It says that it got four stars in Word.

How? The magazine doesn't give star ratings.

Two men are looking in a shop window.

One points and says "That's the one I'd get!"

A cyclops comes out of the shop and hits him.

c/o the blog of the inestimable Christian Jago http://crispian-jago.blogspot.com/2011/11/skeptic-park-4-featuring-rhys-... and reproduced without the faintest hint of permission.. The Handy Alternative Therapy Flowchart

(I've put Marky's neatened version up.)

Lana Del Rey.

The single Video Games is everywhere and on very heavy rotation. Radios 1&2, 6Music, ILR.. it hits every button, it ticks every box.

She has a voice of beauty like few others, she is super-cool, she is stunningly beautiful, she has long, long legs, she has flowing auburn locks..

It's like Florence Welch was the Beta Version and here is the ultimate, debugged Pop Icon for the new decade.

Verse. Chorus.

Verse. Chorus.

Middle eight.

Instrumental break.

Chorus/reprise

Coda.

Three and a half minutes being the optimum play-time.

Gigolo Aunts demonstrate how it should be done.

Any others in the exact format?

We have a local close-harmony trio, currently plying their trade in an assortment of juicers in the Old Portsmouth area. They're jolly good. Ladies and Gentlemen, best of order and a big Word Blog welcome, please, for The Three Belles.

And it can be listened to here!

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/exclusive-album-stream-matthew-sw...

Sadly, it would seem to be a bit shit.

Oh well.

Be aware. Twitter accounts of Word bloggers are being hacked into and virus posts and DMs are being sent. Thus far, me, Five Centres and HP Wonderful have been affected as far as I know. Is there a security gap anywhere? Over the last week, I've only been accessing Twitter and The Blog using an iPad.

Here's the chart rundown for mid-July 1978, the time when I discovered Radio 1 and the year when singles were being shifted in volumes not seen before or since.

http://www.chartstats.com/chart.php?date=20%2F07%2F1978

Whack to the end at #75 and scroll up. It's astonishing. A stream of absolute nailed-on brilliance. Rock, punk, new wave, disco, reggae, funk and pop all represented at their finest, plus The Smurfs and Showaddywaddy for the kids.

Singles sales figures were, of course, skewed by the Boney M / JT+ONJ dominance over the summer but it was still a fine time.

Can anyone find a similar stream of such disparate brilliance in any other years?

Edit: I've just updated the ontroller software for my Sonos system. They now have an archive of retrospective singles charts going back to 1955. Stack up your nostalgia-fests simply and swiftly.

I was due to be going with my mate Andy who'd picked up a couple of corporate jolly tickets. He's had to drop out, so there's one going begging.

You need to be able to get to London Victoria station for 0750 where we pick up the Orient Express to Deal. Coach to the course, all day watching the golf (normal grounds ticket - no reserved seating or anything) with a 1900 pickup, meal and wine on the Orient Express, back at Victoria for 2220.

Andy wants £150 for the ticket, which is about a third of what it cost him.

If you want it, please email me via the contacts page. I'll check my inbox every hour or so, first one gets it.

Fraser - please feel free to pull this if it is deemed unsuitable. And if your name is the first one on the list, I won't mention it to anyone else. Honest..

It is a product of dubious legality. It can, apparently, be used to crack open the OS on lots of Apple products; iPads, iPhones, iTV boxes and the like, enabling lots of naughty things to be done. The Wiki on it is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS_jailbreaking

I post this only to warn fellow bloggers of a naughty bit of software of which they will, no doubt, wish to steer well clear.

People may wish to share their horror-stories of such things. I know of dentists with iPads stuffed with expensive patient demonstration software apps which have been copied using this felonious tool.

Coming next: RipIt, Handbrake and iTunes - My DVD Hell.

Give them a loan to, insanely, help them pay the interest on the other loans they can't repay or let them go bankrupt and to hell with the potentially ruinous consequences?

Some highly-qualified economists will argue for the first, others for the second. Who is right?

No-one knows. Economics is a science (of a sort) which seems only to work in hindsight. And, whichever option is taken in any given situation, we never really know if it was the correct one. It is a bizarre academic discipline when the opinion of the most ill-informed man on the street can have as much chance of being correct as that of a garlanded expert.

And the underlying trend remains, as ever, upwards. Because it has to.

I was doing a count-up of the Alan Parsons Project albums the other day. Ten of them. Released over twelve years. Bloody hell.. That's some work-rate. All big studio jobs, done at Abbey Road. But, of course, they didn't tour. In a similar time-frame, REM managed eight albums, but with a heavy touring schedule. I'm sure loads of other bands of this time had a similarly high rate of release of new product. Why does this not seem to be the case with bands nowadays, given how simple the modern process of recording is always quoted as being?

Arguably the finest military historian of his generation, he was a magnetic broadcaster and natural teacher. Lucky were those who sat at his feet as he told of the deeds of those who had gone before.

Elsewhere on The Web, other people are daring to do what The Massive do best..

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f7/popular-songs-pie-charts-568511/