Police should be allowed to use facial recognition to investigate specific crimes and to protect the public at major events, according to the first national survey of the public's attitude to the technology. However, they are opposed to unrestricted use while two thirds (65 percent) of the public believe an absolute ban on the police would be wrong, Up to 70 percent backed its use to analyse faces on CCTV (闭路电视) to catch a suspect in an investigation or in day-to-day policing to prevent crime at events such as football matches or carnivals, The technology enables police to scan crowds and pick out faces that match huge databases of suspects.

There is, however, far less tolerance of its use by private (私人的) companies, whether to monitor shoppers or workers, or in schools if it was to be used to track children's behaviour or expressions. By a majority of almost two to one, the public believes that organizations should seek the permission of people before they start using facial recognition. Most also want a pause on any further use of the technology until publicly-agreed guidelines are in place on when and where it should be used.

More than half (55 percent) of the public believe the Government should limit police use of facial recognition to criminal investigations, though half also saw it as no different to taking photographs or using CCTV. Of those who were comfortable with its use, 80 percent said it was because it was “beneficial for the security of society”,

There was also a majority in favour of the technology where there was personal benefit, with 54 percent backing its use to unlock a smartphone by recognizing an owner’s face and with passport checks at airports where it can speed up queues.

There’s no doubt that one of the greatest human achievements is the exploration of the space. Ever since astronaut Yuri Gagarin became the first person to be sent into the orbit around the moon in 1961, scientists have been pushing the boundaries further and further. But until now the exploration into the unknown has been dominated (主导) by men.

Of course, in the past, women were also included in the space projects and played an active role on the ground and behind the scenes. For example, they worked as seamstresses (女裁缝师), sewing vital spaceflight components. In fact, many of NASA’s key works would never have been possible without them. Recently Hollywood produced a movie called Hidden Figures to focus on a group of American female mathematicians, especially the black women, who helped NASA send the first American into space. But this was not women’s only contribution. Back in 1963, Soviet astronaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to be sent into space. However, after that, space flight programs were slow to employ women. In the USA. NASA didn’t accept applications from women to become astronauts until 1978.

But attitudes have changed and leading officials at NASA say that the first person to set foot on Mars should be a woman. The space agency aims to have a sex-balanced workforce but can only achieve that if equal numbers of men and women are trained for science and technology jobs. As Allison McIntryre told the BBC, “My director is a woman. We have female astronauts. We haven’t put a woman on the moon yet. And I think that perhaps the first person to step on Mars should be a woman.”

Heaven is where the police are English, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and everything is organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and everything is organized by the Italians."

Obviously the national stereotypes in this old joke are generalizations(普遍化), but such stereotypes are often said to "exist for a reason". Is there actually a sliver of truth in them? Not likely, an international research team now says.

"National and cultural stereotypes do play an important role in how people see themselves and others, and being aware that these are not dependable is a useful thing," said study author Robert McCrae of the National Institute on Aging. "These are in fact unfounded stereotypes. They don't come from looking around you," McCrae said.

If national stereotypes aren't rooted in real experiences, then where do they come from? One possibility is that they reflect national values, which may become known from historical events. For example, many historians have argued that the spirit of American individualism has its origins in the experiences of the pioneers on the Old West.

Social scientists such as psychologist Richard Robins have given several other possible explanations for stereotypes and why they may be incorrect. Robins notes that some stereotypes may have been correct at one point in history and then remained unchanged while the culture changed.

We may be "hard-wired", to some degree, to keep incorrect stereotypes, since we are less likely to notice and remember information that is different from our stereotypes. Generally, according to Robins, when we meet people who are different from our stereotypes, we see them as unique individuals rather than typical national or cultural groups.