Professor Richard Fortey delves into the fascinating and normally-hidden kingdom of fungi. From their spectacular birth, through their secretive underground life to their final explosive death, Richard reveals a remarkable world that few of us understand or even realise exists – yet all life on Earth depends on it. In a specially-built mushroom lab, with the help of mycologist Dr Patrick Hickey and some state-of-the-art technology, Richard brings to life the secret world of mushrooms as never seen before and reveals the spectacular abilities of fungi to break down waste and sustain new plant life, keeping our planet alive. Beyond the lab, Richard travels across Britain and beyond to show us the biggest, fastest and most deadly organisms on the planet – all of them fungi. He reveals their almost magical powers that have world-changing potential – opening up new frontiers in science, medicine and technology. (docuwiki)
Tag: science & technology
0684 – Crysis 3 (2013 video game)
timespace coordinates: 2047 New York City
Crysis 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. Officially announced 16 April 2012, it is the third main installment of the Crysis series, a sequel to the 2011 video game Crysis 2.
Set in the year 2047, the game takes place in New York City, which has been encased in a giant Nanodome created by the corrupt CELL corporation, and turned into a veritable urban rainforest. Crysis 3‘s story revolves around Prophet, a Nanosuit holder who is on a quest to take revenge on the Alpha Ceph, the leader of the Ceph alien race, with the help of Prophet’s former comrade, Psycho. The game’s story serves as the end of the Crysis trilogy. Gameplay revolves around the use of the Nanosuit, which grants players a variety of abilities such as being invisible. New features introduced in Crysis 3 include a new Nanosuit ability called “Rip & Throw”, a new compound bow and the “hacking” feature, which allows players to hack into enemies’ equipment, drones, and automated security defenses.
The game is set in a post-apocalyptic New York City, in an effort to combine the urban landscape of Crysis 2 and the forest setting of the original Crysis. The game introduces the “Seven Wonders”, with each wonder having its own unique landscape and tactical layout. Due to complaints about Crysis 2‘s linearity, the game’s levels were opened up so as to grant players more freedom. The development team also put efforts into creating a more emotional story, and the story’s protagonist was inspired by the lead character of District 9. The game was developed by a team of 100 people during its 23-month development cycle. (wiki)
minimum system requirements: CPU: Intel Core2 Duo 2.4 Ghz (E6600) / AMD Athlon64 X2 2.7 Ghz (5200+) // RAM: 2GB Memory (3GB on Vista) // GPU: DirectX 11 graphics card with 1Gb Video RAM Nvidia GTS 450 / AMD Radeon HD5770 // DX: Directx 11 // OS: Windows Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8 // Store: At least 17 GB of free space
681 – Isle of Dogs (2018)
timespace coordinates: 2038 Japan
Isle of Dogs (Japanese: 犬ヶ島 Hepburn: Inugashima) is a 2018 stop-motion animated film written, produced and directed by Wes Anderson. Set in a dystopian near-future Japan, the story follows a young boy searching for his dog after the species is banished to an island following the outbreak of a canine flu. The film’s ensemble voice cast includes Bryan Cranston, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bob Balaban, Greta Gerwig, Frances McDormand, Courtney B. Vance, Fisher Stevens, Harvey Keitel, Liev Schreiber, Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, F. Murray Abraham, Frank Wood, Kunichi Nomura and Yoko Ono.
Anderson said that the film was strongly influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa, as well as the stop-motion animated holiday specials made by Rankin/Bass Productions. (wiki)
674 – Secret Life Underground: Series 1 (2016 documentary)
Nature Documentary hosted by Geoffrey Bateman, published by Arte in 2016 – English narration. (docuwiki)
The underground world is so unfamiliar to us that you only have to dig down a few yards to reveal a totally unknown realm, just beneath our feet. Today, only a fraction of the rich biodiversity that inhabits the soil has been studied. Scientists estimate that the ground is probably home to 70% of the living organisms yet to be discovered.
The Skin Of The Earth
We know less than 10% of the organisms that populate the underground world and that, each in their own way, take an active part in creating the soil. We are just beginning to discover that plants form partnerships and create complex unions. Welcome to this subtle, surprising and secret world.
Hidden in the Depths
Take a journey alongside scientists into an underground maze with huge surprises in store. They lead us into monumental cavities, shaped by water and by time. They reveal to us mineral jewels of staggering beauty, and shed light on certain species of fauna that defy the imagination.
mineral trees:
672 – Edwardian Insects on Film (2013 documentary)
In 1908 amateur naturalist Percy Smith stunned cinema goers with his surreal film The Acrobatic Fly. Featuring a bluebottle juggling a series of objects, the film became front page news. Now wildlife cameraman Charlie Hamilton-James attempts to recreate this fascinating film.
Along the way, Hamilton-James (helped by Sir David Attenborough who saw Smith’s films as a boy) tells the story of Percy’s remarkable career and reveals the genius behind this forgotten pioneer of British film. (docuwiki)
Minute Bodies: The Intimate World of F. Percy Smith (2016)
imdb ( film and music )
668 – Ready Player One (2018)
spacetime coordinates: 2045 Columbus, Ohio
imdb
cultural references
The film was noted to have significant differences from the book, with some critics calling the film’s plot an improvement over the source material. 🙂
667 – After Life: The Strange Science of Decay (2011 documentary)
If you have ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away and everything inside was left to rot, the answer is revealed in this programme which explores the strange and surprising science of decay. For two months, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which molds, slime molds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old. Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by, but as the programme shows, it’s a process that’s vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty. (docuwiki)
TimeSpace Warps 