Moderately happy people are wealthier — and maybe healthier — than extremely happy individuals, according to a psychologist who has researched happiness for more than two decades and his associates.

• While people who are happy are certainly more healthy and successful than those who are angry and depressed, Dr. Ed Diener of the University of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign told Reuters Health, people who are moderately happy may achieve more than those who are extremely happy. They might also live longer.

• “Our findings suggest that extremely high levels of happiness might not be a desirable goal and that there is more to psychological well-being than high-levels of happiness,” Diener and his team report in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science.

• The researchers looked at six different studies of happiness and life outcomes to investigate the optimum level of happiness.

• One study, the World Values Survey, which included nearly 120,000 people from 96 countries, found that those who were moderately happy, rating their life satisfaction at 8 or 9 out of 10, made more money than those who rated their satisfaction level at 10. However, 10s and 9s were more likely to have stable intimate relationships. Read more

An Army major from Colorado who wrote a blog from Iraq for the  Rocky Mountain News was killed during an attack by insurgents.

Olmsted, who began writing for the News on May 21, asked a friend to post a final posting on his Web site if he died in Iraq. In it, Olmsted, who described himself as a libertarian, warns against making his death an argument for or against the war.

“My life isn’t a chit to be used to bludgeon people to silence on either side…I have my own opinions about what we should do about Iraq, but since I’m not around to expound on them I’d prefer others not try and use me as some kind of moral capital to support a position I probably didn’t support,” read the final post on AndrewOlmsted.com. 

He also quoted Plato as saying “only the dead have seen the end of war.”
Olmsted leaves behind his wife of 10 years, Amanda Wilson, of Colorado Springs.

“The news is devastating,” News editor John Temple said. “The major was a brave man who obviously thrived on sharing his experiences and thoughts on his blog. He provided a perspective on Iraq that would have been impossible for a journalist. Our thoughts are with his wife, family and unit.” Read more

• Christmas is hectic for all but particularly for Santa, who must live in Kyrgyzstan and make his rounds at lightning speed if he is to deliver gifts to all the world’s children on time, a Swedish consultancy has concluded.

• Between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Santa Claus’s route around the planet includes stops at 2.5 billion homes, assuming that children of all religions receive a present from the jolly man in the red suit, Anders Larsson of the engineering consultancy Sweco told AFP.

• “We estimated that there are 48 people per square kilometer (120 per square mile) on Earth, and 20 metres (66 feet) between each home. So if Santa leaves from Kyrgyzstan and travels against the Earth’s rotation he has 48 hours to deliver all the presents,” he said.                                                                                                                         Read more

• During the Vietnam War, emergency medics began using the all-purpose glue to seal battle wounds in troops headed for surgery. It can be said that doctors did save many lives through using superglue to close a wound because it gave them time to transport patients to M.A.S.H. units where they could have needed surgery.

• Using superglue to close a wound is possible, but not advisable. While using over the counter superglue to close a wound would work, it also may produce extreme skin irritation and skin death when purchased in over the counter form. However types of medical superglue are now often used in place of stitches to close certain types of wounds.

• Superglue is made of a substance called cyanoacrylate. When it comes into contact with liquids like water, it forms a plastic mesh that will keep skin, or anything one wants glued, neatly bonded together. However, regular superglue has methyl alcohol, which creates heat in order to produce the bonding effect of superglue. Thus using superglue to close a wound in deep tissue could result in killing some of the surrounding skin cells.                                                                           Read more

An Indian man who believed he had been cursed for stoning to death two dogs has atoned for his sin by marrying another dog in a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony.

P. Selvakumar, a 33-year-old farm labourer from the southern state of Tamil Nadu, married the four-year-old stray bitch after it was bathed and processed to his village temple dressed in an orange sari and garlanded with flowers.

• The marriage took place on the advice of the man’s astrologer who said it was the only way to atone for his actions of more than 20 years ago.

• He was reported to have suffered a series of physical ailments after stoning the dogs to death and hanging their bodies from a tree.                                                                       Read more

• Coffee connoisseurs are going ape for a rare brew that Taiwanese farmers are producing with the help of monkeys.

• The monkeys live high in Taiwan’s mountains. They enjoy eating the fruity flesh on coffee beans, but they’re not too fond of the seeds.

• Seeing the animals spitting them out, one coffee farmer recently decided to see what would happen if he brewed the spit-out beans.

• He said he was pleasantly surprised by the result — a sweet coffee with a vanilla smell.

• The farmers are collecting these half-chewed seeds and roasting them to produce a coffee that is being brewed all over the island.
  

“The monkeys pick the reddest fruits to eat, and spit out the seeds. They cannot swallow them because that may cause indigestion,” said Liao Ching-tung, a coffee farmer for 30 years who has recently taken up roasting the regurgitated seeds.                                               Read more