With over a 50% growth in new Twitter users last month, many of us find ourselves confounded by what rises to the top of the twitter ranks on a daily basis, and the fickleness with which they seem to come and go. Insight, patterns, wisdom have yet to be gleaned, but I put together a quick breakdown of the top ten twitter stories, and thought it might be worth sharing.

#Swine Flu #Swineflu Channeling my inner Kasey Kasem, coming in at number 1 (and 2)with a bullet is Swine Flu! Pursued by the media with the reckless abandon usually reserved for Brittany’s driving infractions, and warmly reminiscent of the beginning 2 minutes of every great zombie movie. Why not Pig Flu? Sounds so much less judgmental. Any favorite Troy McClure worthy media fueled panic headlines worth sharing?

# Specter, Alan Specter six term Republican senator from Pennsylvania has announced he’s changing his allegiance from Republican to Democrat. Some feel this is a political parry to better his chances for reelection, though as a known moderate, he claims he feels the Democratic party is now better aligned to his principles than the right shifting Republicans. This does mean that once Al Franken’s long contested appointment as Minesota Senator from Minnesota settles, the Dems will have a filibuster proof majority (veto proof is 2/3, but filibuster proof is a bigger carrot for the ruling party dems.)

#Chelsea. I was hoping the only begotten Clinton progeny did something to get herself in the headlines, but apparently Barcelona is playing Chelsea in Soccer. Can’t wait to bother every non-US native I know with a feigned interest in what looks to be a spectacular match!

#Barca #Barcelona. Apparently Barca is a common pet name for the Barcelona FC, who, as previously noted, are playing Chelsea in what looks to be a Spectacular match! Chelsea did come in a few ranks higher in the list, but most likely due to the fractured Barca/Barcelona denotation. Interestingly this (very(crudely)) projects a fairly even twitter distribution across both areas.

#Mexico. Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of a rich culture heritage, and the glorious victory against the French in 1862? Nope. Swine Flu. As in Mexican Swine Flu, though perhaps Mexico’s national PR agencies have been trying to drop this auspicious moniker, and are heavily behind an abbreviated “Swine Flu” or perhaps “San Fernando Valley Swine Flu”

#therescue Event to raise awareness and drive political action towards ending Ugandan war and large scale abduction of children to turn into foot soldiers. Great implementation of social media to drive this one, specifically on their ability to frame the campaign as a forward moving event. http://www.invisiblechildren.com/about/history/

#09ntc Nonprofit Technology Conference http://www.nten.org/ . April 26th-28th in San Francisco, looking at adoption of many peer communication tools.