This Week I Learned - Week #22 2022

 This Week I Learned -

* An offering from Microsoft  Azure Cloud Advocates: 

* a11y (pronounced "A-one-one-Y" or "A-eleven-Y") is a numeronym  or a word where a number is used to form an abbreviation for accessibility.

* How Uber predicts arrival times using Deep Learning

* System Design Interview - a course is to provide a reliable strategy to approach the system design questions. 

* Catalog of patterns

* Python Design Patterns 

* An actuary is a business professional who deals with the measurement and management of risk and uncertainty. The name of the corresponding field is actuarial science. These risks can affect both sides of the balance sheet and require asset management, liability management, and valuation skills.

* Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland and Jane Stanford in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. After her husband's death in 1893, Jane Stanford funded and operated the university almost single-handedly until her unsolved murder by strychnine poisoning in 1905. It was at her direction that Stanford University gained an early focus on the arts. She also advocated for the admission of women; the university had been co-educational since its founding. As of April 2021, Stanford students and alumni had won at least 296 Olympic medals including 150 gold and 79 silver medals. 85 Nobel laureates, 29 Turing Award laureates, and eight Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty, or staff. In addition, Stanford is particularly noted for its entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups. Stanford alumni have founded numerous companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue and have created 5.4 million jobs as of 2011, roughly equivalent to the 7th largest economy in the world (as of 2020).

* American Sign Language is believed to be the third most commonly used language in the United States after English and Spanish. 

* The below image from the Lenskart website seems to convey gaming enthusiasts, binge watchers and screen happy kids don't have to worry about consequences and restrain themselves from excessive screen-time. Their blue-light blocking glasses have filters in their lenses that block or absorb blue light to keep screen time comfortable.

* Pomegranates  (Punica granatum) are drought-tolerant, and can be grown in dry areas with either a Mediterranean winter rainfall climate or in summer rainfall climates. The number of seeds in a pomegranate can vary from 200 to about 1,400. Separating the seeds is easier in a bowl of water because the seeds sink and the inedible pulp floats. Freezing the entire fruit also makes it easier to separate. Another effective way of quickly harvesting the seeds is to cut the pomegranate in half, score each half of the exterior rind four to six times, hold the pomegranate half over a bowl, and smack the rind with a large spoon. The seeds should eject from the pomegranate directly into the bowl, leaving only a dozen or more deeply embedded seeds to remove. Grenadine syrup originally consisted of thickened and sweetened pomegranate juice, now is usually a sales name for a syrup based on various berries, citric acid, and food coloring, mainly used in cocktail mixing. In Ayurveda, the pomegranate is frequently described as an ingredient in remedies.

* Elephants, the largest living land animals in the world can weight between 3.5 - 9 tonnes. An elephant's heart constitutes about 0.5% of the animal's total body weight. 

* The largest dinosaur weighed around 85 tonnes. Far bigger than any dinosaur, the blue whale is the largest known animal to have ever lived. An adult blue whale can grow to a massive 30m long and weigh as much as 150-180 tonnes - that's about the same as 40 elephants, 30 Tyrannosaurus Rex or 2,670 average-sized men. It is also the largest animal that ever lived. 

* In most animals, females are larger than males, but in most mammals, males are larger than females. Among reptiles like snakes and turtles, the females are most often bigger than the males as they need to carry clutches of eggs, but when it comes to lizards, the males are usually the bigger of the two.

* Now commonly used as body armor, Kevlar fabric was invented in an attempt to make lightweight tires to increase car gas mileage.

* Parosmia, the misperception of an odour, unfortunately most often manifests as the transformation of a pleasant odour into an unpleasant one

* Experts believe that lychee toxins are particularly harmful when consumed on an empty stomach. Methylene cyclopropyl-glycine (MCPG) a chemical found in this fruit affects the brain when body sugar levels are low due to undernourishment.

* How to analyze an Annual Report?

* The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), formerly the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, is an intergovernmental organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states. The organisation states that it is "the collective voice of the Muslim world" and works to "safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony". The OIC has permanent delegations to the United Nations and the European Union. 

* Muslims make up about 14 percent of India’s population.

* Muslims may be seen using misbaha beads, in particular during private personal prayer. It is an act of devotion to use the beads in prayer, but also a practical way of counting some of the many names of Allah as they are recited. There are often two sorts of beads which are either made up of 33 or 99 beads.

* The number 108 is considered a sacred number in Hinduism, Buddhism and yogic tradition. Malas or Japa beads come in a string of 108 and are used for devotional meditation, mantra and prayer. 

* A UN report estimates Indian immigrant population at 18 million.

* Dalhousie in Himachal Pradesh is spread over five hills – Kathlog, Potreys, Tehra, Bakrota and Bolun.

* NPS investments are rebalanced automatically every year. Automatic  reallocation changes happen only on the subscriber's birthday.

* Claim settlement ratio is the percentage of settled claims over the total volume of claim for a financial year. Claim settlement ratio is published every year. Claim settlement ratio must be consistent. Disability claims need to be reported within 120 days from the date of the disability. For critical illness or major surgery, you have to report the claim within 60 days from the date of diagnosis or surgery.

* The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India offers ebooks to promote financial literacy under the National Financial Literacy Mission.

* Grace Hopper,  a pioneer of computer programming, was the first to devise the theory of machine-independent programming languages, and the FLOW-MATIC programming language she created using this theory was later extended to create COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today. Her fans called her Amazing Grace and "Grandma COBOL". 

* Inspiration is perishable—act on it immediately - Naval Ravikant, The Almanack of Naval Ravikant [PDF]

* While gaslighting is sociopathic in its extreme form, we all engage in subtle forms (Ex: saying, “I don’t know what you’re talking about” when you do) - Dr. Emily Anhalt

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