The Nuclear Opion

Five years after the earthquake and tsunami that triggered the unprecedented trio of meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, scientists and engineers are struggling to control an ongoing crisis. What’s next for Fukushima? What’s next for Japan? And what’s next for a world that seems determined to jettison one of our most important carbon-free sources of energy? Despite the catastrophe—and the ongoing risks associated with nuclear—a new generation of nuclear power seems poised to emerge the ashes of Fukushima. NOVA investigates how the realities of climate change, the inherent limitations of renewable energy sources, and the optimism and enthusiasm of a new generation of nuclear engineers is looking for ways to reinvent nuclear technology, all while the most recent disaster is still being managed. What are the lessons learned from Fukushima? And with all of nuclear’s inherent dangers, how might it be possible to build a safe nuclear future?

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The Theatre Of Cruelty & Of The Absurd

The Theatre of Cruelty (French: Théâtre de la Cruauté, also French: Théâtre cruel) is a form of theatre generally associated with Antonin Artaud . Artaud, who was briefly a member of the surrealist movement, outlined his theories in The Theatre and its Double. The Theatre of Cruelty can be seen as a break from traditional Western theatre and a means by which artists assault the senses of the audience. Encyclopædia Britannica describes the Theatre of Cruelty as "a primitive ceremonial experience intended to liberate the human subconscious and reveal man to himself". It goes on to say that Manifeste du théâtre de la cruauté ( 1932; Manifesto of the Theatre of Cruelty ) and Le Théâtre et son double (1938; The Theatre and Its Double) both called for "communion between actor and audience in a magic exorcism; gestures, sounds, unusual scenery, and lighting combine to form a language, superior to words, that can be used to subvert thought and logic and to shock the specta...

Generative Music

Generative music is a term popularized by Brian Eno to describe music that is ever-different and changing, and that is created by a system. Eno is also credited with inventing the phrase “ambient music,” first using the term to describe his 1978 release Ambient 1: Music for Airports . A generative piece sounds different every time it is played. The first indications of generative music date from the composer Johann Philipp Kirnberger in 1757, he wrote a work entitled "Musikalisches Wrfelspiel" based on a series of templates written by him, which he modified according to the result of rolling dice. Generative Music 1 is the name of a floppy disk (composed by Brian Eno in 1996). The work, made up of twelve pieces, was not recorded in an audio format, but in '.skp' format, and therefore, to be able to listen to it you would need the Sseyo Koan player software, a real-time music generation system. As the Sseyo Koan is an algorithmic generative software, each...

Genesis P-Orridge

Last month, industrial performance artist and provocateur Genesis P-Orridge performed her final concert at London venue Heaven. It wasn’t just a farewell to her audience, but also a means for Genesis P-Orridge to bid farewell to herself. Recently she told the New York Times that the course of her chronic myelomonocytic leukaemia meant that she had “less optimistically, a year, maybe six months. And then I’m on the downward slope to death”. As with the Fall’s Mark E Smith in January this year, it’s difficult to imagine the UK music underground without this constant fixture. The death was confirmed by Genesis's daughters, Genesse and Caresse, the musician and artist, who had been battling leukaemia for two-and-a-half years, was 70. “It is with very heavy hearts that we announce the passing of our beloved father, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge,” Caresse and Genesse P-Orridge said in a statement shared online. “S/he will be laid to rest h/er other half, Jaqueline “Lady Jaye” Brey...

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