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The Top Universities for Blockchain – CoinDesk – Coindesk

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Colleges and universities from small, local schools to elite research heavyweights perform a number of vital functions in American society. These institutions, because of their size and resources, are often fertile ground for new technologies and research advancements.

Blockchain technology benefits massively from university influence, and much of the evolution within the field has roots in institutions of higher education. As the space matures and finds a foothold in public consciousness, it is worthwhile to ask which schools are leading blockchain development.

To find out, CoinDesk researched and assembled a ranking of universities impacting the blockchain space in 2020.

The sample

We conducted an in-depth analysis of 46 of the top colleges and universities in the United States, evaluating their blockchain presence and leadership.

The methodology

Our primary goal was to create the most nuanced, rigorous and defensible blockchain university rankings to date. We used a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, relying on existing databases, university-provided information and public archives. We factored in more than 550 individual responses to a survey (sent out over the last few weeks), looked at more than 12,000 employees at more than 100 blockchain companies and pored over pages and pages of online search results. Ultimately, we organized all of our data into one of four umbrella categories, weighted as follows:

Of course, each category includes several subordinate subcategories. Each additional metric is designed to target a specific, unique facet of the value that universities are capable of bringing to the blockchain space. Some of this data was broken down even further, often for the purposes of normalization or to draw out additional nuance.

For those who are interested, a more in-depth explanation of our methodology is available here, but the chart below gives an abbreviated visual of the weighted breakdown within each of the umbrella categories:

The top schools on our list display a combination of academic strength, community respect, and measurable positive outcomes. These schools are located across the country and are held in high esteem for everything from their prowess in engineering, business, arts or the social sciences, to their political connections, to the quality of life afforded to their students and faculty. In most cases, it is a combination of factors.

The rankings

Six of the schools are public, 14 are private. Each institution is an excellent place to study and offers a litany of intangibles well beyond what can adequately be put down on paper. We hope that our final rankings will stimulate discussion, raise awareness of blockchain in the university setting and, above all, add value to the existing body of data surrounding this important topic.

Of course, these rankings paint an accurate but necessarily incomplete picture of the current state of blockchain in higher education. A targeted look at each individual school or even at our data set in full will provide a richer picture that can be obscured by a reductive ranking.

Each data point serves as a building block, helping to flesh out a complete and complicated image. For example (one of many we could proffer), our rankings consider but dont explicitly single out the two blockchain-related certifications available at two schools placed on our list (the minor in blockchain technology from USC and the fintech MBA specialization from NYU Stern). While rankings distill a large amount of data into an easily digestible list, the broader landscape is both complex and fascinating:

Please be sure to check out the rest of the CoinDesk 2020 University Package. As always, our commitment is to transparency, integrity and advancing the blockchain space. If your favorite school wasnt considered this time, we appreciate your patience while we work to expand our research to cover more schools both in the U.S. and globally.

A more in-depth look at our methodology is available here. We encourage thoughts, comments, criticisms and questions. Stay tuned for the 2021 CoinDesk University Rankings and other educational content in the future.

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The Top Universities for Blockchain - CoinDesk - Coindesk

MOBI Announces the First Electric Vehicle Grid Integration Standard on Blockchain in Collaboration with Honda, PG&E, and GM Among Others – PRNewswire

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

First blockchain-based EVGI Standard tackles energy and climate challenges by enabling a decentralized, electrified mobility future

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI)'s member-led Electric Vehicle Grid Integration (EVGI) Working Group created and launched the automotive industry's first global standard incorporating blockchain technology into a decentralized vehicle charging system.

The EVGI Working Group released its first technical design specification, which covers the system designs and data schemas required for three core use case areas: Vehicle to Grid Integration (V2G), Tokenized Carbon Credits (TCC), and Peer to Peer (P2P) applications. While MOBI's EVGI Standard does not prescribe any particular application or underlying distributed ledger technology (DLT), it ensures that pertinent data attributes and functionalities of each use case are available for organizations to utilize in creating their own applications.

"Implementing the EVGI Standard will provide a variety of benefits for players on all sides of the electric vehicle and charging ecosystem," said Tram Vo, MOBI's COO and Founder. "Electric vehicles, chargers, and electricity producers can have a secure identity, communicate with a standard messaging format, and automatically record transactions such as charging, generation, and exchange on a distributed ledger."

Created by a group of global automotive leaders, startups, and large technology companies, the EVGI Standard is a foundational step toward solving some of the most pressing climate and mobility challenges. MOBI's EVGI Working Group is chaired by Honda and General Motors (GM), with support from Accenture, CPChain, IBM, the IOTA Foundation, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E), Politecnico di Torino, and R3.

"Today's energy markets are undergoing a massive transition from centralized power generation in big power plants, towards more distributed and volatile power generation. Decentralization and the concept of direct P2P interaction is set to become a key factor in leveraging this new market and building meaningful tools for energy-conscious end customers. The goal is to enable scalable, user-centric energy communities. The EVGI Standard represents one of the first essential building blocks for founding such an ecosystem," said Christian Kbel, Senior Project Engineer at Honda R&D Europe.

MOBI's EVGI Standard enables a set of core network data services that will provide significant value to EV owners, charging infrastructure and grid operators by enabling secure, decentralized communication and immutable recordkeeping between data generating peers. This supports data transparency, trust, coordination, and automation among mobility service providers, consumers, utilities, and government stakeholders.

"Bringing together organizations from all sectors of the mobility industry to align on what the future of electric vehicles and their interaction with the grid looks like is no small feat. The work done by MOBI and the EVGI working group is a promising step, laying a strong foundation for the intersecting industries to align around and build on to accelerate the future of sustainable mobility and energy," said Mathew Yarger, Head of Mobility and Automotive at the IOTA Foundation.

In addition to the working group, formal verification experts thoroughly reviewed the EVGI Standard, assuring developers that their implementations adhere to the best practices in cyber security. MOBI hopes that applications enabled by this Standard will ultimately help lower carbon emissions, improve road safety, reduce traffic congestion, and support a host of other socially and environmentally beneficial outcomes.

About MOBI

MOBIis a nonprofit alliance of many of the world's largest automakers, along with many startups, NGOs, transit agencies, insurers, toll road providers, smart city leaders, and technology companies working to accelerate adoption and promote standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers,and related technologies.

MOBI is creating simple blockchain-based standards to identify cars, people, and businesses in order to securely exchange and monetize data, and pay for mobility services, with the goal of making transportation more efficient, affordable, greener, safer, and less congested. MOBI itself is technology and ledger agnostic. For additional information about joining MOBI, please reach out to Griffin Haskins ([emailprotected]) or visit http://www.dlt.mobi.

Media Contact:Kelly Clark, MOBI Communications ManagerEmail: [emailprotected]| Twitter: @dlt.mobi

SOURCE MOBI

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MOBI Announces the First Electric Vehicle Grid Integration Standard on Blockchain in Collaboration with Honda, PG&E, and GM Among Others - PRNewswire

How AI And Blockchain Are Driving The Energy Transition – OilPrice.com

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Many people who have increasingly despaired at the adverse effects of changing climate have probably mused: Why cant we go completely green? Why are fossil fuels so hard to quit? The answers, as usual, are legion: Renewable energy is too expensive, too unreliable, too undeveloped and fossil fuels lack a suitable substitute. All of these reasons contain a modicum of truth. But our biggest challenge remains lack of political will because lowering our reliance on fossil fuels requires dedicated investments that provide uncertain, long-term benefits.

Indeed, scientists have continued making remarkable progress in ironing out one of the biggest kinks of clean energy: The intermittent and unpredictable nature of renewable energy.

Now, researchers have come up with yet another solution to make renewable energy more dependable: Renewable Energy trading platforms that leverage AI and blockchain technology.

Dutch scientists have successfully developed Distro, a solar and battery storage-based microgrid trading platform underpinned by blockchain distributed ledger technology and AI.

Distro is both good for the goose and the gander: The platform has demonstrated double-digit reductions in energy costs for customers as well as comparable revenue improvement for renewable energy producers.

High-frequency energy trading

The Distro Platform, developed by S&P Global Platts and Blocklab Rotterdam to support energy trading at very high frequencies, uses blockchain smart contracts to ensure all transactions are validated and immutable.

Distro is a high-frequency microgrid energy trading platform that leverages AI and blockchain by optimizing supply and ensuring it meets consumer demand in a highly granular manner. This is reflected in rapid changes in local energy prices. In other words, Distro incentivizes lower consumption during periods of low energy generation by lowering prices during high generation periods.

Related: The Geopolitical Power Of The Shale Revolution Is Fading

During the trial, Distro enabled an 11% reduction of energy costs for end-users while also boosting revenues by 14% for energy producers as well as increasing battery storage returns on investment by 20%.

Yet another benefit: Distro is able to significantly lower wastage, with 92% of all solar power generated in the dock consumed by local businesses.

In other words, everybody wins with Distro.

AI Powering a Clean Energy Revolution

Distro is not the first platform to demonstrate that cutting-edge technologies such as AI and blockchain can be deployed to significantly improve the reliability of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.

From utilities employing AI and machine learning to predict power fluctuations and cost optimization to companies using IoT sensors for early fault detection and wildfire powerline/gear monitoring, here are real-life cases of how these bleeding edge technologies continue to power an energy revolution even during the pandemic.

#1. Innowatts: Energy monitoring and management The Covid-19 crisis has triggered an unprecedented decline in power consumption. Not only has overall consumption fallen but there have also been major shifts in power usage patterns, with sharp decreases by businesses and industries while domestic use has increased as more people work from home.

Houston, Texas-based Innowatts, is a startup that has developed an automated toolkit for energy monitoring and management. The companys eUtility platform ingests data from more than 34 million smart energy meters across 21 million customers, including major U.S. utility companies such as Arizona Public Service Electric, Portland General Electric, Avangrid, Gexa Energy, WGL, and Mega Energy. Innowatts says its machine learning algorithms are able to analyze the data to forecast several critical data points, including short- and long-term loads, variances, weather sensitivity, and more.

