This Week I Learned - Week #115

This Week I Learned -

Microsoft publicly acknowledges IE/Edge team's size: ~300 people.

* Google is no longer an option as an Identity Provider for Azure ACS

At $89, Microsoft Official Practice Tests are costlier than the exam

Software doesn't work and no one cares

All DB2 editions share the same code base. The only technical differences among DB2 editions are resource limitations and advanced features or tool sets. Applications that are written for any DB2 edition can easily be moved to any other DB2 edition, on any operating system platform that is supported by DB2.

About 60 percent of global warming emissions is coming from the wealthiest 1 billion people while the poorest 3 billion can't afford or access fossil fuels

Reflecting on his career in medicine years later, Crichton concluded that patients too often shunned responsibility for their own health, relying on doctors as miracle workers rather than advisors.

* Notable "firsts" from the January 2015 issue of National Geographic
- 9th century AD - The Chinese discover gunpowder while looking for an immortality elixir
- 859 - The University of al Qarawiyyin in Morocco is founded by a woman, Fatima al Fihri.
- 12th century - Chinese merchants begin using paper money to avoid having to carry heavy coins
- 1897 - German Chemist Felix Hoffmann synthesizes aspirin in the lab - and two weeks later, heroin.

Music encourages us to dawdle: A famous study of background music and supermarket shoppers, conducted in 1982, found that people spent 34 percent more time shopping, with a corresponding uptick in sales, in stores that played music. And supermarkets tend to be devoid of external time cues: most have no windows or skylights, and shoppers are often hard-pressed to find a clock - National Geographic

* "We’re moving away from a purchase economy. We will subscribe to access rather than pay money for possessions such as smartphones. We won't buy software anymore; we'll subscribe to it. A new religion could emerge in the next decade or two, perhaps based around the environment.  Digital technology is the solvent leaching the glue out of our global structure – including shaking our belief systems to the core." - Paul Saffo, Technology Forecaster

* In the average home 75% of the electricity (used by home electronics) is consumed while the products are idle. The average desktop computer idles at 80 watts and the laptop idles at 20 watts

* Enough sunlight reaches the earth's surface each minute to satisfy the world's energy demands - for an entire year

* Only 10% of energy in a light bulb is used to create light. 90% of a light bulb's energy creates heat.

* Marine phototrophs account for 50 - 80% of the earth's oxygen productionWith regard to terrestrial oxygen production, NASA reports that 30% of the land is covered by trees, and as much as 45 percent of the carbon stored on land is tied up in forests. So on land, trees are definitely large contributors to oxygen production.

* Nigeria is Africa's largest economy.

* India is the fifth largest instant noodles market

* Amul ads have been around since 1976

* Among the ten countries with the largest Muslim populations, which are together home to almost 70% of the world’s Muslims, Turkey presents the biggest challenge for fasters during Ramadan, with 15 hours of daylight before they can break their fast at 8.20pm...Those observing Ramadan in Iceland—home to around 1,000 Muslims—are theoretically required to fast for almost 22 hours, thanks to the country's near-permanent daylight in June  - Economist

Deism holds that God does not intervene with the functioning of the natural world but rather allows it to function according to the laws of nature.

* All religions are equal-ly boring - Bart Simpson

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