Psychologists Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thompson, Jr. argue that depression may be an evolutionary advantage developed early in human history. What could be good about depression?

Depressed people often think intensely about their problems. These thoughts are called ruminations; they are persistent and depressed people have difficulty thinking about anything else. Numerous studies have also shown that this thinking style is often highly analytical. They dwell on a complex problem, breaking it down into smaller components, which are considered one at a time.

This analytical style of thought, of course, can be very productive. Each component is not as difficult, so the problem becomes more tractable. Indeed, when you are faced with a difficult problem, such as a math problem, feeling depressed is often a useful response that may help you analyze and solve it. For instance, in some of our research, we have found evidence that people who get more depressed while they are working on complex problems in an intelligence test tend to score higher on the test.

Link via Instapundit

Photo credit: Guillermo Perales Gonzalez

(YouTube Link)

YouTube user bengraphics created this montage of film clips from the past 100 years, demonstrating the evolution of cinematic special effects.  It was originally just intended for a class lecture, but has gone viral.  Featured films include The Enchanted Drawing (1900) Thief of Baghdad (1940) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Run time: 5 minutes.

Via Geekologie

Dutch artist Peter Jansen creates polyamide and bronze sculptures that look like a split second in time. They don't actually move, but they look like they are in motion. Perhaps appropriately, he started out as a physics student rather than as an artist.

Link via Dyscario

Image: BIG Architects

Kazakhstan has commissioned BIG Architects to build a library and cultural center in the city of Astana. The design that the firm submitted in response is shaped like a Möbius strip -- a structure that has only one side:

The building itself is a complicated juxtaposition of different ideas and concepts. It forms a spiraling circle around a strong vertical core that allows visitors to the library to move between floors. The museum’s curves form a möbius strip, so the interior becomes the exterior and back again; likewise the walls become the roof and the roof transforms back into the walls. The interior corridors are naturally daylit through geometric openings in the exterior shell, creating beautifully lit spaces perfect for reading.

To minimize cooling loads on the library, BIG Architects employed some advanced computer modeling to calculate the thermal exposure on the building envelope. Because of the warping and twisting of the exterior, some parts of the building receive more light than others. By taking that information, BIG was able to create a geometric pattern or “ecological ornament” to regulate the solar impact.

Photo gallery at the link.

Link via io9

You may not be able to travel to Kazakhstan to view the building, but you can experience the same one-sided sensation with our Möbius strip t-shirt, now on sale at the Neatorama Shop.

MacGyver Chef is a new series at the gadget blog Gizmodo about attempts to cook meals without conventional cooking implements. Author Dan Nosowitz has previously poached chicken and couscous in a coffee maker. In his most recent post, he experimented with steaming salmon and cilanto sauce in a dishwasher. You can view read a step-by-step guide and view photos of the process at the link.

Link

MacGyver Chef archive

The robotics lab at Ben Gurion University in Israel has created a robot that walks on the ceiling. SpiderBot has suction cups tethered to the ends of its four legs.  It aims a leg at a spot on the ceiling, then shoots the cup at it.  Then it reels itself toward the spot, releases a rear leg's suction cup, and slowly repeats the process.  Video at the link.

Link via DVICE

Paul Elkins built this lightweight travel trailer for his trip to the Burning Man festival. It has a roof-mounted wind turbine for electical power, as well as a solar cooker and water heater. It weighs only 100 pounds dry, so he can haul it around with his bicycle:

The skin is 1/4" flutted plastic like whats used for election signs. This was riveted and screwed onto 3/4" square aluminum tubing salvaged from an old satellite dish. The base was made of 2x2 fir. The 30" square door frame, made of 1x2's was skrewed to the side panel, cut on the sides and bottom. The upper part was left uncut to act as a hinge. The bed hinges in a lounge attitude. On the outside resides an herb flower box, a urinal funnel (sanicans were a ways off) and 13" wheel barrel wheels on a 1/2" axle mounted with 1/2" square tubing made up the running gear. I used 3/4" steel for the tow bar, A recycled card table for the corner camper supports, and misc this and that. It's whatever I had kicking around at the time, and that's how anyone would have to do it if worst came to worst.

There are many pictures at the link.

