The headstone you see above stands in Rushes Cemetery in Wellesley, Ontario. Underneath are buried Henrietta Bean and Susanna Bean, who were not sisters, but the first two wives of Samuel Bean. The women did not know each other, yet share a grave. But what is all that cryptic writing? The stone sat for more than 100 years while people tried to decipher the code. So many took rubbings that the stone became illegible and had to be replaced. Finally the code was cracked in the 1970s. You can read what it says at Atlas Obscura. 

But why did Dr. Bean bury two wives in the same grave? He married Henrietta in 1865, and she died that same year after seven months of marriage. No cause of death was recorded. The next year, Bean married Susanna, who died after only ten months of marriage. Again, no cause of death was recorded. Samuel Bean married a third time and had five children, but by then he'd given up practicing medicine and became a man of the cloth. A bit of historical digging shows that Dr. Bean may not have been a qualified physician at all, which raises more questions than it answers. -Thanks, WTM! 

(Image credit: Mac Armstrong) 

Nordic people are known for growing tall, but Jóhann Kristinn Pétursson was an outlier even in his native Iceland. Born in 1913, Pétursson was a normal child until puberty pulled a fast one. At 15, he started growing quickly, and in just a few years he had reached the height of 7 feet, 8 inches (2.34 meters). All his family, including eight siblings, were of average height. Pétursson had trouble finding a job where he would fit in, so he decided to make a living as an exhibition in 1934. In other words, he ran away to join the circus. 

Pétursson exhibited himself in various European countries until after World War II, when he was discovered by the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. He moved to the US in 1948 and became known as The Viking Giant or sometimes The Icelandic Giant. Pétursson was not considered to have acromegaly, as his body was perfectly proportioned, just big. He weighed over 350 pounds, which made walking difficult. Read about the career of the Viking Giant and see lots of pictures at Vintage Everday.  -via Memo of the Air 

After many recent videos designed to scare the pants off viewers, Kurzgezagt finally gives us a lighthearted yet interesting video with a look at the sunfish. How dumb can this fish be, compared to other fish in the sea? It's a pretty low bar, so it really doesn't matter, but gives them a great excuse to use all the stupidity jokes they have without hurting someone's feelings. The story of the sunfish is really about the many ways it differs from other fish in its bizarre adaptations in filling a unique niche in the ecosystem. 

The sunfish took a left turn in the development of their biology. They do all the fish things -eat, reproduce, and avoid predators- the hard way. But somehow it works for them, which is why they've been around for so long. Who are we to argue with Mother Nature? This video is 8:45; the rest is advertising. -via Laughing Squid 

Metropolis is a major city in the US where Superman fights crime. The fictional city was always meant to be generic, formed from "metro," meaning city, and "polis," meaning city. But as children reading comic books, we always saw it as New York City. You might be surprised to learn that in the earliest Superman comic book, Clark Kent lived and worked in Cleveland. After relocating to the fictional Metropolis, clues in the comics pointed to it being New York, and it was explained that Metropolis was near Gotham City. Both cities later moved to different states. 

The 2013 movie Man of Steel seemed to place Metropolis in Chicago. But the 2025 Superman has numerous clues that Metropolis is now in Delaware. The map above, enlarged in this reddit post, appears briefly in the film. The city is situated by Delaware Bay. The streets are named after people who worked on the film or on other Superman movies. It is also stamped with "Greater Cleveland Partnership." Those who know recognize a lot of Cleveland in the film, because a lot of it was filmed there. So why Delaware? Read the history of the city that moves from place to place at Big Think. 

Humans as a whole tend to distrust anything new, or anything outside their communities' long-held traditions. Those in power felt particularly threatened by anything outside the norm, because people willing to think outside the box or try something new might just be a threat to them. And in many bygone societies, the punishment might be death. YouTuber Chill Dude Explains (previously at Neatorama) has eleven examples of things that are commonplace today, but were once a threat to civilization. Not all of them would necessarily lead to a death sentence, but they were pretty serious transgressions. Well, maybe not potatoes- the consequence of death was natural if you didn't know how to use them properly. Some of these activities could be overlooked on their own, but were used as additional evidence in a witchcraft trial, which led to death. There is a serious lack of dates connected to each story, and a location is rare, but I've posted about enough of these to know they are real.  

