What's Interesting?

I was reading Slashdot today (actually, I have it on an RSS feed in Klipfolio, so I read only what looks interesting), when I noticed what appeared to be a duplicate headline:

Ocean Planets on the Brink of Detection

I perused the description, and noticed a reference to PhysOrg, another newsfeed I have in Klipfolio.  I had seen that same headline this morning when I was going over my feeds.

Now, for those of you out of the loop, Slashdot is a user-supported blog - you find interesting stuff, send to CowboyNeal, and if it's good, he'll post it for everyone else to comment on.  I had seen this same story this morning, so I could have forwarded it on the CowboyNeal, but didn't.  Why not?

I didn't think it was interesting.

I've sent stuff to Slashdot before - never had it published.  Apparently, no one else thinks my stuff is interesting.

So, why is some stuff interesting and other stuff not?  What makes for an interesting choice of subject matter?  Or to put more ego into it, perhaps the reason no one reads my blogs is because they're not interesting (the blog entries, not the people...)

Like it matters in a blog - there is no forced consumption here, so read if you want, but for me it's an interesting philosophical question...