Related: The Energy Sectors Most Threatened By A Biden Presidency

Innowatts estimates that without its machine learning models, utilities would have seen inaccuracies of 20% or more on their projections at the peak of the crisis, thus placing enormous strain on their operations and ultimately driving up costs for end-users.

#2. Google: Boosting the value of wind energy

A while back, we reported that proponents of nuclear energy were using the pandemic to highlight its strong points vis-a-vis the short-comings of renewable energy sources. To wit, wind and solar are the least predictable and consistent among the major energy sources, while nuclear and natural gas boast the highest capacity factors.

Well, one tech giant has figured out how to employ AI to iron out those kinks.

Three years ago, Google announced that it had reached 100% renewable energy for its global operations, including its data centers and offices. Today, Google is the largest corporate buyer of renewable power, with commitments totaling 2.6 gigawatts (2,600 megawatts) of wind and solar energy.

In 2017, Google teamed up with IBM to search for a solution to the highly intermittent nature of wind power. Using IBMs DeepMind AI platform, Google deployed ML algorithms to 700 megawatts of wind power capacity in the central United States--enough to power a medium-sized city.

IBM says that by using a neural network trained on widely available weather forecasts and historical turbine data, DeepMind is now able to predict wind power output 36 hours ahead of actual generation. Consequently, this has boosted the value of Googles wind energy by roughly 20 percent.

A similar model can be used by other wind farm operators to make smarter, faster, and more data-driven optimizations of their power output to better meet customer demand.

IBMs DeepMind uses trained neural networks to predict wind power output 36 hours ahead of actual generation

Source: DeepMind

#3. Wildfire powerline and gear monitoring

In June, Californias biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, found itself in deep trouble. PG&E pleaded guilty for the tragic 2018 wildfire accident that left 84 people dead and, consequently, was slapped with hefty penalties of $13.5 billion as compensation to people who lost homes and businesses and another $2 billion fine by the California Public Utilities Commission for negligence.

Needless to say, its going to be a long climb back to the top for the fallen giant after its stock crashed nearly 80% following the disaster despite the company emerging from bankruptcy in July.

Perhaps the loss of lives and livelihood could have been averted if PG&E had invested in some AI-powered early detection system.

One such system is being worked on by a startup called VIA, based in Somerville, Massachusetts. VIA says it has developed a blockchain-based app that can predict when vulnerable power transmission gear such as transformers might be at risk in a disaster. VIAs app makes better use of energy data sources, including smart meters or equipment inspections.

Another comparable product comes from Korean firm Alchera which uses AI-based image recognition in combination with thermal and standard cameras to monitor power lines and substations in real-time. The AI system is trained to watch the infrastructure for any abnormal events such as falling trees, smoke, fire, and even intruders.

Other than utilities, oil and gas producers have also been integrating AI into their operations. These include:

By Alex Kimani for Oilprice.com

Future reality: Triad of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence & Blockchain in action – The Financial Express

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Blockchain, with promise of immutability, transparency, security, interoperability, etc., allows us to exploit otherwise unused resources, trade the un-tradable, and allow new ecosystems that were not possible before.

By Sanjay Pathak

Blockchain today is still in its infancy, and its mainstream value is yet to be realised. While, its for sure that blockchain will disrupt the existing solutions, not only in industry and commerce but in almost all aspects of our day-to-day lives, it cannot do so just by itself. Same holds true for Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The underlying fact is that to get the real value new-age emerging technologies such as blockchain, AI and IoT have to work in tandem. As we begin to understand the new normal in the midst of the corona pandemic, it will be important to draw value from any digital transformation that firms undertake. Businesses will have to think beyond their domain and scope to provide services which are of actual value to consumers.

How can this happen? IoT has brought new and cheaper ways to communicate with things which was not fathomable in the past. Blockchain, with promise of immutability, transparency, security, interoperability, etc., allows us to exploit otherwise unused resources, trade the un-tradable, and allow new ecosystems that were not possible before. The new entrant AI (inclusive of machine/deep learning, vision, NLP, robots or autonomous machines etc.) has already started to deliver great value to many industries, so much so as to reduce or even replace the human element. Further advancement in 5G communication is a positive catalyst to this ecosystem.

However, these technologies, with a disjointed ecosystem or industries siloed approach towards them, may not reach their full potential. In the above combination, data becomes the common driving factor. While IoT is producing data from new sources and sensors, blockchain is safeguarding and ensuring immutability, and the AI layer on top is helping deliver new business meanings and outcomes in almost real-time. In summary, data value chain comes from new technologies enabling collection, sharing, security, immutability, analysis, and automation of decisions with minimal human involvement.

Lets run this model on a practical consumer problem of provenance the classic Farm to Table use case. The big questions that need solutions are with respect to quality, credibility, genuineness, safety, increase in efficiency and warranting correct distribution of revenue. IoT takes care of conditions maintained in farms with respect to temperature, humidity, soil nutrients and growth progress, and also conditions at processing centres and logistics. All this information can be stored on blockchain-based smart contracts. AI-based engine on top of this, with feeds from weather systems, etc., can trigger and automatically execute smart contracts and take required action based on pre-agreed rules, including payments, etc. In an adverse event like an outbreak at any stage, the source could be easily traced and isolated. Next, this can be extended to insurance and forward commodity trading using a trade setup, thus bringing real value from agriculture, supply chain, financial services, insurance and other industries combined.

IoT has come a long way in improving the type of sensors, size and cost and even their usage in some industries; the real consumer centric benefits can be manifold. AI faces the challenge of accuracy, trust and confidence over replacement by the human cognitive mind. Building such ecosystems without regulatory pressure, is not easy if not impossible. This is one of the primary factors for blockchain and other similar transformative technologies not gaining mainstream acceptance or adoption.

Lets also keep an eye on Quantum Computing breakthroughs, as this not only threatens the key features of these emerging technologies, but will severely impact best of encryption, security and cryptography that exists today. Which means any industry, digital ecosystems, IT infrastructure will have to evolve at a rapid pace before they get negatively impacted.

The writer is head Blockchain, Healthcare & Insurance Practice, 3i Infotech

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Future reality: Triad of Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence & Blockchain in action - The Financial Express

7 Industry Experts Weigh In On Blockchain and the Fresh Food Supply Chain – Global Trade Magazine

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Editors Note: While the writer filed this story before the magnitude of the global pandemic was known, the subject matter is even more vital now. Because if living with COVID-19 has brought to light anything, it is the importance of an unbroken fresh food supply chain. What follows are seven supplychainindustry experts weighing in on blockchain, sharing their unique perspectives regarding challenges and adoption, with a focus on the fresh food supplychain.

On Jan. 4, 2011, President Barack Obama signed into law the Food and Drug Administration Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). One provision of the Act was that theFDA will have access to records, including industry food safety plans and the records firms will be required to keep documenting implementation of their plans. The intention of this mandate was clearly to safeguard the health and safety of the American public.

But there is a problem here. These records are stored all over the country on paper, in file cabinets located in thousands of places. So when there is a serious problem of contamination with, say romaine lettuce as there was in November 2018, and again in November 2019, this explains why it can take the FDA 45 to 60 days backtracking just to locate the records, with potentially thousands of farms under review for contamination. If these records were accessible through blockchain, the potential contaminated farms would be whittled down from thousands to less than 10, and identified within a matter of seconds.

Reasons like this make a strong use case for blockchain; it is why so many food supplychainindustry leaders are focused on establishing a universally accepted blockchain platform, with particular focus on the fresh food supplychain.

Building a blockchain ecosystem for the fresh food supplychain, by bringing manufacturers, distributors, retailers and suppliers together is a seemingly insurmountable challenge to many of us involved in the industry. Let alone factoring the entire supplychainfor food and beverage, and all consumer goods.

Luckily, there are those people who do have a keen perspective on blockchain, with not only an optimistic view of it, but solutions as well. I had the opportunity to interview seven key supply chain thought leaders on the subject of blockchain and the fresh food supply chain. These were: John Haggerty, vice president, Business Development, Burris Logistics; Steve Tracey, executive director, Center for Supply Chain Research at Penn State Smeal College of Business; Kevin Otto, senior director, Community Engagement, GS1 US; Rick Stein, vice president, Fresh Foods, Food Marketing Institute; Rick Blasgen, president and CEO, Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals; David Shillingford, CEO, Rising Tide Digital & Team Member, Resilience360; and Stephen Rogers, vice president, Blockchain Initiatives for Supply Chain, IBM.

Their viewpoints were diverse, reflecting their respective roles in the industry. And their responses were incisive and broad-reaching, with a very practical perspective on what is expected to realize a universal blockchain platform.

John Haggerty Vice President, Business Development, Burris Logistics

Burris Logistics operates an expanding network of temperature-controlled warehousing and distribution centers from Florida to Massachusetts, also expanding west to Oklahoma. The company provides leading-edge logistics, transportation and supply chain solutions coast to coast through four distinct business units: Custom Distribution, PRW Plus (Public Refrigerated Warehousing), Trinity Logistics (transportation and freight management), and Honor Foods (a redistributor of frozen, refrigerated and dry food service products).

There are systems of data exchange already in place in the fresh food supplychainthat support blockchain.The GS1-128 barcode, for example, used in the meat industry, provides a global standard for exchanging data between different companies, enabling serialization and expiration to be encoded. Some seafood products, such as scallops fished in the North Atlantic, are tagged with GPS coordinates, recording location, date and time when harvested. Like the data acquired from the produce inspection capability and our customer portal, GS1-128 information is readymade for integration with the blockchain.

We are constantly testing ourselves and readying ourselves to partner with those vendors and customers who want to integrate with blockchain. But as a solution provider, we are a participant in the process. We are blockchain ready, but those suppliers producing the products and those retailers receiving the products need to be the initiators of blockchain.

Utilizing blockchain to validate temperature-controlled services and product integrity is an extremely valid and attractive option. But only a small percentage of participants in the fresh produce supply chain, such as Dole and Driscolls, provide continuous tracking of products from producer to the retailer via blockchain.

