Good Morning, RVA: Mild Monday

Whether or not you’re greeted with dense fog this morning, it’s still Monday wherever you are.

August 4, 2014; 6:59 AM • by Ross Catrow

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Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and the National Weather Service has issued a dense fog advisory through 9:00 AM. Expect visibility of a quarter mile or less and possibly hazardous driving conditions on your way to work. It looks fine and clear from where I sit, but your mileage may vary. Besides all that: highs in the mid-80s, humid, and a small chance of rain this afternoon.

Water cooler

You may have noticed that there’s an NFL team in Richmond. However that makes you feel be prepared to double those feelings, because starting today, the Patriots join Washington for three days of combined practice. I predict Tom Brady sightings to become Richmond’s new Cheetah Cam. In fact, I wonder if we could just get a Tom Brady cam…

Guardians of the Galaxy obliterated the August box office record with a $94 million opening, besting The Bourne Ultimatum by almost $25 million. Somehow, for reasons completely unknown to scientists, this year’s Transformers movie had a better opening weekend.

Tomorrow is National Night Out! The Richmond Police Department has a list of dozens of civic associations and where they’ll be hanging out (PDF), doing the neighborly thing. Join them! Resistance is futile!

Sports!

• Squirrels have the day off after four straight losses to Altoona.
• Kickers hammered the Wilmington Hammerheads FC, 3-1.
• Nats split the series with the Phillies, blanking them in the last two games. They take on the Orioles at home tonight at 7:05 PM.

This morning’s longread

Innovation Starvation

Here’s Neal Stephenson on the role ambitious (as opposed to dystopian) science fiction can have in producing real engineering and advancement. Arizona State University has created Project Hieroglyph for such stories, the first volume of which goes on sale this September.

In early 2011, I participated in a conference called Future Tense, where I lamented the decline of the manned space program, then pivoted to energy, indicating that the real issue isn’t about rockets. It’s our far broader inability as a society to execute on the big stuff. I had, through some kind of blind luck, struck a nerve. The audience at Future Tense was more confident than I that science fiction had relevance–even utility–in addressing the problem.

Photo by: JOzPhotography

This morning’s Instagram

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August 4, 2014 6:59 AM 0