2014-07-25

As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.

Potential 5.5-inch iPhone flex cables, SIM trays leak

A new set of pictures from a Taiwanese enthusiast site could provide the first evidence of the existence of a 5.5-inch iPhone if legitimate. The images, showing flex cables for the volume-mute button as well as the wake-sleep control, also include an unknown longer flex cable previously unseen in an iPhone model, as well as a set of micro-SIM trays. All are said to be for a 5.5-inch iPhone which has been long-rumored, but to date little credible evidence exists for its production.



Senegal’s cattle rustlers challenged

Squaring up to Senegal’s cattle rustlers

British Man Builds Gigantic Farting Butt, Lets 'Er Rip At France

Who cut the fromage?

Colin Furze, a British plumber and prank aficionado, headed down to a cliff in Dover, England, on Thursday to see if he could produce a machine-made fart loud enough to be heard in France, which sits on the other side of the 21-mile-wide Straight of Dover.

“So the grand plan is to become noisy neighbors but on an international scale,” Furze wrote on his website, ahead of Thursday’s demonstration.

The deafening, fart-like noise was produced using a valveless pulsejet engine that creates a fiery tail when ignited.

The best part of it all? Furze’s machine was rigged to fit inside a giant buttocks.

France we are ready to go at 6pm pic.twitter.com/hTsLcHRqoT

— colin furze (@colin_furze) July 24, 2014

Furze said on his site that he hoped to startle unsuspecting Frenchmen relaxing on the beach across the strait.

Though it’s unconfirmed if denizens of France’s northern country heard Furze’s flatulence, the crowd seemed to have felt the good vibrations.

Just witnessed history! @colin_furze and his pulse jet as he farted at France. #fartonfrance #fartatfrance pic.twitter.com/HR4HiMEj1C

— sarcastic asshole (@Ebissell98) July 24, 2014

Watch Furze explain the construction process behind his fart machine in the videos below:

Crowdfunding Critic: Pond wireless charging system

Historically, MacNN and Electronista have covered few, if any, in-progress crowd-sourced projects unless there was something unusual about them, like making 100x their goal. Starting this week, on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons we’re going to look at crowd-funded projects that we find interesting. Keep in mind that we aren’t specifically endorsing any projects, or telling you that there aren’t any risks in funding a prospective project, we’re just pointing out something we found that we like. Please do your research before investing! That all said, our inaugural crowd-sourced project this wee

Neil Degrasse Tyson and 48 Other Emojis We Wish We Had

Words don’t always do a conversation justice — especially when that convo is text based.

You’re there texting your bestie and an overwhelming sense of glee sweeps over you. What to do? Say it with an emoji, of course.

With the announcement of Unicode 7.0 and 250 new emojis in the works (what would we do without “Man in Business Suit Levitating“) Microsoft has imagined what the new update missed — adding 49 more emojis you seriously wish you had.

The Euler diagram below pretty much solves any need you could imagine. So, you’re a hippie with a distinctly geeky interests? Don’t worry, there’s a Neil deGrasse Tyson for you to express yourself. Oh you’re a college girl getting a degree in business? Here’s your bottle of Fireball.

…and we can all pretty much agree: dinosaurs are universally cool.

via Microsoft Social Listening

Amazon reports $126m quarterly loss

Amazon reports a loss of $126m in the second quarter and warns of slowing sales.

This iPhone App Lets You Turn Any Photo Into An Emoji

It was only a matter of time: Now you can be an emoji, thanks to a new app.

Imoji, posted to the App Store on Thursday, allows iOS users to turn the pictures they take — or save — into emojis for iMessage. What’s more, The Next Web notes, users can choose to make a sticker private, or opt to make it public for others to use in their own conversations. That means any user has the chance to create the next ultra versatile emoji (think: clapping hands or poop with eyes).

(Story continues below)

The Imoji app allows users to select from a set of pre-saved creations.

