At times, the speech made for painful reading.

Sadly, traditional British grit and gumption were replaced by a rather servile tone throughout much of the talk.

Britain needs Turkey, said Cameron. His words showed that he is prepared to serve as Turkey’s booster-in-chief.

But he overlooked, or downplayed, several key aspects of current Turkish policy.

“Turkey shares our determination to fight terrorism in all its forms, whether from al-Qaeda or from the PKK,” he said.

How to square that with Turkey’s emergence as a stalwart defender of Hamas, a group on the European Union terrorism list? Or Turkey’s support for Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed terrorist group that has created a state-within-a-state in Lebanon and been implicated in the 2005 murder of Lebanon’s ex-prime minister, Rafik Hariri?

More than once, Turkish air space and land were reportedly used by Iran to ship weapons to Hezbollah until Washington demanded that it end.

Cameron also said of Turkey that “No other country has the same potential to build understanding between Israel and the Arab world.”

Yesterday, perhaps.

Today? Out of the question.

Tomorrow? It depends on who’s in the driver’s seat.

To Israel’s dismay, Prime Minister Erdogan, driven by ideology and politics, has eviscerated the once-strong link between Ankara and Jerusalem. The process began several years ago and has steadily picked up steam. Meanwhile, Turkey has moved ever closer to Iran and Syria.

In the next breath, Cameron stated, “Let me be clear: the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla was completely unacceptable.”

There was no premeditated Israeli attack on “the Gaza flotilla.” Rather, there was an effort, announced in advance, to prevent a group of ships from breaking a legitimate blockade. Until the last minute, Israel offered to have the ships’ supplies offloaded at an Israeli port and, after a security check, sent to Gaza.

All of the vessels, save one, agreed, and the outcome was peaceful. The exception was the Mavi Marmara, where Turkish “activists” with links to the terrorist-backing IHH were looking for a fight. As video footage clearly showed, the Israelis were unprepared for the violence that awaited them on board. Yet the British leader had not a single word of disapproval for the aggressive Turkish behavior. Instead, the entire onus was placed on Israel.

He then declared that “Gaza cannot and must not be allowed to remain a prison camp.”

The clear implication was that if Gaza is a “prison,” Israel is the warden.

Yet the British leader offered no context whatsoever.

Just imagine instead that he had used the occasion to speak the truth and tell his hosts that Hamas, by its refusal to accept the Quartet’s three conditions for engagement, is responsible for the situation in Gaza.

He could have described the brutal nature of the Hamas regime and urged Ankara not to support it.

He could have denounced the indoctrination of children in the never-ending struggle against Israel.

He could have reminded those present that Egypt also shares a border with Gaza and views the Hamas regime no differently than Israel.

He could have recalled that Hamas is the sworn enemy of the Palestinian Authority, and that the PA is opposed to Ankara’s flirtation with Hamas.

And, he could have quoted from the Hamas Charter about the goal of Israel’s destruction and a Shari’a-based state in its place, not to mention its many anti-Semitic references.

Indeed, he could have declared that if Gaza is a “prison,” then Hamas holds the key. Regrettably, he did not.

And then there was Iran.

Cameron declared: “So we need Turkey’s help now in making it clear to Iran just how serious we are about engaging fully with the international community. We hope that the meeting held in Istanbul between the Turkish, Brazilian and Iranian Foreign Ministers will see Iran move in the right direction. The new sanctions that the EU announced yesterday are designed to persuade Iran to give the international community confidence that its nuclear programme really is peaceful, as Iran insists.”

Well, actually, the world needed Turkey’s help a while back on a new UN resolution – and didn’t get it. To the contrary, together with Brasilia, Ankara offered a counter-proposal that would have undermined the effort of the five permanent members of the Security Council.

Despite a diplomatic full-court press by the United States, Britain, and others, Turkey voted against a fourth round of UN sanctions on June 9. By contrast, even Lebanon abstained.

How inspiring it would have been had Cameron, in addition to laudably asking why Iran continues to threaten Israel with annihilation, voiced disappointment with the Turkish stance.