The challenge with blockchain in temperature-controlled foods, and indeed for the entire supplychain, is more fundamental than integrating blockchain-enabled companies, it is system standardization.Establishing a universal language with developed and managed standards from a recognized independent standards agency, which enables the openness like we enjoy with the Internet is where we need to focus our efforts. A uniform standard for blockchain is still a long ways away from being ready and effective across multiple channels.

Steve Tracey Executive Director, Center for SupplyChainResearch,Penn State Smeal College of Business

The Center for SupplyChainResearch connects researchers and professionals from leading organizations within a community that is shaping the future of the supplychaindiscipline. It is member strong and intellectually active in many facets of supplychainmanagement and the enabling technologies used for collaboration, visibility and integration.

The underlying technology of blockchain is a distributed ledger technology and encryption, which has been around for a while. It got popularized with bitcoin, and although it uses the same underlying technology, it is almost completely the obverse of how it is used for bitcoin. In a bitcoin use case, the trans-actors are anonymous, and the transactions are public, across a large network base. In a supplychain, the trans-actors are public, and the transactions are private, across a very small network base. You might have 50,000 or more network nodes around a bitcoin transaction, and in a supplychainuse case you are talking about much smaller numbers, maybe 10s or 100s.

Where I see blockchain being applicable in the long run are things like smart contracts. Blockchain could potentially speed up procure-to-pay systems, which would make the velocity of money and the speed of transactions go much faster, and significantly reduce administrative overhead.

Another great use case is chain of custody in the food business. Being able to track and trace chain of custody from point of origin to point of use. This is another case where you could have big data streams managed with data integrity, creating a high trust value.

From a data security perspective, one of the myths about blockchain is that it is perfectly accurate. It is not. If you put bad data into a blockchain, the only way to correct that bad data is to go back and append that block with the correct data. So blockchain doesnt eliminate data quality issues. What it does do is encrypt data in a way you can trust the data. The combination of the encryption technology, the blockchain itself, and the distributed ledger system, where you are actually verifying the same data on multiple nodes in the network, creates a high level of data trust. As long as you put the right data in, and it is verified from the nodes in the network, you have a high level of trust that the data as input is trustworthy.

The wide adoption of blockchain, in particular use cases, is going to come from pilots through networks of different organizations figuring out actual data sustainability models, and getting all the right players onto the network where they all have buy-in, and actually have a vested interest in having the data. To work, I believe it will need to be a win-win scenario, with the ability for everyone in the network to see value in both contributing and drawing data from the system.

Kevin Otto Senior Director, Community Engagement, GS1 US

GS1 US is a not-for-profit information standards organization. With more than 300,000 members, GS1 standards are the most widely used supplychainstandards in the world. GS1 US administers the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.) barcode, as well as other information standards and data carriers.

In our cross-industry blockchain discussions encompassing healthcare, food service, retail grocery, apparel and general merchandise, supply chain visibility is the first use case that companies are looking at to see how blockchain can fit into their operations. Because GS1 already has universally accepted standards in place for visibility that can be used in blockchain, and other data sharing mechanisms, we are in a unique position to foster interoperability between blockchain users. Essentially, GS1 Standards are fundamental to the evolution of blockchain.

Because of consumer demand to know more about the quality and origin of the foods they are purchasing, we are seeing a considerable increase in discussions around the ability to constantly monitor the quality of food products as they go through the supply chain, and then feed this information into a blockchain. This need is making it less practical to record and maintain this information paper-based, while at the same time it presents a barrier to getting participants onboard to record this data digitally, like at the farm level where they may not be electronically equipped.

In food, companies in the supplychaindefinitely have to know where a product came from and where it went, per FDA and USDA guidelines. Since GS1 Standards are broadly adopted in the food industry, these standards are being shared electronically, by and large. The challenge of getting smaller upstream suppliers (farmers and other producers) to use GS1 Standards for identifying, capturing and sharing information is therefore a first-step and prime concern, while the challenges of adopting blockchain are being discussed and evaluated. One-hundred percent supplychainvisibility cannot be achieved without all participants in a blockchain ecosystem on-board with the same standards of capturing and reporting data. I think it is necessary to have bigger players come forward to push and facilitate smaller participant companies to come to the table.

Essentially, the food industry, as well as other supply chain sectors, is engaged in utilizing other systems to achieve supply chain visibility, until they figure out exactly the best way to leverage blockchain technology.

Rick Stein- Vice President, Fresh Foods, Food Marketing Institute

The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) advocates on behalf of the food retail industry, which employs nearly5 million workersand represents a combinedannual sales volume of almost $800 billion. FMI member companies operate nearly33,000 retail food storesand12,000 pharmacies.

FMI guidance to its members is to work with their supply chain partners and focus on prevention of contamination, increase communication with FDA and supply chain partners, and provide simple and agreed-upon data elements for traceability and flexibility in how those data elements are shared. Our members want to be able to make technology choices on their own, and we fully expect technology to advance as it has done so in the past.

We firmly believe in the importance of the safety of products and the increased use of technology as a tool to share information among supply chain partners. Our members will choose which technologies they adopt but are moving toward the ability to trace their products back to its origins. Blockchain is among some of the technologies used, but its the data within that is critical to the success.

Rick Blasgen President and CEO, Council of SupplyChainManagement Professionals (CSCMP)

CSCMP is a network of more than 6,000 global supply chain professional members worldwide. It is the preeminent worldwide professional association dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of research and knowledge on supply chain management.

To me, blockchain is almost like RFID was some years ago. We have this technology that is probably ahead of business practice. People dont know exactly what to do with it.

There are a lot of pilots and use cases in progress, people trying to figure out how the technology and the business process will work. But at this point, who knows where it will go. It is a bit of a leap of faith, in a way. But, this is how new ways of doing business are accomplished.

As a technology which is enabling movement of data between partners, if blockchain produces productivity and offers a more accurate and secure way of transacting business, it will lend toward being accepted by the supplychain. The question to be asked is: What do I get out of it that improves my business process?

I think the track-and-trace capability will be the main draw for blockchain. Greater visibility into where the inventory has been, and where it is, at any time, in the supplychainwill increase productivity. This will drive supplychainleaders to pilot it, and try to figure out how to best employ it in their supplychain.

David Shillingford CEO Rising Tide Digital, Team Member, Resilience360

Resilience360, was developed in DHLs Global Innovation Center, and has since become an independent company receiving venture funding from Columbia Capital. The company is an innovative supplychainrisk management software platform that helps businesses predict, assess, mitigate and react to supplychaindisruptions and delays.

There are a number of different ways that blockchain relates to supplychainrisk. Ultimately, at the heart of it is having accurate supplychainvisibility that you can trust, and sharing this data with all parties involved. This can be done with todays technology, but in some cases, can be done better with blockchain, because it is data that can be trusted.

This extends to the legality and paperwork associated with product movement. When a container is moving from point A to point B, specific financial transactions relate to what is in the container, who owns it at any particular point on the Earth and having location verification. This permits financial transactions to be initiated through smart contracts, which would be difficult to do without blockchain.

Today, the state-of-the-art of supplychainrisk management encompasses bringing together two sets of data. One relates to supplychainassets, which could be manufacturing locations or distribution centers, or the shipments that are made between them. This, of course, is being mapped or tracked in real-time in the system. But this is then overlaid with future risk indicators or information about an event that has happened that might be a disruption to the supplychain. These can include weather and geological disruptions, labor issues, political upheavals, anything that might disrupt the supplychain.

This level of insight and analytics brings together what a companys supply chain looks like in real-time, combined with what might happen to it given known data. Ultimately what a company wants to know is what it should be concerned about and the actions it should take to mitigate any disruptive events. At its core, a blockchain-enabled supply chain can outperform traditional supply chains because it is powered by accurate data, leading to better evaluation and decision making.

Stephen Rogers Vice President, Blockchain Initiatives for Supply Chain, IBM

Since 2016, IBM has worked with hundreds of clients across financial services, supply chain, government, retail, digital rights management and healthcare to implement blockchain applications, and operates a number of networks running live and in production. The cloud-based IBM Blockchain Platform delivers the end-to-end capabilities that clients need to quickly activate and successfully develop, operate, govern and secure their own business networks. IBM is an early member of Hyperledger, an open-source collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

The Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain are going to be almost interchangeable because they will be working so closely together in the future. Right now they are viewed as two separate technologies, but they are going to come together. I would even describe blockchain as the most likely operating system for IoT networks because of its ability to provide security.

Food, and its supplychain, is one of those that you really want to make it an industry solution. Because having gaps in your information between the store that is selling it, and the farm that produced it, means you really dont have a solution. You need to have information of where it was grown, where it was shipped to, and if there was any kind of an aggregation point, where that was shipped to for packaging, and where it was shipped for distribution and then shipped to the stores. You want to make sure you can capture all of that information.

Walmart is starting out with a blockchain pilot with leafy greens, because of the past problems that have occurred with recalls. So IBM is out there with Food Trust, the first and biggest blockchain solution associated with food. (Food Trust is an IBM blockchain-based solution that brought together a host of companies in the food industry into a network, including supply chain services companies.)

The technology of blockchain still has a ways to grow. It still needs to be able to support higher levels of transactional throughput. There are a lot of people who describe blockchain as the golden hammer. It is not that. It is a technology. Just like robotic process automation or hybrid cars or AI, it addresses a specific set of problems. Its just that these problems happen to be big intractable problems, so it is really important.

___________________________________________________________

Jim McMahon is CEO of ZebraCom, Inc. He writes on industrial and technology solutions, and his features have appeared in more than 2,500 trade and business publications worldwide. You can reach him at jim.mcmahon@zebracom.net.

7 Industry Experts Weigh In On Blockchain and the Fresh Food Supply Chain - Global Trade Magazine

Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing – Boing Boing

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Blockchains are less buzzworthy than they were a couple of years ago, and for good reason the price you pay for a blockchain's immutability compared to the price of a database plus human oversight isn't worth it. Jesse Frederik wrote about the decline of blockchains for The Correspondent:

Out of over 86,000 blockchain projects that had been launched, 92% had been abandoned by the end of 2017,according to consultancy firm Deloitte.