As the promotional video (see above) shows, the user edits his or her photo and then drags it to the center of the screen. The app then sends the creation to the user’s chat in iMessage.

According to TechCrunch, the app offers users a variety of simple editing tools such as zoom, crop and cut. Both Next Web and TechCrunch note that the app’s interface is initially hard to use and takes a bit of learning. However, both sites said that working with Imoji gets easier with practice.

In an interview with Forbes, Imoji co-creator Tom Smith explained Imoji was initially sent out to 100 “designers and influencers.” He said the amount of stickers sent and created before the app’s actual release has already surpassed his expectations.

The Imoji app is available for free download at the Apple App Store.

Is 'Seinfeld' Coming To Netflix?

Have you been scrolling through your Netflix queue recently and noticed a disturbing amount of missing “Seinfeld” episodes. Yeah, us too.

You’d think one of the most popular on-demand streaming services in the world would already have one of the most popular TV sitcoms ever, but Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer have been left out. Jerry Seinfeld hosted a Reddit AMA earlier today and the comedy legend confirmed the news every “Seinfeld” fan has been hoping to hear, sort of.

Asked if talk of taking the comedy show online and making it available to subscribers was actually real, Seinfeld replied semi-cryptically: “You are a very smart and progressive person. These conversations are presently taking place.” We’re not sure if this is the first time negotiations between the streaming company and the show have happened, although we highly doubt it, but we’re crossing our fingers that a deal is made. After all, why watch a few syndicated reruns every night when you can watch all 180 episodes in one sitting?

'Game Of Thrones' Emoji Are Coming

If you thought “Seinfeld” emoji were as good as it gets, you know nothing, Internet.

Elite Daily has developed new “Game of Thrones” emoji, and with everything from memorable characters to awesome “GoT” items, they’re guaranteed to please the old gods and the new.

Tyrion Lannister

Jon Snow

Littlefinger

Daenerys Targaryen

White Walker

Crossbow

Valyrian Steel

Drogon

The Iron Throne

Hodor

Direwolf

George R.R. Martin

Hand of the King’s pin

Joffrey Baratheon

Dragon Eggs

Arya Stark

Westeros Wine

Direwolves

Khal Drogo

Unfortunately, these are just for show as of now, but with the nonstop, growing popularity of the HBO series, it should be only a matter of time before all men must text “GoT” emoji.

11 Tricks to Get Engineers to Sort of Respect You

As we all know, software engineers are the smartest, sweetest, most pretentious bastards in corporate America. I should know – I’m engaged to one of them. But there’s no need to sacrifice your lifelong happiness like I did. Here are eleven quick ways to get a software engineer to say those five little words: “I sort of respect you.”

1. Send text-only emails

Engineers aren’t impressed with your fancy headers, bold red text formatting or inline images. What they are impressed with is multi-level ascii lists. If you want emphasis, put it in between *two asterisks.* If you want over-emphasis, put it between _two underscores_. And never ever end any email with “cheers.”

2. Talk about things being “orthogonal”

Whenever a new point is introduced, say something like, “Isn’t that orthogonal to this conversation?” Even if it isn’t, you still get points for saying “orthogonal.”

3. Mention the first article of Hacker News

Go to Hacker News and read the first headline. Memorize it. Then, next time you’re chatting with an engineer, mention it. Work it into the conversation, no matter what it is.

Sample conversation:

You: Hey Jill

Jill: Hey

You: Wow can you believe Firm Inefficiency?

Jill: I KNOW!

You: Crazy right? Anyhoo, quick question for you…

4. Make fun of product managers

There’s no faster way to get on the good side of most engineers than making fun of product managers. Huge bonus points if you yourself are a product manager  –  but in that case, your ego may be too inflated to make fun of yourself effectively, so here are some jokes you can use.

Joke #1

What does a Jeopardy loser and product manager have in common?
They both ask a lot of stupid questions.

Joke #2

What’s the best way to pay a product manager?
American Express. They love taking credit for things.

