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Original source assertation (1255714) writes with this interesting tidbit from Reuters about the state of solar power in Germany: German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour — equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity — through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday, the head of a renewable energy think tank said. The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.

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Original source An anonymous reader writes: Ben Kuchera at Polygon recommends against buying the upcoming Battlefield Hardline first-person shooter. Not because it’s bad — in fact, he doesn’t really offer an opinion on how good the game is — but because it’s time to stop incentivizing poor behavior from Electronic Arts and its Digital Illusions CE development studio. After EA acquired DICE, Battlefield game launches accelerated, and launch issues with each game were hand-waved away as unpredictable. The studio’s principled stand against paid DLC evaporated in order to feed the ever-hungry beast of shareholder value. Kuchera says, “EA continues this because the Battlefield franchise is profitable; we as players have taught them that we’ll buy anyway, and continue to support games that don’t work at launch.” He suggests avoiding pre-orders, and only buying the game if and when it’s in a playable (and fun) state. “Every dollar that’s spent on Hardline before the game comes out is a vote for things continuing down an anti-consumer path. If the game is a hit before its launch, that sends a message that we’re OK with business as usual, and business as usual has become pretty terrible.”

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Saxo-Tinkoff took home the team GC win. Photo: Casey B. Gibson | www.cbgphoto.com

This is a preliminary start list for the upcoming Tour de France (July 5-27). Included are confirmed riders and long lists as revealed by individual teams. VeloNews will update this list as final rosters are confirmed. An asterisk (*) by a team’s name indicates that the roster is final.

Ag2r La Mondiale
Romain Bardet (FRA)
Jean-Christophe Peraud (FRA)
Christophe Riblon (FRA)
Mikael Cherel (FRA)
Ben Gastauer (FRA)
Sébastian Minard (FRA)
Samuel Dumoulin (FRA)
Biel Kadri (FRA)

Astana
Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
Michele Scarponi (ITA)
Tanel Kangert (EST)
Lieuwe Westra (NED)
Andriy Grivko (UKR)
Dmitriy Gruzdev (KAZ)
Francesco Gavazzi (ITA)
Jacopo Guarnieri (ITA)
Maxim Iglinkskiy (KAZ)
Alessandro Vanotti (ITA)

Belkin Cycling Team
Bauke Mollema (NED)
Laurens Ten Dam (NED)
Sep Vanmarcke (BEL)
Lars Boom (NED)
Maarten Wynants (BEL)
Bram Tankink (NED)
Stef Clement (NED)
Steven Kruijswijk (NED)
Tom Leezer (NED)
Lars Petter Nordhaug (NOR)

BMC Racing Team
Tejay van Garderen (USA)
Greg Van Avermaet (BEL)
John Darwin Atapuma (COL)
Peter Velits (SLO)
Marcus Burghardt (GER)
Amael Moinard (FRA)
Dominik Nerz (GER)
Michael Schar (SWI)
Peter Stetina (USA)

Cannondale
Damiano Caruso (ITA)
Peter Sagan (SVK)
Edward King (USA)
Maciej Bodnar (POL)
Kristijan Koren (SLO)
Elian Viviani (ITA)

FDJ.fr
Matthieu Ladagnous (FRA)
William Bonnet (FRA)
Mickael Delage (FRA)
Arnaud Démare (FRA)
Thibaut Pinot (FRA)
Arthur Vichot (FRA)
Jérémy Roy (FRA)
Arnold Jeannesson (FRA)
Francis Mourey (FRA)
Cédric Pineau (FRA)

Garmin-Sharp
Andrew Talansky (USA)
David Millar (GBR)
Tom Danielson (USA)
Tom-Jelte Slagter (NED)
Janier Acevedo (COL)
Rohan Dennis (AUS)
Johan Vansummeren (BEL)