What if he had urged his Turkish hosts to join with the EU in the additional sanctions adopted in Brussels on July 26? After all, Cameron called for Turkey’s admission to the EU, so why not alignment on a core policy issue?

And what if he had called on Turkey to ensure enforcement of those UN sanctions adopted to date? There have been reports that Iran is seeking to use Turkish banks and other institutions to circumvent the sanctions.

Finally, noticeably missing from Cameron’s speech was any mention of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the far-sighted founder of the modern Turkish republic.

The British leader described Turkey as “a secular and democratic state.” That vision originated with Ataturk. There are many Turks today who believe Erdogan has a different vision for the country – less Western-oriented, more theocratically-inspired. Citing Ataturk could have sent a strong message.

Ataturk once said: “Do not be afraid of telling the truth.”

No doubt, an earlier Conservative Party leader, Winston Churchill, would have agreed.

And the best place to tell the truth is precisely in those places where the audience least wants to hear it.

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The good news, however, is that not every prominent economist shares that view. Ross Devol, the Executive Director of Economic Research, at the Milken Institute, a non-partisan think tank based in Santa Monica, California, believes “a return to modest but sustainable growth is close at hand.”

In light of Devol’s lamentations over the “volume and vitriol” that “bleeds over into the realm of economic forecasting” contained in his latest paper “From Recession to Recovery: Analyzing America’s Return to Growth”, we’ll keep this brief, and let his most recent predictions do the talking.

Among Devol’s forecasts include a strong recovery in business investment in equipment, particularly in IT and software, more robust U.S. exports driven by emerging-market demand and policy, a more upbeat consumer and record low long-term interest rates. All of which, according to Devol, will induce the U.S. to add 3.1 million jobs in 2011 and another 2.6 million in 2012, translating into real GDP growth of 3.7 percent in 2011, and then 3.8 percent in 2012.

Devol paints a pretty picture. Here it is, in chart-form. And because, as Robert Shiller points out, “fear of a double-dip recession could cause one,” enjoy these slides and think positive.

More on The Recession

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

It was one year ago today, when our ex-half-governor Sarah Palin stood in Fairbanks, Alaska and stepped down from the governorship. After first declaring herself a “lame duck,” and then decrying the ineffectual nature of lame ducks in general, there was simply nothing else she could do. But she did take the opportunity on that day to explain to all of us what she’d be doing with all of her newly found and self-inflicted free time.

Because let’s face it – the only time we up here in Alaska were more surprised than when she accepted the nomination for VP, was when she quit. So we were curious. And then she declared that she was going “to chart a new course to advance the state.”

What would she do, we wondered? Would she become a lobbyist for gasline issues? Would she become a spokesmodel for Princess Cruises? Would she use her celebrity to promote wild salmon or Alaska crab? Would she continue to fight for the oil tax system she put in place so the other Republicans in the legislature wouldn’t hack it off at the knees? Would she try to get us a major league sports team? Would she take on issues of poverty in rural areas? Domestic violence? Sexual assault? Teen pregnancy? Education? WHAT?

What would this “new course” be, and how would the state advance? Even if you don’t like Sarah Palin, you’ve got to admit she has influence. And if she’d decided not to waste that influence, and do something to better the state – well good for her. She wasn’t much of a governor, so Plan B might have some potential.

Granted, she hadn’t used the power of celebrity much for the benefit of others while she was governor. For instance, her titanic stature as a public figure would have easily solved many of the emergency food and fuel shortages in Western Alaska the past two winters. Imagine a public service announcement with Sarah Palin saying something like:

Hi, I’m governor Sarah Palin and I’m here with an important message for All Alaskans, and to personally ask for your help. Our Native communities in rural areas are in trouble. Imagine if, because of circumstances beyond your control like unseasonably cold weather and poor fish runs, you were forced to choose between keeping your family warm, or feeding them? What would you say to your elders and your children? How would you feel?

