This Week I Learned - Week #4 2022

This Week I Learned - 

* Azure IoT Central is Microsoft's application platform as a service (aPaaS) offering designed to simplify and accelerate IoT solution assembly and operation by assembling platform as a service (PaaS) components into an extensible and fully managed app development platform hosted by Microsoft. 

* LinkedIn has turned into a pretty monster business: annual revenue is $10B+, which compares very favourably with other social networks like Twitter (~$5B), Snap (~$4B) and Pinterest (~$2-3B). Microsoft acquired LinkedIn for $26B in 2016.

* Short-video sharing platforms like Tiktok & Instagram Reels have a big influence on music trends. Most music labels in India spend a major part of their marketing budgets promoting songs on YouTube, Instagram Reels and home-grown  equivalents like Josh and Moj. 

* Angel round is the first round of funding for a startup. It’s followed by venture capital rounds.

* The US is home to around half of the world's civilian-held firearms. The majority of the world's police forces carry firearms, but no developed nation uses them against their citizens as often as officers in the US - and disproportionately against African-Americans, compared with the percentage of the population they represent. On average, US officers spend around 21 weeks training before they are qualified to go on patrol. Many countries require officers to have a university degree - or equivalent - before joining the police, but in the US most forces just require the equivalent of a high-school diploma. The US spends almost 1% of its GDP on policing. - BBC

* Today, value investing is sneered at, and the big boys are rushing into companies that have never made a profit, just as during the dotcom boom, and for the same reason. Losses are seen as a sign of future growth potential rather than disaster. - Swaminathan Aiyar

* Professor Gagandeep Kang is the first woman working in India to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. She is also the first Indian woman to be elected to Fellowship of the American Academy of Microbiology and the only physician-scientist to receive the Infosys Award in Life Sciences.

* The Greater Adjutant of the Stork family is a huge bird standing around a metre-and-a-half in height but numbering less than 1,500 currently. Once found in thousands across Southeast Asia, now the state of Assam in the northeastern part of India remains the only stronghold for the imposing prehistoric-looking bird. Locally called Hargila, meaning “swallower of bones”, the bird, however, for a long time has been considered to be a sign of ill omen and carrier of diseases because of its messy habitats and scavenging dietary habits. As a part of her process to conserve the Hargila, Purnima Devi Barman has formed her group of women called the ‘Hargila army’.

* In recent years Indians have been granted well over two-thirds of America’s H-1B visas for highly skilled workers.

* Traditionally associated with the priesthood and learning, Brahmins this pinnacle of the caste pyramid’s 25,000-plus sub-groups makes up just 50m or so of India’s 1.4bn people. - Economist

* Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Limited (MEIL) is carrying out several works for Telangana’s ambitious Kaleshwaram Lift Irrigation Project. The cost of the project is currently pegged at a whopping Rs 1.15 lakh crore. It is touted to be the country’s most expensive irrigation project taken up by a state government. - TNM

* Arabica coffee makes up roughly 60% of global coffee production. It originates from Ethiopia and is grown worldwide in countries like Brazil and Indonesia, which have tropical conditions and high elevations that are perfect for Arabica coffee plants. Everything from Americano’s to cappuccinos are within the wheelhouse of Arabica beans.  The higher the elevation, the slower the coffee cherries ripen, producing more aroma-complex fruit. But the higher it goes, the smaller the available area for cultivation, and as a result, the lower the yield. This scarcity of acreage makes for fundamentally higher prices.

* Robusta Coffee makes up 40% of global coffee production. It originates from sub-saharan Africa and it is largely grown in the east, specifically Africa, Indonesia, and most importantly, Vietnam, who is the leading producer of robusta coffee. Robusta is ideal for espresso.

* Starbucks only buys 100 percent arabica coffee beans as it has a more refined flavor. 

* Tofu, also known as bean curd & soy paneer, is a popular source of plant-based protein. 

* The only difference between a master and a student is that the master has made more mistakes than the student.

* I don't go into a project knowing exactly where each line is going to connect and how all the pieces are going to fit together. The process is exploratory and iterative. - Matthew Inman, The Oatmeal