this is a minor issue that has annoying repercussions. on most versions of django, if you use ipython and start it with ./manage.py shell, you cannot define global variables and then use them in local functions. it gets ugly quick. more info here:
https://github.com/ipython/ipython/issues/62
patch is here:
https://github.com/django/django/pull/512/files
and it definitely fixes the issue.