MAGICAL MYSTERY CHORD: A mathemetician unlocks the secret of the opening chord of The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night." All it took was a little Fourier analysis.

THE ANNUALS get a Twofer from the World Cafe.

FLEET FOXES: Robin Pecknold talks to Filter about the influence of The Zombies' Odyssey and Oracle, and to Rolling Stone about the depths of high-school geekdom.

SST: From an inauspicious beginning selling spare radio parts, SST went on to establish the US indie underground of the 80s. But its 30th anniversary earlier this year went uncelebrated - even by its own bands.

YMA SUMAC, the Peruvian-born singer whose spectacular multi-octave vocal range and exotic persona made her an international sensation in the 1950s, has died of cancer. She was 86.

THE POSIES get some local love from the Bellingham Herald, joining Loretta Lynn, keyboardist Larry Knechtel, rock singer Randy Bachman, and the indie-rock group Death Cab for Cutie on the list of musicians with musical connections to Whatcom County, WA. A nice opportunity to link "Golden Blunders." Still fab 18 years later.

THE HOLD STEADY: Craig Finn talks to the Associated Press about the value of smiling, not to mention forgiveness and redemption.

FLYOVER ROCK: A piece by Ann Powers in the L.A, Times spurs discussion of "blue-state coastal elitist music journalism," as well as the observation that mid-America still buys its music. There are related observations at PopMatters: "At the end of the day, glam rock sold more albums, and Reagan grabbed more votes, than anything that has come since, and the reason why is a principle of human communication that we might as well call the Tao of Motley Crue... All you need is a slogan, something catchy and seductive and ambiguous and self-actualizing like 'Girls, Girls, Girls' or 'Pour Some Sugar on Me' or 'We are the Change We've been Waiting For'."

OKKERVIL RIVER: Will Scheff talks to Filter about The Stand-Ins album, as well as being a "stand-in" of sorts: "I see myself as a working musician. I'm not Justin Timberlake, I'm not even Vampire Weekend..."

DRESSY BESSY gets a meaty profile at Aversion, including sage words from singer/guitarist Tammy Ealom: "I just have the desire to rock. I don't have the desire to be a rock star," she exclaims. "That's the difference between a lot of us. I do it for me."

KATE WINSLET bares all in the new Vanity Fair, inlcuding revealing that Emma Thompson was her matchmaker. Winslet is furious at suggestions that she was Photoshopped into shape.

AMY WINEHOUSE has turned in demos for her next album; Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grange says they're "sensational."

LINDSAY LOHAN loses yet another gig -- this time as hostess of the World Music Awards. She's being replaced by denise Richards. Ouch.

MADONNA: Guy Ritchie has hired a top lawyer in his battle with Madge over where their children should live.

KEANU REEVES is cleared in a civil suit brought by a paparazzo who claimed he was run over by Reeves.

MONSTERS vs. ALIENS, due in March, has released its first trailer.

TIM ROBBINS: Victim of voter suppression?

BRADGELINA: Jolie still sees herself as "just a punk kid with tattoos."

PEANUTS appear in 20 new webisodes; for a limited time, fans will be able to download two episodes of the series for free on Apple's iTunes.

BARACK OBAMA won the US presidential election. I don't do much domestic politics here -- and y'all probably already heard about it -- but it seems kinda notable.

SOMALIA: A 13-year-old girl was raped, then stoned to death for adultery.

IRAQ: A top Shiite lawmaker said on Tuesday that Iraq has received "positive" signals from Washington for the changes which Baghdad proposed to the draft security deal between the two countries. Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president said the pact should be put to a referendum. The Iraqi military is moving beyond just counter-terrorism efforts to building combat and logistics capabilities. Jihadis are criticizing Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and the Islamic State of Iraq.

STEALTH OCTOPUS: Pretty amazing camoflage.

THE GHOST BAT: Awesome pic, but couldn't you have gotten this out for Halloween?

JURASSIC PARK: One step closer.

A ROOSTER was busted in downstate Illinois after it allegedly confronted a woman and her child.

COCKATOO vs. PYTHON: The cockatoo never had a chance.

THOUSANDS of JELLYFISH shut down a nuclear reactor at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. No word on whether militant squirrels masterminded the attack.