This Week I Learned - Week 18 2026

This Week I Learned - 

* AI is influencing not only how fast code is written, but which languages and tools developers use. - Octoverse 2025 

* GitHub Copilot CLI for Beginners - 

* Apple's Support app update v5.13 accidentally included CLAUDE.md files, which are configuration documents used to guide Anthropic's Claude Code AI coding assistant on codebase architecture and rules.

Apple quickly released v5.13.1 to remove the files, exposing a rare view into their use of third-party AI tools for app development while highlighting a build process oversight at the highly secretive company.

* As A.I. makes the production of knowledge work more and more efficient, the job of presenting, debating, lobbying, arm-twisting, reassuring or just plain selling the work appears to be rising in importance. And the need for those sometimes messy human tasks may limit the number of people A.I. displaces. - NYT

* Anthropic's Project Glasswing gave 40 US companies early access to Mythos so they could harden their systems in advance.

Companies testing Mythos reported it could detect tens of thousands of vulnerabilities, compared to around 500 found by Anthropic’s earlier model, Opus 4.6—a twentyfold increase in just one generation.

* ChatGPT Images 2.0 is OpenAI's first image model with thinking capabilities. With thinking mode, the can automatically browse the internet and find relevant contents for reference.

You can ask for the aspect ratio you want in the prompt or select from preset options to regenerate any image in new dimensions.

Instead of prompting one image at a time and stitching the project together yourself, you can ask for a coherent set of up to ten outputs in one go with character and object continuity, that sequentially build on one another.

* Chinese open-source models accounted for roughly one-third of global A.I. use last year, according to a study by OpenRouter, an A.I. model marketplace. DeepSeek was the most widely used, followed by models from Alibaba, the Chinese internet company. - NYT

* CRAVIS (Climate Resilience Analytics and Visualisation Intelligence System) is an integrated platform that brings together historical trends, future projections, and sectoral data in one place.

It has a built-in Agentic AI layer that lets you ask questions and get source-backed insights on questions of heat stress, changing rainfall patterns and extreme events.

* Web QR Code Scanner is a handy open-source web app by Lazar Laszlo that lets you scan QR codes directly in the browser using your camera or an uploaded image.

* Nikhil Pahwa has built a tool to convert Office files into clean Markdown or JSON

* In 2008, Professor Harald zur Hausen received the Nobel Prize for his discovery that persistent infection with high-risk strains of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the cause of cervical cancer. His discovery paved the way for the development of prophylactic vaccines as well as tests to detect the infectious agent. The first generation of vaccines were directed against the two most virulent strains, HPV 16 and 18, that account for 70% of cervical cancers globally but 85% in India. India launched a nationwide HPV vaccination campaign on February 28, 2026, aimed at vaccinating approximately 11.5 million girls aged 14 to prevent cervical cancer, which is the second most common cancer among women in the country.

* Sucking on candies helps many people during flight travel, primarily by reducing ear discomfort caused by pressure changes, often called "airplane ear" or ear barotrauma. It's especially useful during ascent and descent. 

During takeoff and landing (especially descent), cabin pressure changes rapidly. The Eustachian tubes (which connect your middle ear to the back of your nose/throat) need to open to equalize pressure. If they don't, you feel fullness, popping, pain, or muffled hearing. Sucking on hard candy (or chewing gum) promotes frequent swallowing and slight jaw movement.

Swallowing activates small muscles that briefly open the Eustachian tubes, allowing air to flow in or out and balance pressure.

* While viruses and bacteria cause sore throats, cold air from fans or drinks creates favorable conditions by triggering vasoconstriction that limits local immune cell delivery and by drying the throat's mucus layer and cilia, impairing pathogen clearance. Studies link lower temperatures and humidity to increased upper respiratory infection risk. Practical prevention includes breathing through the nose as a natural humidifier, positioning fans/AC so they don't hit your face directly and staying hydrated to preserve the mucosal barrier against existing microbes.

* The average adult body contains roughly 5 liters of blood. The heart is a master of recycling. These same 5 liters are pushed through your entire circulatory system roughly once every minute.

At a resting heart rate, your entire blood volume completes a full circuit of your body about 1,440 times a day.

5 Liters/minute x 60 minutes x 24 hours = 7, 200 Liters per day

Blood from the right heart → lungs → oxygen in, CO₂ out 

Blood from the left heart → body

Distribution of cardiac output at rest is roughly:

• Brain: ~15%
• Kidneys: ~20%
• Muscles: ~15–20% (varies)
• GI/liver: ~20–25% 
• Skin: ~5–10% for thermoregulation (heat loss)
• Heart itself (coronary circulation): ~4–5%; the heart needs its own dedicated blood supply
• Bones, connective tissue, and others: ~5%; includes resting tissues with lower metabolic demand

* The UAE has withdrawn from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), a cartel that it joined in 1967, and OPEC+. 

OPEC was founded on 14 September 1960 in Baghdad, Iraq, by five countries: Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela, with the goal of giving oil-producing nations greater control over their resources and pricing, which had been dominated by Western oil companies known as the "Seven Sisters". 

OPEC+ is a broader alliance formed in 2016, including OPEC members plus additional major oil producers like Russia, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan. This coalition controls roughly 40–45% of global oil production, enhancing its ability to influence international energy prices.

As of April 2026, OPEC has 12 member countries: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Venezuela, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, and the UAE, though the UAE’s membership ends on 1 May 2026. Membership has changed over time, with countries like Angola, Ecuador, Qatar and Indonesia leaving due to strategic or production-related reasons. 

* A nemophilist is a person who loves the forest, woods, or woodland scenery.

* "As it turns out, necessity is not the mother of invention, noticed necessity is. The problem needs to affect the important, before the problem is seen as important. The long-handled mop arrived when middle-class households began cleaning their own floors. What changed was who the problem belonged to." - Santosh Desai