Tuesday, October 10, 2023

NTNU Opens "Test Arena" for Maritime Robots in Trondheim

Researchers in Trondheim's harbor watch as robots navigate water — Sondre Olav Sivertsen / NTNU

[By Idun Haugan]

There’s a professional crowd all interested in autonomous vessels at NTNU Nyhavna and the research infrastructure there: Trondheim Harbour, Trondheim municipality, Maritime Forum Midt-Norge, Fremtidens Industri / Future Innovations – and NTNU.

The official opening in late August brought together some 200 representatives from businesses, public agencies and research groups, and a wide range of vessels above and below water filled the harbour. From the new floating piers, attendees could follow a luminous snake robot from Eelume on its underwater journey.

Trondheim Port Authority and Trondheim Municipality have established the floating dock facility for NTNU’s use in research and education involving autonomous vessels. The facility consists of a 60-metre floating jetty in the outer harbour basin and a land-based crane – and will eventually include an adjacent 120-square-metre workshop building.

“NTNU, our students and our partners will use this as a starting point for testing autonomous vessels, as well as for workboats linked to the advanced high-tech infrastructure located in the Trondheim Fjord,” says Morten Breivik, an associate professor at the Department of Engineering Cybernetics.

NTNU Nyhavna’s research infrastructure also includes 450 square metres of space in the Trondheim Maritime Centre, comprising offices, open landscape, meeting rooms, an electronics lab and the NTNU Shore Control Lab.

Researchers, research fellows and master’s students work on designing control rooms and uncrewed vessels in the Shore Control Lab.

This research community, which lies at the heart of Trondheim’s maritime environment, develops and tests new control technology precisely where it will be used – in the ocean.

Proud and committed dean

Ingrid Schjølberg, dean at the NTNU Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, conducted the official opening and ribbon cutting. She is strongly committed to developing the infrastructure at Nyhavna.

Many different groups and agencies are collaborating closely on Trondheim as a development arena for maritime technology. NTNU dean Ingrid Schjølberg was in charge of the ribbon-cutting and official opening of NTNU Nyhavna, flanked by the director of the Trondheim Port, Knut Thomas Kusslid (left) and Kristian Dahlberg Hauge, director of industry, transport, climate and environment for the Municipality of Trondheim. Photo: Idun Haugan/NTNU

“Nyhavna – with its quay and proximity to the sea – is an excellent place for us at NTNU. Here we can test autonomous maritime technology directly in the ocean. It’s an incredible amount of work to test hardware and software and get it all to work together, so NTNU Nyhavna will be an important arena for this,” Schjølberg says.

She knows the field intimately, with a PhD in underwater robotics and as a professor in marine cybernetics.

“Nyhavna has brought together strong academic groups and young technology companies, and I’m proud that we have this maritime cluster,” says Schjølberg.

Gold for the students

Frithjof Bugge, who heads the student organization Njord at NTNU, also spoke at the opening. “For us students – who are the technologists of the future – being able to come here to Nyhavna and meet people with strong innovation experience who work here and share their experiences with us is worth its weight in gold,” he says.

Njord has just organized the world’s first international student competition in navigating self-designed pilotless vessels at Nyhavna. Seven teams from three continents participated.

“Those of us who work with pilotless vessels have all had the experience that algorithms for control systems work really well in theory, but then don’t work in practice when the vessel is at sea. So an easily accessible arena where we can test things out in practice is worth gold,” says Bugge.

Maritime Silicon Valley?

The Trondheim Science Centre (Vitensenteret i Trondheim in Norwegian) also wants to move to Nyhavna, into the top floor of the Dora 1 submarine bunker.

“Having the Trondheim Science Centre here could offer a complete innovation complex in Nyhavna that would extend from curious 5-year-olds all the way to students, researchers and innovation companies,” says Frode Halvorsen, cluster manager for the Ocean Autonomy Cluster.

Gard Ueland, chair of the Maritime Forum and adviser at the Kongsberg Group, points out that Trondheim has become a centre for students and researchers from all over the world who want to work in maritime technology.

