The Pope's Place

Welcome to the Pope's Place. The Pope's Place contains a wide variety of our original Scouting-related information. You will also find a few pages by other authors whose work is hosted because of its significant content.

We have selected this information so that it will not duplicate what you can find elsewhere on the Internet. It includes original material on Pinewood Derby race management and race car design, 2-liter pop bottle rocket launcher, Cub Scout Roundtable, and other Scouting topics, as well as a few personal insights by Stan and Barb Pope.

Our home is in the central part of Illinois, a few miles south-east of Peoria. It is here that we have reared our children and done our Scouting.

Come on in, and visit with us for a while. -- Barb and Stan

On-Page Links:

• Quick Links
• Connections
• Family and Personal
• Local Scouting
• Pinewood Derby
• Pinewood Derby Book:
  Learn to Build a Winner
• Scouting, General
• Just for Fun!
• Scouting Links

Recent Additions

Pages are being given a "read it to me" icon at the end of the page title. Some are my own voice and some are "Mary", a mechanical sounding computer generated voice. In the early stages, most will be by "Mary." When clicked, the icon will open a new window to run the corresponding MP3 file.

Since December, 2005, I have donated computer time to Einstein@home. This project is attempting to find spinning neutron stars (also called pulsars) by searching in data from the LIGO and GEO gravitational wave detectors.

In November, 2004, I began telecommuting to the University of Arizona observatory at Kitts Peak, near Tucson, AZ, to assist by scanning photos to find traces of Near Earth Objects, aka Fast Moving Objects (FMOs). In December, 2004, I found an asteroid that passed within about 24,000 miles of Earth. (12/24/2004)

Since October, 2001, I have donated computer time to SETI@home. We haven't found any Extra Terrestrial intelligence yet, but who knows ... (12/24/2004)

Here's another way to make Cub Scouts tall enough to stage their own cars on the Pinewood Derby track. Plans for a Pinewood Derby Staging Platform and suggestions for usage are given in this new page. (1/7/2002)

The Great Egg Launch! was a "quiet-time" feature of our just-completed Day Camp. Still some pictures to add, but you can get the idea. Cub Scouts launched eggs in protective packaging to a height of about 60 feet, then dealt with the results. CD said that 90 percent survivied! (The pictures are there! 12/16/2001)

Here is a complete rewrite of my paper on Webelos Science. Problem solving activities are suitable for a day camp setting or a den meeting.

At the end of my book Learn to Build a Winner there is a test. The reader is challenged to go beyond the conventional, to step "outside the box" as it were, and design a car that beats a well-prepared car. Here are the answers submitted by talented scholars.

Flag Retirement Ceremonies, Which is Really the Correct Way? A guest essay by Les Donoho

A "No-Chart" Racing Method. Complete rework of this page with operational details. It makes "elimination" racing palatable.

Wood Badge Memories. The first in a new series of pages regarding the Wood Badge.

Foil Dinners. Includes some solutions to common problems and suggestions for incorporating this cooking method into your Cub Scout program.

Woggles, Turk's Head Knots, and Other Single-Strand Braids.
Enough detail to construct dozens of different types of braided rings.

A Comprehensive "Final Standings" Chart Generator.
Provides Quality Charts for 2 to 6 Lanes and 2 to 60 Racers. Includes Optional Score Sheets for All Races. Incorporates Perfect-N, Complementary Perfect-N and Partial Perfect-N. Co-authored with Cory Young. (Javascript)