Fun Facts I have learned in the midst of Paper Research

1. The original "ping" sound effect in Pong was created by Atari engineer Al Alcorn, from an amplified waveform from the game's own circuitry. Interesting, no?

2. Arvo Part's Sarah was Ninety Years Old was originally premiered by a pregnant singer! This is significant because the title refers to the biblical Sarah, who through a miracle gave birth at an extremely advanced age.

3. Computer disk storage units are as follows, from smallest to largest: bit, byte, kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte, petabyte, exabyte, zettabyte, BRONTOBYTE. Am I alone in seeing that and immediately thinking BRONTOSAURUS*?

*I can't be. There's no way I'm the only one.

4. Tintinnabuli is not functional harmony. It sounds diatonic, but it lacks the directional impetus of the tonic/dominant relationship, choosing instead to rely on quasi-stasis in harmonic material. I suppose this isn't really news to me. But I never really thought about it because the music is so lulling with its virtual lack of dissonance.

5. Schoenberg had triskaidekaphobia.

6. Nobuo Uematsu utilizes Wagnerian-style leitmotif in his compositions for the various Squaresoft Final Fantasy games.