“Trondheim could become a maritime Silicon Valley,” says Ueland.

Creating value in a vibrant city neighbourhood

The NTNU researchers who are working with the new research infrastructure are committed to ensuring that research and innovation play a central role in Nyhavna and contribute both to value creation and a vibrant city neighbourhood.

These three committed researchers are the driving force behind much of what happens at NTNU Nyhavna. NTNU associate professors Ole Andreas Alsos (left), Egil Eide and Morten Breivik. Photo: Kai T. Dragland / NTNU

“This development will be a smart and good move to promote and grow Trondheim into the technology capital it should be,” says Egil Eide, associate professor at NTNU’s Department of Electronic Systems.

“The research environment at Nyhavna is a crowning example of interdisciplinary research in practice and shows the added value of linking several disciplines. We’ve achieved things in a short amount of time that few others in the world have done before us,” says Ole Andreas Alsos, an associate professor at the Department of Design and head of the Shore Control Lab.

The researchers have engaged the architectural firm Etyde to develop the concept “Nyhavna 5.0”, which combines housing, marine industry and other functions in a hybrid district that is alive 24/7. The vision is a coexistence between business and housing, research and culture, and information and experiences.

This article appears courtesy of Gemini News and may be found in its original form here.

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

New Satellite Data Will Reveal Hidden Details of Ocean Currents

[By Shane Keating and Moninya Roughan]

Earth’s ocean is incredibly vast. Some parts of it are so remote that the nearest human habitation is the International Space Station.

As the world warms, what happens in the ocean – and what happens to the ocean – will be vital to all our lives. But to monitor what’s happening in remote waters, we need to study the ocean from space.

Late last year, NASA and CNES, the French space agency, launched a satellite that promises to give scientists a far better view than ever before of the ocean’s surface. The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission will reveal ocean currents that play a crucial role in the weather and climate.

To make the most of the satellite observations, we need to compare them with measurements made at surface level. That is why we are heading out to sea on the state-of-the-art CSIRO research vessel RV Investigator to gather essential ocean data under the satellite’s path as it orbits Earth.

Climate change is disrupting the global network of currents that connect the oceans. Researchers have detected a slowdown of the deep “overturning circulation” that carries carbon, heat, oxygen and nutrients from Antarctica around the globe. Meanwhile, at the surface, ocean currents are becoming more energetic.

We have also seen dramatic changes in fast, narrow rivers of seawater called western boundary currents, such as the Gulf Stream and the East Australian Current.

These currents funnel heat from the tropics towards the poles, and in recent decades they have become hotspots for ocean warming. In the Southern Hemisphere, they are warming two to three times faster than the global average.

As these currents destabilise, they alter how heat is distributed throughout the ocean. This in turn will cause major changes in local weather and marine ecosystems that may impact the lives of millions of people.

Playground physics

The SWOT satellite mission will give researchers a powerful new tool to monitor changes in ocean currents by using accurate satellite measurements of the sea surface – plus a little bit of playground physics.

The satellite carries an instrument that will map variations in the height of the sea surface in unprecedented detail. These variations might be less than a metre in height over horizontal distances of hundreds of kilometres. But oceanographers can use the measurements to estimate ocean currents flowing underneath.

Small variations in the height of the sea surface create horizontal pressure differences that try to push water away from areas of high sea level and towards areas of low sea level. That pressure difference is balanced by the Coriolis force, which gently deflects ocean currents to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere.

Earth’s oceans are filled with complex network of currents driven by the rotation of the planet. NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

You can experience the Coriolis force at the playground. Step onto a merry-go-round and ask a friend to stand on the opposite side from you. As you start spinning, toss a ball to your friend. You will notice that the ball appears to be deflected away from the direction of rotation.

In reality, the ball has moved in a straight line; your friend has simply moved away from where you were aiming. But, to you both, the ball seems to have been deflected by an invisible “pseudo-force” – the Coriolis force.

