The Essential HBO Reader

The founding of Home Box Office in the early 1970s was a harbinger of the innovations that transformed television as an industry and a technology in the decades that followed. HBO quickly became synonymous with subscription television and became the leading force in cable programming. Having interests in television, motion picture, and home video industries was crucial to its success. HBO diversified into original television and movie production, home video sales, and international distribution as these once-separate entertainment sectors began converging into a global entertainment industry in the mid-1980s. HBO has grown from a domestic movie channel to an international cable-and-satellite network with a presence in over seventy countries. It is now a full-service content provider with a distinctive brand of original programming and landmark shows such as The Sopranos and Sex and the City. The network is widely recognized for its award-winning, innovative and provocative programming, including dramatic series such as Six Feet Under and The Wire, miniseries such as Band of Brothers and Angels in America, comedies such as Curb Your Enthusiasm and Def Comedy Jam, sports shows such as Inside the NFL and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, documentary series such as Taxi Cab Confessions and Autopsy, and six Oscar-winning documentaries between 1999 and 2004. In The Essential HBO Reader, editors Gary R. Edgerton and Jeffrey P. Jones bring together an accomplished group of scholars to explain how HBO’s programming transformed the world of cable television and how the network continues to shape popular culture and the television industry. Now, after more than three and a half decades, HBO has won acclaim in four distinct programming areas—drama, comedy, sports, and documentaries—emerging as TV’s gold standard for its breakout series and specials. The Essential HBO Reader provides a comprehensive and compelling examination of HBO’s development into the prototypical entertainment corporation of the twenty-first century. Describes the complexities and ambiguities of the channel, its history, its unique business model, and its individual programs. Gary Edgerton and Jeffrey Jones have assembled a dream team of television scholars, some of whom have been paying attention to HBO since its debut in 1972. There are a lot of essay collections about television out there these days --Robert J. Thompson Director, Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture Sy This is a splendid collection of scholarship and critical thinking. The authors have managed to tame and corral a very important aspect of American media history and yet allowed it to remain daring and unconventional. --Terry Lindvall, author of Surprised by Laughter: The Comic World of C. S. Lewis In the ever-expanding universe of cable, satellite and digital broadcasting, the authors explore how HBO fights to remain the frontrunner in innovative programming. Essential reading! --Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, author of At the Picture Show: Small Town Audiences and Coeditors Edgerton and Jones have added a critical component to the study of television and American culture. The result is a fascinating book that is indeed essential reading for anyone with an interest in media history. --Mary Ann Watson, author of Defining Visions: Television and the American Experi Comprehensive and informative on a topic that deserves to be analyzed in-depth. HBO really did write an important new chapter in television history and has not received the scholarly attention that is its due. --Michael T. Marsden, coeditor of In the Eye of the Beholder: Critical Perspectives “An important assessment of the original programming HBO has created in the past few decades—how these programs are derived and what impact they have had. Recommended.”—Choice Because Edgerton and Jones offer such a thorough treatment of HBO\u27s programming, their volume is a useful addition to a growing number of books about American television in the \u27post-network\u27 era. --American Studieshttps://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_american_popular_culture/1014/thumbnail.jp

Muscle activation patterns in shoulder impingement patients

Introduction: Shoulder impingement is one of the most common presentations of shoulder joint problems 1. It appears to be caused by a reduction in the sub-acromial space as the humerus abducts between 60o -120o – the 'painful arc'. Structures between the humeral head and the acromion are thus pinched causing pain and further pathology 2. Shoulder muscle activity can influence this joint space but it is unclear whether this is a cause or effect in impingement patients. This study aimed to observe muscle activation patterns in normal and impingement shoulder patients and determine if there were any significant differences. Method: 19 adult subjects were asked to perform shoulder abduction in their symptomatic arm and non-symptomatic. 10 of these subjects (age 47.9 ± 11.2) were screened for shoulder impingement, and 9 subjects (age 38.9 ± 14.3) had no history of shoulder pathology. Surface EMG was used to collect data for 6 shoulder muscles (Upper, middle and lower trapezius, serratus anterior, infraspinatus, middle deltoids) which was then filtered and fully rectified. Subjects performed 3 smooth unilateral abduction movements at a cadence of 16 beats of a metronome set at 60bpm, and the mean of their results was recorded. T-tests were used to indicate any statistical significance in the data sets. Significance was set at P<0.05. Results: There was a significant difference in muscle activation with serratus anterior in particular showing a very low level of activation throughout the range when compared to normal shoulder activation patterns (<30%). Middle deltoid recruitment was significantly reduced between 60-90o in the impingement group (30:58%).Trends were noted in other muscles with upper trapezius and infraspinatus activating more rapidly and erratically (63:25%; 60:27% respectively), and lower trapezius with less recruitment (13:30%) in the patient group, although these did not quite reach significance. Conclusion: There appears to be some interesting alterations in muscle recruitment patterns in impingement shoulder patients when compared against their own unaffected shoulders and the control group. In particular changes in scapula control (serratus anterior and trapezius) and lateral rotation (infraspinatus), which have direct influence on the sub-acromial space, should be noted. It is still not clear whether these alterations are causative or reactionary, but this finding gives a clear indication to the importance of addressing muscle reeducation as part of a rehabilitation programme in shoulder impingement patients

Arbeit. Wohnen. Computer

In the 1960s, between the construction of the Berlin Wall (1961) and the change of power (Ulbricht / Honecker 1971), a field of tension between the claim to power and truth of the SED on one side and the subjective obstinacy of the works of art and their creators on the other hand developed. Within it, debates arose regarding the question of the design and appearance of a future, technologically high developed and scientific socialism. Working. Living. Computer tracks down questions about the appearance of the worker of the future, the future of living, and the significance of the computer in the future and analyses these imaginative worlds of socialist dreams and desires in image, architecture, and texts.Im Spannungsfeld zwischen Macht- und Wahrheitsanspruch der SED und dem subjektiven Eigensinn der Kunstwerke und ihrer SchöpferInnen entfalteten sich in den 1960er Jahren zwischen Mauerbau (1961) und Machtwechsel (Ulbricht / Honecker 1971) Debatten um die Frage nach Gestaltung und Erscheinungsbild eines zukünftigen, technologisch hoch entwickelten und wissenschaftlich fundierten Sozialismus. Arbeit. Wohnen. Computer. spürt anhand von Fragen nach dem Aussehen des Arbeiters der Zukunft, nach dem Wohnen der Zukunft sowie nach der Bedeutung des Computers in der Zukunft diesen Vorstellungswelten sozialistischer Wunschräume und Wunschzeiten in Bild, Bau und Wort nach

Arbeit. Wohnen. Computer

In the 1960s, between the construction of the Berlin Wall (1961) and the change of power (Ulbricht / Honecker 1971), a field of tension between the claim to power and truth of the SED on one side and the subjective obstinacy of the works of art and their creators on the other hand developed. Within it, debates arose regarding the question of the design and appearance of a future, technologically high developed and scientific socialism. Working. Living. Computer tracks down questions about the appearance of the worker of the future, the future of living, and the significance of the computer in the future and analyses these imaginative worlds of socialist dreams and desires in image, architecture, and texts