Anansi Boys

Finished reading it last night. A good read, but a little bit disappointing after American Gods; given that it's set in the same world, I was expecting this to be as intricate and carefully plotted, but it turned out to be much lighter than its predecessor. In particular, the ending felt a little bit rushed - it didn't have that magic "suddenly the faces become a vase if you look at them differently" feel that Gaiman so often achieves.

It indulges in a facetious style of humour that works very well for Adams and Pratchett, but sits oddly on Gaiman ("hung in the air exactly the way bricks don't" sort of thing). Maybe I'll get used to him doing that, but not just yet.

Also (only very mild spoilers), the book involves tales about Anansi - a West African trickster god - outwitting various other god-creatures long long ago. He makes it clear that the creature names are not to be taken too literally, but I still couldn't help responding to one such tale with "A tiger? In Africa?" and there were a couple of other moments where the internal logic didn't quite make sense.

Honestly, I think I'd have enjoyed it more had it come from another author. All in all, it has plenty of positives - as usual, the characters are interesting (in particular, it's nice to see a cop who actually has some common sense) and there are plenty of ideas in there. But Gaiman's name sets high expectations for me, and they weren't quite met this time. But there'll be a next time, I'm sure :-)

Those wacky Creation Scientists

The Twin Cities Creation Science Association offers a splendidly useful list of topics for kids entering science fairs. Some of the highlights:

( The intro is a bit shaky: )

But the topics themselves are often hilarious:

- Make a computer model of the Flood currents.

- How much voltage or current can a human take before he is killed? Could do experiments on a plant.

- Make an experiment to show how Boyle's law applies to nebula.

- Trilobites prove Noah's flood because they are curled up or not?

- Is intelligence influenced by physical attributes. i.e. are blondes "dumb" or does skin color influence intelligence? (One last time, folks: 'i.e.' = 'that is', 'e.g.' = 'for example'. DO NOT confuse them.}

- Can a dog run a maze faster than a gerbil?

- Could a person function without thumbs? or What would it be like to not have thumbs?

- Does sea currents affect climate? Am me passed English Grammar 101?

- Is everything, including non-living things, made of cells?

- Why is blood blue in our veins but turns red when we are cut? If we are cut in a vacuum would the blood stay blue? Isn't it heartwarming to know that the people who want to tell us how life on Earth came about don't know what colour the blood in their own veins is?

- Were all the animals friendly to man before the Flood? Idea: raise several baby animals like snake and mouse together to see if they remain friends as they are older.

- Why do only mammals have hair? I'll answer that question when you show me the nipples on a red-kneed tarantula.

- Why do plants give us oxygen? When's the last time a Triffid knocked on your door and said "hey, dude, I made you some oxygen!"

- What color is our brain? This could be a really satisfying experiment, if brief.

- Why do cats always land on there feet when they fall? Do other animals do this? Aside from the bad spelling, I don't like where this is headed...

- How do mice react after 24 hours of confinement? What about other animals? For bonus points, how long can you keep them confined without access to a lawyer?

- What is God made of?

- How do we get headaches? After reading this list, I've got a pretty good idea.

- Why did God make pests like bugs and mosquitoes? Because without them, all His work on malaria, dengue fever, and sleeping sickness would've been wasted.

- Why do people believe in Evolution?

- What events caused them to become evolutionists? I was abused by satanic D&D-playing paleontologists.

- Why do we have pimples? Did God goof? Somehow, I'm guessing that there is a 'wrong answer' to this question.

- Why do cats hate dogs and dogs hate cats? Trick question - cats aren't in the Bible!

(In fairness, the author does note that "these are the raw questions [from a kids' brainstorming session] as I have not had time to clean them up or rephrase them in a statement for a hypothesis", but since it's dated five years ago that excuse doesn't hold too much water.)

In related news, closing arguments from the plaintiffs' lawyer in the Dover case. Yay him.

And unrelated, when pranking gets out of hand.