Academic literature on the topic 'Black comedy'
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Journal articles on the topic "Black comedy"
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Xuan, Zhou, and Wang Yichun. "Laughing Mechanism and Social Value of Chinese Black Comedy Films——From the Perspective of Bergson's Comedy Theory." Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences 20 (September 7, 2023): 29–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.54097/ehss.v20i.11417.
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This article aims to explore the mechanism of laughter and social functions of Chinese black comedy films from the perspective of Bergson's comedy theory. As a popular comedy subgenre in the Chinese film market, black comedy films combine dark and absurd tragic themes with comedy forms to form a unique film style. By using Bergson's comedy theory, while analyzing the comedy and the production mechanism of laughter in Chinese black comedy films, it also analyzes the social functions and cultural values of black comedy films, and explains how to use universal comedy techniques to empower them Black themes are accepted by the current Chinese society, providing some useful ideas and perspectives for further understanding of the creation and appreciation of Chinese black comedy films.
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Fitzpatrick, Sheila. "Soviet History as Black Comedy." Ab Imperio 2023, no. 4 (2023): 30–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/imp.2023.a922248.
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SUMMARY: Opening a discussion forum "Mainstream Narratives of Soviet History and the Laughter of Surprise," Sheila Fitzpatrick's essay proposes applying the mode of black comedy to the narration of Soviet history. Noting that all comedy thrives on the unexpected, Fitzpatrick points to humorous reactions to social paradoxes and conflicts in the Russian and Soviet literary tradition as well as in western Sovietology. The essay implies that the comedic mode can be productive in highlighting heterogeneity and incongruities in Soviet history. Резюме: Эссе Шейлы Фитцпатрик, в котором черная комедия рассматривается как возможный модус повествования советской истории, открывает форум "Мейнстримные нарративы советской истории и смех от удивления". Отмечая, что жанр комедии использует эффект неожиданности, Фитцпатрик отмечает случаи юмористической реакции на социальные парадоксы и конфликты в российской и советской литературной традиции, а также западной советологии. В эссе аргументируется продуктивность использования жанра черной комедии для демонстрации гетерогенности советской истории и несоответствий в советском прошлом.
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Fulton, DoVeanna S. "Comic Views and Metaphysical Dilemmas: Shattering Cultural Images through Self-Definition and Representation by Black Comediennes." Journal of American Folklore 117, no. 463 (January 1, 2004): 81–96. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/4137614.
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Abstract Using the paradigm of Gary Alan Fine’s "folklore diamond," this essay analyzes comedic material of contemporary African American women comics. This comedic material conveys the uniqueness of African American women’s position at the intersections of race, gender, and class dynamics, thereby marking the performers as not only Black, not only female, but as Black women entertainers who are changing the face of Black women’s comedy.
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Ellis, D. "Black Comedy in Shakespeare." Essays in Criticism 51, no. 4 (October 1, 2001): 385–403. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/eic/51.4.385.
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Suny, Ronald Grigor. "Sheila Fitzpatrick's Black Comedy." Ab Imperio 2023, no. 4 (2023): 101–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/imp.2023.a922256.
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SUMMARY: This essay is a contribution to the discussion forum "Mainstream Narratives of Soviet History and the Laughter of Surprise," framed as responses by literary scholars, historians, and political scientists to Sheila Fitzpatrick's essay "Soviet History as Black Comedy." Ronald Suny's central question is: How does one reveal absurdity without descending into mockery? He finds a partial answer in Fitzpatrick's bottom-up, archives-based approach, which was emphatic, ironic, and skeptical, but never mocking. Although Fitzpatrick's positionality contrasts with the most recent version of partisan, deadly serious "decolonization," Suny argues that both these approaches overlook the source of Soviet irony such as the contradiction between nation-making and the imperial frame. That said, to productively apply the black-humor perspective to narrate this and other contradictions of the Soviet past one must, as Fitzpatrick does, retain empathy for and understanding of its imperfect actors. Резюме: Это эссе является частью форума "Мейнстримные нарративы советской истории и смех от удивления," в котором литературоведы, историки и политологи реагируют на эссе Шейлы Фитцпатрик "Советская история как черная комедия". Рональд Суни задает ключевой вопрос: как раскрыть абсурдность, избегая при этом издевательского тона? Частичный ответ на этот вопрос представляет научный подход Фитцпатрик: исследовательская перспектива снизу вверх; архивная база; выразительный, иронический и скептический, но никогда не издевательский взгляд. Хотя эта позиция противоположна недавно оформившемуся узкопартийному и убийственно серьезному пониманию "деколонизации," оба подхода не способны увидеть источник иронии советской истории, который кроется в противоречии между советским нациестроительством и советской имперской рамкой. При этом для продуктивного использования черной комедии как жанра нарратива советской истории, выявляющего заложенные в ней противоречия, необходимо, подобно Фитцпатрик, сохранять эмпатию и с пониманием относиться к неидеальным историческим действующим лицам.
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Michelle Edmonds, Brittney. "Katelyn Hale Wood, Cracking Up: Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century United States." Modern Drama 65, no. 2 (June 1, 2022): 264–66. http://dx.doi.org/10.3138/md-65-2-br7.
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Katelyn Hale Wood’s Cracking Up: Black Feminist Comedy in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Century United States is a welcome addition to a growing body of scholarship in Black humour studies. Wood analyses the stage comedy of Black feminists including Jackie “Moms” Mabley, Mo’Nique, Wanda Sykes, Amanda Seales, and others.
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La Farge, Benjamin. "Comic Anxiety and Kafka's Black Comedy." Philosophy and Literature 35, no. 2 (2011): 282–302. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/phl.2011.0024.
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Györgyey, Clara, and Tibor Fisher. "Under the Frog: A Black Comedy." World Literature Today 69, no. 3 (1995): 581. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/40151456.
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Curley, Maureen, and Gene A. Plunka. "The Black Comedy of John Guare." South Atlantic Review 67, no. 2 (2002): 79. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3201965.
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刘, 园. "An Analysis of Danish Black Comedy." Journalism and Communications 11, no. 04 (2023): 768–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.12677/jc.2023.114115.
Full textDissertations / Theses on the topic "Black comedy"
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Maxwell, Nicholas Elliott, and nmaxwel1@bigpond net au. "Black Comedy and the Principles of Screenwriting/The Actions." RMIT University. Creative Media, 2008. http://adt.lib.rmit.edu.au/adt/public/adt-VIT20081212.123034.
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This exegesis will aim to research and analyse the conventions of writing a black comedy in a feature film script. As a screenwriter with a particular interest in black comedy, my aim is to explore the technical structures of black comedy in order to facilitate the writing of a tragicomic screenplay. We will attempt to define the components of black comedy and survey its origin in theatre and literature. The exegesis will aim to explore what components comprise the middle ground between drama and humour and position it in relation to the classical genres of tragedy and comedy. The exegesis will also aim to examine the function of black comedy in relation to the psychology of the protagonist and the audience, as well as defining the characteristics of the genre in the context of Screenwriting. The exegesis will observe the film adaptation of the renowned play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? as a case study. The research will inform the writing of the feature length screenplay entitled The Actions.
