Mood influences choices: Study

NEW YORK, Jan 27: Does mood really influence our choices? Well, it does, if researchers are to be believed.

The researchers have found that consumers in a good mood are more likely than the unhappy customers to choose the first item they see, especially if all the choices are more or less the same.

According to lead researcher Cheng Qiu of University of Hong Kong, "it is surprising that little research has been done to examine how affect influences comparisons and choices.

"Our research fills this gap by demonstrating a systematic influence of mood on choice, which contrasts with the general assumption that mood is unlikely to influence choice."

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing the effects of mood on choices of a number of people by carrying out two related studies.

In the first study, all the participants were first asked to write about either a happy or a sad event in their lives to help establish their mood and then they were given several mango-flavoured desserts.

The team found that 69 per cent of happy participants chose the first option they saw, compared to only 38.5 per cent of unhappy participants. They also noticed that when happy consumers were asked to withhold judgement until all options were presented, they tended to prefer the last option.

In another study, three dessert options — blueberry, almond, and plum pie — were presented sequentially, and the consumers were explicitly asked to withhold judgement until all options had been presented.

Happy consumers chose the last item 48 per cent of the time, compared to just 26 per cent of unhappy participants.

"If consumers are exposed to multiple options that differ only in global aesthetic aspects, they tend to evaluate each option spontaneously at the time they first encounter it.

"On the other hand, if consumers are exposed to multiple options that differ in important descriptive features, they may withhold their evaluation until they have seen all the options available and evaluate the last presented option first.

"Altogether, these findings suggest that the influence of mood on comparison depends on which alternative in a choice set is the one being evaluated first," the `sciencedaily’ quoted Qiu as saying. (PTI)

Cow protection centre to come up

LONDON, Jan 27: The largest Hindu Temple in Britain, where a sick cow was killed last month, plans to start a protection centre for the sacred animal.

Bhaktivedanta Manor, the temple where the royal society for prevention of cruelty to animals killed Gangotri, the sacred cow, and sparked an outrage amongst British Hindus, plans to open the cow protection centre called new gokul.

The plan was approved by Hertsmere Borough Council.

Hindu leaders, politicians and supporters from across Britain will attend the colourful Bhoomi Puja ceremony on February 3 to sanctify the ground where a new farm building will be constructed in memory of Gangotri.

The occasion will be marked by chanting of Sanskrit prayers, devotional singing and traditional dances.

The ‘puja’ will culminate with a Yagna, a Hindu ritual, where priests will pour sanctified offerings of butter into a large sacred fire.

Thereafter, fifty Hindu leaders from around the country will discuss what they perceive as the British Government’s lethargy in addressing the wider issues surrounding the killing of Gangotri.

"We cannot understand why the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, have not even responded to our request for a meeting with the Secretary of State," said Gauri Dasa, president of Bhaktivedanta Manor.

"The resentment levels in the Hindu community are quite high, and the Government’s lack of engagement and disinterest are not good for community cohesion and integration. They should at least be ready to listen to what we have to say."

Terming the Bhumi Puja as a Hindu ritual that reminded humans to live in harmony with mother nature Dasa said: "At this ceremony, we offer prayers to mother earth seeking permission and forgiveness for our digging and excavation.

It stresses the interdependence between humans and nature, especially cows and bulls, with whom we have a special relationship. The cow is a motherly figure as she nourishes us with life-giving milk, he said. (PTI)

Eating leafy vegetables 'can reduce risk of cataracts'

NEW YORK, Jan 27: You can't avoid cataract. But you can reduce the risk of developing the medical condition by eating leafy vegetables everyday.

Researchers in the United States have carried out a study and found that leafy vegetables contain zeaxanthin and lutein -- carotenoids with antioxidant properties -- lower the chance of developing cataract in people, particularly women, by filtering harmful blue light.

"The oxidative hypothesis of cataract formation posits that reactive oxygen species can damage lens proteins and fibre cell membranes and that nutrients with antioxidant capabilities can protect against these changes," according to lead researcher William G Christen of Harvard Medical School.

In fact, the researchers came to the conclusion after analysing the dietary data of 35,551 female health workers who enrolled in the Women's Health Study in 1993.

All the participants were kept under medical watch for a period of ten years and the diets of those who developed cataracts were compared with the meals of those who did not get the condition. A total of 2,031 women developed cataracts during the study.