Many people consider fall the best of seasons because we get relief from the heat and see the kids go back to school where they belong. And of course there's Halloween. But when you think about it, the whole season is full of traditions, from bonfires to football to Black Friday shopping. Some are ancient while others were dreamed up fairly recently because anything that's fun tends to be repeated. Many came out of harvest festivals as a way to show off and indulge in a bountiful crop of one sort or another. Others needs some further explanation. For example, the US holds elections on the first Tuesday in November because that made it convenient for farmers to participate. Black Friday is said to be the day that business are finally "in the black" for the year and the rest is profit, but that's not the origin of the tradition or the term. Read about 25 autumn traditions and where they came from at Mental Floss. 

(Image credit: Caleb Zahnd) 

The movie Superman will always be referred to as James Gunn's Superman or Superman 2025 to distinguish it from the other movies, TV shows, games, and other media with the same simple title. All of them expected to be the definitive version when they came out. This one was only released about seven weeks ago, so you will be forgiven if you intend to see it but haven't yet. According to this Honest Trailer, it's a lot. The first Superman movie specifically designed for Generation Alpha, it is full of social media and fake news. Supes and Lex Luthor aren't carrying the picture alone, though- there's a whole new roster of characters with super powers to meet, both good guys and bad guys, plus monsters, and a dog who steals the show. Screen Junkies pokes fun at Superman, but you get the idea that they enjoyed watching it. It's available for digital download now, and will be on DVD and blu-ray later this month.  

The 25 Greatest Sports Movies of All Time, Ranked https://t.co/6Gd0vggsMj

— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 21, 2025

The latest "list we can all argue about" gives us the 25 greatest sports movies of all time. There are a lot of truly great movies on the list, but they should have made it a list of 50, because everyone has a favorite that's not included. The movies that didn't make the list include Chariots of Fire, The Natural, Field of Dreams, Bend it Like Beckham, Happy Gilmore, The Mighty Ducks, Caddyshack, Cool Runnings, Major League, Miracle, Rudy, North Dallas Forty, The Karate Kid, and I, Tonya. Yes, there are a lot of sports movies. 

I'm sure you'll disagree about some of the rankings. You can quibble with the definition of "sports" for this list. Cheerleading, okay, but is pool really a sport? You can also quibble about the definition of "movie," since one entry was made in five parts to be shown on TV. Now that we've gotten those arguments out of the way, go see the list of the 25 greatest sports movies at The Hollywood Reporter and find something you'll want to watch or rewatch tonight. -via Metafilter 

Istanbul is famous for its many street cats, but Casablanca in Morocco also has thousands of technically homeless cats. And like Istanbul, they are fed and treated well so they are quite friendly to strangers. 

Dr. Meryem Imrani runs a veterinary clinic in Casablanca. A cat came to the clinic by himself when he wasn't feeling well. Maybe someone in the neighborhood steered him in the right direction, or maybe he just knew it was the right place. In any case, Imrani treated him for a viral infection and nursed him back to health, and Rico never left. Instead, he settled in as a clinic cat and started taking care of feline patients himself. Rico turned out to be very social and empathetic to clinic patients, at least the cats, calming their fears, grooming them, keeping them company overnight. He even donated his blood at one point. Rico has found his calling. 

You can see more of Rico and Imrani's patients at Instagram.

Here's a kind of internet post you might find on a holiday when no one feels like working, and Labor Day would be that holiday. Cracked found a reddit post asking for examples of badass heroes (or otherwise brave interesting people) of history that few people have heard of. Reading through the entries, I recognized some of these that have been featured right here at Neatorama. Unfortunately, the reddit post is seven years old and there's no link to it. The entries on the list are screenshots, so any links that were originally provided are not there. Well, it's a holiday and I have nothing better to do, so I looked up every one of them for you. Go read the short versions of the stories at Cracked, and if some name compels you to find out more, you can follow these links. 

29. Digby Tatham-Warter 
28. Subutai 
27. Roman von Ungern-Sternberg 
26. The Berserker of Stamford Bridge 
25. Mannerheim 
24. Michael I of Romania 
23. Zenobia 
22. Olga of Kiev 
21. Vera Atkins 
20. Carolus Rex  
19. Chiune Sugihara 
18. Julie d'Aubigny 
17. Phùng Thị Chính 
16. Wojtek 
15. Miyamoto  Musashi 
14. Bass Reeves 
13. Exekias 
12. Mary Elizabeth Bowser 
11. Yi Sun-Shin 
10. Tokugawa Ieyasu 
9. Vasil Levski 
8. Witold Pilecki 
7. Benkei 
6. Mariya Oktyabrskaya 
5. Mad Jack Churchill 
4. Lucrezia Tornabuoni 
3. Bertha Benz 
2. Ching Shih 
1. Ada Lovelace 

This should keep you busy for a while. 

