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Marcel Vervloesem (* 7. Oktober 1952 in Lier; † 22. Januar 2018 in Herenthout) war ein belgischer Aktivist im Bereich der Kinderpornografie, der später selbst wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger verurteilt wurde.

Marcel Vervloesem arbeitete als Büroangestellter in Morkhoven, einem Ortsteil von Herentals in der Provinz Antwerpen. 1989 gründete er die Werkgroep Morkhoven ("Arbeitsgruppe Morkhoven"). In den 1990er Jahren wurde er mit dieser Arbeitsgruppe als Kämpfer gegen Kinderpornografie bekannt. Im Jahr 1998 übergab er der Staatsanwaltschaft 10.000 pornografische, zum Teil sadistische Abbildungen, zudem 3000 Dokumente wie Adressen von Kunden und Abrechnungen. Der Presse teilte er in diesem Jahr mit, er habe ein Netzwerk von pädophilen Tätern zerschlagen. Der angeblich "weltgrößte Pädophilenring" wurde jedoch nie gefunden. Das Bildmaterial konnte nur einem Konsumenten der Bilder zugeordnet werden. Ermittler kamen zu dem Schluss, dass Vervloesem trotz seines Engagements kaum verwertbare Informationen liefere. Ein Ermittler vom Landeskriminalamt Berlin sagte, Vervloesem sei vor allem ein "höchst selbstdarstellungsbedürftiger Mann".

Nachdem Vervloesem selbst wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs Minderjähriger angezeigt wurde, begann im Januar 2005 ein Prozess gegen ihn. Das Gericht stellte fest, dass er zwischen 2003 und 2005 drei Minderjährige missbraucht hatte. Zudem war er bereits 1979 wegen sexuellen Missbrauchs in einer psychiatrischen Anstalt gewesen. Das Gericht verurteilte ihn im Mai 2006 zu fünf Jahren Haft, davon zwei Jahre auf Bewährung. Der Staatsanwalt zog das Fazit: "Es ist an der Zeit, dass wir den Mythos Vervloesem auf seine richtige Proportion reduzieren. Vervloesem hat das Image eines Pornojägers benutzt, um selbst Kinder zu missbrauchen." 2008 wurde Vervloesem vom Berufungsgericht in Antwerpen wegen Vergewaltigung von vier Kindern, Verbreitung von pornografischen Postern und Erpressung zu vier Jahren Gefängnis verurteilt. Er bestritt weiterhin seine Schuld. Im Herbst 2010 kam er unter Auflagen frei.

2013 wurde er erneut inhaftiert. Sein 17-jähriger Neffe hatte ihn angezeigt und detailliert geschildert, wie Vervloesem ihn im Januar 2012 nach dem Sporttraining in der Dusche missbraucht habe. Als Beleg diente eine Aufzeichnung eines Handy-Gesprächs mit Vervloesem. Dieser wurde in erster Instanz zu 18 Monaten Haft auf Bewährung verurteilt. Laut Vervloesem war das Gespräch aus dem Zusammenhang gerissen worden. Er sagte, sein Neffe wolle sich an ihm rächen und behaupte Unwahrheiten. Nachdem Zeugen seine Darstellung bestätigt hatten, sprach das Berufungsgericht in Antwerpen Vervloesem im Dezember 2014 frei.

Marcel Vervloesem litt an einer Herzkrankheit und einer schweren Form von Diabetes. Er lebte zuletzt in Turnhout. Er starb im Alter von 65 Jahren im Haus seiner Tochter in Herenthout.

Einzelnachweise

Verurteilte Person (Sexueller Missbrauch)
Belgier
Geboren 1952
Gestorben 2018
Mann

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
50 Years Ago – March, 1972
U. S. Air Force Staff Sergeant Norman R. Leveille of Greenville was serving as a communications specialist in Turkey after completing a tour of duty in Vietnam.
Brian Douglas Straus of Esmond enlisted in the navy's "Three Year Airman Program", and was the first in Rhode Island to do so.
Air Force pilot 1st Lieutenant Bernard J. Ferro III of Esmond was serving with the 516th Tactical Aircraft Wing. He and his crew were recognized for their outstanding performance during operational training missions held from January to June of 1972.
Airman Richard L. LaChance of Greenville completed basic training, and was assigned to Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas for specialized training.
Army National Guard Master Sergeants Ralph Corbesero, Jr., and Nicholas P. Gerardi, along with Sergeant's First Class John L. Foline, and Frank A. Grace, and Staff Sergeant Brendon M. Byone, stationed at the guard depot on Washington Highway, received ten and twenty year service awards.
On March 2nd, NASA launched the Pioneer 10 space probe which had a plaque attached bearing a message to any alien civilization that might encounter it. In 1983 it became the first man-made object to leave our solar system. It continued transmitting data to Earth until January of 2003.
On March 3rd, 2.24 inches of rain drenched the area causing the Woonasquatucket River to overflow its banks and cause extensive flooding in Georgiaville and Esmond.
The Smithfield Boys Club held its annual dinner dance and presented Thomas Black, Albert Octeau, Alonzo Thurber, Senator F. Monroe Allen, and John Ford with exceptional service awards for their work with the organization.
Gulliver's Lounge on Farnum Pike advertised St. Patrick's Day specials which included green beer, Irish whiskey, corned beef sandwiches, and music by the "Smilin' Faces", said to be "Far-in folk with a lot of funk."
Greenville Cub Scouts Pack 3 held its annual Blue and Gold Dinner at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Pascoag, and Smithfield Pack 43 Cub Scouts held theirs at Wright's Farm.
Doreen Marinaccio, age 15, of Georgiaville, won first place in the "Mid-Winter Skating Championships" held in Warwick. She'd competed in the "Freshman Freestyle Event".
The Smithfield Lions Club installed two new members; Kaj Andreasson, and Dr. Ronald Hall.
Bill's Appliance Inc., once located at 258 Putnam Pike, posted a unique advertisement that read in part, "Wanted, 50 old washers, dead or alive". Basically he was offering trade in value towards a new Maytag washing machine. The ad went on to state, "Oldest Maytag washer brought in receives bonus trade in rewards on any Maytag of your choice."
A local Chevrolet dealership was advertising new 1972 model cars. One could own a Monte Carlo for $3,295, an Impala for $3,195, a Camero for $2,850, and a Nova for $2,395.
If one were more economy minded a Volkswagon dealership was offering Beetles for $2,057.
On March 21st the Greenville Senior Sunshiners held a meeting in the Fellowship Hall of the Greenville Baptist Church. The meeting was opened by the group's president Mrs. Elizabeth Spencer, and the chaplain, Mrs. Edith Knushke, led the group with a prayer.
On March 23rd, David F. Culton of Greenville became Senior Warden of the Nestell Lodge No. 37, of the A. F. & A. M. in Providence. He was also serving with the Rhode Island Air Guard.
Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: David F. Culton Smithfield R. I.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Экстракт зеленого кофе — экстракт необжаренных зелёных зерен кофе. Используется в швейцарском водном процессе для декофеинизации. Также используется как пищевая добавка для похудения и как ингредиент в продуктах для похудения, но его эффективность и механизм действия остаются спорными.

Существуют некоторые доказательства его пользы для похудения, однако их качество оставляет желать лучшего. В 2014 году одно из испытаний, показывающих пользу, было отозвано, а спонсировавшая исследование компания Applied Food Sciences была оштрафована Федеральной торговой комиссией за необоснованные заявления о снижении веса и проведение некорректного исследования.

Экстракт зелёного кофе продается под различными торговыми марками, например Svetol, и входит в состав продуктов для похудения, таких как CoffeeSlender. Также его можно приготовить как настой из зелёных кофейных зерен.

Влияние на здоровье
В обзоре 2011 года приводились предварительные доказательства того, что экстракт зелёного кофе способствует снижению веса, однако качество доказательств было низким. В этом обзоре были рассмотрены три опубликованных рандомизированных контролируемых исследования экстракта зелёного кофе с участием 142 участников, и был обнаружен небольшой эффект. В обзоре говорится, что необходимы более строгие и более продолжительные испытания для оценки эффективности и безопасности зелёного кофе в качестве добавки для похудения. Участникам исследований было рекомендовано ограничить свой рацион и увеличить физические нагрузки. Одно из испытаний было отозвано в 2014 году из-за сомнений в точности данных. Эти три испытания не сообщали о побочных эффектах, однако в обзоре было отмечено, что два участника из другого испытания вышли из-за побочных эффектов, таких как головная боль и инфекция мочевыводящих путей.