We can’t turn a blind eye to the suffering of our fellow Americans. We’re better than that. Alaskans have big hearts, and we know how to help each other when we get in trouble. It’s part of the Frontier spirit for communities to support each other in times of desperate need. So please, make a donation to Organization X, that is ensuring that staple foods, baby formula and basic necessities are getting to needy Alaskan families in the poorest and most remote areas of the state. In the America I know, people step up for families. I know you feel the same way. Thank you, and God bless you.

I would like to think that most people in Palin’s position of public influence seeking ways to advance the state would have tried to help. A letter like that to locals, and on a national level would have brought a flood of relief. But that winter, the real Governor Palin’s answer to the crisis was (after six weeks of doing nothing and having her apathy called out by bloggers, community leaders, Native elders, and covered in the mainstream media) to fly out on a private jet to one rural community with Rev. Franklin Graham at her side, and a plate of homemade cookies.

But the “let them eat cookies” strategy of dealing with this crisis wasn’t the only plan. There were also some food boxes that had been stuffed with little proselytizing fliers from “Samaritan’s Purse,” Graham’s evangelical relief organization.

Her conservative message was clear. People in need? Sorry, not the government’s problem. However, look and see how crises can be handled by private organizations doing God’s work.

So now that she would no longer be part of the problem government, surely she’d be part of the private solution. Right?

“Now people who know me, they know how much I love this state …

“With this decision, now I will be able to fight even harder for you, for what is right and for the truth,” Palin continued. “And I have never felt you need a title to do that.”

So what has she done in the past year – her first as a private citizen, unfettered by the burden of governing, and a title – to chart a new course for the state of Alaska?

Her celebrated oil tax reform called ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share) that was passed with blood, sweat, tears and Democrats, is in the cross-hairs of the legislature. It was her big legacy legislation, the only good thing she ever did, and it’s in trouble with Palin nowhere to be seen.

There is no relief in sight for Western Alaska which teeters on the brink of disaster with every winter.

The last great wild salmon run on the continent in Bristol Bay is threatened by the looming specter of a huge copper and gold mine at its headwaters. The potential for environmental disaster from the Pebble Mine is epic, and would arguably affect the nation’s seafood supply more than the current Gulf tragedy.

Domestic violence, sexual assault, alcohol and drug abuse, incest, and the desperate and tragic migration of Native Alaskans from village life into big cities all continue to plague our state. Our high school drop out rate is astronomical. Each of these issues and so many more could benefit from a powerful national voice speaking up for those who can’t.

Palin, instead, has used her time, her energy and her star power to – write a book about herself and tour the nation. She’s become a contributor on Fox News to repeat talking points about (irony alert) what an ineffectual leader the President has become. She has continued to chant the mantra “drill baby, drill” even as the southeast faces an environmental holocaust. She’s Facebook blasted a journalist who rented the house next door that she refused to buy.

In a painful demonstration of philosophical inconsistency, she’s endorsed candidates from former campaign supporter Fairbanks attorney Joe Miller, to exporter of American jobs Carly Fiorina, to establishment candidate John McCain to “anti-Marxist utopia” Tea Party candidate Clint Didier. She slammed two students at their own college while raking in six figures for speaking there. She’s courted conventions of bowlers, loggers and liquor wholesalers, built a giant “fortress of solitude” next to her house, written on her hand, almost got away with another year of shirking her property taxes, spent $14,000 de-icing the wings of private jets using her PAC money, and has somehow managed to pull in an estimated $20 million by putting English-like words in random order and speaking them aloud.

She’s even demonstrated xenophobia and religious intolerance in 140 characters or less, by telling New Yorkers what should and should not be built near the World Trade Center site. Mayor Michael Bloomberg told her to mind her own business.

Speaking of her own business, that brings us back to the question – what has she done to help the state of Alaska?

Not much. It’s been a busy year.

