This Week I Learned -
* Microsoft and a community of partners created Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) as an open standard for representing machine learning models. Models from many frameworks including TensorFlow, PyTorch, SciKit-Learn, Keras, Chainer, MXNet, MATLAB, and SparkML can be exported or converted to the standard ONNX format. Once the models are in the ONNX format, they can be run on a variety of platforms and devices. With Azure Machine Learning, you can use automated ML to build a Python model and have it converted to the ONNX format.
* Ngram Viewer 2.0 which was released in 2012, is based on 20 million books scanned by Google Books. That’s approximately one-seventh of all the books published since Gutenberg invented the printing press. Publishing was a relatively rare event in the 16th and 17th centuries. (There are only about 500,000 books published in English before the 19th century.) So if a phrase occurs in one book in one year but not in the preceding or following years, that creates a taller spike than it would in later years.
* During the lead-up to the US presidential elections, the nonpartisan advocacy group RepresentUs released a pair of deepfake ads. They featured fake versions of Russian president Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un delivering the same message: that neither needed to interfere with US elections, because America would ruin its democracy by itself. - MIT Tech Review
* According to Australia's competition watchdog, for every $100 spent on online advertising, Google captures $53, Facebook takes $28 and the rest is shared among others.
* OpenStreetMap, a free, open-source online mapping service akin to Google Maps or Apple Maps, has been described as the “Wikipedia for maps.” It was founded in 2004 by Steve Coast. Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and other companies have gained prominence as editors of the map. Apple, which uses OSM data as one of several sources for Apple Maps, is by far the most prolific current corporate editor and was responsible for almost 80% of all edits to pre-existing roads in 2018. Amazon’s influence is also growing rapidly, as its logistics team incorporates data from delivery drivers. - Bloomberg
* With the $13 billion acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts in 2016, Marriott is the world's biggest hotel chain with over 1 million rooms.
* Évariste Galois (1811 – 1832) was a French mathematician and political activist. While still in his teens, he was able to determine a necessary and sufficient condition for a polynomial to be solvable by radicals, thereby solving a problem standing for 350 years. His work laid the foundations for Galois theory and group theory, two major branches of abstract algebra, and the subfield of Galois connections. He died at age 20 from wounds suffered in a duel.
* Mandarin is the biggest natively spoken language in the world, with close to 1 billion speakers. Its writing script; Hanji, doesn’t just represent letters and words, some symbols can convey entire sentences, stories or concepts. Mandarin and Cantonese, which is traditionally a very similar language to Chinese, are both tonal languages. This means that when a sentence is being pronounced, the slight deviations of pitch, volume, and mouth shape can change the tone of the voice, and thus change the meaning of a sentence. All of these factors contribute to Chinese being an incredibly difficult language for English speakers to learn.
* Arabic Abjad (Writing system), is written from right to left, a concept that baffles most English speakers. There are 18 distinct letter shapes, which vary slightly depending on whether they are connected to another letter before or after them, despite there being 28 letters in the alphabet, and there are no capital letters. Arabic pronunciation is extremely difficult for English speakers, and its grammar is possibly the most complicated, and incomprehensible for English speakers.
* According to Ethnologue, there are roughly 7,097 languages used today; however, only 23 major languages are spoken by 50% of the world's population. Hindi, the most spoken language in all of India, has an alphabet consisting of 12 vowels, 33 consonants, and between 5 and 7 compound characters, giving it a total of between 50 and 52 letters (This number changes amongst different regions of India). Next up we have Nepali, a language that historically has grown out of a region with long and complex writing systems. Nepali has 64 letters in its alphabet, the largest we have talked about so far, but unfortunately, it doesn't take the top spot. That pleasure falls to Khmer. According to the Guinness Book Of World Records, the Khmer Language has the largest alphabet in the world, with a total of 74 letters, consisting of 33 consonants, 23 vowels and 12 independent vowels. Often referred to as Cambodian, Khmer is actually spoken in many countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Vietnam, and some parts of Laos.
* Vaccines defend against SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes covid-19) by providing the immune system with the vital information that it needs to begin developing appropriate countermeasures without an actual invasion taking place. One defence is the priming of immunoglobulin A antibodies. These are somewhat like bear traps that have been set by the immune system to snap shut when they encounter SARS-CoV-2. They are placed strategically around entry points like the eyes, nose and mouth. The other major defence involves cytotoxic T-cells. If there are millions of antibodies waiting to destroy any SARS-CoV-2 that approaches, the virus cannot get a foothold. The race is quickly won. The host does not feel unwell and is very unlikely to become infectious. Unfortunately, for reasons that immunologists do not understand, antibodies are not always created in large enough numbers in response to vaccines and, even when they are, they sometimes miss their targets. They can also dwindle over time. When this happens, the body relies on the cytotoxic T-cells. In vaccinated individuals, these hunters know exactly what they are looking for from the moment they are deployed. But finding and containing the infection still takes some time and this can allow the virus to replicate enough to make someone mildly infectious. - Economist
* Spending long periods passively (without actively engaging) scrolling through social media, for example, is linked to greater feelings of envy and loneliness, and a higher risk of depression.
