HMC Alum Dead at 31 From Tesla Plane Crash

Andrew Ingram, 31, of Harvey Mudd and Tesla, died in a horrific plane crash earlier this week.

I didn't know Andrew and I don't know anyone who did, but there was much to admire in him, thanks to this portrait of him in Palo Alto Online News.

It was at Tesla where the young engineer finally got a chance to combine all three of his passions: music, cars and "green" technology. His assignments at Tesla included, but weren't limited to, making sure the car's elaborate electrical systems didn't interfere with the stereo sound.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk described Ingram on the company's website as "passionate about electronics and exquisite audio systems" and "eager to lend a hand wherever it was needed, from marketing to manufacturing."

Brusco, who last saw Ingram on Monday, agreed. Two days before the crash, they took a 20-mile bike ride near Morgan Hill. Brusco said Tesla was the dream job for the young, green-minded engineer. Ingram has always been eco-conscious, Brusco said. Once, in junior high, he even created a model house powered entirely by windmills.

"He was totally in his element at Tesla," Brusco said. "He was working with cars, working with audio and doing something that was good for the world."

CMS Women's Golf Team Responds to Tiger Woods' Statement

CBS had a two-minute segment which featured some of the women of the CMS golf team, responding to Tiger Woods statement the other day. The reaction was very, very strong, with at least one of them crying. Have a look here.

I wonder, sometimes, if we might be better off if we all shed ourselves of our role models when we hit adolescence. Perhaps it is easier said then done, but we might avoid a lot of heart break. Tiger is only a man, and men make mistakes. What is it about our culture that tries to elevate them above ourselves? Talent is not license, much as some might believe it to be.

Poor Scoring, Shenanigans at Hub Quiz

My team the other night actually did well in Hub Quiz -- we had 41 points -- but for whatever reason our last two rounds were not scored at all. Worse yet, we had two points deducted because someone didn't come and pick up our score sheet. Seems rather selective to me, but I let it go. (Kenley Turville, the organizer of the event, initially said that she was going to dequalify that entire round for us -- it was the music round, so there were double the points -- but we were about to leave in protest and she walked back from that.)

So instead of the 41 points we had last night, we were scored at only 32. My team was so disgusted that they just got up and left. We know this because we score every single question after the fact. We were also pretty upset that we still haven't received the gift cards we won last week.

Correction: Nico says that he wasn't cheating and that he had been studying up on the Olympics. I find that plausible, but I think that they should have avoided the improprieties of it. I regret using the words "straight up" cheating and apologize to Nico and his team.

I understand that we're not a particularly popular team given our domination of Hub Quiz last semester. But what I can't figure out is that we have another team -- Nico Brancolini's team that was straight up cheating. They were using a computer throughout the first two rounds and should have been disqualified, but Nico went up and whispered to Kenley and lo and behold, they wound up winning.

Kenley says she checked their history after the fact, but apparently she hasn't considered that they could have deleted it, used Firefox instead of Internet Explorer or Safari (or vis versa) or searched incognito on Chrome.

What makes this so tough to deal with is that Kenley is a friend of mine. I helped her last semester multiple times in a class of hers that she took. When I explained to her at the end of the night that we, in fact, had tied for second place, she told me to go away. She said, "You didn't win this week, Charles, go away."

I wish Hub Quiz would bring back the whiteboard so we could see things much more fairly and efficiently. We deserve it.

Chuck DeVore CMC '85 at CPAC

Chuck DeVore gave a great 3 minute or so speech to CPAC the other night about how progressivism, sent to the rest of the country by California, has been so dangerous to our constitutional liberties. Have a look above.

CMC Alum Marlo Lewis Skewers Al Gore With Song