When the participants were divided into five groups based on the amount of lutein and zeaxanthin they consumed, those in the group who consumed the most (6,716 micrograms per day) had an 18 per cent lower chance of developing cataracts than those who consumed the least (1,177 micrograms per day). (PTI)

Japan sets up 10 billion dollar climate fund

DAVOS, Jan 27: Japan has set up a five-year-10 billion dollar fund to support developing countries in their efforts to combat global warming - a move that is likely to gain priority at this year's G8 Summit.

Calling it the 'Cool Earth Partnership', the Japanese prime minister Yasuo Fukuda, who will chair the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit later in the year, said: "Japan will cooperate actively with developing countries' efforts to reduce emissions, such as those to enhance energy efficiency."

Japan will start disbursing the requisite amount to the developing countries from the fund this year. It will set aside up to 8 billion dollars for assistance in climate change mitigation, and up to 2 billion dollars for grants, aid and technical assistance for countries switching to clean energy.

"There is no time to lose in addressing climate change," Fukuda told business leaders at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2008. "We have readily available means for taking action without waiting for the agreement on a post-Kyoto framework," he said.

The Kyoto Protocol governing greenhouse gas emissions runs out in 2012. (PTI)

India dismisses accusations of fuelling Terai crisis

KATHMANDU, Jan 27: India has dismissed as "baseless" allegations that it is fuelling "crisis" in Nepal's violence-hit southern Terai region.

"Those allegations are utterly motivated and baseless," Indian Ambassador to Nepal, Shiv Shanker Mukherjee, said.

"Everybody in Nepal knows the constructive and helpful role played by India because it is in our own interest," he said.

The political leadership of Nepal was capable of resolving the "Terai crisis," he told reporters during a function organised in the Indian embassy premises at Lainchaur yesterday to mark the 59th Republic Day.

Mukherjee said that during his series of meetings with various political leaders here, he found them to be affirmative about resolving, among other issues, the crisis in Terai - where the Madhesi community is demanding more rights amidst agitations by various armed groups.

He also expressed India's readiness to help Nepal in resolving whatever problem it is facing. India wished for the welfare of Nepal as the two sides shared a close relationship from economic, social and cultural perspectives, he added.

The Indian Ambassador also said New Delhi would provide all necessary assistances to Nepal to conduct the Constituent Assembly elections, scheduled in April, successfully.

About the border issue, Mukherjee said that 99 per cent of agreement has been reached on it and the rest one percent would be resolved through negotiations between the two sides.

On the occasion of the Republic Day, India gave 30 ambulances, 12 portable diesel generators and books to various organisations in Nepal. A day earlier, Mukherjee had handed over 1,200 four-wheel drive vehicles and 14,000 sets of communication equipment to Home Minister Krishna Prasad Sitoula at a special function. (PTI)

Brazilian model takes aim at record for most plastic surgery

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jan 27: Brazilian model Angela Bismarchi will dance nearly nude ahead of a 300-person drum corps in next month's Carnival parade, hoping her sculpted beauty as a "percussion queen" will lead her samba group to the championship.

But she has another goal in mind as well.

In preparation for Rio's five-day Carnival blowout in February, she's having her 42nd plastic surgery - closing in on the Guinness World Record of 47 surgical procedures held by 52-year-old American Cindy Jackson, who calls herself a "Living Doll" and now promotes her own skincare line.

"I always was vain," Bismarchi, 36, acknowledges at the medical clinic near Rio where her plastic surgeon husband has operated on her 10 times. "And for carnival, you have to feel especially pretty."

Just days before Brazil's February 2-6 carnival begins, Bismarchi will have nylon wires implanted in her eyes to give them an Asian slant, in line with this year's theme of her samba group, Porto da Pedra: the centennial of Japanese immigration to Brazil.

Bismarchi's unabashed passion for plastic surgery has made her a celebrity in this image-mad country, where even the poor get surgical enhancements on the installment plan. Brazilians see no shame in touching up their bodies, which are routinely exposed at carnival and flaunted on the beach in thong bikinis so tiny they're called "dental floss."

