Watch This Heroic Bald Eagle Keep Her Eggs Warm In A Snow-Covered Nest

Though the live camera feed of her nest in Pennsylvania’s Codurus State Park reveals that she’s gotten some relief from the snow, this image (captured March 5) shows a bald eagle mother keeping her eggs warm … despite what was clearly some deeply inconsiderate weather. Screengrab via ABC 27. Via the Audobon Society.

New Recipe For 19th Century Shipwrecked Beer 

Scientists have scrutinized the contents of four bottles of beer found in a Baltic Sea shipwreck from the 1840s, an amber ale that perhaps was brewed in Belgium and was on its way to ports in Russia or Scandinavia. Researchers Arvi Wilpola and John Londesborough use an aseptic method to open one of the found…

The man who dreamed up the Keurig K-Cup has some regrets, not just about selling his stake in the popular company for a song, but for the amount of waste the non-recyclable single-serving coffee brewing pods have generated: nine billion pods were sold last year, most of which now languish in landfills.

In 1923, Daylight Saving Time Was Actually Illegal In Some States

Americans in most states (but not all) will “spring forward” their clocks tonight. Most people know that Daylight Saving Time caught on as part of energy-saving efforts during World War I. But did you know clock-changing actually became illegal in some places once the war concluded? In a fascinating look back into its archives, Time…

Jeremy Renner And Amy Adams Will Greet Aliens In Ted Chiang Adaptation

HOLD UP. Is Hollywood actually planning a genre movie that’s not a sequel or reboot? Signs point to yes, since Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams are set to star in scifi drama Story of Your Life, an adaptation of a Nebula Award-winning Ted Chiang short story. Denis Villeneuve will direct. The Hollywood Reporter has the…

The characters on House of Cards have terrible sleep hygiene. “I’ve been pretty appalled by the Underwoods’ poor sleep habits,” notes science writer Jordan Gaines Lewis on her blog. In observation of Sleep Awareness Week, she lists three simplesleep hygiene rulesthat Frank and Claire would be wise to follow.

Iditarod Dog Race Moves 225 Miles North In Search Of Snow

After the rocky, injury-plagued, snow-light conditions of last year’s Iditarod Trail Sled DogRace, this year’s even warmer season means the starting line of the race will move 225 miles north. It will still end in Nome, Alaska, but it’ll begin in Fairbanks rather than Anchorage. The Seattle Times reports: A weather pattern that buried the…

1970, The Year We Accidentally Bombed Mexico (Again)

The United States hasn’t always had a great relationship with Mexico, but in 1970 things were pretty congenial. Then, in July, an Athena rocket went off course with vials of radioactive material. Some say the resulting impact created the “Mapimi Silent Zone.” In 1947, a V-2 rocket, launched into the air by the United States,…

These Buildings Were All Built Around Trees

Oftentimes – too often, it seems – we clear trees to make way for buildings. These structures turn that expectation on its head; every entry in this collection has been built to accommodate a tree or trees, in surprising and creative ways. The HemLoft Treehouse, designed and constructed by Joel Allen in Whistler, Canada, 2008-2011…

Gemini Cell Is A Great Love Story That Deals With The True Cost Of War

Myke Cole’s “military fantasy” Shadow Ops series has been unpredictable all along. In Control Point, he told the origin story. In Fortress Frontier, he narrated a quest, while in Breach Zone, he zoomed in on a single battle. With his latest installment, Gemini Cell, he does something really unexpected: a romance. Some spoilers ahead… Granted,…

This Chunk Of Fool’s Gold Naturally Formed In These Cubes

The golden color and shine of iron pyrite (which is responsible for its nickname, “fool’s gold”) may grab all the attention. But, there is another element of its appearance that is every bit as dramatic: It’s tendency to form into these incredibly precise, almost machine-like cubes.So how does it do it? The question was raised…

If You Want To Rant More Eloquently About Television, Read This Book

We all obsess endlessly about television, but we don’t really understand how those wavy images appear on our screens. Themore we try to demystify the process of making TV, the more mysterious it seems. That’s why it’s great that veteran TV writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach has written an ultimate book of knowledge. Grillo-Marxuach, who created the…

If Comic Heroes and Villains Had Business Cards, They’d Look Like This

Some of these make more sense (“Peter Parker, Photographer, The Daily Bugle”) than others (would Natasha Romanoff really have the need for business cards?), but The Vocations of Heroes & Villains is nonetheless an art print that’s quite fun to look at. Created by (and for sale at, in signed/numbered form) Pop Chart Lab, the…

The Live Action Rats Of Nimh Movie Is Still Happening

After six years of radio silencethere’s been movement on the new Rats of Nimh movie. That’s right – they’re making a live action Nimh movie with CG rats and real people. Imagine how horrifying Nicodemus is going to look! Deadline is reporting MGM has acquired the rights to Robert C. O’Brien books Mrs. Frisby &…

Take A Moment To Marvel At These Unusually Intimate Owl Portraits

It is notoriously difficult to photograph an owl. The stately birds tend to be close-taloned with their trust, requiring several months to become comfortable with even one human handler – a fact that explains both the rareness of intimate owl portraiture, and the magnificence of these shots by photographer Brad Wilson. Above: A Western Screech…

Young Lois Lane Investigates A Teacher In This Prequel To Her YA Novel

Lois Lane heads from the pages of DC Comics to her very own Young Adult novel this May, but you can read a teaser of what’s to come with this new short story from Gwenda Bond detailing the young Lois’ first day at a new school — and she’s already getting herself primed for a…

Old Flames Alight On Archer… Oh, And There’s A Mission, Too

This week’s Archer is all about lust… with a bit of secret agent-y stuff thrown in, as well as a zillion tranquilizer darts, some unseemly Tunt family history, a very hungry plant, and some of this seasons’ best rapid-fire one-liners. Spoilers follow! “Pocket Listing” begins by tossing a bone to all us Malory fans, whose…

The Exact Moment When Firefly Overcame My Considerable Skepticism

I’d love to pretend that I was a devotee of Joss Whedon’s Firefly from the first moment I saw it. But I can’t. I’d watched and enjoyed Buffy and Angel, but I was not sure what to make of this “space Western” show. As I watched, I scratched my head and maybe snarked a bit.…

Ted Chiang explains everything to you! If you’re in Washington State, you ought to make a beeline to the University of Puget Sound, where Ted Chiang will give a talk on “Technology and the Narrative of the Self” on Tuesday. Top image: Christian Pearce, Contact the author at [email protected]. Or follow her on Twitter.

Here’s TV’s New Supergirl In Her Super-Outfit

The casting news for CBS’ Supergirl TV series have been coming both fast and furiously, but here’s the big reveal — the first look at star Melissa Benoist as Kara Zor-El, complete in her Supergirl uniform. And we are shocked to report that… well… she actually looks pretty great! The costume is clean, simple, iconic…