The Mongolian Death Worm is a cryptid reported to exist in the Gobi Desert. It is generally considered a cryptozoological creature, one whose sightings and reports are disputed or unconfirmed. There are a number of extraordinary claims by Mongolian locals (such as the ability of the worm to spew forth a yellow poison that is lethal on contact, and its purported ability to kill at a distance by means of electric discharge). However, there are no known reliable sightings.
Category: WWWow
Wednesday’s Wonderful World Of Wikipedia: The Monty Hall Problem
The paradox is this: When playing “Let’s Make A Deal“, do the player’s chances of getting the car (behind door number 1, 2, or 3) increase by switching doors once a guess has been made (so technically it’s down to two doors at that point)? Surprisingly, the answer is Yes and the Monty Hall Problem explains why.
Wednesday’s Wonderful World Of Wikipedia: L’Arbre du Ténéré
L’Arbre du Ténéré was once considered the most isolated tree on planet with 400 kilometers of Saharan desert separating it from the nearest tree. This week on Wednesday’s Wonderful World of Wikipedia, find out what happened to it and where it is now.
Wednesday’s Wonderful World Of Wikipedia: Tetris Effect
The Tetris effect is the ability of any activity to which people devote sufficient time and attention to begin to dominate their thoughts, mental images, and dreams.
Wednesday’s Wonderful World Of Wikipedia: Fictional Medicines & Drugs
As an anecdote (haha) to last weeks WWWoW, here is a list of fictional medicines and drugs. It should be noted that some of the items listed may be used as both medicine and drug, or in other capacities, but fictional works are often vague on such distinctions. Grouping is done by what seems most likely. My favorite on this list is probably Dylar, from the novel White Noise, a psychoactive drug that is supposed to remove the fear of death.
Wednesday’s Wonderful World Of Wikipedia: Fictional Diseases & Toxins
This is an exhaustive list of nonexistent, named medical conditions which appear in fiction which includes diseases that have evolved naturally, artificially engineered biological weapons, hereditary diseases, magical diseases, and technology-based diseases. I think my favorite is Primary Vocabularyitis, from a episode of Bewitched titled “Samantha the Bard”, that causes Samantha Stephens to speak in rhyme.
As a bonus, here is a list of fictional toxins.