By David Rutter

You always hope to be open enough to your own ignorance to seek intellectual redemption.
So, as an ancient habit, I collect “wait, wut?” news-of-the-day items just to make sure I still can be shocked, appalled and mystified, occasionally about myself.
Over the years, your field of vision shifts and drifts, so that your amazements do as well. If the shift is positive, you become self-actualized. If the shift does not open your mind, then you stay the same useless reprobate you always were.
But here’s a starting point for this discussion. The Planet Earth is a relentless hot mess, and the human creatures living upon it seem unsuited to survive for very long.
The news we write about ourselves proves that.

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Posted on June 10, 2020

By Lauren Weber/Kaiser Health News

When the American Medical Association moved its headquarters to a famous Chicago skyscraper in 2013, the floor-to-ceiling views from the 47th-floor conference space were a spectacular selling point.
But now, those glimpses of the Chicago River at the Ludwig Mies van der Rohe-designed landmark, now known as AMA Plaza, come with a trade-off: navigating the elevator in the time of COVID-19.
Once the epitome of efficiency for moving masses of people quickly to where they needed to go, the elevator is the antithesis of social distancing and a risk-multiplying bottleneck. As America begins to open up, the newest conundrum for employers in cities is how to safely transport people in elevators and manage the crowd of people waiting for them.

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Posted on June 10, 2020

By Phil Galewitz/Kaiser Health News

After nearly two months at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Erica Schoenradt was making plans in May to see her dentist for a check-up.
Then she received a notice from Swish Dental that the cost of her next visit would include a new $20 “infection control fee” that would likely not be covered by her insurer.
“I was surprised and then annoyed,” said Schoenradt, 28, of Austin, Texas. She thought it made no sense for her dentist to charge her for keeping the office clean since the practice should be doing that anyway. She canceled the appointment for now.
Swish Dental is just one of a growing number of dental practices nationwide that in the past month have begun charging patients an infection control fee between $10 and $20.

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Posted on June 9, 2020

By Reportlinker

The Global Premature Ejaculation Treatment Market is expected to grow from $2.3 million in 2018 to $4.3 million by the end of 2025, according to a new report (up to $1,090 off until June 10).

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Posted on June 4, 2020

By David Rutter

News from the war front with your friendly WTF correspondent trying to be much whiter. That means standing outside a Sport Clips haircut joint with an AR-15 and camo face wraps and demanding “a little more off the top, please.”
Give me a clipper cut or give me death, bitches.
1. How big: Every time WTF watches the president walk in public, we never worry about what new obscenity he will inflict on democracy. Each time is more objectionable than the last. No drama in predictability.
But what we really care about is Spanx. It is clear to WTF based on conversations with female contributors that The Orange 1 almost certainly wears the elastic foundation garment to keep it all inside.

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Posted on June 3, 2020

By Sophie Strosberg/Undark

Let’s face it: We’re all germaphobes now.
Anecdotal reports suggest that health anxiety disorders are on the rise in the U.S., in part due to a pandemic-driven fear of contamination and germs.
Even people who aren’t experiencing clinically significant health anxiety are likely to be fixated on cleanliness. Witness the depleted shelves of hand sanitizer and disinfectant in just about every store you encounter.
I’m no exception. I used to wash my hands after using the bathroom. Now I wash them any time I pass by a bathroom. I used to give a laugh when my young daughter ate food off the ground. Now I shout at her if she even comes within 10 feet of another human being in public.

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Posted on June 2, 2020

By Atlas Obscura

“In this episode of ‘Show & Tell,’ Atlas Obscura co-founder Dylan Thuras and staff writer Jessica Leigh Hester speak with six employees of the Field Museum in Chicago about their personal collections.
“Among them are a fluorescent scorpion, a taxidermied squirrel, a miniature replica of a living room, and a unique pinned wasp! Isolated and unable to interact with the museum’s natural history exhibits, these Field Museum employees still have access to wonder.”

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Posted on May 30, 2020

By The Museum of Science and Industry

“Ride the rails with a track-level, 360° view aboard a model train in The Great Train Story exhibit. Exhibit designer John Llewellyn is your guide for the sights along the way in a scale-model round-trip between Seattle and Chicago.”

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Posted on May 26, 2020

By NASA

NASA is naming its next-generation space telescope currently under development, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST), in honor of Nancy Grace Roman, NASA’s first chief astronomer, who paved the way for space telescopes focused on the broader universe.
The newly named Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope – or Roman Space Telescope, for short – is set to launch in the mid-2020s. It will investigate long-standing astronomical mysteries, such as the force behind the universe’s expansion, and search for distant planets beyond our solar system.
Considered the “mother” of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, which launched 30 years ago, Roman tirelessly advocated for new tools that would allow scientists to study the broader universe from space. She left behind a tremendous legacy in the scientific community when she died in 2018.

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Posted on May 21, 2020

By Landmarks Illinois

Landmarks Illinois has created a new grant fund in celebration of the life and work of acclaimed civil rights leader, educator, historian, author and WWII veteran Timuel D. Black, Jr.
The Landmarks Illinois Timuel D. Black, Jr. Grant Fund for Chicago’s South Side will provide small grants to support planning and capital projects that work to preserve and promote the history, culture and architecture of Chicago’s South Side, which Black has called home for the majority of his life.

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Posted on May 20, 2020