The inescapable narrative structure of the TV sitcom

Beyond its television ‘half-hour’ time-limit, the sitcom is commonly distinguished from drama or soap-opera by having what is described as a closed or “circular” narrative structure. Narrative theory explores the relationship between character actions, traits and story, and how together they enable the narrative structure (Chatman 1978). If the narrative is the sum of the character’s actions this paper will examine the plot points where the character’s actions advance the narrative and determine the effect of their choices at those points. The objective is to explore how the key character generates the unique shape. Lisa Trahair, in her text The Comedy of Philosophy: Sense and Nonsense in Early Cinematic Slapstick (2007) in utilising psychoanalytic theory demonstrates that comicality is enabled through the tension arising between the pleasure principle and primary processes that drive the character and in opposition to the reality principle that comes to bear on the character through the narrative. Extending on my presentation at the 2015 SRN conference that examined the nature of the characters in the sitcom, I now observe that, in response to the diegetic reality brought to bear through the narrative, key characters make choices that maintain their idealisation; in so doing they contribute to the definitive closed narrative structure of the sitcom and reinforce their entrapment. This paper will examine the comic operation of the sitcom at the level of the narrative in order to extend our understanding of how the plot reinforces the key character’s psychical tension; further how their choices at certain points ensure the re-situation and ‘perpetual entrapment’ and the ‘closed narrative’

Sandwich

Proposal for a TV series. A comedy about mid life - when everybody needs you and nobody wants you. The full script, Sandwich was awarded 4th place Best Television Pilot London Film Award

Modular tool for creating games with artificial intelligence

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá návrhem a implementací nástroje pro usnadnění tvorby umělých inteligencí. Nástroj používá vlastní univerzální komunikační protokol, podporuje více typů her, je rozšiřitelný o další hry pomocí dynamických knihoven, podporuje zobrazení ladících informací z umělé inteligence a je lokalizovaný do českého a anglického jazyka.This bachelor thesis describes the design and implementation of tool for facilitate the creation of artificial intelligence. The tool uses its own universal communication protocol, supports multiple types of games, is extensible for other games using dynamic libraries, supports the display of debugging information of artificial intelligence and is localized in English and Czech.

Health Crises and the Growth of EU Agencies: The Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. EIPA Briefing June 2021.

In her State of the Union address in September 2020, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed the need to build a stronger European Health Union in order to strengthen crisis preparedness and management of cross-border health threats. However, in the EU, public health is an ambiguous policy area (see Art. 168 TFEU). Although health protection is an overarching objective in all policy areas, public health is mainly a supporting competence of the EU. There are some areas, such as setting standards for medicinal products, in which, by way of derogation, EU competences supersede national competences. Regarding serious cross-border threats to health, however, EU action can only complement national policies. The organisation of health services and medical care is the responsibility of the Member States. The Commission has highlighted several problems. National variance in terms of preparedness means that Member States have different levels of capacities to respond to health crisis. Without coordination, Member States might compete against each other when procuring medical countermeasures. There is currently no common threat assessment which might support joint intervention mechanisms, and the availability of countermeasures and production capacities in the EU is unknown. Existing agencies like the ECDC and the European Medicines Agency (EMA) do not have the mandate to audit national preparedness and to initiate a common response in times of crisis. Finally, developing countermeasures is resource-intensive and entails financial risks for businesses which, in turn, requires public-private partnership for investment and finance. This briefing presents the most important proposals related to agencies in public health with a focus on crisis preparedness and management. It then discusses the challenges of ‘agencification’ in relation to agency governance, inter-agency cooperation and funding

Floor area and level area by law

The article includes the method for the calculating of the floor areas and level areas by legal and technical regulations. The article deals with law, regulations and standards – in the Czech Republic and abroad.Příspěvek se zabývá způsobem výpočtu podlahových ploch staveb a zastavěných ploch staveb dle právních a technických předpisů, a to jak zákonů, vyhlášek a norem českých, tak pro srovnání i zahraničních