The Rock Chalkboard

No. 6 Kansas rocks Nevada, 88-61, at Allen Fieldhouse | KUsports.com
With the Jayhawks leading 37-25 late in the first half, during a stretch that essentially ended the game, Agbaji caught a run-out near mid-court and floated in for a highlight dunk. He got it. And the windmill slam he delivered is not one that is seen every night at Allen Fieldhouse. But he did not elevate the way his teammates know he can and a few of them made sure to point that out after the victory.

Notebook: KU bench getting more work but still not producing consistently | KUsports.com
With so many games canceled or postponed in the last 10 days and the COVID-19 pandemic ripping through college basketball programs from coast to coast, Kansas basketball coach Bill Self said he and his staff have tweaked part of their practice routine in recent weeks.

Kansas basketball to face George Mason on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse | KUsports.com
The game was scheduled as a replacement for sixth-ranked Kansas’ postponed Big 12 home opener against TCU, which had to pull out because of COVID-19 issues within the Horned Frogs program. No makeup date has been announced for the KU-TCU game, but the Big 12 Conference is working on rescheduling it.

Bits o Chalk

Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers says he won't take long after season to decide future
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Aaron Rodgers is willing to make one promise when it comes to his future: The Packers quarterback won't take too long after this season to decide it.

Memphis Grizzlies' Ja Morant fuels second-half rally, scores 41 to bury Los Angeles Lakers
"When you shoot the ball as well as he did tonight from the perimeter, with his speed and his athleticism, it's gonna be hard to contain a guy like that because he's doing the whole three levels of scoring," said LeBron James, whose 37 points, including eight 3-pointers to tie a career high, went for naught. "You can't -- there's nothing you can do. He has you at his beck [and call]."

Kyrie Irving 'incredibly grateful' to be back with Brooklyn Nets after first practice of season
"I understood their decision and respected it," Irving told reporters Wednesday at the Nets' practice facility in Brooklyn, making his first public comments since Oct. 13. "I really had to sit back and think and try not to become too emotionally attached to what they were deciding to do. I had to really evaluate things and see it from their perspective, meaning the organization, my teammates.

Boston Celtics post historically bad shooting performance in loss to LA Clippers
"I guess so," said Jaylen Brown, who scored 30 points but shot 13-for-36 for the game, when asked if shooting, good or bad, can be contagious. "We missed a lot of shots, and I thought we had a lot of open looks.

Eraser Dust

Superhero Movies of 2021: Ranked Worst to Best
This genre continued to dominate cinemas and streaming services, and while there were many hits, there were also some hard misses. Now that the year has come to a close, let's take a look at my list ranking all the superhero films of 2021.

Ghislaine Maxwell trial: Jeffrey Epstein associate convicted of sex trafficking
British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of five federal sex trafficking charges after a jury concluded that she played a pivotal part in recruiting and grooming teenage girls to be sexually abused by her close confidant, the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The 50 Best Movies of 2021 - Paste
And they thankfully had some great films to discuss: Not only did we get exciting releases from American masters, but many festival and international films from the past few years finally made their way stateside now that theaters were open. It was a year of freaky mothers (of car babies, lamb babies, baby Annettes), reverend mothers (Charlotte Rampling, in both Dune and Benedetta), tiny mothers (Petite Maman) and parallel mothers (Parallel Mothers). It was a year of franchise entries screwing with intertextuality, for better (The Matrix Resurrections) or worse (Space Jam: A New Legacy). It was a year of strong, slow cinema and a year of the trashiest fast-fashion fodder you could imagine. It was a year of musicals. The variety was there, if people wanted to look for it. And if 2021 had anything going for it, people had more time and ability to look than ever. We certainly did. So please, using what we found, support great filmmakers and a great industry in the midst of its metamorphosis.

Tiger shot and dies at Naples Zoo in Florida after biting cleaner's arm - BBC News
Eko, an eight-year-old Malayan tiger, was found with the man's arm in its mouth at Naples Zoo.

Noel Gallagher will film the making of his new album at Abbey Road
“Me writing, once you’ve seen it for an hour, then you’ve seen it,” he said. “They’re The Beatles and Paul McCartney is writing ‘Get Back’ and I’m writing a record which, frankly, with the best will of the world, not a lot of people are going to give a shit about.

“Me noodling away on the same five chords I’ve been using all my life going, ‘Sunshine, through the rain, can’t buy fame . . . ’, it’s not got the same gravitas.”

How four '70s-obsessed Italians became America's favorite new rock band
Måneskin is an almost unnervingly lithe band of 20-somethings who can squeeze into ’70s David Bowie bodysuits (or, as is often the case at photo shoots, squeeze out of them). It emerged victorious at 2021's Eurovision Song Contest that, decades earlier, gave the world ABBA and Celine Dion; on Friday, it'll help ring in 2022 on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve With Ryan Seacrest."

New venues, big concerts take center stage in in 2022 | Daily Inter Lake
The Flathead Valley marks a milestone in 2022 when construction on the new 1,000-seat McClaren Hall and new Paul D. Wachholz College Center are completed at Flathead Valley Community College...

Due to Precision Launch, NASA Says Webb Space Telescope’s Fuel Likely To Last Way More Than 10 Years
After a successful launch of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope on December 25, and completion of two mid-course correction maneuvers, the Webb team has analyzed its initial trajectory and determined the observatory should have enough propellant to allow support of science operations in orbit for significantly more than a 10-year science lifetime. (The minimum baseline for the mission is five years.)

Montana's Minimum Wage Rising 45 Cents to $9.20 on Jan. 1 - Flathead Beacon
HELENA — Montana’s minimum wage is rising by 45 cents, to $9.20 per hour, beginning on Jan. 1, according to the Department of Labor and Industry.

‘Zoom Towns’ Take Aim at Vacation Rentals in Western States - Flathead Beacon
His bill emerged in response to developers who began converting ski-town hotels into short-term condominium rentals with individual owners. That meant the new rentals qualified for lower residential property tax rates, instead of the lodging rate. In the ski town of Steamboat Springs, for example, the situation crushed the tax base by wiping $1.5 million out of the local school budget, Hansen said.