Joke #3

What happened to the product manager who could only write three lines of code?
He got promoted.

Get a few engineers within earshot and tell one of these jokes, and you’ll have their sort of respect in no time.

5. Make your desktop background a picture of Linus

Linus who? Torvalds. No you don’t need to know who that is.

6. Leave an emacs buffer open

Leave an emacs buffer open on your desktop. I don’t know what it is either. Fill it with a bunch of words like “git” and “reddit” and “cloud” and “fetch.” If you really want to get him excited, use org-mode. Pro tip: Engineers think of org-mode as the Pearl Jam of organizational major modes.

Pro tip: Engineers think of org-mode as the Pearl Jam of organizational major modes.

7. Compliment his design skills

Complimenting an engineer’s design skills is a lot like faking an orgasm –  it’s empty flattery but it’ll pay dividends in the long run, maybe even get you a free dinner at Sizzler (i.e., the top of the list the next time something is broken). Don’t underestimate the power of a non-specific comment about his use of white space or the font on her buttons.

8. Become a grammar nazi

Engineers aren’t professional grammarticians, but they love correcting people. Even more, they love making you feel stupid. So get on their good side by pointing out the difference between e.g., and i.e., where the period goes in et.al, and the correct usage of the phrase, “begging the question.” For bonus points, discuss Latin roots.

9. Compliment her rig

Say how great her rig is. Keep it ambiguous.

10. Say “you don’t look like an engineer”

One of the best things you can do to get on an engineer’s good side is make him feel as much like a regular person as possible, without insulting his intelligence. Say things like, “You’re too cool to be an engineer,” or “Nice kicks!” or “You are the least awkward person I know.” Note: This only works on male engineers.

11. Food and alcohol

When all else fails, order some pizza and buy some beer. The good kind. Engineers love pretending to be beer snobs. Filling their stomachs and getting them drunk will definitely get you the sort of respect of every engineer you work with.

No Security: Hope X Is (Not So) Decadent and Depraved — Day 2

This is Day 2 of my journal shooting my history on computer hacking at HOPE X Conference at the Hotel Pennsylvania July 18-20, 2014. You can read day 1 here.

Day 2

10:00am- First thing this morning I snorted one ritalin, drank one and a half cups of black coffee and I’m eating a red apple right now at the hotel. I slept like a rock after HOPE X day 1. My sinuses shut down during the night from yesterday’s heavy drug intake, but a lovely nurse sorted me out at 5am. I was asked to be on HOPE’s radio show today, which is a great honor. They are also looking for Phiber Optik. Maybe we can go on together. That would be fun…

I’m set up at the same spot at HOPE with my crew waiting for our first interview with Tiffany Rad. Tiffany is a high powered Washington attorney who is also a computer security analyst. I am slightly concerned about my questions, which I wrote on the fly at 9pm last night. What I find so hard about documentary filmmaking is doing all the research before every interview. I wonder if all of the people I am filming expect me to be fully versed on their body of work. I should make an attempt to be. I don’t know anyone who does this much research.

My business partner John Torrani and Adam Torkel are setting up the lights and camera. Its almost showtime and I find their sober presence soothing.

12:01 pm-Finished interviewing Tiffany Rad, she was brilliant. Tiffany explained computer security from a very accessible and learned perspective, she studied it much in the way she studied viruses and bacteriology. There were definitely some excellent insights. We quickly flagged down Cheshire Catalyst for an interview. He was game and was a lot of fun. I can tell he has a few pre-prepared statements but more or less had some funny insights. He’s one of these guys who caught on to phone phreaking early and stayed the course. His story runs from TAP to 2600 etc. I just ran into my pal Dave Buchwald (who designed miles of art for 2600 The Hacker Quarterly among other things) before the talk. We some loose plans to get together but he had to bail early.

Gotta go- keynote by Daniel Ellsberg and Edward Snowden. Mad hype.

