Blog Heap of Links for the day 20 March 2009

One of the deadliest spiders in the world.... employee at the Whole Foods Market found the spider amongst some bananas on Sunday, and casually caught it in a food container.... from Honduras.... [video of scientist describing how deadly the spider is]

A Filipino woman who acknowledged giving birth to a baby on a flight from the Middle East and then leaving him in the trash on the plane said she was raped by her employer.... The baby was found by a security guard at Manila's airport last Sunday in a trash bag unloaded from a Gulf Air flight from Bahrain. The trash apparently came from the plane's bathroom..... abandoned the baby because she was afraid of what her family would say.... baby... already bluish in color, may have died within a few minutes had he not been found.... is now fine but underwent an X-ray because of two bumps on his head....

US news weekly Time, which like other publications has been looking for ways to reinvent itself in print and on the Web, is allowing readers to put together their own personalized magazine. The experiment, called "Mine," allows readers to create a print or Web version of a magazine with content drawn from titles owned by Time and its partner in the venture, American Express Publishing.

A volcanic eruption close to the South Pacific nation of Tonga has destroyed rich birdlife and vegetation, leaving a wasteland of black ash and tree stumps.... frequent explosions hurtling rocks and ash hundreds of metres into the air.... on the small, uninhabited islet of Hunga Ha'apai 63 kilometres (39 miles) northwest of the Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.... "The island itself is totally destroyed.... there is no living thing left there, it's all covered in black ash. ... There are only black stumps where the coconut trees were.... We saw dead birds and fish in the water."

Scientists sailed Thursday to inspect an undersea volcano that has been erupting for days near Tonga — shooting smoke, steam and ash thousands of feet (meters) into the sky above the South Pacific ocean.... does not pose any danger to islanders at this stage, and there have been no reports of fish or other animals being affected....