This Week I Learned - Week #45 2022

This Week I Learned - 

* Microsoft Entra is a new family of  identity and access products including Microsoft Azure Active Directory (Azure AD), as well as two new product categories: Cloud Infrastructure Entitlement Management (CIEM) and decentralized identity.

* Microsoft Secure Score is a measurement of an organization's security posture, with a higher number indicating more improvement actions taken. It can be found at https://security.microsoft.com/securescore in the Microsoft 365 Defender portal.

* The FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Alliance helps to promote open authentication standards and reduce the use of passwords as a form of authentication. FIDO2 is the latest standard that incorporates the web authentication (WebAuthn) standard.

* Load balancing on-premise applications from Azure with Application Gateway is possible.

* Microsoft's interactive AI demoes are available at AIDemos.microsoft.com

* The diagram shows how data is encapsulated and de-encapsulated when transmitting over the network.

* Authentic-looking fake accounts proliferated a week after Twitter rolled out a paid verification service, the latest in a string of chaotic developments since Elon Musk's blockbuster $44 billion buyout of the influential platform. Among the victims was drugmaker Eli Lilly, whose stock price nosedived -- erasing billions in market capitalization -- after a parody account stamped with a verification tag purchased for $8 tweeted that insulin was being made available for free. Eli Lilly executives ordered a halt to all ad campaigns on Twitter, a move that could potentially cost the platform millions of dollars. Twitter disabled sign-ups for the contentious feature known as Twitter Blue, with reports saying it had been temporarily disabled to help address impersonation issues -- but not before several brands took a hit.

* Portion distortion - Average portion sizes have grown so much over the past 20 years that sometimes the plate arrives and there's enough food for two or even three people on it. Growing portion sizes are changing what Americans think of as a "normal" portion at home too. 

* Since 1800, the world's population has jumped eight-fold, from an estimated one billion to eight billion. Since the 1960s, when the global number of people first hit three billion, it has taken a little over a decade to cross each new billion-person milestone.

* Fun fact: At least 45 U.S. states have laws prohibiting minors from getting tattoos. The U.K. even has a Tattooing of Minors Act, 1969.

* Great Basin bristlecone pine tree called ‘Methuselah’ is 4,600 years old.

* Pine resin is typically used in Chinese medicine for treating wounds, burns, and other skin conditions.

* As part of cataract surgery, your natural lens will be removed and replaced with an artificial intraocular lens. There are three different types of intraocular lenses available including monofocal, toric, and presbyopic-correcting. A monofocal IOL has equal power in all regions and a single zone of clear focus, producing excellent vision from a determined distance. Monofocal lenses sharpen only one focus (far, intermediate, or near), and do not correct astigmatism. Most people use monofocal IOLs to clarify distance vision. 

* In Phacoemulsification, or phaco surgery, a small incision is made on the side of the cornea, the clear, dome-shaped surface that covers the front of the eye. Your doctor inserts a tiny probe into the eye. This device emits ultrasound waves that soften and break up the lens so that it can be removed by suction. Conventional phacoemulsification uses a larger incision as compared to the minimally invasive Micro-Incision Cataract Surgery (MICS). In MICS, the incision size is lower than 2.0 mm and ranges from 1.5 to 1.8 mm depending on surgeon preference. The machine used for MICS is more sophisticated.

* While LASIK is commonly used for correcting nearsightedness, farsightedness, or astigmatism, multifocal IOLs are used for a higher degree of refractive errors, cataracts, and presbyopia.

* The cornea can be reshaped by surgical procedures such as LASIK.

* The cornea is the transparent front part of the eye that covers the iris, pupil, and anterior chamber.

* Only a handful of countries consistently have a large enough supply of donated corneas to meet local demand without a waitlist, including the United States, Italy, and Sri Lanka.

* EPF is a provident fund program run by the Employees Provident Organisation (EPFO), the Central Government's retirement fund organisation, for salaried employees who are not government employees. According to the Employees' Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 1952, any firm or a corporate entity with more than 20 employees is required to offer retirement benefits to its employees. The current EPFO guidelines provide that each month, an employee must contribute up to a maximum of 12% of their base income and dearness allowance, and their employer must match that amount (12%). 

