The Rise of Skywalker trailer five things we learned – The Guardian

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Back in my day, jocks and nerds didnt get along much, but it seems such old distinctions are now gone. Making its debut at halftime during Monday Night Football, the final trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker delighted athletes and asthmatics alike. We are all united when it comes to Jedi, droids and Wookiees.

The Rise of Skywalker is billed as the culmination of the sequel-trilogy, or non-ology, or whatever you call the main Star Wars storyline. There will be more from the galaxy far, far away (The Mandalorian is just around the corner on Disneys streaming service) but for material directly connected with George Lucass 1977 original, this is it. Or at least until its Daisy Ridley and John Boyega as the elder statespeople passing the lightsaber to the next generation. (Dont think that wont happen.)

As the new trailer launched, there were many questions. Is Rey an everywoman, or is she to the cosmic manor born? Will Kylo Ren revert to the light side? Will Finn and Rose live happily ever after? Can Poe Dameron be any more dreamy?

And how will Luke Skywalker fit in, now he is dead? How exactly will Emperor Palpatine, AKA Darth Sidious, fit in, since hes been dead since 1983? How smooth will the repurposed footage of General Leia look, since Carrie Fisher died before production of this movie began? And for the hardcore, is that ship in the background really the Ghost from the animated series Star Wars Rebels? (All signs point to yes.)

This is a JJ Abrams film, so zilch of substance was revealed in this latest promo. But here were the five moments where we made noises that most resembled millions of voices crying out in terror (in a good way).

The third film in each Star Wars trilogy has, thus far, involved a reversal of what true nerds call alignment. In Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader became good. Yay! In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker turned bad. Boo! Will this new one be the tiebreaker? We hope so. And we hope it involves Rey forgiving Kylo Ren his transgressions and the two of them having a big smooch somewhere with the wind blowing her robes and his wavy hair.

But until that can happen, theres going to be some fighting, and it looks like some of that will be on the high seas. Adam Driver looks diabolical emerging from the water and holding his red, cruciform lightsaber like some kind of upside-down trident.

Palpatine is back in this new one. How how how? No one saw it coming, so we should have expected it.

Weve yet to see Ian McDiarmid in any of the promotional materials is it really him, or his Force ghost? but weve heard him laugh and now weve heard him say spooky things such as Long have I waited! (Never keep McDiarmid standing in a queue; hes terrifying!) Its unclear exactly what the Darth Formerly Known As Sidious has been waiting for, but we can guess as to the where: a crazy-looking stone throne that would make even Thanos wince!

I thought we had got all the Star Death out of the way with The Last Jedi. Vice-Admiral Holdo sacrificed herself by hyperdriving the Raddus into a fleet of Star Destroyers and Luke Skywalker evaporated after his Force Projection. Then there was Carrie Fisher who actually died. Couldnt our tear ducts maybe take a movie off?

Well, no. I just didnt think it would be C-3PO, the protocol droid who along with R2-D2 has been in every Star Wars movie thus far, to be the one to go. A solemn farewell moment in this trailer makes it seem as if thats the case.

When George Lucas (remember him?) was first dreaming up these stories (and giving them tongue-twister titles such as Adventures of the Starkiller as taken from The Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars) his influences were varied. Yes, he was reading Joseph Campbell. Yes, he was watching Akira Kurosawa. But he was always inspired by cheap, dopey film serials from the 1940s and earlier. To that end, this shot of our heroes on a fleet of interplanetary horses (they arent tauntauns!) really brings it all home. Its fun to see new character Jannah (Naomi Ackie) leading the charge, and outstanding to see BB-8 zooming alongside them.

Each trilogy is about one persons journey. The prequels were about Anakin, the original trilogy was about Luke and the sequel trilogy is about Rey. The final shot of this trailer, with the digital sparkle added to her eyes (unless Abrams blinded her on set!), is a gorgeous image of a new icon. And the voice from elsewhere in the room (or maybe from beyond) echoes some memorable lines from the first film: The Force will be with you, says Luke. Always, adds Leia.

Excuse me, someone must be chopping up space onions in here!

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The Rise of Skywalker trailer five things we learned - The Guardian

JMA warns of landslides, high waves as Typhoon Bualoi strikes islands south of Tokyo – The Mainichi

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TOKYO -- Powerful typhoon Bualoi has begun to lash Japan's Ogasawara Islands about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo with strong winds and rough seas, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said.

The agency is calling for residents of the islands to be on their guard against landslides and high waves. It said swells brought by the typhoon could also cause rough seas in some areas from northern to western Japan on the Pacific Ocean side of the country through Oct. 25.

As of 11 a.m. on Oct. 24, Typhoon Bualoi, the 21st recorded this year, was located about 30 kilometers northwest of Chijijima, an island in the Ogasawara chain, and was heading north at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour. It had a central atmospheric pressure of 950 hectopascals, with a maximum sustained wind speed near its center of 45 meters per second (162 kilometers per hour), and a maximum wind gust speed of 65 m/s (234 kph).

The typhoon is later expected to head north and then north-northeast before being downgraded to an extratropical cyclone in an area to the east of Japan in the predawn hours of Oct. 26.

The agency warned that some areas of the Ogasawara Islands could be hit with heavy rain of about 30 millimeters per hour, as well as thunderstorms. It said rain could have already loosened some land.

(Mainichi)

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JMA warns of landslides, high waves as Typhoon Bualoi strikes islands south of Tokyo - The Mainichi

How America Learned How to Hunt and Kill Submarines (Thank World War I) – The National Interest Online

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Key point:The Navy's experience was gained with blood, but it would help again against the Nazis during the Second Battle of the Atlantic.

When Congress voted on April 6, 1917 to declare war on Imperial Germany, the task before the U.S. Navy was clear: it needed to transport and supply over a million men across the Atlantic despite the Imperial German Navys ferocious U-Boat campaign, which reached its peak that month, sinking over 874,000 tons of shipping.

Indeed, Germanys decision to recommence unrestricted submarine warfare in February was one of the decisive factors driving the United States, and later Brazil, into finally joining the war to end all wars.

While World War I submarines could only remain submerged for brief periods, they were highly successful at picking off unescorted merchants ship in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. Neither active sonar nor radar yet existed with which to track submarines, though the British had begun using hydrophones to listen for the noise of a submarines diesel engine.

The most successful anti-submarine ships were agile torpedo-boat destroyers, which sank U-Boats using deck guns and even ramming. Starting in 1916, Royal Navy vessels carried depth charge designed to detonate underwater, rupturing a submarines hull. These proved effective if the ship captains could guess the subs position. Statistically, naval mines proved deadliest, accounting for one-third of U-Boat losses.

For years, the Royal Navy resisted instituting a convoy system to guard merchant ships, preferring not to divert warships from offensive missions and believing the decrease in throughput from adhering to a convoy schedule would prove worse than the losses inflicted by U-Boats.

But that April, U-Boats had sunk one-quarter of all merchant ships bound for the UK, leaving it with just six weeks grain supply. Threatened with economic collapse, the Royal Navy finally instituted the convoy system. But the Brits had a problem: they could divert only forty-three out of the seventy-five destroyers required to escort convoys.

Naval liaison Rear Admiral William Sims convinced the navy to dispatch thirty-five U.S. destroyers to bases at Queenstown (modern-day Cobh), Ireland to fill in the gap. These began escorting convoys on May 24, usually supported by navy cruisers. In 1918, an even larger escort flotilla began operating out of Brest, France.

The U.S. Navy itself began the war with only fifty-one destroyers. It immediately faced a classic military procurement problem: politicians and admirals wanted to build more expensive battleships and battlecruisers, construction of sixteen of which had been authorized by the Naval Act of 1916.

But the Royal Navy already had the German High Seas fleet effectively bottled up in port with its larger force. While five coal-burning and three oil-burning U.S. battleships did join the blockade in 1918, they never saw action. Common sense prevailed, and battleship construction was halted in favor of building 266 destroyers.

More rapidly, the Navy commissioned hundreds of small 70-ton wooden-hulled sub-chasers equipped with hydrophones, 3 deck guns and depth charges. Civilian yachts were similarly converted. The Navys eleven L-class and K-class submarines were also deployed to Berehaven (now Castletownbere), Ireland and the Azores respectively to hunt (surfaced) U-Boats, but none encountered enemy forces during the war.

Hundreds of twin-engine HS maritime patrol planes were also procured to scour the seas for submarines. Though the seaplanes sank few if any submarines, they disrupted numerous attacks by forcing U-Boats to dive and abort their torpedo runs.

The convoy system proved a dramatic success, cutting shipping losses to less than half their peak. U-Boats simply lacked unprotected targets and were more likely to be lost combating escorts. Shipping losses gradually fell to roughly 300,000 tons per month, while U-Boat losses increased from three per month to between five and ten.