Why are they deciding to stop? Enlightened and thus former blockchain developer Mark van Cuijk explained: "You could also use a forklift to put a six-pack of beer on your kitchen counter. But it's just not very efficient."

I disagree with one of his points about bitcoin, arguably the only successful blockchain application. He writes:

OK, so with bitcoin, banks can't just remove money from your account at their own discretion. But does this really happen? I have never heard of a bank simply taking money from someone's account. If a bank did something like that, they would be hauled into court in no time and lose their license. Technically it's possible; legally, it's a death sentence.

In 2013 residents of Cyprus found that their bank savings had been instantly reduced by 10% when the government decided to take it. And the IRS regularly orders banks to hand over money from the accounts of people who owe taxes. No one can take bitcoin without having the private key to authorize a transaction.

Aside from that quibble, this article foes a good job of explaining all the reasons why a regular old database is almost always better than a blockchain.

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Blockchain, the amazing solution for almost nothing - Boing Boing

Maxonrow Awards Five Prizes to Innovative Blockchain for Healthcare Solutions – PRNewswire

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

TAIPEI, Taiwan, Oct. 6, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Maxonrow hosted the closing ceremony of its first-ever Hackathon, MAXathon, on October 3, 2020. People from over 30 countries participated and seventeen pre-selected teams pitched their blockchain for healthcare solutions to a jury of seven people, and five teams won from a 15,000 euro prize pool.

The Winners

There was one winner per each of the five challenges Maxonrow set participants to solve for MAXathon.

For the first track, Physical Distancing, the winner was team "Move-Safe." They created an algorithm that determines a safety score and creates a live map that will allow people to avoid crowded places.

The winners of the second track, Credential, and Certificate Issuance, were team "VeCura '' who came up with a solution using Maxonrow's Blockchain to store test results on the blockchain.

The winners of the third track, Welfare, were team "Well and Fair", an application where anyone can directly apply for a grant or stimulus package that best suits their needs.

The winners of the fourth track, Virtualizing the New Norm, were team 010. The project uses zero-knowledge cryptography to form cryptographic commitments and proofs of identity.

The prize for the final track UI/UX was awarded to team "Med-Chain" a machine learning-powered platform that will provide the best supply chain solutions for medical organizations

World-Class Judges and Mentors

Seven judges were responsible for choosing the winners from a pool of over 40+ submitted projects. The judges were:

Nineteen mentors accompanied participants during the month-long hackathon by having 1-1 sessions to discuss their projects:

What's Next?

MAXathon was a great success at leading blockchain enthusiasts to create solutions for pandemics. Maxonrow will continue planning events that cater to its growing developer community and have a real social impact.

SOURCE Maxonrow

Symbol blockchain to host whisky fund and central bank collectibles at launch – Cointelegraph

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Proof-of-stake blockchain NEM (XEM) is preparing for a token migration in December alongside the public launch of the Symbol (XYM) blockchain.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, NEM Group CIO and NEM Ventures managing director, Dave Hodgson, revealed that Symbol will host at least two products at launch.

Symbol will host the Wave Financial Whiskey Fund, which offers a tokenized representation of ownership in 25,000 barrels of 2020-vintage bourbon worth more than $4 million. The platform will also host LBCOIN, collectible crypto assets that commemorate Lithuanias 1918 declaration of independence issued by the countrys central bank. Both products were previously hosted on NEM.

Hodgson highlighted the benefits that fractionalization will offer traditional asset classes, noting that Waves whiskey fund will offer investors exposure to an asset class that would traditionally be very hard to access if you couldnt afford to go and buy 4,000 barrels of whiskey.

The executive also predicted that fractional ownership will offer investors in emerging markets like Africa and South-East Asia greater access to equities products, highlighting the efficiency saving blockchain offers to the sector:

[Equities] are ripe for disruption, the current model is too siloed and the mechanisms by which equities are transferred is too slow and too expensive.

Hodgson described Symbol as a hybrid blockchain built for enterprises with a focus on interoperability and security tokens.

Symbol can be deployed as either a public or private chain, offering enterprises guarantees that sensitive proprietary information will not be broadcast across an open blockchain network.

The blockchain facilitates cross-chain swaps between the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains, with plans to support additional networks in the future. Hodgson emphasized the importance of cross-chain interoperability among institutions, noting expectations that the future will bring a crypto ecosystem comprising multiple specialized blockchains operating in symbiosis.

XEM holders can convert their tokens into XYM at a 1:1 ratio in December, however, they must opt-in for the snapshot beforehand.

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Symbol blockchain to host whisky fund and central bank collectibles at launch - Cointelegraph

Thai central bank issues $1.6B in government bonds on IBM blockchain – Cointelegraph

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

The Bank of Thailand launched the worlds first blockchain-based government savings bond issuance platform using IBMs blockchain technology.

Within two weeks of the launch, the central bank sold more than $1.6 billion worth of savings bonds, as per IBMs official announcement on Oct. 5, 2020.

The use of blockchain technology is said to have reduced the bond issuance time from 15 days to just two days. The increased efficiency of the process has also reduced operational cost and redundant validation of documents involved in bond issuance.

IBM along with the central bank collaborated with seven other institutions including Public Debt Management Office, Thailand Securities Depository Co., Thai Bond Market Association and four other banks.

The Bank of Thailand may soon extend the use of blockchain technology across all other government-issued bonds for retail and wholesale investors.

The Thai central bank has been actively involved in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space. In June, the bank launched a pilot test for its central bank digital currency the digital baht to test it with large-scale enterprises. The following month, the bank was also reported to be planning to use its digital currency to transact with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The Bank of Thailand is also pursuingsmart contracts and decentralized finance use cases for its national digital currency.

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Thai central bank issues $1.6B in government bonds on IBM blockchain - Cointelegraph

Bank of Thailand launches blockchain-based savings bonds – Cyprus Mail

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

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Bank of Thailand launches blockchain-based savings bonds - Cyprus Mail

Standard Chartered and DBS to set up blockchain-based Trade Finance Registry – Finextra

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Standard Chartered and DBS, with the support of 12 other banks, have kicked off a project that will use a blockchain network to register trade finance transactions.

Banks are currently able to conduct such validations only within a single customer entity or across their individual banking network, with no view of what other banks have financed or undertaken payment obligation against.

The TFR mitigates against duplicate financing from different bank lenders for the same trade inventory, embedding trust between banks and traders.

DBS and Standard Chartered scoped and developed the prof-of-conept in the span of three months, with the support of 12 other banks - ABN Amro, ANZ, CIMB, Deutsche Bank, Icici, Lloyds, Maybank, Natixis, OCBC, Rabobank, SMBC and UOB.

DBS and Standard Chartered says they will work with the Association Banks of Singapore to implement the TFR within Singapore, before expanding it globally to cover major trade corridors at a later stage.

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Standard Chartered and DBS to set up blockchain-based Trade Finance Registry - Finextra

How Does the Electoral College Work and Why Does It Matter? – The New York Times

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

The process of choosing electors can be an insiders game, said Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore and the author of What You Need to Know About Voting and Why. They are often state legislators, party leaders or donors, she said.

The important number is 270. A total of 538 electoral votes are in play across all 50 states and Washington, D.C. The total number of electoral votes assigned to each state varies depending on population, but each state has at least three, and the District of Columbia has had three electors since 1961.

Most are, and it helps to think of voting on a state-by-state basis, Professor Amar said.

Its just like in tennis, he said. Its how many sets you win and not how many games or points you win. You have to win the set, and in our system, you have to win the state.

Two exceptions are Maine and Nebraska, which rely on congressional districts to divvy up electoral votes. The winner of the states popular vote gets two electoral votes, and one vote is awarded to the winner of the popular vote in each congressional district.

There are arguments that the states with smaller populations are overrepresented in the Electoral College, because every state gets at least 3 electors regardless of population. In a stark example, sparsely populated Wyoming has three votes and a population of about 580,000, giving its individual voters far more clout in the election than their millions of counterparts in densely populated states like Florida, California and New York. And the American citizens who live in territories like Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands are not represented by any electors.

When you talk about the Electoral College shaping the election, it shapes the election all the time because it puts the focus on certain states and not others, said Alexander Keyssar, a professor of history and social policy at Harvard University.

For years there have been debates about abolishing the Electoral College entirely, with the 2016 election bringing the debate back to the surface. It was even a talking point among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates.

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How Does the Electoral College Work and Why Does It Matter? - The New York Times

Here are all your local golf results – Bangor Daily News

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

GolfHOLE-IN-ONERobert MacLeod

BAR HARBOR, Maine Robert MacLeod of Bar Harbor recorded a hole-in-one on the 201-yard ninth hole at Kebo Valley Golf Club on Friday. He used a 3-wood for the ace and it was witnessed by Susanne MacLeod and Jon Linder.

BAR HARBOR, Maine Clyde Lewis of Ellsworth shot a hole-in-one on the 156-yard 15th hole at Kebo Valley Golf Club on Friday. He used a hybrid club for the ace and it was witnessed by Mark Leonardi, Brent Barker and Mark Wanner.

ROCKLAND, Maine Phil Bertocci of Rockland shot his first career hole-in-one playing Wednesday at Rockland Golf Club. Bertocci used an 8-iron to ace the 136-yard fifth hole. The shot was witnessed by Charlie Johanson.

