![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.conversiondiary.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/09\/7_quick_takes_sm1.jpg\" "\\"7_quick_takes_sm\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>\u2014 1 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The first time I ran into Google Hangout\u2019s facial recognition feature, I had a lot of fun trying to find the limits of what it would recognize as a face. \u00a0I grabbed photos, drawings, etc and held them up while ducking below my webcam\u2019s sightline and then trying to compete with the faux-face to try to suss out how the algorithm decided. \u00a0But Neil Yager has coded up a prototype that wouldn\u2019t be fooled<\/a>.<\/p>\n He built a camera\/infrared sensor that recognizes faces and then double checks whether those faces have a realistic heat signature. \u00a0His detector successfully notices photographs and people wearing silicon masks as faux faces. \u00a0He walks through the\u00a0how<\/em> and you can skim or dig into the code yourself.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 2 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n About two weeks ago, people surrounded the Flatiron building in New York City for a live demonstration of the Pythagorean Theorem<\/a>. \u00a0The event, hosted by the Museum of Math<\/a>, had volunteers line up on the sidewalk, measuring the perimeter of the building at street level and checking that the squares of the two legs really did equal the square of the hypotenuse.<\/p>\n I wonder what good math events I could organize at home. \u00a0Of course, the\u00a0in situ<\/em> math I love best would still be walking the bridges of\u00a0K\u00f6nigsberg<\/a>. \u00a0Though, due to the bombing of the city in WWII, there now exists an Eulerian path for the city.<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 3 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n And if I were travelling through Europe on a science\/math safari, I would\u00a0have<\/em> to stop by the\u00a0Alnwick Poison Garden<\/a>\u00a0(h\/t Leigh Bardugo<\/a>). \u00a0This English garden has deadly plants, some so dangerous that they\u2019re behind screens, to prevent passerby from touching them and succumbing.<\/p>\n Plus, this is what the gates look like:<\/p>\n <\/a>\u2014 4 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n You\u2019d hate to see any of the plants from that garden at the dinner table, but that\u2019s not the only kind of dining treachery to fear. \u00a0There\u2019s an awesome game theory dinner<\/a>, also occurring in England.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Betrayers\u2019 Banquet<\/a>\u00a0is an experimental dining experience from London, where guests play the iterated prisoner\u2019s dilemma to win a better or worse meal. Each of the 48 participants is served eight different courses over two hours; two starters, four mains and two desserts. While all dishes are edible, their allure differs considerably between the top and the bottom of the table; those at the top will enjoy a fine dining experience to match any in London, while those at the bottom will grapple with pickled walnuts, chicken\u2019s feet soup, lumpy gruel, and worse.\u201d<\/p>\n At regular intervals during the dinner, guests are invited to play the prisoner\u2019s dilemma with their opposites. If they both cooperate, they move up the table by six places. If they both betray, they move down the table by six places. If one cooperates and the other betrays, the betrayer moves up ten places, and the other down ten.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/a>\u2014 5 \u2014<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n When I read\u00a0The Girl with a Pearl Earring<\/em><\/a>, I loved all the descriptions of the\u00a0how<\/em> of Vermeer\u2019s painting. \u00a0I liked seeing what minerals were ground for what colors and how the colors were layered in the composition. \u00a0And I quite enjoyed the cameo by Leeuwenhoek<\/a> with his camera obscura.<\/p>\n That last is a little controversial. \u00a0Art historians still debate whether Vermeer used the instrument to help him achieve his realistic painting. \u00a0But Tim Jenison has applied a little empiricism. \u00a0He used a camera obscura to try to replicate Vermeer\u2019s hypothetical technique and to see how it fell short or matched some of the quirks of the master\u2019s style. \u00a0Penn and Teller ended up chronicling his work for a documentary (trailer below):<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n