1:25pm- I did my last dilaudid. Waiting for the keynote to begin. My crew and I got into the main room where the speakers are. This is really supremely lucky as there are quite literally people waiting outside the hotel trying to get in. All of this excitement has a lot of people on edge. John texted me from his location on the side of the ball room, where he has been regulated to film with the rest of the press. I’m nonplussed at this point. Thank god for Xanax. 2600 mastermind Eric Corley just started the intro. This is going to be great.

2:30pm- Everything running late. Ellsberg was fantastic. It was a stellar speech, the only black dot on an otherwise perfect experience were the two idiots sitting behind me who were voicing their mundane opinions. Loudly. I had to tell them to shut up and everyone in the immediate vicinity looked thankful that I spoke up. Ellsberg is a brilliant speaker. His words flow, his story is riveting. I’m sure you will be able to find his hour long inspiring and succinct speech online, and I encourage everyone to watch it. After the talk I saw Ellsberg coming out of the bathroom with Cheshire Catalyst. Next up is Ed Snowden in conversation with Ellsberg. I’m going to film this on my iphone now and post it to my NO SEC column in its entirety….

4:10pm- Nevermind it was streamed. You’ve seen it by the time you read this. I had a little bit of time with Ellsberg for an interview following the talk. He was gracious and patient despite having been through quite a lot today. I’m a bit star struck around him. Growing up with a father who was an art director at Hustler, you develop a great appreciation for what Ellsberg did with the Pentagon papers. Although my film is about hacking and not whistleblowing, we need a respected voice like his to address that subject.

5:00pm- Everything was pushed back an hour. We did a five minute pitch in the lightning talks. My producer John Torrani and I tag teamed it. I thought it was really good. Got some laughs.

7:00pm- I show up at Radio Stetler for my scheduled Radio Interview. Nobody is there. Oh well… tomorrow may work.

8:38pm- I’ve had enough. We pack up….we are all totally burnt. The room we have been in is so unpleasant, aesthetically speaking, and windowless, we are all suffering from a lack of oxygen and an overdose of stimulation.

UK Supermarket To Use Food Waste To Power Itself

Where does all the leftover food go when the grocery store closes at the end of the day? Maybe it’s repurposed somehow or thrown out, but what if it could help a supermarket become energy independent? A Sainsbury’s supermarket in the United Kingdom will soon power itself with leftover food waste and disconnect from the National Grid.

Sainsbury’s is partnering with Biffa, one of the U.K.’s largest waste management companies, to make this possible. Sainsbury’s trucks its food waste from all over the U.K. to Biffa’s plant in Staffordshire. Biffa then converts it into biogas, and this biogas is then burned to meet the energy needs of a location in the town of Cannock.

“Sainsbury’s sends absolutely no waste to landfill and we’re always looking for new ways to reuse and recycle,” said Sainsbury’s’ head of sustainability Paul Crewe in a press release. “We’re delighted to be the first business ever to make use of this linkup technology, allowing our Cannock store to be powered entirely by our food waste.”

Not all of Sainsbury’s’ food becomes biogas. To ensure no waste goes to landfills, Sainsbury’s also donates food that’s safe to eat to its charitable partners to feed the underprivileged, or to the Knowley safari park to feed the animals.

Biogas is a renewable fuel, created when bacteria feast on organic matter in a large tank in the absence of oxygen. This is called anaerobic digestion, and Sainsbury’s is the process’ biggest user in the U.K. In a statement, the company says they generate “enough energy to power 2,500 homes each year.”

Biogas is composed mostly of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas if released uncombusted. Burning the fuel releases carbon dioxide, but unlike natural gas, coal or oil, which release carbon that was once sequestered underground, biogas is created from organic sources already a part of the carbon cycle and is carbon-neutral.

Biogas power generation can be a solution for remote areas in need of energy. Wind and solar can be intermittent depending on the weather, but biogas is more reliable. Plus, anaerobic digestion doesn’t just have to depend on food waste. Manure and other agricultural wastes can be converted to biogas as well.

