Wednesday June 01, 2005
Wednesday June 01, 2005
2 nice week-ends
Wow so the last 2 week-ends were pretty exciting for Formula 1 fans.
2 week-ends ago Kimi Raikkonen claimed his 2nd victory of the season with Alonso being a distant second. It really is amazing what the team have to deal with when racing in Monaco: specific top front wish bones, a new diffuser, new front/rear wing and specific tuning for the suspension to get more lock around the Grand hotel hairpin (the tightest corner of all races). And with all that you have cars achieving over a 100mph on a lap...
What is really interesting is that throughout the recent years the FIA has desperately tried to slow the cars down. But in 1998 a lap in Monaco was completed in about 1min23s. This year the pole was in the 1min13s.
Finally, the race at the Nurburgring last Sunday saw Kimi Raikkonen losing on the last lap after his suspension collapsed: a huge flatspot on his right front tire caused way too much stress on it. Alonso was just behind and claimed his 4th victory; he is now leading the championship by 32 points. It's going to be hard to catch up with the Renault driver.
Posted at 11:02PM Jun 01, 2005 by Hubert Le Van Gong in Formula 1 - Rally... | Comments[0]
Both Poisoned...
Ok, nothing to do with what I have posted so far but since I'm a bit of a history buff (not that I claim to know a lot, just that I love it) I thought it'd be fun to write about the following so here we go:
I was amazed by the coincidence of two very recent findings:
- Agnès Sorel has been poisoned. Quick reminder: Agnès Sorel was King Charles VII's mistress and throughout the ages she has been considered as an amazingly pretty woman. She was the first official mistress of a French King and, in her time, radically changed fashion (particularly dresses that revealed shoulders etc.). Anyway so her sudden death has always been a mystery; Scientists now discovered a high concentration of mercury in her skull but they could not determine whether this was a murder or an accident (a treatment against worms...). To know more her: in English or in French
- Napoléon was indeed poisoned too! It's been announced today, scientists have found arsenic in his hair. The real breakthrough though is that the arsenic was found deep inside the hair, not on the surface. This suggests that the poison has been carried by the Emperor's blood thus after absorption. Moreover the type of arsenic (mineral - the most violent one) was not the one used for hair treatment but to poison rats...(more in French or in English).
Intersting times...
Posted at 10:51AM Jun 01, 2005 by Hubert Le Van Gong in History | Comments[0]
