Sunday, June 30, 2019

Food Writers

Mirazur, a three-Michelin-starred restaurant in the resort town of Menton, on the French Riviera, has been awarded the coveted title of World's Best Restaurant and Best Restaurant in Europe 2019. The other top positions were given to restaurant Nomain Copenhagen, Denmark, and Asador Etxebarri in Atxondo, Spain.


Health Care

If the US continues today’s patterns of taxes and spending, the national debt will almost triple as a share of the total economy by mid-century. And, according to a new report by the Congressional Budget Office, the 2049 debt as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be twice the size of the overall economy—vastly larger than ever before in US history.

In the unlikely event that Congress shows some fiscal restraint and allows the individual income tax provisions of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to expire at the end of 2025, and significantly limits growth in military and domestic discretionary spending, the national debt still will explode but with somewhat less force. By 2049, the debt as a share of the economy still would exceed the levels of World War II.
Even in that relatively positive scenario, which is CBO’s basic assumption, the story gets worse. By 2049, the government would spend 20 percent of its budget on interest on the debt. Except for health care and Social Security, interest payments would be the largest federal expenditure. In effect, the government would be spending more than three-quarters of its budget on payments to retirees, health care providers, and bondholders.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Flexibility Of Natural

When it comes to power generation, bigger is often better. But new opportunities for power generation increasingly rely on speed and agility rather than size or capacity. For power providers, the flexibility of natural gas turbines will take you where you want to be.

As the main players in the market concentrate on developing large-scale natural gas turbines with more generating capacity than ever, changes in the energy landscape have uncovered a newfound need for something smaller.
While the demand for power has never been greater, the recent growth of renewable energy has made getting power online quickly and efficiently much more important. This is where aero-derivative generators come in; they can bridge gaps in supply that their heavier, more powerful counterparts might not be able to service—bringing more people and places online consistently.
Gas turbines, big and small, are expected to play an important role in power generation for some time and natural gas will be key in the transition toward a carbon-free society. As a complement to renewables, natural gas offers a better alternative to coal-fired generations and lower-cost, cleaner power. Power providers looking to lower their costs and meet demand are counting on natural gas as they focus on cleaning up their energy sources.
In mature markets like the U.S.—the largest national market for gas turbines—natural gas’ adoption is spreading. Emerging economies are also embracing the use of turbines to generate natural gas power, with Asian countries accounting for more than half of the global growth in gas demand, according to the IEA.


I have a love-hate relationship with the iPad Pro. I use it as my main work machine, partly because it is more powerful and portable than most laptops on the market, and it has the best stylus on a commercial device. But the main reason is because it has exclusive access to LumaFusion, the best video editing software for intermediate-level video editors such as myself. Final Cut Pro is a bit too advanced for my skill level and needs right now, and PC video editing software such as PowerDirector simply aren't as intuitive as LumaFusion.

But using the iPad Pro as my main work machine has required significant compromises on my end, because Apple had stubbornly neutered the device's power and potential with limited mobile software and an insistence on doing things the Apple way.
For example, the 2018 iPad Pro uses USB-C, the do-it-all port that can transfer power and data at high speeds, but Apple's software has mostly eliminated the latter, as the iPad Pro's USB-C port does not support external storage. There's also a very limited filing system that forces users to save files only to apps that support local storage.
These restrictions have created some absurd hoops through which I have to jump just to do daily work. To move videos shot with my Sony mirrorless camera to an iPad, I have to first transfer the video files to an iPhone (the iPad doesn't support external card readers, but somehow the iPhone does) and then AirDrop the videos over to the iPad. When I need to download official press images off a company website, I can't just tap on the download link and save the images to my local storage, I have to use a third party app to open the photos and then save them to the iPad's photo gallery, one by one.