Yesterday was the final day of the National Summit in Detroit, which brought together energy, environment, technology and manufacturing captains of industry to discuss how to re-power and re-energize America as it moves forward.

The summit featured keynotes from the likes of  William Clay Ford Jr. of the eponymous Ford Motor Company, Steve Ballmer of Microsoft and a host of other thought (and action) leaders from a spread of today’s most key industries.

While we weren’t able to be there in person, we sent three representatives to the engagement, Rebound, Garden Pond, and Blackboard, our three touch games included in the recently announced Win 7 Touch Pack.  They mainly hung around the Microsoft booth the whole time—they were very respectful about the amount of hors-d’oeuvres they consumed, though they weren’t exaclty demure, as rumors are spreading about how they were letting folks get their hands all over them.  I think a line even formed.

You can check out the full gallery of speakers and exhibitions here.

What, game developers don’t get inspired by heavy winds?  Last time I checked, coders LOVED mortal danger.  Just ask Hugh Jackman’s character in Swordfish.

So imagine Brian Robbins’ delight yesterday when, just as he was getting ready to crack down on some serious iPhone development, he looks out his window and sees this:

From the email Brian sent to our Ottawa team:

“Today was a typical late-Spring / early-Summer day here in Denver. We very often have beautiful days early, strong thunderstorms in the mid-late afternoon and then it’s back to sunny and beautiful before sunset.

Today was a bit different though in that one of the tornados touched down at the mall “Southlands” which is about a mile from my house. I took a couple pictures before heading into the basement.”

Luckily, his Aunt Em was waiting in the cellar with a warm batch of cookies.

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Microsoft has recently announced the Win 7 Touch pack, demoing their upcoming system’s functionality for touch applications and games.  Included in the pack are three games that our Fuel Games team created: Garden Pond, Rebound and Blackboard.

To learn more about the games, check out the official post from Microsoft here.

For some more screenshots, take a look at Gizmodo’s post, or, you know, for simplicity’s sake, just scroll down.

If you think FITC stands for “Flash in the Can”, think again. As Alyssa, Julian, Jon and Jessy found out while stranded on the 416, sometimes a roadtrip to the annual design and technology event can mean…something more.

Here’s hoping that everyone else got home safe from the conference..

Today, Adweek posted an article about some recent Twitter stats. According to Nielsen, only 40% of new Twitterati are still on the perch a month later.

From the Mike Shields article:

“Over 60 percent of people who sign up to use the popular (and tremendously discussed) micro-blogging platform do not return to using it the following month, according to new data released by Nielsen Online. In other words, Twitter currently has just a 40 percent retention rate, up from 30 percent in previous months — indicating an “I don’t get it factor” among new users that is reminiscent of the similarly over hyped Second Life from a few years ago.”

Twitter’s been huge in the business and social media enthusiast community for quite some time, but with recent buzz reaching a fever pitch, the mainstream is registering with the little bluebird in droves.  The growth chart, as Adweek puts it, looks like a hockey stick.

With over 60% of new users flying the coop, however, there’s something amiss.  If it hopes to improve its retention rate, Twitter needs to address the mainstream users that are signing in and asking “Why is this better than Facebook? All my friends are already there.”

The fact is, some of the most intriguing aspects of Twitter don’t necessarily come through immediately: the flattening of the online landscape, the ability to engage with spontaneous chat with an open community–including with some of the world’s most admired or influential people.  On the surface, a new user is presented with an opportunity to search for their friends (many of which will likely not be present) or simply begin ’shouting into the darkness’ (as the folks at SuperNews so poignantly put it), all the while wondering if their time couldn’t better be spent on their existing networks.

The fact is, Twitter is an excellent supplement to one’s existing networks, and can serve a very different purpose than Facebook, but for someone not willing to blindly jump into the community and start sharing with strangers, the existing technology of Facebook status updates work just as well, and in a place where the user is already at home.

Put simply, what Twitter needs to do is sell its benefits better on its own site.  Relying on word of mouth between evangelists has been wildly successful thus far, but with the growth curve bending every skyward, the mainstream audience registrants (who are missing the wealth of blog posts extolling Twitter’s many virtues) require a refreshed explanation that’ s more than simply “mom wants to know what you had for lunch“.

Celebrity tweets can only go so far, after all.