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Tomkins, Sara Elizabeth. "‘Interlocked Together’: Black-Jewish Relationality in Contemporary Jewish American Comedy." Thesis, The University of Sydney, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2123/16785.
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This thesis revisits the popular cultural narrative of black-Jewish relations in the United States — an association based on relational suffering — through an examination of contemporary Jewish American humour. It considers how Jewish comedians both identify with and distance themselves from African American culture, history, and experience in order to negotiate their place in the US racial system. At times, Jewish Americans express their ethnic particularity and marginality through cross-racial identification with African Americans as racial Others. At other times, they separate themselves from blackness to strengthen their associations with dominant white culture. Focusing on the work of Jewish comedians in the US and Australia, this thesis contributes to key concerns underpinning the narrative of black-Jewish relations including the use of blackness to narrate Jewish alterity and subjectivity, the unstable relationship of Jewishness to white privilege, and the potential and limits of interracial identification. The first two chapters provide a historical framework for the development of black-Jewish relations and its articulation in Jewish American comedy. The three chapters that follow perform in-depth case studies of three prominent Jewish comedians — Larry David and Sarah Silverman from the US and John Safran from Australia — focusing on their use of African American tropes and themes to construct gendered and racialised Jewish diasporic identities. The chapters on David and Silverman highlight their critical engagement with gendered Jewish American stereotypes such as the nebbish Jewish man and the Jewish American Princess. The chapter on Safran shifts cultural and geographical perspective to look at how a Jewish Australian comedian draws on African American and Jewish American popular culture to perform a Jewish Australian identity. As such, this last chapter provides a useful way to think about transnational engagements with black-Jewish relations. The thesis examines postmodern blackface, racial satire, cringe comedy, and comic failure in the work of these comedians to investigate the productive and risky elements of racial and ethnic comedy. By analysing their performances within the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception, the thesis illuminates the unique ability of comedy to engage with controversial issues of racial and ethnic difference. It also demonstrates the ways in which Jewishness continues to be an ambivalently white ethnic group in the United States.
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Cramer, Steven L. "The absurd state : political satire and black comedy in British drama, 1964-1974." Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993. http://hdl.handle.net/1842/26416.
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It has become a critical commonplace of recent years that the current period of political drama started with the upheavals of 1968. It is often stated that before that year, playwrights of the post 1956 generation generally held liberal views which were broadly critical of British society's major institutions, but stopped short of criticising such bodies as the Labour Party. My aim will be to reassess this view in the light of the black comedies of the period 1964 to 1974. These plays held in common a number of stylistic characteristics and thematic obsessions, and were particularly notable for their close reference to contemporary events and political crises. In attempting to establish a continuity through this period, I will try to reappropriate to the modern canon a number of playwrights, who have been marginalised or forgotten since the mid seventies. I also deal with several of the 'major' works of the period, with specific reference to their relevance to contemporary events at the time of their initial productions. This will necessitate a certain amount of detailed historical background. The thesis is divided into two halves, comprising three and two chapters, respectively. The first part examines the premierships of Home, Wilson and Heath in that order, with particular reference to the way in which the politics and character of each were reflected in black comic satire. The second half of the thesis considers three black comic stereotypes, each of which mirrored the leading social themes of the day. The figure of the meritocrat, the 'classless' individual who rises to prominence on the strength of his or her own abilities, a particular political creation of our period is lampooned mercilessly throughout, although in different ways, depending upon the historical circumstances. Doctors and Policemen are also characteristic figures of the period, and I consider the way in which the latter group, in particular, provided a succession of stock characters which would be moulded to address particular public scandals in the immediate wake of their occurrences.
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Murray, Kristen A. School of Media Theatre & Film & School of Sociology UNSW. "???Bury, burn or dump???: black humour in the late twentieth century." Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of Media, Theatre & Film and School of Sociology, 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/31475.
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In humour studies research, there have been few attempts to elucidate why black humour was such a prevalent, powerful force in late twentieth century culture and why it continues to make a profound impression in the new millennium. As Dana Polan (1991) laments: ???Rarely have there been attempts to offer material, historically specific explanations of particular manifestations of the comic???.1 This thesis offers an interdisciplinary analysis of black humour in the late twentieth century. I contend that the experience of black humour emerges from the intricacies of human beliefs and behaviours surrounding death and through the diverse rituals that shape experiences of loss. I suggest that black humour is an attempt to articulate the tension between the haunting absence and disturbing presence of death in contemporary society. Chapter 1 of this thesis offers an historical and etymological perspective on black humour. In Chapter 2, I argue that the increasing privatisation and medicalisation of death, along with the overt mediatisation of death, creates a problematic juxtaposition. I contend that these unique social conditions created, and continue to foster, an ideal environment for the creation and proliferation of black humour. In Chapters 3 and 4, I examine the structures and functions of black humour through three key theories of humour: incongruity, catharsis and superiority. Chapter 5 looks at ways in which the experience of black humour creates resolutions and forces dissonances for people entwined with loss. In this final chapter, I also consider how black humour may help people make meaning from issues surrounding death. Throughout this theoretical discussion, I interweave the analysis of a range of scenes from contemporary black comic texts (i.e. plays, screenplays and television scripts). On the whole, this thesis works towards a more complex, specific understanding of the phenomenon of black humour within a social context.
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Lehe, Patrick J. "Shit Show." Digital Commons at Loyola Marymount University and Loyola Law School, 2020. https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/etd/915.
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Oliveira, Dudlei Floriano de. "Cinema, religion and literature : revisiting, recreating and reshaping Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as a 21st century comedy." reponame:Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da UFRGS, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10183/61715.
