Link Collection

Current estimates are that 50 million Americans (1/6 of the people in our country!) have had the swine flu and about 10,000 died from it. That is actually a lower mortality rate than in regular flu seasons, but while the elderly die from the regular flu, the swine flu has killed more children and young adults:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-sci-swine-flu11-2009dec11,0,6351332.story

There is apparently a battle of technologies on the US/Mexico border. Illegal border crossers have a cell phone based GPS application (created by a professor in the US!) that helps them avoid Border Patrol and invade the US. However Border Patrol is responding with UAVs and other tools:
http://www.examiner.com/x-17495-San-Diego-Immigration-Policy-Examiner~y2009m12d9-Technology-battle-well-underway-on-the-US-border-with-Mexico

The 4S Symposium highlights how the evolution of small satellites is creating a rapid increase in data availability and knowledge-based services:
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Space_Engineering/SEMOTY6JT2G_0.html

Apple countered Nokia's lawsuit over patents regarding the iPhone with a lawsuit of its own saying that Nokia tried to copy the iPhone and violated Apple's patents:
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20091211/apple-countersues-nokia/

This is a great list of Android apps. Since I know at least 2 people who read this that have the Droid phone, and others with Android phones on T-Mobile, I figured I should include this:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/2009s-most-awesome-android-apps-639?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2009-12-11

This columnist really slammed AT&T in this rant--putting down their customer service, network coverage, marketing, and now possible bandwidth caps and metered data plans for iPhone users:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/att-strictly-losers-808?source=IFWNLE_nlt_daily_2009-12-11