Today, Robbins will talk to Huffington Post’s Senior Editor Willow Bay about how to go from pain to power when faced with crises — be it financial, relationship, work, family or health. He’ll also discuss his partnership with HuffPost Living and his new television series, “Breakthrough,” premiering July 27 at 8/7c on NBC.

Join us LIVE TODAY, July 26, at 2pm EST. Tony will answer YOUR text and video questions about how to overcome crisis and create your own “Breakthrough!”

JOIN US at 2pm EST to talk to Tony LIVE:

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Do you think Google is improving with its Bing-like design changes? Tell us what you think.

In fact, Google has been drawing a great deal of criticism, and general observation this week regarding its increasing "Bingness". A very large percentage of the articles written this week about Google’s new image search, not only make comparisons to Bing, but mention it in the title.

Some question why Google is trying to become more like Bing, while it already controls a much larger part of the search market. Others think the changes are for the better. After all, it’s not like Google has changed its algorithm to match Bing’s.

Still, "It seems that almost every time that Google makes an improvement in its aesthetic appeal, it looks more and more like Bing, notes  Converseon‘s Mike Moran. "Remember the short-lived attempt to customize the Google home page recently which has since been removed?"

Let’s Look at the actual new design…

You can get up to a thousand images in one scrolling page, and the pages will have page numbers so you can keep track of where you are. This has been a feature lacking from Bing’s image search (though it does at least display a number for the range currently displayed…such as 377-416 of 6,400,000 results).

Google is also providing larger thumbnail previews on the results page, with a hover pane that appears when you mouse over a thumbnail. This includes more info and other features like "similar images."

"Once you click on an image, you’re taken to a new landing page that displays a large image in context, with the website it’s hosted on visible right behind it," explains Google Images Product Manager Nate Smith. "Click anywhere outside the image, and you’re right in the original page where you can learn more about the source and context."

Finally, you can use Page Up/ Page Down to scroll through pages quickly.

Some webmasters have taken issue with Google’s new image search design, complaining that it puts their ads further away from being clicked. "The main issue from a webmaster perspective, as noted in WebmasterWorld, is that when you click on an image, it doesn’t take you to the site," writes Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable. "Instead, it keeps you on Google, overlays the image in large format on top of your grayed out web site."

"So any ads on your site won’t be clickable after the first click from Google. Users are instructed to either go back, click on the web site with the image or click on the actual image source file," he explains. "I should note that clicking anywhere on the background web site will take you to that web site."

Remember, the new design did come with a new ad format too. The format is called (appropriately) Image Search Ads.

"These ads appear only on Google Images, and they let you include a thumbnail image alongside your lines of text," explains Google Images Product Manager Nate Smith. "We hope they’re a useful way to reach folks who are specifically looking for images."

Advertisers can review specific performance metrics for their ads on Google Images. They are priced the same as standard AdWords ads with cost-per-click pricing. More on these here.

As far as Google’s recent design choices, it is pretty clear that Bing has had some kind of influence on them. The question is whether or not this is a good thing. So, I’ll ask you…is it? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Note: This article has been updated to reflect commentary since the launch of the new image search.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

When 30 came, some of us panicked — myself included. But in retrospect, there’s so much to love about being three decades old. In fact, some say women reach their sexual peak in their 30s. If that’s accurate, this study checks out: A survey by TV shopping channel QVC found that 37 percent of women were most confident about their looks at age 31.

Surprisingly, among the 2,000 men and women surveyed, most rejected the “fresh-faced” look in favor of the more “mature” face in their late 20s and 30s. (Yes! I’m 30, FYI.) If this holds true, actresses Katie Holmes and Jennifer Love Hewitt must be feeling pretty amazing right now. (They’re 31.)

But wait — what happens in our 40s?

Now that golf carts have been made street-legal in Lyons, more residents are turning to the cheap, energy-efficient carts for short trips.

About 20 residents in the Boulder County town have taken to the carts after a new town ordinance made them legal on city streets. The growing popularity of golf cart transport has law enforcement reminding residents that golf cart drivers must obey regular traffic laws.

