In response to my last Tweet, I’ve had people asking me all day, “why did you give up on Twitter?” I joked that I’m “tool old for this thing,” but the shortest and most honest answer is I simply didn’t get much value from Twitter. And I knew it a while back.

It’s not surprising because I never really understood Twitter from the beginning. I never learned what “RT” meant, why a “#” was prepended to certain words, and why Direct Messages only showed up in my email. For the 195 Tweets I posted, I can only think of a few instances when I had something to say in less than Twitter’s max 140 character limit. I followed acquaintances on Twitter — people I knew but don’t know — as well as real-life friends. I can’t knock it (I don’t think) because Twitter has millions of users who seem to Tweet all day and all night. But something’s wrong. Twitter’s two founders can’t figure out how they’re going to make money off their invention. Pogue can’t figure it out. And there are rules and snobs. It’s just too much.

In the end, I’m with Pogue: it’s just another time drain.

The New York Times:

For decades, space experts have warned of orbits around the planet growing so crowded that two satellites might one day slam into one another, producing swarms of treacherous debris.It happened Tuesday. And the whirling fragments could pose a threat to the International Space Station, orbiting 215 miles up with three astronauts on board, though officials said the risk was now small.

“This is a first, unfortunately,” Nicholas L. Johnson, chief scientist for orbital debris at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, said of the collision. 

One of these was an Iridium communications satellite (part of their constellation of sixty-six).

June 25-28, 2009 in Boulder!

The Zimbabwean Music Festival is an annual celebration of Zimbabwean music and culture. A fun-filled three-day weekend of concerts, workshops, community conversations, a marketplace and more, Zimfest is the largest annual gathering in North America of students, teachers, performers, and fans of Zimbabwean music.

Big-ish news out of Zim:

After months of violence, negotiation, pressure and reluctant compromise, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was sworn in on Wednesday as the prime minister of a government in which his nemesis, President Robert G. Mugabe, still dominates the repressive state security forces. 

You have got to be kidding me. Some asshole started this fire in Australia, and authorities say those responsible will be charged with murder.

The Big Picture:

The state of Victoria in southern Australia has recently been hit with hundreds of bush fires during a record-breaking heatwave – temperatures well above 38°C (100°F). Unfortunately, these fires have proved to be the deadliest in Australian history, with at least 166 deaths reported so far. The fires mostly appear to have been started by lightning – however a few appear to have been arson, and are under investigation – entire towns being declared crime scenes. Twenty-four fires are still burning, and authorities warn that the death toll will likely rise. (36 photos total)