Sunday soundbites

Does kicking back and watching TV make you happier? Absolutely not. In fact, scheduling your free time might make you happier.

A very pretty statistical visualization.

Interesting Google talk on industry scientists hired by corporations to sow seeds of doubt in the public's mind about science.

Speaking of evil corporate interests, The New York Times has an article about the increasing boldness of ghostwriting in the pharmaceutical industry.

And more Big Pharma shenanigans here.

Nature has a short-but-sweet quip on the value of basic research.

I think that this guy should read that last one.

Freakonomics blog has a piece on how the same study can lead to opposite-sounding headlines in different papers.

This would surely be nominated for an IgNoble if not for the null result: do dogs get contagious yawns from people? Unclear.

More IgNoble fodder: this might actually be the most inspiring paper I've ever read!

Science reviews two feminist critiques of neuroscience.

PLoS has this article about D4 variants associated with sexual promiscuity. I can't wait to see what kind of headlines we see about this one.