Greely 322, Scarborough 336, Falmouth 337, Gorham 338, Mt. Ararat 352, Edward Little 356, Messalonskee 362, Hampden Acad. 374

Andrew Klein 77 Greely, (tie) Peter Malia 79 Scarborough, Bennett Berg 79, (tie) DJ Kenney 80 Greely, Jack Stowell 80 Falmouth, (tie) Colin Merritt 81 Edward Little, Nick McGonagle 81 Deering, Parker Bate 81 Mt. Ararat, Connor Albert 82 Greely, Nick Montgomery 83 Greely, Quinn Dillon 83 Gorham, Kyle Douin 83 Cony, (tie) Buteau, Asa, Scarborough 84, Castles, Lucas, Gorham 84, Veilleux, Jack Scarborough 84, Hilchey, Parker Camden Hills 84, (tie) Lumbert, Bryce Gorham 85, Tracy, Dominic Falmouth 85, Tobias, Quincy Cony 85, Stowell, Henry Falmouth 85, (tie) Farr, Sam Gorham 86, Grant, Mitch Messalonskee 86, Stromick, Austin Brunswick 86, Enck, Aidan Gorham 86, Bay, Cooper Portland 86,

(tie) Flaherty, Lucas South Portland 87, Seekins, Sam Messalonskee 87, Vickery, John Hampden 87, Thibault, Parker Lewiston 87, Mathieu, Drew Windham 87, Hwang, Jonny Falmouth 87, (tie) Smiley, Owen Bangor 88, Schoenberg, Eli Mt. Ararat 88, (tie) Allen, Liam Cheverus 89, Griffiths, Alden Scarborough 89, Turcotte, Connor Edward Little 89, Dufour, Bryce Lewiston 89, Brook, Andrew Bangor 90, (tie) Betz, Sam Mt. Ararat 91, Parker, Jake Brewer 91, Delmonaco, Ethan Brewer 91, (tie) Mitchell, Ham Falmouth 92, Henke, Ty Mt. Ararat 92, Cloutier, Anthony Cheverus 92, (tie) Adams, Wyatt South Portland 93, Gray, Harrison Edward Little 93, Webber, John Scarborough 93, Marquis, Spencer Brunswick 93, Cassidy, Will Edward Little 93, (tie) Smith, James Messalonskee 94, Thayer, Jagger Hampden 94,

(tie) Lilly, Jude Messalonskee 95, Lyons, Andrew Hampden 95, (tie) Stolt, Bobby Cony 96, Perron, Jack Bangor 96, Robbins, Clay Edward Little 96, (tie) Clark, Sam Cheverus 97, Doolittle, Connor Westbrook 97, Spooner, Luke Mt. Ararat 97, (tie) Abbott, Josh Brewer 98, Vine, Elias Hampden 98, Llerena, TJ Hampden 99, Lapointe, Landon Brewer 101, Giancotti, Nick Cheverus 108, Ardito, Joe Messalonskee 111

1. Remy Levin 88 Bonny Eagle, 2. Ruth Weeks 89 Greely, 3. Taylor Gardner 101 Hampden, 4. Nicole Walker 103 Gorham

Green Mountain Results 1. Robert Hall, Phil Norton, Lornie Smith 105, 2. Lee Brewer, Eben Salvatore, Jud Starr 91, 3. Randy Stanley, Ty Smith, Mike Modeen; Individual: A. Robert Hall, B. Eben Salvatore, C. Lornie Smith

Friday Senior League Modified Stableford: 1. Robbie Robinson, Norm Simmons, Mike Boothby +10; 2. Ron Harriman, Ralph Holyoke, Doug Higgins +6; 3. Rick Robertson, Jim Blakeman, Shawn Sutherland, Ed St. Heart +4; 4. John Richard, Jim Hancock, Don Goodness, John Roach +3; 5. Steve Smith, Duane Hanson, Peter Beatham +1; 6. Tim Gallant, Chris Dunifer, Dana Wardwell, Dan Watters, Even; Pins: No. 7 Jim Hancock 6-7; No 9. Chris Dunifer 15-0; No. 16 Jim Hancock 4-7; No. 18 Shawn Sutherland 17-4

BCS Tournament 1. Bill Hutchins, Deron Smith, Regan Smith, Liam Hutchins 56; Most Accurate: Bob Lyford; Pin: No. 16 Terry McDonald 9-0; Rawcliffe Open 1. Al Porter, BJ Porter, Jody Lyford, Bob Lyford 58, 2. Byron Dunbar, Jamie Leavitt, Marty Kelly, Randy McLaughlin 59, 3. Nate Ellis Jr., Nate Ellis Sr., Derek Newland, Cameron Newland 61 (mc), 4. Kevin Grant, Mike Stoup, John Kotredes, Richard Cox 61, 5. Carl Gaudet, Darryl Luce, Mike Walker, Katie Walker 62; Pins, No. 3, Gold/Red: Bruce Ireland 13-1; White: Doug Chambers; No. 16, Gold/Red: Jen Williams; White: Bob Lyford: Most Accurate, Red/Gold: BJ Porter; White: Darryl Ross

Senior Scramble Results Dick Gassett, Russ Black, John Higgins, Jim Awalt -7; (tie) Tom Winston, Mel McLay, Doug Stark, Dennis Kiah -5; Rocky Alley, Bill Nickels, Jerry Noble, Lou Martin -5; David Gubler, Royce Morrison, Mark Molnar, John Shoppe -5; Bob Leighton, Bob McKenney, Ralph Alley, Jim Oreskovich -4; Alan Gray, Mark Johnson, Chuck Hode, Dick Keene -4; Randy Irish, Bill Ferris, Bob Wilks, Mike Dore -3; John Somes, Jim Bonzey, Ron Allen, Bob Carter -2; Bob Tweedie, Kerry Woodbury, Bob Gray, Bob Fraser -2; Pins: No. 2 Dick Gassett 7-0, No. 6 Jim Awalt 6-6

Golf Wars Scramble League Gross: 1. Fearsome 33, 2. The Hackers 33; Net: The Happy Hookers 28.5, 2. Two Oldies +2 30.1; Pins: 6. Jim McFarland 33-0, 9. Mark Wanner 22-1

Kebo Boys Game, 3 BB Stableford 1. Hank Tibbetts, Tim Vanderploeg, Phil Norton, Rick Wolff 121; 2. Wyman Tapley, Ty Smith, Carl Lusby, Ed Darling 115, Randy Stanley, Mark Leonardi, Jud Starr, Steve Dodge 115

Overall Gross: Ray Brochu 75, Bruce Bubier 77, Colin Roy 79; Net: Phil McCabe 61, Vic Gaudreau 66 (mc), Dave Ames 67; Flight 1, Gross: Eric Lacroix 80 (mc), Preston Ward 80 (mc), Dave St. Andre 80; Net: Steve Assante 70 (mc), Scott Karczewski 70, Mark Kamen 71; Flight 2, Gross: Greg Page 80, Bill Fairchild 84, Bill Hunter 86; Net: Mert Dearnley 70, Ron Aho 72 (mc), Tony Trask 72 (mc); Flight 3, Gross: Mike McGuire 82 (mc), Mike Knox 82, Rick Cronin 83; Net: Dick McCann 70, Paul Connolly 71 (mc), Charlie Miller 71; Flight 4, Gross: Cy Thompson 81, Bob Ouellette 85, Bob Spencer 87; Net: Ben Walker 71, Jim Murphy 72, Phil Poulin 73; Super Senior, Gross: Dana McCurdy 90; Net: Leo Lever 73; Best Ball, Gross: Rick Cronin, Mike Knox, Preston Ward, Eric Lacroix 70 (mc); Ray Brochu, Tom Kus, Ed McKay, Paul Drouin 70; Best Ball, Net: Reggie Gammon, Ken Luce, Dick McCann, Cy Thompson 59; Steve Assante, Jim Ouellette, Dan Peaslee, Mike Cote 60 (mc); Pins: No. 2 Charlie Pray 2-8, Cy Thompson 9-11, No. 7 Ray Brochu 12-3, Leo Bellemare 14-9, No. 15 Leo Bellemare 11, Bob Ouellette 9-6, No. 17 Alan Turner 3-4, Jim Murphy 3-7, Skins, Gross: No. 4 John Deetjen (3), No. 6 Dave St. Andre (3), No. 7 Ray Brochu (2), No. 11 Charlie Pray (3), No. 13 Eric Johnson (3), No. 17 Jim Murphy (2); Net: none

Tuesdays results Gross: Hosel Rockets 31, 2. Potential 35; Net: 1. Dukes of Hazards 26.7, 2. Party of Fore 28.6; Pins: No. 6 Gary Seavey 52-0, No. 9 Glenn MegQuier 19-7

6th Annual Golf for Alzheimers Sponsored by Birch Bay Village 1. Chris Shelton, Rob McKenney, David Mitchell, Joe Domagala 61; 2. Nicholas Schoeder, Jake Willis, Darryl White, Scott Lawliss 63; Pins: No. 4 David Mitchell 8-11, No. 15 Nicholas Schoeder 7-9; Longest Drive: Bryant Ciomei

Better ball tourney Flight 1, Gross: Kristin Kannegieser, Leslie Guenther 70; Kathi OGrady, Mary Brandes 74; Ruth Colucci, Catherine Boyle 77; Debby Gardner, Laura Lipman 79; Net: Katy Heskett, Abigail Wermers 66; Kris Hughes, Meredith Koerner 66; Maria Cianchette, Carolyn Cianchette 66; Kimberly Lazenby, Barbara Ropke 67; Kathy Lyons, Colleen Arnold 67

Flight 2, Gross: Allison Landes, Debbie Porter 79; Linda Cameron, Marlene Viger 87; Melissa Dalfonso, Patricia Bouton 88; Caren Lederer, Lisa Fontaine 88; Kathy Heaton, Lorri Higgins 88; Maureen Lano, Barbara Deschenes 88 Net: Deborah Barry, Joy Eon 65; Ann Anthony, Meg Lyon 65; Jane Flower, Marcia Blake 68; Karen-Lee Moody, Susan McLain 69; Flight 3, Gross: Barbara Pearson, Maureen Collins 93; Terry Sullivan, Joanne Allaire 96; Marianne McNally, Penny Guerin 97; Linda Laughlin, Bea McGarvey 97; Susan Wootton, Heidi Lyman 97; Net: Ann Houser, Jean Farrell 69; Susan Graffam, Diane Snow 72; Barb Hintze, Betty Holmes 72; Bonnie Cote, Jean Smith 72

