Hey, RJ, Who is that guy taking your picture?

Tom's idea for dinner!

250 g baby octopus (about half a dozen)
1/2
cup water
1/2
tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1
teaspoon garlic, crushed
1
teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped
1/8
teaspoon dried oregano
1/2
lemon
Not the one? See other BBQ Garlic Octopus Recipes

Bring water to boil in a small covered saucepan.
Place octopus in saucepan, cover and reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 10 minutes. This is a lazy way to steam / boil them.
Remove from heat and drain remaining water using the lid.
Add olive oil, garlic, parsely, oregano and squeeze the lemon over the top and mix together.
Place on pre-heated medium BBQ grill plate and cook around 2 minutes with the head facing down and around 5 minutes with the tentacles facing down.

Look who's driving.

This is not New York.

Thinking about Oysters.

Anything you can do, I can do better!

Waiting on the Stones.

Melbourne Mayhem

Updating the Blog

Menu Planning Meeting.

The menu planning committee met and discovered the predations of the last campout exhausted the creek tribe funds. Being dead broke has caused us to revise the meal plan. Friday night dinner will be on-your-own. The traditional wine and cheese will continue. We will have plates, clean forks and knives. Tom is planning on served a beautiful, tap, water with wines and cheeses the tribe members bring. Saturday we plan on slop-in-a-pot breakfast, lunch is another on-your-own, but hot-dog cooking dads are encouraged to bring enough to share. Saturday there will be a dinner, Tom was thinking grilled veal chops marinated in Rosemary and Garlic, we need an attendance figure before we start marinating 40lbs of veal chops. Sunday we should finish with Pete’s breakfast grill, somebody should contact him.

To post: Hover your cursor over the word, "comments." When the word changes appearance, click through to the posting board.

The Hopetown Light

July Campout?

Study shows safety balls, faceguards cut number of Little League injuries

CHAPEL HILL -- Use of such protective equipment as faceguards and modified "safety balls" can significantly cut the number of injuries to children and adolescents playing organized baseball, a major new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study concludes. The equipment cannot eliminate injuries entirely, the investigation shows, but researchers recommend the special balls and face protection even though they say the incidence of serious injuries in the sport is already low.
Conducted by UNC Injury Prevention Research Center-affiliated scientists, the study involved analyzing injury information resulting from three years, or more than 6.7 million "player-seasons," of Little League participation. It is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind ever done, the scientists say.
"We undertook this study at the request of USA Baseball’s Medical and Safety Advisory Committee because it was not known for sure whether these two types of equipment reduced the risk of injury in youth baseball," said Dr. Stephen W. Marshall. "Little League Baseball, which was highly supportive, shared with us extensive data they had on injuries compensated by insurance. We found that one type of ‘safety ball,’ known as a reduced-impact ball, cut the number of ball-related injuries by some 29 percent, and faceguards reduced the risk of facial injuries by 35 percent."
Marshall, assistant professor of epidemiology and assistant professor of orthopaedics, respectively, at the UNC schools of public health and medicine, was principal author of a report on the findings that appears in the Feb. 5 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Study principal investigator was Dr. Frederick Mueller, professor and chair of exercise and sport science at UNC and Marshall’s long-time mentor.
Health behavior and health education doctoral student Jingzhen Yang of UNC and Daniel P. Kirby, director of risk management for Little League Inc. of Williamsport, Pa., were co-authors. Mueller also directs the UNC-based National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injuries and chairs the American Football Coaches’ Committee on Football Injuries.
Central to the research was compiling information over the three years on which leagues used and which did not use the optional safety equipment and comparing that data with insurance records of who suffered serious injuries, Marshall said. The team found 4,233 injuries serious enough to have warranted insurance compensation and an injury rate of just over 28 per 100,000 player-seasons.
Faceguards, which are either clear plastic visors or wire mesh devices, clip to baseball helmets and are used during batting and base running. Reduced impact balls, one of the most commonly used types of safety balls, are made with polyurethane centers rather than the traditional cork and yarn so that they will act like regular baseballs when batted, pitched or thrown, but transmit less force when they hit a child.
"There are different kinds of reduced impact balls -- some softer than others -- but all are engineered to ‘play’ as much as possible like a standard baseball," Marshall said. "Despite what some people have said, studies have shown that when you remove the manufacturers’ labeling, by and large, almost nobody can tell a difference between reduced impact and standard balls when pitching, batting and throwing. Thus, concerns about safety balls’ play possibly revolve around perceptions rather than the actual performance of the ball."
The risk of injury increased with the level of competition, whereas the use of safety balls and faceguards dropped as the competition level increased, he said. Data on girls were excluded since there were too few for meaningful analysis in this study. Likewise, too few injuries occurred among special needs children to include them in the analysis either.
"Our work shows that safety balls and faceguards do reduce the risk of injury," Marshall said. "The study makes a contribution to medical science, but more importantly, it makes a contribution to health and safety issues in youth baseball, and that’s very important."
About 5 million U.S. youth play organized league baseball each year, the scientist said. About half of those belong to groups affiliated with Little League. Major League Baseball supported the UNC research through a grant to USA Baseball.
A study Mueller, Marshall and Kirby published in 2001 showed that 13 Little League players died from baseball injuries between 1987 and 1996. Mueller said at the time that he believed safety baseballs could have prevented or reduced the severity of some of the more than 15,000 ball-related injuries suffered over that decade.

