This Week I Learned - Week #75

This Week I Learned:

• Twitter determines the people you might enjoy following based on your recent visits to websites in the Twitter ecosystem (sites that have integrated Twitter buttons or widgets). Twitter's tailored suggestions feature works by suggesting people who are frequently followed by other Twitter users that visit the same websites. 
• Redis takes underutilized resources on servers and turns them into valuable caching service. Twitter forked Redis 2.4 and added some features to it, so they are stuck at 2.4 (2.8.14 is the latest stable version). Redis drives Timeline, Twitter’s most important service. Timeline is an index of tweets indexed by an id. Chaining tweets together in a list produces the Home Timeline. Memcache didn’t work as well as Redis for the timeline.  - High Scalability
• According to this answer on SuperUser, it is possible to use an older version of Google Chrome by installing Chrome while offline. The file GoogleUpdate.exe found in this folder location: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Google\Update has to be deleted to prevent updates.
• There is a workaround to install WhatsApp on a tablet that can access internet over WIFI
• SIM-Swap involves a fraudster issuing a duplicate SIM card which is registered under your name. With a SIM card that shares the same number, the fraudster can stalk and save your bank related information via mobile banking transactions.
• Convergent evolution - Birds evolved wings when their finger bones fused together and sprouted feathers more than 150 million years ago. Bats evolved wings about 60 million years ago when their fingers stretched out and became covered in membranes.
• Peanuts are not nuts; they're legumes
• West Africa produces nearly 70% of the world's cocoa.
• Size is a general indicator of chilli heat: the smaller the hotter
• The brain requires 20% of a human's energy when resting; by comparison, an ape's brain requires only 8%.
• Groups not dependent on cattle, such as the Chinese and Thai, the Pima Indians of the American Southwest, and the Bantu of West Africa, remain lactose intolerant. - National Geographic
• In 1876, Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell filed a patent on discovery of the telephone on the same day. 
• Dr. George Papanicolaou also known as Dr. Pap is the inventor of the "Pap smear" test. He first reported that uterine cancer could be diagnosed by means of a vaginal smear in 1928 but the importance of his work was not recognized until 1943. Upon examination of a slide made from a smear of the patient's vaginal fluid, Papanicolaou discovered that abnormal cancer cells could be plainly observed under a microscope. "The first observation of cancer cells in the smear of the uterine cervix," he later wrote, "gave me one of the greatest thrills I ever experienced during my scientific career." In the 1940s, when the Pap Smear was first introduced, cervical cancer was the number one killer of women.  The Pap Smear, now a standard cancer screening test for all women, has greatly reduced the death rate for cervical cancer patients worldwide.



His wife Mary was his first and long term, human subject.

• The legend goes that Maharaja Agrasen had 17 sons and one daughter, whose descendants are known as Agrawals. There are 17-and-a-half Agrawal surnames (or got­ras)—including Garg, Goyal, Mittal, Singhal, Kansal and, of course, Bansal. Four of the five e-commerce Bansals are IIT grads.
• The 17 Laws of the Game of Football are governed by a global organization called FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) or in English (International Federation of Association Football).
• Offside is a rule in soccer that ensures an offensive player does not have an unfair advantage.
• It is governed by imaginary lines on both sides of the field. These lines are based on the position of two different points: Either the second-to-last defender or the position of the ball. Common Craft's Soccer Guide has an excellent explanation in the form of animated gifs