However, submariner-hunting remained a dangerous business in which a hunter could swiftly become hunted. On Nov. 17, 1917, the destroyer USS Cassin was pursuing U-61 near Ireland when the U-Boat counterattacked. Spotting a torpedo rushing towards the depth-charge launcher on the ships stern, Gunners Mate Osmond Ingram lunged forth to jettison the explosive charges but was caught in the blast that tore away the destroyers rudder. The Cassin remained afloat and shelled U-61s conning tower, causing her to disengage. Ingram was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

The destroyer Jacob Jones was not so fortunate when she was struck in the rudder by a torpedo fired by U-353 near Brest on December 6. Sixty-six crew perished abandoning ship as her depth charges detonated. Gallantly, U-Boat captain Karl Rose rescued two of the crew and radioed the position of the other survivors.

U.S. sub-hunters did score some successes. On November 17, the destroyers Fanning and Nicholson forced U-58 to the surface with depth charges, then engaged her with deck guns until her crew scuttled her. The converted yacht Christabel crippled a U-Boat with depth charges in May 1918 off the coast of Spain.

That month, the Imperial Navy began dispatching long-range U-Boat cruisers with huge 150-millimeter deck guns to maraud the U.S. coast. These sank ninety-three vessels, mostly small civilian fishing boats. The Germans hoped this would spread panic, causing the Americans to withdraw assets in Europe for home defense.

Notably, on July 18 the boat U-156 surfaced off the coastal town of Orleans on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and proceeded to destroy a tugboat, four barges and the nearby shoreline with its cannons. Nine Coast Guard HS and Model R-9 seaplane bombers scrambled from NAS Chatham and peppered the withdrawing U-boat with bombsnone of which exploded.

The following day, the armored cruiser USS San Diego struck a mine probably lain by U-156 south of Long Island. The explosion flooded her engine room, causing the cruiser to sink with the loss of six handsbecoming the only capital ship lost by the navy. U-156 proceeded to sink twenty-one fishing boats in the Gulf of Maine, and even commandeered a trawler to assist in its rampage. But though the navy instituted coastal convoys, it didnt withdraw ships from Europe.

U-Boats were also active in the Mediterranean, and Gibraltar-based American subchasersoften little more than civilian yachts fitted with 3 guns and depth chargestwice clashed with them, sinking at least one.

Perhaps the Navys most swashbuckling episode of the war occurred on October 2, 1918, when twelve U.S. subchasers covered an Italian and British surface force raiding the Albanian port of Durazzo. Dodging shells from shore batteries, the subchasers cleared a path through the defensive minefield for the accompanying capital ships. They then hounded away the submarines U-29 and U-31, heavily damaging both.

The navys deadliest anti-submarine measure was the North Sea Mine Barrage, a 230-mile-long chain of 100,000 naval mines between the Orkney islands and Norway. U-Boats seeking passage to the Atlantic had to wend through eighteen rows of Mark 6 mines concealed at depths of twenty-four, forty-nine and seventy-three meters deep, strung together with piano wire. Each of the horned steel spheres contained three hundred pounds of TNT. The barrage cost $40 million ($722 million in 2018 dollars) and required the deployment of eight large steamships. However, it sank between four and eight U-Boatsincluding the infamous U-156and damaged another eight.

Ultimately, 178 out of 360 operational U-Boats were sunk during World War I. In return, the German subs sank 5,000 merchant ships totaling 12.8 million tons, killing 15,000 mariners. The U.S. Navy lost 431 personnel and five shipsits worst loss occurred when the collier USS Cyclops vanished with 306 crew in the Bermuda Triangle.

Despite its unglamorous duties, the U.S. Navy learned valuable lessons in the Great War about employing convoys, smaller submarine-hunters and maritime patrol planes that would save many lives in the even more destructive conflict that followed two decades later.

Sbastien Roblin holds a masters degree in conflict resolution from Georgetown University and served as a university instructor for the Peace Corps in China. He has also worked in education, editing, and refugee resettlement in France and the United States. He currently writes on security and military history for War Is Boring. This first appeared in December 2018.

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How America Learned How to Hunt and Kill Submarines (Thank World War I) - The National Interest Online

SSN(X) Will Be the U.S. Navy’s New Attack Submarine: Here’s How to Make it A Success – The National Interest Online

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Let the experiments begin, submariners and shipbuilders. Even as shipyards lay keels for a bulked-up block of its Virginia-class nuclear-powered attack submarine (SSN), the U.S. Navy espies an entirely new class of attack boat designated SSN(X). The SSN(X) program is slated to debut in 2031, a full twelve years from now. (The program gets underway in earnest in 2034, when the service expects to start buying two boats per year.) That timetable affords the submarine force a bit of leisure to ponder the nature of naval warfare, project the composition of future fleets, and postulate operational concepts and tactics whereby the silent service can navigate an undersea environment in flux.

In short, the experts have time to think about things first rather than vault straight into engineering.

Lets put that leisure to use. Once submarine officers complete the intellectual legwork they can work alongside naval architects and weapons scientists to devise a sub design that empowers the U.S. Navy fleet as a whole to discharge the missions likely to be entrusted to it. But the design process must not stop with drafting impressive blueprints. The leadership and shipbuilders must treat the fresh design as a hypothesis. A ship design is nothing more than a nifty idea until shipwrights beat the idea into steel and crews take it to sea. Just like in chemistry or physics lab, the team should test their hypothesis in the field, unearth its faults and quirks, refine it, and keep testing until it yields satisfactory results.

Only then should it be pronounced fit for serial production.

That the scientific method should govern naval development sounds self-evident. Evidently, it wasnt around the turn of the century. Back then a conceit seems to have bewitched the Pentagon leadership. It went something like this: designers could draw up plans for a new platform, engineers could pile on untried weapons, sensors, or other gear, and the platform could go into mass production before proving out in field trials. Thats like a car maker dreaming up a concept car, declaring the prototype ready for sale, and rushing it into production . . . before taking it on the track for a test drive.

Imagine the wreckage to the bottom line of any firm that invented and marketed products the Pentagon way. High-seas operations are the arbiter of what does and doesnt work in marine technology, just as road testing vindicates a supercar designor exposes its shortcomings.

The turn-of-the-century procurement philosophy underwent field trials of its own. It gave us littoral combat ships without working sensors and weapon systems but with unworkable crewing and operational schemes; stealth destroyers sporting advanced guns meant to fire ammunition thats too expensive to buy; and aircraft carriers without operational weapons elevators to arm their warplanes. At best the fin de sicle approach causes delays and costs money as operators discover problems and engineers improvise fixes and retrofit them into vessels already displacing water. At worst, a shipbuilding program could fail altogetherrending a hole in the navys fleet design.

Subtract a ship type from the fleet and you risk grave operational or even strategic repercussions. All the more reason to experiment with SSN(X) prototypes long before 2031and deposit that misbegotten legacy in historys dustbin.

So much for the jeremiad. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has been on a tear at the navys expense of late, for instance by issuing an estimate that the SSN(X) will cost $5.5 billion per hull, as opposed to the $3.4 billion forecast in the naval establishments long-range shipbuilding plans. The CBO analysts explain that gaping 62 percent discrepancy as an artifact of a disagreement over hull size. Size matters. CBO says it assumed the navy needs a bigger boat to get what it says it wants out of the new class in terms of armament, speed, and other attributes. A vessel boasting the tonnage of the older 9,100-ton Seawolf-class, not the less capacious 7,800-ton Virginia, would be necessary to furnish the internal volume to house these improvements.

Heavier means pricier. QED. Or has it? By all accounts, the Seawolf constitutes the state of the art in SSN technology. But the first boat in the class was commissioned a quarter-century ago, while the design dates to the 1980s. Technology and warfighting concepts have bounded ahead in the interim. Is it really safe to assume that the SSN(X) must necessarily be a Seawolf equivalentan updated version of a thirty-year-old design?

Maybe, maybe not. Revisiting the fundamentals could help the silent service and the navy leadership answer the CBOs challenge and vindicate their budgetary outlook. What sort of boat would do so? Rather than gainsay the legendary baseball sage Yogi Berrawho wisecracked that its tough to make predictions, especially about the futurelets stipulate some principles to shape the inquiry shaping the SSN(X). One Principle to rule them all: do not content yourself with improving on existing boats, or even on long-cherished ideas about what a submarine is or how it ought to do business. Situate the new SSN in the strategic and operational context that will greet it when it takes to the depths in the 2030s.

Principle #1break the mold.

Over the past couple of years, the Naval War College convened two Breaking the Mold workshops aimed at shattering orthodox thinking about all things naval and maritime. I had the privilege of overseeing a cohort of Young Turks who hammered the mold with glee. They rejected measuring naval power by brute numbers of hulls in the water, the traditional gauge of whos strong and who falls short. Instead, they fell back on a definition of military adequacy beloved of scribes from Clausewitz to Mahan to Corbett: the contender able to concentrate superior combat power at the decisive place and the decisive time is the likeliest victor and, therefore, is adequate unto its purposes.

