Two of the best pop albums of the last year are Lily Allen's Alright, Still and Amy Winehouse's Back to Black. What do they have in common (besides cute, clever female singer-songwriters, that is)? Producer Mark Ronson. The guy's a mad pop genius. As it happens, Ronson puts out albums of his own. The latest is called Version, and it's composed of cover versions of contemporary pop songs. Here, for your listening pleasure, is a cover of the song "Valerie" (originally done by The Zutons on their album Tired of Hanging Around) sung by the aforementioned Amy Winehouse. Enjoy.

Here's Al Gore on David Letterman, Thursday night. Bizarrely substantive! Part one: Part two:

Al Gore was on The Daily Show on Thursday. I thought he did quite well -- and the crowd was nuts for him. Here's part one: And here's part two:

Jessica Weisberg is an American journalist currently based in South America. The following is her take on the peculiar cultural dominance of An Inconvenient Truth. ----- I liked Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Really, I did. But when I count off my reasons -- the special effects, the wet-your-pants astonishment, the drama -- I find myself applauding the film's popular appeal more than its take-home message. The film has achieved a global monopoly in the fight against global warming, becoming not just a film about climate change, but the film about climate change. Even in South America, where the fight …

Quit playing games (with his dolphins) Show him the meaning of being a U.N. special ambassador: former boy-bander Nick Carter will soon begin work on a campaign to save wild dolphins. This from a guy who couldn't even save the Backstreet Boys -- but wait'll you hear his latest project, The Charismatic Megafauna. Photos: iStockphoto and joeltelling via flickr Who shot J.R.? Julia Roberts is on a role, soon to get her Brit on as conservationist Joan Root. But don't expect a happy ending: Root was shot by a gunman in Kenya last year. Also suspiciously slain: Canadian conservationist Glen …

As I mentioned the other day, there's a certain irony to the fact that Al Gore is out touring behind a book about the decline of reasoned public dialogue, since his emergence on the public scene inevitably elicits paroxysms of the shallowest, bitchiest, most vacuous commentary of which our punditariat is capable -- and that's saying something. Today brings examples so telling they hurt. I mean literally hurt. You've been warned. Start with this dazzlingly obtuse column by Slate's Jack Shafer, who misses Gore's point so fundamentally one can only gape. Shafer seems to think, based on ... well, god …

They're a little old now, but I wanted to call attention to two great NYT articles on the environmental initiatives at carpet company Interface and its visionary CEO Ray Anderson: He challenged his colleagues to set a deadline for Interface to become a "restorative enterprise," a sustainable operation that takes nothing out of the earth that cannot be recycled or quickly regenerated, and that does no harm to the biosphere. The deadline they ultimately set is 2020, and the idea has taken hold throughout the company. ... Use of fossil fuels is down 45 percent (and net greenhouse gas production, …

The Bike-To-Work-Week gods had plans for me ... even though I don't actually work. On Mother's Day, May 13, a wheel fell off my stroller. Walking is my main mode of transportation, and I love it. Even with its distance limitations, pushing a stroller felt like a safe alternative to driving and less annoying than taking the bus. My daughters, 18 months and 3, are too old for us to justify buying another stroller and too young to walk the two-mile roundtrip to downtown, the playground, or the library. Since I gave up driving almost a year ago, I've ignored …

From Mashable.com: Nonprofit organizations will be able to use LinkedIn as a platform for involving the LinkedIn community with their causes, leveraging the 11 million users that are present within the online community. Provided with this new feature are free badges to be placed on profiles, and registered nonprofits free job listings in order to find new members to join their teams. British rockstar James Blunt is already using LinkedIn to raise over $23,000 for Doctors Without Borders. Other featured LinkedIn for Good organizations include American Red Cross, the World Wildlife Fund and Unitis and Kiva, microfiance organizations. The full …

At the base of snow-capped Mount Ararat, where the bible says Noah's ark came to rest after 40 days of flooding, environmentalist volunteers are constructing a miniature version of the famed zoological craft. Its completion is being timed to coincide with next month's G8 summit in Germany, where climate change will be a hot issue. Last week, for instance, scientists from all across Africa plus Brazil, India, China, Mexico, and South Africa presented joint statements to German prime minister Angela Merkel calling for "united global action on energy efficiency and climate change mitigation." The Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) …