Check out the infographic below to see how the Sainsbury’s biogas power plan works.

Obamacare Website Getting So Much Traffic It's Surprising Experts

This story was co-published with NPR’s “Shots” blog.

For months, journalists and politicians fixated on the number of people signing up for health insurance through the federal exchange created as part of the Affordable Care Act. It turned out that more than 5 million people signed up using Healthcare.gov by April 19, the end of the open-enrollment period.

But perhaps more surprising is that, according to federal data released Wednesday to ProPublica, there have been nearly 1 million transactions on the exchange since then. People are allowed to sign up and switch plans after certain life events, such as job changes, moves, the birth of a baby, marriages and divorces.

The volume of these transactions was a jolt even for those who have watched the rollout of the ACA most closely.

“That’s higher than I would have expected,” said Larry Levitt, senior vice president for special initiatives at the Kaiser Family Foundation. “There are a lot of people who qualify for special enrollment, but my assumption has been that few of them would actually sign up.”

The impact of the new numbers isn’t clear because the Obama administration has not released details of how many consumers failed to pay their premiums and thus were dropped by their health plans. All told, between the federal exchange and 14 state exchanges, more than 8 million people signed up for coverage. A big question is whether new members will offset attrition.

ProPublica requested data on the number of daily enrollment transactions on the federal exchange last year under the Freedom of Information Act because the Obama administration had declined to release this information, a key barometer of the exchange’s performance, to the public. The administration also has not put out any data on the exchange’s activity since the open enrollment period ended.

The data shows so-called “834″ transactions, which insurance companies and the government use to enroll new members, change a member’s enrollment status, or disenroll members. The data covers the 36 states using the federal exchange, which include Texas, Florida, Illinois, Georgia and Michigan.

When Healthcare.gov rolled out last fall, insurance companies complained that the information in the 834s was replete with errors, creating a crisis at the back-end of the system.

Between April 20 and July 15, the federal government reported sending 960,000 “834″ transactions to insurance companies (each report can cover more than one person in the same family). That includes 153,940 for the rest of April, 317,964 in May, 338,017 in June and 150,728 in the first 15 days of July. The daily rate has been fairly stable over this period.

It was not immediately clear how many of the records involved plan changes or cancellations and how many were for new enrollments.

An insurance industry official estimated that less than half of the transactions are new enrollments. The rest are changes: When an existing member makes a change to his or her policy, two 834s are created 2014 one terminating the old plan and one opening the new one.

Charles Gaba, who runs the website acasignups.net that tracks enrollment numbers, estimates that between 6,000 and 7,000 people have signed up for coverage each day on the federal exchange after the official enrollment period ended. Gaba’s predictions were remarkably accurate during the open enrollment period.

“That doesn’t account for attrition. That doesn’t mean that they paid,” Gaba said. “That’s been based on limited data from a half dozen of the smaller exchanges, extrapolated out nationally.”

The federal data obtained by ProPublica confirm some other facts about the rollout of Healthcare.gov, which was hobbled initially by technical problems. The slowest day was Oct. 18, when no 834 transactions were sent. That was followed by Oct. 1, the day the website launched, when a grand total of six records were sent to insurers.

By contrast, the busiest day was March 31, the official end of open enrollment, when 202,626 “834″ reports were sent to insurers. The entire last week in March was busy.

About 86 percent of those who signed up for coverage on the federal exchange were eligible to receive government subsidies to help lower their monthly premiums. Those subsidies are being challenged by lawsuits in federal court contending they aren’t allowed by the Affordable Care Act.

Two federal appeals courts came to conflicting decisions Tuesday on the permissibility of the subsidies (one said yes; the other no). They will remain in effect as the cases proceed in the courts, the Obama administration said.

The next time that the general public can sign up for coverage through the exchanges is from November 15 to February 15, 2015.

Click here to download the data (Excel or CSV) released to ProPublica under the Freedom of Information Act.