Eric posts videos about his hobby of restoring rusty antique tools, and has built quite a following over the years. However, the latest video on his channel Hand Tool Rescue, months in the making, veered off into left field. He had found a free packet of seeds distributed in a seed catalog issued in 1926 (so the seeds were actually formed from 1925 tomatoes). Could he get them to germinate? His regular viewers were shocked when he revealed early in the video that he has a PhD in plant science, sparking comments about this being the worst tool restoration video yet. 

The video is long, 24 minutes, but often funny and you can skip through if you don't want to learn all about his experiments with different germination media and his various failures and successes. But if you watch the whole thing, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat rooting for the survival of a (spoiler alert) single tomato seedling. -via Metafilter 

When the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima in 1945, it was delivered by a Boeing B-29 Superfortress named the Enola Gay. Strangely, the development of the airplane cost way more than the entire Manhattan Project that gave us the bomb. That's because the B-29 bomber was so different from planes that came before. 

Modern long distance air travel is a matter of enduring hours in a crowded fuselage. But at the beginning of World War II, bomber crews flying at 30,000 feet had to wear oxygen masks and heated suits to survive at that altitude. The US needed a long-range bomber to reach the Asian theater and cover the great distances from our Pacific bases to Japan and other targets. That meant developing a pressurized cabin to mitigate the dangers of high-altitude flight. Other innovations in the B-29 included remote control bombing and three-point landing gear. While these features seem commonsense today, starting from scratch and getting them to work at wartime speed involved four factories, thousands of workers, and competition between companies and engineers. Read the story of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress that laid the groundwork for modern airlines at BBC Future.  -via Damn Interesting 
    
(Image credit: wallycacsabre) 

Yesterday, The Ohio State University Buckeyes played the Texas Longhorns, and we have the opportunity to enjoy the halftime show without having to watch the game. That may sound weird to sports fans, but some of us care little for football. The Best Damn Band in the Land is all brass and percussion, with a saxophone, keyboard, bass guitar, and drums supplementing on a stage in the middle. They are known for their musical ability and clever formations that illustrate the song lyrics or the theme of the show, as we have seen before.  

The university held five days of tryouts for TBDBITL only a couple of weeks ago, and the band received their first new uniforms since 2006. In the short time since then, they have practised diligently and put together a new show featuring familiar uptempo Gospel songs that work surprisingly well for a marching band.  

Incidentally, Ohio State beat Texas 14-7. 

By area, Canada is the second largest country on earth (after Russia and discounting Antarctica), but it's 37th in population. A population map of Canada shows where the people are concentrated, right near the southern border. Most of that border between the US and Canada is at the 49th parallel, yet the majority of Canadians live south of that parallel in the east. Why don't more people live in the north? Duh- because it's cold up there. But honestly, there's a lot more to it. 

Canada's population is not just limited to the south- it's concentrated in three areas that are widely separated from each other. Tomas Pueyo at Uncharted Territories breaks down the historical, geological, and meteorological reasons that the St. Lawrence River, the Palliser Triangle, and Vancouver have so many people while the rest of the country is wide open spaces. He has an awful lot of interesting maps in the explanation. -via Nag on the Lake 

It's been said, often, that the US and Britain are two countries forever divided by a common language. And there are folks who will tell you that the language is not at all common, that it's two languages, and that you can only understand the other if you've been exposed to it quite a bit. I recall trying to share Monty Python and the Holy Grail with my kids, who refused to watch because they couldn't understand what was being said. Their loss.

There's a big ocean between the two countries, so it's no wonder that the pronunciation has diverged. But the United States is such a big country that Americans pronounce words differently depending on the area they are from. Laurence Brown has spent the last ten years contrasting Britain with America. In this video, he tells us about the American words that are not only pronounced differently from the British version, but also differently from other Americans. I'm sure there are some here that you (if you are American) pronounce in your own way. There's a 75-second skippable ad at 3:19.