Katusha
Alexander Kristoff (NOR)
Alexey Tsatevich (RUS)
Egor Silin (RUS)
Vladimir Isaychev (RUS)
Sergei Chernetckii (RUS)
Yuri Trofimov (RUS)
Simon Spilak (SLO)
Dmitry Kozontchuk (RUS)
Joaquim Rodríguez (SPA)
Alexander Porsev (RUS)

Lampre-Merida
Rui Costa (POR)
Max Richeze (ARG)
José Serpa (COL)
Kristijan Durasek (CRO)
Sacha Modolo (ITA)
Davide Cimolai (ITA)
Nelson Oliveira (POR)
Filippo Pozzato (ITA)
Matteo Bono (ITA)
Chris Horner (USA)
Rafael Valls (SPA)

Lotto Belisol
Jurgen Van den Broeck (BEL)
André Greipel (GER)
Adam Hansen (AUS)
Tony Gallopin (FRA)
Jurgen Roelandts (BEL)
Greg Henderson (NZL)
Marcel Seiberg (GER)

Movistar
Alejandro Valverde (SPA)
Alex Dowsett (GBR)
Imanol Erviti (SPA)
John Gadret (FRA)
Iván Gutiérrez (SPA)
Jesús Herrada (SPA)
Beñat Intxausti (SPA)
Ion Izagirre (SPA)
Juan Lobato (SPA)
Rubén Plaza (SPA)
José Rojas (SPA)
Sylwester Szmyd (POL)
Giovanni Visconti (ITA)

Omega Pharma-Quick Step*
Mark Cavendish (GBR)
Tony Martin (GER)
Niki Terpstra (NED)
Michal Kwiatkowski (POL)
Matteo Trentin (ITA)
Mark Renshaw (AUS)
Jan Bakelants (BEL)
Michal Golas (POL)
Alessandro Petacchi (ITA)

Orica-GreenEdge
Simon Gerrans (AUS)
Daryl Impey (SA)
Matthew Goss (AUS)
Michael Matthews (AUS)
Brett Lancaster (AUS)
Michael Albasini (SWI)
Simon Clarke (AUS)

Team Sky
Chris Froome (GBR)
Mikel Nieve (SPA)
Geraint Thomas (GBR)
Richie Porte (AUS)
Vasil Kiryienka (BLR)
Kanstantsin Siutsou (BLR)
Peter Kennaugh (GBR)
Edvald Boasson Hagen (NOR)
David Lopez (SPA)

Team Giant-Shimano
Marcel Kittel (GER)
John Degenkolb (GER)
Roy Curvers (NED)
Tom Dumoulin (NED)
Koen de Kort (NED)
Albert Timmer (NED)
Niklas Arndt (GER)
Dries Devenyns (BEL)
Johannes Frohlinger (GER)
Simon Geschke (GER)
Cheng Ji (CHN)

Europcar
Bryan Coquard (FRA)
Thomas Voeckler (FRA)
Yukiya Arashiro (JPN)
Pierre Rolland (FRA)

Tinkoff-Saxo
Alberto Contador (SPA)
Nicolas Roche (IRE)
Roman Kreuziger (CZE)
Daniele Bennati (ITA)
Nicke Sorensen (DEN)
Jesús Hernández (SPA)
Michael Rogers (AUS)

Trek Factory Racing
Andy Schleck (LUX)
Frank Schleck (LUX)
Bob Jungels (LUX)
Fabian Cancellara (SWI)
Haimar Zubeldia (SPA)
Matthew Busche (USA)
Markel Irizar (SPA)

Cofidis
Daniel Navarro (SPA)
Rein Taaramae (EST)
Yoann Bagot (FRA)
Nicolas Edet (FRA)
Jerome Coppel (FRA)
Christophe Le Mevel (FRA)
Julien Simon (FRA)
Luís Mate (SPA)
Egoitz García (SPA)
Cyril Lemoine (FRA)

