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Happiness is picking up a stray £10 note, according to the first study claiming to measure pleasure.
Scientists carried out tests on 80 volunteers whose brainwaves were recorded while they engaged in different activities. From the readings, they produced a pleasure scale from minus 100 to plus 100. A surprise £10 windfall generated the highest average score of 82.9.
$4.2m for Batmobile
The Batmobile has sold for $4.2m (€3.15m).
The original 19ft black, bubble-topped car used in the 1960s 'Batman' TV show sold at auction in Arizona. The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company in Scottsdale revealed the selling price but said the winning bidder has not been disclosed. The car's owner, George Barris, of Los Angeles, transformed a one-of-a-kind 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car into the sleek crime-fighting machine.
Silvio won't be PM
Silvio Berlusconi said he will not be premier again should his conservative party, trailing in opinion polls, win Italian elections next month.
The media mogul told a TV interviewer that his political heir, Angelino Alfano, was his choice for premier.
US strikes kill eight
The Yemeni military says eight people have been killed in two suspected US drone strikes in Abieda valley in central Marib province.
Residents said at least two of the people killed in the strikes were known al-Qa'ida militants of Saudi nationality. They identified one as Ismail bin Jamil.
Man in Palach tribute
A Czech man set himself on fire in Prague's Wenceslas Square yesterday, just days after the anniversary of student Jan Palach's immolation in 1969 to protest at the occupation of Czechoslovakia, police said.
A spokeswoman said the 36-year-old lit his jacket in front of the National Museum near where Palach doused himself with flammable liquid on January 16, 1969, following the occupation of communist Czechoslovakia by Russian-led forces.
Spider haunts tombs
A large, rare spider has been recorded living in Victorian tombs in one of the UK's most famous cemeteries, conservationists have revealed.
The discovery of the orb weaver spider Meta bourneti in Highgate Cemetery, the burial place of philosopher Karl Marx, poet Christina Rossetti and novelist George Eliot among others, is the first time the species has been recorded in London.
Irish Independent