Read our previous coverage of the Affordable Care Act and share your story.

Google quizzed over deleted links

Watchdogs are told that Google has complied with more than 45,000 requests for links to be erased from its European search results.

Family Asked To Deboard Plane After Dad Sends Tweet Criticizing Gate Agent

A Minnesota dad isn’t exactly feeling the “LUV” after he and his two kids were removed from a Southwest Airlines flight last weekend following confusion over the airlines’ boarding process for children.

Duff Watson was traveling with his two kids, ages 6 and 9, from Denver to Minneapolis on Sunday afternoon, when he says the agent at the gate prevented him from boarding early with his children. As an “A-List” passenger, Watson told CBS Minnesota he’s entitled to priority boarding. The gate agent let Watson through but wouldn’t let his children board the plane with him.

“I am not trying to game the system,” Watson told ABC News in an interview Wednesday. “I’m not going to leave my kids alone to board. That doesn’t make sense.”

With no other option, Watson says he and his family waited to board the plane later, with Watson promising to alert Southwest customer service to the agent’s conduct.

“I thought she was very rude and wanted to complain to customer service, so I asked her: ‘Can I get your last name?’” he recalled to ABC News. “She told me: ‘You don’t need my last name for anything,’… [and] I told her: ‘Real nice way to treat an A-list member.’”

As promised, he shot off a complaint to Southwest’s Twitter account, which, Watson told KARE 11, read in all caps, “RUDEST AGENT IN DENVER. KIMBERLY S. GATE C39. NOT HAPPY @SWA.”

After sending the tweet, the family, which had since boarded the flight, was called out via the plane’s loudspeaker and asked to gather their belongings and leave the aircraft.

The agent he’d disagreed with earlier had called them off the plane, says Watson, because she felt “threatened because he used her name on social media.” He says he was told “that unless he deleted his post, she was calling the cops and the family would not be allowed back on the plane.”

Watson says he ultimately deleted the tweet as the agent looked on, and the family was allowed back onto the flight with his children, who by that point he says were in tears over the incident.

In a statement published Thursday morning, Southwest Airlines apologized for the incident and said they’ve discussed the matter with Watson:

Southwest Airlines appreciates and is active in social media, and it is not our intent to stifle Customer feedback. Social media is a very valuable avenue for engaging with our Customers. On Sunday, July 20, a Southwest Airlines Employee and Customer were having a conversation that escalated about the airline’s family boarding procedures. The Customer was briefly removed from flight #2347 from Denver to Minneapolis/St. Paul to resolve the conversation outside of the aircraft and away from the other Passengers. Our decision was not based solely on a Customer’s tweet. Following a successful resolution, the Customer and his family were able to continue on the flight to Minneapolis. We are thoroughly investigating the situation. We have reached out to the Customer and offered vouchers as a gesture of goodwill.

WATCH the full CBS Minnesota segment, below:

Audra McDonald And Jimmy Fallon Sing About Life's Biggest Questions In Another Yahoo! Answers

Life is full of tough questions like, “How do I become the life of the party?” and “What do I do if I think an ice cube is stuck in my throat?”

Fortunately, Tony winner Audra McDonald is back to sing more Yahoo! Answers with Jimmy Fallon and “The Good Wife’s” Josh Charles. These lounge singers have such silky smooth advice, you almost won’t believe it’s real.

Like seriously.

“The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC.

This Little Stick Tells You If Your Drink Was Drugged

Plenty of women can relate to the fear that comes along with putting a drink down at a crowded party or bar: Did someone spike this cocktail? Was I just roofied?

Now, there’s a gadget — a little stick — designed to ease that date-rape drug anxiety. It’s called pd.id, or the “personal drink ID.”

Here’s how it works: Stick the pocket-sized gizmo into your drink, and it will scan for color, conductivity and temperature. It then takes that information and compares it to a database of drinks it knows by connecting to an app on your phone.

