Facial Recall

Large gatherings such as weddings and conferences can be socially overwhelming. Pressure to learn people’s names only adds to the stress. A new facial-recognition app could come to the rescue-but privacy experts recommend    1    with caution.

The app, called Social Recall, connects names with faces via smartphone cameras and facial recognition,    2    eliminating the need for formal introductions. “It breaks down these social barriers we all have in terms of    3    the policy of politeness to meet somebody,” says Barry Sandrew, whose start-up, also called SocialRecall, created the app and tested it at an event attended by about 1,000 people.

After receiving an invitation to download SocialRecall from an event organizer, a(n)    4    user is asked to take two selfies and sign in via social media. At the event, the app is active within a previously defined geographical area. When a user points his or her phone camera at an attendee’s face, the app identifies the individual, displays the person’s name, and links to his or her social media profile. To protect privacy, it recognizes only those who have given their    5    And the app's creators say it    6    wipes users’ data after an event.

Ann Cavoukian, a privacy expert who runs the Privacy by Design Center of Excellence at Ryerson University in Toronto, commends the app’s creators for these protective measures. She cautions, however, that when people choose to share their personal information with the app, they should know that “there may be    7    consequences down the road with that information being used in another context that might come back to    8    you.”

The start-up has also developed a version of the app for individuals who suffer from prosopagnosia, or “face blindness,” a condition that prevents people from recognizing individuals they have met. To use this app, a person first acquires an image of someone’s face, from either the smartphone’s camera or a photograph, and then    9    it with a name. When the camera spots that same face in real life, the previously entered information is displayed. The collected data are stored only on a user’s phone, according to the team behind the app.

Jason Schultz, a professor of clinical law at New York University, who was not involved with the app's creation, remains    10    , “The cost to everyone whom you are surveilling with this app is very, very high, and I don't think it respects the consent politics involved with capturing people's images.”

3 . Villa d’Este, Tivoli (Italy) --- Official Site Useful Information

Call Center 199766166

Number to dial from all of Italy for pre-sales and reservations for: tickets, guided tours, school groups, instructional visits.

Bookings from abroad:

email: villadestetivoli@teleart.org fax: 0039 0412770747

Visiting Hours:

Opening 8.30 – closed one hour before sunset.

The ticket office closes one hour before the closing of the monument.

The hydraulic organ of the Organ Fountain is active daily, from 10.30 am, every two hours.

The Fontana della Civetta functions daily, from 10.00 am, every two hours.

Ticket Prices:

(from May 17 to October 20, 2015)

Full ticket (exhibition + villa and gardens, not divisible): €11.

Reduced ticket: €7.

These prices will be valid during the daytime openings of the Villa until the closure of the exhibition, due on the 20^th of October, 2015 (From the 22^nd of October, 2015)

Full ticket: €8 Reduced ticket €4

These fares may vary in conjunction with exhibitions set inside the Villa. The right to purchase reduced price tickets belongs to all citizens of the European Union between the ages of 18 and 24 as well as permanent teachers of state schools (upon presentation of identity documents).

School Visits:

Reservations are required. The management of Villa d’Este, in the aim of preserving the monument and better distributing the flow of students, has limited the number of students allowed into the Villa to 100 students per hour. Should any school group arrive at the Villa without having made a reservation, it will be admitted to the Villa according to space availability at a particular time and asked to wait until such space becomes available. Right of reservation cost: €1,00.

Notices:

Certain areas of the villa may be closed for restoration: for information inquire at the ticket office. Please pay particular attention to the areas marked with signs indicating danger (in Italian: pericolo).

5 . Hazel Mayfield usually cooks the Thanksgiving meal for her extended family in Houston, Texas. She usually welcomes friends and neighbors who are eager to taste her fried turkey, green bean casserole, candied yams, homemade cornbread dressing, and dirty rice-just a few of her signature dishes. Known as Sugar Mama, because her grandchildren think she’s so sweet, the 91-year-old typically likes to do her own shopping for the ingredients to make her special dishes.

“My mother is the head cook of the family,” said Panulette Mouton, Mayfield’s daughter. “Because of her reputation, you know, there’re people in and out all day and every family comes through. They want to get some of Sugar Mama’s cooking, and some of them would like to learn from her how to cook the food.”

But Mayfield hasn’t been to the grocery store since March. And there is little about Thanksgiving in 2020 that’s usual. Because of Covid-19, the deadly virus that has killed millions in the U.S. and spoiled life around the world, everything is different. Since limiting close face-to-face contact with others is the best way to reduce its spread, hundreds of thousands of American families have re-imagined the holiday with virtual celebrations and canceled or delayed travel plans. There can only be small gatherings with people in their households in response to COVID-19.

