A group of Taiwanese experts visited Germany from Aug. 14 to last Friday on a government-sponsored trip to learn about offshore wind energy and build the basis for cooperation.
Lin Ta-hui (林大惠), professor at National Cheng Kung University, led the 23-person National Science Council delegation, which visited the Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy System Technology, Leibniz University in Hannover, wind turbine manufacturers and a German government-funded wharf in Cuxhaven, where offshore energy wind farms are located.
Lin said Germany is a country that Taiwan would like to work with in the wind-energy field.
Although Denmark is the pioneer in the field, Germany now leads its development and wants to cooperate with other countries, Lin said.
Taiwan needs to find international partners because such large-scaled implementation will require technology transfers from countries that already have significant wind power, Lin said.
Pong Suang-jing (彭雙俊), a council official based in Germany, said about 99 percent of the energy resources in Taiwan are imported, but offshore wind energy could be an important alternative energy source, because the nation is surrounded by the sea and enjoys a field of strong and steady wind.
Wind energy is included in the government’s National Science and Technology Program.
However, aside from technology, natural influences, including typhoons and earthquakes, present a formidable challenge, said Miao Chun-yi (苗君易), a Cheng Kung University professor.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
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