Good Morning, RVA: What an end to the week!

You guys, look at this weekend’s weather forecast!

May 22, 2015; 7:01 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: sandy’s dad

Good morning, RVA! It’s only 50 °F, but fear not, today will be way more pleasant than yesterday, which was the day I learned that my rain coat was no longer waterproof. No, today the highs will soar into the upper 70s, there’s absolutely no chance of rain, and you’ll have a hard time finding a single cloud in the sky. Cut out of work extra early because the patio-based happy hour spots will be slammed!

Water cooler

Yesterday, VCU and Bon Secours both backed out of the independent, free-standing children’s hospital discussions. Basically, the costs were too high and the independent nature of the thing would have meant a loss of revenue from the hospitals’ existing children-related services–which sure sounds crappy when you say it out loud. I had a long conversation yesterday with some very smart people about whether or not this is good news or bad news for Richmond, and we couldn’t come to a consensus. Tammie Smith at the RTD digs in some more to help you make up your own mind.

Is there a big cat in the James River Park System? No, probably not. Here’s a super handy guide to distinguishing regular ol’ dog tracks from big cat tracks in case you’re down by the river this weekend. The number one thing to look for is claw marks–cats have retractable claws and don’t typically leave claw marks. HOWEVER, mountain lions which maybe live in Virginia, also sometimes leave claw marks and their tracks are harder to distinguish from dog tracks (PowerPoint).

The VMFA’s PR specialist / magical wizard Suzanne Hall will retire this week after 30 years with the museum. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Suzanne for a bunch of years now, and she’s one of the best in the biz. Good luck with what comes next!

Today’s best headline, from Richmond Magazine about Barefoot Bucha: “The Mighty Booch.”

All six police officers involved in the death of Freddie Gray have been indicted.

Sports!

• Kickers host the Pittsburgh Riverhounds this Saturday at 7:00 PM. Get your tickets online.
• Squirrels and Bowie begin their series tonight. Get those tickets online as well.
• Nats open their series against the Philies at home tonight–it’s a perfect weekend for a baseball day trip to D.C.

What to expect

• Pete Humes continues our Our House column
• I’ll pour out some beer news
• We’ll preview this weekend’s soccer match

This morning’s longread

PRI #294 Background: Emoji Glyph/Annotation Recommendations

The Unicode Consortium are the folks in charge of making sure emojis are displayed consistently across all platforms and devices–so “DANCER” (aka the dancing lady in the red dress) always means “heyyyyyy, celebrate!” no matter who you send it to. The consortium is out to clarify the meanings of some emojis, and their suggestions are priceless and will give you a better idea about the original intent for some of the weirder characters. You should ignore the boring excerpt below and just click the link.

The following is a list of proposed Unicode chart glyph and/or annotations changes for many emoji characters , to promote better interchange across platforms.

Emoji characters provided on platforms do not have to look identical to the Unicode charts, but the charts, names, and annotations do provide guidance in producing images that work across different platforms. While the formal Unicode character name cannot be changed, name annotations can be used to provide a more accurate description of the character.

Hat tip to this article in Wired about how we’re all using emoji wrong.

This morning’s Instagram

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May 22, 2015 7:01 AM 0