Nothing in the strategic canon states that it takes a particular type of platform or payload to amass X + 1 units of combat power at a scene of action where the foe fields X units. Doubtless, the ship as traditionally understood will remain integral to the panoply of naval warfare. But sea power is undergoing a phase change with the inception of ultra-long-range precision weaponry, unmanned aerial, surface, and subsurface vehicles of many types, land forces able to strike out to sea, and on and on. Submarine warfare is not exempt from this incipient revolution.

Framers of the SSN(X) program should gaze darkly into the future, then, asking themselves whether the sub remains the sole bearer of undersea might or they should design the undersea fleet to accommodate new realities. SSNs that operate in concert with unmanned craft could be quite different from the lone wolves that now prowl the oceans and seas.

Principle #2beware of breaking the mold.

Now, theres hidden peril to declaring a longstanding paradigm brokennamely that you might wrongly or prematurely abandon a model that remains valid but needs mending. Philosopher-scientist Thomas Kuhn declares that a paradigm shift takes place when so many anomalies accumulatediscrepancies the model cannot explainthat the old paradigms defenders can no longer explain them away or tweak the model to account for them. The reigning paradigm then collapses, yielding to another that explains reality better.

Plausible enough. But Kuhn implies, without quite saying so, that a twilight zone precedes the paradigm shift. Thats when anomalies have started to appear, but not in such numbers or so compellingly that they refute established orthodoxy beyond doubt. During that ambiguous phase, disputants might toss out a perfectly good paradigm that needs to be refreshed for new circumstances. Witness, for instance, the never-ending debate about whether the day of the aircraft carrier is coming to a close. Anomalies are legion, in the form of saturation missile barrages and the like; whether theyre fatal to carrier aviation remains in question. No naval engagement has put claims and counterclaims to the testyet. Without a verdict of arms, whos to say for certain whether these are false anomalies, manageable developments, or bona fide paradigm changers?

Discarding a valid paradigm would court danger just as clinging to an outmoded one would. Worse still, the healthy spirit of breaking the mold could merge with the U.S. Navys mostly healthy can-do spirit to produce an unhealthy technophiliaenthusiasm for a new paradigm that may never fulfill its promise. Heres how that might work. Navy magnates have taken to calling the Trump administrations proposed 355-ship force The Navy the Nation Needs, yet resource constraints appear to rule out more than modest expansion beyond todays 290 hulls. How should can-do leaders fashion the navy the nation needs without the resources to do it?

Perhaps by indulging in technological fudge factors. Suppose the leadership broke the mold and redefined the fleet in terms of combat power rather than raw numbers. Decouple fighting power from numbers of ships and planes and it might be possible to declare that the U.S. Navy boasts 355 ships worth of combat power even though it never actually fields 355 ships. Proclaiming that unmanned vehicles and other newfangled gadgetry make up for that sixty-five-ship shortfall would embody the can-do spirit, letting the navy claim to have fulfilled its mandatepotentially without fulfilling it in reality.

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SSN(X) Will Be the U.S. Navy's New Attack Submarine: Here's How to Make it A Success - The National Interest Online

Cruises: New cruise ship could help beat seasickness with this clever feature – Express

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Cruise ship holidays come with plenty of positives thanks to friendly crew, onboard entertainment and the opportunity to explore new destinations. That said, such trips can still come with their own share of negatives for certain travellers. Seasickness is an unpleasant side effect of taking to the water and it can be very nasty for some suffers. According to the NHS: Motion sickness is caused by repeated movements when travelling, like going over bumps in a car or moving up and down in a boat.

The inner ear sends different signals to your brain from those your eyes are seeing. These confusing messages cause you to feel unwell.

A new cruise ship launching this month boasts a feature which could prevent passengers suffering from seasickness.

Cruise line Aurora Expeditions will see the Greg Mortimer cruise ship set sail this October.

Instead of featuring the conventional bulbous bow seen on regular cruise ships, this vessel has something quite different.

The 80-cabin Greg Mortimer is the first expedition ship to incorporate the patented Ulstein X-Bow.

The X-Bow - which rather resembles the nose of a Concorde - is a true game changer for the industry, according to Aurora Expeditions.

Instead of the traditional bow shape and design that punches through the water, the Ulstein X-Bow hull is curved in a novel shape which increases the foreship volume, explains the cruise companys website.

As a result, the bow penetrates the waves in a way where the water gently flows over the bow reducing impact and slamming loads.

This results in the following benefits on board the ship: reduced bow impact and slamming loads, reduced wave-induced vibrations, lower acceleration levels, lower pitch response due to volume and lower speedloss.

Aurora Expeditions explains: The main advantage of the Ulstein X-Bow is that it can pierce waves with more stability than a traditional ship bow.

Instead of simply rising on the waves and then dropping with tremendous force, the X-Bow is able to absorb the force more consistency across its surface enabling the ship to remain more stable during poor weather conditions, increasing comfort for passengers and crew alike.

However, if the new ship is not for you there are other ways you help fightseasickness when on a cruise.

The NHS advises: Minimise motion sit in the middle of a boat, look straight ahead at a fixed point, such as the horizon and breathe fresh air if possible.

The health body also advises closing your eyes and breathing slowly while focusing on your breathing as well as eating ginger, be it as a tablet, biscuit or tea.

An unlikely location onboard a cruise ship which could be helpful to head to if nausea sets in is the casino.

According to cruise ship doctor Ben MacFarlanes book Cruise Ship SOS: They dont want to compromise the roulette ball. Nor do they want any seasick passengers heading back to their cabins and interrupting a losing streak.

If you know you're susceptible to seasickness on a cruise it's well worth making sure you choose the right ship cabin for you.

Ex cruise ship crew member Joshua Kinser recommends avoiding the cabins in the middle and opting for lower decks instead.

Lower decks will not have as much rocking and motion when in high seas, he told Express.co.uk. So if youre concerned about seasickness these are good choices.

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Cruises: New cruise ship could help beat seasickness with this clever feature - Express

The high-tech wetsuit that we don’t want – SurferToday

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The Rising Seas wetsuit is a neoprene skin equipped with a built-in bio-defense system that will protect surfers from adverse effects of water pollution.

The revolutionary wetsuit will also inform wave riders of the presence of viruses, oil spills, harmful bacteria, algae blooms, and high levels of run-off pollution in the ocean.

The innovative neoprene protection was designed by Alex Kemp and Scott Brown of Lone Wolfs Objets d' Surf.

The Rising Seas concept features an LED display mask with high-grade LCoS optical-level coating that will analyze and inform the surfer about bacteria levels, water temperature levels, and solar radiation.

The futuristic wetsuit also comes with a touch screen display that will allow users to access swell charts, get weather updates and alerts on changes in local environmental conditions.

"The thought that we may need this wetsuit in the future is frightening. We're asking everyone who cares about a healthy planet to help us to never have to produce it," notes Paul Naude, CEO of Vissla.

The Rising Seas wetsuit is a wake-up call. Surfers and citizens in general who love the ocean must act now and demand political leaders to address the climate change crisis immediately.

Healthy beaches and clean water are critical to the countries' communities, economies, and recreation industries.

Every year, coastal recreation and tourism generate 2.4 million jobs and contribute more than $124 billion to the US economy.

Nevertheless, the consequences of offshore oil drilling, accumulation of plastic in the water, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels are putting all the above benefits at risk.

According to Surfrider, pollution at US beaches costs $2.2 billion annually.

"The Rising Seas wetsuit is our reality unless we take immediate action to address climate change impacts and pollution. It's just a stark glimpse into what every surfer and coastal lover face if nothing is done," concludes Eddie Anaya, marketing director at Surfrider.

The environmental organization is asking the surfers and the public to sign an action alert that will be sent directly to congressional representatives and hand-delivered to Congress.

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The high-tech wetsuit that we don't want - SurferToday

The Navy’s Plan For Ruling The Seas Are Straight Out Of the History Books – The National Interest Online

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Key point: The world is seeing an abundance of threats from naval mines.

The US Navy is making an aggressive push toward "offensive" mine warfare designed to attack and destroy enemy ships and submarines with undersea explosives - all while preparing a complex suite of interwoven mine countermeasure technologies.

We will produce a mine warfare plan to include offensive mine lines of effort. We are asking the CNO (Chief of Naval Operations) to sign in the next 90 days, Maj. Gen. David Coffman, Navy Director of Expeditionary Warfare, told an audience recently at the Surface Naval Association Symposium.

Mine technology, including both shallow and deep water mines, is not only advancing quickly but also rapidly proliferating around the world, therefore reaching a wider swatch of potential US enemies. Advances in offensive seamine technology is something the US plans to leverage itself while working to sharpen its focus on countering the growing mix of enemy mine threats.

Greater volumes of advanced deep water mines represent an area of concern for Coffman and other maritime warfare leaders, who recognize that the weapons are not restricted to littoral areas - but also substantial threats when it comes open or blue water warfare.

