Discovering your furry friend growling over a bone can be unsettling. Dogs often guard their prized chews‚ displaying what’s known as resource guarding. Our guide here will show you effective ways to calmly address this behavior and teach your dog trust around food and toys — ensuring peace of mind for both you and your... What to Do if Your Dog Growls at You While Eating a Bone

Did you remember that Chris Pratt appeared in Timur Bekmambetov’s big Hollywood debut‚ the 2008 action film Wanted? The one based on the Mark Millar comic that starred Angelina Jolie‚ James McAvoy‚ and also some looms? I did not remember this. (I did remember the looms‚ though.) But it means that the upcoming film Mercy‚ from Amazon MGM Studios‚ is a reunion for the actor and director. Mercy‚ according to Deadline‚ “follows a detective (Pratt) who is accused of a violent crime and forced to prove his innocence.” The screenplay is by Marco van Belle‚ who wrote a 2015 film called Arthur and Merlin. Deadline quotes Bekmambetov as saying‚ “Amazon is the ideal partner for telling this crucial story about the future challenged by artificial intelligence and for engaging in this conversation with a wide audience.” The film is apparently part of a series of movies that Amazon MGM plans to release theatrically. Producer Charles Roven has quite a track record (including Christopher Nolan’s Batman films) and was just nominated for his second Oscar‚ for Oppenheimer. While Chris Pratt is basically a household name thanks to Guardians of the Galaxy (pictured above)‚ Bekmambetov has been somewhat less visible since either Wanted or 2012’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter‚ depending on your tastes. (He also directed a poorly received Ben-Hur adaptation in 2016.) His breakout film‚ the vampire adaptation Night Watch‚ was released in the U.S. in 2006‚ and was inventive‚ bloody‚ and impressive; I’ve been waiting for another movie like it for a very long time. Will this be that film? Tough to say. icon-paragraph-end The post Chris Pratt and Timur Bekmambetov Reteam for the Sci-Fi Film <;i>;Mercy<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

It’s nostalgia o’clock. The Ghostbusters franchise continues with a new trailer for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire—a trailer which really banks on how much affection you may (or may not) have for the original Ghostbusters cast‚ original Ghostbusters ghosts (the library lady‚ Slimer‚ the not-so-stone lions of the New York Public Library)‚ and even lines lifted from the original Ghostbusters jam‚ “Bustin’ Makes Me Feel Good.” Also there is a big freeze demon and a vaguely climate-change related threat (a new Ice Age‚ but supernatural‚ so it’s not humanity’s fault!). Bustin’ is a Spengler family business these days‚ but the authorities don’t approve of a minor hanging out the side of the Ectomobile‚ and try to shut the whole thing down. But wait! Hark‚ a new threat! A new threat which seems to bring about the return of Bill Murray‚ Dan Aykroyd‚ Ernie Hudson‚ and Annie Potts. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire does have one thing going for it: It is absolutely packed with beloved actors‚ from the original cast to Paul Rudd to Carrie Coon to Mckenna Grace (who has played young Carol Danvers and young Sabrina Spellman) to omnipresent nerd icon Patton Oswalt to Stranger Things star Finn Wolfhard to Kumail Nanjiani. The movie is directed by Gil Kenan (Monster House) from a script he co-wrote with Jason Reitman. Hell—or at least Manhattan—freezes over in theaters on March 22nd. icon-paragraph-end The post <;i>;Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire<;/i>; Gets the Old Bustin’ Gang Back Together appeared first on Reactor.

