This Week I Learned - Week #214

This Week I Learned -

* Azure Database for MySQL and Azure Database for PostgreSQL services which were announced at Build 2017 event, extend similar managed services benefits, global Azure region reach, and innovations that currently power Azure SQL Database and Azure SQL Data Warehouse services to the MySQL and PostgreSQL database engines - Azure Blog

* Facebook makes you miserable. Google offers digital truth serum. The words we type there are more honest than the pictures we present on Facebook or Instagram. Don’t compare your Google searches with other people’s Facebook posts. Any time you are feeling down about your life after lurking on Facebook, go to Google and start typing stuff into the search box. Google’s autocomplete will tell you the searches other people are making. Type in “I always …” and you may see the suggestion, based on other people’s searches, “I always feel tired” or “I always have diarrhea.” This can offer a stark contrast to social media, where everybody “always” seems to be on a Caribbean vacation - NY Times

* Humans have all the hair follicles they'll ever have at birth

* The caloric content of honey is slightly higher than that of table sugar. Honey contains a higher proportion of fructose compared to glucose. What’s more, when consumed in equal amounts, honey can lead to a higher intake of calories and carbohydrates. While pure sucrose, or table sugar, is highly processed, pure honey, an unrefined sugar, has only one processing step: it’s heated to prevent crystallization and yeast fermentation during storage. The refining process, which is used to produce good ol' table sugar, removes all naturally occurring trace minerals from the sugar plant, leaving behind "empty calories." Refined, concentrated sugar, when eaten quickly and in large amounts, can increase blood glucose and insulin levels, increases triglycerides, and inflammation. In turn and over time, this may increase a person’s risk for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses. The body processes all kinds of sugar in largely the same way. The differences in health benefits or risks between using honey and table sugar are largely negligible. If you’re looking for a healthier sweet treat, consider choosing fruits, which contain sugar in their natural form - Go Ask Alice!

WikiWorld comics are created by cartoonist Greg Williams, based on articles from the archives of Wikipedia.org. Greg Williams began producing his collaborative comic “Twips” which are actually illustrations for interesting tweets

* With no political party to speak of, and never having held elected office, Mr. Macron, 39, a onetime investment banker and former economy minister, is modern France’s youngest president. Both his parents are doctors - NY Times

* Muslims constitute 20 percent of the largest state in India, Uttar Pradesh’s population. Prime Minister Modi’s party did not field a single Muslim candidate; it won 313 of the 403 seats in the state legislature - NY Times

60 lakh Indians are eligible for for a tax-free food allowance of Rs 50/meal up to Rs 2,200 per month.

* Subtitles can open up new worlds. I remember watching Roja in Tamil with English subtitles on TV on Doordarshan in a remote place in Odisha much before it hit the screens in Telugu & Hindi. It was so classy & the story so enthralling that I followed it till the end though I don't understand Tamil and then got to find out it was a Mani Ratnam movie. It is so Mani Ratnam-like (winner of 6 National Film Awards) that he let it be shown on TV soon after its release. The subtitles of his Telugu movie, Geetanjali, also broadcast on TV, were exemplary. It's very commendable that many regional language movies available on streaming sites like Hotstar & Amazon Prime video carry subtitles in English.

A R Rahman's advice to a protegee - 'Work with everyone', 'As long as you are growing, that's all that matters'."

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