If it finds that the drink is red wine and nothing more, a green light flashes. But if it spots a common date-rape drug like Ambien or Rohypnol, the red light lets you know to pour it out and consult the smartphone app, which will tell you what was in it.

The pd.id in action.

While the high-tech industry has been mired with its own gender-balance problems, Wilson said he has been encouraged by the support he has received from his techie colleagues.

“A lot of men don’t understand the issue of sexual assault,” founder David Wilson told the Huffington Post. “But men are now becoming more aware.”

Wilson, a former IT consultant living in Toronto, began working on pd.id three years ago. Since then he has launched a campaign on Indiegogo to raise $100,000 to fund his project. Even if his project fails to meet its fundraising goal, he said, it will at least have raised awareness of the issue. So far, it’s raised about $12,000.

Statistics about the prevalence of date-rape drugs are difficult to come by, but in 2005 the U.S. Department of Justice found 4 percent of sexual assault victims had been drugged. (And drugged or not, nearly one in five women have been raped or experienced an attempted rape, according to a 2011 survey done by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

Trying not to oversell his device, Wilson called pd.id a “warning system” like the song-identifying Shazam app. Similar to how Shazam might have trouble finding a match in a crowded bar, “noise” in a drink — like dishwasher soap residue — could fudge the results.

But Wilson said this technology is already used by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. And even when the stick can’t pin down exactly what’s in the drink, the red light will still flash to let you know to think twice before taking a sip.

Musician Traverses Iowa, Recreates 'Blue Danube' Waltz With The Sounds Of Wind

In a new mini-documentary by Siemens, musician Will Bates harnesses the sounds of wind power in Iowa to recreate Strauss’ “Blue Danube.” Partnered with the company, Bates sought to enhance the beauty of turbines by combining their modern aesthetic with classical music. And to prove that Iowa’s beauty is more than just corn, he embarked across the Hawkeye State to assemble the iconic waltz.

Armed with microphones and PVC pipes, Bates experimented with wind in his studio in New York before heading out to the Midwest. “We had first envisioned creating an original piece but felt the scale and style of the Blue Danube waltz was well suited due to its recognizable sound and the quality of the tones,” said Bates in a Q&A with Siemens. “It is haunting when translated.”

In 2013, Siemens was contracted to build the United States’ largest on-shore wind power installation in southeast Iowa, to be completed by the end of 2015. The 448 new wind turbines will supply 317,000 households with clean power and create over 1,000 new jobs. Throughout the United States, Siemens has installed enough wind turbines to power approximately 3 million households.

Despite the recession, Iowa’s economy is growing, according to the Mid-America Business Conditions Index from Creighton University. In June, however, Iowa’s economy slowed slightly, allowing Minnesota to reach the top spot among the Midwestern states.

“We filmed just after a very hard winter –- rough on the farmers like the one who’s field we filmed and recorded on,” Bates said. “It made the work feel all the more important as we featured how the local economy is impacted by this wind power and the local manufacturing for the turbines behind it. I think this greater message helped make the project something unique and unusual –- bigger than just the music itself.”

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, between 2011 and 2012, wind generation in Iowa rose by 31 percent. And among all 50 states, Iowa ranks first in portion of energy coming from wind generation.

Listen to the full version of Bates’ “Blue Danube” below:

Dear Progressives, We're Not Doing It Right

When I was a kid, I fell in love with musicals. All the other boys could quote baseball player stats and football scores all day long, but it wasn’t my thing. I, on the other hand, reveled in discovering the breadth of Patti LuPone’s career or learning every lyric from Weird Romance, an Off-Broadway flop from 1992 featuring some amazing performances. This was the little world I owned — no one knew more about it than I did.

In high school and college, I started discovering other people who had the same thrill over hearing the name “Chita Rivera” as I did. Finally I was discovering my community. People who were unabashedly obsessed with Broadway became the folks I could identify with and I wanted to spend my time with (as annoying as that may sound to the non-musical theatre afficianado).