Skins, Gross: Leslie Guenther No. 8, Patricia Bouton No. 4, Debby Gardner No. 12, Linda Varrell No. 13, Bernice Vadnais No. 10, Lisa Wintle No. 14, Susie Gravel No. 17, Marla Leblanc No. 2; Net: Meg Lyon No. 7, No. 9, Joy Eon No. 1, Caren Lederer No. 16

Better ball tourney Gross, Flight 1: Janet Nelson, Cheryl Cole 77, Diane Bova, Irene Schultz 79, Liz Coffin, Karen Bamford 80; Flight 2: Polly Hoffman, Anne Barnes 85; Diana Wescott, Nan Bragg 89; Judy Edgecomb, Kathy Sproul 89; Net, Flight 1: Anne Raynor, Jenifer Stewart 63, Sharon Houle, Maggie Black 66, Sue Coffin & Sherrie Thomas 66; Flight 2: Lila Geis, Cindy Shaw 63, Barbara Redmond, Laurie Clark 64, Donna Hanson, Karen Stuart 65; Gross Skins: No. 2 Karen Bamford 3, No. 4 Diane Bova 4, No. 5 Cindy Choate 3, No. 12 Janet Nelson 3, No. 15 Diane Bova 3, No. 16 Rachel Newman 4; Net Skins: No. 7 Linda Morin-Pasco 2, No. 8 Linda Morin-Pasco 1, No. 9 Diana Wescott 2

Regular Tees Flight 1, Gross: Mike Doran 69, Nate McCue 70, Brian Angis 70; Net: Shawn Casey 64, Matt Bowe 65, Tony Leslie 65; Senior, 55-62, Gross: Phil Barter 73, Mike OBrien 73, Len Cole 75; Net: Mark Genest 66, Butch Kennedy 67, Ray Ross 68; 63+, Gross: John Downing 73, Gary Manoogian 74, Bob Barber 76; Net: Ed Hickey 63, Steve Hodge 65, Ken Sawtelle 65

Senior Tees 57-68, Gross: Mark Curtis 72, Craig Lapierre 72, Bob Rudy 75, Zibby Puleio 75; Net: Bill Holmes 68, Doug Prevost 68, Jim Stevens 69. 69+, Gross: Joe Collins 73, Rick Plummer 74, Ron Brown 75. Net: Lloyd Doughty 65, Norm Charleston 72, John Collins 72

Team, One Gross/One Net: Ryan Masse, Jim Stevens, Nate McCue, Matt Bowe 121, Mike OBrien, Brian Angis, Carl Poirier, Martin Doherty 124, Tony Leslie, Butch Kennedy, Tim Mariano, Mark Hammond 125, Chris King, Shawn Casey, John Conley, Phil Ingraham 126, Seth Woodcock, Joe Alvarez, Jarod Richard, Neil Angis 127, James Anderson, Mer Doucette, Mark Manzi, Jason Willis 127.

Black Tees Skins, Gross: all tied; Net: No. 5 Ed Hickey 2, No. 7 Joe Larivierre 2, No. 11 Dave Ertz 2, No. 13 Mark Genest 1, No. 16 Harry Loring 2. Senior Tees Skins, Gross: No. 1 Martin Doherty 3, No. 3 Dave Collinsworth 2, No. 5 Bob Hintze 3, No. 16 Rick Plummer 2, No. 18 Joe Collins 3; Net: No. 7 Mike Dumais 2, No. 10 Jim Stevens 2; Pins Black Tees: No. 3 Jeff Cole 2-5, No. 6 Tony Leslie 8-4, No. 13 Patrick Perreault 7-9, No. 16 Joe Alvarez 20-0; Senior Tees No. 3 Don Johnson 9-5, No. 6 Paul Pelletier 1-5, No. 13 Glenn Furth 6-6, No. 16 Robert Hintze 28-8

Tuesday Morning Senior League (par 35) Gross: 1. Bill Fernandez 37, 2. Rick Gilman 37, 3. Mike Lafontaine 39, 4. Fran Riva 42, 5. Ed Lucas 42; Net: 1. Jim Bosse 29, 2. Alan Gray 29, 3. Shawn Small 30, 4. George Thibodeau 31, 5. Bob Lebretton 31, 6. George Strout 32, 7. Bob Ruhlin 32; Pins: No. 4, Rick Gilman 2-6, No. 8, Jim Bosse 5-4; Long drive, Red tees: Kathy Lafontaine; Gold tees: Phil Keith; White tees: Andy Taylor

Mens Senior League 1. Bruce Wiersma, Don Payne, Cliff Wilbur 30; 2. Ralph Allen, Ron Goldstone, Dick Burger 33; 3. Jim Oreskovich, Butch Robichaud, Merle Trimm 34; 4. Joe Guaraldo, Robbie Robinson, Bob Pentland, Roger Theriault 35

Senior Scramble 1. Kate Doherty-Perez, Steve Cates, Brian ODonnell, Ken Smith -4; 2. Jane Hooper, John Caruso, Fred Morgan, Gordon Faulkingham, Melrose Beal -3; 3. Lynn King, Pierre Dumont, Bob Tracy, Bill Swayne -2 (won putt-off); 4. Sue Derickson, Paul Look, Gary Derickson, Scott Whitney -2; 5. Charles Lightner, Ralph Backman, Sonny Beal, Gary Willey -2; Pin: No. 2 Scott Whitney 11-5, No. 5 Bob Tracy 2-11

Thursday Morning Stableford League 1. John Arsenault, Aaron Newcomb +7, 2. John May, Marty Drew E, 3. Thea Davis, John Arsenault -2, 4. Ed Hallett, Heokbum Kwon -4; pins: No. 3 Ed Hallett 9-10, No. 8 Thea Davis 27-4, No. 9 Aaron Newcomb 19-10, No. 12 Terry McDonald 4-11, No. 16 Aaron Newcomb 5-8; Skins: No. 3 Eddie Hallett, No. 5 Heokbum Kwon,

No. 13 John Arsenault, No. 14 John May, No. 16 Aaron Newcomb

Ladies Association A Flight, Gross: Sally Stockman 87, Kathy Harper 97; Net: Jan Staples 75, Molly Mugler 76; Putts: Sally Stockman 30; B Flight, Gross: (tie) Diane Bryant 111, Joanna Schleif 111; Net: Joni Hall 80, (tie) Martha Bouchard 84, Joyce Cooley 84; Putts: Diane Bryant 30; Pins: No. 5 Kathy Harper, No. 10 Sue Wootton

Senior Scramble Rocky Alley, Eric White, Bob Wilks, Warren Young -6; David Gubler, Mike Dore, Bob Fraser -5; Randy Irish, Jim Bonzey, Chuck Hodge, John Higgins -3; Dennis Kiah, Kerry Woodbury, Russ Black, Jerry Noble -2; Bob Leighton, Dick Gassett, Joe Guaraldo, Doug Stark -2; Pins: No. 2 Randy Irish 12-4, No. 6 Dick Gassett 4-2

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Here are all your local golf results - Bangor Daily News

Can developing countries rein in offshore wealth? – Brookings Institution

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

If you want to stop the government or fellow citizens from knowing the true extent of your wealth, you can do no better than move that money offshore. This time-honored strategy works well for those wishing to avoid taxation but remains a constant frustration to authorities trying to build progressive tax systems and stymie inequality and corruption: Its difficult to eat the rich if you cant figure out where they dine. Taxing peoples income directly remains particularly elusive for developing countries, which raise around one third as much from income taxes relative to their GDP as high-income countries (Figure 1). Reining in offshore tax evasion would be a step in the right direction.

What little evidence we have suggests that offshore evasion is at least as pronounced in poorer countries as it is in richer ones. Annette Alstadster, Niels Johannsen, and Gabriel Zucman used a combination of international deposit and portfolio data to estimate that the equivalent of 10 percent of global GDP is held in tax havens. Their country-level estimates, which are only as recent as 2007, reveal that as a percentage of GDP, poor countries stash just about as much of their wealth offshore as rich ones do, and that there are outliers at all levels of GDP per capita (Figure 2).

Micro-level work also suggests that offshore ownership is dominated by elites, and that secrecy is their best defense against the prying eye of tax authorities. Work by UCLAs Juliana Londoo-Vlez with Javier Avila-Mahecha found that rich Colombians were much more likely to hide wealth offshore, with over 40 percent of the top 0.01 percent engaging in the practice. But that same work found that bridging the information gap made a difference: Colombian elites that were named in the Panama Papers leak were substantially more likely to declare their wealth through a disclosure scheme run by the tax authority.

Leaks of financial data like the Panama Papers offer a useful snapshot for tax authorities, but how can they have more systematic, timely data on the offshore world? The solution put forward by the OECD suggests that tax authorities routinely gather and exchange relevant data on bank deposit ownership with each other. As of this year, 115 countries, including most tax havens, have signed up to the OECDs framework for the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI). The few studies that have been conducted show that when these exchange agreements are implemented, offshore wealth shrinksand does so rapidly.

But if you look at a map of who has signed up to AEOI, its hard not to spot the obvious: Poorer countries havent been able to take advantage of this information exchange. Only 7 percent of low-income and lower-middle income countries have adopted AEOI or committed to implementing it by 2023 (Figure 3).

This gulf in participation is driven by the fact that many developing countries currently lack the capacity to gather comprehensive data on what little wealth foreigners are stashing in their banks. To compound matters further, AEOI is based on a principle of reciprocity: To join the club, you have to be ready to share information with all of its members. Because of this, many developing countries remain shut out of a trove of information that would be useful for tracking down hidden wealth or corrupt assets.

We know from estimates produced by Alstadster et al. that developing countries hold about the same amount of wealth offshore as a proportion of their GDP. Those estimates are in part based on data produced by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), which gathers and publishes data from mostly high-income countries on foreigners claims on bank deposits.

