Is a happiness meter just around the corner?

     How happy are you? Really? Let's say on a scale of 1-to-9? If you're feeling "triumphant" you're 8.87 happy on the 1-to-9 scale. If you had "pancakes" for breakfast you're at 6.08 on the happiness scale. And if you're a "hostage," you're 2.20, which presumably is a miserable condition but still measurably happy.

     The numbers for the words in italics come from Peter Dodds and Christ Danforth, who toil at the University of Vermont as a mathematician and a computer scientist. They have arrived at their calculations not by hooking people up to a happiness meter, nor by personal interviews. Interviews would be suspect, anyway. If somebody asked me to put a number on my happiness at any particular moment, I either wouldn't be able to do it, or I'd lie or make something up.

     What Dodds and Christ have done is mine the Internet for words like "triumphant," "pancake," and "hostage" then used some science stuff to assign happy numbers to large samples of communications from people who blog, tweet and listen to presidential speeches.

    It's an interesting study, which you can read here:  http://www.uvm.edu/%7Euvmpr/?Page=News&storyID=14590

    I was interested in finding out what they had to say about the word "deadline." Couldn't find anything, but I think it's a little south of "pounding headache."

     Promoting the Obama administration's revitalization efforts for rural Americans, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and Energy Secretary Steve Chu visited the area around Danville, Virginia, last week to add some details to the plans. They talked about dairy programs, energy conservation, renewable energy and jobs.

     Rocky Womack, Lancaster Farming Virginia correspondent, prepared a report on their visit, and it is in the issue set to show up in your mailbox tomorrow.

Monkey see, monkey laugh. http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/368418/