Now imagine the merry-go-round is Earth, and the ball is an ocean current. The Coriolis deflection is enough to balance pressure differences across hundreds of kilometres and causes seawater to flow in ocean currents.

Science at sea

By carefully measuring the height of the sea surface and using our knowledge of the Coriolis force, oceanographers will be able to use data from NASA’s satellite to reveal ocean currents in greater detail than ever before. But to make sense of that data, researchers need to compare satellite measurements with observations made down here on Earth.

That’s why we are leading a voyage of more than 60 scientists, support staff and crew aboard the RV Investigator, Australia’s national flagship for blue water ocean research.

A 24-day voyage aboard the RV Investigator will gather data about oceans currents. CSIRO, CC BY

Our 24-day voyage will study ocean dynamics off Australia’s southeast coast using the Investigator’s world-class scientific equipment, including satellite-tracked floating buoys and drifters that will be used to measure the real-time movement of currents at the ocean surface.

The voyage is part of a huge collaboration by scientists around the world to gather observational data under the satellite’s path as it orbits Earth. This data will help validate satellite measurements, improve weather forecasts, and assist with climate risk assessment and prediction.

We hope to better understand how our oceans are changing using what we observe in space, at sea — and in the playground.

Shane Keating is a Senior Lecturer of Mathematics and Oceanography at UNSW Sydney.

Moninya Roughan is a Professor of Oceanography, UNSW Sydney.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.

The Conversation

The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.

Turkish Cargo Ship Hits Mine off Romania

Drifting YaM-type Soviet-era sea mine off Romania, 2022 (Romanian Navy)

Update: the following day Turkey denied the reports that the cargo ship was hit by a mine. They confirmed an unidentified explosion but contended it did not damage the vessel.

On Thursday morning, a cargo ship hit a mine off the coast of Romania, sustaining minor damage.

"The vessel reportedly experienced an explosion at approximately 0920 UTC (GMT). The vessel dropped anchor for a short period to assess the damage," said security consultancy Ambrey in an update. "At 1210, the vessel resumed sailing."

The incident occured near the entrance to the Sulina Canal, a strategic waterway connecting the Black Sea to the Danube River. The canal is one of several key arteries for Ukraine's grain trade, and the anchorage near its entrance is perennially busy.

Turkish shipping observer Yoruk Isik told Reuters that the vessel was the general cargo ship Kafkametler, and that the blast caused minor damage to a ballast tank. No injuries were reported.

As of Thursday night, Kafkametler was anchored on the northern branch of the Danube River delta, near the Ukrainian port of Vylkove.

Yesterday, UK defense intelligence warned that it had reason to believe that Russia may use sea mines to target civilian shipping on the approaches to Ukrainian ports, then blame the damage on Ukraine. Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukraine's port infrastructure for grain exports, seeking to damage its agricultural economy.

Abkhazia allows Russia to build a new naval base

Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia, has agreed to allow the Russian Navy to build a naval base on the territory under its control.

“We have signed an agreement, and in the near future there will be a permanent base of the Russian Navy in the Ochamchira district,” said Aslan Bzhania, the head of Abkhazia's Russian-supported government, speaking to Russian state media on Wednesday. “This kind of interaction will continue. There are also things I can’t talk about.”

In 2008, after NATO signaled that it would consider Georgia's application to join, Russian forces intervened in support of ethnic separatist groups in the border regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. After several months of Russian preparation, the hostilities were over in two weeks. A ceasefire agreement required Georgia to withdraw troops from the regions; the Russian Army was supposed to withdraw as well, but expanded its presence on the ground with permanent base infrastructure.

Though Abkhazia is democratically governed, Russia supplies most of its state budget, according to Freedom House. Only Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Nauru, and Syria recognize Abkhazia as a sovereign nation; all other UN member states consider it to be part of Georgia.