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As obras de Jane Austen são extremamente populares tanto entre leitores comuns e estudiosos de literatura desde a época em que foram publicados, no início do século XIX até os dias de hoje. Tamanha popularidade foi responsável por inúmeras obras de arte, especialmente na literatura e no cinema, que foram ou implicitamente ou explicitamente influenciados pela obra de Austen. Um de seus romances mais adaptados é Orgulho e Preconceito, talvez seu romance mais lido, estudado e adaptado. Um dos motivos para tal apreciação é provavelmente resultado dos valores morais que Jane Austen expõe em seus romances. Estes valores, mesmo duzentos anos mais tarde, permanecem importantes e de grande valor, especialmente na era pós-moderna, quando o excesso de liberdade e alternativas parecem deixar a humanidade mais desprovida de um suporte seguro na vida. Esta é a razão que permite um fã de Austen encontrar na religião um possível diálogo, onde, em um mundo cheio de incertezas, certos códigos morais são as certezas a que alguém pode se segurar. Em 2003, Andrew Black dirigiu o filme Pride and Prejudice: a latter-day comedy1, uma transposição moderna do romance de Austen, no qual os personagens vão à igreja e estudam em uma universidade religiosa. Meu trabalho busca estabelecer uma relação entre o livro de Jane Austen, o filme de Andrew Black e as questões sobre moralidade e religião, e como o romance e o filme estabelecem uma conexão não apenas em seus elementos de ficção como personagens e enredo, mas principalmente no que diz respeito a uma das possíveis mensagens finais em ambas obras.The works of Jane Austen are extremely popular both among average readers and literature scholars from the time they were published, in the early 19th century until today. Such popularity has been responsible for innumerous works of art, especially in literature and cinema, that were either implicitly or explicitly influenced by Austen’s work. One of her most adapted novels is the 1812 novel Pride and Prejudice, which is perhaps her most read, studied and adapted novel. One of the reasons for such appraisal has probably to do with the moral values Jane Austen exposes in her novels. Those values, even two hundred years later, remain important and of great worth, especially in the postmodern era, when the excess of freedom and alternatives seems to make humanity more deprived of a secure ground in life. This is the reason that allows an Austen fan to find in religion a possible dialogue, where, in a world full of uncertainties, some moral codes are the certainties one can hold onto. In 2003, Andrew Black directed a movie entitled Pride and Prejudice: a latter-day comedy, a transposition of Austen’s novel to a modern setting, where the characters are themselves churchgoers and students at a religious university. My work is aimed at establishing a connection between Jane Austen’s novel, Andrew Black’s movie and the issue of morality and religion, and how the novel and movie establish a connection not only in terms of fictional elements such as characters and plot, but mainly in regards to one of the possible final messages in both works.
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Haynes, Doug. "'A more comely beak' : Thomas Pynchon, surrealism and the black humour of totality." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2003. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.407737.
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Goldani, Marcelo Veber. "TESTEMUNHA OCULAR DA INSERÇÃO DO NEGRO NA BRIGADA MILITAR DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL NO COMEÇO DA REPÚBLICA ATRAVÉS DAS FOTOGRAFIAS." Universidade Federal de Santa Maria, 2012. http://repositorio.ufsm.br/handle/1/10996.
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The Black arrived in Rio Grande do Sul as a slave to work in the ranches and the Charqueadas. As the province was constantly in the brink of war defending the southern border, he was also called to arms in the front lines, mainly as lancer. In the second half of the 19th century, emerged, at both national and international levels, the first manifestations for the ending of the slave system. During the imperial period there were law proposals for the control and extinction of forced labour. With the proclamation of the Republic (and the slavery abolished by law) public policies were adopted for the inclusion of the black in the class-based society. The abolitionist movements that arose prior to the Golden Law became organized movements. The Republic's first years were of much political instability for Brazil and Rio Grande do Sul. For that, the State Government turned the old Civic Guard into a well armed and trained militia for protection and maintenance of the government. This institution placed on record the Afro-Brazilian presence since its origin through settlement books and existing photography in Historical Center Coronel Pillar's collection. In the settlement books of the time we observe the subscription of countless black soldiers enlisted before the beginning of the Federalist Revolution. In the album published to honor the 30 years of the Military Brigad of the Rio Grande do Sul, in 1922, with more than 400 pictures, are shown at least 30 pictures portraying the presence of black in its ranks. In the sociocultural context at that time the Military Brigad was also used as a tool for insertion of the black into the social order. By reading the "Orders of the Day" it was possible to identify black inclusion actions in the institution. This way, an iconographic analysis methodology was applied and a multimedia platform was developed to house the elaborate cataloge. Thus, the analyzed pictures will be preserved and disclosed by accessible electronic media and available to other interested people.O negro chegou ao Rio Grande do Sul como escravo para trabalhar, principalmente nas estâncias de criação de gado e nas charqueadas. No clima de instabilidade que vivia a Província em defesa da fronteira sul este sujeito também foi levado às linhas de frente das batalhas, principalmente como lanceiro. Na segunda metade do século XIX, surgiram as primeiras manifestações em âmbito internacional e também nacional para o fim do sistema escravista. Durante o período imperial já havia propostas de leis para o controle e extinção do serviço forçado. Com a proclamação da República (e a escravidão já extinta por lei) foram adotadas políticas para a inserção do negro na sociedade. Os movimentos abolicionistas surgidos anteriormente à Lei Áurea tornaram-se movimentos organizados. Os primeiros anos da república foram de muita instabilidade política ao Brasil e ao Rio Grande do Sul, por isto o Governo Estadual transformou a antiga Guarda Cívica em uma milícia bem armada e treinada para a proteção e mantenimento do governo a Brigada Militar. Esta Instituição deixou registrada a presença do negro desde a sua origem através dos livros de assentamento e fotografias existentes no acervo do Centro Histórico Coronel Pilar. Nos livros de assentamento da época observamos a inscrição de inúmeros soldados negros alistados antes do início da Revolução Federalista. No Álbum publicado em homenagem aos 30 anos da Brigada Militar do Rio Grande do Sul, em 1922, com mais de 400 imagens, são mostradas pelo menos 30 fotografias onde estão registrados sujeitos negros em suas fileiras. No contexto sociocultural da época a Brigada Militar também foi utilizada como instrumento de inserção do negro na ordem social. Através das leituras das Ordens do Dia foi possível identificar ações de inclusão do negro na instituição. Desta forma, foi aplicada uma metodologia de análise iconográfica e desenvolvido um catálogo virtual que foi inserido em uma Plataforma Multimídia. Assim, as imagens analisadas serão preservadas e divulgadas através de mídia eletrônica acessível e disponível para as demais pessoas interessadas.
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Pita, César. "CineScrúpulos (Año 7. Número 19. Diciembre de 2018)." Universidad Peruana de Ciencias Aplicadas (UPC), 2018. http://hdl.handle.net/10757/625033.