В более крупном обзоре 2017 года оценивалось влияние хлорогеновых кислот, основных фенольных соединений в экстракте зелёного кофе. В обзор входило исследование хлорогеновых кислот как в составе кофе, так и непосредственно в виде очищенного экстракта. Обзор показал несколько полезных эффектов, в частности, улучшение метаболизма глюкозы и липидов, а также антиоксидантное и противовоспалительное действие. В обзоре было отмечено, что потенциальные побочные эффекты как краткосрочного, так и долгосрочного приема ещё не были тщательно изучены, и что количество исследований, проведенных на людях, было ограниченным.

История
В апреле и сентябре 2012 года The Dr.Oz Show сняло выпуск об экстракте зеленого кофе и провело собственное ненаучное исследование его эффективности. Впоследствии гостья этого шоу, Линдси Дункан, была оштрафована Федеральной торговой комиссией на 9 миллионов долларов за вводящие в заблуждение и необоснованные утверждения в отношении продуктов из зелёного кофе, продвигаемых на The Dr. Oz Show.

Полемика
Журнал Fortune сообщил в июне 2014 года, что преимущества употребления экстракта зелёных кофейных зерен были в значительной степени опровергнуты исследованиями, и что экстракт зелёного кофе был предметом иска Федеральной торговой комиссии против компании из Флориды, а также предметом слушаний в Сенате против введения в заблуждение в рекламе товаров для похудения.

В мае 2014 года Федеральная торговая комиссия обвинила флоридских производителей продукта Pure Green Coffee в том, что они вводят в заблуждение потребителей ложными заявлениями о снижении веса. Федеральная торговая комиссия заявила, что обращение к исследованию Винсона вводит в заблуждение, поскольку серьезные методологические недостатки делают его результаты ненадежными.

17 июня 2014 года подкомитет Сената США по науке и транспорту провёл слушания по обсуждению продуктов для похудения и защиты потребителей. Во время слушаний экстракт зелёного кофе часто приводился в качестве примера «фальшивого» продукта. Когда Dr. Oz выступал в защиту своей поддержки экстракта зелёного кофе и других продуктов для похудения на своем шоу, сенатор Маккаскилл заявил, что «научное сообщество почти единогласно против вас в вопросе эффективности трёх продуктов, которые вы называете чудом». В ответ Dr. Oz заявил, что верит в силу этих продуктов, несмотря на отсутствие научных доказательств, что даёт своей аудитории те же советы, что и своей семье, и что его семья также принимает эти продукты." Он также сказал, что считает их «краткосрочными костылями… но без диеты и физических упражнений не существует долгосрочной чудодейственной таблетки»

Примечания

Фитотерапия
Биологически активные добавки


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Picture of Single Trapped Atom Wins UK Science Photography Prize
Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Filed to:crazy science images
Image: David Nadlinger/EPSRC
Zoom in close on the center of the picture above, and you can spot something you perhaps never thought you'd be able to see: a single atom. Here is a close-up if, you're having trouble:
This strontium atom is emitting light after being excited by a laser, and it's the winner of the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) photography award. The EPSRC announced the winners of its fifth annual contest yesterday. Winning photographer David Nadlinger, graduate student at the University of Oxford, was just excited to be able to show off his research.
"It's exciting to find a picture that resonates with other people that shows what I spend my days and nights working on," Nadlinger told me. The best part, to him, was "the opportunity to excite people about my research, more than winning a competition."
Nadlinger traps atoms as part of his research on quantum computing. The laser light causes the atom to emit photons, which could be collected using a longer exposure. He took the photo through a window into the vacuum of the ion trap.
Judges selected the photo from more than 100 entries that receive EPSRC funding—the EPSRC is the main funder of physical science research in the United Kingdom. Here are some of our other favorites.
Screening the different shapes of certain polymers. By Mahetab Amer - University of Nottingham (Image via EPSRC)
This image demonstrates the behavior of soap bubbles to study the formation of foams. According to the EPSRC website, it was "taken using a highly customized set-up comprising two Quality Street biscuit tins, an oven tray, parts of a Tesco water bottle, a piece of transparency paper, Fairy Liquid, a builder's lamp and a DSLR camera, a Nikon D500 with a 105mm VR macro lens." By Li Shen - Imperial College London (Image via EPSRC)
An unprocessed transmission electron microscope image of a gas core surrounded by a bio-compatible shell. By Estelle Beguin - University of Oxford (Image: EPSRC)
A robot taking a selfie. By Luke Cramphorn - University of Bristol (Image: EPSRC)
Various 3D-printed aluminum structures meant to be as simultaneously light and strong as possible. By Sam Catchpole-Smith - University of Nottingham (Image: EPSRC)
A colorized image of a biodegradable microbowl that could potentially deliver drugs more efficiently. By Tayo Sanders II - University of Oxford (Image via EPSRC)
[EPSRC]
What's Your Favorite Science Photo?
Behold The Most Hilarious Wildlife Photos of 2017
The Most Amazing Science Images of 2013
Experimenter's Gender Can Skew Science
Science writer at Gizmodo | I like physics and eating


surgery so Leo could return home with his family. The day we got to make the call to Leo's family… to let them know the good news…was one of the best days we have ever had.
© 2018 Max's Helping Paws Foundation. All Rights Reserved.


That summer I started working at Lexington Home for minimum wage. I spent shifts convincing residents to swallow pills brimming from paper cups. It was a powerful position. Or at least that's what I told friends. I told them I could've swallowed every pill if I wanted. But the only question anyone ever asked was: "What happened to you?" I was permanently limping. My hips, shins, elbow were riddled with lumps and eggs. The city of Albany was full of cracks that stopped skateboard wheels dead and, it seemed, I'd found every one. I discovered the pink goo of car Bondo worked best for patching. In minutes it formed a hard, smooth layer. At night I dreamt of a seamless world where one could roll forever. Back then, friends were everywhere, too plentiful. It got so the nerves inside my face ached from laughing. I decided skateboarding was a legend factory. One night, we branded our legs with a hot iron then went dancing until the blood filled our socks. On the way home, we stole things from the park. Our best find was a billboard-sized Christmas sign depicting a happy Santa tossing presents that we stole from an unlocked shed. We plugged it in and blew the fuse of the apartment before he could toss any presents though. A week later someone went to the hospital with a staph infection while my own self-inflicted wounds healed nicely. The small miracle made me feel powerful. Other times I thought I might die I was so fragile. I called out of work constantly. But they refused to fire me. I hit another crack and separated my shoulder. It healed all wrong and began hanging awkwardly from my bones, straining the muscle over my heart. For a short time afterward I became convinced I was having a heart attack and admitted myself to the hospital. When the ER nurse asked me if I'd had any drugs, I lied and said, "No, never." She brought me pills brimming a paper cup and told me I was okay to go. I tossed them back, showed her my tongue but she wasn't looking. On my way home, I kicked over garbage cans, thinking I'd run into someone. I didn't know where anyone was anymore, it seemed. I tried remembering if I'd called out of work already, if I should go in. Behind one can, I discovered a painting of Black Jesus rimmed in heavenly light. I carried it home and scrubbed the glass with Windex to give my new savior a brighter domain. Why had I started working at Lexington Home in the first place? I wondered. Black Jesus didn't know either. Was it an ad in the paper? Sometimes I thought I just showed up at Lexington Home without invitation and slipped in among the residents, all seamless. Other times it was even less deliberate. Regardless, as I limped the halls that day, a happy Santa tossing out pills, electricity surged through my cracked bones as the residents shivered and rolled out their tongues.


Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wants to see a crackdown on people traffickers rather than boost the EU border force.
Babiš said that traffickers should no longer be allowed to determine who comes to Europe suggesting police in the thousands could be in the Mediterranean on standby at the ready to protect the borders.
Andrej formed the ANO party in 2013. They promised to end corruption and since his election has focused on domestic politics but has joined with Poland and Hungary in the debate on the Europe's future.
Babiš and the leaders of Poland and Hungary have rejected the EU's plans to increase Frontex border from 1,500 to 10,000 officers and now promoting the alternative of persuading migrants to remain in Africa.
"There are 700,000 illegal migrants – they need to go home," Babiš states.
Babiš, like President Trump, is a skilled businessman turned popular politician who easily won an election last October with promises to clean up and invest in the state, resist the Brussels agenda and combat illegal migration.


The Moray Floral Dress is a pretty piece made for year-round style. The form-skimming tunic dress is covered in an eye-catching floral print in a rich autumnal palette. A relaxed silhouette combines comfort with style in the long-sleeved dress.
The Moray Floral Dress is a pretty piece made for year-round style. The form-skimming tunic dress is covered in an eye-catching floral print in a rich autumnal palette. A relaxed silhouette combines comfort with style in the long-sleeved dress, which is finished with a bow at the neckline. Swap boots for heels for this day to night piece.