Resident Sam Tallent is a golf cart driver who helped push for Lyons to make the carts legal on streets. He says people contact him weekly to ask about getting carts of their own.

Tallent now sells electric golf carts to neighbors. Even Mayor Julie Van Domelen uses a golf cart for short errands.

___

Information from: Daily Camera, http://www.dailycamera.com/

Fire spokesman Bill Nash says around 150 firefighters worked in the neighborhood of Camarillo Heights as flames inched toward homes near Highway 101.

Two helicopters were dropping water on the flames and two more air tankers had been ordered.

Nash says the fire is being driven by fuel and steep terrain, but most residents have cleared space around their homes.

No evacuations have been ordered so trucks can get access to the twisty roads. Residents are being asked to shelter in place.

The neighborhood is a mix of large new houses and older homes.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) – A wildfire in California threatened homes in the Ventura County city of Camarillo on Tuesday afternoon.

Fire spokesman Bill Nash says about 150 firefighters battled the blaze as it inched toward a neighborhood near Highway 101, about 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

The fire burned about 20 acres since it was first reported mid-afternoon Tuesday.

Two helicopters were dropping water on the flames and two more air tankers had been ordered.

Neon Angel / A Memoir of A Runaway by Cherie Currie with Tony O’Neill (itbooks, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers)
This is the incredible story of young Cherie Currie, a California teenager who left a David Bowie concert in the 70′s with stars in her eyes and a few weeks later walked into a club called the Sugar Shack and met up with fate, in the form of Kim Fowley and Joan Jett. Kim and Joan just happened to be looking for a lead singer to front the first all-girl rock band, the Runaways. What happened next is now rock and roll history. Cherie’s story is both harrowing and glorious, and she came out the other side of the zeitgeist with her body and soul intact. She now owns a career as a champion chain-saw carver, which kind of makes perfect sense to me.

If You Have To Cry, Go Outside and other things your mother never told you by Kelly Cutrone with Meredith Bryan (HarperOne, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers)
Kelly Cutrone first came on my radar when I saw her on The Hills, making mincemeat of Stephanie Pratt. She struck me immediately as someone who did not fit into the reality show genre – and I mean that in a good way. Then she surfaced with her own show, the highly addictive Kell on Earth, about the day to day of her fashion P.R. company People’s Revolution. If You Have To Cry, Go Outside is essential reading for any starstruck would-be New Yorker – I only wish I’d had this book when I arrived in this ‘burg back in the day. Oh yeah, and anyone who uses a John Trudell quote as their introduction has me from hello. And you don’t need to live in Manhattan (or want to) to apply the empowering life lessons in this book and come out the better for it.

Whip Smart: A Memoir by Melissa Febos (St. Martin’s Press)
This is the story of a New School student who fell into the underground sex trade quite by accident, becoming a professional dominatrix and, to her surprise, finding that she was quite good at it. She also found that hard drugs became all but essential for her to perform the required tasks of the profession. Whip Smart covers four years of her life; at first seduced by a newly discovered sexual power, then going through the motions in a drug-induced haze, followed by her struggle to free herself from an addiction both to drugs and the income she was making in the sex trade. Febos currently teaches writing and literature and hosts a popular music and reading series, Mixer. She is an incredibly gifted writer, and this book is nothing short of mesmerizing as it brings us into a netherworld most of us will never ever see firsthand.

Miss O’Dell: My Hard Days and Long Nights with The Beatles, The Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the Women They Loved by Chris O’Dell with Katherine Ketcham (Touchstone/Simon & Schuster)
Chris O’Dell’s defining moment took place one night in early 1968 when a friend urged her to meet him at a restaurant in L.A. where he was having drinks with the dashing, debonair Derek Taylor, the Beatles’ press officer. She really wanted to stay home and watch TV but got talked into going and meeting Derek and to say the rest is history in this case is hilariously trite. That meeting changed her life; not long after, she moved to London and became a fixture at Apple, the Beatles’ company. She was eventually hired and worked her way up the ranks, at one point working full time for George Harrison. In later years he immortalized her forever on the song “Miss O’Dell” (hence, the book’s name – and that’s only one of the songs about her). The twists and turns in this incredible tale would take too long for the space we have here – and spoil your fun in reading this book. It’s a truly fascinating backstage look at the Beatles, the Stones, and quite a few other household names.

