Last week in Melbourne, more than 17,000 hungry and concerned citizens ordered Vindaloo at their local Indian restaurant in an effort to protest against the racism faced by Indian students in the city. Vindaloo Against Violence is the brainchild of Melbournian graphic designer Mia Northrop and on February 24, she encouraged anyone interested in supporting the rights of Indians in Australia (and worldwide) to demonstrate their concern using their stomachs (hey, the stomach is the way to the heart, right?).

Though this effort to raise awareness has garnered criticism for trivializing sensitive issues, most of the media response has been very positive. Sure, Northrop and her curry-loving cohorts didn't affect a legislative change, but they did create an opportunity for people to make a stand (however small) who may not have done so otherwise. Dining out at Indian establishments in a city that has been experiencing racial tensions sends a message that the Indian community is valued in Melbourne and that their mistreatment will not be tolerated. As Northrop herself said of the effort, "[It] signalled to the Indian media that Australians do not tolerate racially motivated violence or racism and that the vast majority of us respect our immigrant communities and value our cultural diversity. We do not want Australia's reputation to be marred by the racist actions of a few."

Non-Australians are also being encouraged to participate in Vindaloo Against Violence, so even if you aren't in Melbourne you've still got an excuse to eat some delicious cuisine for a good cause. More information here on how you can get more involved.

[Image: BBC]

I'll admit that I was delighted to wake up Friday morning to several inches of pristine, untouched white powder outside my front door. After I forced open the gate leading to my three-flat home in Park Slope, I enjoyed an utterly silent walk through the pre-dawn light. It was one of those mornings that makes you feel like a kid again, full of wonder and content to trudge along with great effort through mounds upon mounds of freshly fallen snow.

But snowfalls like we received in New York City Friday morning can wreak havoc on our local economy, and prevent thousands of people from getting to work or even keeping their jobs. According to this report from CBS News, New York City has already spent the $41 million it had reserved for winter cleanup efforts, and it's not alone. Pennsylvania and Virginia are either near or over their annual budgets in snow removal.

Add to this the number of people who've been laid off because they couldn't make the commute to work, and as a result have had to apply for unemployment, and it becomes clear that one person's winter wonderland is another's winter hell.

Looks like the folks at PETA are up to their old tricks again, and this time the focus of their attention-getting, issue-obscuring campaign is none other than media anti-darling Tiger Woods. Unless you've been hiding under a soundproof rock since Thanksgiving (lucky!), you'll recall that Woods is in hot water with his fans and endorsers due to the uncovering of his many extramarital affairs and alleged sex addiction. Well, the PETA people recall it too, and they came up with this billboard as a way to capitalize on the media frenzy:

The original plan was to display the billboard in Woods' neighborhood of Windermere, Florida. Ostensibly so that people will spay and neuter their pets, though if you ask me that message is lost in the sensationalist nature of the campaign (and was kind of a stretch to begin with - who calls their pet a "little tiger"?).

Well, there's been a change of plans. According to yesterday's LA Times blog, Woods' lawyers have put a stop to the billboard and a spokesperson for PETA says the campaign is "on hold at this time." Given PETA's history of legal issues and apologies when it comes to offending their audiences and using celebrity images without permission, one has to wonder if they knew this reaction was coming.

Now don't get me wrong - I'm all for spaying and neutering pets. But to equate the reproductive status of a house cat with the current Tiger Woods scandal is a little much in my opinion. A human being, whose actions have hurt his family as well as the women involved (and his fans, and his staff, and his endorsers, etc.) shouldn't be made an example for the pet owners of his community, and he shouldn't be neutered, either (though there are undoubtedly a few people out there who wish he would be). Honestly, is anything about this billboard actually prompting you to get your pets fixed? Or is the focus somewhere else? (Like on Tiger Woods and his sexploits, perhaps?)

Since PETA gets into hot water, well, just about every time they launch a campaign, I wouldn't be surprised if they knew this one would fail from the start and just ran with it for the media attention. And hey, I guess it worked. Kind of.

What do you think? Was this billboard too much?

[Image: New York Daily News]

On Wednesday, I wrote about how the United States was ranked the laziest nation in the world by the Daily Beast, based on calorie consumption and television habits. And let's face it: as a nation, we're in pretty bad shape, too. When three out of five adults are overweight or obese, there's clearly something wrong with our national exercise ethos.

But what if I told you that it may not be just an aversion to exercise that's causing our collective waistline to grow a little each year? According to new research on sitting, the amount of time we spend in chairs may be as big a culprit as anything. In fact, the study says, even if you exercise every day, you're likely to negate those efforts to stay in shape by the amount of time you spend sitting down. Even standing still provides more of a full-body workout than you might realize: you have to tense your leg muscles, keep your back erect, and use your shoulders to maintain balance. Sitting, meanwhile, is begging for atrophy.

What to do? We need to work, right? And this study is relevant mainly to those whose jobs require long hours at a desk.

The author Philip Roth writes standing up, in a cottage off of his main house in Connecticut. I've always thought of this quirk as a manifestation of Roth's extremely active mind, and a reason for the vitality of his prose. Now I wonder if it might also be the reason that, at 76, he's still churning out a novel every year and looks as spry as he did at 60.

While you may not have the option to stand while you work, you can still get more exercise at your desk than you might know. Just standing up and walking to the water cooler or stretching during the commercial breaks can make a big difference. And a few times a day, try to heed this advice from Mr. James Brown:

[Image: MrChrome from Wikimedia Commons]

You have to give Glenn Beck points for creative logic. In this clip from the Daily Kos, Jon Stewart of the Daily Show tries to make sense of Fox News's leading enfant terrible as Beck uses his "magic erasable truth board" to show how progressivism is a disease that's spreading across this country. Note Beck's distinction between "revolution" and "evolution." It's truly astounding. What's even more astounding is that to millions of Americans, Glenn Beck actually makes sense.