* Only government employees are eligible for the General Provident Fund (GPF) scheme. All temporary government employees who have worked consistently for a year, all permanent workers, and all reemployed pensioners (except those who qualify for admission to the contributory provident fund) are entitled to register a GPF account. The Department of Pension and Pensioners' Welfare administers the GPF program on behalf of the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions.

* Farmer members of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), the second-largest dairy co-operative in the country selling its products under Nandini brand, receive about 79 per cent of the consumer’s rupee. There are about 26 lakh farmer members, of which around 10 lakh sell their milk to KMF.

* Margaret Thatcher (née Roberts; 1925 – 2013), was first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990. A Soviet journalist dubbed her the "Iron Lady", a nickname that became associated with her uncompromising politics and leadership style. As prime minister, she implemented economic policies that became known as Thatcherism. As a political-economic philosophy Thatcherism was originally built upon four components: commitment to free enterprise; British nationalism; a plan to strengthen the state by improving efficiency; and a belief in traditional Victorian values especially hard work and civic responsibility. To her supporters, she was a revolutionary figure who transformed Britain's stagnant economy, tamed the unions and re-established the country as a world power. Together with US presidents Reagan and Bush, she helped bring about the end of the Cold War. She graduated in 1947 with a second-class degree in chemistry, after specialising in X-ray crystallography. She supported herself by working as a research chemist for J. Lyons and Co. in Hammersmith, part of a team developing emulsifiers for ice cream. She was reportedly prouder of becoming the first prime minister with a science degree than becoming the first female prime minister. She qualified as a barrister in 1953 and specialised in taxation. Thatcher gave priority to academic needs in schools, while administering public expenditure cuts on the state education system, resulting in the abolition of free milk for schoolchildren aged 7–11. This led to her being notoriously nicknamed "Margaret Thatcher, Milk Snatcher". She reportedly considered leaving politics in the aftermath and later wrote in her autobiography: "I learned a valuable lesson [from the experience]. I had incurred the maximum of political odium for the minimum of political benefit." Meryl Streep played Thatcher in "The Iron Lady" (2011).

* Before Kaatru Veliyidai (2017), Karthi worked as Mani Ratnam's assistant director in his brother, Suriya's Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004). Karthi plays the central character Vallavarayan Vanthiyathevan in Ponniyin Selvan - 1 (PS1). The role of Vallavarayan Vanthiyathevan, connects the rest of the characters in the film. He is considered as the hero of Ponniyin Selvan. 

* Sikkim is the only state in India that does not have a railway station. The only road that connects this Northeastern state with the rest of the country is NH10. The nearest railway stations to Sikkim are Siliguri and New Jalpaiguri.

* The Shakti Pitha (seat of Shakti) or the Shakti Peethas are significant shrines and pilgrimage destinations in Shaktism, the goddess-centric denomination in Hinduism. The shrines are dedicated to various forms of Adi Shakti. Various Puranas such as Srimad Devi Bhagavatam state the existence of varying number of 51, 64 and 108 Shakti peethas of which 18 are named as Astadasha Maha (major) in medieval Hindu texts. According to the Pithanirnaya Tantra the 51 peethas are in the present day countries of India, Sri Lanka (1), Bangladesh (7), Nepal (3), Tibet (1), Bhutan and Pakistan (3).

* A Jyotirlinga or Jyotirlingam, is a devotional representation of the Hindu god Shiva. The Śiva Mahāpurāṇam (also Shiva Purana) mentions 64 original jyotirlinga shrines in India, 12 of which are most sacred (and mentioned in the Dvādaśa Jyotirliṅga Stotram) and they are called the Maha Jyotirlingam. 

* "Parody is successful when it reveals embarrassing and widely understood truth."

* Reading is a portal to other worlds. 

* "Caste is India’s deepest open wound." - Priya Ramani

* “There is always some room for improvisation.” - Satyajit Ray