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Los textos de CineScrúpulos son elaborados por los alumnos, profesores y colaboradores de la Facultad de Comunicaciones de la UPC. Las imágenes utilizadas son de distintas páginas web. El uso de las mismas se inscribe en lo estrictamente académico y divulgativo.se ha convertido en un referente cinematográfico por derecho propio. La figura que se aleja como danzando, dueña de su propio futuro incierto, es una de las odas más hermosas al optimismo y a la sonrisa permanente, a pesar de las adversidades que afronta. Porque no debemos olvidar que Charlot es pobre pero digno, a pesar de que Chaplin, el personaje de carne y hueso, estuvo rodeado de una serie de polémicas por sus aparentes constructos ideológicos y por su conocido interés por las féminas. Pero eso no opaca un corpus fílmico que alumbró piezas que hoy son consideradas clásicos indiscutibles de la historia del cine. Por ello, en aras de saldar una cuenta pendiente, hemos decidido dedicar la presente edición de CineScrúpulos al genio de Chaplin. Pero no es lo único. Como suele suceder en cada ciclo académico, este número viene sazonado con algunos artículos interesantes. Nuevamente ingresamos al terreno de la tecnología para indagar si el universo de futuro que plantea la serie Black mirror tiene algún punto de conexión con el imaginario que despliega James Cameron en sus películas. De más está decir que el autor de Terminator (James Cameron, 1984) es un visionario y enfrenta en cada una de sus obras una serie de retos a nivel técnico pero también narrativo. Lástima que el presente texto haya sido elaborado antes del estreno de ese laberinto de discurso que es Black mirror: Bandersnatch (David Slade, 2018), pero prometemos en el futuro una indagación al respecto. Los dibujos animados también tienen su espacio en CineScrúpulos. Por supuesto, estamos hablando de los ejemplos más descabellados, surrealistas y transgresores que uno puede tener a mano. ¿Dragon Ball Z? No te pases. El universo de Chuck Jones está plagado de delicias que se disfrutan mejor a medida que pasan los años. Y Space jam (Joe Pytka, 1996) fue un producto altamente disfrutable en la década de los noventa. La gran interrogante que se plantea es si maneja el mismo tipo de comedia o toma otros referentes. Leer para creer. Y ya que hablamos de risotadas, el tercer artículo de fondo intenta establecer similitudes y diferencias entre un puñado de películas marca Tondero y otras que establecen nuevos derroteros en el cine de género en el Perú y que tiene que ver con el desenfreno. Es bueno hacer industria, pero las voces disidentes merecen ser escuchadas. Como puedes ver, esta edición está plagada de sonrisas.
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Aslett, Michelle. "Fowl feathered fox: Monsters, pipers, families and flocks." Thesis, Edith Cowan University, Research Online, Perth, Western Australia, 2015. https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/1633.
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Fowl Feathered Fox: Monsters, Pipers, Families and Flocks is a doctoral work consisting of a full-length stage play and an exegesis. An introduction outlines the scope of the doctoral work, while a concluding chapter reflects on research findings and considers staging issues and implications. Appendices include images incorporated into the play’s action as well as photographed excerpts from a series of visual diaries used to document the play’s evolution. The play, Fowl Feathered Fox, explores the nature of delusion, deception and the tragedy of The Beast Within. Borrowing as it does from the traditions of revenge tragedy, comedy and horror, the style of Fowl Feathered Fox is both sensual and sensationalistic. Indeed, by virtue of overstepping traditional ideological, stage and venue boundaries to tap into an audience’s faculties of taste, physical sensation and smell, I aim to confront, seduce and repel on every possible sensory level. Here, in keeping with the conventions of Renaissance revenge tragedies as well as contemporary re-imaginings of the genre in popular culture, a tragic protagonist is forced to behave as a detective in order to put an end to a terrible, taboo curse. As a black comedy however, Fowl Feathered Fox makes light of taboo topics, as the darkness of the subject matter is buoyed by meta-theatrical gags, ironic humour, word-play and brief forays into interpretive dance. In the tradition of horror film and fiction, my eponymous ‘fowl feathered fox’ is a specifically Australian re-imagining of the archetypal shapeshifter, blending the qualities of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, the false prophet, the Pied Piper and the werewolf. Surrealism, with its roots in psychoanalysis, underscores the play’s visual aesthetic: this stage is littered with fearful, surgically invasive and aggressively sexual forms, objects and images. The exegesis, Monsters, Pipers, Families and Flocks, interrogates various mythic, historical and fictional examples of charismatic cult leadership, locating patterns in the paradigmatic nexus shared by monsters, cults and families. A trio of exegetical essays considers the tragic nature of lycanthropy, Nietzsche’s conception of the Apollonian/ Dionysian dichotomy, the socio-cultural dynamics of charismatic cult leadership and the frightening, fascinating phenomenon of pseudologia fantastica. The first exegetical essay explores the lycanthropic and messianic qualities of two real-life malevolent cult leaders: Rock Theriault (Canada) and William Kamm (Australia). The second exegetical essay interrogates the enthralling, intoxicating qualities of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and Greek demi-god Dionysus, finding parallels in tragic revenge narratives wrought by infamous American cult leaders such as Charles Manson and David Berg. Finally, the third exegetical essay examines monstrous, messianic mothers from Greek myth, horror fiction and memoir: specifically, the goddess Demeter, Margaret White from Brian de Palma’s Carrie (1976) and notorious Australian cult leader, Anne Hamilton-Byrne.
Books on the topic "Black comedy"
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Terrell, Anderson. Deserts: A black comedy. Spiritwood, Sask: One Act Play Depot, 2002.
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Macfarlane, Fraser. Earwig: A black comedy. Spiritwood, Sask: One Act Play Depot, 2002.
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Burke, Raymond. Spurt!: An Ortonesque black comedy. Glasgow: Dualchas, 1998.
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Melfi, Mary. Sex therapy: A black comedy. Toronto: Guernica, 1996.
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Meriwether, Elizabeth. Oliver Parker!: A black comedy. New York: Playscripts, Inc., 2011.
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Evans, Les. Raining minestrone: A black comedy. [New York, NY]: Playscripts.com, 2002.
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Fieled, Adam, and Outlaw Playwrights, eds. The Touched: A Very Black Comedy. Plymouth Meeting, Pa: IA (Funtime Press), 2021.
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Hunter, Samuel D. Jack's precious moment: A black comedy. New York: Playscripts, Inc., 2011.
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Tait, Lance. Little black book of comedy sketches. Los Angeles, California: Theatre Metropole, 2012.
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Bisson, Pat. Merry widows: A one act black comedy. Altrincham: New Playwrights' Network, 1995.
Find full textBook chapters on the topic "Black comedy"
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Simkin, Stevie. "Black Comedy and Black Humour." In Marlowe: The Plays, 161–89. London: Macmillan Education UK, 2001. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4039-1921-2_7.
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John, Catherine A. "Black Film Comedy as Vital Edge." In A Companion to Film Comedy, 341–64. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781118327821.ch16.
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Sexton, Jared. "Comedy and Romance: On Diff’rent Strokes and Webster." In Black Masculinity and the Cinema of Policing, 121–60. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66170-4_5.
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Norrish, Peter. "Arthur Adamov: Black Satire, Dreams and Politics." In New Tragedy and Comedy in France 1945–70, 91–106. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 1988. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06780-0_7.
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Goddard, Lynette. "A Slice-of-Life: British-African Social Comedy in Bola Agbaje’s Council Estate Plays." In Contemporary Black British Playwrights, 155–72. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137493101_7.
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Osborne, Deirdre. "Black British Comedy: Desmond’s and the Changing Face of Television." In British TV Comedies, 167–82. London: Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/9781137552952_11.
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Sazzad, Rehnuma. "East Is East (1997) as a Black Comedy of Asian Diasporic Homemaking in 1970s Britain." In Home and Homeland in Asian Diaspora, 133–49. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-59884-5_8.
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Patrick, Stephanie, and Mythili Rajiva. "Introduction." In The Forgotten Victims of Sexual Violence in Film, Television and New Media, 1–23. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95935-7_1.