This doesn't look like much right now, so that should set the tone for what this site will be about. We'll be posting updates and random developments involving the band.
For now, I'm looking forward to wrapping up March. Everything will be recorded by the end of the month and this thing will hopefully be out mid-April. Until then, keep an eye out for a single.
If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and stay tuned for more!


One of the most difficult and I think most important things in performing magic is character development. After watching some of your videos and seeing your "character" change over time, I was wondering if you can give me and others here in the Magic Café a little history and insight into your character(s) over time, how they developed, and any tips or pointers for the rest of us as we begin, and continue, to develop our characters. Thank you.
You might want to try posting this in the Food For Thought section down near the bottom of the main page. Whit's good about answering questions but I don't know how often he makes it up to the Newbie section.
JACK, the Jolly Almanac of Card Knavery, a free card magic resource for beginners.
Well, here it is! That's why its the Magic Café!
I don't think newbies should be worrying about character development. There are so many other important skills to work on first. In general, learning routines and finding out what magic appeals to you the most, getting up in front of a crowd and learning how to relax and keep their attention--these are much more important.
The best thing is to focus on being natural and normal in presentation--to be yourself talking normally to a group, rather than speaking and acting in a declamatory, stilted way.
As you become comfortable with your magic and presentation in front of a group, then I would start working more on character.
There is a big difference between character and theme, and beginners often make a mistake here. They chose a theme like Indiana Jones, or Western Gambler, and for the most part, these are just costumes they put on.
The hat wears the performer, rather than the performer wearing the hat.
A character is much more. He has a backstory, a reason for being here in front of this crowd at this particular time, something he wants from the audience, and something he wants to give them. A cliched costume just sets the theme.
There is a big difference in dressing up like your favorite hero for Halloween and playing a character.
When you are comfortable performing as yourself, you then start constructing the backstory of how you came to have your magic abilities, what makes them work, why you are showing them here, and so forth. It is as if you take your own life story and embellish it with an explanation of how you came to be here like this and what these powers mean to you. You treat your own story and stretch it into a magical character. Still, you only have to be yourself. You don't tell anyone your backstory, you let it infuse your patter and performance so that the audience gets glimpses of it and sense a kind of integrity behind the performance. Once you have learned to play yourself as a character in a story, you have learned the basics of acting. Many actors have had successful careers without much range--almost always playing a version of themselves--Edward G Robinson, Jimmy Stewart, Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne. They could play in all sorts of stories, but generally had to play Americans. They didn't have range to change their voices, faces and mannerisms into that of a completely different character. That sort of range is exemplified by actors like Laurence Olivier.
The magician will usually only create one character, and he can play it for life. It is himself, but with a different backstory.
Creating a completely different character for your magic than yourself requires training in acting, or at least a great deal of study. It is fraught with difficulties.
Thank you so much for answering. My parents have a film of me performing a couple of magic tricks when I was 5 or 6 years old. I loved it, of course, but never really pursued magic except as a hobby for many years. The reason is because I was never comfortable with what I was doing. I mostly saw large stage illusions on tv and that was pretty much the limit of my magical experience. I took to closeop a little better, but of course that was mostly for friends. Then I moved to performing for charities and events, but whatever I was doing still wasn't "me." Oh, I have had several gigs with several hundred people, but I still wasn't happy with my performance because it didn't "click" with me. What has fascinated me lately is watching your progression over time thru your videos and contemplating why you did what you did and how comfortable you seem in your character. I noticed that in your comedy linking rings routine on your video you were a bit younger and your character is fairly different than it is now with the sort of western character. In both you still have, under the surface, that sort of playful trickster type personality. Though your characters are different, BOTH are still YOU. On the surface it seemed so at odds with each other, a person dressed semi-formally and a western huckster. So I began to ask myself, who am I? It freed me because I have stopped trying to play someone else.
I think you mentioned it in your response to me. For me, I am the person with my experiences. The people I know, the places I've been, my observations and such. So I have been busy re-working the stuff I already knew. I have a history, and how I learned magic, the people I saw and the places I have been are all a part of it (real or sometimes even imagined.) My magic suddenly seems honest and fun to perform.
Well, I don't know, your metamorphasis or maybe just a progression from the character in your original comedy linking rings video seem so different than your teaching act character, but yet the same. There is still the twinkle in your eye, just maybe more pronounced now. How did you come on the western character and why? Were there any particular folks that you watched that particularly affected your school of thought on magic, and particularly your character? So many questions...I apologize but do thank you for your time.
Well, I started out in the late 1960's as a street performer in NYC. I had a Southern accent (I am from Tenn/NC and my family is from VA). In 1974, I joined a traveling improvisational theater company called the Road Co. I worked on losing my accent, and developing better projection. I had learned to speak loudly on the street, but I would strain my voice. Working with direction, I was able to project loudly without strain. I began doing an illusion/dove act show in amusement parks, and that is where I developed my stage persona.
At that time, I was pretty brash and smart-alecky, and I sounded kind of like Jack Nicholson, who was one of the guys I imitated when trying to lose my accent. At this time, I was not as concerned about character as about constructing solid routines and patter, and learning how to hold the audience's attention. Basic performing skills, and finding solid magic routines that I liked to perform consumed most of my attention.
Once I had the act together and it was entertaining and strong, I started thinking more about character. I moved to Los Angeles in 1975, and there I began developing the Teaching Act. The ring routine and rope routines had been developed as part of my street act in the 1960's. The silk to egg and torn and restored newspaper I added while working in the amusement park stage show.
The two street routines were "teaching" themed routines, and I added the other two to make a whole act of teaching magic, with each routine taking the theme in a different direction. Once the whole act took shape, I began finding things in the material that began to shape my character. I started developing a nervous, slightly out of his depth, but glib substitute magic teacher with an unruly class. The character was "put upon" and the more he was heckled and beset by the audience or assisting spectator, the more funny he became. The character was "dry" without a lot of emotional ups and downs. I played with it for many years, often trying to see just how flat and dry I could take the character without losing the audience.
Eventually, the act began to appeal more to intelligent audiences, and to lose some people. I found that the character didn't have a wide-enough range emotionally, and I couldn't do a lot of magic that I really liked, and I couldn't take the audience as many different places emotionally as I wanted to--I felt straight-jacketed, and began to look for new directions.
In 2005, I was asked to come to Melody Ranch in Santa Clarita for the Cowboy Festival. They wanted me to play the con man, and do the shell game all day on the streets. I jumped at the chance, and put together an Old West costume. I tried to do a Western accent, but it sounded like Gabby Hayes. So I did a Southern accent, based on my grandfather's archaic Southern Virginia accent. It cut through the clutter in a surprising way. People were attracted to the deep, loud Southern accent. I was very surprised by the response.
That is when I began developing the Pop character.
At first, I had planned to create a Soapy Smith-like character just to do the shell game and other things in that theme. I quickly began find that very limiting. I wanted to still be able to do the Linking Rings and other magic routines, and that didn't seem to fit in with a sure-thing gambler. I also didn't want to be trapped in some kind of re-enactment show that would relegate me to festivals and theme parks.
I first thought of making the character an entertainer/con man. Alexander Pantages, though not a performer, was a bartender for Soapy Smith who left Alaska for Dawson City in the Klondike after being caught stealing from Soapy. He became enamoured of Klonkike Kate, a famous Dawson showgirl. He married her and parlayed her talents into a huge Vaudeville career, founding the Pantages theater chain.
I thought that could be the basis for my character.
Later, I decided that the character would be a medicine show operator and pitchman. This gave me more room for doing comedy pitches. Because the character is a vaudevillian magician, he could do any magic trick he wants, and also juggle and play and instrument.
I didn't want him to be stuck in the past, having to act ignorant of contemporary issues and jargon, I decided he would have to be a time-traveller who is stuck here in the 21st century. I decided to make him a crackpot inventor as well, something the turn of the century was full of. This also enabled me to have him do the Teleportation Device, which I had done for years in my other character. So the story of Pop began to develop.
I created a history for the character, based on my own personal history. The more I knew about Pop's background and history, the more convincing he could be. So I had him born in Clarkesville, Tennessee, as I was, but in 1849 instead of 1949. His family was from Virginia, and he went to school in Virginia, and studied for the Episcopal ministry at Virginia Theological Seminary. I had him drop out of seminary in his last year, as I did, but gave him a more interesting story about being thrown out and embarrassing his family.
He missed serving in the Civil War, having not graduated from High School until 1867. After seminary, he traveled around the world as part of the US merchant marines. This reflected the many years I spent at sea, and enabled me to use my experiences and knowledge of Africa, Hong Kong, Bali, India and Malaysia as part of his character. I got tattoos on both arms that reflected that experience as something from the 1870's. On returning to the US, the character went west, and got involved in Deadwood with sharpers and card cheats and sure-thing gamblers. He eventually ended up with Soapy Smith, and went to Alaska for the Gold Rush. In Alaska, he tired of the con games, and became interested in performing more than the little card tricks he used to entertain his friends and the ladies. He also became fascinated with emerging technology and science, and became a dabbler in radio and electrical experiments, as well as chemistry.
After the Gold Rush, he put together a little company of medicine show performers and con artists and traveled all over California, 1900-1910. An accident with a Tesla-style giant coil in Whitehorse Ranch caused his troupe and all the citizens of the town to be thrown into the 21st Century with no way back.
That is the basic backstory for the character.
None of this is ever explained in performance, it is just the hidden story behind what is actually going on. The cowboys of the town had to find their way in this new century, as well as the medicine show troupe. We do here what we have always done, selling medicine, trimming the suckers, and putting on entertainments.
Pop is sort of based on Professor Marvel from the Wizard of Oz. He is a total humbug and conman, who may be a genius or a crackpot, but if anyone has any "real magic" in his back pocket, it would be him. So Pop has the whiff of time travel, eccentric genius, and travels to the far reaches of the planet with knowledge of shamans and witchdoctors and primitive medicines.
I chose the name "Pop" because con men of the period liked avuncular names, (Dad Ryan, Pop Kriegor, Uncle Bill, etc.) because it made them seem respected and loved, and trustworthy, and made them one up as soon as the name was used. "Just call me Pop, everbody does..." "Good to meet you, Pop!" "Good to know you, son."
I also wanted to avoid the common and overused "Doc" or "Professor." That would put me right even with everyone else in the country doing medicine show.
I wanted to be different, because I did not intend to go into the fair and themepark and reenactment venues.
That's very interesting. I'm a little surpised that you have developed your backstory that much, but knew there was a lot more there than most of us knew. I find it interesting that in your comedy linking ring video you are actually teaching the volunteer, and then even though you have changed characters, there "Pop" is with his The Teaching Act. And you obviously are very generous with your time and insight here. Baseball players deep down want to be rock stars, rock stars want to be baseball players. Seems you and your characters enjoy teaching?
Well, nothing much gets taught. The Teaching Act has been my standard act for more than thirty years. It is not something you would want to give up to spend another thirty years getting something else right.
The reason for the teaching is that it gives the magical character an ostensible reason to be on stage and showing these effects. "I am here to teach you how to do these old chestnuts of magic." The real motive for the character is always something different. Both Whit and Pop are intentionally hooking the audience with a false promise. Both characters have their own real reasons for being on stage that have nothing to do with teaching.
"Teaching" is a conman ploy by the characters to get around the audience's prejudices against magic, and especially against these particular, hoary old effects.
If someone moans when the rings come out, the character says, "It's a classic, like Silas Marner. It is requiered. You have to learn it."
I don't want to be a rockstar. I just want to be a weird old Southern vaudevillian and medicine man.
I know you grew up in Tennessee. I grew up in South Carolina. Some of my fondest memories are sitting on my grandparent's front porch on their farm, listening to the old folks tell stories. Or watching my grandfather get up early in the morning while the smell of bacon and eggs and grits and coffee filled the air from my grandmother cooking while my grandfather would hook those old wire-rimmed glasses over his ears and would read the Bible to me. Or maybe just sitting out on their back porch all alone on a hot summer afternoon and listen to the thunder in the distance and the foggy haze of the rain in the distance cross the woods and over the fields, the ground spewing up dust as the first few large drops of rain made its way in a sheet and came down on their tin roof. Los Angeles is a heckuva long way from Tennessee, and I notice you said at one point in the theatre you had tried to lose your southern accent. But "Pop" looks and sounds eerily familiar. How much of that did you bring with you, and how much of it do you draw on? I mean, I just spent a bit of time listening to the radio medicine show and….
