links for 2011-01-12

"It looks like Elle had quite the white Christmas.

"Bollywood actor and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is featured on the cover of Elle Magazine looking far paler than she is in real life. Most fans are up in arms and an appalled Ms. Bachchan is considering a lawsuit against the magazine."

"Study leader Ruth Striegel-Moore of Wesleyan University in Connecticut finds the prevalence of binge eating, purging or being "diagnosed for an eating disorder" among American Indian women parallels ethnically white women.

"This commonality between American Indian and white women refutes the myth that eating disorders are problems that only affect white girls and women," Striegel-Moore says in a statement."

"To prevent conflict, George Clooney has helped develop a system he knows all too well — surveillance, although he's calling it The Satellite Sentinel Project. On Sunday's 'GPS,' (video above) Clooney told Fareed Zakaria that people act different when they know they're being filmed. He also told the Los Angeles Times, 'I thought, if that's the way it is and they're gonna be able to Google my house, then people who are committing war crimes, specifically the government of Sudan, should be able to enjoy the same level of celebrity that I do. These people are public figures, and we're gonna take their pictures.' If that's not enough to curb violence, the hope is that satellite images documenting the violence would motivate the likes of the United Nations to step in and help."

"The government sends mixed messages, too. Netanyahu's video urging Israelis to stay calm came just months after the government embarked on a public campaign against foreigners. It included videos of another sort – advertisements in which 'real Israelis' (read: actors) claimed that migrant workers were taking their jobs. And while Netanyahu condemns the rabbis' letter, a religious proclamation against the 'foreigners' who live among us, he refers to another group of outsiders, the Africans, as 'a concrete threat'."

"Foreign-style reality television may be plumping television channels’ revenues, but it is alarming India’s government, consumer groups and even organizations that support business. A growing chorus of critics are pushing India’s government to introduce strict regulations for television like those covering the film industry."