This Week I Learned - Week #27 2022

This Week I Learned - 

* SAP On Azure [AzSAP] Well-Architected Framework assessment/review is one of three Assessments available for SAP Workload on Azure to support customer/partner journey to Microsoft Azure cloud.

* Azure Resiliency – Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery [PDF; 31 pages; Jan 2022]

* Sungard Availability Services (Sungard AS) offers IT production and recovery services that include IT infrastructure, Cloud computing, Disaster Recovery, and Workplace Recovery. Sungard Availability Services declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S., the second in the company's recent history.  

* The Tanium Platform monitors remote endpoints securely and continuously over standard internet connections without requiring VPN access. Using Tanium, IT organizations can monitor all their remote endpoints 24/7 without having to invest in additional VPN licenses or overburdening their already busy VPN servers. Tanium Comply is a security and compliance module that continuously scans network endpoints for vulnerable misconfigurations and compliance violations. 

* A 25-year-old writer had been working on her urban romance novel for months when she found she was locked out of it by the software program WPS Office where it was stored, sparking an outpouring of frustration by Chinese internet users. 

* English imperial measurements date to medieval times. The metric system was created much later across the Channel in France, England’s ancient arch rival.

* Nootropics are natural supplements or medications that improve cognitive performance in healthy individuals.

* Sindoor or Sindooram or kumkuma is a traditional vermilion red or orange-red coloured cosmetic powder from the Indian subcontinent, usually worn by married women along the part of their hairline. In Hindu communities the sindoor is a visual marker of marital status of a woman and ceasing to wear it usually implies widowhood. The main component of traditional sindooram is usually cinnabar (cinnabar is mercury sulfide, a toxic mineral), turmeric and lime. Some commercial sindoor products contain synthetic ingredients, some of which are not manufactured to proper standards and may contain lead. There are various forms of Sindhoor mentioned in Ayurveda. Traditional sindhoor is made from natural ingredients like turmeric, lime juice, ghee and slaked lime.

* Venomous animals typically live in warm climates.

* There are no non-human primates in Australia.

* There are eight common blood type groups, and with different combinations of antigens and classifications, 36 human blood type groups in total. Of the 7.9 billion people living in the world, spread across 195 countries and 7 continents, the most common blood type is O+, with over 39% of the world’s population falling under this classification. The rarest, meanwhile, is AB-, with only 0.40% of the population having this particular blood type. 

* An elegy is a mournful or sad poem, usually written to praise and express sorrow for someone who is dead. The purpose of this kind of poem is to express feelings rather than tell a story. A speech at a funeral is a eulogy, an elegy is something that is composed later to someone loved and lost to the grave.

* "Follow the money" is a catchphrase popularized by the 1976 docudrama film All the President's Men, which suggests political corruption can be brought to light by examining money transfers between parties.

* A cold open is the practice of jumping directly into a story or narrative at the beginning of the movie or series before the title sequence or opening credits are shown. - from a X-Ray note on Comicstan 3

* Purchasing power parity (PPP) is an economic theory that suggests the prices of goods and services between two countries should be equal, once their currencies have been exchanged. PPP was introduced to be a more accurate and effective measure of a currency’s power. It is split into two types: absolute PPP, which doesn’t adjust for inflation, and relative PPP, which does. PPP is used to compare economic productivity and living standards between countries. Traditionally, coffee in the United Arab Emirate (UAE) was all imported, which goes someway to explain why – on average – it has the most expensive cup of coffee. In the UAE, a cup of coffee would set you back £4.47, compared to just £0.78 in Italy.

* Perhaps the most famous PPP index was devised by The Economist to measure how many units of a currency are needed to purchase a McDonald’s Big Mac – known as the Big Mac index. Once the value of a hamburger in each country is known, exchange rates can then be adjusted to show the purchasing power of each currency. The burger was chosen due to the global reach of McDonald’s, with an estimated 36,889 outlets in 120 countries. Although it’s worth noting that due to differences in ingredients, even this isn’t a perfect measure of PPP. 

* Purchasing power parity is also widely used to identify market manipulation by governments. For example, in 2011, the Big Mac index proved that the Argentinian government had been reporting incorrect inflation data – the PPP index showed there was a 19% gap between the burger’s actual price and the PPP implied price.

