A 1997 conference of musicians and philosophers discussed the implications of his instruction to play the piece "as slow as possible", given that an organ imposes virtually no time limits. A project emerged to perform the piece so that it would take a total of 639 years to play. (There's a note change tomorrow.)

List of snowclones. (A snowclone is a a type of formula-based cliché that uses an old idiom in a new context.)

The Korean wave refers to the popularity of South Korean popular culture in other Asian countries; it has been likened to the British Invasion.

In the Soviet Union, three Winnie the Pooh stories were made into celebrated cartoons by Soyuzmultfilm. Quotes and songs from the films are still a staple of Russian society.


Vinni Pukh (1969)

The Führerbunker is a common name for a complex of subterranean rooms in Berlin, Germany where Adolf Hitler committed suicide...

In 2005 the location of the bunker was not marked in any way. The immediate area was occupied by a small Chinese restaurant and mini mall while the emergency exit point for the bunker (which had been in the Reichskanzlei gardens) was occupied by a car park.

Good email debate between Wales and a conservative commentator about neutrality, etc.

ROBERT COX [after arguing that people like his son could trust wikipedia too much]: I did ask my son whether he was aware of the editing feature of Wikipedia and, to my surprise, he said yes.

A lot of the angst about Wikipedia involves the expectation that people (especially students, who rely on it heavily) will take it as gospel. But as Cox found out, young people are more likely to understand how wikipedia works, not less, because they haven't spent decades with older editorial structures. (Third-worlders are another group who will likely rely on wikipedia disproportionately. They're used to distrusting what they hear from authorities.)

Worrying Slashdot comment:

As someone who runs a City Wiki, I always felt that what makes a reference wikis work is that there are more people interested in having a NPOV article than people who have a financial interest at stake. However as companies and politicians become more familiar with the wiki movement and the whole anonyminity of it, they are more likely to see how easily you can edit articles as another PR platform and seek to control it. With the resources and ability to dedicate even a full time team to making sure the Wikipedia article keeps them in a good light, I fear we're entering the age where people who are interested in a NPOV are outmanned by those with a profit interest. After all, for years spammers have nearly outmanned those whole try to filter it.