Thanks to the commenter who recommended Laurel Hightower’s short novel in connection with the Mothman phenomenon; it’s just what I was looking for. It captures the mood of the legend: it’s dark‚ mysterious‚ and at times horrific. It reads to me as a dialogue with The Mothman Prophecies—both book and film—taking the elements of the story and viewing them through the lens of the horror genre. Addy‚ the protagonist‚ is newly divorced. She’s driving alone through the mountains of West Virginia to attend a horror convention. Friends are waiting for her‚ and she’s looking forward to a future free of her obsessively controlling ex. Brian‚ the ex‚ spent thirteen years trying to turn Addy into a weak shadow of herself. It’s a classic abuse scenario: isolating the victim‚ destroying their ability to function apart from the abuser‚ rendering them helpless to think or act for themselves. Addy is driving alone to the convention to assert her independence. She needs to do this‚ because Brian would have convinced her she can’t. Brian is still very much with Addy as she drives. His voice fills her head. He weighs in with negative comments on everything she does. She steels herself to ignore him‚ but he never shuts up. Addy needs to get to her destination before dark: her night vision is poor and the road is winding and steep. To make matters worse‚ the weather is deteriorating. There’s a snowstorm coming‚ and she hopes she can get through the mountains before it hits. She nearly crashes into a vehicle stalled across the road. The driver is a disturbing figure‚ a man in black‚ whose face is set in a rictus grin. The encounter leaves her deeply shaken. She stops at a truck stop to pull herself back together. There she meets a trucker‚ an affable guy named Mads‚ who offers to convoy with her to the nearest lodging‚ thirty miles away. This part of the road is a notorious dead zone for cell signals‚ and it has a reputation for weirdness. Mads loans her a CB radio and regales her with his life story while the dark closes in and the storm worsens. His easygoing‚ cheerful voice almost drowns out Brian’s litany of her flaws and failures. On the steepest‚ most treacherous section of the road‚ in a blinding blizzard‚  a huge‚ shadowy winged creature with glowing red eyes looms up ahead. Mads’ truck skids off the road‚ which at this point is a bridge over a chasm of unknown depth‚ and Addy’s car almost follows it. There’s no cell service here‚ and no way to call emergency services. In a logical world‚ Addy would leave the scene‚ drive until she has cell service‚ and make the call. But this is horror world. The CB comes alive with Mads’ voice—it seems he survived the crash. Addy leaves her car and makes her way down into the ravine to try to help him. And then things get worse. Much‚ much worse. And much stranger. Much more ghastly‚ too‚ shifting quickly from weird and frightening to outright horrific. Hightower shows a clear familiarity with both John Keel’s book and the 2002 film. Addy’s drive through West Virginia recalls film-John’s strangely time-shifted detour to Point Pleasant‚ with echoes of his wife’s Mothman sighting and the car crash that results from it. The creatures Addy meets are familiar from John Keel’s investigations: Mothman‚ the Men in Black‚ the grinning man‚ the secret—maybe government‚ maybe not—experiments. And‚ inevitably‚ strange lights in the sky‚ whether they’re UFOs or‚ as John Keel believes‚ some form of interdimensional phenomenon. Addy never gets answers to her questions. Who is Mads‚ really‚ and why is he transporting such peculiarly awful cargo? Who is the grinning man and what does he want‚ besides Addy’s silence about what she’s seen and experienced? What is the red-eyed monster‚ and why is it stalking her? What are the things in the cave‚ and how and why does its entrance disappear once she ventures inside? What are the lights in the sky? Where do they come from‚ and what is it all for? In the end‚ none of it really matters. Addy’s journey isn’t about investigating the paranormal. It’s about freeing herself from a lifetime of learned helplessness‚ and making her own way forward. Every challenge she meets‚ every horror she encounters‚ helps her to find her strength. It’s an interesting read after the film and Keel’s book. The film is a personal journey‚ too. It fridges John Klein’s wife (who sees Mothman in progressively more fevered visions as her brain tumor grows) in order to get him to Point Pleasant in time to investigate the events that culminate in the collapse of the Silver Bridge. John Keel’s journey is much more diffuse‚ with many more ramifications and side excursions‚ and no wife to dispose of—but it leads him ultimately to the theory of ultraterrestrials. For Addy‚ what matters is her own inner life. The scale is correspondingly smaller and more focused. The town of Point Pleasant and the bridge over the Ohio shrink to a truck stop‚ a narrow mountain road‚ and the bridge over Silver Creek. In place of the abandoned chemical plant and the expansive acreage of the wartime installation‚ we have the cave at the bottom of the ravine. There’s no friendly law enforcement here; the sheriff treats Addy just as all the other men in her life have‚ except‚ to a point‚ Mads: he ignores her‚ talks over her‚ and tells her what she saw‚ regardless of whether she actually saw that particular thing. John Keel and movie-John are stalked by strange electronic phenomena and eerie‚ unexplainable voices. They’re primarily external; they’re warnings of disaster and signals from either outer space or another dimension. Addy’s voices are distinctly personal. They’re speaking to her specifically. They either try to diminish her‚ to render her helpless‚ or they encourage her to escape from that helplessness. For Addy‚ the phenomena that Keel studied and movie-John tried to understand are aspects of her own inner landscape. They show her how to escape from the patterns she’s been locked into. She has to go down deep‚ and face her worst demons‚ in order to be born into a new and freer self. Then she can silence the hectoring male voices and make her own way into the light. [end-mark] The post From the Cosmic to the Personal: Laurel Hightower’s <;i>;Below<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

