Part of today's revelling will be dedicated to recalling the dominant intellectual idiocy that ended abruptly on 9 November 1989: that East and West were morally equivalent. Another fallacy cruelly exposed two decades ago was that communism was here to stay. And, the fall of the Berlin Wall made prophetic the presidency of Ronald Reagan who demanded at the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

But before we get carried away by today's joy, we should spare a thought for the North Koreans, Cubans, Vietnamese and Chinese trapped in their socialist paradises. Their plight reminds us that this is also the year in which we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, which, Timothy Garton Ash, writing in the New York Review of Books, says took place "on the very day of Poland's breakthrough in a semifree election." The Chinese communists did what East European despots didn't dare — shoot the protesters.

But Europe's communists did kill and today we should remember the tragedy of Chris Gueffroy, a 20-year-old who tried to cross into West Berlin in February 1989. East German border guards shot him dead. That's what communism was and is. Deadly. Evil.

Recovery? "Broader Measure of U.S. Unemployment Stands at 17.5%".

David defeated Goliath. But the heavyweight division is still a mockery of what it once was.

TWIG is This Week in Google.

New decade, new degree. The School of Visual Arts in NYC announced the coming of the Masters of Professional Studies in Branding, which will focus on the study of "the art and science of branding".

Simple desktops. Tom Watson presented a collection of desktop wallpapers to make your computer beautiful without distraction.

Must have iPhone app. Fifty of Jamie's "brilliant new recipes".

"Give me to a rambling man / Let it always be known that I was who I am". Laura Marling

Of course, Alpha might be wasting its time getting people to consider spiritual alternatives to materialism because Tuesday's decision by the European Court of Human Rights to ban crucifixes from Italian classrooms brings the prospect of a de-Christianized life in a de-Christianized Europe ever closer. Instead of seeing the crucifix is a symbol of sacrifice and love as well as something that has inspired much of our greatest art, radical secularists want it out of sight. And they may well get their way. But it won't be a happier world, says Lord Sacks.

"Compete.com estimates that search.twitter.com attracted nearly 3,000,000 unique visitors in September. That's a drop in the bucket compared to Google, but it's up 550% year-over-year. Now that Twitter has a deal with Microsoft to deliver its search results over Bing (and speculation is that a deal with Google will follow) we are likely to see more creative efforts to integrate social content. Three years from now, the SEO tactics we've work so hard to learn may seem quaint indeed."

"Will All You Learned About SEO Be Worthless?" asks Paul Gillen. To even pose the question is to suggest the answer. Get ready for those online Social SEO workshops. Only $799 to you, madam at the back. And you, sir, at the side?

Meanwhile, Mrs Rainy Day points out that Donna Karan's Urban Zen foundation is working with the Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan to test yoga, meditation and aromatherapy treatments against cancer. Karan has put up $850,000 to fund research that will look for proof that alternative treatments can alleviate cancer symptoms like pain, nausea and anxiety. The alternative approaches are being used for one year to supplement conventional chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Because yoga, meditation and aromatherapy have been traditionally associated with lowering stress and relieving pain, they could play a role in reducing the length and cost of hospital stays.

"Fruit and veg were being sold from barges, or whatever they were called, a few gondoliers were punting for business along the canals. People were looking out of windows, shouting and waving. Barrows of produce were being wheeled through the narrow streets. It was like being in The Truman Show. Every day, for hundreds of years, Venice had woken up and put on this guise of being a real place although everyone knew it existed only for tourists. The difference, the novelty, of Venice was that the gondoliers and fruit-sellers and bakers were all tourists, too, enjoying an infinitely extended city-break. The gondoliers enjoyed the fruit-sellers, the fruit-sellers enjoyed the gondoliers and bakers, and all of them together enjoyed the real residents: the hordes of camera-toting Japanese, the honeymooning Americans, the euro-pinching backpackers and hungover Biennale-goers."

Before reading the book, read From Venice To Varanasi: Geoff Dyer's wandering eye by James Wood. It's totally excellent.

"Criticism is a study by which men grow important and formidable at a very small expense. The power of invention has been conferred by nature upon few, and the labor of learning those sciences, which may by mere labour be obtained, is too great to be willingly endured; but every man can exert such judgment as he has upon the works of others; and he whom nature has made weak, and idleness keeps ignorant, may yet support his vanity by the name of a critic.

I hope it will give comfort to great numbers who are passing through the world in obscurity, when I inform them how easily distinction may be obtained. All the other powers of literature are coy and haughty, they must be long courted, and at last are not always gained; but Criticism is a goddess easy of access and forward of advance, who will meet the slow, and encourage the timorous; the want of meaning she supplies with words, and the want of spirit she recompenses with malignity."

On Saturday, the Museum of London will host Dr Johnson's London.

Suffering from phone finger, or worse? There is a cure and Techno Tuesday has it.

The southern hemisphere is coming north for November cold, rain, mud, blood and glory.

Winter weather I: "I first saw the light of day — or rather the dark of night — around 1:00 a.m. on a cold January morning, in a suburban stone house which, lacking modern heating conveniences, kept only one step ahead of freezing by means of small coal fires in small bedroom fireplaces; and ever since, I've persistently arranged to spend every possible moment where the sun shines warmest." Cary Grant

Winter weather II: "I think the winter for the psychology of people who have lived in the northern hemisphere for thousands and thousands of years is incredibly important. We need this psychological time to recharge our batteries, to rethink, to reflect. Without that I think we would probably go crazy." Sting

Google notified manufacturers of GPS navigation units that their services would no longer be needed.

"I realized the other day that I don't really like President Obama." Mickey Kaus.

CNN shrunk the news on its relaunched website.

The rise and rise of power jeans was noted.

The Atlantic hurricane season has been the quietest since 1997.

Was Timothy Hampton pushed?

All the news that's fit to print.

Sir Dracula arose.

Where do computers go to die? Back to China.

At Halloween, Screamin' Jay Hawkins comes across as a kind of anti-Michael Jackson: funny instead of sad; mad instead of bad; real instead of fake. And when he says "I love you", one has to laugh instead of feeling frightened. Far better voice, as well.

Truth to be told, Pope Benedict doesn't go all the way up to the north of Italy for his footwear. Signor Stefanelli delivers the shoes to the Vatican in person. And neither does he charge for his services. And it seems the same applies to the residents of the White House. Free hand-made Italian shoes. Just one of the many, many benefits of being powerful.

Something else that's impressive about Brazil is its national anthem. It's pure opera. And we'll be hearing a lot next summer in South Africa. Terra adorada, indeed.

Talking of the Iron Lady, the late critic, author and boulevardier, Sheridan Morley, recalled an occasion around the time of the Bruges Speech when, walking along Piccadilly with Sir John Gielgud, they noticed Mrs Thatcher coming towards them. As they both knew her slightly, they stopped. Gielgud asked where she was now living. "No 10, Downing Street," replied the Prime Minister with some surprise.

"Oh, you women!" exclaimed Gielgud, full of admiration. "Always so clever at buying the right kind of property!"