Google Bomb: The Untold Story of the $11.3M Verdict That Changed the Way We Use the Internet by John W. Dozier and Sue Scheff (HCI Books)
This is the only book here that is not a memoir but, regardless, it is the true story of events in a woman’s life. Google Bomb details the story behind a landmark court ruling in a 2006 lawsuit against internet slander. Sue Scheff, who had founded a child and parenting advocacy organization called P.U.R.E. (Parents’ Universal Resource Experts, Inc.) to help the parents of troubled teens, was sickened to find that she was the target of a hate campaign using every free speech resource the web has to offer – which is vast. This book is absolutely essential reading for the times we live in. The internet, which has made us all world citizens and leveled the playing field in many ways, also has a vicious dark side which Scheff learned all too well. This book will astonish you, frighten you even, but it will awaken you. It also provides real tools to protect yourself from online bullying and abuse.

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Washington has a blind spot when it comes to the environment. BP and the oil spill brought the government’s failures into the spotlight, but the same problems crop up across industries: Corporations pollute water, blast through mountains, and pour carbon into the atmosphere with insufficient oversight. But no one–Congress, the environmental community, or the president–seems to have the power to address these issues.

The Senate says it will take up energy legislation soon, but staffers are saying the body won’t pass a strong climate bill without more public pressure. Energy companies are ripping resources from the land and leaving destruction in their wake, while clean energy technology, though popular, has yet to form a new platform to fill the country’s needs.

And where’s presidential leadership on this issue? “The president had a good meeting a couple days ago with senators from both parties that have led on this issue,” Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told the press this week, according to Mother Jones. “We have not made any final determinations about the size and scope of the legislation except to say that the president believes, and continues to believe, that putting a price on carbon has to be part of our comprehensive energy reform.”

President Barack Obama has taken his time to reveal definitive policy stances on issues like health care and the war in Afghanistan; in those cases, it was clear a decision was coming. On climate, it’s less clear that the president is moving towards a decision that will push Congress to act.

The Senate

The problem is not a lack of policy ideas. The Senate has already produced two decent bills that put a price on carbon, an effort that would over time decrease the country’s contributions to the world’s emissions. The second of those bills–the American Power Act, also known as the Kerry-Lieberman bill–would reduce the deficit by $19 billion, as the Congressional Budget Office announced this week.

Plenty of Senators have trumpeted about the need to reduce to the deficit. But in Washington, even a $19 billion reduction won’t help push forward legislation that Senators have decided to shirk. As Aaron Wiener writes for the Washington Independent:

“Will that be enough to get the bill passed? Of course not. The very same centrist senators who frequently raise deficit concerns are wary of legislation that could raise energy prices, and so the APA appears all but dead.”

Clean energy technology

At Grist, Jesse Jenkins suggests that enviros needs to reframe the issue altogether. “If you look at what Americans support in poll after poll, it is clean energy technology,” he says. “Put investment in clean technology front and center–and oh, by the way, we’re going to pay for this with a modest fee on carbon.”

Part of the problem could be that the country’s waiting for big corporations to lead the energy revolution. At Chelsea Green, however, Greg Pahl argues that smaller projects should play a bigger role, too. “Given the choice between a large, corporate-owned coal-fired power plant or a large, corporate-owned wind farm, the obvious choice is the wind farm, regardless of who owns it,” he writes. “But that’s no reason to exclude smaller…community projects that are far more effective in promoting distributed-generation strategies.”

Yes, your Majesty

It should be embarrassing for the Senate that, as a body, it’s more conservative than the Queen of England. This week, Queen Elizabeth told the United Nations that climate change was a front-line issue. Care2 reports that the Queen’s “brief statement was largely unremarkable but for the fact that she called out climate change, placing it on a par with terrorism in terms of today’s challenges.”

