Good Morning, RVA: Let us begin

Rain in the forecast, but don’t let that stop you!

July 8, 2015; 6:56 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: mr_mayer

Good morning, RVA! It’s 76 °F, and today’s forecast is a lot like yesterday’s but with a pretty good chance of rain in the afternoon and cooler temperatures throughout. If you’re headed to the pool, do so early; if you’ve got a happy hour planned, pick an indoors spot.

Water cooler

The RTD has done such an incredible job running fantastic, thoughtful, anti-Confederacy editorials. Today, however, they chose to publish this one by a former commander of the Virginia Sons of the Confederate Veterans. You can probably guess what it says. Related: here’s a Confederate flag tomato over at Style Weekly.

Yesterday, Susan Howson sat down with the brilliant and charming Secretary of Education Anne Holton to discuss the state of learnin’ in the commonwealth. How do we educate future Virginians? How do we reform SOLs? Why is she so inspiring? These are all topics covered.

Remember 23rd Street? It may have disappeared from your memory as crews have been hard at work restoring cobblestones ahead of the Big Bike Race™. But today, at 2:45 PM, it reopens! With restored cobblestones and a fancy ceremony.

There was a sanitation worker strike, did you miss it? I wouldn’t blame you if you did, it was short-lived.

Look at this picture of Pluto! Amazing! The New Horizons probe is fast approaching the once-planet and will send back lots of fascinating data and pictures across the vast, cold darkness of space. You can follow its progress here–just about six days left until its super close flyby.

Sports!

• Squirrels fell to Harrisburg 1-2. The series against the Senators continues tonight at 7:05 PM. Get your tickets here.
• Nats were blanked by the Reds last night, 0-5. They’ve got one more chance tonight at 7:05 PM to avoid the sweep.

What to expect

• Things, five of ’em, to do with your family
• There’s this Hamlet coming to town that may blow your mind
• Our Family Finances column returns!

This morning’s longread

New Shit

Get ready, there’s some seriously interesting but gag-worthy stuff in this long piece that’s, ultimately, about poop transplants (fecal microbiota transplants).

Intestinal flora have also been linked to disorders like autism, asthma, depression, anxiety, obesity, and hypertension. Recent neurological studies on mice tease citizen-scientists with enticing prospects. In one study, replacing the pathogenic microbiota with healthy species alleviated core behavioral aspects of the autism spectrum. In another, obese mice injected with bacteria from thin humans dropped in BMI; in another, mice known to exhibit anxiety-prone behaviors “became much more adventurous explorers” when they received infusions from their bolder rodent cohorts.

This morning’s Instagram

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July 8, 2015 6:56 AM 0