Given the context, the Georgian government reacted angrily to Bzhania's announcement, calling it a "flagrant violation of Georgia's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

A base in Abkhazia would give the Russian Navy a new safe harbor, further away from Ukrainian forces. Ukraine has no seagoing naval fleet, but its unmanned surface drones, cruise missiles and anti-ship missiles have made the western half of the Black Sea a challenging operating environment for the Russian Navy. In response to repeated attacks, Russia has ceased naval patrols near the Ukrainian coast and withdrawn most of its fleet from Sevastopol to the port of Novorossiysk, on the northeastern shore of the Black Sea.

“The functional defeat of the Black Sea fleet – and I would argue that is what it is because it has been forced to disperse to ports from which it cannot have an effect on Ukraine – is an enormous credit," said UK armed forces minister James Heappey on Thursday.

Engineer Honored for Using a Power Block to Rescue Shipwreck Survivors

The engineer of the pair trawler Guiding Light has been honored with a lifesaving trophy from the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society for his quick thinking during the sinking of the vessel's sister ship off the Shetland Islands last year.

On the afternoon of October 6, 2022, the Peterhead-based fishing vessels Guiding Star and Guiding Light were located about 45 nm to the southeast of the Shetlands. Conditions were challenging, including rough seas and winds approaching gale force. At around noon, the vessels hauled in their catch and were retrieving their trawl gear when they collided. The bow of the Guiding Light rose in a swell and struck Guiding Star towards the stern, penetrating the hull and flooding an accommodations compartment.

The Star began to sink quickly, putting the lives of the eight crewmembers aboard at risk. The Guiding Star was taking on water so fast that the lifejackets and immersion suits were inaccessible to the crew, as the compartment containing them had already flooded.

Guiding Light's first engineer, Kriss Leel, moved quickly to respond, starting up the deck crane and making heaving lines ready. The crew of the Guiding Light got one heaving line across and used it to rig a pulley system, which they used to transfer over their own immersion suits to the stricken vessel. The crew of Guiding Star then launched their life raft and abandoned ship, moments before the trawler foundered.

The Guiding Light maneuvered to rescue the eight men in the liferaft. Improvising, Leel used the crane and power block to hoist three crewmembers out of the raft, minimizing the swinging of the whip to bring them safely aboard. Moments later, a wave swept up and capsized the life raft, throwing the other five survivors into the water. Leel worked the power block to recover two more crew members directly from the water alongside Guiding Light.

The remaining three survivors hung onto the overturned life raft and drifted away. Luckily, an HM Coastguard helicopter based out of the Shetland Islands arrived on the scene and picked up the final three crewmembers.

“Kriss demonstrated exceptional seamanship in the face of a grave situation, in relentless conditions and under considerable pressure. While unconventional as a rescue, Kriss’s calmness and skill in operating the power block, supported by his fellow crew, resulted in the rescue of his five colleagues from a life-threatening situation," said Captain Justin Osmond RN, Chief Executive of the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society. "Kriss is an extremely deserving recipient of the Society’s Lady Swaythling Trophy for 2023."

13 Rescued From Sinking Bulker Off Shanghai

Shanghai rescue — All photos courtesy East China Sea Rescue Bureau

On Sunday night, Chinese search and rescue authorities saved the crew of a coastal bulker that was listing dangerously off the coast of Shanghai.

That night, the East China Sea Rescue Bureau received a distress call. A bulker laden with sand and gravel had taken on a severe list off the mouth of the Yangtze. 13 crewmembers were aboard the ship and were in need of rescue.

The bureau dispatched a fast rescue ship, the Dong Hai Jiu 204 - a trimaran capable of 30 knots - and put a rescue helicopter team on standby. The seagoing rescue ship Dong Hai Jiu 101 was also nearby and joined in the effort.

As the response vessels got under way towards the scene, the ship took on an increasing list, and the responders ordered the crew to deploy their life raft and prepare to abandon ship.

With their vessel going down, all 13 crewmembers abandoned ship into life rafts. A nearby good samaritan vessel, the Shen Chang 7, was the first on scene, and its crew brought all of the survivors aboard.