Netroots Nation is one of a few annual convenings of people who work in progressive campaigns, organizations and advocacy. The conference that brings thousands of progressives together prides itself on being on the cutting edge, whether it be the introduction of new technology, discussions about the past, presence and future of the movement, or hosting speeches where politicians compete to be the most progressive of all.

Over the years, Netroots has led by example, making sure that sessions submitted have diverse panelists and trainers, including a “Transgender Ettiquette” statement in the program and the panels themselves represent an extraordinary array of important issues affecting the entire progressive community. But something’s not trickling down.

A common criticism of progressives (mostly from other progressives) is that we’re all talk. Terms like “radical inclusivity,” “privilege” and “intersectionality” dominate our discussions, but like the hypocrisy of some religious folks who don’t practice what they preach, many of us fail at incorporating these memes into our daily work.

Last week saw several examples where we failed to live up to the progressive values we hold as ideals for our movement.

Sharing the conference hotel with us was a science fiction convention called DetConOne. As I moonlight as a voice actor on Pokémon, I’m extraordinarily familiar with the costumes, the discussions and the feel of conventions like that one. One thing that strikes me about the sci-fi/fantasy fan community is that acceptance and pride are unspoken community agreements. They are unapologetically nerdy, inspiringly proud of how they look in a costume, and most importantly — always kind to one another — to a degree that I’ve never experienced in any other community I’ve been a part of.

As the week progressed, I frequently caught some Netroots attendees rolling their eyes or saying things that were less-than-accepting of the attendees from the other conference. While I did catch this a handful of times, there were several who were quite willing to admit they too, were big fans of the genre — a few even purchased registrations to the other con.

The final night of the conferences, there were several hotel parties going on at the same time. Two full floors of parties from the Sci-fi fans and a handful of events for Netroots attendees. For each of the Netroots parties, there was a barrier for entry. Folks were being denied admittance from different events for a variety of reasons — some people were invited and others clearly were not. At one party, I was told directly that I wasn’t supposed to be there because I didn’t have a special bracelet.

Naturally, I didn’t want to be where I wasn’t wanted, so I wandered down to the Sci-Fi con’s parties and was welcomed in the door of all of them — free drinks and food and even a dance party complete with a proud, tattooed, transgender woman DJing and a room full of pirates, wookies, lefty organizers, dreamers and dream defenders dancing the night away.

When moments like this and others were mentioned on Twitter and Facebook, the first response was a defensive one. “It wasn’t me…” “I would never snicker at someone else…” or “I’m always welcoming and affirming of everyone!” I’m sorry, but that’s no longer enough if we are going to continue to march under the progressive banner. Progress doesn’t mean sitting and waiting for others to come to the table. Progress is showing others, by example, that they are wanted and respected at the table. We claim to be the place where everyone is welcome, but if you really think about it — that’s not what we’re living. It may be what we’re saying, but it’s not how we act.

And it wasn’t just about the parties and it never has been. At nearly every gathering of progressives, the most common feedback is frequently that it wasn’t diverse enough, not inclusive enough or that people felt alienated and alone because of their identity. Our first response to this can never be “Well, everyone was invited — it’s their own fault for not showing up.” If we take a second to actually be progressive and think about why this may be such a common problem, we can then begin to make it better.

We have an opportunity to take a step back and start living the things we talk about. We get so very stuck in the game playing, the climbing and the “fighting for others,” that we stop understanding anything about those “others.” We need to change that.

When a science fiction convention is more affirming, less body-shaming, more welcoming and less sneering than a conference with 3,000 plus “progressives,” we’re doing something wrong. I loved Netroots Nation in Detroit this year, but we need to do better as a community. I don’t know about you, but I want to be part of a movement where the Muppet fans, the Star Wars lovers, and yes, even that little boy belting out “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” are all encouraged to sit at the table.

Thanks for reading our digest. Opinions in the articles above are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Digital Workshed ltd.

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