- Image by RebelBlueAngel
There is a psychologist in the U.K., Cliff Arnall, who has become rather infamous for cooking up ridiculous but reasonable-enough-looking formulas to quantify various phenomena that might be of interest to corporations willing to pay for such things. To boot, here is his formula for measuring the sadness of a day (sponsored by Sky Travel):
[W + (D - d)] * TQ / (M * Na)
Where W = weather, D = debt, d = money due in January pay, T = time since Christmas, Q = time since you failed at some attempt to quit something, M = motivation, and Na = need to take action.
It looks mathematical-ish, so several British publications (including the BBC) have run with it over the last few years as if it’s legitimate, without questioning things such as how one should quantify abstract entities like weather and motivation.
Anyway, if you don’t mind junk science you should know that Monday, January 19th is the saddest day of 2009. Considering the cold snap we in Chicago are currently enduring, I might be inclined to think Dr. Arnall is on to something. How are things in your part of the world?
Related TOE posts:
- How to Be the Mother of a Child with Asperger’s – Part One
- Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head (Maybe)
- Eyetracking Study :: Joint Attention in High Functioning Autism
- How to Be the Mother of a Child with Asperger’s – Part Two
- Just a Snip
A lot better than places like Chicago and Jackson, Minnesota. Looks like the saddest day of 2009 will be sunny with a low of 51 and a high of 73 here in Miami, Florida, where the only ice around during winter is melting in your drink.