While it appears that the Mine Warfare Plan is currently being refined and reviewed by Navy leadership, Coffman indicated that the services offensive and defensive mine warfare strategy will seek to leverage US undersea technology superiority.

We are making a strong push toward offensive mining using an undersea capability. We are drawing upon the CNOs wisdom in exploiting what we have strength in. We know we have dominance undersea, Coffman said.

This approach is likely to draw upon some of the fundamentals of US undersea technology, such as advanced sonar, quieting technologies and submarine missile launch tubes increasingly able to launch mine-detecting drones.

Offensive mine technology will consist of a mixture of more detectable and hidden weapons, each consisting of different combat tactics.

Covert is good and overt is good too. We need a lot of arrows in the quiver because there are different warfighting scenarios, Coffman said.

Following Coffmans reasoning, it would seem that more visible or find-able mines have a strategic and operational value - if less covert. Naturally they could be missed by an enemy or overlooked in some way, yet they certainly can function as weapons intended to deny an enemy access to a strategically vital location or asset. Covert mines, by comparison, would likely function with the more narrowly configured intent to avoid detection and simply explode an enemy.

There are a variety of ways in which this emerging Navys mine-warfare strategy is already becoming more manifest, to include video-guided undersea drone explosives, unmanned weapons and sensors and advanced airborne countermine technologies engineered to destroy mines beneath the surface.

This strategy, and its corresponding warfare technologies, will in part be executed by elements of the Navys now-in-development Mine Countermeasures (MCM) Mission Package for the Littoral Combat Ship. This includes specially configured MH-60 helicopters, deck-mounted drones such as the Fire Scout, surface sweeping drone boats such as Textrons Unmanned Influence Sweep System and deep diving drones engineered to detect mines buried beneath the ocean floor - such as Knifefish.

The overall MCM system, integrating these and other technologies, is slated to be operational by 2022; however, several elements of the system are ready for war today, service developers said.

For MCM, we can field the aviation mission packages on the even (Independence variants of the LCS fleet) ships today, Capt. Ted Zobel, Mission Modules Program Manger, told Warrior Maven following his presentation at SNA.

The air assets, such as the Navys Airborne Mine-Neutralization System and Airborne Laser Mine Detection Systems, hinge upon successful coordination and command control synergy with surface and undersea assets. Naval Sea Systems Command recently announced it has has verified communications links between an Independence variant of the LCS and both the surface sweeping UISS and Knifefish mine-detecting drone.

The Navy now operates a series of test ranges for mine warfare, to include locations in Panama City, Fla., and San Diego, Zobel said.

For each one of the program of records we put together, the mission package goes through its own test. We lay mine fields and go to work against them, he told reporters at the Surface Naval Association Symposium.

The development of MCM technologies is, by design, intended to lay the foundation for new mine warfare systems in future years. The effort, Zobel said, is called "Mission Package Next."

We talk with the research sponsors regularly about Mission Package Next and what it might entail. We scan industry to see what is available, but right now we are focused on the three mission packages we have, Zobel explained.

Airborne Laser Mine Detection System

Instead of purely relying upon more narrowly configured, mechanized or towed mine detection systems, the Navy has been developing airborne laser systems to expand the surface area from which mine detection takes place.

The system, called Airborne Laser Mine Detection System (ALMDS) enables shallow-water warships such as the LCS have a much safer sphere of operations as commanders will have much greater advanced warning of mine-cluttered areas.

Northrop and Navy developers are looking at ways the ALMDS can be further enhanced through ongoing modernization efforts, such as current work to integrate AI.

We are looking at automating the entire kill chain for MCM. Now the ALMDS flies on an MH-60. Perhaps we can get that into a smaller form factor and put it on the Fire Scout, Kevin Knowles, Director of Business Development for LCS, Northrop Grumman, told Warrior Maven in an interview at SNA.

The ALMDS pod is mechanically attached to the MH-60S with a standard Bomb Rack Unit 14 mount and electrically via a primary and auxiliary umbilical cable to the operator console, according to a statement from the systems maker, Northrop Grumman.

It does not use any bombs. It flies at a certain altitude and a certain speed. The laser emits beams at a certain rate. Cameras underneath the helicopter receive reflections back from the water. The reflections are processed to create images displayed on a common consol on the helicopter, Jason Cook, the Navys Assistant Program Manager, ALMDS, told Warrior Maven in an interview last year about the system.

Cook explained that the camera or receiver on the helicopter is called a Streak Tube Imaging LIDAR (STIL). The laser is released in a fan pattern, and photons received back are transferred into electrons, creating a camera-like image rendering.

Northrop information on ALMDS further specifies that the system can operate in both day and night operations without stopping or towing equipment in the water.

Allowing untethered operations, it can attain high area search rates. This design uses the forward motion of the aircraft to generate image data negating the requirement for complex scanning mechanisms and ensuring high system reliability, Northrop information states.

Having this technology operational, it seems, offers a few new strategic nuances. First and foremost, detecting mines more quickly and at further ranges of course makes the LCS much more survivable. It will be able to pursue attack, anti-submarine and reconnaissance missions with a much lower risk of mine-attack. Furthermore, identifying the location of mines at greater distances brings the added advantage of enabling lower-risk small boat missions to approach target areas for shore missions, surface attack or recon.

Also, given that attack submarines are routinely able to launch attacks, conduct recon and access enemy areas in closer proximity to island and coastal areas, compared with many deeper draft larger surface combatants, ALMDS could measurably improve submarine operations.

Finally, given that the LCS is engineered for both autonomous and aggregated operations, ALMDS could provide occasion for the ship to alert other surface and undersea vessels about the location of enemy mines. In fact, Northrop writes that ALMDS provides accurate target geo-location to support follow on neutralization of the detected mines.

Some of the technical details of the system are further delineated in a research paper written by Arete Associates a science and technology consulting firm with a history of supporting entities such as the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force.

A high resolution 3-D image of the scene is produced from multiple sequential frames formed by repetitively pulsing the laser in synchrony with the CCD (Charge Coupled Device) frame rate as an airborne platform "push broom" scans or as a single-axis scanner on a ground-based platform scans the laser fan beam over the scene, the Arete Associates essay titled Streak Tube Imaging LIDAR For 3-D Imaging of Terrestrial Targets, writes. The backscattered light from the objects and the terrain intersecting the fan beam is imaged by a lens.

STIL technology, while only recently becoming operational with ALMDS, has been in development as a maritime surveillance system for many years. A 2003 study from the Naval Surface Warfare Center cites how pulsed light sent out from a three-dimensional electro-optic sensor STIL system can identify objects of interest on the ocean bottom.

Airborne Mine Neutralization System

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The Navy's Plan For Ruling The Seas Are Straight Out Of the History Books - The National Interest Online

The Benefits Of Applying Blockchain Technology In Any Industry – Forbes

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Blockchain technology has evolved greatly since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008, the first decentralized peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Today, innovators in various fields are realizing the benefits of the technology behind Bitcoin. From medicine to finance, many sectors are looking for ways to integrate blockchain into their infrastructures.

With its decentralized and trustless nature, Blockchain technology can lead to new opportunities and benefit businesses through greater transparency, enhanced security, and easier traceability.

Blockchain Concept and Manhattan Skyline at Night

How Blockchain Can Power Up Your Business

Blockchain solutions are not only limited to the exchange of cryptocurrencies. There are numerous benefits that this technology can present to businesses in many different industries, through its distributed and decentralized nature:

#1 Greater Transparency

Blockchains greatest characteristic stems from the fact that its transaction ledger for public addresses is open to viewing. In financial systems and businesses, this adds an unprecedented layer of accountability, holding each sector of the business responsible to act with integrity towards the companys growth, its community and customers.

#2 Increased Efficiency

Due to its decentralized nature, Blockchain removes the need for middlemen in many processes for fields such as payments and real estate. In comparison to traditional financial services, blockchain facilitates faster transactions by allowing P2P cross-border transfers with a digital currency. Property management processes are made more efficient with a unified system of ownership records, and smart contracts that would automate tenant-landlord agreements.

#3 Better Security

Blockchain is far more secure than other record keeping systems because each new transaction is encrypted and linked to the previous transaction. Blockchain, as the name suggests, is formed by a network of computers coming together to confirm a block, this block is then added to a ledger, which forms a chain. Blockchain is formed by a complicated string of mathematical numbers and is impossible to be altered once formed. This immutable and incorruptible nature of blockchain makes it safe from falsified information and hacks. It's decentralized nature also gives it a unique quality of being trustless meaning that parties do not need trust to transact safely.

#4 Improved Traceability

With the blockchain ledger, each time an exchange of goods is recorded on a Blockchain, an audit trail is present to trace where the goods came from. This can not only help improve security and prevent fraud in exchange-related businesses, but it can also help verify the authenticity of the traded assets. In industries such as medicine, it can be used to track the supply chain from manufacturer to distributer, or in the art industry to provide an irrefutable proof of ownership.

