That\u27s freakin\u27 sweet: The collecting of Family Guy

The animated series Family Guy (1999-2006) has been cancelled twice and resurrected twice mainly because of the efforts of viewers. It is worth asking, however; why has Family Guy attained a level of fanaticism that repeatedly rescues it from permanent cancellation? Arguably, the Family Guy audience is made up predominantly of members of generation y and as such, the way they view the program and their relationship to it will differ to that of previous generations. In short, Family Guy was cancelled due to poor ratings, however, these ratings were a result of erratic scheduling that was not conducive to the establishment of a strong audience base. This encouraged viewers to look beyond the television for information relating to Family Guy (i.e. air dates or missed episodes) and to discuss the show in general, creating an \u27imagined community\u27 online. The establishment of community whilst facilitating organized protests to have the series continued in times of cancellation does not explain why viewers have gone to this extreme. Popular culture is becoming increasingly complex, and it is possible to suggest that Family Guy is more complex than previous animated series. The way in which Family Guy is constructed may appear unusual to some, yet to members of generation y who are familiar with this style of animated series (having grown up with children\u27s series similar to it during the 1990s) it appears to be a natural progression from previous series. As a result they identify strongly with the series and perhaps even view it as something produced for them. This level of identification and the series history of being cancelled has led to the collection of episodes and information (namely quotes) around Family Guy. The collection of knowledge is indicative of the level of importance viewers place in the series and it becomes necessary for the maintenance of friendships. Labeling downloaded episodes as a collection is problematic as they constitute a vastly different type of collectable to material items. It is suggested, that this is a result of rigid and possibly outmoded perceptions of collectables and collecting and, that the term collecting should be considered as covering different forms of collecting and different levels of involvement on the part of the collector

Llàgrima artificial lipídica. Estudi clinic i fisicoquímic

Les llàgrimes artificials lipídiques són un tipus de suplements lacrimals formats per lípids, entre d’altres components, amb la finalitat de restaurar la capa lipídica fisiològica de la pel·lícula lacrimal. La capa lipídica s’encarrega de disminuir l’evaporació de la llàgrima, a més de lubricar en el parpelleig, per aquest motiu les llàgrimes lipídiques estan indicades, especialment, en pacients amb ull sec per excessiva taxa d’evaporació de la pel·lícula lacrimal. Un dels components lipídics que s’utilitzen en aquest tipus de llàgrimes artificials és la lecitina de soja. En el present estudi s’han analitzat les propietats fisicoquímiques de tres llàgrimes artificials comercials basades en aquest component, la Zero, l’Optrex i l’Opticalm en format esprai. S’han obtingut les isotermes àrea-pressió superficial i s’ha intentat corroborar l’efectivitat d’aquestes tècniques per estudiar el comportament dels components lipídics de les llàgrimes i extreure conclusions sobre algunes de les seves propietats. A més s’ha complementat el treball amb un estudi clínic amb la finalitat d’intentar establir algun tipus de relació entre els resultats fisicoquímics i els resultats clínics. S’ha vist que l’Opticalm és la llàgrima amb més fluïdesa de les tres estudiades i que l’Opticalm en comparació amb l’Oprex produeix més millora en els resultats de les proves de qualitat de la llàgrima, la qual cosa podria estar relacionada amb la seva major fluïdesa constatada en la primera part de l’estudi

Essays on the demand for information goods

siirretty Doriast

Gotta Catch ‘Em All!: The National Diet’s Inadequate Attempt to Control Manga Pirates