By the time the rescue bureau's responders arrived, the distressed bulker had slipped below, according to state-owned CCTV. The Dong Hai Jiu 101 transferred over the survivors from the good samaritan vessel by small boat in order to bring them back to shore. All were delivered safely to the Shanghai Waigaoqiao terminal.

Rescuers transfer the survivors off of the good samaritan vessel Shen Chang 7 (East China Sea Rescue Bureau)

Dismasting of Historic Maine Schooner Kills One and Injures Three

The mast aboard a historic schooner operating cruises on the Maine coast broke this morning killing one person aboard the vessel and seriously injuring three others. The 141-year-old schooner Grace Bailey was returning to Rockland, Maine at the end of a four-day cruise, her last scheduled trip of the season, when the mast broke around 10 a.m. on Monday morning.

The vessel built in 1882 has operated since the 1990s offering cruises. The owners report on their website that the vessel, which is 118 feet in overall length, is in originally condition with the only major alteration being the addition of accommodations for 29 passengers. The ship was completing a Fall Foliage Cruise this morning when the mast without warning broke and fell on to the deck.

Charlie Weidman of a local marine service company told the Associated Press that he was among the first on the scene and found the crew already performing CPR. He reported that one of the victims had a head injury and that two others had had crush and spinal injuries.

The U.S. Coast Guard reports it received a distress call and sent a crew from Rockland to provide assistance. They rushed one woman with serious injuries to shore and EMS personnel, but reported she was pronounced dead. They then ferried EMS personnel to the vessel to threat the three others that had been injured when the vessel demasted. The three people were transferred to EMS at Rockland Harbor and taken to Pen Bay Medical Center in Rockport.

The Grace Bailey was towed to port and was alongside by noon. The USCG says that an investigation is underway. They are reporting it was about one mile east of Rockport with 33 people aboard at the time of the accident.

“My crew and I are devastated by this morning’s accident, especially since the safety of our guests is always our biggest priority. Most importantly, we are beyond heartbroken that we lost a dear friend,” said the schooner’s captain, Sam Sikkema, in a statement to the Associated Press.

Passengers who had been aboard the vessel for the cruise told The Portland Press Herald that the winds had been calm this morning. They said the vessel had not made any sharp movements before the mast just suddenly snapped. Pictures shows the sails were up at the time and the mast broke about two-thirds of the way up from the deck.

The vessel appears to have ben navigating back to its dock at the end of the cruise. The website reports it has no mechanical propulsion and if required it would be towed by a small vessel. The cruises operate without an itinerary exploring different coves along the coastline.

The vessel was due to go into winter storage with the Marine Windjammer Association reporting it was not due to make its next commercial trip till June 2024.

Five Crewmembers Injured by Chlorine Leak Aboard Ro/Pax Ferry

Chlorine rescue — All images courtesy BRP Region 7

On Saturday, first responders in Cebu saved five crewmembers from a ro/ro after a chemical leak on board.

At about 1300 hours Saturday afternoon, the ferry Filipinas Surigao del Norte was preparing to get under way for Samar. The crew were loading a consignment of 20 chlorine tanks onto the ro/ro, and one fell over and leaked. According to local media, it dropped while it was being moved by forklift, and it hit other tanks, resulting in a leak.

Five crewmembers were injured by the chlorine leak. The Cebu City fire department and a special-purpose fire and rescue service responded to the scene, and a team evacuated the injured crewmembers. They were transported to a nearby hospital for further treatment.

All images courtesy BRP Region 7

The ferry's passengers were also evacuated with the pier and given medical evaluations and care, a fire department spokesman told local media. The area of the chlorine leak inside the ship's cargo bay was flushed with water as a precaution.

According to the Philippine Inquirer, the crewmembers who were exposed to chlorine are in stable condition.

Filipinas Surigao Del Norte is a 500 dwt ferry built in 1999 at the Naikai Shipbuilding yard in Japan. She is one of a half-dozen vessels in the fleet of Cokaliong Shipping, a ferry operator based in Cebu.