Link via DVICE

(YouTube Link)

Tezcatlipoca is a three-minute animated short film by Robin George that uses music from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake to tell the story of the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca:

Like other Aztec deities, he could be both helpful and destructive. As a god of the sun, he ripened the crops but could also send a burning drought that killed the plants. The patron god of helpless folk such as orphans and slaves, he was also the patron of royalty, and he gloried in war and human sacrifice. Another of Tezcatlipoca's roles was to punish sinners and cheats, but he himself could not be trusted.

Although associated with the sun, Tezcatlipoca was even more strongly linked with night and its dark mysteries, including dreams, sorcery, witches, and demons. Legend said that he roamed the earth each night in the form of a skeleton whose ribs opened like doors. If a person met Tezcatlipoca and was bold enough to reach through those doors and seize his heart, the god would promise riches and power in order to be released. He would not keep his promises, though....

As a trickster god, Tezcatlipoca delighted in overturning the order of things, causing conflict and confusion. Sometimes, these disruptions could also be a source of creative energy and positive change. Tezcatlipoca's ultimate trick was one he played on his fellow god Quetzalcoatl. After introducing Quetzalcoatl to drunkenness and other vices, he used his mirror to show Quetzalcoatl how weak and degraded he had become. Quetzalcoatl fled the world in shame, leaving it to Tezcatlipoca. He did, however, promise to return at the end of a 52-year cycle.

The YouTube video isn't bad, but for a full-screen, high-resolution version, click on the link.

Link via The Presurfer

(YouTube Link)

Sixteen-year old Daniel Pelletier is paralyzed from the waist down and has endured twenty-five surgeries during his recovery, but he doesn't let that stop him from being an accomplished skateboarder. Pelletier hopes to get corporate sponsorship with this video. More videos at the link.

Link

(YouTube Link)

YouTube user macjonesnz programmed his CD-ROM tray to repeatedly open and close. Then he tied a string between the tray and his child's car seat. Result: sleeping baby.

Via Bits & Pieces

I'm afraid that this product is exactly what it looks like: a bracket that holds a stringed plastic bag while attached to your dog's tail. At the expense of your dog's sense of dignity, you get to avoid scooping up after him:

People invented many useful technologies to make people's life easier. All these inventions (car is among one of them) are to make people's life more convenient. With our "PooTrap", no need to worry that dogs will cause environment pollution, and as dogs owners may know, actually it's difficult to pick up poop.

Link via CrunchGear (where there is a video)

A company called Evergreen sells wood-faced LED-lit alarm clock radios with speakers. There are two versions available, with either one or two speakers. It sells for about $25, but so far, only in Japan. More info at the link (if you speak Japanese).

Link via CrunchGear

Attach this spout to a bottle of liquor. As you pour, a LED light will illuminate the liquid. Unlike similar gadgets, it only lights up when liquid pours through it, adding a cool visual effect to bartending during its four-hour battery life. Video at the link.

Link via Nerd Approved

Photo: John Locher

In 2005, pastry chef Jean-Philippe Maury created this enormous 25-tiered chocolate fountain for the Bellagio hotel and casino in Las Vegas. It's 27 feet tall and circulates 120 quarts of chocolate per minute:

It wasn't, you see, quite as simple as constructing a waterfall.

"Water doesn't change," Maury said. "Chocolate is complicated."

It must be at the proper temperature to flow properly, for starters. Then there's the issue of the chocolate's viscosity, which affects the flow. And the viscosity of chocolate changes with every little bit of moisture in the air.

"The envy of chocolate is humidity," Maury said. With an increase in the humidity, cocoa butter and coconut oil must be added to the 2,100 pounds of chocolate in the tank. Maury takes viscosity readings every two or three days.

The 25 glass vessels from which the chocolate flows are each unique, and each handmade in Montreal. Maury and Oliver tested the system there for seven months.

Link via Gizmodo (where there are videos of the fountain)

Photo: Times of London

Bank Machine, an ATM operator in Britain, now has five cash machines in London that offer users the opportunity to conduct their business in the cockney dialect. It's a promotional gimmick designed to amuse customers:

“Readin’ your bladder of lard”, read the message on the screen. It asked for his “Huckleberry Finn”. Then more bewildering questions: did he wanted to see his balance on the Charlie Sheen? Did he wish to change his Huckleberry Finn or did he simply require sausage and mash, with or without a receipt?

Link via DVICE