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March 10, 2015
Good Wife Recap: Where There’s a Will
It doesn’t require a “spoiler alert” warning to say that almost nothing happens on this week’s installment of The Good Wife.
And yet, if the seeds randomly scattered over the course of the hour take root, it could be the start of everything that’s to come in the complicated, mixed-up, ethically murky life of Alicia Florrick — political candidate, power spouse, occasional trial attorney and most certainly a woman in denial about her mourning over the tragic death of her lover Will Gardner.
It’ll only take me a paragraph to recap the action in “Mind’s Eye” — an episode that takes place mostly inside Alicia’s very vivid, hypothetical-obsessed brain.
As our candidate for State’s Attorney battles laryngitis and braces for a crucial editorial-board interview (the result of which may break her current deadlock with Frank Prady), she mulls her answers to a series of very tough questions, reconsiders the state of her relationships with her children and her past/current/future lovers and also deals with Louis Canning’s wrongful eviction lawsuit against Florrick-Agos-Lockhart. Canning winds up unconscious in the hospital — not expected to live through the night – while a shocked Alicia pays a bedside visit, then begins eyeing her political handler Johnny with what appears to be slightly more than professional interest. (Or maybe she’s just really stoked to go into that board room and knock off the editorial board’s socks?) And that’s about it… sort of.
The real action happens Inside the Mind of Alicia Florrick, and sans red wine, it’s an almost impossibly fast-paced, free-association kind of place — funneled through whatever music happens to be playing in her headphones. (Anyone else find that construct absolutely real and delightful? And was anyone else utterly elated when La Florrick never succumbed to that night-time cough syrup — a twist that would’ve been too cheap?) With that in mind, I’m not going to even attempt to do a traditional recap in this post — but rather post the four most intriguing ideas/questions/developments raised in the course of the hour:
“WILL?” | As Alicia surfs the Internet, she encounters a pop-up ad for a credit-card company — and it’s Will Gardner’s voiceover asking, “What do you want in a credit card? Everything.” Our protagonist fantasizes several encounters with her deceased lover — some steamy, some quietly mournful — but all roads lead back to the fact that he’s gone — and she’s still reeling. We also see Alicia imagining: Johnny nibbling on her neck; a shirtless Finn atop her (with Johnny’s voice coming out of his mouth — “questions are for dopes”); and even Peter (with Kalinda snuggled in the bed behind him) asking “Why is it all right for you but not for me?” In the end, she says goodbye to dreamscape Will — and to reiterate, this happens while she’s sitting in the passenger seat, observing Johnny. (Does this mean no payoff with Finn? #NoMeGusta)
Alicia is a sexual, romantic woman who’s been repressed — or perhaps shut down — for quite some time now, and it’s clear that her hand grazing Finn’s as they sit side-by-side on a couch won’t be cutting it anymore. But since we haven’t really seen her fully engage in romantic discourse with any of the above fellas, it seems to me that our girl busting a big move with any of ‘em might feel premature. Still, I like the idea of Alicia abandoning her sham of a marriage — how much political capital can it really be providing? and how come the press hasn’t noticed their physical distance? — at this point in her career. And yes, seeing as how she and Will had pressed pause on their sexytimes at the time of his passing, I don’t have a problem with her moving on from him, either.
THE KIDS | After Johnny reminds Alicia she might get asked about Zach taking his teenage girlfriend for an abortion, the sometimes scattered mom starts imagining her estranged son as a homeless man on a bench — asking why she’s still angry at him and (hilariously) why he’s her cautionary tale despite the fact that he’s a freshman at Georgetown. (Good point, kid!) She finally breaks down and dials his number, but he misses her call by seconds — another reminder of the missed connections we can still endure in this technologically plugged-in age.
Most interestingly of all, though, Alicia’s phone begins accidentally accepting Grace’s texts — and she learns her daughter is having a crisis of religious faith. Famed atheist Richard Dawkins pops up in Alicia’s mind, wondering why she would imagine Grace pregnant and sniffing glue just because “she stopped believing in fairy tales” — and Alicia can’t quite explain her sinking feeling. After all, she doesn’t believe in God — so much so that it makes her squeamish to promise Canning’s wife she’ll pray for him — and yet the thought of her daughter’s loss of faith is upsetting. Does Alicia want Grace to walk a moral path — but is nevertheless worried that if her daughter follows in her non-believer footsteps, she’ll lack the template for being a good person?
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Why Does Toothpaste Make Everything Taste Bad?
Have you ever noticed that toothpaste makes some yummy foods, like orange juice, taste awful? QQ explains!
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Sources:
http://chemse.oxfordjournals.org/content/5/4/317.full.pdf
http://mentalfloss.com/article/20151/why-does-everything-taste-bad-after-you-brush-your-teeth
http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/orange-juice-toothpaste.htm
Scientists Search For The Origins Of Alzheimer’s In Space
Photo credit:
Ralwel / Shutterstock.
