Mary the elephant killed her handler on September 12, 1916, in Tennessee and the crowd demanded justice.

From an article at Blue Ridge Country by Joan Vannorsdall Schroeder:

Regardless of the details, the end was the same — a man dead. Justice to be served. … As valuable as Mary was, she had to go.

The problem was, how?

Guns, of course, were the first course of action. Just after Eldridge’s death, blacksmith Hench Cox fired his 32-20 five times at Mary; the story goes that the bullets hardly phased her. … But the circus manager stated, "There ain’t gun enough in this country that he could be killed"; another approach would have to be attempted.

Someone suggested electrocution: "They tried to electrocute her in Kingsport — they put 44,000 volts to her and she just danced a little bit," railroader Mont Lilly claimed. …

Other reports suggest a third execution method: hooking Mary to two opposing engines and dismembering her, or crushing her between two facing engines. Both were dismissed as too cruel.

And so it was decided, instead, that Murderous Mary would be hung by the neck from a derrick car the next day.

Sad, yet fascinating article: Link – via Fogonazos, Thanks Aberron!

Bone Idol. From the Michael White, the maker of Snowfun (previously on Neatorama here), here is Bone Idol – just in time for Halloween! This one above is ET Bone Home *chuckle*.

Link – Thanks Andy!

384-322 B.C.E.
Nationality: Greek

Group Alliances:
"Angry" Ancients
"Vicious" Virtue Ethicists

AKA: Careless Aristotle
"Spare Us" Aristotle
Aris-Total Destruction
"Beware His Throttle" Aristotle
The Philosopher

Powers: walking

Weaknesses: some people think maybe he could have taught Alexander the Great a little more about diplomacy

Notes: The high quality of this product is ensured by the four causes at work in the manufacture of the toy: the plastic, the assembly line robots, the designers’ creative ideas, and the profit from retail sales to spoiled children. Also, the following reasoning establishes that children will love the Aristotle action figure: All Philosophical Powers® figures are totally awesome. This toy is a Philosophical

Firedrich Nietzche
1844-1900
Nationality: German

Group Alliances:
"Exacerbating" Existentialists
"Aggressive" Atheists
"Reprehensible" Relativists

AKA: Beat-ya Nietzsche
Nice Guy Freddie
Right Said Fred
Zarathustra

Powers: remarkably original, ahead of his time

Weaknesses: crazy

From the website:

Using DNA testing, scientists have discovered what is believed to be the first terrestrial mammal found in Europe in decades: a mouse with a big head, ears, eyes and teeth that lives in a mountainous area of Cyprus.

The mouse was native to the eastern Mediterranean island, survived the arrival of man on Cyprus and could be considered a "living fossil," experts said.

Link

Turn a regular pumpkin in to something special with Ray’s Pumpkin-Carving Tutorial, featuring wonderful 3-d carved images. If you can recreate these works of art, you’ll be the envy of the neighborhood! Link | via J-Walk Blog

I want to welcome Miss Cellania as a new editor at Neatorama.

Many of this blog’s regular readers know Miss C. from her own blog at www.misscellania.com (don’t forget the www!). It’s a fantastic set of funny and interesting links, jokes and pictures that she compiled *every day*!

I’ve co-blogged with Miss C. before, and came away very impressed with her preternatural link hunting ability, her endless energy (I’ve gotten emails from her at 3AM – does she ever sleep?) and her sense of humor.

It is a pleasure to welcome Miss Cellania as Neatorama’s first editor.

Take a look at your calendar. Tomorrow is Friday the 13th!

You may not take drastic safety precautions every Friday the 13th, but are you totally immune to the superstition? Given the choice, would you get married, start a new job or close on a house on Friday the 13th? Most Americans wouldn’t, even though they don’t put much stock in the idea. Superstition has a way of creeping up on people when they’re in a particularly vulnerable state.

How Stuff Works explains why we associate Friday the 13th with bad luck. Link

The Whitney Music Box is a musical realization of the motion graphics of John Whitney as described in his book “Digital Harmony”. The dots are arranged to trigger notes on a chromatic scale when they pass the line. The dots are each timed to a different speed, but they synchronize themselves at constant intervals. Its a bit hard to describe, but you’ll love seeing it in action. There are 17 music box variations. Link