A funny thing happened on the way to my recent essay about finding books to read. I hit on a way of researching SFF history that is potentially an enormous time sink. Specifically‚ how well-versed am I (and readers in general) in Golden Age science fiction? By which I mean “golden age” in the sense of Pete Graham’s aphorism that “the golden age of science fiction is twelve.” In my case that year was 1973. Inflation was soaring‚ the Prime Minister was a fellow named Trudeau‚ and I had not the smallest familiarity with current fashion. However‚ I did have access to an abundance of bookstores‚ new and used‚ and an allowance measured in books-per-week1. What I didn’t have: any access to SF book reviews2. So‚ lacking that vital information‚ how closely did my reading habits follow those of reviewers? As you know‚ Bob‚ the Internet Science Fiction Database is an internet database chock-full of information about science fiction and related fields. It can be searched in various productive ways‚ one of which is finding out which books garnered the most reviews‚ listed by year and decade. Thus we can easily discover which books were deemed most worthy of review3 in any particular year4. I could‚ for example‚ check to see what reviewers were talking about the year I turned 12. What resulted was a flood of memories equal to any triggered by Proust’s madeleine. The top one hundred reviews are filled with works familiar to me. In fact‚ of that top one hundred‚ I have read fifty-seven5. Many of the books I have not read are familiar to me from all the times I picked up a copy from a bookstore shelf‚ frowned judgmentally‚ and put it back. Lacking access to reviews as I did‚ I can only assume that my reading habits tracked reviews so closely because books that were widely reviewed were much more likely to be granted precious shelf space than books about which no conversations occurred. Books that sold well when new were more likely to turn up used in second-hand bookstores. It is also possible that because far fewer SF books were published back then‚ it was more likely I’d accidentally encounter the books reviewers were talking about. In fact‚ while I can see clear evidence of my youthful reading preferences in the books I overlooked—I neglected works in languages I cannot read‚ works that appeared suspiciously literary or New Wave‚ works by authors whose previous novels I’d disliked‚ books suspiciously best-sellery—the most common reason I can see for having not read the books in the top one hundred is that I never saw a copy. At that time‚ book distribution in Ontario‚ particularly out in the sticks‚ was rudimentary and many books did not make it to Waterloo Region. To be honest‚ I think Graham might have been off by a few years. Looking at the evidence‚ I became convinced that the golden age of SF was sixteen‚ because my hit rate for 1977 is even higher6. I credit high school‚ an environment that did its very best to encourage escapism. Is my experience unusual? If you peruse the ISFDB list of most commonly reviewed books published the year you turned twelve‚ do you see an abundance of familiar faces? If you do‚ which are the ones you remember most fondly? [end-mark] An arrangement that no doubt looked much more cost-effective to my parents when MMPBs were 75 cents rather than the exorbitant buck ninety-five of the late 1970s. ︎I didn’t start buying SF magazines until the April 1977 issue of Analog. Not only did this provide me with access to reviews‚ it provided access to book ads for upcoming books. I still get a little zing when I see an old-time book ad and can and will discourse at length about them to anyone who makes the mistake of engaging me in conversation. If people didn’t want to know about Del Rey or SFBC ads of the 1970s‚ why would they even ask me for directions to Needles Hall? ︎In venues the ISFDB tracks. The 2500+ reviews on James Nicoll Reviews‚ for example‚ appear nowhere in the ISFDB. ︎Hat tip to Dreamwidth user Bolindbergh for explaining this to me. I will be using it to prompt memory when I am trying to decide which books to review for period-specific review projects. ︎Or in the case of Gravity’s Rainbow‚ attempted to read. ︎Just checking 2020 for calibration‚ I note that I’ve only read twenty-nine of the top one hundred most reviewed books of that year. I suspect recent SF gets crowded out by various retrospective review projects. In 2010‚ for example‚ when my employer was sending me lots of upcoming SFF‚ I read forty of the one hundred most reviewed works. ︎The post The Golden Age of SF (But Not the One You’re Thinking Of) appeared first on Reactor.

