With the tendency for people to latch onto the latest "news bite" and be diverted from "things that matter" by "scandalous trivia" it is perhaps of interest to have some discussion of - as the late great Paul Harvey was likely to say - "The Rest of the Story."

As an example: A recent survey of "places to live" where life was sweet and full of joy picked Utah as the NUMBER ONE best place in the country "to be happy."

(Link)

Utah, Hawaii, Wyoming top 'happiness' poll

"Survey rated such variables as mental, physical and economic health"

(Unlink)

Does this tell us anything useful, or is it just a "news-bite" to divert us from something that's really going on in Utah?

This might be a bit of a puzzle for those of us who've passed through but didn't stop for long, so we need "the rest of the story" - and the article doesn't really tell us much.

Perhaps a part of the explanations is at:

(Another link)

Utah Leads In Percent of Internet Users with Porn Subscriptions. (Video, with leadin commercial of course.)

(Unlinked again)

Both of these reports are by "respectable" researchers (they say) but there seems to be little in the way of analysis to tell us whether there actually is a direct connection.

Speculation welcome. Are these two items really associated, related, connected, interactive, and/or supportive one of the other?

And other potential but uncertain associations between apparently disparate news items is encouraged, especially by those who have noticed something that might have slipped past the rest of us.

John