links for 2009-05-01

"I just want you to get started on your task and get the job done."

"Justice David Souter has told the White House that he will retire from the Supreme Court at the end of the court's term in June, a source said Thursday night."

"Acer has confirmed that Windows 7 will be available pre-loaded on their new all-in-one Z5600 PC from the 23 October 2009, not by the end of January 2010 as Microsoft has been previously suggesting." Mmm Windows 7.

BBC News has photos of the aftermath of the car that went into the crowds at a Dutch royal parade.

"Say hello to the new Twitter.com, it’s a lot like the old one, but with the two important features. Search works great because it’s all done on the page without any reloads. And perhaps the most useful feature is that you can save searches that you do over and over again. Also included in the right hand sidebar is Trending Topics, which keeps track of the hot items people are searching for across Twitter." I'm liking it.

"Mexico is preparing for a five-day shutdown of parts of its economy in a bid to slow the spread of swine flu." Crazy to imagine basically an entire country brought to standstill.

"Egypt has begun forcibly slaughtering the country’s pig herds as a precaution against swine flu, a move that the United Nations described as “a real mistake” and one that is prompting anger among the country’s pig farmers. According to World Health Organization officials, the decision to kill pigs has no scientific basis."

"Three of the four big broadcast networks now own stakes in Hulu, the popular video Web site." Hulu is the best site for video content on the web.

What new thing will they study today?

Looks like an interesting book.

"How effective the American training mission will be is unclear. The corporal said it would be years before the Afghan Army was ready to operate independently full time. But he said he had seen reason for optimism."

"Switzerland's largest bank, UBS, has asked a US court not to go ahead with a tax case involving more than 50,000 US customers with Swiss accounts. UBS told a federal court in Florida it would violate Swiss laws on banking secrecy if it provided the information on its clients." One Swiss bank starts fighting back.

"Chrysler is to enter bankruptcy protection after failing to persuade a number of hedge funds to write off its debts, a White House official has said."