This year, Mayfield’s family members, without exception, are lamenting the absence of a big gathering. They’ve explained to their young children and grandchildren why this year’s Thanksgiving is different. Mayfield’s youngest daughter, Michelle Sanders, says it’s tough to help her grandchildren understand why they can’t see some of their other family members and why they have to stay at home, celebrating Thanksgiving all by themselves.

“It’s really hard, trying to explain to them,” Sanders said. “When-you’re talking to them and they want to come over, you have to tell them no. They really don’t know how to be careful.” Sanders added, “And, they don’t understand that, being three, four, and six, you know they don’t really understand that. So, it’s...it’s really, really hard, and heartbreaking.”

6 . For many people, leisure time is an opportunity to get outdoors, have some fun, and meet interesting people. Add two pieces of sophisticated 21st century technology, global positioning system (GPS) devices and the Internet, to get “geocaching.”

The word geocaching comes from “geo” (earth) and “cache” (hidden treasure). Geocachers log onto a website to find information about the location of a cache—usually a waterproof plastic box containing small items such as toys and CDs, along with a logbook where “finders” can enter comments and learn about the cache’s “owner,” the person who created and hid the cache. Finders may take any of the items in the cache but are expected to replace them with something of similar value. They then visit the website again and write a message to the owner.

Geocaching became possible on May 1, 2000, when U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that a satellite system developed by the U.S. Department of Defense would be made public. Using a fairly inexpensive GPS device, anyone on earth can send a signal to the satellites and receive information about their position. This is basically a high-tech version of orienteering, which uses maps and compasses to determine one’s location.

Geocachers are a very considerate group. Owners are asked to think carefully about a cache’s location in order to give finders an enjoyable experience, such as a beautiful view or a good campsite. They must also consider the environmental impact of their cache since it could result in an increased number of visitors to the area. As for the content of the caches, owners and finders are asked to remember that caches are found by geocachers of all ages. Any treasures in the caches should be suitable for the whole family.

Since geocaching is a new activity governed only by the general agreement of people in online discussion groups, it is always changing. Variations include “travel bugs,” which are objects with tags that ask finders to move them to new locations, which are then tracked online. “Multi-caches” direct finders from one location to the next until they locate the actual caches. “Virtual caches” are located in parks or environmentally sensitive areas where physical caches are not appropriate. These are usually landmarks, such as monuments or historical markers.

Interested in geocaching? Look for geocaching groups and events in Europe. Russia, and the United States, or visit geocaching websites from any computer in the world.

9 . Gottfried Wilhelm von Liebniz was a philosopher and mathematician in search of a model. In the late 1600s Leibniz decided there was a need for a new, purer arithmetic than our common decimal（十进制）system. He got his inspiration from the 5000-year-old book that is at the heart of Chinese philosophy：the I-Ching, or Book of Changes.

This ancient text was such an influence on Liebniz that he titled his article on the new arithmetic “Explanation of a new arithmetic and the ancient Chinese figure of Fu X”. Fu Xi was the legendary first author of the I-Ching. The arithmetic that Liebniz described was binary（二进制）code, which is used in almost every modern computer, from iPhones to China’s own Tihane-2 supercomputer.

To figure out what Liebniz learned in the I-Ching, we need to understand something that most of us have taken for granted. When we listen to an MP3, look at a digital photo or watch the latest TV drama, we are experiencing a digital representation of reality. That representation is basically just a string of binary signals that are commonly known as 1s and 0s. What Liebniz’s gained from the book was that even the most complex reality could be represented in the binary form as 1s and 0s.

In the philosophy of the I-Ching, reality is not entirely real. It is something more like a dream. This dream of reality arises from the binaries of Yin and Yang, as they play out countless combinations, practically everything in the universe. It’s not surprising then, from the l-Ching’s perspective, that anything in the dream of reality can be represented in a string of 1s and 0s, processed by a computer.

The I-Ching was far more ambitious than the current practical applications of binary code. It is claimed that the I-Ching represents nothing less than the basic situation of human life itself. As a system for predicting the future, the I-Ching might disappoint, but as a way of questioning your own unconscious mind, it can be remarkably useful.

The I-Ching’s teachings also contain warnings about our digital revolution. Binary code, powered by modern computers, has an amazing capacity to represent reality. However, the ancient authors of the I-Ching might have understood its potential-and its dangers-even better than we now do.

So when scientific thinkers ask whether computers can create “virtual realities” or “artificial intelligence”, they are missing the point. Of course, we can create ever deeper and more complex layers of the dream of reality. The real question is, can we wake up from the dream we’ re in already?