This Week I Learned - Week 31 2026

This Week I Learned - 

* Moonshot’s Kimi K3’s weights were released on July 27 under a Modified MIT licence, making the 2.8-trillion-parameter model available for anyone to download, fine-tune and self-host.

Giving weights away is a smart distribution strategy as it could potentially turn developers, cloud providers and enterprise IT units into resellers, and make it hard for anyone to under-price you as the base model itself is free.

* Jot down annoying things. AI may have a solution.

* findphone is a nifty app to locate a nearby Bluetooth device by signal strength, from the macOS command line — for when Find My Phone isn't available due to MDM restrictions

* ProHance is a software platform that provides real-time visibility into workforce activities, helping organizations measure productivity, optimize costs, and improve operational efficiency. It tracks employee engagement through metrics such as time spent on applications, mouse and keyboard activity, and task durations, while offering dashboards and analytics to identify workflow bottlenecks and inefficiencies.

* All debit and credit cards come in a standard size: length 8.5 cm (about 3.5 inches), breadth 5.5 cm, and a diagonal of 10 cm (just under 4 inches). This size is used worldwide so that cards work interchangeably in ATMs, payment terminals, and wallets regardless of the issuing country or bank. These cards can be handy for making rough measurements.

* The widely used pain reliever has different names globally: acetaminophen in the US and paracetamol elsewhere, both derived from segments of its chemical name N-acetyl-para-aminophenol. Acetaminophen was first synthesized in 1878.

* Adrenaline and epinephrine are exactly the same substance.  They refer to the identical molecule (chemical formula C₉H₁₃NO₃), a catecholamine hormone and neurotransmitter produced mainly by the adrenal glands. It plays a central role in the “fight-or-flight” response by increasing heart rate, blood flow to muscles, pupil dilation, blood sugar, and other effects. As a medication, it is used for conditions like anaphylaxis (e.g., in auto-injectors such as EpiPen). 

Epinephrine is the preferred name in the United States (United States Adopted Name) while Adrenaline (sometimes spelled adrenalin) is the preferred name in British English. 

This split arose historically from early 20th-century discovery and patent disputes (involving researchers such as John Abel and Jokichi Takamine) plus trademark issues around the name “Adrenalin.” The two terms have been used interchangeably for the same compound ever since. 

* Sapodilla (Manilkara zapota) is native to southern Mexico and Central America.  Its Spanish name is chicozapote (also written chicozapote, chico sapote, or similar variants like chicosapote). From this, different regions adopted shortened or adapted versions:  Chickoo / chikoo / chiku (common in India and parts of South/Southeast Asia) comes from the “chico” portion. Sapota / sapodilla / sapote comes from the “zapote/sapota” portion. 

* The primary reason plant-based foods are rarely salty while animal products have a more savoury taste profile is that animals have nervous systems and blood and plants don’t.

Most plants have no nervous system or circulatory system and use potassium mainly to regulate their internal pressure (called turgor) and growth. In fact, high levels of sodium are actually toxic to most land plants, which is why salting the earth kills vegetation. There are a few plant-based foods called halophytes that naturally taste salty. They include sea beans, sea grapes, and celery. They have evolved to live in salt marshes.

* The main reason lobsters are cooked alive is to ensure food safety. 

Lobsters naturally harbour dangerous bacteria, most notably Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio vulnificus, in their digestive tracts and gills. The moment a lobster dies, its immune system ceases to function. The bacteria present inside its gut multiply at an exponential rate throughout its flesh. Even if the meat is cooked thoroughly later, many bacterial toxins are heat-stable and will not be destroyed by high temperatures, leading to severe food poisoning or gastroenteritis.

* The nasal septum is a thin wall that divides the inside of your nose into right and left sides. It's made of soft, flexible cartilage in the front and bone in the back. A thin layer of tissue called the nasal mucosa covers the septum. If you have a deviated septum, your septum is bent instead of straight. A deviated septum can block air flow through your nose. The procedure to fix problems with your nasal septum is called a nasal Septoplasty.

* 75-80% of people have some deviation of their nose. 

* Viral infections that involve the sinus cavities may be the most common type of sinusitis.

* Decongestant nasal sprays are common over-the-counter medications to open up clogged nasal passages and alleviate nasal congestion.

