Jul 27, 2023

Anytime there is a news cycle that includes both future trips to Mars and pro rasslin', you can count us in.

There's an awful lot of Alabama in this one.

Ike Morgan

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Especially in this world of high-speed internet, online shopping and same-day delivery, we pretty much demand instant gratification.

It's made long road trips a little more challenging. If we didn't mind the tedious parts of traveling, I suspect most folks would spend a lot more time in Vegas.

This issue is really going to come into play when we start visiting Mars. Fans of Matt Damon movies know that it would take months to get there, and that's if you time the trip for when our planets are relatively close together.

AL.com's Lee Roop reports that NASA has announced a partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop a nuclear-powered rocket, possibly in the next four years, that will make your (or your great-grandkids') jaunt to Mars a lot quicker.

And it's not all about our lack of patience. By splitting atoms, there'll be less fuel needed on flights and more room for cargo.

Lockheed Martin in Colorado will lead development, construction and testing, and BWX Technologies out of Virginia will build the nuclear fission reactor.

Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville will certainly be part of the project. NASA's Jason Turpin said in March that "we are NASA's space nuclear propulsion lead."

Three arrests have been made since video surfaced from the Rock the South music festival of a teenager being viciously beaten at the Cullman event. The 18-year-old was hospitalized with a concussion, fractured nose and other injuries, reports AL.com's William Thornton.

Authorities said the video made a big difference in the investigation, with thousands of responses from the public helping identify the three suspects.

Which I suppose could complicate figuring out whether and how to allocate the $10,000 and lifetime tickets that were put up as a reward.

The suspects are ages 20 to 21 and face between a year to 10 years in prison if they're found guilty.

Estimates have around 35,000 to 40,000 people attending Rock the South at the time the violence took place. More than 105,000 people attended over the three days of the event.

An Alabama man who created a pro wrestling podcast has done so well that he's a star in the business himself.

And now, reports AL.com's John Sharp, Conrad Thompson has been inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame.

The 42-year-old Thompson became the third person to be honored with the Gordon Solie Award. (If you don't know rasslin' history, Solie was a legendary announcer. In fact, if we're ranking the all-time greatest sports broadcasters, I'm going with Vin Scully, Al Michaels and Gordon Solie, in that order, with honorable mentions to late, great Braves announcers Skip Caray and Pete Van Wieren.)

This honor puts Thompson in solid rasslin' company. The Gordon Solie Award belongs to only two others: Solie himself and Jim Ross (you probably know either him or his Stetson hat).

Thompson's podcasting partner is Bruce Prichard, whom you may remember as Brother Love, and he's Ric Flair's son-in-law.

Thompson is only the second Alabamian that we know of to be inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame. The other was the Cullman Comet, Tom Drake. The Comet was also Alabama's state speaker of the House, but don't let that taint how you view him as a wrestler.

“That is so completely, totally ridiculous."

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Alabama's redrawn Congressional district map that passed the Alabama Legislature during a recent special session.

“Alabama is doing better than the Feds because we don’t take advice from liberal activists like Nancy."

Alabama state House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, as lawmakers continue to spar over the new map and whether it makes an Alabama district more politically competitive.

Any experts on prehistoric plants have an ID on this fossil? Former park ranger Tristen Klavenga found it (and took these pictures) Saturday in an Irondale Creek off the Cahaba River. It's unconfirmed so far, but fossil enthusiasts on Reddit believe it was made by a scaly, extinct tree -- the lepidodendron, which grew to be 100 feet tall and 7 feet wide.

In 1969, Linda Burgess of Madison, WNBA player with the L.A. Sparks.

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