On environmental issues in general, though, the American government isn’t living up to its potential. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), for example, could be working to minimize the impacts of oil and gas drilling on public lands, but “the agency is reluctant to wiled that power after a drilling lease is granted,” Public News Service reports.

National Marine Fisheries Service

BLM is just one of a tangle of agencies that could, in theory, push back against the interests of big energy companies. They haven’t done so. In the case of the BP oil spill, for instance, TPMMuckraker reports that the National Marine Fisheries Service missed an opportunity to push back against BP’s lease, but, using bad information from the Minerals Management Service, rubber-stamped the operation. Rachel Slajda writes:

“In 2007, the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforces the Endangered Species Act, was asked to give its ‘biological opinion’ on the impact of new oil drilling leases–including the lease of the now-leaking Macondo prospect–on endangered species, including turtles, sperm whales and sturgeon. … In the report (PDF), NMFS estimated the impact of a major spill on endangered species and concluded that the new drilling ‘is not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of these species.’”

New Dawn

Energy companies are not the only ones tipping the balance against the environment, either. At the American Prospect, Monica Potts delves into Dawn detergent’s less than pristine environmental record. The detergent has benefited lately from a spate of good press because wildlife groups are using Dawn to clean oiled birds in the Gulf. But Potts writes that Dawn’s parent company, Procter & Gamble spent more than $4 million last year on lobbying and opposed measures that would, for instance, regulate household chemicals.

“Procter & Gamble lobbied against a 2009 effort to disclose ingredients in household cleaning products, instead supporting an industry-led voluntary-disclosure effort. It also lobbied against bans in various states on dishwashing detergent containing high levels of phosphorus and fought to delay the bans’ implementation,” Potts explains. “The company opposed stricter household chemical regulations in the European Union in 2003 and is rated poorly by Greenpeace for the chemical content of its household products. Those chemicals, including ones banned in the EU because they can be harmful to fish and humans, end up in the environment.”

The list of such offenses goes on, and touches legions of companies. However limited, a climate bill would be a good start to addressing the country’s environmental woes. The Senate says it needs to hear this from more people before taking real steps to combat climate change; anyone who’s concerned about the planet’s future might want to start speaking up.

This post features links to the best independent, progressive reporting about the environment by members of The Media Consortium. It is free to reprint. Visit the Mulch for a complete list of articles on environmental issues, or follow us on Twitter. And for the best progressive reporting on critical economy, health care and immigration issues, check out The Audit, The Pulse, and The Diaspora. This is a project of The Media Consortium, a network of leading independent media outlets.

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One of the school’s most popular clubs, Youth Climate Action Network, is undertaking an ambitious project that began with the dismayed results of their campus’ energy audit. The students started with small steps, like implementing a recycling program for their cafeteria and installing LED lights in their auditorium, but they aren’t content with stopping there.

Working with a local architect and BLS parent, Youth CAN has designed a remodeling of the school’s roof that will turn it into a hands-on classroom for sustainability, equipped with solar panels, wind turbines, and green gardens to absorb rainwater runoff. The motivated students are even working on a “sustainability curriculum” that other schools could implement, and have already persuaded five local colleges to follow their lead in creating a green roof.

Cate Arnold, an 8th grade history teacher at BLS, started Youth CAN after the overwhelming response she received from her students when she showed them Al Gore’s film, An Inconvenient Truth. Arnold tells MSNBC that her students are learning much more beyond the impacts of climate change. “It’s given them the belief that they can do things that make a real difference,” she says.

With high profile alumni like Benjamin Franklin among the ranks at Boston Latin School, it’s clear that the new generation of students possess the same sort of innovation and ingenuity.

WATCH:

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Other acts in the weekend-long festival included Pink, Lily Allen, Slash and Snoop Dogg, as well as ‘Twilight’ actor Robert Pattinson’s sister Lizzy.

Photos of all below.

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