Who's missing in this infographic? Happy first birthday, Abbott Government! http://t.co/NKM82fOROP pic.twitter.com/M0w7HLQglQ

— Rick Eyre (@rickeyre) September 5, 2014

Twitpic is shutting down on September 25 2014. (Update: see here.)

This in itself doesn't upset me so much - I have used its facilities just nine times, the most recent being in June 2013 - but the circumstances are unsettling. Twitpic's owner Noah Everett says in his corporate blog:

Before their game against Team USA in the FIBA World Cup on September 2 2014, the New Zealand men's basketball team, the Tall Blacks, did what all New Zealand national teams should do... perform the Haka.

Judging by the looks on the Americans' faces it can't be long before we see a USA equivalent... surely?

USA won the game 98-71.

Great cartoon by David Pope in the Canberra Times of September 2 2014. Can also be viewed in this gallery.

I love Twitter. I use it constantly. It is my first line of on-line communication these days and my primary source of news. It has made longer form blogging redundant for me (which is possibly not a good thing).

All of which lends, I think, towards understanding the Things I hate about Twitter (as compiled while lying awake at 5am this morning and blurted out on Twitter around 6 - this post includes some extras):

Test blog post Friday August 8 2014

Yep.

[-33.8952319,151.160952|I'm here!]

I haven't written anything in long form for ages. I am inclined to think that this is not a good thing.

Twitter is my major form of online expression these days, which is fine, but the need to express opinions that won't fit into the (usually fully adequate) 140 character format does arise from time to time.

I used to have a daily twitter archive making auto blogposts to this site, but that broke about eighteen months ago and I haven't seen a replacement.

I have never been a great tipper of sporting results. I can go years without picking the complete weekend's round in the footy tips contest. With that in mind, and to make it easier for you to mock me in perpetuity, I present my prediction for the 2013-14 Ashes, as made on the day before the First Test:

My fourteenth federal election as a voter is my first in the electorate of Watson. As in 2004, 2007 and 2010 I am posting details of my vote on my blog. With some trepidation I decided as in 2010 to fill in all boxes below the line for the Senate - all 110 of them.

If the 2010 Federal election campaign was dismal, in 2013 it has seemed much worse. The binary choice of which major party to lead government for the next three years is not a comfortable one, even though for me there is one clear answer.