I draw on it a lot. I grew up in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia. My family is from Virginia. As I said, at first I was doing an impression of my grandfather from southwestern Virginia. As things progressed, I started finding out that as I performed, images of old Southern men that I knew growing up started popping up. In junior high I used to hang out at the stables in downtown Greenville, North Carolina. That is where they kept the ponies for cart-racing. Four or five old men were usually hanging out, spitting tobacco into tin cans and telling stories around the space heater. I helped clean the tack, and shovel the stalls so I could listen to their wonderful story-telling.
I found Pop just automatically falling into their mannerisms and big-eyed facial expressions as well as their language and accents. I added over this some Westernisms to reflect years of working out in the West, and rhetorical flourishe that would have suited a man who studied rhetoric in the 1870's. I also felt that he would have considered himself a Shakespearean actor, and that his years at sea would have given him some sailor's expressions and his booming voice. It took three or four years to get Pop's accent and mannerisms right, and I am still working on that.
But my knowledge of Southern story-telling, Jack Tales like my granddaddy told me when I was little, and hermeneutics served me well in extending the character's range. The cultivated Tidewater accents I heard so much when in Seminary in Alexandria also appealed to me, and added a bit of a cultured veneer to the character. He would surely have copied this accent to some extent in order to sound more like the professors and doctors he admired in Virginia.
So my knowledge of the South, its foods and customs and accent made it the natural basis for my character's early life. I just had to project things back a bit to the 19th Century, which wasn't so hard, since the old men I knew growing up still talked much that way. Accents in the South are not nearly so thick now as they were when I was growing up.
I was an actor working with a traveling improvisational company headquartered in Johnson City, Tennessee for a couple of years after seminary. I took lessons to lose my Southern accent at that time. I worked for 30 years without an accent, and really only spoke with a Southern accent when I was talking to my mom on the phone or amongst other Southerners. My wife always knew when my mom was on the phone, because in about five minutes I was talking with a Southern accent.
Once I started using the accent again, it was hard to stop, and hard moving in and out of it. People who had seen me perform were very disappointed when they heard me talk without the accent and realized Pop was just "a character."
It was like pullling the head off the ventriloquist's dummy after the show--it was disconcerting. Eventually, I decided I would just stay in character all the time--if a more relaxed, "Off-Stage" version of the character. My friends, wife and Magic Castle members eventually got used to and accepted the new accent--but a lot of people had trouble with it for some time. They didn't realize that the accent and mannerisms were actually much more "me" than the mid-western character they were familiar with...and of course, I worked hard to lower my voice an octave, to give me a more booming and interesting sound.
I seem to remember you saying once on the topic of young magicians copying material as they learned, that you thought it was ok for young magicians to do that, but then in order to grow they need to evolve and come up with their own material and way of doing things. I believe you likened it to a young art student spending hours and hours practicing and copying works of the masters such as Rembrandt, Picasso, etc. I thought that was a very generous thought. Would you care to expound on that a bit?
Also, I think I have looked at most of your routines that are on video and even a look at your websites. I think they both show a great deal of attention to detail and love for magic. Is there anything you don't like about magic?
"Is there anything you don't like about magic?" I don't particularly like the business and promotional side of magic.
I have spoken about learning by copying on other threads, and we can start a new one if you like, but let us keep this to the subject of character. Generally, I think we learn best by imitation. I don't say that everyone needs to evolve past that--there is a lot of room for cover acts and copyists in show business, and not everyone is committed enough or talented enough to be original. One can be quite successful in show business without doing anything original at all. It is much more important to be different from those in your venues than it is to be original.
On the other hand, one will never become an artist without the impulse to come up with something new and original, or without knowing how to steal "artfully."
If you don't have something original to say about magic, if you don't have a need to express your own love and joy through magic, if you don't see problems to solve in the routines you have learned, there is no need to be "original."
As far as stealing artfully, if the people you steal from don't notice the theft, you have done it right.
Indeed. I am trying to keep these questions fairly tightly directed to character development.
It seems the theatre has served you well on multiple fronts. You mentioned a couple of things, though, that I think I have as definite weakness in furthering my skills. One, of course, is that I have a fairly substantial southern accent as well. And though I don't find it necessarily contrary to my character, I do think I need to let go of a great deal of it. Also, Pop's voice has a certain resonance. I'm not sure I have the time or even the inclination to join the theatre, But I have contemplated joining the local Toastmasters. Any thoughts on ajusting accents and maybe trying to develop a more melodic or pleasing resonance?
And probably my final questions. But first let me try to put it in context.
My character seems to draw upon his experiences, growing up, the places he's been, the people he's met. But he also seems to come to it from a sort of off-center sort of way. I have even thought about a little making my stage name something like Hugh Otto Know, as in You Outta Know I was just pulling your leg. So maybe its the old characters in my youth that has effected me, but the art of the story is important to me.
Anyway, I had read a little a couple of years back a piece about creating and releasing tension in your magic. Then I thought, OK, what if I stretch this and use comedy in my magic to release tension and entertwine that with stories that create tension.
So that's what I did. The stories were emotional, some I had made up myself, some I had heard or read. Here is one to sort of give context. I apologize for its length here, but its only maybe about 5 minutes in the telling on stage.
A young girl grows up on a cherry orchard just above Traverse City, Michigan. Her parents, a bit old-fashioned, tend to overreact to her nose ring, the music she listens to and the length of her skirts. They ground her a few times, and she seethes inside. "I hate you!" she screams at her father when he knocks on the door of her room after an argument, and that night she acts on a plan she has mentally rehearsed scores of times. She runs away.
She has visited Detroit only once before, on a bus trip with her church youth group to watch the Tigers play. Because newspapers in Traverse City report in lurid detail of the gangs, the drugs and the violence in downtown Detroit, she concludes that this is probably the last place her parents will look for her. California, maybe, or Florida, but not Detroit.
The good life continues for a month, two months, a year. The man with the big car – she calls him "Boss" – teaches her a few things that men like. Since she's underage, men pay a premium for her. She lives in a penthouse and orders room service whenever she wants. Occasionally, she thinks about the folks back home, but their lives now seem so boring and provincial that she can hardly believe she grew up there.
She has a brief scare when she sees her picture printed on the back of a milk carton with the headline, "Have you seen this child?" But by now she has blonde hair, and with all the makeup and body-piercing jewelry she wears, nobody would mistake her for a child. Besides, most of her friends are runaways, and nobody squeals in Detroit.
After a year, the first sallow signs of illness appear, and it amazes her how fast the boss turns mean. "These days, we can't mess around," he growls, and before she knows it, she's out on the street without a penny to her name. She still turns a couple of tricks a night, but they don't pay much, and all the money goes to support her habit. When winter blows in, she finds herself sleeping on metal grates outside the big department stores, "Sleeping" is the wrong word – a teenage girl at night in downtown Detroit can never relax her guard. Dark bands circle her eyes. Her cough worsens.
under the newspapers she's piled atop her coat. Something jolts a synapse of memory and a single image fills her mind: May in Traverse City, when a million cherry trees bloom at once, with her golden retriever dashing through the rows and rows of blossomy trees in chase of a tennis ball.
It takes about seven hours for a bus to make all the stops between Detroit and Travers City, and during that time she realizes the flaws in her plan. What if her parents are out of town and miss the message? Shouldn't she have waited another day or so until she could talk to them? And even if they are home, they probably wrote her off as dead long ago. She should have given them some time to overcome the shock.
Her thoughts bounce back and forth between those worries and the speech she is preparing for her father. "Dad, I'm sorry. I know I was wrong. It's not your fault; it's all mine. Dad, can you forgive me?" She says the words over and over, her throat tightening even as she rehearses them. She hasn't' apologized to anyone in years.
The bus has been driving with lights on since Bay City. Tiny snowflakes hit the pavement rubbed worn by thousands of tires, and the asphalt steams. She's forgotten how dark it gets at night out here. A deer darts across the road and the bus swerves. Every so often, a billboard. A sign posting the mileage to Traverse City. Oh, God.
When the bus finally rolls into the station, its air brakes hissing in protest, the driver announces in a crackly voice over the microphone, "Fifteen minutes, folks. That's all we have here." Fifteen minutes to decide her life. She checks herself in a compact mirror, smoothes her hair and licks the lipstick off her teeth. She looks at the tobacco stains on her fingertips and wonders if her parents will notice. If they're here.
Now, I think there were probably about 150 or 160 people in the audience and fully 30-40 people came up after I was done and commented on the show, which I'm sure is the most I've ever had and defintely gave the most positive feedback. Although most were on the order of, "I hate you, you had me bursting out in laughter while I was still crying."
Now, I definitely took that and all of their comments as a positive. But I have never performed that again. One is because I have a fear of the story being overbearing on the magic. I could see magicians saying, "Oh, he's not a magician, he is a storyteller that does tricks." So I am very leery to repeat that and allow my character to develop along that line, even though storytelling is a part of me and I think, to a certain extent, a part of my character. I can't remember anyone else doing anything similar to what I did and perhaps it would open myself up to a bit of ridicule in the magic community. Any thoughts?
Well, I am not a big fan of combining story-telling with magic. Theatrically, one is a once-upon a time theatrical experience which induces imaginative participation and suspension of disbelief, the other is a realtime demonstration that forces imaginative thought by shutting down the deductive reason.
Combining the two is fraught with difficulties.
Story-telling is also different in the quality of emotional involvement from theater in general. It requires suspension of disbelief, but the emotions are not felt or demonstrated to the audience as actors in a play, but resonate in the story itself. In magic, the emotions are touched through the relationship of the performer to his audience in real time. The magician is the one having emotional changes and interplay with the audience--magician in trouble for example.
Story telling is mostly an auditory, almost inductive process.
Magic stimulates the critical faculties, story-telling relaxes them.
Most people are easily moved by stock response, but it is not artistic. It "grieves the judicious," just as does bad or coarse acting. A redemption story such as you have told, and I think you told it pretty well, is always going to have an emotional resonance with people, but it may not really offer anything new or truly stimulating--it is a retelling of the prodigal son. To touch people's emotions so easily, is not artistic, even though it may be effective for most of the audience, it grieves the judicious with its lack of original thought. To enact the part of the girl would take much more daring and have much more actual emotional connection between the performer and his audience. But still, the story is overly familiar. What is new and groundbreaking in the story? You should look for that which actually reveals something new and surprising in the retelling of an old story.
I would not let what magicians say influence your artistic impulses. If you want to create something new and artistic, you have to follow your own interests. On the other hand, if you are seeking to make a living at magic, you may want to consider looking at your act from a commercial rather than purely artistic point of view.
You should work on your voice with a vocal coach, or singing coach. It is less expensive than you think, but it does take work. I do a half-hour of vocal exercises every morning.
You can also practice reading poetry and prose out loud. It helps to use a microphone and headphones so you can begin to really listen to what you sound like.
I would not get over-involved in working on character until you already have a strong magic act that is entertaining.
I have seen magic acts that couldn't hold a dog's attention for more than a few seconds with a piece of bacon in their hands. First you have to know show business--being entertaining and able to hold the audience's attention--before you work on character and acting.
Magic is artistically, about the magic. Everything else you do should serve to make the magic as strong as possible.
I definitely think you should keep your accent, and explore your own story. Create a backstory for your character that brings him onto THIS stage in front of THIS audience. Don't tell them the story, but let the story shine behind the performance.
In a magic show, the audience really wants to meet a magician, not be told about one.
Maybe just because it was personal to me, but this has been one of the most entertaining and thought-provoking threads I have read here in the Magic Café. Hopefully, others may have gotten something out of it as well. I really do thank you for your time. And great luck on your Teleportation Device Routine and Stage Magician of the Year!
ps. May I call you Pop?
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Report on Klyuchevskoy (Russia) — 8 July-14 July 2020
Klyuchevskoy
8 July-14 July 2020
Global Volcanism Program, 2020. Report on Klyuchevskoy (Russia). In: Sennert, S K (ed.), Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 8 July-14 July 2020. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Weekly Report (8 July-14 July 2020)
KVERT reported that the temperature of the thermal anomaly at Klyuchevskoy sharply decreased on 3 July, possibly signaling the end of the current Strombolian phase. During 4-14 July the anomaly continued to decline and only weak fumarolic activity was visible. The Alert Level was lowered to Yellow (the second lowest level on a four-color scale) on 14 July.
Geological Summary. Klyuchevskoy (also spelled Kliuchevskoi) is Kamchatka's highest and most active volcano. Since its origin about 6000 years ago, the beautifully symmetrical, 4835-m-high basaltic stratovolcano has produced frequent moderate-volume explosive and effusive eruptions without major periods of inactivity. It rises above a saddle NE of sharp-peaked Kamen volcano and lies SE of the broad Ushkovsky massif. More than 100 flank eruptions have occurred during the past roughly 3000 years, with most lateral craters and cones occurring along radial fissures between the unconfined NE-to-SE flanks of the conical volcano between 500 m and 3600 m elevation. The morphology of the 700-m-wide summit crater has been frequently modified by historical eruptions, which have been recorded since the late-17th century. Historical eruptions have originated primarily from the summit crater, but have also included numerous major explosive and effusive eruptions from flank craters.