Born poor in Rio, Bismarchi had her first cosmetic surgery in 1992 after her daughter was born. She was just 21, but said she was depressed after nursing caused her breasts to sag. So she had them lifted, adored the results, and became so fascinated with cosmetic surgery that her next two husbands were plastic surgeons. (AGENCIES)

'Frozen River', 'Trouble the Water'
win at Sundance Film fest

PARK CITY, US, Jan 27: For the third year in a row, a movie revolving around immigrants won the grand jury prize for best US drama at the Sundance Film Festival. Only this time, they come from the north.

"Frozen River," about a struggling single mother in upstate New York who teams with a Mohawk woman to smuggle people across the Canadian border, is the first feature from director-writer Courtney Hunt. She adapted it from her own 2004 short of the same name.

"Trouble the Water," about the survival of a New Orleans couple through Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, earned the grand-jury award yesterday in the US documentary competition at the festival, the nation's top showcase for independent film.

The movie by Michael Moore collaborators Tia Lessin and Carl Deal utilizes footage shot by one of its subjects, Kimberly Rivers Roberts, who traveled to the festival with her husband Scott and gave birth to a daughter, Skyy, in Salt Lake City on Monday.

"We had two world premieres this week," Lessin said.

William H Macy hosted the awards ceremony yesterday night, opening with an off-colour monologue that incorporated the titles of many films at the festival, from "Downloading Nancy" to "Flow: For Love of Water."

"The Wackness," starring a loose and lively Ben Kingsley as a psychiatrist who trades therapy for marijuana, won the audience award for favourite US drama as chosen by balloting among Sundance movie-goers.

"Part of what this is about is making a relationship with an audience, not necessarily making a relationship with a studio or audience or whatever," writer-director Jonathan Levine said dryly. His coming-of-age dramedy had been expected to be picked up for distribution during the festival, but was not. (AGENCIES)

Pak, India Petroleum Ministers discuss gas pipeline project

LONDON, Jan 27: Petroleum Ministers of India and Pakistan held discussions here on a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project involving the two countries and Iran, with both sides expressing their keenness to put it on stream.

Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora was invited by his Pakistani counterpart Ahsan Ullah Khan to visit Islamabad to sort out various issues outstanding because of which the pipeline is pending, during their meeting held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel here yesterday.

Deora assured the Pakistani minister that "India is keen" on the 2,775-km pipeline and issues like the transit fees and strategic investment should be sorted out.

Khan, who is accompanying President Pervez Musharraf during his current visit to Britain, insisted that "Pakistan is equally keen that the project is put on stream," official sources told PTI.

Though New Delhi and Islamabad have reached an understanding on the transportation tariff payable to Pakistan, the two nations have not yet arrived at any agreement on payment of a separate transit fee to Pakistan for using its territory.

Three-fourth of the pipeline will be passing through Pakistan which will also use the pipeline for providing gas to its consumers.

The pipeline is to be laid in the three nations separately. Iran would lay a 1,100-km pipeline from the Persian Gulf to the Iran-Pakistan border, while Pakistan would lay a 1,035 km from its border with Iran to the Indian border. India would then pipe the gas to consumption centres.

The total cost of the project was estimated to be over seven billion dollars in 2006. (PTI)

Coen brothers, Sean Penn vie for
top filmmaking honour at DGA

LOS ANGELES, Jan 27: Members of Hollywood's union for filmmakers had an interesting range of choices for their top prize this year.

In the running for the feature-film honour at yesterday's Directors Guild of America Awards were two brothers (Joel and Ethan Coen), a veteran art house filmmaker (Paul Thomas Anderson), a screenwriter making his directing debut (Tony Gilroy), an artist-turned-director (Julian Schnabel) and an Academy Award-winning actor who moonlights as a director (Sean Penn).

Presenters slated for the black-tie affair included Helen Hunt; Debra Messing; Anna Paquin; current Oscar nominees Hal Holbrook, Tilda Swinton and Daniel Day-Lewis; and Martin Scorsese, who won the DGA prize and best-directing Oscar a year ago for "The Departed."

Unlike other major honours, such as tonight's Screen Actors Guild Awards, the DGA ceremony has always been untelevised, making it a more laid-back gathering of Hollywood's elite and shielding it from some of the attention the industry's labour strife has brought to other ceremonies.

The Golden Globes banquet was canceled after stars made clear they would stay away in support of the Writers Guild of America strike, and the Oscars may face the same dilemma come February 24.

