The Washington Post reports on recent studies telling us, yet again, that money doesn't buy happiness. Indeed, the more money people have, the less likely they are to spend time on things that make them happy. My own feeling is that the expectation that money (beyond the point by which the necessities of life are comfortably bestowed) does buy happiness is a particularly American point of view. And well entrenched unfortunately.

Well, let's keep repeating the message anyway. Here's some reinforcement: the Happy Planet Index is just out. The happiest place on earth (Vanuatu) ranks 207th out of 233 economies. The U.S. ranks 150th in the Happy Index.

This disorder pops up from time to time -- Foreign Accent Syndrome -- it's very rare. I've always thought it sounded so weird. The idea that you could have a stroke and wake up speaking with a 'foreign accent' (i.e. an accent not your own)! But I guess it doesn't sound so bizarre when you realize that what's really going on (I'm assuming) is that the speech patterns are shifted in ways that register to listeners as belonging to some particular accent. Apart from the general weirdness, this is a fascinating perspective on identity. Read the report of this latest case and reflect on the poor woman's comments: "I'm a very different person and it's strange and I don't like it."

Deliberately putting on an accent is one thing; having it imposed on you like that is quite another! But it also offers a perspective on how you can feel like a different person when speaking a different language -- and indeed, taking on a different persona can help your learning of a language.

Well, I keep saying that the amount of sleep you get is an important factor in how well your brain works, so let's note that a recent American study has found that middle-aged Americans sleep even less than they think, and that there are significant gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic differences, with blacks sleeping less than whites, men less than women, and poor less than wealthy. The reason for the differences seems to be more to do with how long it takes to get to sleep and 'sleep efficiency' - how much time spent in bed is actually spent sleeping - rather than differences in amount of time spent in bed.

It's also interesting to note the difference between how much people think they sleep and how much they actually sleep, given that insomnia studies suggest that insomniacs tend to think they sleep less than they actually do!