welcome to the information age

There was a 5.8 magnitude earthquake in Virginia today. I was alerted because my sister texted me about a half hour later with "And we just had an earthquake." (She was unharmed and more concerned about her recent Russian class placement.)

Some people, apparently, were alerted even more quickly than that:

One Twitter user, @allisonkilkenny, a blogger and contributing reporter for The Nation, wrote: "Weirdest moment: Seeing the people I'm following in DC tweet 'earthquake' seconds before I felt it here in NYC."

(from USAToday)

Apparently, Twitter moves faster than earthquakes.