Mercury 13 is a remarkable story of the women who were tested for spaceflight in 1961 before their dreams were dashed in being the first to make the trip beyond Earth. NASA’s ‘man in space’ program, dubbed ‘Project Mercury‘ began in 1958. The men chosen – all military test pilots – became known as The Mercury 7. But away from the glare of the media, behind firmly closed doors, female pilots were also screened. Thirteen of them passed and, in some cases, performed better than the men. They were called the Mercury 13 and had the ‘right stuff’ but were, unfortunately, the wrong gender. Underneath the obsession of the space race that gripped America, the women were aviation pioneers who emerged thirsty for a new frontier, but whose time would have to wait. The film tells the definitive story of thirteen truly remarkable women who reached for the stars but were ahead of their time. A Netflix original documentary directed by David Sington and Heather Walsh. (rottentomatoes)
Tag: Earth
800 – Deep, Down and Dirty: The Science of Soil (2014 Documentary)
For billions of years our planet was devoid of life, but something transformed it into a vibrant, living planet. That something was soil.
It’s a much-misunderstood substance, often dismissed as ‘dirt’,something to be avoided. Yet the crops we eat, the animals we rely on, the very oxygen we breathe, all depend on the existence of the plant life that bursts from the soil every year.
In this film, gardening expert Chris Beardshaw explores where soil comes from, what it’s made of and what makes it so essential to life. Using specialist microphotography, he reveals it as we’ve never seen it before – an intricate microscopic landscape, teeming with strange and wonderful life forms.
It’s a world where the chaos of life meets the permanence of rock, the two interacting with each other to make a living system of staggering complexity that sustains all life on Earth.
Chris explores how man is challenging this most precious resource on our planet and how new science is seeking to preserve it. (bbc)
0780 – First Reformed (2017)
timespace coordinates: 2017 Snowbridge, New York
“how often we ask for genuine experience when all we really want is emotion.”

First Reformed is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Paul Schrader. It stars Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric the Entertainer, and follows a Protestant minister faced with questions of faith and morality while serving as pastor of a dwindling historical church. (wiki)

767 – Time Trap (2017)
762 – Electric Dreams (2017 TV series)
Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams, or simply Electric Dreams, is a British anthology television series based on various writings from author Philip K. Dick, each of the 10 stand-alone episodes are set in a different and unique world — some that lay in the far reaches of the universe and others that are much closer to home. While the stories may be worlds apart, central to each is the exploration of the importance and significance of humanity. (rt)
0761 – Jurassic World
timespace coordinates: 2010’s Isla Nublar, off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica / Northern California
Jurassic World (2015)

Jurassic World is a 2015 American science fiction adventure film, the fourth installment of the Jurassic Park film series, and the first film in a planned Jurassic World trilogy.

Set 22 years after the events of Jurassic Park, Jurassic World takes place on the same fictional Central American island of Isla Nublar, which is located off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica, where a theme park of cloned dinosaurs has operated for nearly a decade. The park plunges into chaos when a genetically-engineered dinosaur escapes from its enclosure and goes on a rampage.
Lego Jurassic World: The Indominus Escape (2016) / Lego Jurassic World: Employee Safety Video (2016)
Themes and analysis / Scientific accuracy / imdb
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is a 2018 American science fiction adventure film and the sequel to Jurassic World (2015). Directed by J. A. Bayona, it is the second installment of a planned Jurassic World trilogy. Derek Connolly and Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow both returned as writers, with Trevorrow and the original Jurassic Park director Steven Spielberg as executive producers. (wiki)
756 – David Attenborough’s Light on Earth / Life That Glows (2016 documentary)
Life That Glows is a 2016 British nature documentary programme made for BBC Television, first shown in the UK on BBC Two on 9 May 2016. The programme is presented and narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Life That Glows films the biology and ecology of bioluminescent organisms, that is, capable of creating light. The programme features fireflies, who use light as a means of sexual attraction, luminous fungi, luminous marine bacteria responsible for the Milky seas effect, the flashlight fish, the aposematism of the Sierra luminous millipede, earthworms, the bioluminescent tides created by blooms of dinoflagellates in Tasmania, as well as dolphins swimming in the bloom in the Sea of Cortez, the defensive flashes of brittle stars and ostracods, sexual attraction in ostracods, prey attraction by luminous click beetles in Cerrado,Brazil and the Arachnocampa gnats in New Zealand.
The programme then introduces many luminous deep sea animals, including the vampire squid, the polychaete worm Tomopteris that generates yellow light, the jellyfish Atolla, the comb jelly Beroe, the viper fish, pyrosomes, a dragonfish, and the polychaete worm Flota. Then, the programme discusses specialised adaptations in the eyes of particular animals to see bioluminescence, such as the barreleye fish and the cock-eyed squid. Lastly, they feature the mass spawning event of the firefly squid in Japan. (wiki)
A group of students venture into the deep caves of remote Texas to locate a favorite archaeology professor who inexplicably has gone missing while searching for the Fountain of Youth. In the course of their pursuit, the group unwittingly rappels into a break in the space-time continuum… (
