Good morning, RVA! It's 65 °F, and today's highs are blissfully in the upper 70s / lower 80s. Expect plenty of sun, plenty of wind, and a generally pleasant day of weather.
Water cooler
At 5:20 AM Ned Oliver posted this tweet, "#rvacouncil budget meeting adjourns after just about 18 hours. They're meeting again Wednesday to review Stoney admin's proposed cuts." Reading through his Twitter feed this morning is like watching Kurtz descend into madness, but in Council Chambers instead of the Congo. You can read his recap here. I'm still astounded—a recap of an 18 hour budget meeting posted less than an hour after that meeting adjourns. Incredible. More incredible, this sentence: "But, as they say, more money, more problems." Anyway, it looks like we're on our way to a balanced budget, and it took compromises from everyone in the game: School Board, City Council, and the Mayor—and that's how it should be. But an 18-hour meeting? Seriously? To me, that says something is deeply wrong with our process and we need to make changes. All-nighters do not typically lead to the best decisions.
Meanwhile, Katy Burnell Evans was at the School Board meeting covering their decision about Superintendent Bedden's severance package. Unrelated, but the RTD photo editors love using that particular photo of Bedden in these articles covering his exit (aka #Beddexit—still trying to make that a thing).
What the heck is going on in this story about a shooting at the Norrell Annex on the Northside? An important fact you need to know: The Norrell Annex is a building owned by Richmond Public Schools. It is not a school.
A breaking news update from RichmondOutside.com: It is time to name the ospreys! You knew we had an Osprey Cam right? Well, we do. There are two of these giant birds, you can totally spy on them at any moment you choose, and they both need names. My suggestion: Reva and Parker.
Writer's strike averted! Whew!
Sports!
- Squirrels had their game against Altoona postponed yesterday, the second game in that series is scheduled for tonight at 6:00 PM.
- Nats kick off (pitch off?) a series with Arizona tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future
Anything from Wait But Why is probably worth your time. This super-long explainer on brains that ends with some kooky stuff from Elon Musk is no exception.
The mind-bending bigness of Neuralink’s mission, combined with the labyrinth of impossible complexity that is the human brain, made this the hardest set of concepts yet to fully wrap my head around—but it also made it the most exhilarating when, with enough time spent zoomed on both ends, it all finally clicked. I feel like I took a time machine to the future, and I’m here to tell you that it’s even weirder than we expect. But before I can bring you in the time machine to show you what I found, we need to get in our zoom machine—because as I learned the hard way, Elon’s wizard hat plans cannot be properly understood until your head’s in the right place. So wipe your brain clean of what it thinks it knows about itself and its future, put on soft clothes, and let’s jump into the vortex.