venue¹ for the "Premium² VIP Party with Michael Jackson" in Tokyo March 8, 2007." width="372" border="0" src="/upimg/090808/4_024905_1.jpg" />
Michael Jackson opens a car window to greet fans as he arrives at the venue for the "Premium VIP Party with Michael Jackson" in Tokyo March 8, 2007.

Is it possible to tell how happy we all are?

Yes, according to US scientists who have devised a way to measure the happiness of millions of bloggers -- and found Michael Jackson's death was one of the saddest days while the U.S. election was the happiest in four years.

Peter Dodds and Chris Danforth, a mathematician³ and computer scientist from the Advanced Computing⁴ Center at the University of Vermont, have created a "sensor⁵" to mine 2.3 million blogs and gather sentences beginning with "I feel" or "I am feeling." Each sentence is then given a happiness score from 1 to 9 depending on a point system allocated⁶ to 1,034 words. For example, "triumphant⁷" averages 8.87 points, "paradise" 8.72, "pancakes" 6.08, and "suicide" 1.25.

They said this "hedonometer" showed that the US election day last November was the happiest day in four years with a spike⁸ in the word "proud" while the day of the "King of Pop's" death was one of the unhappiest.

"The proliferation of personal online writing such as blogs gives us the opportunity to measure emotional levels in real time," they said in their report titled "Measuring the Happiness of Large-Scale Written Expression: Songs, Blogs, and Presidents."

Their study, reported this week in the Journal of Happiness Studies, involved gathering⁹ nearly 10 million sentences.

"Our method is only reasonable for large-scale texts, like what's available on the Web. Any one sentence might not show much. There's too much variability in individual expression," said Dodds.

The scientists said that although blog writers tend to be younger and more educated than average, they were broadly representative of the US population.

They were also writing in a natural environment where they were comfortable as opposed to other happiness studies were participants were put on the spot.

"They think they are communicating with friends but (since blogs are public), we're just looking over their shoulders," said Danforth.

They said their results also ran contrary to recent social science data that suggested people basically feel the same at all ages of life.

Their method showed young teenagers are unhappiest with a disproportionate use of "sick," "hate," "stupid," "sad," "depressed," "bored," "lonely," "mad," and "fat." Then people get happier until they are old, when happiness drops off.

But the scientists said it was impossible to know what was really going on in people's heads.

"Our study is a data exploration," said Danforth. "It's not about developing a theory."

有没有可能分辨出我们到底有多高兴呢？

答案是肯定的，因为美国的科学家已经发明出测量数百万博友快乐指数的方法，并发现迈克尔•杰克逊去世那天是博友们最伤心的日子之一，而美国大选之日则是他们四年来最开心的一天。

佛蒙特大学高级计算中心的数学家、计算机科学家皮特•道兹和克里斯•丹佛斯创造了一种“感应器”，它能够探测230万博客，收集以“我觉得”或“我现在觉得”开头的句子。每个句子根据配有1034个词的计分系统得出快乐分数，从1到9不等。例如，“胜利”这个词的平均得分是8.87分，“天堂”的平均得分是8.72分，“煎饼”是6.08分，而“自杀”是1.25分。

他们说这一“快乐仪”显示去年十一月份美国大选之日是四年来博友们最快乐的一天，因为“骄傲”这个词高频率地出现，而“流行天王”死亡那天则是博友们最伤心的日子之一。

“像博客这种个人网上写作空间的迅速发展让我们有机会即时测量情感的程度，”他们在题为《测量大范围使用书面表达的快乐指数：歌、博客和总统》报告中说。

他们的研究收集了近1000万个句子，研究报告在本周的《快乐研究》期刊中发表。

道兹说：“我们的方法只适用于大范围应用的文本，例如从网络上可以找得到的词句。任何一个单独的句子可能都无法说明什么。因为在个体的表达中有太多的变数。”

两位科学家说，尽管博客写手可能比普通人群更年轻，受教育程度更高，他们却能够广泛地代表美国民众的声音。

而且，和那些对参与者当场进行调查的其他快乐研究不同，这些博客写手是在一种自然舒服的环境中写作。

丹佛斯说：“他们以为自己是在和朋友交流，但是（因为博客是公开的），我们却在他们背后观看着一切。”

道兹和丹佛斯说最近的社会科学数据显示人们在各个年龄阶段的感觉基本上都差不多，而他们俩的调查结果却与之相反。

他们的调查方法显示出来的结果是青少年是最不快乐的，他们或多或少地使用“恶心”、“恨”、“愚蠢”、“悲伤”、“压抑”、“无聊”、“孤独”、“生气”和“肥胖”这些字眼。而随着年纪增长，人们会变得快乐一些，直到他们进入老年，那时快乐指数又会下降。

但是两位科学家说要知道人们的头脑中到底在想什么是不可能的。

“我们的研究是一个数据上的调查，”丹佛斯说，“而不是要发展成一个理论。”

Vocabulary:

devise: 设计；发明；策划；想出

point system: 计分方式

real time: （事件发生的）同时，即时，实时

look over one's shoulder: 看过去

disproportionate: 不成比例的，不均衡的