IAM Cycling
Sylvain Chavanel (FRA)
Mathias Frank (SWI)
Heinrich Haussler (AUS)
Martin Elmiger (SWI)
Stefan Denifl (AUT)
Johann Tschopp (SWI)
Sebastien Reichenbach (SWI)
Jerome Pineau (FRA)

Bretagne-Séché Environment
Florian Vachon (FRA)
Armindo Fonseca (FRA)
Arnaud Gerard (FRA)
Anthony Delaplace (FRA)
Brice Feillu (FRA)
Jean Marc Bideau (FRA)
Romain Feillu (FRA)

NetApp-Endura
Jan Barta (CZE)
Cesare Benedetti (ITA)
Sam Bennett (IRE)
Iker Camano (SPA)
David de la Cruz (SPA)
Zakkari Dempster (NZL)
Bartosz Huzarski (POL)
Leopold Konig (CZE)
Tiago Machado (POR)
José Mendes (POR)
Andreas Schillinger (GER)
Daniel Schorn (SWI)
Scott Thwaites (GBR)
Paul Voss (GER)

The post Preliminary start list: 2014 Tour de France appeared first on VeloNews.com.

Original source

Original source Daniel_Stuckey sends this quote from Motherboard: It hopefully doesn’t come as a surprise that your friends shape who you are. But we tend to think of that on a micro level: If your close circle of friends tends to have tattoos, wear polo shirts, or say “chill” a lot, it’s quite possible that you’ll emulate them over time — and they’ll emulate you too. But what happens on a macro scale, when your friend circle doesn’t just include the dozen people you actually hang out with regularly, but also the hundreds or thousands of acquaintances you have online? All of those feeds may seem filled with frivolities from random people (and they are!) but that steady stream of life updates — photos, rants, slang — are probably shaping you more than you think. A massive Facebook study recently published in PNAS found solid evidence of so-called emotional contagion—emotional states spreading socially, like a virus made of emoji—on the social network.

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Original source mpicpp (3454017) writes with an update from Ars Technica to this story: “The Illinois man who made headlines when he was detained for parodying the town’s mayor on Twitter sued the Peoria politician and local police, claiming on Thursday that his civil rights were violated. As part of the April raid, the authorities seized the mobile phone and laptop of the 29-year-old prankster, Jonathan Daniel, and reviewed their contents, which he says was in violation of his First Amendment rights. Daniel, the operator of the @peoriamayor handle shut down by Twitter after the city threatened a lawsuit, was initially accused of impersonating a public official in violation of Illinois law. The authorities never lodged charges, however.”

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Without a doubt. Especially as some creators tend to be precious bunnies.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re right or your argument necessarily holds any examination.

I’ve actually kept this one in my inbox for a while, as I wanted to do a proper answer talking about the interpretation and fiction. I’m pro people making their own takes on my stuff as an author. That’s magical. Make it make sense to you.

Conversely, me as a critic is a little harder to convince. Not by much, but I hold any argument up to the same standards as any argument about art I hear. Just because it’s mine doesn’t change that. However, if you’ve got a take that’s supported by the text? I’ll admit that.

I’ve got a standard phrase which I use in interviews where someone says an interpretation to me that I hadn’t considered, but can completely see their point: “That wasn’t my intent, but I’d be a fool to say the evidence isn’t there.” I say it a lot.

Conversely, there’s arguments that people make which I think have poor or no evidence for, or are even worse, entirely counter-factual and I can point to the exact panel which makes their position literally impossible. They’re not arguments I can pretend to agree with without patronising people. Not that I’d say as much unless I was asked directly.

To re-stress, this is about all work, not my work. This isn’t about the word of god. This is about not necessarily accepting weak arguments just because they’ve been made by a reader. Not all arguments about a text are equal, and when I’m reading criticism of everything, this is what I’m thinking about.

Let’s walk through one of the most famous questions in comics. It’s the end of Watchman. There won’t be direct spoilers of what happens, but there are spoilers about the nature of the question. This will involve a little simplification, obv.

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