Best chicken-soup-for-the-soul video of the week

• Puppies dressed as cats

Most serious threat to modern aesthetics

• The Font War: Ikea Fans Fume over Verdana

Or, Ikea's quality of design has finally caught up with the quality of its product.



Best online audience of the week

• Depression's Evolutionary Roots by Paul W. Andrews and J. Anderson Thomson, Jr., Scientific American

Article on the evolutionary utility of depression attracted a critical yet civil and compassionate audience.

In most instances, depression should not be thought of as a disorder at all. In an article recently published in Psychological Review, we argue that depression is in fact an adaptation, a state of mind which brings real costs, but also brings real benefits.
So what could be so useful 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.

The absence of details (e.g. definition of depression, precise conclusion of studies cited), however, do not help the authors' case. Their argument that depression is useful because it survives evolution seems to assume that evolution has completely weeded out negative traits in the human body. Given that homo sapiens are a relatively recent phenomenon in the long history of evolution, I do not believe that our body is a highly finished, perfect machine.

Most depressing portrayal of high school students on TV

I've just started on Gossip Girl. I'm sure the studio has to pay royalties to whoever holds the rights to Cruel Intentions, a landmark teen flick that burned the term "deflowering" into my mind. High schoolers frolicking in the river of love (figuratively, don't worry) is nothing new, but the speed and oblivion with which these teenage Upper East Siders operate is startling. Jaded by years of 90210 and Britney Spears meltdowns, the audience's expectation of teen drama is pretty high. Having sex in the backseat of a (moving) limo is no big deal; neckline plunging to the navel is simply everyday school wear.

I am constantly depressed by the stupidity and promiscuity of the characters. The only source of solace is, perhaps, that real teenagers can only be smarter and less sexually active than the contrived script allows... right???