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Home » The Panama Papers: Legality is certainly not morality
Posted inNaked Opinion
The Panama Papers: Legality is certainly not morality
The Panama Papers elucidate the global network of dirty finance. As the latest largest leak in history, it will have unprecedented political and hopefully, legal repercussions writes Fausto Hernandez.
by Fausto Hernandez April 17, 2016 July 13, 2021
The Fonseca Farce. A company whose slogan is A legal approach to global solutions is almost comically suspicious. Today, Mossack Fonseca's overstated legality is akin to a sociopath who does charity work – a mere technicality. It is currently the Panama-based epicenter of the recent 2.6 TB tidal wave of information, lyrically dubbed the "Panama Papers". With a leak comprised of four decades and 11 million documents worth of their sensitive financial information that has so far been linked to over 140 public servants – many of global renown – Mossack exemplifies the mechanisms that allow for tax evasion, money laundering, and financial asset concealment. This is the "biggest leak in history".
Mossack is a firm that specializes in providing financial and legal services to wealthy clients. As it states, it has a global network comprised of a myriad shell companies and over 14,000 business partners which Mossack relied on to protect and hide its client's wealth. It was relied on for its confidentiality. The latter was all radically compromised when someone leaked confidential information to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), part of the non-profit organization Centre for Public Integrity, whose mission is to, as the name suggests, "…Serve democracy by revealing abuses of power, corruption and betrayal of public trust by powerful public and private institutions, using the tools of investigative journalism".
Panama Papers: Sifting through the rubble
The documents are illuminating a murky, hazy spider web of dubious financial activity and enormous wealth, some of presumed illicit – for one, Mossack worked with 33 blacklisted companies and individuals, including the cousin of the infamous Syrian dictator.
A common, sly tactic is to delegate wealth in order to preserve a "clean" state: offspring and close acquaintances are often entitled to vast, inexplicable fortunes and businesses in the real beneficiary's stead – for example, South African President Jacob Zuma's nephew, who had oil businesses in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The money is stored in tax havens and sparsely regulated territories like the British Virgin Islands and Panama itself and handled via several intermediaries, each of which makes the trail harder and harder to follow. Among the implicated are the ex-Prime Minister of Iceland Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, Russian President Vladimir Putin, 8 high-ranking government officials of the Chinese Politburo and British Prime Minister David Cameron, to mention a few household names.
The latter has admitted to benefiting from a trust set up by his father, while Iceland's President, who had stakes in Icelandic banks, stepped down after 10% of Iceland's population protested and called for his resignation. The truly global scandal has, unsurprisingly, also led to strong Chinese censorship efforts. Nonetheless, the true casualty in this affair, even more so than the grace of individual politicians, is the people's trust in their elected officials and the people's ignorance on the subject. Xi Jinping, who had been at the forefront of anti-corruption efforts, is also stained by the Papers simply by having close acquaintances involved, even if his conduct is perfectly legal. Given the surprising lack of high-profile American individuals or companies involved, some sources claim that the CIA uploaded the information as an anonymous whistleblower. Bradley Birkenfeld, himself a lauded leaker, certainly supports this. The leak has certainly destabilized the government of American rival countries.
The Aftermath of the Panama Papers – casualties and reform
Businesses such as Mossack are a financial tool.It is very possible, indeed quite probable, that the vast majority of the transactions detailed in the Panama Papers are perfectly legal. The issue arises with the opacity involved: trusts and mazes of shell companies may well be ways to safeguard assets as much as perfect ways to launder illicit money. At the least, it is a tax evasion mechanism that allows the uber-wealthy to dodge redistribution measures like progressive tax brackets, which exacerbates inequality and consolidates inter-generational fortunes. Greater transparency, regulation, and vigilance are in order: no doubt, some progress will be made in the upcoming anti-corruption summit summoned by David Cameron.
Hopefully, this will serve as legal and political dawn on the lack of regulation that such financial service providers have: after all, it is estimated that Mossack only controls a small fraction of the world's offshore wealth market. There is much more to find.
The global shock will also advance Bernie Sander's campaign as it fuels the public's indignation towards the 1%, which has been targeted since the Great Recession in 2008: this revelation into the efforts undertaken by billionaires to circumvent legal obligations that are inescapable to the vast majority of citizens will is tailored to Sander's heavy redistribution, anti-inequality platform. Hillary Clinton may not be so lucky, as she pushed for the ratification of the Panama Free Trade Agreement in 2012, which Sanders, who "…was opposed to the Panama Free Trade Agreement from day one," claims made much of this possible.
By being almost impossible to censor, the Internet has manifested as a great whistle that anyone can blow in recent times. The looming consequences of indiscretion in this era may act as a deterrent to some degree for further grey finance. The greatest leak in history was enabled by the greatest capacity to share information in history. More leaks are yet to come.
As citizens, we entrust the democratically elected leaders of our Nations with great power in order to serve the public. Graft betrays this relationship. We are on the same side. Taxpayer money must be reinvested in its country to enable growth: corruption stagnates foreign investment and stymies economic improvement. Many of the charges derived from the Panama Papers will be dismissed as immaculately legal. As even more putrid, red-hot money trails emerge from the black gunge of the papers, we must recall Benjamin Franklin's quote: "laws without morals are useless". Legality is certainly not morality.
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Tagged: finance, Panama Papers
Fausto Hernandez
Fausto Hernandez is currently residing in Mexico City. So far he has experienced New York, Miami and London, his birthplace. Fausto was the fellow of 2015 Yale Global Scholars in Politics, Law and Economics,...	More by Fausto Hernandez