Blockchain-as-a-Service for Simpler Integration

The problem that many businesses face, however, is that blockchain is sophisticated to integrate, and lack a technical team that is well-versed in this arena. BaaS or Blockchain-as-a-Service companies allow customers to integrate Blockchain technology into their businesses easily, without disruption to their daily processes. One such company that identified the need for BaaS is Broctagon Fintech Group.

With a global presence across 7 countries, Broctagon provides premier fintech solutions including multi-asset liquidity, brokerage technology solutions, and enterprise blockchain development. Businesses are also apprehensive about blockchain integration, especially about investing large sums of funds into development for a technology that is still considered disruptive. Starter kits like Blockchain-in-a-Box allows modern businesses to create a proof-of-concept to confirm blockchains viability and feasibility for their business before embarking on a full development.Investors are more likely going to finance a project they can see, rather than just a conceptual idea. With its Blockchain-in-a-Box starter kit, businesses can create a fully tangible platform to stand out in their market and gain confidence for their projects.

Blockchain has the potential for many use cases, applicable to a multitude of industries, and BaaS facilitates that movement from disruptive into mainstream.

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The Benefits Of Applying Blockchain Technology In Any Industry - Forbes

SoftBank to Develop Cross-Carrier Blockchain Payments With IBM Tech – CoinDesk

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SoftBank is teaming up with IBM to develop cross-carrier blockchain solutions, with the focus on technologies that will allow smartphone users to make local payments when traveling overseas and roaming.

According to an Oct. 22announcement, SoftBank said it will be working with IBM as well as blockchain startup TBCASoft that develops cross-carrier blockchain networks in order to carry out applications under the Carrier Blockchain Study GroupConsortium.

TBCASoft was founded in 2016 and has received funding from SoftBank. In 2017, together with SoftBank, Sprint and Taiwans FarEasTone, it formed the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (CBSG), now an 18-member consortium working toward the development of blockchain solutions for phone companies.

SoftBank added that the first project being undertaken by the CBSG is the Cross-Carrier Payment System (CCPS), which is aimed to allow mobile-phone customers to pay locally using their devices when traveling outside their home countries.

Other members of the consortium include Koreas LG U+ and KT, Malaysias Axiata, Telekomunikasi Indonesia International, Turkeys Turkcell and PLDT of the Philippines.

The Oct. 22 announcement did not provide much detail about the terms of the agreement between the three companies, though it noted that TBCASoft will be using the IBM Blockchain Platform, IBMs Hyperledger-powered enterprise blockchain solution.

This is a business relationship, an IBM spokesperson clarified by email. IBM is not joining the consortium.

TBCASoft technology helps optimize clearing between different carriers and transaction records, according to the announcement, and allows for the interoperability of mobile networks and the bolting on of networks of merchants to enable payments.

The announcement also noted that SoftBank plans to have a payments system in operation in Tokyo in 2020, when the Olympics will be held in the city.

Last year, SoftBank completed a blockchain proof-of-concept in partnership with TBCASoft that would allow peer-to-peer mobile payments across different carriers.

SoftBank image via Shutterstock

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SoftBank to Develop Cross-Carrier Blockchain Payments With IBM Tech - CoinDesk

Research: Over 40% of Blockchain Industry Employees Work at Crypto Exchanges – Cointelegraph

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Almost half of all people working in the blockchain industry are employed by cryptocurrency exchanges, new research from industry-focused publication The Block reveals.

The Block published the research results on Oct. 23, stating that 42% of people at 158 analyzed companies work for digital currency exchanges, with around 7,700 people combined working at 30 different exchanges.

Crypto exchanges are followed by crypto mining equipment producers, comprising 11% of blockchain industry employees. 10% of the surveyed employees work for various cryptocurrency governing foundations, with Ripple, TRON, Block.one and IOHK being the largest employers in that sector.

Out of the analyzed 158 companies involved in cryptocurrencies and blockchain, Bitmain, Huobi, Coinbase and OKEx take the lead in terms of the numbers of people employed, with 1,500, 1,300, 1,000 and 950 employees, respectively. Binance and Ripples staff consists of around 650 and 450 employees respectively.

As reported in September, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase and Ripple fell out of the top-10 of Linkedlns The 50 hottest U.S. companies to work for list. Stock and crypto trading startup Robinhood mostly retained its position, moving from the sixth place in 2018 to the seventh in 2019.

Ripple was ranked as one of the best employers in the technology industry in the San Francisco Bay Area in March. At the time, 91% of employees reportedly said that Ripple is a great place to work at, with 95 percent of the surveyed claiming that they are proud to tell others they work there.

In June, LinkedIn named blockchain as one of the top-10 most important employee skills in the Asia Pacific region.

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Research: Over 40% of Blockchain Industry Employees Work at Crypto Exchanges - Cointelegraph

US Congressman: Default Reaction to Bitcoin, Blockchain Must Be Yes – Cointelegraph

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U.S. Congressman Patrick McHenry, who represents North Carolinas 10th District, says he wants regulators default reaction to crypto innovation to be yes.

The Congressman who goes by the moniker of Mr. Fintech on Capitol Hill made his remarks during an interview for Laura Shins Unchained podcast, published on Oct. 22.

McHenry related his observations of the cryptocurrency spaces development, underscoring that the Bitcoins enormous value had become swiftly apparent. He soon recognized, he said, that regulators responses would struggle to keep pace with the wealth of new ideas:

My conclusion was, any action by the government really up until the last 2, 3 years would be negative, would impair innovation and would restrict the development of cryptocurrencies and their enormous value, now and in the future.

Its far better, he continued, for Capitol Hill to slowly become more informed about the industry rather than rush to go kill or try to kill an idea.

As the industry has evolved, he argued that weve entered a different phase: one that now needs smarter regulation and increased certainty from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as well as a clarification from the U.S. Treasury and IRS in regard to taxing authority.

Real government work still needs to be done, he noted.

To this end, he has this week reintroduced the Financial Services Innovation Act. The bill proposes the creation of financial service innovation offices within each of the ten different federal offices that deal with financial service issues.

The bill, he said, will ensure that regulators are innovation-forward and situated to say yes rather than no. I want the default to be yes, not no.

McHenry outlined that the creation of these offices would establish something similar to what other jurisdictions call a regulatory sandbox. His proposed term, permanent beta testing, would work on the same principles.

Regulatory agencies would be able to offer innovators in the crypto space to enter into an enforcement compliance agreement: once accepted, this would allow them to provide services under a modified compliance plan, with certain waivers for out of date measures or unduly burdensome.

For agencies such as the SEC and CFTC and others, he argued that the bill represents a necessary step to establishing a regulatory process that works with, not against, innovation.

As reported, McHenry told lawmakers this summer that:

The world that Satoshi Nakamoto, author of the Bitcoin whitepaper envisioned, and others are building, is an unstoppable force.

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US Congressman: Default Reaction to Bitcoin, Blockchain Must Be Yes - Cointelegraph

When will blockchain be adopted on the mass scale? – Gambling Insider – In-depth Analysis for the Gaming Industry

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Scroll through LinkedIn and you will see some bold claims. Some will profess to know the secret of effective marketing; others will boast there is no secret at all, just hard work. You will see technology experts describe new code, fresh mechanics and futuristic algorithms; all designed to shake up the market.

One area never too far down on my home page is blockchain technology. Those in this specific corner of the industry say it is not a tool of the future; it is already here and is essential. Conferences and events are held across the world to emphasise its progress and provide opportunity for experts to demonstrate its value.

But weve been hearing about how crypto-currencies are on the verge of mass adoption for more than a year now. We saw the hype of Bitcoin rise and fall in unity with its value and today we seem no nearer to a world run by distributed ledger technologies (DLT). So when will it happen? What will it take for blockchain to truly emerge from its corner and flood the gaming industry?

To deny that progress has been made would be naive. The first example has to be Malta. Labelling itself as the worlds Blockchain Island was another bold move. However, it is clearly keen on living up to that title. In 2018, the inaugural AI and Blockchain Summit was hosted on the island and this year it was given two slots on the global gaming calendar. The first edition of 2019 was held in spring and the next will take place in November.

That growth highlights the level of attention received by the new technologies. It is worth noting however, this conference does not solely focus on the gaming industry and of course includes AI as well as blockchain.

When I speak with digital suppliers such as platform providers, they are all eager to make it clear they can integrate blockchain technology. They say this is no problem and are happy to do it for any customer. When I ask them how many operators have actually opted for a crypto payment system, I get a less enthusiastic response. The answer rarely exceeds double digits.

There is still so much doubt in place over the use of crypto-currencies. Maybe the hesitancy exists more as a result of the extra effort. Operators already have a series of regulatory hoops to jump through, so to add another one may be a step too far at this point. With blockchain technology still so new when compared to traditional payment methods, the process is obviously far from being streamlined. This can be off-putting to operators. Time is money after all and if they need to close their website to integrate crypto-currencies, even if only for a short period, they will lose revenue.

