If you can see your name here, it is no good sign

June 30, 2025

R I P of the day

Overton Joseph Paul (b. 1960-01-04 / d. 2003-06-30)

He was a senior vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. He held a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Michigan Technological University and a Juris Doctor degree from the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. Overton is known for conceiving of the idea now known as the Overton window, the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream at a given time. He died at age 43 from injuries suffered in a crash while piloting an ultralight aircraft, soon after taking off from the Tuscola Area Airport near Caro, Michigan. Overton had just married a few weeks before the accident.

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Sad list (1)

Rindt
Jochen. 1970-09-05

28

Born 1942-04-18. Domain:Sport. Cause of death:Accident

During practice for the 1970 Italian Grand Prix in Monza, near Milan, Rindt was attempting to set a competitive qualifying time against the more powerful Ferraris. At first he insisted on driving the Lotus 49 but was told by Colin Chapman that only the Lotus 72 was available. Either he drove the 72 or he didn't have to drive was the choice Chapman gave him. Rindt elected to have the critically important wings removed in an attempt to gain a higher top speed and took to the track.
As Rindt braked for the Parabolica corner, the Lotus 72 suddenly darted left and slammed hard into the guard rails. The crash had possibly been caused by one of his front brake shafts (the car had inboard brakes) failing. The barriers were placed too high for the revolutionary wedge design of his Lotus 72. He was immediately rushed to hospital, but died on the way. Rindt had only recently acquiesced to wearing a simple lap belt, and had slid underneath where the belt buckle cut his throat. He was the second Lotus team leader to be killed in two years, as Jim Clark had been killed in 1968.
Rindt is buried at the central cemetery (Zentralfriedhof) in Graz.
At the time he died Rindt had won five of that year's ten Grands Prix, which meant that he had a strong lead in the World Drivers Championship. At that stage he theoretically could have been overtaken by Ferrari driver Jacky Ickx. However Rindt's Lotus team mate, Emerson Fittipaldi, won the penultimate Grand Prix of the year at Watkins Glen, depriving Ickx of the points he needed to win the title, and so Rindt became motor racing's first posthumous World Champion. The trophy was presented to his Finnish widow Nina Rindt nee Lincoln, daughter of famous Finnish racer, Curt Lincoln. In a tragic twist of irony, it was learned that Jochen had promised Nina he would retire from F1 if he won the world championship.

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