MSNBC - Jan. 24 called worst day of the year - Plausible?

In my last post, I talked a bit about the influence cold had over our evolution. Now granted, most of us are tropical fish, after all our genetic origins are linked to much warmer climates, but I am still unsure about the validity of seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and its role in determining our happiness. In this article, MSNBC - Jan. 24 called worst day of the year, a British doctor has derived a formula that predicts today is perhaps the worst day of the year in terms of our overall sense of well-being. While I do believe that statistics can provide us with a great deal of insight regarding events in nature, I am not sure that the variables derived for this equation are solid enough to provide any key insight into human behavioral patterns. For those of you who don't know what SAD is, it is supposedly a feeling of depression linked directly to changes in patterns of light, darkness and temperature associated with the changing of the seasons. According to this hypothetical disorder, we tend to feel much less active and happy during the winter months or on days when there is less exposure to sunlight or daylight in general. In essense, our behavioral patterns are tied directly to neurochemicals associated with our diurnal lifestyle. Thus, according to this supposition, less light means less happiness. If we accept this idea, then people who live in places that get more daylight should be much happier than the rest of us. Somehow, I don't think that those who live in places such as Northern Alaska, Greenland or Anarctica have greater "happiness quotients" than anyone else. This, however, might make some good research for any of you who are so inclined. Just be sure to take care in the development of variables more grounded in observable behaviors than feelings.