One area that will surely drive on the use of blockchain technology is betting on esports. For the moment, it seems as if the industry is waiting for a new target demographic to mature. Betting on esports is becoming more popular as children who would play Fifa or Call of Duty become old enough to place a wager on their favourite pro team. Esports and crypto-currencies are a perfect partnership to help each other grow.

This partnership can be further fuelled by operators designing their own tokens, essentially creating their own currency. This is what esports operator Unikrn has done. By building its own token, Unikoin Gold, it encourages customers to spend more on its websites. The tokens can obviously be used to bet but are also used in giveaways, online shopping and exchanges.

Are we on the verge of mass adoption? The short answer is no. Rather than an overnight surge, blockchain in gaming will experience a steady trickle of new users. Day-by-day the number of customers using it will grow and this will be influenced by new players joining the betting landscape, bringing their expectations with them.

RELATED TAGS: Online | eSports | Industry | Sports Betting | Financial | Casino | Feature

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When will blockchain be adopted on the mass scale? - Gambling Insider - In-depth Analysis for the Gaming Industry

I study blockchain. It’s not ready to use in our elections – Fast Company

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I study blockchain technology and its potential use in fighting fraud, strengthening cybersecurity, and securing voting.

I see promising signs that blockchain-based voting could make it more convenient for people to vote, thereby boosting voter turnout. And blockchain systems can be effective at strengthening the security of devices, networks, and critical systems such as electricity grids, as well as protecting personal privacy.

The few small-scale tests run so far have identified problems and vulnerabilities in the digital systems and government administrative procedures that must be resolved before blockchain-based voting can be considered safe and trustworthy. Therefore I dont see clear evidence that it can prevent, or even detect, election fraud.

There are a few steps in a blockchain-based voting system, which uses technology to mirror the process of in-person voting.

First, the system needs to verify a voters identityoften by having the user upload a photo of a government-issued ID and then a photo or video self-portrait. The system confirms the IDs validity, and facial recognition software makes sure the person in the self-portrait is the person on the ID. Then the user is authenticated as eligible to cast a vote.

Only at that point does blockchain technology actually enter the process. The system gives each authenticated voter a digital token that represents the persons vote and a list of the digital addresses to which he or she can send that token. Each address indicates a vote for a particular candidate or an answer to a ballot question.

The tokens dont indicate who cast them, so votes remain anonymous. When a voter sends a token, a record of that act is stored simultaneously on several different computers, making it much harder for hackers to alter the vote records. After casting the ballot by sending the token, the user receives a unique code that they can use to look at the anonymized online vote tally to confirm their vote was counted as they intended.

Early results show that blockchain systems may increase voter turnout, though its not yet clear why. Many of the tests have been for informal ballots, such asstudent government groups and community projects.

However, several election officials in the U.S. have held small-scale trials of blockchain voting, allowing members of the military who are stationed overseas to vote electronically, rather than by mail.

In the November 2018 congressional elections, West Virginia allowed 144 voters living overseas to cast ballots from 31 different countries using an app developed by a private company called Voatz, which is involved in many of these trials.

Another 200 voters overseas expressed interest in using the system, but their home counties in West Virginia werent set up to allow them to do so. Based on the results, West Virginia says it plans to continue and expand the trial in the 2020 presidential election.

In Denver, Colorado, 119 voters who were overseas used a Voatz system to cast their ballots in municipal primary elections in May. In the citys June runoff election, 112 voters did so online through a blockchain system. In August, 24 voters cast their ballots from overseas using a Voatz app in a Utah County, Utah, election.

The most recentand largestuse of a blockchain-based voting system was in the city council election in Moscow, Russia, on September 8. Because of concerns that the system was not set up in a secureway, only three of the citys 20 electoral precincts allowed voters to use a blockchain-based mobile voting app to cast their ballot from anywhere with an internet connection.

Again, the evidence showed a boost in voter turnout: The citys overall turnout rate was around 17% of registered voters. That includes a 90% turnout among the voters who had registered to use the system.

However, technological complications barred some people from voting, which led at least one losing candidate to object that he would have won if everything had worked properly. Thats the sort of problem that is most worrying for people who hope using mathematical principles and computerized encryption will help the public have trust in election outcomes.

There are several obstacles in the way of blockchain ever becoming useful for large-scale, legally binding voting.

One is that most people have little understanding of how blockchain systems work. Another, equally vital, is that even experts dont have a way to identify every possible irregularity in online voting. Voting on paper, by contrast, is well studied and easily verified and audited.

One crucial aspect of a blockchain voting system is the method by which the computer system verifies voters identities. When a verified voter establishes an account on the system, that process creates a digital key that identifies them securely when casting a ballot. A more complex key is harder to hack but also takes more computing resources to verify. It will be important to find a way to protect the integrity of the voting process, without exhausting government budgets buying advanced computing power. The computational power required may make blockchain systems inefficient for voting on a nationwide scaleor even statewide, in populous states like California and Texas.

The Moscow election system, for instance, initially assigned keys that were too easily hacked. That opened the possibility of voter impersonation, which is bad enough. But that weakness also violated the principle of a secret ballot by letting outsiders know how each person voted.

Other problems with digital voting systems are separate from the underlying technologies. In some cases, government-issued IDs used to verify voters identities are many years old.

Even when dealing with current images, facial recognition systems, including the one used by Voatz, have high error rates, especially for nonwhite voters. In addition, hackers may try to trick the system.

The phone or computer a voter uses to cast a ballot may not be secure, eitherand its not safe to assume that the computer networks they communicate over, and the servers the data is stored on, are safe from manipulation or even random errors.

Proprietary voting apps like Voatz offer the public no way to know whether voters choices are accurately recorded, nor whether these apps truthfully deliver their ballots encrypted copy to be counted by election officials.

Voatz has claimed that its system has been audited by third partiesbut has made few details of that process or its findings available to the public. West Virginia officials who hired Voatz have also refused to reveal information about how its security was evaluated.

The company has said it would not release that information because it had a nondisclosure agreement with the auditors, and for fear its proprietary system design might be discovered by competitors.

Its possible that blockchain-based voting could boost voter participation rates, but theres no evidence yet that it is better at preventing election fraud. With plenty of potential trouble spots outside the system itself, and little public transparency within it, I have to conclude that blockchain voting is not yet safe or ready for service.

Nir Kshetri is a professor of management at University of North Carolina, Greensboro. This story was republished from The Conversation.

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I study blockchain. It's not ready to use in our elections - Fast Company

Are Smart Cities The Pathway To Blockchain And Cryptocurrency Adoption? – Forbes

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At the recent Blockchain LIVE 2019 hosted annually in London, I had the pleasure of giving a talk on Next Generation Infrastructure: Building a Future for Smart Cities. What exactly is a smart city?The term refers to an overall blueprint for city designs of the future.Already half the worlds population lives in a city, which is expected to grow to sixty-five percent in the next five years. Tackling that growth takes more than just simple urban planning. The goal of smart cities is to incorporate technology as an infrastructure to alleviate many of these complexities. Green energy, forms of transportation, water and pollution management, universal identification (ID), wireless Internet systems, and promotion of local commerce are examples of current of smart city initiatives.

The current technology needs of smart cities are served by what is called the Internet of Things, a term used to describe an overall network of devices with embedded unique identifiers. Example use cases for these devices include payment for items, and traffic management. In London, a traffic management system known as SCOOT optimises green light time at traffic intersections by feeding back magnetometer and inductive loop data to a supercomputer, which can coordinate traffic lights across the city to improve traffic throughout.

Barcelonasaved75 million of city funds and created 47,000 new jobs in the smart technology sector by implementing a network of fiber optics throughout the city, providing free high-speed Wi-Fi that supports the IoT and further linking to the integration of smart water, lighting and parking management. The Netherlands hastestedthe use of IoT-based infrastructure in Amsterdam, where traffic flow, energy usage and public safetyare monitored and adjusted based on real-time data. Meanwhile, in the United States, major cities like Boston and Baltimore have deployed smart trashcans that relay how full they are and determine the most efficient pick-up route for sanitation workers.

In 2015 India became one of the pioneers to openly enact a smart city mission across 12 of its cities. As governments across the world start to implement these initiatives, blockchain can provide the infrastructure necessary for transaction management. Transparency and security core fundamentals of blockchain are two very important elements in a smart city implementation.

Today, there are over a dozen smart cities, with less than a quarter that have an active large scale implementation of the use blockchain or distributed ledger technology. The city of Dubai has already planned to become the first blockchain powered smart city by 2021 and the country of Estonia has been using variations of blockchain and distributed ledger technology to keep track of citizens since 2012.

