This Week I Learned - Week #22 2024

This Week I Learned - 

* Microsoft will be phasing out GitHub Issues as the feedback mechanism for content and replacing it with a new feedback system. 

* The OCI Generative AI Professional Certification and Course is available for free till July 31st, 2024

* Canva offers a free AI music generator. Songs generated by the AI music generator are 100% royalty-free. The maximum song length generated by the AI music generator is 5 minutes.

* Physical representations of data have existed for thousands of years. Now, with advances in digital fabrication, actuated tangible interfaces, and shape-changing displays, a new area of research is emerging: data physicalization.

* The term "meme" was first introduced in 1976 in "The Selfish Gene," where evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins likened ideas to genes, describing them as 'replicators' that transmit from person to person. A meme can represent an idea, a phrase, or even people.

*  The densely populated city-state of Singapore boasts an impressive green cover of 47%. Additionally, numerous European cities exceed the EU standard of 30% green cover.

* Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect happens when temperatures in large, crowded urban settings can be several degrees higher than in surrounding rural areas, and even hotter at night. Concrete structures and tarmac roads retain heat which stays trapped inside this “urban bubble” along with air pollutants. A lack of green spaces and waste heat from air conditioners and other machinery add to the UHI. In Chennai, as in other Indian metros, roughly 50% of electricity consumption during summer is for air-conditioning alone, which vent heat out. The more the UHI, the greater the use of air-conditioning, generating even more heat in a nasty feedback loop. It is estimated that moving towards more energy-efficient (EE) air-conditioning...could reduce UHI by as much as 1.5° C. If buildings are better insulated and ventilated, and constructed using appropriate designs and materials according to “green” building codes, they would require less air-conditioning and generate less waste heat. Having permeable pavings and walkways using alternative materials, increased shrubbery along sidewalks, berms and dividers, and reflective paint on roofs, walls and streets, are other measures to reduce UHI. A sharp reduction in personal vehicles (most four-wheelers have powerful engines and airconditioners), through a rapid scaling-up of effective public transport with electric buses, would be another major contribution. - The Hindu

* As of January this year, more than 800 AWS or Automatic Weather Stations have been deployed by the India Meteorological Department have been deployed across the country for weather observations. The IMD has deployed AWS at 15 new locations in Delhi and the NCR region, alongside the existing manual stations, in 2022. The probe report on IMD's AWS at Mungeshpur, which had recorded a maximum temperature of 52.9 deg Celsius, is yet to be finalised by the weather office.