The savviest employers will get the message.

Wired 14.04: You Play World of Warcraft? You're Hired!

Col. Thomas X. Hammes, a former Marine and author of The Sling and the Stone and Monica Toft, assistant director of Harvard's John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies talks with Melissa Block about what's at stake in the debate over whether Iraq is in a civil war.

NPR : Civil War: What's at Stake in Debate over Words

Tapes 'n Tapes' simple pop music treads the line between stupid and clever in a way that's oddly intelligent, not to mention enormously entertaining. The band often mines familiar territory --Talking Heads, Violent Femmes, Pixies -- but it infuses those sounds with its own weird sense of mystery and mischief.

Thanks to a memorable Saturday Night Live sketch, the word "cowbell" (not to mention use of the instrument itself) has become a sarcastic rallying cry in music. In "Cowbell," it represents Tapes 'n Tapes perfectly: It's sarcastic, but it sounds great, and the lyric's inscrutability makes a phrase like "I've been a better lover with your mother" jump out even more than it otherwise might have.

"Cowbell" rewards further study: It's easy to want to pick it apart and find a place for it alongside its influences. And, if nothing else, it's danceable no matter what the band is singing about -- even if the subject is the listener's mom. Maybe especially so.

More 'Cowbell': Sarcasm Meets Your Mother

Zbigniew Brzezinski, professor of American foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University, thinks that Iraq is not yet in a civil war. But he wonders whether the consequences of civil war would be worse than staying the course. He talks with Robert Siegel about why he favors pulling troops out by the end of the year.

Expert Considers Consequence of Leaving Iraq

In their new book, Cobra Two, Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor describe the Iraq War as a story of hubris and heroism, of high technology wizardry and cultural ignorance.

They conclude that the bitter insurgency that American and British forces confront today was not pre-ordained, and they recount the military and political opportunities that were lost along the way.

Inside the Invasion of Iraq

Alt-Country singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash's latest album, Black Cadillac is surely some of her finest -- and darkest -- work to date. This is an intimate exploration of her history.

For Rosanne Cash, Family Is Inspiration

"The assumption that everybody wants a bundle is flawed."

Some people secretly want to be poor?

No Bundle of Joy

Portman tells Robert Siegel the project interested her because of its subversive and provocative ideas questioning such modern-day labels as "terrorist."

Portman, now 25, has been in the public eye since she starred in The Professional at age 11.

'V for Vendetta': A Provocative Turn for Portman

Apple has criticised a French law that could break the locks tying songs from the iTunes store to iPod players.

In a statement Apple said that if the law were passed it would result in "state-sponsored piracy".

Apple attacks plan to open iTunes

In case you've been worrying about how the war in Iraq will end, or the coming of avian flu, or the extinction of the universe as we drift into the cosmic void, well, relax. Here's something you should really fret about: the future of the U.S. economy in the age of globalization.

Will Your Job Survive?