Presented by Madhumita Murgia and John Thornhill, produced by Josh Gabert-Doyon and Edwin Lane. Executive producer is Manuela Saragosa. Sound design by Breen Turner and Samantha Giovinco. Original music by Metaphor Music. The FT’s head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Special thanks to The Hospital for Sick Children.
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Classic Drama Movie: A Boy and His Dog — A young man and his telepathic dog wander through a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
A Boy and His Dog (1975) Director: L.Q. Jones. Writers: L.Q. Jones(screenplay), Harlan Ellison(novella), Wayne Cruseturner(uncredited) Stars: Don Johnson, Jason Robards, Susanne Benton. Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller. Country: United States. Language: English. Release Date: March 1975 (USA) Duration: 86 min. Filming locations: Coyote Dry Lake, California, USA
Storyline: A post-apocalyptic tale based on a novella by Harlan Ellison. A boy communicates telepathically with his dog as they scavenge for food and sex, and they stumble into an underground society where the old society is preserved. The daughter of one of the leaders of the community seduces and lures him below, where the citizens have become unable to reproduce because of being underground so long. They use him for impregnation purposes, and then plan to be rid of him.
Reviews: “A frank tale about a recklessly horny boy and his calculative dog sums up this strange, very strange Sci-fi post-apocalyptic wasteland adventure yarn. It’s a unique product of the 70s, as it’s ambitious, daring and warped in its mind-set that makes this considerably low-budget effort a hypnotic cult item that nothing else would even come close to it. Based upon a novel by Harlan Ellison, the premise follows that of a young loner Vic (splendidly performed by Don Johnson) and his telepathic pooch Blood (exceptionally voiced by Tim McIntire) travelling the desert landscapes caused by the after-effects of WWIV in the search of food, shelter and women.
What goes on to make this film is the biting conversations and budding rapport and dependable friendship between Vic and Blood. It ranged from hysterical to moving, and surprisingly done in a believable manner. The satirical edge to the script is innovatively penned and to the point with its drama, frictions and kinky fixations. Sometimes quite unpleasant in the details where a quirky side is etched and the humour is engraved with a morbid sense of curiosity. While slow-grinding, the pace breezes by and the impulsively random nature helps a lot with a shock ending (twisted but still quite touching though) that comes from nowhere. Director LQ Jones’ economical touch makes the most of it limited resources and manages to get plenty out of it despite the minor feel. His use of the camera provocatively achieved and the humming electronic score and playful acoustic cues cement an atmosphere and grow upon the imagination. Mainly consisting in the underground scenes, than on the openly isolated and dusty desert backdrop.
The support cast are picture-perfect in their roles. Susanne Benton shines and likes of Jason Robards, Charles McGraw and Alvy Moore were good fun.
These hominids — a now-extinct race of humans found in South Africa — had big eyes, child-like faces and an average intelligence of around 150, making them geniuses among Homo sapiens.
The behavior of a collection of squeezed elastic beams is determined by geometry, not by complex forces.
When a collection of thin elastic beams—such as toothbrush bristles or grass—is compressed vertically, the individual elements will buckle and bump into one another, forming patterns. Experiments and numerical simulations now show that basic geometry controls how order emerges in these patterns [1]. The results could be useful for designing flexible materials and for understanding interactions among flexible structures in nature, such as DNA strands in cells.
Mixed reality (MR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies merge the real world with computer-generated elements, allowing users to interact with their surroundings in more engaging ways. In recent years, these technologies have enhanced education and specialized training in numerous fields, helping trainees to test their skills or make better sense of abstract concepts and data.
Researchers at University of Calgary have been trying to develop interfaces and systems that could enhanced MR visualizations. In a paper set to be presented at CHI 2023 LBW, they introduced HoloTouch, a system that can augment mixed reality graphics and charts using smartphones as physical proxies.
“To me, this paper was inspired for the most part by a work that I published during my final undergraduate year,” Neil Chulpongsatorn, one of the researchers who carried out the study, told Tech Xplore “They both originated from my interest in mixed reality interactions for data representations.”
Earth’s magnetic field does more than keep everyone’s compass needles pointed in the same direction. It also helps preserve Earth’s sliver of life-sustaining atmosphere by deflecting high energy particles and plasma regularly blasted out of the sun. Researchers have now identified a prospective Earth-sized planet in another solar system as a prime candidate for also having a magnetic field—YZ Ceti b, a rocky planet orbiting a star about 12 light-years away from Earth.
Researchers Sebastian Pineda and Jackie Villadsen observed a repeating radio signal emanating from the star YZ Ceti using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, a radio telescope operated by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Research by Pineda and Villadsen to understand the magnetic field interactions between distant stars and their orbiting planets is supported by NSF. Their research was published today (April 3) in the journal Nature Astronomy.
“The search for potentially habitable or life-bearing worlds in other solar systems depends in part on being able to determine if rocky, Earth-like exoplanets actually have magnetic fields,” says NSF’s Joe Pesce, program director for the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “This research shows not only that this particular rocky exoplanet likely has a magnetic field but provides a promising method to find more.”
April 3 (Reuters) — NASA on Monday named the first woman and the first African American ever assigned as astronauts to a lunar mission, introducing them as part of the four-member team chosen to fly on what would be the first crewed voyage around the moon in more than 50 years.
Christina Koch, 44, an engineer who already holds the record for longest continuous spaceflight by a woman and was part of NASA’s first three all-female spacewalks, was named as a mission specialist for the Artemis II lunar flyby expected as early as next year.
She will be joined by Victor Glover, 46, a U.S. Navy aviator and veteran of four spacewalks who NASA has designated as pilot of Artemis II. He will be the first Black astronaut ever to be sent on a lunar mission.
The saliva of mosquitoes infected with dengue viruses contains a substance that thwarts the human immune system and makes it easier for people to become infected with the potentially deadly viruses, new research published in PLOS Pathogens reveals.
Dengue has spread in recent years to Europe and the southern United States in addition to longstanding hotspots in tropical and subtropical areas such as Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. The new discovery, from a University of Virginia School of Medicine scientist and his collaborators, helps explain why the disease is so easily transmitted—and could eventually lead to new ways to prevent infection.
“It is remarkable how clever these viruses are. They subvert mosquito biology to tamp down our immune responses so that infection can take hold,” said Dr. Mariano A. Garcia-Blanco, who recently joined the UVA faculty as chair of the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology. “There is no doubt in my mind that a better understanding of the fundamental biology of transmission will eventually lead to effective transmission-blocking measures.”
