Tootfinder

Hundreds of desalination plants sit along the Persian Gulf coast, putting individual systems that supply water to millions within range of Iranian missile or drone strikes.
Without them, major cities could not sustain their current populations.
In Kuwait, about
⭐️90% of drinking water comes from #desalination,
along with roughly
86% in Oman and about
70% in Saudi …

The Gulf resource most imperiled by war may be water, not oil
As the Iran war widens, experts say the Middle East’s real strategic weak point may be water – not oil. Much of the Gulf’s drinking supply comes from desalination plants clustered along vulnerable coastlines within easy range of Iranian missiles and drones. Many of the individual plants supply water to millions of people. Without them, major cities could not sustain their current populations. In recent days, Iranian drones struck an energy facility that powers a desalination plant in the …

Warum dieser Artikel über eine Konferenz in China 2024 erst jetzt erscheint, who knows, aber lots of spannendes Zeug drin. (I myself had politely declined an invitation.)
https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-education/how-china-learned-to-love-th…

How China Learned to Love the Classics
The Chinese Communist Party has embraced the study of Greek and Latin—as, in some ways, an antidote to the modern West. Chang Che writes.

Sources: HP, Dell, Acer, and Asus are considering sourcing memory chips from Chinese chipmakers; HP and Dell are currently qualifying DRAM products from CXMT (Nikkei Asia)
https://asia.nikkei.com/spotlight/supply-chain/h…

HP, Dell, Acer and Asus mull using Chinese memory chips amid supply crunch
Shortage a golden opportunity for China's memory chipmakers and electronics manufacturers

Darren Waller’s Jon Gruden endorsement reignites Raiders reunion buzz https://raiderramble.com/2026/01/07/darren-wallers-jon-gruden-endorsement-reignites-raiders-reunion-buzz/

from my link log —
Evaluating TCP BBRv2 on the Dropbox edge network.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.07699
saved 2020-08-19 https://dotat.at/:/FHLM3.html

Evaluating BBRv2 on the Dropbox Edge Network
Nowadays, loss-based TCP congestion controls in general and CUBIC specifically became the de facto standard for the Internet. BBR congestion control challenges the loss-based approach by modeling the network based on estimated bandwidth and round-trip time. At Dropbox, we've been using BBRv1 since 2017 and are accustomed to its pros and cons. BBRv2 introduces a set of improvements to network modeling (explicit loss targets and inflight limits) and fairness (differential probing and headroom for…

#SilentSunday

🔊 #NowPlaying on #BBCRadio3:
#InTune
- Live music from Chinese Pipa player and composer Gao Hong
Chinese pipa virtuoso and composer Gao Hong joins Katie Derham to play live music from her new album.
Relisten now 👇
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002p79l

from my link log —
Magnetic fields can change carbon diffusion in steel.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/01/260125083427.htm
saved 2026-02-06

The magnetic secret inside steel finally explained
For years, scientists noticed that magnetic fields could improve steel, but no one knew exactly why. New simulations reveal that magnetism changes how iron atoms behave, making it harder for carbon atoms to slip through the metal. This slows diffusion at the atomic level and alters steel’s internal structure. The insight could lead to more efficient, lower-energy ways to make stronger steel.

Chinese military procurement documents show the PLA's efforts to use AI to assist in drone piloting, cyberattacks, decision-making, and disinformation campaigns (Foreign Affairs)
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/china/chinas-ai-arsenal

China’s AI Arsenal
The PLA’s tech strategy is working.

cloudflare writes “We’ve designed our change propagation to involve blast radius protection. With these protections in place, a highstate failure becomes a signal, rather than a customer-impacting event.”