Good Morning, RVA: Stay hydrated

Today’s mission, should you choose to accept it: Avoid heat stroke.

June 16, 2015; 7:02 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: Gerwin Filius

Good morning, RVA! It’s 77 °F. Today’s forecasted high of 99 °F is 12 degrees hotter than the average, and cracking 100 °F would tie the all-time high set back in 1991. Basically: It’s hot. There’s also a slight chance for isolated thunderstorms this afternoon.

This is no-joke hot weather! Stay cool, stay hydrated, check on your friends and neighbors to make sure they’re doing the same!

Water cooler

OK, so. Remember yesterday when a bunch of kids from Open High protested the apparent cutting of several teacher positions from their school? Turns out RPS was going through a “leveling process” (which is not a new process) to reallocate teachers systemwide based on need and class size. You can read the official RPS release about that here. Undeterred, students, parents, and Marty Jewell headed to the School Board meeting where they convinced the board to delay any decisions. Missing from the conversation, or at least from media coverage of this conversation, are the folks that will see an increase in the number of teachers at their schools and a reduction of class size as a result of this redistribution. Regardless, whether you’re incensed at the School Board for shuffling teachers around or incensed at the School Board for being paralyzed into inaction, you can probably agree that the communication to teachers, parents, and students in this situation could have been better.

10 thumbs up emojis for the RTD’s Ned Oliver for following up on that bogus Belle Isle boozefest letter to the editor. With the heat way, way up, and the crime way, way down, maybe spend a few days of your freshly baked summer vacation down on the island?

Jeb! Bush officially declared his candidacy for president yesterday. Here’s the ongoing list of democratic presidential candidates and the (super long) list of republican candidates.

Hey! It’s the final week for you to check out The Art of The Flower exhibit at the VMFA. I took my six-year-old the other day and was surprised at how he patiently looked at each and every painting of each and every flower.

Sports!

• USA takes on Nigeria in the Women’s World Cup tonight at 8:00 PM.
• Nats lost the first in a home-and-away series with the Rays, 1-6. They’ll play once more in Tampa Bay today at 7:10 PM before returning home.
• The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Tampa Bay Lightning to win the Stanley Cup.
• Game six of the NBA Finals is tonight at 9:00 PM. The Golden State Warriors lead the series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, 3-2.

What to expect

• A preview of tonight’s Women’s World Cup game against Nigeria.
• Secret eating
• A good cause in the Brewer’s Ball
• 1708 Gallery’s 10 x 10 project continues!

This morning’s longread

The Persuasiveness of a Chart Depends on the Reader, Not Just the Chart

The user’s attitude matters. Research from Ansul Pandey and colleagues at New York University indicates that the persuasive power of dataviz may not be perfectly universal. The success of a visualization seems to be dependent on the initial attitude of the person assessing it. When participants in their study didn’t have strong opinions about the message being conveyed, visuals persuaded effectively. But they were less effective when participants held strong opinions in opposition to the message being conveyed.

Lots of factors make a chart more or less persuasive–even your mood before looking at the chart!

This morning’s Instagram

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June 16, 2015 7:02 AM 0