The TakePart Top 10 Weekly Roundup is a compilation of the week’s most notable stories from our entertainment-meets-social-action blogging network. Check out some of our most popular stories of the week, as well as a few TakePart blogger favorites!

TakePart Gang:

Ocean Dead Zone Getting Bigger by Wendy Cohen

Top 10 Ways to Green Up Your Kids by Martin Musatov

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Nicole Hughes:

2008 Olympic Games: Top 10 Stories from TakePart

Happy Meals: 5 More Organic Alternatives to Fast Food

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Andy Kondrat:

China’s Pollution Affects Alaska’s Air Quality

JetBlue CEO Cuts His Pay In Half

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Jon Popham:

Yet Another Reason to Get Off Oil…Russia

Detroit Home Sells for $1

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Gina Telaroli:

Synchronized Swimming Gets Olympic Treatment in “Sync Or Swim”

Parting the Murky Waters of Race in the Swimming Pool

Olympics Olympics Olympics! We love the good, the bad, the ugly and everything in between when it comes to the 2008 Beijing Olympics here at TakePart.  It’s reason enough not to miss our Top 10 Stories about the Olympic Games, which we’ve been reporting on in the months leading up to now. Catch the best in TakePart Olympic news below:

1) 2008 Olympic Torch Relay Will Create 11 Million Pounds of CO2 by Nicole Hughes

The 2008 Olympic torch relay hasn’t galvanized a lot of warm fuzzy feelings and hand holding this year. Opposition to China’s treatment of Tibet has inspired international protests, with some dissenters even managing to snuff out the torch and delay the tour… [click here for the full story]

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The Summer Olympics in Beijing are just about three weeks away, and to attempt to lower pollution levels as much as possible before the games start, China is removing half the cars on the road.  The Associated Press reports:

Under the two-month plan, half of the capital’s 3.3 million cars will be removed from city streets on alternate days, depending on whether the license plate ends in an odd or even number.

The plan came into effect yesterday, apparently creating slightly clearer skies and lighter traffic.  In addition to the traffic limitations, China is adding 3,000 busses to the roads by the time the Games start, which will increase the daily bus capacity from 12.5 million to 15 million people.  Beijing has also opened new subway lines, which are anticipated to carry 1.1 million people every day during the Olympics.

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Sometimes we forget that even with all our technology and high-techery and the like, still a huge amount of our consumer goods arrive in the United States through plain old ships.  In fact, a whopping 40% of our goods arrive through the ports of Long Beach, Oakland, and Los Angeles.  And now, it looks like California legislators are close to imposing a $60 fee on every container coming through these ports, expecting to raise $400 million a year.  Some of this money, say the legislators, would go towards fighting pollution.

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Bumper stickers help make Los Angeles traffic a little more bearable…

What is your favorite bumper sticker?

takepart and learn about climate change.

We all remember the Cary Grants, George Clooneys, Al Pacinos, Robert DeNiros and Brad Pitts - and as wonderful as they all are, a great film they do not make - at least not on their own. Likewise, when it comes to making a difference, or working on an action, not everyone can get the glory. And a solid team is always stronger than one person working alone.

In honor of this, I give you - the Top 10 Actors Consistently in Supporting Roles. Often called character actors, the men below all did their part in smaller roles to make many films much more memorable.

Of course there a ton I didn’t mention - contribute to the discussion and leave your vote in the comments section. And if you want to learn how you can be a team player and TakePart, and sign up here at TakePart.com to join actions and meet folks you can work with and support in making the world a better place.

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1. Ned Beatty : His first role, in Deliverance (1972), set the stage for Ned Beatty to become someone that would entertain us quite frequently. With smaller roles in films that include Network, Superman, All the President’s Men, He Got Game and most recently Charlie Wilson’s War, Ned Beatty is one of the best examples of how being a team player can make the team (in this case “the movie”) something truly amazing. Below is a clip from his great performance in Network.

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