The Rock Chalkboard

45 Days Until Kansas Football: Video Game All-Stars - Joe Dineen - Blue Wings Rising
Thanks to a rating system that includes individualized ratings of college players that we discussed on the Rock Chalk Podcast, we are able to take correct that oversight. This rating combines their base talent level with their actual college production to come up with an overall look at their performance.

College basketball's top 20 collection of wings, ranked
Bill Self is going to have no shortage of high-end options on the wing. Jalen Wilson has been through the wars, and he's back itching to put it all together and have an All-Big 12 season. Texas Tech transfer Kevin McCullar will add a fierce defender who could be poised to have his best offensive season at Kansas. High-level freshmen like M.J. Rice and Gradey Dick both are pushing for a starting job. Rice is a big-time athlete who is wired to score. Dick has some bounce too, but he makes his money as a deadeye sharpshooter from downtown. Kansas will try really hard to have at least three of these wings on the floor together at all times.

College basketball: The biggest weakness facing each preseason top 10 team
No college basketball team is perfect. Since Indiana ran the table in 1975-76, no men's Division I basketball team has finished the season without suffering at least one loss. And even the undefeated teams throughout history had a weak spot or two that could have been exploited.

Eraser Dust

Biden to announce executive action on climate after failed effort in Congress
Biden will deliver a speech at Brayton Point, a former coal-fired power plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, where he will announce actions that touch on the domestic offshore wind industry, home energy assistance for low-income residents and funding to protect communities facing extreme heat, the White House official told reporters on a call.

U.S. House passes bill protecting marriage equality | Reuters
WASHINGTON, July 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill protecting gay marriage rights, after the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade imperiled similar precedents that protected rights to same-sex relations and contraception.

Mortgage demand drops to lowest level in 22 years
Applications for a mortgage to purchase a home dropped 7% for the week and were 19% lower than the same week in 2021. Buyers have been contending with high prices all year, but with rates almost double what they were in January, they’ve lost considerable purchasing power.

‘Stray’ — the videogame where you play as a cat — is breaking the internet - MarketWatch
The new cyberpunk cat game for PlayStation and PC has already set a Steam record for indie studio Annapurna Interactive, and sparked a feline frenzy online.

Sesame Place Apologizes After Viral Video Appears To Show Mascot Refusing To High-Five 2 Young Black Girls – CBS Philly
LANGHORNE, Pa. (CBS) — On Wednesday morning, we’re hearing from a mother who posted a viral video that appears to show a character at Sesame Place snubbing two young Black girls. The video has well over 500,000 views.

Arnold Schwarzenegger Farted on Co-star Miriam Margolyes
Do you smell that? Former governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger was on the wrong side of an emission-of-digestive-gases confession on Tuesday. On the latest episode of the podcast I’ve Got News for You, actress Miriam Margolyes revealed that during the filming of the 1999 movie End of Days, Schwarzenegger … farted in her face. “[I] didn’t care for him; he’s a bit too full of himself,” the 81-year-old said, per the New York Post, and continued with a toot of empathy. “Now, I fart, of course I do — but I don’t fart in people’s faces.”

Texas man describes monkeypox battle
“You have these blisters that are inflamed and anytime it grazes something or touches something, it literally feels like someone is taking a potato peeler to your skin,” Shannahan told the station.

A Brewery Born Again - Flathead Beacon
So, when the bustling public house and taproom shuttered, speculation was rampant. Fueled by nostalgia and an innate distrust of change, as well as a deafening silence surrounding the beloved building’s fate, residents of this resort town conjured a specter of sinister enterprise supplanting their cherished corner-block brewery.

Why 100-degree heat is so dangerous in the United Kingdom : NPR
Because of that, infrastructure in the U.K. — from homes to commercial buildings to roads to train tracks to airport tarmacs — isn't always built to withstand the high temperatures.

Secret Service provided a single text exchange to IG after request for many records | CNN Politics
The Secret Service was only able to provide a single text exchange to the DHS inspector general who had requested a month’s worth of records for 24 Secret Service personnel, according to a letter to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, and obtained by CNN.

Poll of the Day