This Week I Learned - Week #173

This Week I Learned -

* With SQL Server Stretch Database, you can dynamically stretch warm and cold transactional data from  Microsoft SQL Server 2016 to Azure. Customers can also use Stretch Database with new Always Encrypted technology, which helps protect your data at rest and in motion

* Azure Service Fabric helps developers build, deploy, and operate microservice architecture applications, reliably and at scale.

* Twitter recently reported that Avicoder, security researcher, discovered a security flaw within Twitter's Vine code that allowed for the download of Vine's entire source code. At the heart of the vulnerability is the Docker setup Twitter used to manage the Vine account.

* LanguageCourse.net  has a biased but useful comparison of the leading language learning apps out there

* Google for Education has several useful resources for educators and students

* PCmover software can  automatically transfers files, settings, profiles, and applications to a new PC or upgrades to a new OS, including Windows 10.

* Capgemini, which was the seventh largest employer in 2014-15 has displaced HCL  to break into the top 5 list of IT-BPO employers after TCS, Infosys, Cognizant, Wipro.

* After scouring 42,000 square miles of the Indian Ocean for the wreckage of MH370 at a cost of more than $130 million (with another 4,000 square miles to go) over a period of two years, officials from Malaysia, China, and Australia have announced that they will suspend further efforts to find the plane.

* Palladium is one of the rarest metals on earth, about 15 times  more rare than platinum and 30 times more rare than gold. Around 80% of the world's palladium production comes from 2 countries - Russia and South Africa.

* Some of the 17 "rare" elements are among the world's most abundant elements; they're only referred  to as "rare" because they're difficult to extract.

* India accounts for or 1,236 or 12 per cent of the total number of bird species in the world, amounting to 10,135. Taxonomically, the bird population in the country is divided into 23 orders, 107 families and 498 genera. Among the bird families, Muscicapidae (comprising chats, robins and flycatchers) are the most diverse, having as many as 97 species. Raptors or birds of prey, which include vultures, eagles, and kites, are represented by 57 species and typical babblers by 53 species - The Hindu

* The director, K Balachander, rechristened Shivaji Rao Gaekwad as Rajinikanth (the color of dusk) as a remark on the latter's skin color

* Karnam Malleswari, India's lone medalist (a bronze in weightlifting) in the 2000 Sydney Olympics is the first woman from India to win an Olympic medal. India has the ignominy of being the country with the lowest medal tally per capita

* By winning the gold in the 10 m Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Abhinav Bindra became the first Indian to win an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games

* Bhanu Athaiya, the first Indian to win an Oscar has returned her trophy to The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as she felt that her family will not be able to take care of the after her demise

* Jammu & Kashmir get 10% of Central Government funds with only 1% of population

* Direct plans of Mutual Funds launched 3 years ago, account for 37% of total industry AUM. A direct mutual fund charges 0.75 - 1.5% or Rs 750-1500 per year for managing an investment of Rs 1 lakh compared with Rs 1500-2000 charged by a regular mutual fund. NPS Tier II plans charge only 0.01% or Rs 10 per year for managing an investment of Rs 1 lakh.

* American Sign Language has 50,000 signs. India has its very own alphabet of signs and symbols called ISL. In 2001, the Ramakrishna Mission released the first Indian Sign Language Dictionary, which documented over 2,500 signs from 12 States, to provide a common sign language code.

* National Consumer Help Line (NCH), a project of the Union Ministry of Consumer Affairs (@consaff) has a website & toll-free number - 1800 11 4000

* 35% of water connections in Hyderabad are un-billed. The Water Board loses money on supply of nearly 120 million gallons every day.

* The Right to Information Act (RTI), 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of India "to provide for setting out the practical regime of right to information for citizens" and replaces the erstwhile Freedom of information Act, 2002.The Act applies to all States and Union Territories of India except Jammu & Kashmir. Under the provisions of the Act, any citizen may request information from a "public authority" (a body of Government or "instrumentality of State") which is required to reply expeditiously or within thirty days. The Act also requires every public authority to computerise their records for wide dissemination and to proactively certain categories of information so that the citizens need minimum recourse to request for information formally.It is an initiative taken by the Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions

* Only in India - Mysuru Deputy Commissioner C Shikha, IAS, lodged a formal complaint of criminal intimidation against K Marigowda, an acknowledged member of the "photo club" that hovers around Siddaramaiah and tries to get into every frame the CM is pictured in Mysuru. Even after a FIR has been issued and after a Mysuru court has rejected Marigowda's anticipatory bail application, he is yet to arrested as all the officers whom can be directed to arrest Marigowda are Kurubas, the community that the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah and her IAS husband, Ajay Nagabhushan belong to - The Economic Times

* Democracies have a weakness: if a bad law has enough money or people behind it, it stays on the books - Maximum City