Good Morning, RVA: Here’s comes the rain again

Cloudy with a chance of showers.

November 6, 2014; 7:02 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: ecstaticist

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F. Like yesterday, today’s highs should top 70 °F. Unlike yesterday, there’s a chance of showers for just about the entire day. After this weather moves through, temperature will start to drop–maybe for good!

Water cooler

The senate election between Mark Warner and Ed Gillespie is still mostly of too close to call. Warner leads by over 15,000 votes, which is within the margin that allows Gillespie to call for a recount, but those results won’t be certified until November 24th. Get ready for 18 more days of this story.

The RTD has a piece about about the City’s ongoing efforts to collect $50,000 in unpaid meals tax from Hardywood…tax the brewery was originally told they did not need to collect or pay. This is an old issue, and one that I figured had been settled by now. Hardywood’s attorney cuts to the quick, saying it’s just “the latest in a series of procedural deficiencies, inconsistent messaging and apparent lack of sincere interest” from the City.

Sciencey celebrity chef Alton Brown was in town yesterday for his live show at the Carpenter Theatre, and he spent the day consuming a huge (and maybe gross) amount of local food. Here’s the list: Lamplighter, Sally Bells, Black Sheep, Saison Market, Sub Rosa, Proper Pie, Sugar Shack, and Pasture. Dang dude!

The full aftermath of the failed Orbital Sciences rocket launch is still unclear. Luckily, the launchpad appears mostly undamaged, but no one seems to know who’s gonna pay what for repairs. Also it appears that Orbital will stop using Soviet rocket engines that were literally designed and built in the 1970s.

Did y’all see that West Virginians elected 18-year-old Saira Blair to their House of Delegates? When she defeated the Republican incumbent earlier this year she was too young to vote.

This morning’s longread

Low post

The most interesting thing I’ve ever read about a basketball hoop.

As you can see, the post was filled with concrete near the bottom, and you may be surprised that a solid plug of concrete like that broke off. You shouldn’t be. Concrete is quite weak in tension–a rough rule of thumb is that its tensile strength is one-tenth of its compressive strength–which means that it needs to be reinforced if it’s going to carry significant bending loads. As the steel was eaten away, the concrete was forced to carry more of the load, and it was just a matter of time before there’d be a wind strong enough to break it.

This morning’s Instagram

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November 6, 2014 7:02 AM 0