Leading smart city developers like Hancom are already supplying products and services from core hardwares of IOT to actual Smart City development. Gapyeong Malang Malang Smart Ecosystema 470 acre smart city development project is just one the many initiatives under the Hancom Group that will incorporate blockchain technology as the basis for smart city development. The most recent project for the Group, is the development of the Atlanta based Augury Square. The Augury Square is a 30-acre project that will incorporate blockchain and the use of cryptocurrency accelerating the concept of digital currency usage into daily life activities for its residents.

Example use cases that will improve resident life across cities when implemented with blockchain are without bounds. Information captured and kept in a cloud based infrastructure utilized by a smart city can be encoded through a blockchain system to ensure the privacy and security of data.The use of blockchain for identification in a smart city can assist with proof of citizenship, voting for public office, and tax data.In addition to security and fraud measures, the elimination of paperwork under such a system connects right with the smart city initiative to manage and reduce pollution and waste.

Other typical services include the use of internet sensors to detect road maintenance or other general repairs, connection of home utilities and rent to the blockchain and well as healthcare services. Blockchain healthcare networks which store protected health data information can be useful when considering emergency situations that involve individuals in a crisis, proving beneficial to certified first responders (MFS) in accessing pertinent medical information.

Whats most important to a smart city, however, is integration.None of the services mentioned above exist in a vacuum; they need to be put into a single system. Blockchain provides the technology to unite them into a single system that can track all aspects combined.

The Smart City Expo will take place in Barcelona, Spain, in November 2019.It aims to discuss the growing urbanization of the world with attributes of blockchain.

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Are Smart Cities The Pathway To Blockchain And Cryptocurrency Adoption? - Forbes

HTCs second blockchain phone drops the price and adds a full Bitcoin node – The Verge

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HTC has announced a new entry-level phone aimed at cryptocurrency users called the HTC Exodus 1S, a followup to the $699 Exodus 1 that was originally released last year. The Exodus 1S is a much cheaper device at 219 (around $244), and offers much less powerful hardware built around a Qualcomm Snapdragon 435 processor.

The Exodus 1Ss big new cryptocurrency feature is that its able to run a full bitcoin node, which HTC says is a first for a smartphone. Its something the company has been talking about wanting to do since the announcement of the original Exodus 1. Speaking to Forbes, HTCs Phil Chen said that being able to run a full node means that the phone can relay, confirm, and validate bitcoin transactions, which offers more privacy and also allows you to contribute to the security of the network.

Running a full bitcoin node on a phone comes with its limitations. HTC recommends that you connect the phone to Wi-Fi and plug it into a power source while its running the full node, and youll also need to buy an SD card with a capacity of 400GB or more if you want the phone to be able to hold a full copy of the Bitcoin ledger. The Exodus 1S will also not be able to operate as a mining node.

Outside of its blockchain capabilities, the HTC Exodus 1S features entry-level hardware. Its got a 5.7-inch HD display, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, and it has a single rear-facing 13-megapixel camera. It charges over MicroUSB, but at least you get a 3.5mm headphone jack.

HTCs Exodus phones are an ambitious attempt by the company to appeal to cryptocurrency enthusiasts as its smartphone sales have plummeted in recent years. Compared to the Exodus 1, the cheaper starting price of the Exodus 1S could make it appealing as a secondary device to experiment with.

The HTC Exodus 1S wont be available in the US, but you can now order it from HTCs site in Europe, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Naturally, HTC will happily accept payment in bitcoin, ethereum, litecoin, Binance coin, and bitcoin cash for the phone.

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HTCs second blockchain phone drops the price and adds a full Bitcoin node - The Verge

Blockchain technology applied to plastics traceability and sustainability – Plastics Today

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Resin suppliers Domo and Covestro are teaming up with transparency start-up Circularise in a collaborative project for circularity in the plastics industry through the use of blockchain technology. The newly-formed Circularise Plastics project group aims to set up an open standard for sustainability and transparency within this field. At K 2019, Domo and Covestro discussed the project with customers and looked for new partners to join them on this pathway towards full circularity.

Netherlands-headquartered tech innovator Circularise is making transparency and communication in global value chains possible by utilizing blockchain and zero-knowledge proof. Their protocol enables trusted data exchange in fragmented supply chains without public disclosure of datasets or supply chain partners. Unlike other blockchain transparency solutions, Circularises technology called smart questioning protects a companys privacy and sensitive information.

This means that confidentiality and competitive advantage are always maintained. The technology also eliminates the need to trust a centralized party. Because all of the verification is done by the system itself, the idea is that users do not need to rely on a central point of control. Instead, trust is transferred from one centralized authority (such as a verifying party) to many decentralized, anonymous participants, says Mesbah Sabur at Circularise.

The Circularise Plastics concept involves a seven-step process whereby the source material can be followed through a blockchain pathway, ensuring end-to-end product traceability and provenance. If ultimately accepted by the original information holder (plastic producer/molder), the OEM can access important information and make statements accordingly. This solution has two basic main advantages over other initiatives. The open protocol will enable an industry standard (on any blockchain) and avoid monopoly. The Smart Questioning technology safeguards privacy, while still allowing for transparency.

Blockchain technology is a prodigious consumer of electricity. According to one estimate, each transaction on the Ethereum network consumes enough electricity to power two U.S. households for a day. Commenting on the energy consumption associated with the Circularise Plastics blockchain, Sabur said that while the proof of concept was carried out using the Ethereum network because it is the most open and secure, having the greatest number of users, Circularise Plastics blockchain agnostic so a switch could be made to another, more energy-efficient system for commercialization.

Ethereum and Bitcoin currently work on a proof of work principle but there is a long-term vision for Ethereum is to transition to a mining model called proof-of-stake (PoS). This way Ethereums energy requirements would be reduced by more than 90%. Proof of authority is another, less energy-intensive model.

The Circularise Plastics project is still at a very early stage and the objective at K 2019 was to raise interest among value chain partners, that are willing to join the consortium in the ideation and testing phase. New members will become sustainability innovators in the plastics industry. This will give them access to the latest information and resources, and present the opportunity to co-create an industry-wide communication standard for a circular economy.

Registries and tracking systems are key to assessing progress towards global circularity goals. Blockchain can bring transparency where it's most needed, especially when it comes to supply chain traceability in our industry. Achieving a single standard for traceability to origin would enable the industry to responsibilize and communicate regarding sustainability practices and attach proof of origin to materials, says Alex Segers, CEO at DOMO.

The partners believe that achieving traceability and transparency in the plastics supply chain enabled by blockchain will make it more authentic and transparent. There are three main objectives:

Choose Circular: Make it easier for suppliers, processors, manufacturers, molders and brand owners to choose traceable, sustainable and circular materials.

Produce Circular: Create incentives for suppliers and manufacturers to produce traceable, sustainable and circular materials and products.

Make Circular: Provide critical information for reversed logistics and take back of products, materials and components.

The compatibility of blockchains has been a hot topic, including in the plastics space, where the benefits of this new technology can serve all parts of the supply chain. For material suppliers and processors, as well as equipment and moldmakers, Circularise Plastics participation means increased material value and trust in your production, by adding material passports to plastic resin, additives, colorants and any other materials produced. For OEMs and brand owners, it helps on the road to achieving sustainability targets and a strengthened brand position, by revealing a products origin and transparency on its environmental impact, says Dr. Burkhard Zimmermann, Head of Strategy, Sustainability and Digital at Covestros Polycarbonates segment. The value of blockchain is that it avoids the use of a powerful central authority and thereby gives equal rights to all participants.

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More Banks Are Teaming Up To Test Blockchain Solutions – Benzinga

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Blockchain technology may well be the most transformative technology in a generation. And as the potential use cases have become mapped out, financial firms around the world have spent the past few years investigating how the technology can disrupt banking.

Banks playing around with blockchainor distributed ledgertechnology isnt completely new. The World Economic Forum noted that the Bank of England published the first research report on blockchain by a central bank way back in 2014. And in 2015 Bank of New York Mellon Corp (NYSE: BK) created its own digital currency, BK Coins, as a reward system for its IT employees. That same year, (NYSE: UBS), USAA and CBW Bank all began investigating the applications of blockchain.

But as more banks have dipped their toes in the blockchain waters, theyve begun teaming up to test potential solutions together.

On the question of cross-border payments, 344 banks have signed an intent to join JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s (NYSE: JPM)Interbank Information Network (INN), a project launched in 2017 and powered by Quorum, a JP Morgan-developed variant of the Ethereum blockchain. Participants include some of the biggest banks in the world, and the Financial Times recently reported that 75 additional banks have signed on, including Societe Generale and Banco Santander (NYSE: SAN).

According to JP Morgan, the project is trying to investigate how blockchain can solve the challenges in interbank information sharing, from minimizing friction in the cross-border payments process to enabling payments to reach beneficiaries faster and with fewer steps. INN is currently only working on payments denominated U.S. dollars, but is hoping to expand the program into other non-U.S. dollar currencies.