* Gutta-percha is a tree of the genus Palaquium in the family Sapotaceae. The name also refers to the rigid, naturally biologically inert, resilient, electrically nonconductive, thermoplastic latex produced from the sap of the tree, particularly from Palaquium gutta; it is a polymer of isoprene which forms a rubber-like elastomer. The word gutta-percha comes from the plant's name in Malay: getah translates as 'latex'. Percha or perca is an older name for Sumatra. Dr. William Montgomerie, a medical officer in Indian service, introduced gutta-percha into practical use in the West. He was the first to appreciate the potential of this material in medicine, and he was awarded the gold medal by the Royal Society of Arts, London in 1843. By 1845, telegraph wires insulated with gutta-percha were being manufactured in the UK. It served as the insulating material for early undersea telegraph cables, including the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The same bioinertness that made it suitable for marine cables also means it does not readily react within the human body. It is used in a variety of surgical devices and during root canal therapy due to its biocompatibility. Front teeth only have one root.
* According to the American Association of Endodontists, one of the main factors involved in root canal therapy is actually the location of the tooth that needs to be repaired. If your cavity is on one of your front teeth, it will cost less. That's because front teeth only have one root. Molars can have up to three. More than one root means more work for your dentist and ultimately, a higher cost. It is estimated that the national average costs for root canals are $762 for a front tooth, $879 for a premolar, and $1,111 for a molar. So considering 8 Incisors & 4 Canines (front teeth), 8 Premolars, 12 Molars (including 4 wisdom teeth), you'll be saving $29,508 and visits to the dentist by taking care of all your 32 teeth.
* Orthodontists specialize in straightening and aligning the teeth, periodontists focus on the gums and bone, and endodontists focus on endodontics, or issues concerning the roots of the teeth. While general dentists can perform the procedures and treatments offered by specialists, dental specialists have received additional years of training and have decided to focus their practice on treating specific dental conditions.
* Manilkara zapota, commonly known as sapodilla, sapota, chikoo, naseberry, or nispero is a long-lived, evergreen tree native to southern Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. An unripe fruit has a firm outer skin and when picked, releases gummy latex or white chicle from its stem. A fully ripened fruit has saggy skin and does not release chicle when picked. The unripe fruit is hard to the touch and contains high amounts of saponin, which has astringent properties similar to tannin, drying out the mouth.
* Banana plants look like trees but are actually giant perennial herbs related to lilies and orchids. The plant grows from a root clump (rhizome), similar to a tulip bulb. It is comprised of a succulent, juicy “pseudostem” that is actually a cylinder of leaf sheaths. Banana plants take around nine months to grow up and produce banana tree fruit, and then once the bananas have been harvested, the plant dies. It is replaced by baby bananas almost immediately. Because they are growing from the corm of the parent plant. Corms are perennial, with a productive lifespan of 6-15 years. There are over 500 types of bananas! Tarantulas like to hide in banana leaves. A bunch of bananas is called a hand, while a single banana is referred to as a finger. Each row of bananas or a “hand” and is made up of 14 to 20 fingers. Each stem grows 9 to 12 hands, which means that a single banana plant can produce up to 240 bananas.
* India, which has had the second-highest number of covid-19 cases in the world, has launched one of Asia’s most ambitious vaccination drives, aiming to inoculate 300 million people by August. To make it happen, the government is using a vaccine management system called Co-WIN. It handles registrations, creates vaccination schedules, informs the recipients through text messages, sends people to the right vaccination center, and also creates a vaccination certificate after they’ve received two doses. These vaccines need to be administered within the approved shelf life of six months. Each year, the government administers vaccines against polio and measles to 55 million infants and pregnant women by visiting each home and making a list of who needs the shots. The Co-WIN app, which for now has over 100,000 downloads in Google’s Play Store, does not have a proper privacy policy. Digital policy experts say using an app for the vaccination drive reflects India’s love of techno-solutionism but is fraught with potential difficulties. It’s not easy to make an app-only solution when the infrastructure is not good. - MIT Tech Review
* India is the world's third-biggest oil consumer
* Around a third of India’s population live in urban areas. Across the 976 wards in the six metros, 218 have more than 50% of green cover. The majority of these wards are in Delhi, which manages to provide 24% of its population with at least 50% of green cover. Most of India’s wards fail to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) standards, which recommend that every urban resident lives within 300 metres (or five minutes) from a green space - Mint
* Masala Lab by Krish Ashok is a science nerd’s exploration of Indian cooking with the ultimate aim of making the reader a better cook and turning the kitchen into a joyful, creative playground for culinary experimentation.
* The revolutionary founder of the Myanmar army General Aung San (yes, Suu Kyi’s father) was succeeded by U Nu and, fearful of China, the latter pleaded with Jawaharlal Nehru in the early 1950s for a security pact. This the Indian PM grandly dismissed as unnecessary and advised him to make peace with China!
* Naypyidaw, Myanmar's purpose-built capital, unveiled in 2005. In 1989 the country's official English name, which it had held since 1885, was changed from the Union of Burma to the Union of Myanmar.
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