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The Vaclav Havel Library Foundation
About VHLF
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VHLF June 28, 2016 Havel in the Media
Source: The Guardian Nigeria / www.guardian.ng / By Debo Adesina /
Those who questioned or still question President Muhammadu Buhari's educational qualifications, especially his secondary school leaving certificate, certainly know a thing or two about jokes.
They have never met his classmates or, better still, his students or subordinates in the artillery brigade of the Nigerian Army!I have met a few but one especially comes to mind. And his testimony, many years ago, long before Buhari became president, can be summed up thus: if Buhari did not have a school certificate and he was that good as a student, then an officer as well as a trainer, glory be to God! A voracious reader then and a meticulous teacher who was always ahead of his peers, he was so disciplined in class and stingy with marks that to pass through Buhari with whatever grade was enough a badge of honour.
Ever since the statement by the President to the effect that he had not read and would not bother to read the report of the 2014 national conference, however, I have been worried.
My position that Nigeria needs that report and that its implementation in whatever form would mark the beginning of the much-desired Nigerian renaissance is well known. Ignoring the report, therefore, is a disservice to this country's future.
My worry, however, is not Buhari's publicly stated decision to consign that body of ideas to the archives but his disposition to ideas in general, as illustrated by that dismissal of a very important, almost indispensable, body of work!
My worry is that a certain modicum of intellectual curiousity is expected of any leader, especially of a complex country like Nigeria with its complicated challenges, a curiousity on ideas from anywhere and on anything with a view to coming to the closest truth of a decision. By being so scornful, throwing a report into the archives without even the slightest query or examination, no matter how knowledgeable the leader is, however wise he may be, he has demonstrated a terrible disdain for ideas search, a wrong disposition for which the country may pay very dearly sooner or later.
And it is against this background that I went into a reflection on whose spirit to summon in the search for help for Buhari on his need to cast the net very wide for ideas as he seeks to re-build Nigeria.
I then remembered Vaclav Havel, the late Czech writer who believed nothing could trump the potency of ideas and that the greatest battles are waged and won in the mind. Havel spent many years in and out of Communist prisons and endured the suppression of his plays and essays. He led his people in protests and eventually won freedom for them. A grateful people made him their president for 14 years.
He is renowned as having personified the essence of the Czech nation and his moral authority was unparalleled before and after gaining power. Even after he quit the Czech presidency in 2003, he remained a moral guide to many, including world leaders who often sought him out for counsel. When he met President Barack Obama in March 2009, Havel warned of the perils of limitless hope being retailed by any leader especially on account of such leader's perceived infallibility and reverence by the people. According to Havel, an unmitigated investment of trust could lead to disappointments which could boil over into anger, with the result that the people's hero runs the risk at arriving at villainy faster than usual. Obama, retailer of the most audacious of hopes, was quick to admit this as a leader from whom almost the impossible was being expected.
President Muhammadu Buhari, he of very audacious changes promised, needs the words of Vaclav Havel now!Buhari may wish to know that Havel was a strident warrior against any form of authoritarian rule and what he regarded as its humiliation of the human spirit.
In his much celebrate essay "The Power of the Powerless," written in 1978, but which circulated largely underground because his writings were banned, he correctly predicted that the forces of freedom would triumph over dictatorship.Before then, in 1975, he attacked what he called a "political apartheid" which separated the rulers from the ruled.
His most eloquent words were reserved for dictators in the garb of democrats, pretenders to the course of the people while listening only to themselves, repressors of progress in the guise of promoting unity and those who deny the individuality of each, who conveniently ignore the diversity of all just to maintain the hegemony of a few. Hence he railed against a ruling elite which he said had chosen "the most dangerous road for society: the path of inner decay for the sake of outward appearances; of deadening life for the sake of increasing uniformity."
In July 1992, as Czechoslovakia began to break up, Havel chose not to supervise the split and resigned as president. Of course, he was an idealist whose ideas sometimes ran against the grain of reality and he was ever quick to admit that the transformation from the comfort zone of a philosopher into that of a king was not an easy one for him.
Yet, his ideas were right. Only that the people failed to catch up with him in the race to take them to the future!It is not surprising therefore that his life-long worry over the predisposition of the people to passivity in the face of impunity was probably one of the reasons he remained a crusader even while in office as president. He cherished the rule of law and freedom and always decried the "the tendency to make compromises with evil, to close one's eyes to dictatorship…"
The most inflammable fuel for dictatorship, of course, is sycophantic adulation, denying the leader the truth or telling him he is the best thing to happen when the worst is thriving on his watch. Buhari does not deserve, and, I hope, would not condone that kind of state of affairs.
To escape ascending the vacuous Throne of One Who Knows It All In The Knowledge Of Nothing, however, the president must develop a special taste for ideas that is required of a leader of the world's leading Black nation.
In an interview in 1992, Vaclav Havel made one of the most illustrative statements about the connection between a leader's personal style, preferences on the most mundane matters, his idiosyncrasies, and his governing style.
According to him, good taste plays an important role in politics for the singular reason that good taste is a visible manifestation of human sensibility toward the world, environment, people and everything!
He then narrated the story of how he assumed the presidency of Czechoslovakia and arrived the presidential castle as well as other governmental residences inherited from previous leaders in the communist era and was confronted with poor taste. Empty libraries of books where there were libraries at all! Tasteless furniture and, for a country so rich in history, tasteless pictures and works of art. "Only then did I realize how closely the bad taste of rulers was connected with their bad way of ruling," Havel exclaimed!
He then went on to discuss how much good taste meant to politics and leadership. During political talks, he said, the feeling of how and when to convey something, of how long to speak, the degree of attention, how to address the public, forms to be used not to offend someone's dignity and on the other hand, to say what has to be said, ''all these play a major role and all these political behaviours relate to good taste in a broader sense."
With these words, Havel, ever the bohemian, a lover of good wine, cigar and even beautiful women, was first to say he spoke not of a taste at knowing which tie matched a particular shirt, which wine went with a meal or which colour of furniture worked in a particular room, but what nourishment of ideas and in
what quantity, was good for a leader's soul.
I would not know which books President Muhammadu Buhari reads, in addition to cabinet memos and other submissions by his advisers, formal and informal. He will do well, however, to develop a taste for ideas through books or, if he already has, to expand his scope of mind refinement.
As he governs Nigeria at these difficult times, while it may not show through so easily, Buhari may truly be possessed of what the renowned African-American scholar, Cornel West, calls a moral vision, a sense of sympathy and empathy for the people, one that never loses sight of the humanity of Nigerians. But he still needs to open up his mind to much more ideas, expand his outlook by consuming much more than he does now, including ideas from the archives!
Only then would he be able to take what West calls a 'critical courageous stand,' in which Buhari would not only have the courage of his convictions but the courage to attack his own convictions!
Only then would he develop a sophistication of the mind that can serve Nigeria better. Only then can his much-vaunted integrity become better informed, better deployed, even as a mere signaling instrument, and, therefore, much more useful to his country.
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Behind The Scene: Greenbar Distillery Gin
Sara Lawrence
From its early origins in the Renaissance as herbal medicine to one of today's leading spirits, gin has withstood the test of time by finding ways to stay interesting for more than 500 years. Greenbar Distillery set out to let gin lovers taste the evolution of this spirit, from its oldest to newest incarnations, with its CITY Amber and CITY Bright gins.
One simple ingredient sets gin apart from its close relative, flavored vodka. Without the addition of juniper, you'd be drinking vodka (which is OK, too). With a limited number of edible juniper species, distillers rely heavily on the common juniper, Juniperus communis, for the drink's crisp, piney flavor. Beyond juniper, distillers are free to choose the rest of the botanicals, which explains gin's constantly changing nature.
When it comes down to it, though, the give and take between juniper and the rest of the botanicals defines almost all gins. The international style that today's big brands created focuses heavily on juniper. The contemporary style favored by craft distilleries emphasizes other botanicals, sometimes more familiar, like lemon, but often more exotic, like pink peppercorn. There's a third, nearly forgotten quality, that influences a gin's character: how flavor gets into alcohol in the first place. Gins macerated with whole botanicals, an exceedingly rare technique, possess richer flavor because the gin isn't distilled a second time. Those distilled with botanicals, known as dry gins, have stronger aromas.
Greenbar Distillery uses all of these levers to make its CITY gins.
CITY Amber gin, which Greenbar Distillery released in 2008 under its TRU brand, is a stylistic journey back to the 1500s, when gin was made as medicine throughout Western Europe. The flavor and amber color is derived by steeping ingredients in spirits. It bears a strong, more complex taste than dry gins. This is a gin that occupies the very deepest end of the flavor pool — with enough oomph to easily balance Campari and sweet vermouth in equal-parts Negronis, work as a sipping gin or the base for complex drinks, like farm-to-glass. Greenbar Distillery spends up to two months making CITY Amber gin by slowly steeping 14 organic botanicals into a neutral wheat base. It's a high-wire act of balance and constant adjustments to ensure a consistent, finished flavor….which explains why few other distilleries have tackled this style of gin.
On the other hand, Greenbar Distillery's newest installment, CITY Bright, takes gin lovers on a bold, modern journey into LA's vibrant immigrant food scene. Ingredients like Sichuan peppercorn, Ancho chiles, kaffir lime, star anise, black cumin and peppermint, among 24 ingredients in all, place a giant spotlight on the city's Chinese, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian and Middle Eastern restaurants. These are balanced, of course, by juniper and a few of the founders' favorite California botanicals for this complex yet light take on defining a sense of place through the flavors of its cuisine in the guise of a gin. Yes, it's a mouthful, but so is this gin.
Though just two examples, City Amber and City Bright gin touch upon extreme similarities and differences in one small, exciting and increasingly hot category of spirits the world over.
About the Author Sara Lawrence
Sara is Drink Me's 'Editorial Manager'. If there's something hot out there that you need to know about, she's on it. If there's a latest release that's just hit the shelves, she's covered it. With a passion for the Drink and a career in the world of writing, it doesn't take long to get lost in her words and creative writing voice while learning about your latest, greatest and favorite tipples!
If you've got an item you think should be showcased hit us up at editorial@drinkmemag.com.
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The controversy over the proposed sport and leisure complex at Highland Court in Bridge has taken a curious twist ahead of the planning committee meeting to decide its fate.
Two members of the public have told planners at Canterbury City Council that they were not behind letters sent in their names during the consultation period for the £125 million scheme.
Another four have complained that their names have been used in another representation, insisting they signed a general letter which made no mention of the Highland Court scheme and did so before the formal planning application was even submitted to the council.
The application comprises new homes for Canterbury City FC and Canterbury Rugby Club, 175 holiday homes and other facilities.
It has provoked strident local opposition, largely because it would involve a largescale development in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. There were a total of 571 objections.
However, there were also 1,137 representations in support of the development.
The application is due to be decided at the meeting of the planning committee tonight (Tuesday, February 5).
Committee members have been given a special supplemental report ahead of the meeting outlining the new information about the representations.
It does not say whether the submissions were against or in favour of the development.
Written by planning officer Steve Musk, the supplemental report informs councillors: "Two members of the public have made contact with officers suggesting that representations apparently in their name were not in fact completed by them.
"A further four members of the public have indicated that they signed a general letter but without reference to the site and prior to the date this planning application was submitted and considered by officers.
"Where a member of the public has asked for a representation in their name to be removed from our website, they have now been removed.
"We have no way of knowing, at this point in time, whether any other such requests will be made but, if they are, we will also remove those representations.
The committee meets in the Guildhall at 6.30pm tonight. The meeting is open to the public.