But there is some evidence that the international statistics may understate the true level of offshore wealth held by some countries. When the BIS assigns the ownership of offshore accounts, it relies on each banks own assessment of the residence of the ownerwhether it is a person or a company. There are two limitations to this approach. First, banks have little incentive to get this information right, so they will be more inclined to take an account owners claim of residence at face value. Second, and more importantly, if a persons wealth comes from their ownership of a company, the residence is assigned based only on where that person is located. This means that the accuracy of the BIS doesnt extend to shell corporations.

Data from AEOI reports should in theory make it easier to correctly identify the jurisdiction where the owners of offshore wealth reside. For certain types of corporations, banks are required to gather and share information on the ultimate owner or beneficiary of that account. This means that even if a corporation in a tax haven that will passively hold wealth is set up, once the tax haven and the home country sign up to AEOI, information on the account beneficiary will be disclosed. AEOI data isnt perfect: Most customers had warning before banks began gathering and sharing this information and may have moved their assets elsewhere before the light flooded in. But AEOI is still likely a big improvement on past frameworks.

Most countries keep data from their AEOI exchanges a secret, but the Australian Tax Office recentlyafter some nudging from civil society groupsreleased information on offshore ownership in 2018. These published figures will deviate from the BIS statistics for many legitimate reasons: Australia assigns the entire account balance to the jurisdiction of each owner of an account, so there is some double counting. BIS data also includes loans and doesnt cover the same range of financial institutions as the OECDs framework for AEOI statistics. Even so, the data released by the Australian Tax Office offers a rare opportunity to observe where and why the BIS may understate true levels of offshore wealth (Figure 4).

When one compares the two data sources, smaller economies with lower levels of deposits in Australia tend to have better coverage in AEOI statistics than they do in BIS data. As we move down in GDP per capita, the ratio of AEOI-to-BIS deposits increases from around 1-1 to 10-1, suggesting that official statistics may be obscuring the true levels of wealth held by developing countries, even in a non-tax haven country like Australia (Figure 5). By contrast, many jurisdictions commonly thought of as tax havens have lower levels of deposits in the AEOI statistics relative to those in the BIS statistics, reflecting the fact that many companies in tax havens are shell companies used to obscure the ultimate owner of assets.

Tax authorities in developing countries have much to gain from going after offshore wealth but are constrained in their ability to participate in the automatic exchange of information as constructed. Entities like the OECD, the World Bank, and Tax Inspectors without Borders have started to provide some technical assistance to developing countries to get them up to speed.

But these efforts will take time to move the needle. If we want to get data on offshore wealth into the hands of countries that need it the most, the OECD should consider relaxing the reciprocity restriction for automatic exchange of information for countries that meet predetermined criteria, either those below a certain GDP per capita or based on a recent metric of tax capacity. Until then, tax officials in developing countries can chase the rich as far as their national borders, but no further.

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Can developing countries rein in offshore wealth? - Brookings Institution

Aquaculture’s offshore opportunities – The Fish Site

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

On the final day of the GOAL 2020 Virtual Conference, delegates tuned in to a virtual panel discussion on the future trajectory of the aquaculture industry. For panellists Dick Jones from Blue Ocean Mariculture, Neil Sims from Ocean Era and Philip Schreven from De Maas SMC, aquacultures future lies in the open ocean.

Neil Sims explained that by moving farming activities offshore, producers can take advantage of swifter and safer waters. The additional currents mean that sediments and effluents dont accumulate near farm sites, making aquaculture more environmentally friendly. In Sims view, offshoring can positively shift the public perception of aquaculture.

Though this seems like wishful thinking at the outset, there is some evidence for Sims opinion. Policymakers and NGOs like the Nature Conservancy and WWF see enormous potential in offshore aquaculture. The move could shore up global food security without harming the environment.

Despite the positive indicators on paper, offshore farm operations tend to be the exception instead of the rule. Ocean geographies and water depths are diverse, and aquaculture isnt suitable for every environment. In addition, the gear and technology needed to run offshore farms are expensive farms need to invest millions before they turn a profit. Offshore farms also need significant onshore infrastructure in terms of hatcheries and broodstock supply to run. Offshoring isnt feasible without onshore facilities.

The panel told delegates that offshore farming faces an uphill battle if it wants to become standard industry practice. Like nearshore and land-based farms, offshore operations must balance competing needs to keep businesses solvent. This tension was clear when the panel discussed the importance of scaling production while keeping an eye on sustainability.

Neil Sims stressed that offshore producers cant have one without the other. In his view, the scale of offshore aquaculture suffers if producers dont account for sustainability. Neglecting this has health and welfare ramifications for the fish and risks losing public buy-in. Likewise, placing an undue emphasis on sustainability without giving producers the ability to scale up means that producers wont gain a foothold in the market. In many cases, it means they wont stay in business long-term.

Though the White House issued an Executive Order (EO) in May 2020 to spur the growth of the US fisheries and aquaculture sector, the panellists didnt think the order was the best way to develop offshore farms. Despite giving additional resources to sector, Sims said that it doesnt give business owners a lot of long-term confidence. Executive Orders can be easily revoked by forthcoming administrations. For offshore aquaculture to make its mark, it needs a more long-term solution.

The panel mentioned the bipartisan Aquaculture Act as a key avenue for expanding offshore aquaculture. The new law establishes pre-permitted opportunity zones in federal waters for aquaculture producers. When farms begin operating in an opportunity zone, they can take advantage of a streamlined application and licensing process, allowing production to expand quickly.

The Aquaculture Act also gives an explicit regulatory framework and designates NOAA as the oversight agency for producers. The panel also stressed that the bill includes environmental protections, addressing a key concern of sustainability advocates.

The main question in the Q&A session focused on potential technological breakthroughs for offshore systems. From Dick Jones perspective, any technological breakthroughs in offshoring will be piecemeal. There wont be a single innovation that revolutionises the industry.

Phil Schreven told delegates that the next major step for offshore systems will be reducing the cost of sea cages. Any breakthroughs in that segment of production will change offshore farming dramatically. In his experience, though existing offshore units are well designed, transporting and installing a single cage can cost more than $10 million.

We have to get costs down, Schreven explained, thats difficult to do when were working with giant steel structures.

The panellists concluded that offshore aquaculture could help change the public perception of fish farming. Moving sea cages into the open ocean diminishes many of the environmental and safety criticisms that are levelled at near-shore farms. If the farms can become more feasible, offshore aquaculture could become the new industry standard.

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Aquaculture's offshore opportunities - The Fish Site

Mild Saturday turns quickly to offshore and warm conditions for next week – KSBY San Luis Obispo News

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Right now there is a low pressure system located to the west in a larger broad trough in the upper atmosphere, both together are producing deep low clouds and mild conditions across the area.

There was even some mist and drizzle last night into this morning near the coast. That looks likely again tonight as the low pressure center will make its closest approach to the area but a narrow miss to the west and south looks likely.

This miss sets the stage for a cloudy coastal start to Saturday with partly cloudy afternoon conditions before more clouds roll in Saturday evening. This will be quickly replaced by offshore winds for later Sunday.

This building of high pressure across The West will produce strong offshore winds into Monday morning, 15-25mph with some gusts past 30-40mph in some places.

These offshore winds will be dry and warm. Next week looks to feature above average temps across the entire area, and with months of no real rainfall the fire risk will be high.

The ridge of high pressure driving the warm weather looks to persist into Friday of next week.

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Mild Saturday turns quickly to offshore and warm conditions for next week - KSBY San Luis Obispo News

Beaches: POA revises project again to dredge offshore sand – Coastal Observer

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Property owners at the southern end of Litchfield Beach will return to the sea in search of sand for a renourishment project, abandoning plans to haul inland sand by truck.

State and federal agencies are taking public comments on the third version of a permit application by the Peninsula Property Owners Association to place up to 400,000 cubic yards of sand on the beach. The first two plans met with opposition from property owners in the Inlet Point community and Litchfield Beach.

The 33 lots at the Peninsula are part of the gated Inlet Point development, but also have their own association, which will fund the renourishment.

We want to appease as many people as we can, said Steven Traynum, project manager for Coastal Science and Engineering, which designed the project. With just the Peninsula, they would be paying for the whole thing.

The purpose of the project is to prevent storm damage. It will also allow the property owners to establish the states jurisdiction at the base of the dune that will be created. The state is due to revise its jurisdictional lines in 2022. Under the current conditions, Traynum said those lines would likely fall under or behind the current houses.

The POA first applied in April for permits from the state Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Army Corps of Engineers to place offshore sand on nearly a mile of beach. That was opposed by property owners in Inlet Point and Inlet Point South who said they didnt want to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in assessments for a project that would primarily benefit owners in the Peninsula, which was developed on property in a federally-protected coastal barrier.

The estimated cost of the project, for up to 700,000 cubic yards of sand, was $12 million.

In July, the Peninsula POA changed its permit application to allow up to 400,000 cubic yards of sand to be trucked to the beach over two or three years. That was estimated to cost about $8 million and would exclude the beach in front of Inlet Point South.

The revised permit drew hundreds of letters in opposition, many focused on the impact of the truck traffic on the roads and quality of life in the beachfront community. The work was estimated to require between 100 and 150 truck trips a day over three months.

While Traynum said the state Department of Transportation said the roads and the bridge onLitchfield Drive could handle the traffic, Coastal Science was concerned that the permit would be appealed.

The latest project will place offshore sand on the 2,700 feet of beachfront at the Peninsula. The POA is asking for a 10-year permit to allow for additional offshore sand to be used to repair storm damage.

In order to reduce the cost of the project, the POA wants to be able to dredge in the spring and summer. Dredging is usually restricted to avoid sea turtle nesting season, which runs from May through October.

The wider dredging window means more contractors will be available to bid on the project and there is less likelihood work will be delayed by bad weather, Traynum said.

He doesnt expect the project will impact the sea turtles.

That area of the beach doesnt get a lot of turtle activity anyway, Traynum said. In its current condition, it has zero nesting habitat.

Since the dredging will take place around the clock for six to eight weeks, the main concern will be keeping lights from the project from disrupting turtles on adjacent beaches, he said.

