Who Is Steven Furtick?

Albert Einstein said the thing he wondered most was, "Is the universe friendly?"

Lately people are wondering why Britney shaved her head, why Brad Delp committed suicide with a note on his shirt about being a "lonely soul," who Anna Nicole Smith's child's father is, and why so many successful people are in rehab.

According to today's blog engine list on Technorati, people are wondering, "Who is Steven Furtick and why is he beating out typical #1 topics like Twitter at the top of the Technorati list? You may be surprised to learn he's the pastor of a church called Elevation in North Carolina who reads Seth Godin's marketing blog among others. Steven's gotten "addicted" to Technorati in the last couple weeks and now that he's at the top, you guessed it, he's in rehab (from Technorati that is).

And then some people, like Paris Hilton (#7 on the list), aren't wondering anything.

Congratulations and best wishes for a happy Easter Steven!

Marcotte, McEwan and Edwards - Hello I Must Be Going

Web 2.0 has extended further into the political arena. X-treme (read "progressive") political bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan were just following Anna Nicole Smith's mantra as described by Smith's mother -- any press, good or bad, helps me make money.

In this case the publicity has not helped John Edwards campaign, and he's called off the partnership just as it was gaining some momentum. As vicious, off-color humor becomes more common on the web, the line of acceptability is shifting (Marcotte holds she has been "censored" for being a woman, pro-choice, anti-religious, etc.), but it still hasn't become a free-for-all.

Some x-treme blogging or a feisty video interview could be good for Hillary in a youtube strike against Barack Obama. But John, we hardly knew ye.

Lisa Nowak and the Human Race

We've got to figure this thing out.

What was it that caused Lisa Nowak to snap? There must be something in her past or her genetics that has caused this and will eventually be explained. Maybe it's a malady of some sort that could strike any one of us.

The Houston Chronicle calls it an explanation of "why a person as average as the next guy fell apart." But that's the rub -- Nowak is not as average as the next guy (or gal). She was already a celebrity. Not in the Anna Nicole Smith sense, but being selected in the space program is not like getting your driver's license. Nowak was a spokesperson for NASA who had gone through some of the most rigorous physical and mental testing and qualification possible for a human being.

If, as Stephen Hawking suggests, we need to be establishing colonies outside earth in the next hundred years to preserve the species, we're going to need some better testing.