The Robot (https://robot.your-server.de) was developed to provide you with a user-friendly interface to manage your server (dedicated or colocation), as well as DNS entries and domains (via the Domain Registration Robot addon). It combines all the features into one unified interface.
The Robot uses an SSL encrypted connection to make sure that all of your activities run completely securely. If you are logged into the Robot you will always see an indicator in your browser which signals that you are using an encrypted connection.
After activating the Domain Registration Robot you can register and manage domains. To use this service, you need to order it for free.
After you have placed your order you will receive an order confirmation with a contract form (PDF). As soon as we receive a signed copy of the contract we will enable the Domain Registration Robot for you.
The following screenshot shows the layout of the Domain Registration Robot.
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McDonald's Best opened in 1993 as a usual mansard roofed restaurant, but already with a rock and roll theme (juke box, Chevrolet Corvette on the ceiling, a life-size Marilyn Monroe) and in front of the restaurant a statue of Michael Jackson.
In 2012 McDonald's Best has undergone a total make-over and got as the one and only McDonald's in the Netherlands a retro look with the golden arches and retro signage all around the site. The building's design is an ode to the Des Plaines, Illinois location from 1955, which was the first franchise opened by Ray Kroc after his partnership with the McDonald brothers in California. The Des Plaines location is now a museum.
The 10 meter tall statue of Michael Jackson can be considered as a pilgrimage for his fans from all over Europe. The visiting address of this McDonald's is: Eindhovenseweg Zuid 59, 5683 PW BEST, The Netherlands. Interestingly, the very first European McDonald's to open was coincidently in the Netherlands, near Amsterdam, in August of 1971.