Still, the writers' strike did cast a pall over the directors' big night, even though their guild last week negotiated a new contract after just days of meetings with producers. A fair number of Directors Guild members also belong to the writers union, whose strike has shut down TV shows and postponed movies, throwing thousands in the entertainment industry out of work. (AGENCIES)

Woman posted murder-for-hire classified ad on Craigslist

SACREMENTO, Jan 27: The job posting said "freelance", and the employer was looking for a killer applicant.

A Michigan woman is behind bars and facing extradition to Northern California, where FBI agents say she advertised on Craigslist, an online bulletin board, for someone willing to kill the unsuspecting wife of a man she had begun an affair with online.

Ann Marie Linscott, 49, offered USD 5,000 for the hit, had the name and work address of the woman she wanted dead and in e-mails with stunned job seekers described successful candidates as "silent assassins," according to agents and court documents.

"I've seen some screwy things, but I've personally never heard of anything like this," said Drew Parenti, special agent in charge of the Sacramento FBI office. "For a person to advertise openly for a hit man on Craigslist."

It is not the first crime ever solicited over the popular site. Craigslist has gained some level of notoriety for ads posted by prostitutes and the killing of a Minnesota woman last year who responded to an ad for a baby sitter. However, authorities and company officials say the murder-for-hire scheme appears to be the first of its kind.

Agents arrested Linscott, whom they say went by Ann Marie and used the simple alias "Marie," on Thursday at her home in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Federal prosecutors will ask a judge on Tuesday to make her stand trial in California.

A call to Linscott's court-appointed public defender was not immediately returned yesterday. (AGENCIES)

Pandit gets $30-mn bonus; 6-times of
total India bankers' pay

NEW YORK, Jan 27: World's largest lender Citigroup has awarded its newly-appointed CEO Vikram Pandit stocks worth USD 30 million, even as the India-born executive has decided to forgo a cash bonus at the crisis-ridden bank.

The 1.1 million share units and options for additional three million shares being awarded to Pandit is estimated to be worth about 30 million dollars (Rs 120 crore) -- an amount close to six times of total compensation paid by all the Indian banks together to their top executives last fiscal.

Nagpur-born Pandit was conferred by the Indian government Padma Bhushan, a prestigious civilian award, yesterday.

The stock and options award was disclosed by Citigroup in a regulatory filing here late last week. This is higher than the total bonus worth 23.9 million dollars given to previous CEO Charles Prince last year. Prince got 10.7 million dollars in stock and 13.2 million dollars in cash bonus.

The salary of Pandit, who took charge of Citigroup in December 2007 after Prince resigned amid mounting subprime crisis-related losses, is not known as yet. However, Prince got an annual pay package of about 26 million dollars (about Rs 100 crore).

In comparison, more than 500 top executives and board members at India's public and private sector banks together received an annual compensation of about Rs 20 crore last fiscal. ICICI Bank's Managing Director and CEO K V Kamath, the top paid banker in India, took home about Rs 2.61 crore.

Just about 10 top bankers in India got their salary in crores last fiscal, according to data disclosed in their annual reports. (PTI)

Americans prefer Indian products over Chinese: Fortune

NEW YORK, Jan 27: A majority of Americans are not averse to purchasing made-in-India products, but opposite is the case for those made in China, according to a new survey conducted by renowned US-based business magazine Fortune.

In the wake of some of the American companies, including toymaker Mattel recalling products they sourced from China due to high lead content, nearly three in five (57 per cent) of the US citizens surveyed by Fortune said they were "less likely to buy a product if it is made in China".

However, as much as 52 per cent of the survey respondents said such an incident would not affect their purchasing decision if the product is made in India.

In the survey, only 35 per cent of Americans said they were "less likely" to purchase a product manufactured in India, while 11 per cent said they were "more likely" to buy such goods.

For China-made products, 11 per cent people said they were "more likely" to buy these products, while 30 per cent said it did not matter to them whether goods were exported from the dragon country.

Fortune magazine, which surveyed 1,000 adults throughout America between January 14-16, said "where a product is manufactured does not impact Americans' purchasing decisions except when that product is made in China."

"Nearly three-in-five (57 per cent) Americans are less likely to buy a product if it is made in China. When products are manufactured in other areas, such as Eastern Europe (57 per cent), Western Europe (55 per cent), Canada (53 per cent), India (52 per cent), Africa (51 per cent), Mexico (48 per cent), Japan (47 per cent), and South Korea (46 per cent), nearly a majority say it does not matter." (PTI)