The pilot programs of blockchain are still in the early innings of the game, saidDarren Conte, founder and CEO of Siftsort.com a secure documents and messaging platform. Conte, a former Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) executive, feels that there are huge benefits to reduce friction, add more security and lower operational costs when implemented across the banking network.

Initially, banks will focus on the obvious use-cases that present common risks across the industry, for example payments that need to be sent inter-bank or cross-border, where the opportunity for fraud is relatively high. As blockchain adoption matures, you will see more integration into routine customer or backend functions that will focus on speed and accuracy while further reducing operational costs and even headcount.

An analysis by the World Economic Forum found that 44 central banks are currently testing blockchain technology.

According to the WEF, more than 60 research papers on blockchain technology have been published by central banks since 2014. Among this group, The Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore stand out as having published multiple research reports or conducted multiple studies with blockchain technology.

These pilot programs run the gamut, including interbank securities settlement, bond issuance and lifecycle management, and cash money supply chain. The most notable study however could be the creation of a central bank digital currency (CBDC). As the WEF put it:

CBDC is a potential application of blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) where the central bank issues new money equivalent to and redeemable for its domestic currency, often simultaneously removing the equivalent amount of currency from the money supply. It may be issued for general use (retail CBDC) for peer-to-peer payments and payments from consumers to merchants, or for use by commercial banks and clearing houses (wholesale CBDC) for more efficient interbank payments that occur outside traditional correspondent banking and other payment systems.

One of the huge benefits of blockchain and its distributed ledger technology is that it significantly reduces the dependency on centralizedlegacy systems that are vulnerable to modern day cybersecurity threats," said Conte.

Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and Mastercard (NYSE: MA) both recently joined Marco Polo, a consortium including major institutions such as BNP Paribas (OTCQX: BNPQY), Commerzbank (OTCQX: CZRBY) and ING working to reduce barriers to trade.

Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC) has also begun a cross-border pilot of its own. The company recently announced its Wells Fargo Digital Cash program. Similar to JP Morgans INN, Wells Fargo Digital Cash will be using the banks internal blockchain to track payments sent between branches.

Infosys Finacle, a subsidiary of Infosys Ltd (NYSE: INFY), announced at the end of September the completion of a five-week trial of its trade finance solution, which involved 18 banks using R3 blockchain technology to test domestic and cross-border trade finance transactions. According to a post-trial survey from the company, two-thirds of respondents believe blockchain can reduce trade finance operational costs by at least 20%.

Implementing blockchain into the 'Know Your Customer'process would be very impactful from a compliance and regulatory standpoint," Conte added. Allowing numerous institutions to access or contribute to a client verification journal performed by another institution would help to minimize money laundering or terrorism activities and reduce the exorbitant administrative costs generated within the compliance department."

2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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More Banks Are Teaming Up To Test Blockchain Solutions - Benzinga

Blockchain ID verification coming to South Korea – CoinGeek

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More than 30 firms in South Korea are teaming up to develop and implement an ID verification system underpinned by blockchain technology, the Korea Herald reported.

The goal is to streamline the consumer process in areas such as renewing of loans and opening bank accounts.This new ID system is made to be interoperational between several different service providers and is why more than 30 businesses and firms in the country are on board.

This decentralized ID system will be launched later this year. Referred to as Initial, it will be tested to see how effective it is in identifying the individual with documents such as their graduation or employment certificates. It should help to streamline and create a more secure system for receiving or renewing loans as well as for applying for jobs. All of this, it is hoped, will be accomplished through a single mobile app.

By using the decentralized identities (DiDs) system, customers will be able to use their smartphones to connect directly with their bank. This will enable them to send digital documents remotely from any location. All of this can be done through a few clicks on their devices. Once the institution is able to authenticate the DiD, it is then stored in the customer account which will then enable them to use that authentication to verify their identity in the future.

The use of blockchain technology will be the basis for the decentralized system. This technology is already being used in many institutions and industries, including banks, which is why it is being received so favorably. The Korea Financial Telecommunications & Clearings Institute (KTFC) is hoping that this new system will replace physical identification materials that people use now, including such things as drivers licenses.

The service will be initially rolled out to six universities, enabling students to be able to download their graduation certificate or academic records for use when theyre applying for jobs, sending transcripts to other universities or even for personal use. Employers will also be able to use to system to verify graduation certificates.

Seven initial members help to get this project underway. They included KT, SK Telecom, LG Uplus, Samsung Electronics, KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank, and fintech firm Koscom. The new members include BC Card, Hyundai Card, Shinhan Bank, and NH NongHyup. This consortium was first created under the Korea Internet and Security Agency.

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Major Korean Banks Join Government-Backed Blockchain ID Initiative – CoinDesk

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Four more major institutions including the Shinhan and NH Nonghyup banks have joined a South Korean decentralized identity initiative thats aimed to secure and share personal information using blockchain.

According to a report from CoinDesk Korea on Sunday, the program, which was first released in July, is now officially named as the Initial DID Association. Besides Shinhan and NH banks, two major payment processors BC Card and Hyundai Card have also joined the program as of late, bringing the total number of participants to 11.

The consortium now includes Samsung Electronics, KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank, as well asKoreas three major mobiles carriers SK Telecom, KT and LG U+. It also includes Koscom, an IT company 76.6 percent owned by the Korea Exchange.

The project, which is backed by the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA), aimsto develop a mobile product that will allow for the secure storing of personal identification information with blockchain technology. Users of the system will be able to prove their identities for online transactions and for the validation of qualifications or credentials.

Initial will be used at first for certificates from six Korean universities, as well as for English test scores. It will then be expanded to the submission of loan application documents, such as income tax withholding and loan certificates. According to the earlier reports, the system is expected to be up and running in 2020.

While the project is expanding, competition in the blockchain identity space is also increasing. On Oct. 14, the Korea Financial Telecommunications and Clearings Institute (KFTC), a payment settlements organization, said that it will have its own mobile ID solution using blockchain up and running by the end of the month, according to a report in the Dong-a Ilbo.

Initial image courtesy to SK Telecom

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Major Korean Banks Join Government-Backed Blockchain ID Initiative - CoinDesk

Blockchain-Backed Smart Cars To Revolutionize The Road – Yahoo Finance

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By Tony Sagami

As I pulled into a paid parking lot, I realized that I didnt have any cash on me. No problem, there was a Bank of America Corp(NYSE: BAC) ATM right just down the block.

I had to wait behind a moron who took so long that by the time I got back to my car, the parking enforcement patrol strapped a parking boot to my tire.50 minutes and $115 later, I got my car out of parking jail.

Arggggh!

I cant wait for blockchain to make sure I never get waylaid by the parking lot tyrants ever again.

Blockchain?

Thats right; five of the largest automakers in the world General Motors Company(NYSE: GM), Ford Motor Company(NYSE: F), Honda Motor Co Ltd.(NYSE: HMC), Renault and BMW are field testing a blockchain-based vehicle identification system that will let drivers automatically pay parking fees and highway tolls without cash or credit/debit cards.

Hooray!

Heres how it works: The blockchain-based system assigns an individual digital ID to every car as it rolls off a factory floor. This vehicle ID is then linked to whoever buys it. It includes information such as ownership authentication and bank accounts.

For toll roads, the vehicle ID makes it possible for fees to be automatically paid without the need for the specialized tags currently used in electronic toll collection systems.

It can also be used for parking lots, like the one that clipped me for $115.

Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative

This system is called the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative. Its built around a blockchain-secured system that tracks the car during its entire lifetime.

In addition to ownership and personal banking information, other data such as sales history, maintenance and repairs and recall information are stored in an immutable distributed ledger AKA blockchain.How about that! A blockchain log that records a cars entire repair/maintenance history and that can also verify that all replacement parts are factory-authorized and not faulty black market parts.

What a wonderful tool for used car buyers!

Blockchain could also be used to track driving mileage and make it possible for low-mileage drivers to pay lower auto insurance rates.

Or it could make standing in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles to register and title a new car unnecessary since ownership could be transferred digitally. Blockchain technology would be able to verify and secure that sensitive data.

Or it could remotely unlock your car door when locked your keys inside.

A blockchain system would be especially useful for electric and hybrid automobiles. Car makers invested in blockchain want all public charging stations to be internet-enabled. This would allow data, as well as messages, to be automatically downloaded while plugged into a charger.

Heck, it may even be possible to pay for a Big Gulp, Slim Jim and six-pack of Bud Light with your car.

All these ambitious services are only possible with blockchain due to the security and reliability the tech offers. After all, nobody wants their personal banking and financial information floating around the airwaves for thieves to steal.

The distributed ledger technology of blockchain is what keeps your data safe.

Blockchain has such far-reaching potential that can sound more like science fiction than reality, including the support of self-driving cars.

People said the same thing about the personal computers, the internet, mobile phones and social media when they were first introduced. And I dont have to tell you how much money you could have made by investing in the pioneers of those industries.

The same is even more true for blockchain stocks. So, jump on board ... NOW!

Image Sourced from Pixabay

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2019 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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