* The Brazilian Netflix series Emergência Radioativa (“Radioactive Emergency”), released in March 2026, tells the story of the 1987 Goiânia accident, when scavengers broke into an abandoned radiotherapy machine and unknowingly spread Cesium‑137, leading to one of the worst radiological disasters ever to occur outside a nuclear plant. The Goiânia accident is considered the largest radiological disaster in the world outside nuclear facilities. It resulted in four direct deaths and left a lasting impact on Brazilian health regulations and urban memory.

Contaminated persons are radioactive sources themselves — dangerous both to their own health and to others. Immediate medical isolation and decontamination are critical to reduce exposure. Historical cases (Chernobyl, Fukushima, Goiânia) show that improper handling of cesium contamination can spread radiation widely.

Cesium‑137 is a fission by‑product with a half‑life of ~30 years. It emits beta particles and gamma rays, which can penetrate tissues and irradiate surrounding people. Once ingested or absorbed (through wounds, inhalation, or food), cesium distributes throughout soft tissues and muscles, behaving chemically like potassium.

Radiation is invisible — you can’t see, smell, or feel it.

The symptoms of contamination are nausea, vomiting, burns, hair loss, and in severe cases, death. Contaminated individuals can expose others nearby through gamma radiation from inside the body, especially if they carry high activity levels. They are not just “carriers” of a chemical; they are sources of radiation exposure to themselves and potentially to others nearby.

* Prussian blue (an antidote) binds cesium in the gut and helps excrete it.

* A scintillation counter or scintillometer is generally more powerful and precise than a Geiger counter, because it can measure radiation intensity and energy with higher sensitivity and resolution, while a Geiger counter is mainly for simple detection.

* A dosimeter is a device used to measure a person’s exposure to ionizing radiation over time. They can be in the form of film badges, thermoluminescent dosimeters (TLDs), or electronic digital devices.

* Schrödinger was interested in becoming a poet, but he took up maths and physics for better financial prospects. 

* An Air-Conditioner (AC) doesn’t make cold air but moves heat from inside a room to outside it. The refrigerant absorbs heat from indoor air, then goes into a compressor where its temperature is raised further and releases that heat outdoors through the condenser. Lastly, it cools down and flows back inside to repeat the cycle. The refrigerant itself isn’t consumed in this process; it’s a fluid that circulates in a closed loop. Air-conditioners in India use hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs like R32 for room ACs and R134a for cars being the main targets. Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are powerful greenhouse gases, and just like India phased down HCFCs back in 2013, it is setting production baselines by averaging 2024 to 2026 HFC output plus 65 percent of historical 2009 to 2010 HCFC baselines. India’s refrigerant makers are racing to expand capacity before production caps take effect in 2028, setting up a difficult transition as environmental regulations reshape the future of the air conditioning industry.

* Consumption of diesel and petrol surged about 9.4% and 8.7% year-on-year respectively in July, primarily driven by a below-average monsoon that increased the demand for fuel among farmers to run irrigation machinery and tractors.

* As of August 2026, approximately 67% of India's population—about 81.35 crore (813.5 million) people—receive free food grains from the government under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY). This scheme, integrated with the National Food Security Act (NFSA), provides 5 kg of free food grain per person per month to all Priority Household (PHH) and Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) ration card holders across the country. The program is currently extended until December 2028. 

* In the Global Hunger Index, India ranks 105 out of 127 countries.

* Ather Energy is now valued at ₹58,000 crore. Zerodha founders Nithin and Nikhil Kamath, via Kamath Associates, own 1.22%. They bought the stake from Sachin Bansal in 2024 at a ₹6,000 crore valuation.

* Global equities absorbed one of the more serious energy shocks in decades — the closure of the Strait of Hormuz...MSCI Emerging Markets equity index is up 18% this year (till August 6) while the All-Country World Index is up 12.9%. Markets have gone numb to geopolitical noise, with algorithms treating conflict-driven dips as buying opportunities rather than warnings...a headline market index is no proxy for the economy. The Nifty 50, the S&P 500 and their peers are capitalisation-weighted baskets of the largest listed companies — They measure corporate earnings power, full stop. Not GDP, not employment...the things supporting listed-company earnings and asset prices are increasingly disconnected from the conditions facing the wider economy. - Moneycontrol

* Being tone‑deaf means you can’t accurately perceive or reproduce musical pitch — so singing in tune feels like chasing a moving target. It’s not about lacking rhythm or enthusiasm, just that the notes don’t quite land where they should. In everyday language, calling someone tone‑deaf can also mean they’re missing the “social pitch” — not picking up on the mood or sensitivity of a situation.

* Only two people in history have accomplished the rare feat of winning both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award (Oscar): George Bernard Shaw and Bob Dylan.