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Abstract#MeToo is a contemporary global feminist movement against sexual violence and rape culture, including media representations that normalize gendered violence. But #MeToo has also re-centered white, western, middle-class, heteronormative, and able-bodied women. This collection explores who is left out of mainstream media stories of sexual violence, critiquing feminist media studies work that ignores black feminist and intersectional scholarship. Topics include 1990s filmic representations of white working-class girls; the disposability of televisual sex workers; the fetishizing and/or disappearing of racialized characters in order to center white heroism and/or heteronormativity; the explicit construction of fat women as impossible victims; and rape-revenge films in Japanese cinema. Finally, outside traditional media, topics include Canadian true crime podcasts on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women; problematic tropes on reality television; the coding of sexual violence in digital assistants; and the subversive potential of stand-up comedy shows that center the experiences of rape victims.
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"Black Comedy, Black Power." In Freedom in Laughter, 69–88. SUNY Press, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781438479088-007.
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"Black Web Comedy." In Screen Comedy and Online Audiences, 69–86. New York: Routledge, 2017. |: Routledge, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315770574-5.
Full textConference papers on the topic "Black comedy"
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Saha, Diptikalyan, Aniya Aggarwal, and Sandeep Hans. "Data Synthesis for Testing Black-Box Machine Learning Models." In CODS-COMAD 2022: 5th Joint International Conference on Data Science & Management of Data (9th ACM IKDD CODS and 27th COMAD). New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3493700.3493704.
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Kasischke, E. S., L. L. Bourgeau-Chavez, and N. H. F. French. "Multi-sensor analysis of the effects of a wildfire in an Alaskan black spruce forest." In Conference Proceedings Second Topical Symposium on Combined Optical-Microwave Earth and Atmosphere Sensing. IEEE, 1995. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/comeas.1995.472396.
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Hanami, Hitoshi. "Gamma-ray bursts: Magnetosphere around neutron stars with comets, planets and black hole." In COMPTON GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATORY. AIP, 1993. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.44171.
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Bickert, K. F., and J. Greiner. "Gamma-ray bursts from collisions of primordial small-mass-black holes with comets." In COMPTON GAMMA-RAY OBSERVATORY. AIP, 1993. http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.44173.
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Katerenchuk, Vasyl, Afonso Borges de Castro, and Idalina Rodrigues. "#35958 Nerve block or doppler signal? Which one comes first?" In ESRA Abstracts, 40th Annual ESRA Congress, 6–9 September 2023. BMJ Publishing Group Ltd, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/rapm-2023-esra.553.
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Fišer, Daniel, Daniel Gnad, Michael Katz, and Jörg Hoffmann. "Custom-Design of FDR Encodings: The Case of Red-Black Planning." In Thirtieth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence {IJCAI-21}. California: International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2021/558.
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Classical planning tasks are commonly described in PDDL, while most planning systems operate on a grounded finite-domain representation (FDR). The translation of PDDL into FDR is complex and has a lot of choice points---it involves identifying so called mutex groups---but most systems rely on the translator that comes with Fast Downward. Yet the translation choice points can strongly impact performance. Prior work has considered optimizing FDR encodings in terms of the number of variables produced. Here we go one step further by proposing to custom-design FDR encodings, optimizing the encoding to suit particular planning techniques. We develop such a custom design here for red-black planning, a partial delete relaxation technique. The FDR encoding affects the causal graph and the domain transition graph structures, which govern the tractable fragment of red-black planning and hence affects the respective heuristic function. We develop integer linear programming techniques optimizing the scope of that fragment in the resulting FDR encoding. We empirically show that the performance of red-black planning can be improved through such FDR custom design.
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Guo, Guibing, Shichang Ouyang, Xiaodong He, Fajie Yuan, and Xiaohua Liu. "Dynamic Item Block and Prediction Enhancing Block for Sequential Recommendation." In Twenty-Eighth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence {IJCAI-19}. California: International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization, 2019. http://dx.doi.org/10.24963/ijcai.2019/190.
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Sequential recommendation systems have become a research hotpot recently to suggest users with the next item of interest (to interact with). However, existing approaches suffer from two limitations: (1) The representation of an item is relatively static and fixed for all users. We argue that even a same item should be represented distinctively with respect to different users and time steps. (2) The generation of a prediction for a user over an item is computed in a single scale (e.g., by their inner product), ignoring the nature of multi-scale user preferences. To resolve these issues, in this paper we propose two enhancing building blocks for sequential recommendation. Specifically, we devise a Dynamic Item Block (DIB) to learn dynamic item representation by aggregating the embeddings of those who rated the same item before that time step. Then, we come up with a Prediction Enhancing Block (PEB) to project user representation into multiple scales, based on which many predictions can be made and attentively aggregated for enhanced learning. Each prediction is generated by a softmax over a sampled itemset rather than the whole item space for efficiency. We conduct a series of experiments on four real datasets, and show that even a basic model can be greatly enhanced with the involvement of DIB and PEB in terms of ranking accuracy. The code and datasets can be obtained from https://github.com/ouououououou/DIB-PEB-Sequential-RS
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Barton, Lewis, and Ashwin Pinto. "Black Powder Detection and Management Using Advanced Flow Modelling and Field Verification." In ASME 2023 India Oil and Gas Pipeline Conference. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/iogpc2023-119083.
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Abstract Black Powder is a common corrosion related contaminant causing operational issues in gas pipeline networks. Some of these networks large amounts of black powder or debris can be present as a result of many years of operation. In addition to the years of uncertainty, the presumption is all internal integrity threats were previously managed due to the conveyance of sales grade dry gas, which is not always the case. In aging and complex gas distribution networks, due to the difficulty of conducting inspection, the magnitude of deposit accumulation is unknown. Operators therefore have a problem when it comes to validating the internal condition of their gas distribution networks, usually only being able to perform intrusive inspection at huge cost. To overcome this, ROSEN has developed an approach similar to ICDA in order to identify hotspots and buildup areas within city gas distribution networks without the need for intrusive inspection. hotspot areas were identified using advance flow modelling and are then confirmed by non-intrusive NDT methods. This paper goes through a case study of the approach and how it was confirmed to be accurate to pipeline conditions with only a 4% error. In addition, areas of black powder build-up were also identified and validated to be within a 15% error band. These factors together enabled the operator to prove the condition of their network and gain an estimated remaining life, additionally the requirement for pipeline pigging, both operational and intelligent was assessed and deemed not required, saving significant costs both directly and in supply disruption.
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Dewangan, Kheelesh Kumar, Vibek Panda, Sunil Ojha, Anjali Shahapure, and Shweta Rajesh Jahagirdar. "Cyber Threats and Its Mitigation to Intelligent Transportation System." In Symposium on International Automotive Technology. 400 Commonwealth Drive, Warrendale, PA, United States: SAE International, 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.4271/2024-26-0184.