Pilots Threaten to Strike UK Ports Over New Mandatory Health Checks

Southampton UK port — Southampton is among the ports where pilots could go on strike (ABO file photo)

Pilots responsible for the safe navigation of ships in and out of the UK’s seaports are threatening to go on strike later this year over new health checks being imposed by Associated British Ports (ABP), which operates the UK’s commercial ports. The union representing the pilots contends that the new checks were instituted in July 2023 without proper notification and consultation.

Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, reports it has lodged a dispute warning ABP that a strike could be brewing over the new mandatory health checks for pilots. Under British labor law, the union has to notify the employer and if the members vote to support a strike, they have to file a notification before any action is started. Unite is seeking discussions with ABP over the new requirements.

The bulk of Unite members are in South Wales serving the ports of Swansea, Port Talbot, Barry, Cardiff, and Newport, as well as Southampton, the Port of Hull, and Immingham in the Humber region in the northeast. Unite warns however that the dispute could be wider and impact all 21 ports operated by ABP.

Collectively the ports operated by ABP account for up to a quarter of the UK’s seaborne trade. Southampton is a major port of exports as well as the Ro-Ro vehicle trade. It is also the primary port for cruise ships. Other ports such as Hull are involved in exports of timber and the growing offshore wind industry.

“Unite is not opposed to enhanced checks but they need to be negotiated and introduced fairly,” said Unite general secretary, Sharon Graham. In a statement, she called it “incredible” that ABP Ports has not negotiated changes to the health and safety requirements and consulted with the union.

Pilots also told the local media that they are concerned because they do not know what is involved in the new requirements. They are concerned if they will be able to pass and want to understand what is required before the rules are imposed.

The Pilotage Act of 1987 governs the rules for pilots including the requirement that each pilot has a medicate certificate. The act also sets down the requirement that ships must have a pilot to move in and out of UK ports.

Both the union and the employer agree that being a pilot is a strenuous and stressful job. They note that pilots undergo five years of training but many of them make it a lifelong career. Their ranks are small and it is a closely knit community.

Unite has written to ABP to start the formal dispute process. It could be resolved by negotiation, or the union could move to seek a strike authorization from members. Currently, the media speculation is that the earliest a strike might happen is late this year or early in 2024.

ABP responded by saying that the health and well-being was of critical concern. They said without specifying what was being changed that the new standards would help to ensure everyone’s safety and wellbeing and reflected the demanding nature of the job.

Chinese-Owned Containership Reaches Kaliningrad After NSR Passage

Chinese containership in Russia — NewNew Polar Bear on dock in Kaliningrad, Russia (Telegram)

In another demonstration of the efforts to expand shipping along Russia’s Northern Sea Route, the Chinese-owned containership NewNew Polar Bear (15,950 dwt) became the first to reach the Russian port in Kaliningrad after a six-week passage. The governor of the Kaliningrad region Anton Alikhanov hailed the achievement on his Telegram account.

The vessel was acquired earlier this year by a new Chinese shipping company, Hainan Yangpu NewNew Shipping Co., and ushered in the route sailing from St. Petersburg at the beginning of July. She started the return trip from China in late August, reaching Kaliningrad on Tuesday and spending three days on dock. The ship registered in Hong Kong is 554 feet long with a capacity of 1,600 TEU.

She is part of the effort to expand trade between China and Russia and grow traffic along the Northern Sea Route. President Vladimir Putin has ordered the authorities overseeing the route to boost annual shipments to 80 million metric tons in 2024.

“Transport companies plan to make this logistics product permanent. It turns out cheaper and faster than through the Suez Canal,” writes Alikhanov touting the party line on his Telegram account.

As ice has declined along the NSR, there has been growing attention to Russia’s efforts at sending non-ice reinforced vessels along the route recently. The first non-ice class Aframax oil tanker, the Leonid Loza, departed early in September from the terminal near Murmansk heading for Ningbo, China. According to the permit issued by the Russian authorities, the tanker which is registered in Liberia was being permitted to sail unescorted in ice-free water but was still required to have an escort in areas where it encountered ice.

