It is far better for twitter to rate limit the API to a level they can handle, than to get themselves into an unstable situation with fail-whales. The header sa

It is far better for twitter to rate limit the API to a level they can handle, than to get themselves into an unstable situation with fail-whales. The header says what the rate limit is so applications can adjust. They're also limiting their own apps so it's fair. I guess I don't understand why the default was set higher than they could handle in the first place.