Internet piracy threatens Japan’s most popular cultural exports: manga and anime. Fans have taken to translating and distributing the works online for other fans to enjoy because official translated versions of manga and anime are released overseas later than the original in Japan, or they are never released at all. In order to combat the illegal downloading and distributing of manga, the National Diet, Japan’s legislature, passed an amendment to the Japanese Copyright Act that increases punishments for leech sites and illegal downloading of manga.This Note discusses the manga and anime industries and their struggles with piracy before reviewing the copyright regimes in the United States and Japan. In critiquing the Japanese Copyright Amendment, this Note considers the hardships of enforcement and the manga and anime industries’ resistance to change with new technologies. This Note concludes that a comprehensive licensing regime is needed to stop manga and anime piracy. Such a regime would facilitate timely distribution to satisfy overseas demand, and copyright owners would profit from the expanded market rather than lose out to piracy

ENGAGEMENT AND POPULARITY DYNAMICS OF YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND SENSITIVITY TO META-DATA

YouTube, with a large number of substance makers, has become the favored objective for watching recordings online from side to side the partner plan, YouTube permit cheerful makers to adapt their well-known recordings. Vital for content makers is which meta-level highlights (for example title, tag, and thumbnail) are generally responsive for advance video notoriety. The popularity of video likewise relies upon the social elements, for example the contact of the substance makers (or channels) with YouTube client's .we experimentally inspect the affectability of YouTube meta-level highlights and social elements. The key meta-level skin that blow the view tally of a video comprise of: first day see tally , number of endorsers, differentiation of the video thumbnail, Google hits, number of watchwords, video classification, title length, and number of capitalized letters in the title separately and represent that these meta-level highlights can be utilized to gauge the prevalence of a video. In adding, upgrading the meta-level skin after a tape is post expands the notoriety of video. In the foundation of social elements, we discover that there is a major affiliation flanked by perspectives to a channel and the related number of endorsers. Too, knowledge into the effects of arrangement and video play from side to side in a channel are likewise given. Our answer gives a valuable thoughtful of client arrangement in YouTube

Dragon Slayer Short Film Modeling and Rigging a Quadruped Dragon

This thesis is a look at the design and implementation of a quadrupedal dragon, as specified by the needs of the short film Dragonslayer. It looks at the modeling of the three dimensional creature from artistic and technical points of view. The dragon is a worldwide fantasy and cultural icon, and this thesis focuses on the creation of one grounded in the western fantasy of the middle ages. The western dragons have four legs, a pair of wings, horns, and a relatively stout body in comparison to the eastern dragons, which more closely resemble serpents and possess antlers instead of horns. The distinction of the dragon as being quadrupedal is significant, since many rigs or models in industry use a wyvern, bipedal dragon, model instead. A wyvern is a much simpler design and very closely resembles the actual anatomy of a bat. Because the quadrupedal dragon is a creature that does not exist or have comparable anatomy to any known animals on Earth, its anatomy was based on a combination of real animal physiology and some educated inferences to fill in any anatomical weaknesses. Since the dragon is such a recognized character from mythos, it is important that this dragon be an anatomically sound creature that does little to damage the suspended disbelief of a viewer. The dragon is also rigged to be versatile, machine efficient, and intuitively manipulated by an animator for use in film, video games, television, or even academic exercises

At the Edge of Monstrosity: Melville, Shelley, and Crane’s Monsters in 19th-Century Literature

What is a monster? For contemporary readers, monsters conjure images of things from horror films. My capstone addresses the question of whether monsters, the monstrous, and monstrosity are inside the human or elsewhere. I argue that monsters, when compared side-by-side in literature, are fundamentally the same with some exceptions: evil behind a human body. Through close-reading and theoretical analyses of 19th-century texts, Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Stephen Crane’s The Monster, I examine how their authors create monsters as a response to societal anxieties and fears. My capstone expands on passages where human characters surrender to their internal monsters to prove an authorial need to mirror a monstrous society. By exploring themes of obsession and knowledge, I claim that textual monsters are mere manifestations of who we are in reality. I have divided my capstone into chapters that take turns surveying what it takes to become a monster. I conclude with a brief, but broader discussion of contemporary monsters to bridge 19th-century literature to its modern-day counterpart. In the end, I ultimately posit that we are no less monstrous than monsters on the page