Non-ice class bulkers have also been permitted to make transits along the NSR. In September, energy giant Gazprom sent its first liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments to China also using the NSR.

The NewNew Polar Bear departed from Shanghai on its westward voyage. It first went to Arkhangelsk, and then to Baltiysk, in the Kaliningrad province. It will now proceed to St. Petersburg as its final port. Her owners have said that they expect to maintain the service through the sailing season which traditionally runs between July and November.

Another Chinese shipping company, Safetrans Shipping, has said that it would be maintaining weekly service along the NSR after acquiring containerships. At the end of August, they sent the largest containership on the route, the SFT Turkey, a 50,000 dwt vessel with a capacity for 4,250 TEU.

Rosatom has said its target is to reach 36 million tonnes of cargo transported along the NSR this year. Russia has also projected that year-round service would begin on portions of the NSR starting in 2024.

How do you see your orgasms? Here's what they look like according to artificial intelligence

By David MouriquandPublished on 29/09/2023 - 07:50•Updated 09:32

Orgasms like you’ve never seen them...

Ever wondered what your orgasm would look like?

Wonder no more, as sex toy brands and global leaders in sexual happiness Lovehoney and Womanizer have created visual representations of real sexual climaxes using artificial intelligence.

There are, as the wiser amongst you know, different forms of male and female pleasure – with a delightful lexical field linked to natural disasters. “Wave”, brief bursts of pelvic contractions; "volcano", an orgasm preceded by an increase in upward pelvic floor tension; “avalanche”, the “ultimate orgasm” that is the equivalent to higher pelvic floor contractions.

For more on this, you’d do well to refer to the August 2022 publication by The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Back to our artificial intelligence.

To conduct the experiment, Lovehoney and Womanizer had five women and five men masturbate using their sex toys - a Womanizer Pleasure Air toy or Arcwave male masturbator. Electrocardiogram (ECG) strip sensors were placed on their bodies to collect cardiac, respiratory and muscular data.

From there, the companies teamed up with software engineer Vika Shcherbak and developer Nusha (Noam Rubin) to bring the orgasms to life. The pair began by visualising the orgasm data using JavaScript, then using the resulting image to feed into generative AI to give 10 unique images of orgasms.

Lovehoney noted that “current interpretations of the orgasm are completely gender-normative and outdated; people who identify as women are assigned orgasms that are like flowers, or in the shape of a traditional female outline or vulva, while men are given strong, stormy-esque orgasms.”

By using actual data, the company hoped to “break down these stereotypes and remove human bias from the equation completely.”

Here's what the 10 orgasms looked like, described by ChatGPT as “a fusion of science and the sensual”:

Male - Orgasm 1Lovehoney

Female - Orgasm 2Lovehoney

Male - Orgasm 2Lovehoney

Female - Orgasm 2Lovehoney

Male - Orgasm 3Lovehoney

Female - Orgasm 3Lovehoney

Male - Orgasm 4Lovehoney

Female - Orgasm 4Lovehoney

Male - Orgasm 5Lovehoney

Female - Orgasm 5Lovehoney

Lovehoney went on to state that despite attempting to remove human bias and gender stereotypes, “the unconscious bias that AI holds is evident to see - attributing a more ‘traditionally’ feminine colour to the female orgasm from the code, and a darker, perhaps more ‘masculine’ colour to the male orgasm.”

