Notes From All Over -- Mid-Day Edition -- December 14, 2020

Reminder: the NDIC Director's Cut is scheduled to be released later this afternoon. If I'm not here to post it you can find it at this link.

Disclaimer: this is not an investment site.  Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 

TSLA: up 5% -- trading at $637; up $28.

Tesla will temporarily shut down production lines for Model S sedan and Model X SUV. From CNBC:

• Tesla will shut down production lines for its high-end, but older, electric vehicles -- the Model S sedan and Model X SUV -- for 18 days beginning on December 24th, according to an email to factory employees seen by CNBC.
• In the period ending September 30, 2020, Tesla reported that about 11% of its vehicle deliveries were Model S and X cars, and the rest were Model 3 and Model Y.
• Employees working on the lines were told they were being given a full week of pay for the forced time off, but were encouraged to seek shifts working for, or even volunteering in, other parts of the business for the remaining unpaid days.

CNN ratings surge.

CNN is riding a ratings high in the aftermath of the election. Whether the network boss who oversaw those gains will stick around is an open question. 

CNN averaged more total-day viewers than Fox News since Election Day through December 8, 2020, a 35 day span, the first time it has won such a long stretch in that category in 19 years. CNN also bested the competition over that period among viewers ages 25 to 54, a demographic advertisers target on news channels.

Fox News has retained the No. 1 spot in total prime-time ratings.

As CNN tries to maintain momentum, network parent WarnerMedia, a unit of AT&T Inc., is in talks with CNN President Jeff Zucker on whether to renew his contract, with those discussions expected to heat up in coming weeks, people close to the situation say. Mr. Zucker had signaled to associates internally that he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to stay on, and would weigh his options after the election.

Solar efficiency .... in a word .. it still "fails" .... despite the headline. 

Researchers have now hit an efficiency of 29.15 percent in the perovskite/silicon tandem solar cell category, which is just one of several different types of cells. 

There are currently a variety of different technologies in use to convert solar energy into electricity. 

For this type of panel, the long-term target of more than 30 percent is now tantalisingly within reach. 

The latest lab tests edge ahead of the maximum 28 percent efficiency that perovskite/silicon cells have managed up to this point.

Natural gas, from one internet source:

A gas-fired plant was about 42% efficient. And in natural gas combined-cycle power plants—in which waste heat from a natural gas turbine is used to power a steam turbine—generation may be as much as 60% efficient.

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Salmon Recipes

A reader wrote me about Weber-grilling cedar-planked salmon over the weekend. Coincidentally, my wife sent me this link, literally out of the blue. Salmon and lamb are our signature dishes. 

Link here.