Campout

I just received this message about the past weekend's campout. The classified portions have been deleted and the following report is posted for your enjoyment.

M e s s a g e - CONFIDENTIAL

Declassified 17 Apr 07 (with deletions)

From: TomCat ■■■■■■■■

To: Menawahad ■■■■■■■■

Subj: After Action Report

1. Members of the Creek Tribe were assigned to secure a beachhead, move into the ageing out ceremony and return with coup. Results were mixed. ■■■■■■■■■■■■.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■.

2. Early in the morning of 13 April 07, the Bull family landed and secured a beachfront position. The Creek trailer followed and was pushed into a mainland position under the oak tree. Further families arrived securing the beachhead and the inland trailer position. By sunset on Friday, the Creek tribe had secured both the beachhead and the inland area. The fire ring was established and dinner was prepared.

3. By 0930 on 14 April 07 the tribe breakfasted and secured the beachhead and fortified the Oak Tree area. In the late morning hours Creek tribe troop strength was severely
diminished when units were detached for athletic duty. Senior units remained in place to engage in ageing out ceremony practice and war games. While the former was convincingly accomplished, the war games were significantly more difficult.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■
■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■. The Creek tribe had only two
braves able to compete in the war games, however, overmatched and undermanned, the creeks waded into the fray and struggled against insurmountable odds.

4. Reports of increasingly adverse weather conditions, coupled with already high
winds led to the decision to withdraw from the area earlier than scheduled. The Creek tribe took the walk of fire, engaged in the ageing out ceremony and withdrew from the KARS park landing zone without incident. No reports of successful coup awards have reached this author.

BT

The Mini Measurement Olympics!

Ms. Montalto's class had a BLAST using our measurement skills last week! Students were asked to measure objects in metric, customary, and non- standard units. The picture above shows the most challenging event, the "left-handed marble grab." Here are some of the students' comments about The Mini Measurement Olympics: Hali said, "it was fun!" "My favorite part was the monkey bar hang, man!" exclaimed Nick.Taya said "My favorite part was when I had to measure my cartwheel in centimeters."Robert said, "I loved squeezing the sponges thingies""I thought the javelin thing was cool!" said Lev.

The Florida Gators left one final, indelible memory as one of the great teams in modern college basketball.

The White Feather

The White feather is earned by the brave when he and his father complete, and display before the tribe, three Indian crafts. The award of the White feather is in recognition of father and son working together and demonstrating their useful services.

CREEK FINANCES AT ALL TIME MEDIUM!

The Creek Tribe’s financial situation is astoundingly average. Following the State campout, the Mighty Creek have less money than they need to finish out the year, but anticipate more income. The tribe collected $175.95, spent $120.00, owes $15.95 and has a balance of $54.05 to carry over to the next campout. George is owed $10.00 and Tom has a claim of $5.95 against the Creek funds.

The Creek tribe can take comfort in the fact that these funds are not being held safely in trust, but, instead have been commingled with the Cat family grocery funds. In fact, later on Sunday, George might find his $10.00 resting comfortably in the Thirsty Turtle’s till.

