First off, you would think that I would know that pro wrestling is ‘fake’.  I disagree.  I would classify wrestling as ‘scripted’, because both participants (and a good amount of bookers, smart fans, and other people) know the outcome.  However, the injuries, the training, the marketing.....all of that is real.  Pro wrestling, when compared to other ‘sports’, is harder on the body, harder on the psyche, and requires much more dedication by the athletes that choose to participate. 

They spend 200-270 days a year on the road, staying in hotels overnight and driving to their next show the day oafter matches.  90% of all wrestlers work for less than $150 a show; we only see the top 5% of wrestlers in the major promotions, i.e. the WWE (also known as the WWF until recently) that make more.  Wrestlers have no union, little agent representation, and are much more likely to be exposed to (and, sadly, use) steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. 

If any of you remember the 1980’s, you remember Hulk Hogan.  If you were a fan back then, you remember the Birtish Bulldogs, Rick Rude, ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Henning, Randy ‘Macho Man’ Savage’s wife, Miss Elizabeth, Yokozuna, ‘Flyin’ Brian Pillman, Bobby Duncum Jr......all dead.  Most related to drugs, be they alcohol, pain killers, or the long-term effects of steroids.  All the names listed here are wrestlers UNDER the age of 50. 

Well, off the macabe side of it.  Let’s just say I enjoy the industry, and respect the performers. 

‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin was released from the WWE this week.  Now, for those of you who don’t know, ‘Stone Cold’ is one of the biggest names in pro wrestling, ans has been for a number of years.  He is the ‘Hulk Hogan’ of the late ‘90’s and early ‘00’s.  He is the ‘anti-hero’, the guy who decks his boss, hits a woman back when she slaps him, flips off his adversary in the ring (as well as the crowd), and drinks beer after a match.  His character reignited the popularity of pro wrestling after a low ebb in the early 90’s, and he has maintained a very loyal fan base, even after being convicted of beating his ex-wife in 2002. 

Well, after deciding to beat up another woman, Austin tried to negotiate a deal with the WWE, and they wouldn’t give him what he asked for, namely the rights to the ‘Stone Cold’ name.  He made that a point of contention, and the WWE said, simply, “No.” So, he’s gone. 

Big mistake for him. 

If you are a wrestling fan, do you remember Chyna?  Sable?  X-Pac?  Where are they now?  Well, with the exception of Sable (who returned to the WWE), who the hell knows?  If you have NO idea what I am talking about, these people achieved great fame in the WWE, then decided they could do it all on their own, and told the WWE to stick it.  Well, they all made a big mistake, and at least Sable had the common sense to come back.  Austin is making that mistake now. 

See, simply put, some wrestlers put their egos first.  They start ‘believing the hype’, and live their character.  Freddie Blassie (ever hear of ‘Pencil-Necked Geek’?) talks about that, Roddy Piper talks about it......a lot of professional wrestlers buy into their character.  They live their character.....and Austin is doing that.  It’s a shame, though, because if he would lose a bit of his ego, and think about the business (wrestling), he would see that it is wrestling that put him in this position, not just the sweat of his brow. 

OK.  That being said, lets move on to applied science. 

It looks like Opportunity (another functioning American ship on Mars) has found a rock, named “Bounce”, that very closely resembles rocks found on the Earth.  Scientists have known that these rocks (the ones found on Earth from Mars, called shergottites) came from Mars, because they had certain compounds and compositions that were different than the rocks around them on the Earth.  However, they matched up with what Viking and Sojourner found on the Red Planet. 

Well, ‘Bounce’ is almost identical.....it is a small boulder that was probably ejected from a small crater about 30 miles away. 

When a meteor strikes a rocky planet (like the Earth or Mars), it isn’t destroyed on impact.  If it is sufficiently large, it retains its integrity after impacting the surface....in other words, it doesn’t burn up in the atmosphere, but hits the ground with sufficient force to vaporize.  The crater that ‘Bounce’ came from is 16 miles wide.  To produce an impact of that size, the object that hit Mars would have been six miles wide, and moving at around 50 miles a second.  Ejecta was thrown for dozens, if not hundreds of miles.  If a piece of Mars was ejected at more than three miles a second, it would achieve escape velocity, and not come back down.  That is entirely possible when the energy of a trillion tons of TNT are liberated in three seconds. 

What I think that the scientists will find is that ‘Bounce’ is a piece of Martian crust (deep crust, not the surface layer) that was cooked well and good by the vaporization of the meterorite, and tossed from the nearby impact.  The fact that it resembles the shergottites shouldn’t surprise anyone, and neither should the fact that it isn’t the same composition as the other regolith (soil) on Mars.  That regolith wasn’t cooked to 50,000 degrees, and tossed 20 miles in the air.  If there is surprise, it is that Opportunity stumbled onto the rock to begin with.  With the amount of fine surface dust and regolith, and seasonal dust storms that Mars is subject to having, one would think that the rock might have been buried, since the impact probably did not happen since the beginning of recorded history (5000 years).  However, Opportunity rolled over this rock as it landed. 

Hence the name ‘Bounce’. 

Go figure. 

Talk to you later.