H ave any of you noticed how bad customer service has become in recent years? It is absolutely inconceivable when you place an order for three things and all three are incorrect and/or incomplete. It's unconscionable, but, unfortunately, more and more it is becoming a daily reality in our lives. Most of these problems seem to have been created by individuals who suffer from a very common disorder, the delusion of adequacy . It is difficult to explain to people that this state exists; in fact, we Baby Boomers may have unwittingly contributed to it through our child rearing experiments. The everyone gets a trophy syndrome was intended to ensure that no child was made to feel like a loser. A noble experiment intended to produce happiness all around. The problem was, everyone felt like a winner . . . even when they weren't, and now we are all suffering from it because, like it or not, there are hundreds of thousands of people who have not honed their skills, not adequately practiced their craft, not developed their knowledge base who, worst of all, go blindly through life believing that they rock . Heck, they have the trophies to prove it! This delusional state doesn't just exist with kids. Unfortunately, many adults have their trophy rooms filled mythology ajax ith decorative examples of their prowess, yet they can't write a complete sentence, finish a job on time or ―and this is especially difficult ―are incapable of introspection and blame everyone else for their shortcomings.

Mercury Records is seeking interns for the upcoming summer semester. They are looking for students eligible to receive school credit and that live in: New York City Boston Philadelphia Atlanta Seattle/Portland Chicago Los Angeles/San Francisco Nashville Miami Dallas/Austin Denver FROM MERCURY: "This is an unpaid internship in the A&R Department. Interns will partake in a variety of activities load balance ncluding new music research, talent scouting, attending local shows, and critiquing incoming music. We are seeking individuals with a particularly strong passion for music and the music business. Candidates must possess good communication skills and have the ability to attend local shows. Sufficient computer and internet skills are a must. This is a hands-on internship and a great stepping-stone into the music industry. Only eager candidates need apply, as this is a highly competitive internship. Please forward résumés and cover letters to: mercury.intern@gmail.com Put "Summer 2007" in the subject of your email."

Mercury Records is seeking fundraising auction nterns for the upcoming summer semester. They are looking for students eligible to receive school credit and that live in: New York City Boston Philadelphia Atlanta Seattle/Portland Chicago Los Angeles/San Francisco Nashville Miami Dallas/Austin Denver FROM MERCURY: "This is an unpaid internship in the A&R Department. Interns will partake in a variety of activities including new music research, talent scouting, attending local shows, and critiquing incoming music. We are seeking individuals with a particularly strong passion for music and the music business. Candidates must possess good communication skills and have the ability to attend local shows. Sufficient computer and internet skills are a must. This is a hands-on internship and a great stepping-stone into the music industry. Only eager candidates need apply, as this is a highly competitive internship. Please forward résumés and cover letters to: mercury.intern@gmail.com Put "Summer 2007" in the subject of your email."

What does "guerrilla" war between interdependent states look like in the 21st Century? Very much like the war now going on between Estonia and Russia. Russia is using the removal of a statue commemorating Russian war dead from Tallinn (the capital of Estonia) as a pretext to launch an information/economic war against Estonia in order to destabilize the state (the likely real reason is that Estonia is blocking the construction of a Baltic pipeline to Germany). So far: Oil shipments have been severed. Passenger rail service has been cut. Flash mobs have been generated both in Moscow (against the Estonian embassy) and in Estonia (through the mobilization of ethnic Russians living there). These mobs have been energized by a Russian propaganda online lead achine that depicts Estonia as a fascist antagonist of Russia. Russian criminal bot networks (used for phishing and other types of criminal endeavors) have been rented to conduct denial of service attacks against Estonian government computers (to prevent normal functioning and stymie its ability to counter Russian propaganda) Of course, Estonia like Singapore and other small states, do have substantial asymmetric advantages against larger more complex big states in this type of war, if they would only use them. The key is to make the decision to become a micro-power, which requires resilience and a capacity to enlist commercial partners in defensive/retaliatory warfare, before being subjected to assault.

W has done it again. This time the leader of the free world stood in front of a big screen tv reading lines from a paper in a badly executed propagenda act. Bush network storage link onverses with rehearsed troops in Iraq via video . Before the president spoke via a video link, his event planners hand-picked 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry and one Iraqi soldier, told them what topics the president would ask about and watched them briefly rehearse their presentations before going live. The soldiers did not disappoint. Each one praised the president, the war and the progress in training Iraqi troops. Several spoke in a monotone voice, as if determined to remember and stay on script. It got more hilarious when white house pr guy answered journalist questions: "are you saying it was not rehearsed. Reuters has a story During the practice session before Bush entered the room, a senior Pentagon official, Allison Barber, stood at the podium and queried the troops about topics the president later asked about, including the training of Iraqis and the level of progress. At her prompting, the soldiers raised their hands when the topic they were to answer came up. Barber insisted later the questions were not rehearsed. The military had been told ahead of time only about topics the president might want to talk about, not specific questions. "We just knew broad themes," Barber said.