Unhappy people glue themselves to the television 30 percent more than happy people.
The finding, announced on Thursday, comes from a survey of nearly 30,000 American adults conducted between 1975 and 2006 as part of the General Social Survey.
While happy people reported watching an average of 19 hours of television per week, unhappy people reported 25 hours a week. The results held even after taking into account education, income, age and marital status.
In addition, happy individuals were more socially active, attended more religious services, voted more and read a newspaper more often than their less-chipper counterparts.
The researchers are not sure, though, whether unhappiness leads to more television-watching or more viewing leads to unhappiness.
Science & Technology
British scientists have come up with the first robot that can mimic a person's expressions simply by watching their face.
Astronomers have snapped what they say is the best photographic evidence yet of planets orbiting other stars. Two new planetary systems have been imaged in the Milky Way; one offers the first glimpse of a system with multiple planets.
Other possible planets have been imaged near stars. But the new pictures are the first to capture the subtle crawl of planets around their host stars, confirming that they are indeed in orbit.
"It's great to see the quest for direct imaging of extrasolar planets finally bearing fruit," says Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto, who was not associated with the two new studies.
Direct imaging allows astronomers to detect planets orbiting at much greater distances from their stars than the techniques most commonly used today.
Other possible planets have been imaged near stars. But the new pictures are the first to capture the subtle crawl of planets around their host stars, confirming that they are indeed in orbit.
© National Research Council Canada
This near-infrared composite image shows the nearby star HR 8799 (multi-coloured blob) and its three planets (red dots at upper left, upper right and just below the star). The planets are 7 to 10 times as massive as Jupiter.
This near-infrared composite image shows the nearby star HR 8799 (multi-coloured blob) and its three planets (red dots at upper left, upper right and just below the star). The planets are 7 to 10 times as massive as Jupiter.
"It's great to see the quest for direct imaging of extrasolar planets finally bearing fruit," says Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto, who was not associated with the two new studies.
Direct imaging allows astronomers to detect planets orbiting at much greater distances from their stars than the techniques most commonly used today.
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit communicated via the Mars Odyssey orbiter today right at the time when ground controllers had told it to, prompting shouts of "She's talking!" among the rover team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
"This means Spirit has not gone into a fault condition and is still being controlled by sequences we send from the ground," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity.
The solar-powered rover still has low energy, a condition worsened by a dust storm in recent days. Today's communication confirmed that Spirit had received commands sent on Tuesday and that the battery charge had not fallen low enough to trigger a pre-programmed fault mode.
"This means Spirit has not gone into a fault condition and is still being controlled by sequences we send from the ground," said John Callas of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., project manager for Spirit and its twin, Opportunity.
© NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell
The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background.
The deck of NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is so dusty that the rover almost blends into the dusty background.
The solar-powered rover still has low energy, a condition worsened by a dust storm in recent days. Today's communication confirmed that Spirit had received commands sent on Tuesday and that the battery charge had not fallen low enough to trigger a pre-programmed fault mode.
A little friendly advice for this weekend. Brace yourselves.
The Earth is heading at 66,000 miles per hour into a field of cosmic debris. Meteors will plummet to the planet, some as fast as 150,000 miles per hour.
Don't worry, though. This happens every year. And, most of that space junk just burns up in the atmosphere. But, it will make for one pretty cool light show.
The Earth is heading at 66,000 miles per hour into a field of cosmic debris. Meteors will plummet to the planet, some as fast as 150,000 miles per hour.
Don't worry, though. This happens every year. And, most of that space junk just burns up in the atmosphere. But, it will make for one pretty cool light show.
Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates' 2004 proclamation that the spam problem would be solved within two years has proved a bitter joke, with unsolicited messages doubling yearly to make up about 90% of mail transmitted on the Internet.
But this week, the tide turned. The number of unwanted, offensive and misleading e-mails sent across the globe plummeted by about two-thirds, to a mere 60 billion or so a day by Thursday, according to spam filtering companies.
But this week, the tide turned. The number of unwanted, offensive and misleading e-mails sent across the globe plummeted by about two-thirds, to a mere 60 billion or so a day by Thursday, according to spam filtering companies.
© iStockphoto/Tammy Peluso
Jacks streaming across a reef in Papua New Guinea. How do fish choose their leader? Researchers studying stickleback fish found school members preferred to follow larger over smaller leaders.
Jacks streaming across a reef in Papua New Guinea. How do fish choose their leader? Researchers studying stickleback fish found school members preferred to follow larger over smaller leaders.
"It turned out that stickleback fish preferred to follow larger over smaller leaders," said Ashley Ward of Sydney University. "Not only that, but they also preferred fat over thin, healthy over ill, and so on. The part that really caught our eye was that these preferences grew as the group size increased, through some kind of positive social feedback mechanism."
"Their consensus arises through a simple rule," said David Sumpter of Uppsala University. "Some fish spot the best choice early on, although others may make a mistake and go the wrong way. The remaining fish assess how many have gone in particular directions. If the number going in one direction outweighs those going the other way, then the undecided fish follow in the direction of the majority."
It might be clichéd to say that religious people see the world differently, but new research finds that Dutch Calvinists notice embedded visual patterns quicker than their atheist compatriots.
Culture has long been known to distort visual perception, says Bernhard Hommel, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who led the new study.
For example, one previous experiment found that Asians tend to dart their eyes around a photograph, while North Americans fix on specific people.
Culture has long been known to distort visual perception, says Bernhard Hommel, a psychologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands who led the new study.
For example, one previous experiment found that Asians tend to dart their eyes around a photograph, while North Americans fix on specific people.
The leading theory on the origin of hair has been challenged by findings suggesting that mammalian locks originated in reptilian claws.
A genetic analysis of lizards and chickens - those feathery descendants of reptiles - uncovered genes that code for keratin, a hard protein whose derivatives form hair.
It has long been thought that mammals developed hair on their own, perhaps as an evolutionary tweak on scales in some intermediate lineage between auropsids - the forefathers of reptiles and birds - and the furry creatures whose descendants would eventually include us.
A genetic analysis of lizards and chickens - those feathery descendants of reptiles - uncovered genes that code for keratin, a hard protein whose derivatives form hair.
It has long been thought that mammals developed hair on their own, perhaps as an evolutionary tweak on scales in some intermediate lineage between auropsids - the forefathers of reptiles and birds - and the furry creatures whose descendants would eventually include us.
Stephen Hawking called for a massive investment in establishing colonies on the Moon and Mars in a lecture in honour of NASA's 50th anniversary. He argued that the world should devote about 10 times as much as NASA's current budget - or 0.25% of the world's financial resources - to space.
The renowned University of Cambridge physicist has previously spoken in favour of colonising space as an insurance policy against the possibility of humanity being wiped out by catastrophes like nuclear war and climate change. He argues that humanity should eventually expand to other solar systems.
The renowned University of Cambridge physicist has previously spoken in favour of colonising space as an insurance policy against the possibility of humanity being wiped out by catastrophes like nuclear war and climate change. He argues that humanity should eventually expand to other solar systems.
