1 It’s the $64,000 question: what income would guarantee you never had to worry about money again? A survey revealed that most people would be satisfied with £64,000 in annual joint income. But to feel happy and afford everything you’d ever want, you would need £78,669. Researchers for AIG Life Wealth Management, a pensions specialist, questioned 1,361 adults. Couples who earned more than £60,000 wished they had £100,000, while people on £100,000 a year wanted £130,000 to be comfortably off and £180,000 for real happiness. At the other end of the scale, it’s only two weeks since a similar survey found that a single person needed to earn £13,400 to maintain an acceptable standard of living.

2The Duke of Edinburgh was wrong when he once said of Princess Anne: “If it doesn’t eat hay or fart, she’s not interested.” The Princess Royal is a keen pharologist – a lighthouse spotter. It’s apparently her ambition to visit all 209 of Scotland’s lighthouses and she has already notched up more than 100. “The princess has done all the major lights now and it will not be easy to do them all because there are many that are scattered all over the place,” says Roger Lockwood, chief executive of the Northern Lighthouse Board, of which Anne is patron. Pharology is named after the great Pharos lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the world.

3 Britain and Ireland have Europe’s lowest quality of life, according to new research. We enjoy the highest pay – a net average income per UK family of £35,730 – but we face higher bills, fewer holidays and fewer hours of sunshine. We even have shorter lives than our European neighbours. Spain had the best quality of life, despite the lowest net income at £16,789. France and Germany were next in the study by uSwitch, a price comparison website, of 10 European countries. “Spain fares well in most categories, with low taxation and cheaper essential goods,” says uSwitch. The results could explain the recent UK emigration boom: 207,000 UK citizens left the country in 2006.

4 Sir Salman Rushdie has claimed a new record for signing books after inscribing his full name on 1,000 books in 57 minutes during a US tour to promote his novel, The Enchantress of Florence. If the record stands, it would cap the achievement set 10 years ago when wine writer Malcolm Gluck signed 1,001 books in 59 minutes. Gluck was magnanimous in apparent defeat. “If it’s true, I’m humbled,” he said.

“I think it’s very funny actually. It’s like men boasting about the size of their sexual equipment I doubt there will be any women going for this record. This is such a male thing.” Sir Salman was slightly less magnanimous, saying: “His record is toast.”

5 If men and women act as if they’re from rival planets it may be because the circuitry and anatomy of their brains differ. So, women feel more pain, get more depressed and have a better memory. Men . . . think about sex

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