The Pentagon announced TODAY the formation of

a new 500-man elite fighting unit called the
United States Redneck Special Forces (USRSF)



These Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, West Virginia, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas boys will be dropped off into Iraq and have been given only the following facts about terrorists :


1. The season opened today.

2. There is no limit.

3. They taste just like chicken.

4. They don't like beer, pickups, country music or Jesus.

5. They are directly responsible for the death of Dale Earnhardt.


The Pentagon expects the problem in Iraq to be over by Friday .

Uncomfortable Questions: Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job?

We’ve all heard the “official conspiracy theory” of the Death Star attack. We all know about Luke Skywalker and his ragtag bunch of rebels, how they mounted a foolhardy attack on the most powerful, well-defended battle station ever built. And we’ve all seen the video over, and over, and over, of the one-in-a-million shot that resulted in a massive chain reaction that not just damaged, but completely obliterated that massive technological wonder.

Like many Americans, I was fed this story when I was growing up. But as I watched the video, I began to realize that all was not as it seemed. And the more I questioned the official story, the deeper into the rabbit hole I went.

Presented here are some of the results of my soul-searching regarding this painful event. Like many citizens, I have many questions that I would like answered: was the mighty Imperial government really too incompetent to prevent a handful of untrained nerf-herders from destroying one of their most prized assets? Or are they hiding something from us? Who was really behind the attack? Why did they want the Death Star destroyed? No matter what the answers, we have a problem.

Below is a summary of my book, Uncomfortable Questions: An Analysis of the Death Star Attack, which presents compelling evidence that we all may be the victims of a fraud of immense proportions.


Uncomfortable Questions about the Death Star Attack



The cover of Uncomfortable Questions: An Analysis of the Death Star Attack

1) Why were a handful of rebel fighters able to penetrate the defenses of a battle station that had the capability of destroying an entire planet and the defenses to ward off several fleets of battle ships?

2) Why did Grand Moff Tarkin refuse to deploy the station’s large fleet of TIE Fighters until it was too late? Was he acting on orders from somebody to not shoot down the rebel attack force? If so, who, and why?

3) Why was the rebel pilot who supposedly destroyed the Death Star reported to be on the Death Star days, maybe hours, prior to its destruction? Why was he allowed to escape, and why were several individuals dressed in Stormtrooper uniforms seen helping him?

4) Why has there not been an investigation into allegations that Darth Vader, the second-ranking member of the Imperial Government, is in fact the father of the pilot who allegedly destroyed the Death Star?



Emperor Palpatine fails to act after being informed of the attack


5) Why did Lord Vader decide to break all protocols and personally pilot a lightly armored TIE Fighter? Conveniently, this placed Lord Vader outside of the Death Star when it was destroyed, where he was also conveniently able to escape from a large-sized rebel fleet that had just routed the Imperial forces. Why would Lord Vader, one of the highest ranking members of the Imperial Government, suddenly decide to fly away from the Death Star in the middle of a battle? Did he know something that the rest of the Imperial Navy didn’t?


6) How could any pilot shoot a missile into a 2 meter-wide exhaust port, let alone a pilot with no formal training, whose only claim to fame was his ability to “bullseye womprats” on Tatooine? This shot, according to one pilot, would be “impossible, even for a computer.” Yet, according to additional evidence, the pilot who allegedly fired the missile turned off his targeting computer when he was supposedly firing the shot that destroyed the Death Star. Why have these discrepancies never been investigated, let alone explained?

7) Why has their been no investigation into evidence that the droids who provided the rebels with the Death Star plans were once owned by none other than Lord Vader himself, and were found, conveniently, by the pilot who destroyed the Death Star, and who is also believed to be Lord Vader’s son? Evidence also shows that the droids were brought to one Ben Kenobi, who, records indicate, was Darth Vader’s teacher many years earlier! Are all these personal connections between the conspirators and a key figure in the Imperial government supposed to be coincidences?

8) How could a single missile destroy a battle station the size of a moon? No records, anywhere, show that any battle station or capital ship has ever been destroyed by a single missile. Furthermore, analysis of the tape of the last moments of the Death Star show numerous small explosions along its surface, prior to it exploding completely! Why does all evidence indicate that strategically placed explosives, not a single missile, is what destroyed the Death Star?

The Orange Feather (The one no Creeks have.)

The Orange Feather is earned by the brave for his participation in a Nation campout activity.

The judgment as to whether the brave has earned his feather rests with the Tribal Chief