We all know the Acme Corporation. They were the ones who supplied Wile E. Coyote with all the gadgets and supplies he needed to catch the Road Runner. They didn't work all that well, but he could get them delivered out in the desert. Since those days, the name Acme has been used as a generic business name when you don't want to use a specific name. But wait, those Warner Brothers cartoons weren't the first to use Acme as a generic business name- they are just the most durable and universal media we have from 70+ years ago. Using Acme as a business name was already a Hollywood thing.

Even so, the name didn't spring up in Hollywood. It was a common real business name during the early 20th century, selected for a mundane but genius reason. While a few businesses that use the name Acme are still around, startups rarely select it because of its association with Wile E. Coyote and his many failures in using their products.

The city of San Francisco grew quickly and haphazardly starting with the California Gold Rush in 1848. Many thousands of residents were buried in the city's cemeteries, and over the years, they ran out of room. Besides, that valuable urban property was needed for other purposes. Burial in San Francisco was halted, and existing graves were dug up reburied elsewhere. Starting in 1930, they were sent to Colma for reburial, and the small town was established as the official burial site for San Franciscans.

But those reburials started as early as 1868, when thousands of graves were dug up from the Yerba Buena cemetery with a $10,000 appropriation from the city. That was not nearly enough money. When the funds ran out, the project was declared finished. The U.N. Plaza stands at the site today, above thousands of bodies still buried there. The same approach to moving graves went on in other cemeteries, which is why San Francisco now has a historical Chinese cemetery covered with a golf course and a Native American cemetery underneath a road and school. There are efforts to bring attention to and memorialize those forgotten graves that may never be recovered, which you can read about at Atlas Obscura.   

(Image credit: Library of Congress)

Cyriak Harris (previously at Neatorama) has been producing bizarre and surreal animations for almost twenty years now, although not as often as we'd like. Except for a commissioned music video, this is his first animated project he's shared in two years. Cyriak has a talent for turning everyday objects, often animals, into Eldrich horrors. The subject this time is a goose, which is a silly animal to begin with, but this one is a contortionist, as you would expect.

I noticed that this video comes with YouTube's fairly new transcript feature. What would it say besides "honk"? It doesn't even say that!

I will have to start checking out other videos' transcripts to see if they are as nonsensical.

When capital punishment wasn't enough of a deterrent for criminals to stop committing offenses, the British Parliament deliberated on what would be a better way to deter people from committing crimes, and that's when they passed the British Murder Act of 1751. It is considered quite brutal and even said to be a fate worse than death. Weird History tells us about the BMA of 1751 in the video above. - via Digg.

(Video credit: Weird History/Youtube)

It was when Dr. James Wade was doing research at the National Library of Scotland when he stumbled upon something rather extraordinary. In a 15th century manuscript, he read what seemed to be notes and details for a live comedy act. Today, we have stand-up comedians writing material and going on the road to test that material out on audiences. Sometimes, they would have spontaneous moments on stage creating comedy magic. I would think that minstrels, the entertainers of the Medieval Age, generally performed impromptu or extempore, but having this manuscript with the writer giving details of the sequences he would perform, is definitely rare especially for medieval literature. Read more about it on Sci Tech Daily. - via Metafilter

(Image credit: National Library of Scotland)

When I was a kid, I learned that there were four distinct tastes: sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. There is a fifth taste, umami, which is basically that savory sensation described by the Japanese. Apart from these five, researchers are saying that there is a sixth. Or, to be more precise, we can divide the salty taste into two different sensations: one where the saltiness is just right and you can enjoy the flavor of the food being accentuated by the salt, and the other when there's too much salt and you feel repulsed.

In the case of salt, scientists understand many details about the low-salt receptor, but a complete description of the high-salt receptor has lagged, as has an understanding of which taste bud cells host each detector.

“There are a lot of gaps still in our knowledge — especially salt taste. I would call it one of the biggest gaps,” says Maik Behrens, a taste researcher at the Leibniz Institute for Food Systems Biology in Freising, Germany. “There are always missing pieces in the puzzle.”

In our culture, we have a condiment made of fermented fish or shrimp paste with salt. If you eat a handful of that, it tastes awful. It's not exactly bitter, but it's a repugnant taste. That's what high levels of salt must taste like. It's not salty the way we would define salty. It's a whole class altogether, and I think that's what taste researchers are looking into. Although, not everybody is convinced. Amber Dance writes about these nuances on Knowable.

(Image credit: Jason Tuinstra/Unsplash)

There have been several times when I have observed our dog moving while she sleeps, and I wondered whether she was having a dream. Of course, I couldn't know. Apparently, there are some animals that exhibit behavior similar to what humans do during REM sleep. Behavioral ecologist Daniela Rößler and her colleagues found that spiders seem to experience a similar rapid eye movement at particular intervals.

Though the spiders are motionless in the run-up to these REM-like bouts, the team hasn’t yet proved that they are sleeping. But if it turns out that they are — and if what looks like REM really is REM — dreaming is a distinct possibility, Rößler says. She finds it easy to imagine that jumping spiders, as highly visual animals, might benefit from dreams as a way to process information they took in during the day.

Furthermore, spiders aren't the only creatures that might be dreaming in their sleep. It is possible that bearded dragons, cuttlefish, octopuses and even pigeons also enter into a REM sleep state. Learn more at Knowable Mag.

