longer.)