Things often turn up in strange locations. Your favorite pair of sunglasses in the dog’s bed, for example, or your keys in the laundry basket, and maybe even the origins of Alzheimer’s in space. Of course, we’re not talking about searching the universe for answers, but rather a series of experiments that are about to commence on the International Space Station. It is hoped that by understanding how this disease originates, scientists may finally figure out a way to cure or prevent it.
This jawbone may change everything we know about early human history
Credit: John Reader
By Rebecca Jacobson
When paleoanthropologist Louis Leakey discovered the 1.8 million-year-old Homo habilis in 1964, it was thought to be our first human ancestor. Because of its close proximity to stone tools, Homo habilis became known as the “Handy man.” Here was our first hunting, scavenging, tool-making, big-brained ancestor, Leakey said.
After “Lucy”, the older, ape-like Australopithecus afarensis, was uncovered in 1974,Homo habilis appeared to bridge the gap between older fossils and modern humans. It had smaller teeth and jaws, a bigger brain and more sophisticated hands than Lucy.
Human evolution had a nice clear line from Lucy 3.2 million years ago to Homo habilis toHomo erectus and finally Homo sapiens — us. Or so it seemed.
“It was wonderfully Darwinian,” said William Kimbel, director of the Institute of Human Origins at Arizona State University. And, he added, it was likely wrong.
“Fifty years ago, it was pleasing and consistent that there was one early Homo form,” he said. “And it now appears to be much more complicated.”
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Why bother with websites? Just ban atheism
By Ozgur Korkmaz
Article 24 of the Turkish Constitution states: “Everyone has the freedom of conscience, religious belief and conviction.”
In theory, the article covers the fundamental rights of each and every citizen. In reality, it gives no rights to atheists or non-believers, and very little to those who do not belong to the Sunni Muslim majority.
The latest proof of this fact is the ban on the website of the Atheism Association, Turkey’s first association dedicated to atheism founded less than a year ago. An Ankara court earlier this week banned access to the website, citing an article in the Turkish Penal Code that forbids “provoking the people for hate and enmity or degrading them.”
Although www.ateizmdernegi.org has been banned, a mirror of the website (I will not make the courts’ job easier by giving the open address) is still accessible and contains information about the association, its activities and contacts.
Article 216 of the penal code, on which the court based its decision, allows a ban on those who “openly provoke a group of people belonging to a different social class, religion, race, sect, or coming from another origin, to be rancorous or hostile against another group.”
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March 7, 2015
Bird Presumed To Be Extinct Since 1940’s Spotted In Myanmar
Photo credit:
Robert Tizard / WCS
Species are currently dying at such an alarming rate, some scientists have warned that we are on the verge of the sixth mass extinction in our planet’s history. It often seems like most conservation news is bad, which makes definite good news feel that much better. A species of bird has been spotted in Myanmar that has not been seen since 1941, and was presumed to have gone extinct. The re-discovery of the species was described in the journal BirdingASIA.
New Studies Fail To Find Associations Between Psychedelic Drugs And Mental Health Problems
Photo credit:
agsandrew / Shutterstock
Despite the continued widespread dogma and fears surrounding their use, studies have failed to find evidence that psychedelic drugs, such as LSD and magic mushrooms, cause harm to the brain or other organs. Ever since it was suggested that their use can trigger psychosis back in the ‘60s, ideas that they are harmful to mental health have been difficult to shake.
Scientists Shave Spider’s Moustaches To See If They Help Lure Prey
Photo credit:
Heteropoda venatoria with egg sac / Fritz Geller-Grimm via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 3.0
The brown huntsman spider, Heteropoda venatoria, has a striking white stripe on its face reminiscent of a moustache. And now, researchers who’ve shaved those spider moustaches off have discovered that the vibrant bristles help lure flying insects to their death in the dark. The findings were published in the April issue of Animal Behaviour.
Underwater DNA Reveals that Wheat Arrived 2,000 Years Before Agriculture in Britain
Photo credit:
Joe Gough/shutterstock.com
By analyzing ancient DNA recovered from an underwater site off the south coast of England, a U.K. team reveal that wheat showed up about 2,000 years before people even began farming it in this region. The findings, published in Science last week, suggests that British hunter-gatherers were trading with European farmers in the east for the cereal grain long before agriculture was introduced in the area.
How Wingless Mantises Prevent Face-Planting When They Land
Photo credit:
Here’s a juvenile praying mantis. Only adults have wings / Malcolm Burrows and Gregory Sutton
Flightless animals have evolved a wondrous diversity of ways to control their movements up in the air. Cats rotate their body when falling, some lizards use their tail to change direction mid-air, and when wingless mantises jump, they use controlled spinning motions to reorient their bodies as needed. That’s how they land on their target each and every time, according to a study published in Current Biology this week.
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