In addition to creating a beach that will have 200 feet of dry sand at high tide, the project proposes to create a dune up to 15 feet high in front of the houses, according to the permit application.

Im not sure we will go that high, Traynum said. We wanted to get to the height of the walkovers.

Two other concerns raised about the first two versions of the project were the quality of the sand and the potential for the new sand to wash into Midway Inlet and Clubhouse Creek.

The offshore borrow area, about 3 miles northeast of Litchfield Beach, contains better sand than the site used for renourishment at Pawleys Island earlier this year, Traynum said.

The Pawleys sand had about 25 percent shell content. The Litchfield borrow area has about 7 percent shell content.

That material looks a lot more like the native sand than was put over on Pawleys, he said.

The evidence from the Pawleys Island renourishment also shows that the additional sand wont end up in the creek at Litchfield, Traynum said.

At the south end of Pawleys, the beach grew in front of the spit during the six months after sand was added to the north. Even with Hurricane Isaias in August, there was no sign that the sand washed over the spit, he said.

A concern shared by property owners at Pawleys Island and Litchfield is the silt clogging the creeks. Coastal Science looked at the sand in Clubhouse Creek as part of the Peninsula project.

Even if permits could be obtained, the creek contains only about 80,000 cubic yards of sand, Traynum said.

Comments on the revised permit application can be made online at epermweb.dhec.sc.gov.

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Beaches: POA revises project again to dredge offshore sand - Coastal Observer

Revealed: 97% of UK marine protected areas subject to bottom-trawling – The Guardian

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

More than 97% of British marine protected areas, created to safeguard ocean habitats, are being dredged and bottom trawled, according to data shared with the Guardian.

Nearly a quarter of the UKs territorial waters are covered by MPAs, set up to protect vital ecosystems and species, including harbour porpoises and dolphins. This network of parks is a symbol of the governments world leading target to protect 30% of ocean biodiversity by 2030.

However, analysis of fishing vessel tracking data from Global Fishing Watch (GFW), by Oceana, a conservation NGO, found that bottom trawling and dredging, the most destructive type of fishing on sea-floor habitats, is happening in 71 out of 73 offshore MPAs around the UK.

The vessels, from the UK, other EU countries and Russia, spent an estimated 200,000 hours trawling or dredging across the seabed in offshore MPAs in 2019, according to GFW algorithms based on their AIS (automatic identification systems) data, Oceana said.

The findings, which follow reports by Greenpeace of an increasing number of foreign supertrawlers fishing in the same sites, drew accusations that the government is misleading the public over paper parks that fail to protect Britains seas.

The government has insisted that the EUs common fisheries policy restricts its ability to implement tougher protections in MPAs. Trawling and dredging is not illegal in most offshore MPAs.

Oceana warned of an ecological emergency, calling on the government to introduce measures to protect the sites from 1 January, the end of the Brexit transition period, when it gains more control of its territorial waters.

The shadow environment secretary, Luke Pollard, said the government should publish plans of how it intends to honour its 30 by 30 oceans pledge and hold urgent talks with fishermen.

Melissa Moore, head of policy at Oceana UK, said: If the government really want to take back control of our waters, as they repeatedly claim, they should make a policy announcement today that theyll halt bottom-towed fishing gear by foreign and UK vessels in all marine protected areas. We dont want more trials, or other measures that merely rearrange the deckchairs, were in an ecological emergency and need action now.

Prof Callum Roberts, a marine scientist at Exeter University, said it was very disappointing bottom trawling and dredging was still taking place inside protected sites.

Roberts said: MPAs are highly ineffective. They are fake, they are paper parks. Theres a massive problem here and the government needs to address it. They are misleading the public, wasting resources, protecting nothing. They are not going to contribute to recovery of marine life, stem the loss of biodiversity or mitigate the impacts of climate change.

After decades of industrial fishing which had destroyed seabed habitats, only a ban on fishing in MPAs would allow marine life to thrive, he said. You cant negotiate with marine life. It doesnt work.

Pollard praised the 30 by 30 pledge, which Michael Gove signed up to when environment secretary. But that means ending fishing in MPAs. The government has not been honest enough with the fishing sector, he said.

There doesnt seem to be a timetable, there doesnt seem to be a plan and there doesnt seem to be a conversation with the fishing sector about how we can work with fishers to incentivise fishing outside marine protected areas.

Nine years is not very far away.

Conservationists have recently stepped up lobbying to safeguard marine parks. In September, Greenpeace dropped giant boulders from its ship into the Dogger Bank MPA, a North Sea breeding ground for cod, whiting and sand eels, forcing trawlers to avoid the area or risk damaging their fishing gear.

The Blue Marine Foundation wrote to the fisheries minister, Victoria Prentis, to say it would seek a judicial review unless the government commits to protecting Dogger Bank and other MPAs. A number of NGOs, including WWF and the Marine Conservation Society, also accused the UK, the Netherlands and Germany of breaching the EU habitats directive by failing to protect Dogger Bank from bottom-impact fishing.

There are indications that the government is under pressure to restrict fishing in protected marine sites, although it has to balance the promises it has made to UK fishermen and allow some access to EU boats. Last week, Zac Goldsmith described supertrawlers as gigantic tools of destruction and hinted at a ban on industrial fishing inside protected areas.

In response to Oceanas analysis, a Defra spokesperson said: We are putting sustainable fishing and the protection of our seas at the heart of our future fishing strategy. We have already set up a blue belt of protected waters nearly twice the size of England and the fisheries bill proposes new powers to better manage and control our marine protected areas.

Leaving the EU and taking back control of our waters means the government can introduce stronger measures, they said.

A Scottish government spokesperson said: Scotlands marine protected area network is already in excess of 30% of our sea area taking Scotland past the proposed new global target for 2030 currently being negotiated by the UN convention on biological diversity and each site is managed to achieve its conservation objectives by restricting activity which will hinder this, while allowing sustainable use to continue.

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Revealed: 97% of UK marine protected areas subject to bottom-trawling - The Guardian

10 On Your Side gets first look at offshore wind turbines – WAVY.com

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) Virginia is in the race to be a leader in offshore wind energy in the United States. Dominion Energy has plans for an $8-billion offshore wind project in the next few years.

We are going to the coast of Virginias offshore wind pilot project, said Dominion Energy Project Manager Lloyd Eley.

Thursday morning, engineers and scientists from Dominion and Old Dominion University boarded a boat at the Virginia Aquarium to head 27 miles off the coast.

Its a perfect day to go out, Eley added.

Dominion Energy teamed up with Old Dominion to build and study two offshore wind turbines.

Old Dominion University is a maritime university, said ODU Executive Director of Programs and Partnerships Paul Olsen. We are very focused on maritime skills and maritime education.

Dominion built the 600-foot-high turbines and ODU is looking at the data. The goal is to have another source of future energy.

Hampton Roads is really relying on one or two initial sources of energy both nuclear and fossil fuels, Olsen added. Offshore wind along with solar will diversify our energy portfolio.

Soon, 200 more wind turbines will join the two. Dominion will start construction in 2024 and they should be operational two years later.

Its a very exciting moment, Eley said. I know the team has worked really hard with construction and managing of the logistics, the schedule and the budget especially in the midst of a pandemic. We are able to collect lessons learned for both the permitting side as well as the engineering, design and construction.

ODU just won a $775,000 grant from the Department of Defense to continue the development and implementation of offshore wind technology.

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10 On Your Side gets first look at offshore wind turbines - WAVY.com

UK PM Boris Johnson says offshore wind will power every home in the country by 2030 – CNBC

Posted on October 10, 2020 by Danzig

Wind turbines in the Irish Sea, in waters near the town of Llandudno, in Wales.

VladCa | iStock | Getty Images

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he wanted the country to become the "world leader in low cost clean power generation."

Speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference, which was delivered virtually, Johnson stressed the importance of renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind.

"We believe that in ten years' time, offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts," he said.

"You heard me right: your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle, the whole lot of them, will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands," he added.

The pledge to increase offshore wind capacity was included in the Conservative Party's manifesto for the 2019 general election.

Johnson said he remembered how some people used to sneer at wind power 20 years ago, in an apparent reference to himself, given he had once claimed wind farms couldn't "pull the skin off a rice pudding." His comments criticizing the effectiveness of wind power were made in 2013, however.

The prime minister said 160 million ($207.46 million) would be invested in ports and factories to manufacture what he described as the "next generation of turbines" a move he later claimed would generate 60,000 jobs and also acknowledged the role floating offshore wind could play.

"As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the U.K. is to wind a place of almost limitless resource but, in the case of wind, without the carbon emissions, without the damage to the environment," he said.

According to figures from industry body RenewableUK, the U.K.'s operational offshore wind capacity stands at a little over 10.4 gigawatts. The U.K. is already home to a number of large offshore wind farms. These include Hornsea One, in waters off Yorkshire, England, which has a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts.

In response to Johnson's remarks, Hugh McNeal, RenewableUK's chief executive, said the government had "raised the ambition for offshore wind and renewables, and our industry is ready to meet the challenge."

"A green recovery with renewables at its heart will be good for consumers and jobs, as well as helping to meet our 2050 net zero emissions target," he added.

The pledge to ramp up offshore wind capacity was met with measured optimism from environmental organizations. Mike Childs, who is head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said Johnson's "U-turn" on wind showed "the renewables argument has clearly been won."

"Investment in off-shore wind is certainly critical for powering a cleaner, fairer future, but Boris Johnson mustn't ignore the huge contribution onshore wind could make too," he added, before going on to call for planning restrictions on onshore wind to be "urgently" reversed.

"We also need a comprehensive nationwide energy efficiency programme to create jobs, cut fuel bills, prevent people shivering in heat-leaking homes and help face down the climate emergency," he said.

In a tweet reacting to the news Jonathan Bartley, who is co-leader of the Green Party, said it was "good to see the Prime Minister's conversion" but noted that more detail was needed on how things would be funded. "It still falls far short of what is urgently needed and what could be achieved," he added.

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UK PM Boris Johnson says offshore wind will power every home in the country by 2030 - CNBC

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