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<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">With the revolutionary advancements in modern transportation, offering advanced connectivity, automation, and data-driven decision-making has put the intelligent transportation systems (ITS) to a high risk from being exposed to cyber threats. Development of modern transportation infrastructure, connected vehicle technology and its dependency over the cloud with an aim to enhance safety, efficiency, reliability and sustainability of ITS comes with a lot more opportunities to protect the system from black hats. This paper explores the landscape of cyber threats targeting ITS, focusing on their potential impacts, vulnerabilities, and mitigation strategies. The cyber-attacks in ITS are not just limited to Unauthorized Access, Malware and Ransomware Attacks, Data Breaches, Denial of Service but also to Physical Infrastructure Attacks. These attacks may result in potentially disrupting critical transportation infrastructure, compromise user safety, and can cause economic losses effecting the various services such as vehicle tracking and monitoring, communication systems, traffic management, driver assistance systems, fuel management, maintenance and diagnostics, data analytics and reporting. The article also focus on innovative approaches that have recently adopted my many cybersecurity professionals for secured operation of ITS involving block-chain, artificial intelligence, and Machine Learning. The development of 5G technology boosts these innovative approaches enabling high-reliability ensuring continuous high speed connectivity and low-latency for real time communications and security for the ITS and also promotes secured V2X communication. This article discusses the various practices adopted for security of ITS and also reviews the upcoming new technology and there approach for practical implementation in field. By understanding the various cyber threats targeting ITS and implementing appropriate safeguards, stakeholders can enhance the resilience and security of these systems, ensuring safe and efficient transportation in the digital age.</div></div>
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Toombs, E., T. Stowell, N. Austin, and P. Danyluk. "Development and Commercialization of Large Stationary Engines Utilizing Low BTU Fuel Containing H2/CO." In ASME 2003 Internal Combustion Engine and Rail Transportation Divisions Fall Technical Conference. ASMEDC, 2003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/icef2003-0771.
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In 1996 Cabot Corporation begun development of engines capable of burning the off-gas from a pyrolysis process used to make carbon black. The fuel gas comes off the process at near atmospheric pressure, high temperature, and saturated with water. After de-watering the gas composition was approximately 16–20% Hydrogen, 16–20% Carbon Monoxide, 1–3% Sulfur compounds and the rest Nitrogen and water. Dewatered heating value of the fuel was around 3350–3720 kJ/nm3. Many engine configurations including both spark and oil ignited were evaluated to utilize this low energy fuel. The paper describes the development cycle and the early experience at commercialization at three sites.
Reports on the topic "Black comedy"
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Fraanje, Walter. What is the land sparing-sharing continuum? Edited by Tara Garnett and Sam Lee-Gammage. Food Climate Research Network, August 2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.56661/4d83249a.
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Agricultural production is responsible for the majority of global land use. The use of land to produce food almost always comes into conflict with goals for the conservation of nature and wildlife. This building block explains the land sparing-sharing continuum, which encompasses two fundamentally different approaches to balancing goals for food production and biodiversity conservation.
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Franco Silva, Adriana. Working paper PUEAA No. 19. Dissidences, learning, and organizational experiences of Latin American women: Decolonial Dialogues. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Programa Universitario de Estudios sobre Asia y África, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.22201/pueaa.004r.2023.
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In recent years, violence against women has increased significantly in Latin America. Faced with this context, women have not been passive, but have organized themselves to confront the violence of the system. The community feminism of Bolivia and Guatemala, as well as the organization of black women in Brazil are just a few examples of the different women's movements throughout the region. The proposals that have come out of these groups have made visible the historical violence of capitalism and are also proposing new ways of socialization based on the recovery of their knowledge and experiences. In this way, in this text some of their approaches will be shared, emphasizing that the proposals confront the prevailing system and provide alternatives to face the crisis of civilization.
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Jameel, Yusuf, Paul West, and Daniel Jasper. Reducing Black Carbon: A Triple Win for Climate, Health, and Well-Being. Project Drawdown, November 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.55789/y2c0k2p3.
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Black carbon – also referred to as soot – is a particulate matter that results from the incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass. As a major air and climate pollutant, black carbon (BC) emissions have widespread adverse effects on human health and climate change. Globally, exposure to unhealthy levels of particulate matter, including BC, is estimated to cause between three and six million excess deaths every year. These health impacts – and the related economic losses – are felt disproportionately by those living in low- and middle-income countries. Furthermore, BC is a potent greenhouse gas with a short-term global warming potential well beyond carbon dioxide and methane. Worse still, it is often deposited on sea ice and glaciers, reducing reflectivity and accelerating melting, particularly in the Arctic and Himalayas. Therefore, reducing BC emissions results in a triple win, mitigating climate change, improving the lives of more than two billion people currently exposed to unclean air, and saving trillions of dollars in economic losses. Today, the majority of BC emissions stem from just a handful of sectors and countries. Over 70% of BC comes from the residential and transportation sectors, with the latter being the dominant source in high-income countries and the former driving emissions in low- and middle-income nations. On a country-level, China and India are the biggest emitters accounting for one-third of global BC emissions. When combined with Brazil, Indonesia, and Nigeria, these five countries alone emit 50% of all BC. While BC emissions trends over the past 20 years have been inconsistent globally, there has been a notable decline in Europe, North America, and China. Conversely, emissions have been rising in regions like Africa, South Asia, and Central Asia. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recommends deep reductions in BC emissions by 2030 to achieve the Paris Climate Agreement goal of limiting warming to below 1.5°C, yet very few countries have addressed BC in their climate plans. Fortunately, solutions that can rapidly reduce BC emissions by the end of this decade are readily available. By implementing the right policies, deploying targeted interventions in hotspots, and redirecting climate finance, policymakers and funders can mitigate the climate effects of BC while saving millions of lives and trillions of dollars. Below are key recommendations to achieve these aims based on the findings of this report: Urgently implement clean cooking solutions Providing clean cooking fuels and technologies in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, especially in the hotspots of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, Nigeria, and Uganda, can significantly reduce BC emissions. Countries with low penetration of clean cooking fuel must urgently develop policies that make clean cooking a priority for health and climate. Target transportation to reduce current – and prevent future – emissions Retrofitting older diesel engines with diesel particulate filters can remove up to 95% of BC. Countries around the world must implement policies to phase out polluting vehicles, set emission standards, and accelerate the uptake of EVs and hybrids, especially in urban regions where transportation demand is growing rapidly. A successful shift to EVs demands national investments complemented with international financing and private capital. Multilateral development banks need to play a pivotal role in this transition, with strategies like concessional finance to fast-track key projects and stimulate private sector investment. Reduce BC from the shipping industry BC emissions from the shipping industry must be urgently reduced to protect the Arctic ecosystem. Shifting shipping away from heavy fuel oil and equipping ships with diesel particulate filters is a cost-effective approach that would quickly and significantly reduce emissions. Regulate air quality Stringent emissions standards, clean air laws, baselines, and mandatory monitoring programs can effectively reduce BC emissions. Such policies have already resulted in large reductions in Europe, North America, and, more recently, China. However, several low- and middle-income countries have no legal protection for ambient air quality and lack legislatively-mandated standards. Implementing strong and legally binding policies can result in a large decrease in BC emissions, particularly across the transportation and industry sectors. Include BC in nationally determined contributions and the UNFCCC Only 12 countries have explicitly addressed BC in their nationally determined contributions (NDCs). This limited focus on BC is partly due to its omission from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) list of climate pollutants, an oversight that should be reconsidered given that reducing BC would save countless lives and slow global warming. As nations review their NDCs by 2025, they must incorporate BC reduction efforts to meet climate and well-being targets. Improve BC measurements and estimates BC estimates are plagued by uncertainties. Therefore, there is an urgent need for more accurate inventories in order to develop better emission reduction plans. Stakeholders must collaborate to develop a consistent BC measurement protocol, prioritize the collection of high-quality data, and use state of the art models to enhance estimates and reduce uncertainties.
