Blog Heap of Links for the day 1 May 2009

A third-grader was expelled from a local private school after a "hit list" of students and a teacher was found in his desk.

A Swedish man and a Singaporean woman have been fined for strolling naked through a busy upscale bar and restaurant area for a stunt after a few drinks

A United Airlines flight from Munich to Washington made a two-hour stop at Logan International Airport this afternoon so a female passenger who had complained of flu-like symptoms could be removed and taken to a hospital for treatment.

A Washington state biosurveillance firm raised the first warning about a possible outbreak of swine flu in Mexico more than two weeks before the World Health Organization offered its initial alert about a public health emergency of international concern.

Many are understandably aghast that some opportunistic and homophobic characters are disputing the idea that the brutal Matthew Shepard killing was purely a hate crime: a young man singled out and beaten to a bloody pulp by strangers solely because he was gay. A pure hate crime was certainly how I first thought of the case, but the notion that the story is a lot murkier is not crazy or bigoted.

New York teen Brittanee Drexel had "her mind set" on spring break in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Her mom didn't want her to go, but the strong-willed 17-year-old from Rochester, N.Y., went anyway. Now she's missing, and her mom fears the worst. ... made it to her South Carolina hotel and kept in touch until last Saturday night. That's when the messages suddenly stopped and the high school junior vanished, seemingly without a trace ....

Visitors won't have to crane their necks to see straight down from the Sears Tower Skydeck when the building adds four glass-bottomed balconies, nicknamed "The Ledge," to its 50-mile views come June. The Skydeck on the 103rd floor of the building that is changing its name to Willis Tower, opened in 1974, and has--weather permitting--always provided a view of four states. But to see what's directly beneath them, visitors always had to get as close to the building's windows as possible. The Ledge is scheduled to open next month, according to a spokeswoman for the Skydeck.

Microsoft hopes you'll succumb to a Jedi Mind Trick: that you'll buy a netbook with a version of Windows 7 that will only let you run three applications simultaneously and that won't have a media player or simplified networking, but that you'll like Windows 7 so much you'll then want to buy a notebook or desktop running a full version of Windows 7. And Microsoft wonders why European regulators are so willing to see the company in court.

Marc Stephens said he had to act quickly when his wife Jo went into labour three weeks early as she had a history of fast births with her previous three children. The 28-year-old Royal Navy air engineer, from Redruth, Cornwall, searched "how to deliver a baby" on the internet and after viewing a few clips said he was ready to help deliver healthy baby Gabriel.

As the secrets about the CIA's interrogation techniques continue to come out, there's new information about the frequency and severity of their use, contradicting an 2007 ABC News report, and a new focus on two private contractors who were apparently directing the brutal sessions that President Obama calls torture.