  We review the close link between intermittent events ('quakes') and extremal
noise fluctuations which has been advocated in recent numerical and theoretical
work. From the idea that record-breaking noise fluctuations trigger the quakes,
an approximate analytical description of non-equilibrium aging as a Poisson
process with logarithmic time arguments can be derived. Theoretical predictions
for measurable statistical properties of mesoscopic fluctuations are
emphasized, and supporting numerical evidence is included from simulations of
short-ranged Ising spin-glass models, of the ROM model of vortex dynamics in
type II superconductors, and of the Tangled Nature model of biological
evolution.
