A Couple of Interesting Stories

I came across an interesting article in the Economist about getting rid of traction control in Formula 1 racing. (It's interesting to see technology being taken away rather added.) I talked to my brother-in-law who follows F1 racing and apparently the results were not pretty. He said that of the 23 cars that started the race only about 8 finished, and that another 8 or so didn't even make it through the first lap. Now that's pretty funny... I guess all these highly paid drivers were letting the computer do most of the work.

Another interesting story I stumbled upon comes from NPR. Apparently there was this piece of choral music so beautiful that the Pope decreed that it could only be played for him during the Easter celebration in the Sistine Chapel upon pain of excommunication. Well this went on for about a hundred years until the 14 year old Mozart was invited to hear the piece. Later that night he transcribed the whole thing from memory. He then took the transcription (hidden in his hat) to a second performance, discovered he had made a couple of errors. He corrected them and that's how the secret got out.

Don't mess with Mozart