The Guinea Worm

Imagine, for a moment, that you one day have a shooting pain in your leg.  You start to develop some rather common but troubling symptoms such as a fever, a rash, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness.  Maybe it's just the flu, you think.  Maybe it's something you ate.  Maybe bird flu finally got you, just like you were always afraid it would.

But then a blister develops.  Usually on your leg or foot.

You try to think of what could be causing this.  Was it that guy on the bus sneezing next to you while you rode to get your bagel?  That small child who was covered in sticky stuff that bumped into you at the mall?  Your coworker who showed up anyway despite coughing the whole day in the cubicle next to yours.  That bird.  That scruffy looking pigeon that followed you around the sidewalk and eyed you warily.  Surely, that bird had a hand in this.

What you don't know, and won't know until you finally give up and decide to soak your feet in a nearby pond while you walk your dog is that it's something much worse, much more terrifying...and something that, in another couple of years, nobody will ever need to worry about again.

I'm going a bit more "real" this time, by talking about the Guinea Worm, a parasite that has caused grief for too long across the world, and whose extinction is nigh.

Don't worry if you have a nervous stomach, I'm not posting any pictures of the worm.

Ask Erik: Episode Forty-Six

Here at Ask Erik we've spent a lot of time reading novels and comic books, playing video games, and watching television and movies in order to amass a deep vault of pop culture knowledge.  While constantly trying to still gather new information, it seems only prudent to share some of what we learned to help solve some of the world's greatest questions.

Will the next Olympics be any riskier or somehow safer than ones in large cities?  Do actors who are typecast for "bad guy" roles ever feel insulted by it?  Why can't people I know figure out that just because someone links to something on Facebook it doesn't mean it happened recently?  That girl accused of witchcraft in Oklahoma was in 2000, people, read the article!

...where was I?  Oh, right.  Once a week Erik tackles a question asked to him and tries to answer it in a method that handles the topic with the respect and attention it deserves.  Failing that, he'll at least try to make it funny so you don't regret the time spent reading it.

Ask Erik: Episode Twenty-Seven

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries. When Apple announces it has $140 billion stashed away, at what point does it stop being real money?  Is there a permanent divide between people from the opposite coasts?  If you ate a bunch of Japanese beetles, would you get hungry again in an hour?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.

Ask Erik: Episode Eighteen

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  What impact does Kickstarter have on smaller independent groups trying to get noticed?  Have we lost touch with simpler times with the bombardment of new technology? Does anybody else remember that the monster truck Bigfoot once was part of a cartoon cast of video game characters?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.

Ask Erik: Episode Sixteen

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  What are the odds of a meteor strike on Earth?  Why can't food scientists ever agree on what's healthy and what isn't healthy?  Why hasn't The Philanthropist been put on DVD yet?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.

Ask Erik: Episode Fifteen

Here at Ask Erik, we've spent a lot of time reading books and comics, watching movies, and browsing through the Internet in the hopes of finding the answers to life's biggest mysteries.  Is there such a thing as a perfect circle occurring in nature?  Why do certain colors influence our brains in certain ways?  What's the point of Delaware?

Having instead amassed a vault of useless knowledge stored in his head, Erik instead tackles your questions and tries to find the answers you care about (or a reasonable facsimile).  Or, if you don't care, he'll at least try to make you laugh and forget you just wasted time you could spend doing anything else.