Good Morning, RVA: So long sweet summer (maybe)

After a weekend full of music, art, and sports, we return to regular ol’ life.

September 8, 2014; 6:59 AM • by Ross Catrow

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and dudes, I think today may offer a glimpse of fall? Temperatures will stay in the mid-70s, but a better than average chance of rain may…rain on your parade. It’s one of those days where folks will wear a sweater even though it’s still clearly too warm for sweaters.

Water cooler

Universal Sports Network announced it would air over 64 hours of original programming while broadcasting the 2015 UCI Road World Championships. From the previously linked article, I learned we are to call them “The Worlds.” That’s useful information, y’all.

Some shirtless dude climbed up and sat on top of the fence at RIR during this past weekend’s NASCAR race. That’s a crazy and dangerous thing to do, shirtless guy! RIR president Dennis Bickmeier confirmed that “no seats are on the fence.”

Last week, two RPD officers jumped in and swam across the canal to check on a woman sprawled on some railroad tracks. Turns out she was fine.

The founder of Chick-fil-a, Truett Cathy, died early this morning (PDF). Chick-fil-a will remain privately held and closed on Sundays.

Depending on when you read this, we’re a little over 24 hours out from Apple’s iPhone 6 event. It may also be an iWatch event, who knows. Apple will live stream the event on their website and via Apple TV.

Sports!

Squirrels axed Akron, going 3-1 in the series. They advance to the Eastern League Championship Series for the second time in franchise history. That series, against evil Binghamton, begins tomorrow. GO NUTZ.
Kickers fell 1-0 in their regular season finale. Fear not, the playoffs begin September 13th.
Nats struggled with the Phillies, finishing the series 1-2. They’ll host the Braves at 7:05 PM.
Hokies controlled OSU for much of the game and walked away with a marquee victory, 35-21. Buckeye coach Urban Meyer had never lost a home game until Saturday.
Wahoos started slow in the first quarter but cruised to a 45-13 win over the Spiders of Richmond.

This morning’s longread

Tastier, Healthier, And Animal-Free: Can Ethan Brown Reinvent Meat?

Fu-hung Hsieh and Harold Huff were experts in the use of extruders–megasize pasta machines that mix dry and liquid materials, cook the resulting slurry, and force it through a die on the end. Since the early 1990s, they’d been developing an extruder process involving heat and pressure that reorganizes plant proteins into a more animal-like alignment. “Protein in plants is like a bird’s nest, and you want to straighten it out,” says Huff. “And if you get it right, when it cools, it stays that way. And that’s where you get your fibers.”

This is both gross and fascinating.

Photo by: jasonjacksonrva