* The theory of purchasing power parity relies on the idea of arbitrage – the opportunity to buy an item in one place, and sell it for higher price immediately in another, taking advantage of price differentials. This would eventually cause prices to converge, as the buying and selling would balance prices. However, in reality, there are transaction costs, government taxation and barriers to trade that prevent costs from equalising.

* Ukraine was second most powerful of the 15 republics in USSR of the 1990s

* Louis Braille (1809 – 1852) was the inventor of a reading and writing system for use by people who are visually impaired which remains virtually unchanged to this day, and is known worldwide simply as braille. Braille was blinded at the age of three in one eye as a result of an accident with a stitching awl in his father's harness making shop. Consequently, an infection set in and spread to both eyes, resulting in total blindness by the age of five. Braille's system was largely completed by 1824, when he was fifteen years old. He published his system in 1829, and improved it in the second edition in 1837. Although Braille was admired and respected by his pupils, his writing system was not taught at the institute he studied and worked, during his lifetime. World Braille Day is celebrated every year on Braille's birthday, January 4. The Encyclopædia Britannica lists him among the "100 Most Influential Inventors Of All Time".

* Lewis Carroll invented the Nyctograph and Nyctography because he was often awakened during the night with thoughts that needed to be written down immediately, and didn't want to go through the lengthy process of lighting a lamp just to have to extinguish it shortly thereafter. Nyctography is a form of substitution cipher writing created Carroll in 1891. 

* Matt Groening loves creating new worlds. The Simpsons [the longest-running prime-time series] is its own parallel universe as is his Futurama [ran for seven nonconsecutive seasons]. Disenchantment is the third animated series that he has conceptualized. - Esquire

* Flowers for Algernon is a short story by American author Daniel Keyes in 1958, later expanded by him into a novel (1959) and subsequently adapted for film (2000) and other media. Algernon is a laboratory mouse who has undergone surgery to increase his intelligence. The story is told by a series of progress reports written by Charlie Gordon, the first human subject for the surgery, and it touches on ethical and moral themes such as the treatment of the mentally disabled.

* The Saundarya Lahari meaning "The waves of beauty" is a famous literary work in Sanskrit attributed to Adi Shankaracharya. Its hundred and three shlokas (verses) praise the beauty, grace and munificence of Goddess Tripura Sundari as Goddess Parvati. Saundarya Lahari was composed in Kashmir.  

* Sivananda Lahari ("Wave of Auspicious Bliss") is a devotional hymn composed by Adi Shankaracharya, Advaita philosopher, on Shiva. It consists of one hundred stanzas of Sanskrit poetry in various chandas (metres). It was composed by Adi Shankara while staying in Srisailam, a pilgrimage town, in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh. It begins with an ode to Mallikarjuna and Bhramarambika, the deities at Srisailam.

Adi Shankara with disciples, drawing by Raja Ravivarma, 1904

* UPS, the global leader in logistics and InterGlobe Enterprises, India’s trusted travel and hospitality conglomerate, launched a joint venture MOVIN, a new logistics brand. The name MOVIN is a combination of Movement and India (MOVEMENT+INDIA).

* Parathas will attract an 18% tax rate and cannot enjoy the same privilege of 5% rate on roti, chapati or khakra. No GST on papad, but fryums face an 18% rate.

* The first Shetty Lunch Home opened its doors in 1957 at Kundapura, a small coastal town located one and half hours away from Mangaluru. It was here that 21-year-old Tejappa Shetty along with his 16-year-old wife Prabhavathi Shetty started an eatery to showcase the cuisine of the Kundapura Bunt community. One day, Prabhavathi decided to experiment and added desi ghee, Byadgi chillies and upped the spice quotient. And just like that, the dish transformed into the chicken ghee roast and became a culinary icon. - Condé Nast Traveller

* Between January and May 2022, outstanding credit cards in force have risen from 7.02 crore to 7.69 crore. Spends on these cards during the month of May also rose 108% year-on-year to Rs 1.14 lakh crore. Of these spends, 63% were on e-commerce platforms.

* Uber, which has drivers in over 100 Indian cities, operates via five Indian subsidiaries — holding companies of four are based in the Netherlands. 

* "The future belongs to those who learn more skills and combine them in creative ways." - Robert Greene