(Video credit: Knowable Mag)

The video of octopuses punching fish is quite surprising and funny to me. I know animals display certain odd behaviors from time to time, but seeing an octopus sucker punch a fish is very amusing. What are the octopuses thinking when they do that? Is it a reflex reaction or was it intentional? Furthermore, what did the fish do to provoke the ire of the octopus? A paper suggests that the reason for this is that certain fish are taking advantage of the octopus on a hunt, and the octopus is merely retaliating.

On another note, Marina Wang from Hakai Magazine had created a comic based on a new study where researchers looked into the biomechanics of the octopus punch. Take a look at the comic here.

(Video credit: Hakai Magazine)

Research on artificial wombs have been ongoing for years, and some advisors for the US FDA are now in talks about moving forward to human trials, and how to navigate that delicate line. These devices are designed not to replace an actual human uterus, but merely as a means to help premature babies survive.

In most of the technologies, the infant would float in a clear “biobag,” surrounded by fluid. The idea is that preemies could spend a few weeks continuing to develop in this device after birth, so that “when they’re transitioned from the device, they’re more capable of surviving and having fewer complications with conventional treatment,” says George Mychaliska, a pediatric surgeon at the University of Michigan.

As with any technology, uncertainty surrounds its effectiveness with humans and since we will be dealing with human life, especially the most vulnerable of human life, it's going to be difficult to figure out how we can test the viability of this device. Despite tests having been done on animals, as with research similar to this like cloning, there is a degree of risk that might cross the line when it comes to the ethics of testing these procedures or devices on humans. MIT Technology Review looks into what human testing for artificial wombs will look like, when it might happen, and who might be the first test subjects.

(Image credit: Alexander Grey/Unsplash)

I love stand-up comedy specials. It's a great way for me to get a laugh once in a while. In the world of entertainment, comedians aren't usually equated with award-winning performances as with actors. In awards shows, they're usually the hosts and rarely the nominees, unless they are involved in a show or film wherein they are the producer or in Ricky Gervais' case for The Office, the creator. But the Golden Globes wants to change that and recently announced that they will be adding two new categories in their lineup which includes one for best performance in a stand-up comedy special.

The Best Performance in Stand-Up Comedy on Television recognizes outstanding work from a comic in a traditional stand-up format (or as a breakout comic in a troupe or ensemble). Comedy specials airing on broadcast, basic and premium cable, streaming and pay-per-view cable will considered. Projects must have a recognized distributor and individual social media accounts will not be eligible.

In response to this, several stand-up comedians shared their opinions on the latest addition.

(Image credit: Michel Grolet/Unsplash)

Designed and developed by the Sung Robotics Lab from the School of Engineering and Applied Science in the University of Pennsylvania, this tiny robot inspired by an origami design can do so many things despite having only one motor. CurveQuad is able to "self-fold and unfold, crawl, and steer, all using a single actuator."

(Video credit: Mashable)

The Nile river is officially the longest river in the world and coming at a close second is the Amazon river. The current measurements for both rivers are at 6,650 km and 6,400 km respectively. However, a group of explorers are on a quest to put a debate on which exactly is the longest river by going on a trip to the Amazon as they believe that the Amazon river is actually 7,000 km long.

“The Nile is like a worm and the Amazon is an anaconda,” 55-year-old Brazilian expedition leader Yuri Sanada, a seasoned explorer and film producer, recounts of his colleague’s metaphorical take on the Amazon’s volume, which carries four times more water than any other river.

The planned five-month-long expedition, due to set off in April 2024, aims to voyage the Amazon’s full length, using modern river-mapping satellite technology to scientifically prove once and for all that the Amazon is not just the world’s most voluminous river, but its longest.

More about this on CNN.

(Image credit: Ivars Utināns/Unsplash)

The research on deja vu's opposite, jamais vu, recently won an Ig Nobel Prize. It's that feeling when something that you have done routinely before starts becoming unfamiliar. I have certainly experienced deja vu before, but I don't think I have ever felt jamais vu, so I think it goes much deeper into our psyche and it might be even more serious than deja vu which I would often just pass off as a happy surprise or coincidence. I can move from it, but I guess if I were to experience jamais vu, it would be more disconcerting. The only thing I can think of that might be similar would be if someone were to forget how to walk or ride a bike. Ian Sample, of The Guardian, discusses the science behind jamais vu on this podcast with Dr. Akira O'Connor, one of the researchers into jamais vu.

(Image credit: Sander Sammy/Unsplash)

I'm quite skeptical about aliens. There, I said it. I haven't seen UFOs and I'm doubtful of the authenticity of photos purported to be of UFOs. I'm not sure whether eyewitness claims aren't simply hallucinations or fabricated stories of people who are seeking attention. However, I do concede that there are sightings of mysterious flying aircraft, and they might have a different, more plausible explanation other than aliens. NASA is just as concerned about these sightings as well and they are quite determined to get to the bottom of it. To prove how serious they are, they have actually formed a committee for these unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP).

(Image credit: Albert Antony/Unsplash)

You've had those moments I bet, when you're trying to tell a story to a friend or you're trying to make a point in an argument or just sharing a witty anecdote at your family reunion, and you stop halfway through your sentence because you can't seem to remember a particular word and you say that it's at the tip of your tongue. It's a common occurrence and we oftentimes just shrug it off because, as we are often bombarded with too much information every day, it's impossible to have a perfect recall of everything, unless you have an eidetic memory. Greig de Zubicaray, a professor of neuropsychology at Queensland University of Technology, says that it's normal for a human thing, but you should be concerned if this were to happen more frequently and with a broad range of words, name, and numbers. It might be a sign of a neurological disorder.

(Image credit: Brooke Cagle/Unsplash)