The Adventures of Tobasco da Gama

So, the Boston Skeptics this month, in lieu of a speaker, took a field trip to Boston’s Museum of Science to check out the Mythical Creatures exhibit. The outing as a whole was a huge success, with everybody seeming to have a lot of fun.

As for the MoS itself, I went there early this year, and I have to say that in the short time since that visit they made a lot of improvements. There are a few new exhibits, not least including Cliff the Triceratops, a nearly-complete Triceratops fossil recently donated to the museum (who has been rightly featured in a lot of their advertising), lots more live shows and lectures than I remember, and other fun stuff. In particular, there was a presentation about optical illusions given by a guy who Rebecca dubbed “Skeptical Grandpa” that everybody got a real kick out of. And of course the Theater of Electricity is always awesome.

The thing that impressed me most, however, was the theme of skepticism that ran through all the exhibits and presentations. The Mythical Creatures exhibit, of course, examined the origins of myths like sea serpents mermaids, and giant apes, as well as discussing how mythical creatures can cross-pollinate between cultures and become fixed when a certain definitive account gains prominence. But it went beyond that exhibit to the Theater of Electricity presenter (I want his job so badly) telling us how important it is to test ideas we have, not to mention the entirety Mind Games! presentation that Skeptical Grandpa gave. It warms the cockles of a skeptical heart, it does, to see a museum actually doing its job like that.

Anyway, I put up a bunch of photos on Flickr. Go check ‘em out.

First ihasatardis and now this:

It’s a memesplosion! Thanks a lot, Blake.

Q: What would you say if I told you that Nikola Tesla teamed up with Mark Twain to fight for World Peace and in the process were forced to battle with Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, Andrew Carnegie, and Lovecraftian cultist JP Morgan?

A: Nothing, because you face would be rocked clean off.

Seriously, The Five Fists of Science is hella fun. I have to admit honestly that often the pacing is not that great. It gets a little jerky, and I found myself occasionally wondering if I missed a page. The writer, Matt Fraction, tries to pull off some sequences with rapid cuts between scenes, and sometimes it falls flat. The art, meanwhile, is consistently beautiful. The worst I can say about the art is that some of the pages are a little too dark to make out the action; most of these take place at, you know, night time, so I can partly forgive that.

Really, though, this is another one of those things that you either know you’re going to love or not just from hearing the premise. If the idea of a steampunk adventure where Nikola Tesla builds and pilots a giant mecha doesn’t appeal to you, then God help you. Don’t buy this book. Otherwise, do. Definitely do.

I leave you with this thought, from the book’s character description of Marconi: “We know of no evidence that proves him the stress-eater we present in these pages, but it was funnier than making him a fascist.” Wisdom for the ages, truly.