ICYMI

How the war in Ukraine is challenging two academic disciplines

Symposium on the relations between peace and conflict studies and East European studies

Meeting Announcement

BIELEFELD UNIVERSITY

Organisers of the symposium — IMAGE:
THREE HISTORIANS FROM BIELEFELD UNIVERSITY (FROM LEFT), PROFESSOR DR. FRANK GRÜNER, PROFESSORIN DR. KORNELIA KOŃCZAL, AND DR. YAROSLAV ZHURAVLOV, ORGANISED THE SYMPOSIUM.
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CREDIT: PHOTOS (FROM LEFT): BIELEFELD UNIVERSITY, STEFAN SÄTTELE, SARAH JONEK

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, two academic disciplines have come to fore: peace and conflict studies and East European studies. Experts from both fields represent important voices in the public discourse. A symposium entitled ‘War and Peace in Ukraine: Reflecting, Studying and Engaging Across Disciplines” will be held from 12 until 13 October 2023 at Bielefeld University. It brings together experts from both fields in order to discuss the relationship between them and challenges of participating in a highly charged public debate revolving around the war. One of the guests will be the Nobel Peace Prize winner from Ukraine, Oleksandra Matviichuk.

For a good thirty years, peace and conflict studies and East European studies did not have much in common in Germany. ‘This changed dramatically with Russia’s attack on Ukraine,’ says Professor Dr Kornelia Kończal, a historian at Bielefeld University. She conceptualized the symposium in Bielefeld together with Dr Yaroslav Zhuravlov and Professor Dr Frank Grüner, two colleagues also from Bielefeld University. ‘Due to the increased public interest in Ukraine and its history, voices from both disciplines have become indispensable in the media,’ says Kończal. Ukrainian scholars, who have had to leave their country because of the war, are also shaping both fields of research and their interdisciplinary linkages.

Symposium participants will examine the shifting dynamics between peace and conflict studies and East European studies. Prominent figures in both disciplines will come together to discuss methodological approaches, controversies, intersections, and missed opportunities. A key question here is to what extent interest in Ukraine has changed in these academic fields over the past year and a half.
The symposium will also take a closer look at the public discourse on Ukraine in Germany. ‘The increasing scope of confrontation with the country’s issues – past and present – is not free of misconceptions and misunderstandings,’ says Yaroslav Zhuralov. The symposium will consider the challenges that arise when trying to bring academic expertise into a highly politicized debate – and the extent to which experts have succeeded in shaping the political and public discourse.

The symposium consists of two keynote lectures, four panel discussions, and a Q&A session. Historians of Ukraine, including Dr Fabian Baumann (University of Heidelberg), Professor Dr Guido Hausmann (Regensburg University), Professor Dr Ricarda Vulpius (University of Münster) and Dr Anna Veronika Wendland (Herder-Institute Marburg) will speak, along with Ukrainian authors and academics, including Jurko Prochasko (Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, Kyiv), Professor Dr Valeria Korablyova (Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic), Dr Viktoriya Sereda (Institute for Advanced Study, Berlin) and Dr Tatiana Zhurzhenko (Centre for East European and International Studies, Berlin).

The Q&A with Oleksandra Matviichuk, who heads the Center for Civil Liberties (CCL) in Kyiv and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, promises to be a highlight of the symposium program.
The event is being organised by Professor Dr Kornelia Kończal, Professor Dr Frank Grüner and Dr Yaroslav Zhuravlov (all historians at Bielefeld University), together with Dr Franziska Davies (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich), Professor Dr Gelinada Grinchenko (University of Wuppertal) and Dr Nataliia Sinkevych (Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe (GWZO), Leipzig). They are holding the conference in cooperation with the German-Ukrainian Historical Commission, the German Foundation for Peace Research, the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at Bielefeld University, and the German Association for East European Studies.

The symposium will be held in English in Building X (Room X A2-103) on site at Bielefeld University, and will also be offered as a hybrid event, with the opportunity to participate via Livestream. To register for the event – both in person and online – please sign up by 10 October via email (war-and-peace@uni-bielefeld.de).

Members of the press will have the opportunity to speak with Gelinada Grinchenko, Frank Grüner, Kornelia Kończal and Yaroslav Zhuravlov about the issues and topics to be addressed in the symposium right before the start of the event on Thursday, 12 October, beginning at 2:30 pm. Please sign up by 11 October at war-and-peace@uni-bielefeld.de.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment