This Week I Learned - Week #38 2021

This Week I Learned - 

* In modern websites, scripts are often “heavier” than HTML: their download size is larger, and processing time is also longer. Scripts without async , defer or type="module" attributes, as well as inline scripts, are fetched and executed immediately, before the browser continues to parse the page and only then can it process the rest of the page. The difference between async and defer is that async scripts will not execute in order so if we have 4 scripts included, any script will be executed at any time but that's not the case with defer. The defer attribute is only for external scripts. The defer attribute is ignored if the <script> tag has no src. Dynamic scripts behave as “async” by default.

* The script attribute referrerpolicy indicates which referrer to send when fetching the script, or resources fetched by the script. The default value is strict-origin-when-cross-origin which indicates send a full URL when performing a same-origin request, only send the origin when the protocol security level stays the same (HTTPS→HTTPS), and send no header to a less secure destination (HTTPS→HTTP).

* Core WCF is a new community owned project under the .NET Foundation.

* Apache Struts and Spring both are used to develop Java web applications. Apache Struts is an open source framework that extends the Java Servlet API and employs a Model, View, Controller (MVC) architecture.

* Spring is a powerful lightweight  open source application development framework used for Java Enterprise Edition (JEE). In a way, it is a framework of frameworks because it provides support to various frameworks such as Struts, Hibernate, Tapestry, EJB, JSF, etc.

* The Apache Tika toolkit detects and extracts metadata and text from over a thousand different file types (such as PPT, XLS, and PDF). All of these file types can be parsed through a single interface, making Tika useful for search engine indexing, content analysis, translation, and much more. 

* Azure Dedicated Host provides a virtualized environment that’s architected to run Azure VMs, and it gives you control and visibility over the underlying physical server, but it’s not a bare metal as a service offering.

* Oracle Application Container Cloud Service lets you deploy Java SE, Node.js, PHP, Python, Ruby, Go, and .NET Core applications to the Oracle Cloud. You can also deploy Java EE web applications.

* WCF is not supported in .NET Core since it's a Windows specific technology.

* A school student identified a serious vulnerability on the IRCTC railway ticket booking site using Burp Suite & notified CERT-in. IRCTC fixed the bug 5 days later. 

* PortSwigger are the makers of Burp Suite, which is a Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) tool. We think it's the best solution out there for many use cases - and it includes the world's most widely used vulnerability scanner. Burp Suite Professional is used by penetration testers and bug bounty hunters.

* The United States has the world's largest Christian population and, more specifically, contains the largest Protestant population in the world. In 2020 according to a Pew study, Christians represent 65% of the total adult US population, 42% identifying as Protestants, 21% as Catholics, and 2% as Mormons. People with no formal religious identity at 29% (18% Unaffiliated, 5%  Atheist,  6% Agnostic) of the total population. When consolidating all Christian denominations into one religious grouping, Judaism is the second-largest religion in the U.S., practiced by 2% of the population, followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam, each with 1% of the population. - Wikipedia

* "Spiritual but not religious" (SBNR) is self-identified stance of spirituality that takes issue with organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth. Spirituality places an emphasis upon the wellbeing of the "mind-body-spirit," so holistic activities such as tai chi, reiki, and yoga are common within the SBNR movement.

* American Founding Fathers, or Framers of the Constitution, who were especially noted for being influenced by such philosophy of deism include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Harnett, Gouverneur Morris, and Hugh Williamson. 

* Deism is the philosophical position and rationalistic theology that rejects revelation as a source of divine knowledge, and asserts that empirical reason and observation of the natural world are exclusively logical, reliable, and sufficient to determine the existence of a Supreme Being as the creator of the universe. Deism is also defined as the belief in the existence of God solely based on rational thought, without any reliance on revealed religions or religious authority. Deism emphasizes the concept of natural theology, that is, God's existence is revealed through nature. A central premise of Deism was that the religions of their day were corruptions of an original religion that was pure, natural, simple, and rational. Humanity lost this original religion when it was subsequently corrupted by "priests" who manipulated it for personal gain and for the class interests of the priesthood, and encrusted it with superstitions and "mysteries" – irrational theological doctrines. Deists referred to this manipulation of religious doctrine as "priestcraft," an intensely derogatory term.

* If the question is "Does God exist?", "yes" would imply theism, "no" would imply atheism, and "I'm not sure" would imply agnosticism—that God possibly can or cannot exist.

* According to the BBC, a comprehensive American study concluded in 2009 that the number of Muslims worldwide stood at about 23% of the world's population with 60% of the world's Muslims living in Asia. Some religions proselytise vigorously (Christianity and Islam, for example), while others (such as Judaism and Sikhism) do not generally encourage conversions into their ranks. Some faiths grow exponentially at first, only for their zeal to wane (note the case of Zoroastrianism). The growth of a religion can clash with factors such as persecution, entrenched rival religions (such as established religions), and religious market saturation. - Wikipedia 

* Zoroastrianism was founded during the early Persian Empire in the 6th century BCE by Zarathustra. Zoroastrianism declined as forced conversion increased with the rise of Islam. From the 10th century onwards, Zoroastrians emigrated to Gujarat, India where they found asylum from unjust persecutions and since then are called Parsi, since Indians called Persia Faras and hence named them Parsi. India has the world's largest Zoroastrian population who are called Parsis. 

* Hinduism is the third largest religion in the world making up about 15% of the population in 2010, when there were 1 billion Hindus in the world. Approximately 94% of the world's Hindus live in India.

* Pilates was developed in the 1920s by Joseph Pilates as a fitness regime to improve physical and mental health.

* SARS-CoV-2 is changing all the time, a tweak to the genetic code here and there; sometimes, those tweaks add up to new danger. In a matter of weeks, the Delta variant upended the relative peace of America’s early summer and ushered in a new set of calculations about risk, masking, and testing.

* Explanatory journalism or explanatory reporting is a form of reporting that attempts to present ongoing news stories in a more accessible manner by providing greater context than would be presented in traditional news sources. The Atlantic staff writer Ed Yong has won the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. He was awarded journalism’s top honor for his defining coverage of the coronavirus pandemic and how America failed in its response to the virus. 

* Pulitzer Prize winners for Explanatory Journalism  

* Suede is leather made from skin torn from the underside of animals such as lambs, goats, pigs, calves, and deer. - PETA

* Talimogene laherparepvec (or T-VEC) is a genetically modified virus that is designed to infect and kill melanoma cells.

British Association of Dermatologists

* A sovereign citizen is someone who believes that he or she is above all laws. Sovereign citizens believe that they are immune from all federal, state, and local laws. 

* Some games have enforced pacing and penalize slow play.

* The term motif can be used both of figurative and narrative art, and ornament and geometrical art. 

* A leitmotif or leitmotiv is a "short, recurring musical phrase" associated with a particular person, place, or idea.

* Bollymeaning.com and The Songpedia provide English explanations for Bollywood songs.

* Bharat Ratna M Visvesvaraya was born in a Telugu Brahmin family, to Mokshagundam Srinivasa Shastry and Venkatalakshamma who hail from the Mokshagundam village in present-day Andhra Pradesh.

* Known as the first Lady of Indian advertising Tara Sinha was the first woman to be appointed director at Clarions, a prestigious ad agency that she helped set-up at the age of 23.

* In Tamil Nadu, 99% of students who got admission through NEET received coaching. Combined revenue of all coaching centres in TN alone is Rs 5,750 crore.

* The logo of the Vande Mataram album is based on a painting by Thota Tharini.

*Tax-loss harvesting is a sophisticated tax planning mechanism that involves the selling of stock/mutual funds at a loss to offset a capital gains tax liability, and normally such investments are bought back to maintain the same asset allocation/portfolio. Long-term capital loss (LTCL) on sale of shares or equity-oriented MF units can be set off against long-term capital gains (LTCG). This sale and reinvestment is a legal transaction and does not affect your investment amount or returns generated. The ₹1.5 lakh long-term capital loss (LTCL) on sale of shares can be set off against the LTCG of ₹2 lakh on redemption of the MF and the balance LTCG of ₹50,000 being less that ₹1 lakh is exempted. Thus, you pay no tax....in case losses from the sale of capital assets exceed the gains from such assets after setting off losses and gains of a particular year, you can carry forward such losses for setting off in later years up to eight assessment years. ...losses in equities can be set off against gains in debt, real estate or gold. Prior to 31 March 2018, there was no tax on LTCG on shares and equity-oriented mutual funds; therefore, long-term loss on such transactions was considered as a dead loss.  - Mint

* "It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them" - Alfred Alder