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Hackbarth, Carolyn, and Rebeca Weissinger. Water quality in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network: Water years 2016–2018 (revised with cost estimate). National Park Service, November 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.36967/nrr-2279508.
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Water-quality monitoring in National Park Service units of the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) is made possible through partnerships between the National Park Service Inventory & Monitoring Division, individual park units, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Utah Division of Water Quality. This report evaluates data from site visits at 62 different locations on streams, rivers, and reservoirs in or near ten NCPN park units between October 1, 2015 and September 30, 2018. Data are compared to state water-quality standards for the purpose of providing information to park managers about potential water-quality problems. The National Park Service does not determine the regulatory status of surface waters; state water quality agencies determine whether waters comply with the Clean Water Act. Evaluation of water-quality parameters relative to state water-quality standards indicated that 17,997 (96.8%) of the 18,583 total designated beneficial-use evaluations completed for the period covered in this report met state water-quality standards. The most common exceedances or indications of impairment, in order of abundance, were due to elevated nutrients, elevated bacteria (E. coli), elevated water temperature, elevated trace metals, elevated total dissolved solids (and sulfate), elevated pH, and low dissolved oxygen. While some exceedances were recurring and may have been caused by human activities in the watersheds, many were due to naturally occurring conditions characteristic of the geographic setting. This is most apparent with phosphorus, which can be introduced into surface water bodies at elevated levels by natural weathering of the geologic strata found throughout the Colorado Plateau. Higher phosphorus concentrations could also be attributed to anthropogenic activities that can accelerate erosion and transport of phosphorus. Some activities that can increase erosional processes include grazing, logging, mining, pasture irrigation, and off-highway vehicle (OHV) use. Exceedances for total phosphorus were common occurrences at nine out of ten NCPN park units, where at least one site in each of these parks had elevated phosphorus concentrations. At these sites, high levels of nutrients have not led to algal blooms or other signs of eutrophication. Sites monitored in Arches National Park (NP), Black Canyon of the Gunnison NP (BLCA), Bryce Canyon NP (BRCA), Capitol Reef NP (CARE), Curecanti National Recreation Area (CURE), Dinosaur National Monument (DINO), and Zion NP (ZION) all had E. coli ex-ceedances that could be addressed by management actions. While many of these sites already have management actions underway, some of the actions necessary to bring these waters into compliance are beyond the control of the National Park Service. Changes to agricultural practices to improve water quality involves voluntary participation by landowners and/or grazing permittees and their respective states. This could be the case with lands upstream of several parks with E. coli contamination issues, including Red Rock Canyon (BLCA); Sul-phur, Oak, and Pleasant creeks (CARE); Blue Creek and Cimarron River (CURE); Brush and Pot creeks (DINO); and North Fork Virgin River (ZION). Issues with E. coli contamination at Yellow Creek (BRCA) seemed to be resolved after the park boundary fence downstream of the site was repaired, keeping cattle out of the park. At North Fork Virgin River, E. coli exceedances have been less frequent since the State of Utah worked with landowners and grazing permittees to modify agricultural practices. Continued coordination between the National Park Service, state agencies, and local landowners will be necessary to further re-duce E. coli exceedances and, in turn, improve public health and safety in these streams. Selenium concentrations in Red Rock Canyon (BLCA) continued to exceed the state aquat-ic-life standard at both the upstream and downstream sites. Although selenium weathers naturally from bedrock and...
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Einarsson, Rasmus. Nitrogen in the food system. TABLE, February 2024. http://dx.doi.org/10.56661/2fa45626.
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Nitrogen (N) plays a dual role in the agri-food system: it is an essential nutrient for all life forms, yet also an environmental pollutant causing a range of environmental and human health impacts. As the plant nutrient needed in greatest quantities, and as a building block of proteins and other biomolecules, N is a necessary part of all life. In the last century, an enormous increase of N turnover in the agri-food system has enabled increasing per-capita food supply for a growing world population, but as an unintended side effect, N pollution has increased to levels widely agreed in science and policy to be far beyond sustainable limits. There is no such thing as perfectly circular N supply. Losses of N to the environment inevitably arise as N is transformed and used in the food system, for example in soil processes, in manure storage, and in fertilizer application. This lost N must be replaced by ‘new’ N, which is N converted to bioavailable forms from the vast atmospheric pool of unreactive dinitrogen (N2). New N comes mainly as synthetic N fertilizer and through a process known as biological N fixation (BNF). In addition, there is a large internal flow of recycled N in the food system, mainly in the form of livestock excreta. This recirculated N, however, is internal to the food system and cannot make up for the inevitable losses of N. The introduction of synthetic N fertilizer during the 20th century revolutionized the entire food system. The industrial production of synthetic N fertilizer was a revolution for agricultural systems because it removed the natural constraint of N scarcity. Given sufficient energy, synthetic N fertilizer can be produced in limitless quantities from atmospheric dinitrogen (N2). This has far-reaching consequences for the whole agri-food system. The annual input of synthetic N fertilizer today is more than twice the annual input of new N in pre-industrial agriculture. Since 1961, increased N input has enabled global output of both crop and livestock products to roughly triple. During the same time period, total food-system N emissions to the environment have also more than tripled. Livestock production is responsible for a large majority of agricultural N emissions. Livestock consume about three-quarters of global cropland N output and are thereby responsible for a similar share of cropland N emissions to air and water. In addition, N emissions from livestock housing and manure management systems contribute a substantial share of global N emissions to air. There is broad political agreement that global N emissions from agriculture should be reduced by about 50%. High-level policy targets of the EU and of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity are for a 50% reduction in N emissions. These targets are in line with a large body of research assessing what would be needed to stay within acceptable limits as regards ecosystem change and human health impacts. In the absence of dietary change towards less N-intensive diets, N emissions from food systems could be reduced by about 30%, compared to business-as-usual scenarios. This could be achieved by implementing a combination of technical measures, improved management practices, improved recycling of wasted N (including N from human excreta), and spatial optimization of agriculture. Human dietary change, especially in the most affluent countries, offers a huge potential for reducing N emissions from food systems. While many of the world’s poor would benefit nutritionally from increasing their consumption of nutrient-rich animal-source foods, many other people consume far more nutrients than is necessary and could reduce consumption of animal-source food by half without any nutritional issues. Research shows that global adoption of healthy but less N-polluting diets might plausibly cut future food-system N losses by 10–40% compared to business-as-usual scenarios. There is no single solution for solving the N challenge. Research shows that efficiency improvements and food waste reductions will almost certainly be insufficient to reach agreed environmental targets. To reach agreed targets, it seems necessary to also shift global average food consumption onto a trajectory with less animal-source food.
