Joe Scarpa, Requiescat in pace.

Once upon a time, kiddies, pro wrestling was cool. Joe Scarpa helped make it so.


From BleacherReport.com:

WWE Hall of Famer 'Chief' Jay Strongbow Passes Away at the Age of 83

 According to PWInsider.com, WWE Hall of Famer Joe Scarpa, known as "Chief" Jay Strongbow, has passed away at the age of 83.

The site has not released any details on the cause of his death, but noted that Jim Ross mentioned it earlier today on his official Twitter account. 

But according to SLAM! Sports, Scarpa suffered a serious fall in late 2011 and had to be hospitalized, never recovering from that injury.

Scarpa had a long and storied career in professional wrestling and was a huge fan favorite. 

He began his career in 1947 in the NWA (National Wrestling Alliance) and was well known throughout the Georgia and Florida territories, winning several championships there.

Throughout the 1960s, Scarpa had been involved in some high profile matches with Lou Thesz and Buddy Rogers for the NWA World Heavyweight Title and held numerous NWA Tag Team Championships with Jose Lothario, Don Curtis and others.

In 1970 at the age of 42, he moved to the WWWF (World Wide Wrestling Federation) where he adopted the "Chief" Jay Strongbow persona.  He had several big feuds with "Superstar" Billy Graham and Jimmy Valiant.  He held several WWWF Tag Team Championships with Sonny King and Billy White Wolf.

His most well-known feud was with Greg "The Hammer" Valentine in the late 1970's. 

The two wrestled throughout the WWF and wrestled in an "Indian Strap" match in 1979 at Madison Square Garden.

Scarpa retired from professional wrestling in 1985, but continued to wrestle on occasion. 

He became a WWE road agent after his retirement, and in 1994 he was inducted by Gorilla Monsoon into the WWF Hall of Fame.

His last appearance on WWE TV was in 2008, when Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley introduced him to the audience at a RAW show in Atlanta, Ga.
Scarpa was truly a legend in professional wrestling. 

The Bleacher Report staff would like to extend condolences to Scarpa's family.

It'll be Bush's fault.

 These guys seem to think communism will be everywhere by 2030. It's probably a safe bet.

From Yahoo! News:

Next Great Depression? MIT researchers predict ‘global economic collapse’ by 2030

 

A new study from researchers at Jay W. Forrester's institute at MIT says that the world could suffer from "global economic collapse" and "precipitous population decline" if people continue to consume the world's resources at the current pace.

Smithsonian Magazine writes that Australian physicist Graham Turner says "the world is on track for disaster" and that current evidence coincides with a famous, and in some quarters, infamous, academic report from 1972 entitled, "The Limits to Growth."

Produced for a group called The Club of Rome, the study's researchers created a computing model to forecast different scenarios based on the current models of population growth and global resource consumption. The study also took into account different levels of agricultural productivity, birth control and environmental protection efforts. Twelve million copies of the report were produced and distributed in 37 different languages.

Most of the computer scenarios found population and economic growth continuing at a steady rate until about 2030. But without "drastic measures for environmental protection," the scenarios predict the likelihood of a population and economic crash.

However, the study said "unlimited economic growth" is still possible if world governments enact policies and invest in green technologies that help limit the expansion of our ecological footprint.

The Smithsonian notes that several experts strongly objected to "The Limit of Growth's" findings, including the late Yale economist Henry Wallich, who for 12 years served as a governor of the Federal Research Board and was its chief international economics expert. At the time, Wallich said attempting to regulate economic growth would be equal to "consigning billions to permanent poverty."

Turner says that perhaps the most startling find from the study is that the results of the computer scenarios were nearly identical to those predicted in similar computer scenarios used as the basis for "The Limits to Growth."

"There is a very clear warning bell being rung here," Turner said. "We are not on a sustainable trajectory."