Blog Heap of Links for the day 23 April 2009

In flying to and from Iowa today, President Obama took two flights on Air Force One and four on Marine One. The press office at Andrews AFB wouldn't give me the fuel consumption numbers for the 747 that serves as Air Force One without the approval of the White House Press Office, which as I write this has yet to be given. But Boeing says its 747 burns about 5 gallons of fuel per mile. It's 895 miles from Washington to Des Moines, so a round trip brings the fuel consumption for the fixed-wing portion of the President's trip to 8,950 gallons.

announced Thursday that security forces had arrested the group's current leader, Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. The news was a morale boost in Iraq, which has seen increased violence in recent weeks, including two bombings Thursday that killed dozens.

As emergency crews tended to the driver, police Sgt. Raul Ramirez told the ABC-7 crew from across the barrier to leave. Several people and half a dozen cars were also stopped on the eastbound shoulder. Darren continued to try to get information from the men in fatigues when the situation began to escalate. The sergeant jumped the barrier and told Darren to get in the truck (an ABC-7 news unit) and leave, then held Darren with his hands behind his back to the side of the truck belonging to a witness that was parked on the shoulder. "I'm not doing anything," Darren said repeatedly. Darren and Ric were handcuffed, read their Miranda rights and taken to the Westside Regional Command Center. They were released within a few minutes. The entire incident lasted about an hour.

Lawrence Summers, Director of the White House's National Economic Council, was caught dozing off during a meeting with credit card officials on Thursday.

Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell, the sixth man ever to walk on the moon, has a message for all citizens of Earth: We are not alone. "We are being visited," the 79-year-old grandfatherly "spacefarer" told 100 or so UFOlogists gathered at a National Press Club conference called by the Paradigm Research Group (motto: "It's not about lights in the sky; it's about lies on the ground"). "It is now time to put away this embargo of truth about the alien presence," said the astronaut who made the longest moonwalk in history. "I call upon our government to open up … and become a part of this planetary community that is now trying to take our proper role as a spacefaring civilization."

Gov. Brad Henry today applauded state senators for sustaining his veto of a bill that would have made it a crime for a scientist to perform any form of embryonic stem cell research. Senators voted 26-19 this morning to override his veto. Senators needed 32 votes to override it. The Republican-controlled Senate took up the override attempt minutes after the House voted to override the governor's action.

Astronomers searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have concluded that it tastes vaguely of raspberries. ... While they failed to find evidence for amino acids, they did find a substance called ethyl formate, the chemical responsible for the flavour of raspberries....

A Kit-Kat which supposedly contains an image of Jesus

morning people's circadian clocks can't resist the biological pressure to sleep, while night owls don't buckle as easily

bald eagle had swooped down and snatched her bag out of her hand... landed in the street and pulled the handbag open to check the contents.... Police... later found the bird hiding in a field and traced it back to its owner Ernst Koenig.... "It's a trained bird which got out into the wild. It's never had to find food for itself before and the woman's handbag was the same colour and shape as the bag its owner keeps his food in."

GeoCities had suffered a long and drawn-out battle with its health over the past decade. An antiquated service model and outdated technology are widely blamed for the struggle. An official cause of death, however, has yet to be determined. ... GeoCities was born as "Beverly Hills Internet" in the winter of 1995. Its parents, David Bohnett and John Rezner, wanted to create a virtual community that mimicked the real world, with pages hosted in "cyber cities" and other similarly nauseating concepts.

The Senate approved a bill Wednesday night to let voters decide if Oklahoma should make English its official language. House Joint Resolution 1042 now returns to the House to have the Senate amendments approved. The amended version of the bill passed the Senate 44-2 with no debate.