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Drury, J., S. Arias, T. Au-Yeung, D. Barr, L. Bell, T. Butler, H. Carter, et al. Public behaviour in response to perceived hostile threats: an evidence base and guide for practitioners and policymakers. University of Sussex, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.20919/vjvt7448.
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Background: Public behaviour and the new hostile threats • Civil contingencies planning and preparedness for hostile threats requires accurate and up to date knowledge about how the public might behave in relation to such incidents. Inaccurate understandings of public behaviour can lead to dangerous and counterproductive practices and policies. • There is consistent evidence across both hostile threats and other kinds of emergencies and disasters that significant numbers of those affected give each other support, cooperate, and otherwise interact socially within the incident itself. • In emergency incidents, competition among those affected occurs in only limited situations, and loss of behavioural control is rare. • Spontaneous cooperation among the public in emergency incidents, based on either social capital or emergent social identity, is a crucial part of civil contingencies planning. • There has been relatively little research on public behaviour in response to the new hostile threats of the past ten years, however. • The programme of work summarized in this briefing document came about in response to a wave of false alarm flight incidents in the 2010s, linked to the new hostile threats (i.e., marauding terrorist attacks). • By using a combination of archive data for incidents in Great Britain 2010-2019, interviews, video data analysis, and controlled experiments using virtual reality technology, we were able to examine experiences, measure behaviour, and test hypotheses about underlying psychological mechanisms in both false alarms and public interventions against a hostile threat. Re-visiting the relationship between false alarms and crowd disasters • The Bethnal Green tube disaster of 1943, in which 173 people died, has historically been used to suggest that (mis)perceived hostile threats can lead to uncontrolled ‘stampedes’. • Re-analysis of witness statements suggests that public fears of Germany bombs were realistic rather than unreasonable, and that flight behaviour was socially structured rather than uncontrolled. • Evidence for a causal link between the flight of the crowd and the fatal crowd collapse is weak at best. • Altogether, the analysis suggests the importance of examining people’s beliefs about context to understand when they might interpret ambiguous signals as a hostile threat, and that. Tthe concepts of norms and relationships offer better ways to explain such incidents than ‘mass panic’. Why false alarms occur • The wider context of terrorist threat provides a framing for the public’s perception of signals as evidence of hostile threats. In particular, the magnitude of recent psychologically relevant terrorist attacks predicts likelihood of false alarm flight incidents. • False alarms in Great Britain are more likely to occur in those towns and cities that have seen genuine terrorist incidents. • False alarms in Great Britain are more likely to occur in the types of location where terrorist attacks happen, such as shopping areass, transport hubs, and other crowded places. • The urgent or flight behaviour of other people (including the emergency services) influences public perceptions that there is a hostile threat, particularly in situations of greater ambiguity, and particularly when these other people are ingroup. • High profile tweets suggesting a hostile threat, including from the police, have been associated with the size and scale of false alarm responses. • In most cases, it is a combination of factors – context, others’ behaviour, communications – that leads people to flee. A false alarm tends not to be sudden or impulsive, and often follows an initial phase of discounting threat – as with many genuine emergencies. 2.4 How the public behave in false alarm flight incidents • Even in those false alarm incidents where there is urgent flight, there are also other behaviours than running, including ignoring the ‘threat’, and walking away. • Injuries occur but recorded injuries are relatively uncommon. • Hiding is a common behaviour. In our evidence, this was facilitated by orders from police and offers from people staff in shops and other premises. • Supportive behaviours are common, including informational and emotional support. • Members of the public often cooperate with the emergency services and comply with their orders but also question instructions when the rationale is unclear. • Pushing, trampling and other competitive behaviour can occur,s but only in restricted situations and briefly. • At the Oxford Street Black Friday 2017 false alarm, rather than an overall sense of unity across the crowd, camaraderie existed only in pockets. This was likely due to the lack of a sense of common fate or reference point across the incident; the fragmented experience would have hindered the development of a shared social identity across the crowd. • Large and high profile false alarm incidents may be associated with significant levels of distress and even humiliation among those members of the public affected, both at the time and in the aftermath, as the rest of society reflects and comments on the incident. Public behaviour in response to visible marauding attackers • Spontaneous, coordinated public responses to marauding bladed attacks have been observed on a number of occasions. • Close examination of marauding bladed attacks suggests that members of the public engage in a wide variety of behaviours, not just flight. • Members of the public responding to marauding bladed attacks adopt a variety of complementary roles. These, that may include defending, communicating, first aid, recruiting others, marshalling, negotiating, risk assessment, and evidence gathering. Recommendations for practitioners and policymakers • Embed the psychology of public behaviour in emergencies in your training and guidance. • Continue to inform the public and promote public awareness where there is an increased threat. • Build long-term relations with the public to achieve trust and influence in emergency preparedness. • Use a unifying language and supportive forms of communication to enhance unity both within the crowd and between the crowd and the authorities. • Authorities and responders should take a reflexive approach to their responses to possible hostile threats, by reflecting upon how their actions might be perceived by the public and impact (positively and negatively) upon public behaviour. • To give emotional support, prioritize informative and actionable risk and crisis communication over emotional reassurances. • Provide first aid kits in transport infrastructures to enable some members of the public more effectively to act as zero responders.
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Health Education Materials for the Workplace: Tools. Population Council, 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.31899/sbsr2017.1007.
Full textAbstract:
Companies can derive many benefits from educating workers on health. Yet workplaces in many lower income countries have a need for easy-to-access, on-demand health education materials. The Evidence Project/Meridian in partnership with Bayer has developed a set of health education materials for these industrial and agricultural workplaces. The materials cover important health issues facing women and men workers: - Family Planning - Engaged Fathers and Health - Healthy Timing and Spacing of Pregnancy - Menstrual Hygiene - Handwashing These materials are designed to be printed at the workplace on desktop printers, making the materials easy to access and available on demand. They are available in English, Bengali (approved by the Ministry of Health), and Arabic. The materials, in color and black and white (to save on printing costs), come in three types: - Mini-Posters (MP), to be posted in public areas - Handouts (HO), for workers to take home and containing a bit more information - Supplemental materials (QA) to reinforce learning. Each workplace can determine how best to use these materials. The Implementation Guide gives workplace health staff and managers ideas for fitting the materials into their health promotion activities. There is also a User’s Guide for Brands/Retailers, NGOs and other interested parties explaining how the materials can be used in their workplace programs in global supply chains.