A new film from Duncan Jones is always something to get intrigued about—even if one tends to hope said film is more Moon‚ less Mute. And Jones’ latest project sounds quite fascinating: It’s an animated adaptation of Rogue Trooper‚ the graphic novel series created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons (Watchmen). The cast includes Hayley Atwell (Captain America‚ pictured above) alongside star Aneurin Barnard (1899)—and also features Jack Lowden (Slow Horses)‚ Reece Shearsmith (Foundation)‚ Daryl McCormack (The Wheel of Time)‚ Jemaine Clement (What We Do in the Shadows‚ movie version)‚ Matt Berry (What We Do in the Shadows‚ TV version)‚ Diane Morgan (Cunk on Earth)‚ Asa Butterfield (Hugo)‚ and Sean Bean (famous for dying in everything). Rogue Trooper‚ according to Variety‚ “tells the story of 19‚ a ‘Genetic Infantryman‚’ who finds himself the sole-survivor of an invasion force. Desperate to track down the traitor who sold him and his comrades out‚ the super soldier is accompanied by three killed-in-action squad mates‚ whose personalities have been stored in his gun‚ helmet and rucksack.” Barnard plays 19; the roles of the rest of the cast have not been specified. Rogue Trooper is published by 2000 AD‚ which is well-known for publishing Judge Dredd. Variety quotes Jones as saying‚ “2000 AD offers a very different flavor of comic action: Political and brutal at times‚ but always with a Pythonesque twinkle in the eye. Dredd (2012) was a taste of what 2000 AD has to offer and now we get to show the world another side of the beast. It is a genuine privilege to be given the opportunity to make Rogue Trooper.” Principal photography on the film is done‚ but Variety notes that it is not expected to be finished until next year. icon-paragraph-end The post <;i>;Moon<;/i>; Director Duncan Jones’ New Film Is an Animated Adaptation of <;i>;Rogue Trooper<;/i>; appeared first on Reactor.

Sometimes‚ there’s a raid of Pals on your base you actually want a chance at catching. Good luck getting a sphere thrown out in time before all of your Pals kill them on sight. However‚ there is a way to prevent this — here’s how to stop base Pals from auto-attacking in Palworld. How to set base pals to not auto-attack: Alarm Bell guide The solution is in an early-game item I overlooked because I didn’t see the point in it. Now I understand when I have nine Pals ready to kill anything on sight working around my base. The Alarm Bell is unlocked early on. It’s under the defense build category and costs five Paldium Fragments and 20 Stones to make. I recommend building and placing one where you can easily run to it. It’ll need to be a quick reaction to toggle it on or off. Once it’s placed down‚ all you have to do is press F when you’re next to it. This will swap from “attack invaders” mode to “focus o...

In Palworld‚ Jetragon is an incredibly fast flying mount as well as one of the strongest Pals in the game. Those who seek one may consider trying to breed one to prevent having to hunt one down. Breeding Jetragon in Palworld For those wishing an easier time getting Jetragon in Palworld will be bitterly disappointed. The combination to breed one Jetragon is… two Jetragon parents. That’s right‚ only they are capable of producing the insane Pal you seek. If you do already have two of these Dragon-type Pals‚ then you’ll need a Breeding Pen to get them to work. It would be mighty surprising if you have two Jetragons and not a Breeding Pen‚ but to each their own. With a male and female Jetragon assigned to the Breeding Pen‚ you’ll need to wait for them to get all lovey-dovey. In the meantime‚ you can work on making a Cake‚ which can be produced from any cooking station aside from the campfire. It requires: 5 Flour 8 Red be...

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is nearly here‚ and while you can get three days of early access to the game if you purchase the $100 Deluxe Edition‚ there’s a trick to get in early without paying extra. It also works for Deluxe Edition owners‚ too. The New Zealand trick is a classic exploit that lets players unlock games a full day ahead of release. It works because most games have regional rollouts‚ launching at midnight in every time zone. New Zealand is the first country where it hits midnight on a new day‚ so it’s the earliest region where a new video game releases. By changing your console’s region to New Zealand‚ you can trick the game into being playable before the clock strikes midnight in your region. If you do the New Zealand trick for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League‚ you can start playing nearly 24 hours early. For Deluxe Edition owners‚ you can start playing at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET on Monday‚ January 29‚ 2024‚ with the New Zeal...