Henniker are an experienced, dynamic and expanding company already established as a leading UK manufacturer of plasma surface treatment equipment and processes, from simple bench-top vacuum plasma cleaners for small scale production and R&D applications, to atmospheric in-line plasmas for industrial and high throughput processes.
Developed, designed and manufactured in the UK, our equipment is delivered to worldwide clients in a wide range of industries including aerospace, automotive, medical device technology and electronics manufacturing to name but a few.
Our success is built around an exceptional body of knowledge and expertise, backed by highly trained and dedicated staff who understand your application in considerable detail. Standard configurations cover most applications but we also offer a wide range of options that allow us to customise any standard system to your exact requirement.
Henniker offer plasma surface treatment equipment, plasma processes development services, proof of concept trials, and rental hire equipment. Our facilities include state of the art surface testing equipment which enables us to quickly and efficiently assess the results of any process on a wide range of materials.
Typically our clients are either looking to solve a specific problem relating to poor adhesion or are seeking to achieve a specific high value surface functionality to their products. Since these requirements often involve similar materials, such as engineering polymers and composites, the number and range of application areas is large and includes academic and industrial research groups as well as manufacturing areas such as automotive, aerospace, medical plastics, consumer electronics, biotechnology, filtration and many more.
All of our products are backed by a comprehensice warranty and supported from our UK headquarters and regional support centres.


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"Jimmy Reed At Carnegie Hall" by Jimmy Reed - album review
THIS IS NOT A LIVE ALBUM, despite Vee-Jay's curveball title. It's a double studio album, with the 11 tracks on the first record being all-new material, and the second being a "greatest hits" to date. It seems that Vee Jay were always trying to add (what was thought to be at the time) some desirable "spin" to the marketing (live being desirable back in the day). Also, the liner notes say that Record 2 "celebrates" Record 1's "concert" by re-recording the big Reed hits thus far – it has subsequently been verified that they are, in fact, all originals. All that when all they had to do was say "here's the new Jimmy Reed album with a bonus greatest hits disc". Those crazy bad stars. My rating is based on the new album only i.e. the 11 tracks on Record 1.
Scored on the the 11 new tracks on Record 1. For my purposes, I've regarded Record 2 (the greatest hits) as a "bonus" inclusion.
A1 [02:50] Jimmy Reed - Bright Lights, Big City (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
A2 [03:34] Jimmy Reed - I'm Mr. Luck (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
A3 [03:24] Jimmy Reed - Baby, What's Wrong (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
A4 [03:41] Jimmy Reed - Found Joy (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
A5 [02:52] Jimmy Reed - Kind Of Lonesome (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
B1 [02:33] Jimmy Reed - Aw Shucks, Hush Your Mouth (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
B2 [02:54] Jimmy Reed - Tell Me You Love Me (Jimmy Reed, Al Smith) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
B3 [02:53] Jimmy Reed - Blue Carnegie (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
B4 [02:07] Jimmy Reed - I'm A Love You (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
B5 [02:38] Jimmy Reed - Hold Me Close (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues
B6 [02:45] Jimmy Reed - Blue Blue Water (Jimmy Reed) Blues / Rhythm n Blues


One of the major perks of being a celebrity is that you barely have to pay attention to yourself to learn about the major developments in your life. Online gossip does all that for you.
That's how Jessica Biel discovered her latest pregnancy — definitely twins. Except, as she explains to Ellen Degeneres, she's not actually pregnant, despite the conclusions strangers have drawn from endless scrutiny of her body.
"I thought I was doing good with my yoga practices," she told Degeneres. "I thought I was in the gym. But no, I have a gut, apparently."
Biel jokes that she needed to double check with her husband, Justin Timberlake, just to make sure.
"I heard that and I called Justin. I was like, 'Are we? No. Oh, okay. Cool.'" A woman is definitely the last person who would know what's going on with her own body.
Biel and Degeneres also talk about how great Timberlake is, of course. And the audience "awwws" when Biel discusses playing Timberlake's music for their son, Silas, when she was pregnant. This is The Ellen Degeneres Show, after all.
Apart from Dad, one of Silas' favorite artists is Erykah Badu, so he already sounds like a cool kid.


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Lukasz Fabianski Set to Miss the Rest of the Year With Hip Injury Suffered Against Bournemouth
West Ham fear that goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski could miss the rest of the year after picking up a hip injury in Saturday's 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.
Fabianski managed just 34 minutes of action during the game before limping off the pitch in pain, with new signing Roberto coming on in his place.
The extent of his injury was initially uncertain, but Jacob Steinberg has now revealed that West Ham could be without Fabianski for three months as a result of the injury.
Speaking after the game (via the Evening Express), manager Manuel Pellegrini backed Roberto to fill the gap left by Fabianski's extended absence.
"Roberto is a great goalkeeper. He has a brilliant career in a lot of different countries. I know him a lot, that's why he came here," Pellegrini said.
"Now he has the chances because [before] it was difficult for him to play because of the performances Lukasz was having in every game. But I trust him a lot and I'm sure he will replace Lukasz in the way he knows how to do it."
The draw against Bournemouth saw West Ham move up to fourth in the Premier League table. The Hammers have enjoyed a fantastic start to the season and are unbeaten in their last six games, with their only loss of the campaign coming at the hands of Manchester City on opening weekend.
However, the loss of Fabianski, who has not missed a league game for the club since May 2017, will likely hit them hard. He has been vital to their impressive form, and fans will be eager to see Roberto step up in his absence.
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12.10.2003 -- "The system is broken," stated Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell, "because we have no way to get spectrum to the highest and best users." This was the opening salvo in "a conversation with Michael Powell," hosted Tuesday this week for more than 200 attendees and Webcast live by Calit², the UCSD Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies (IRPS), and the San Diego Telecom Council.
To address this situation, Powell chartered a task force "with no holds barred" to do a complete, bottom-up evaluation of the telecommunications world. The task force arrived at two important conclusions:
• Most spectrum is not used. More importantly, the real problem is not scarcity, as has been the common wisdom, but lack of access.
• Unlicensed spectrum is a hotbed for innovation: "When you provide a palette to paint on, the American innovator will find something to paint," he said.
Michael Powell, FCC Chairman
Currently, the world, he said, is regulated "in buckets," that is, a given technology is integrated with applications and fits into a particular regulation bucket. And, unfortunately, there is no consideration given to how these buckets interact with or overlap each other to create larger sense and fairness out of the system. But, Powell said, "as technologies converge, so too must the environments that regulate them." That's where one of his major challenges lies.
Traditionally, the commission has focused it policy making on transmitters. "But why don't we focus on receivers?" asked Powell. He cited the concept of "interference temperature" that might be implemented. It's the limit of acceptable noise. As long as the spectrum user doesn't exceed this limit, it doesn't matter how s/he uses the spectrum. He likened this concept to the authority a driver's license confers: As long as you have the credential and drive safely within the speed limit, you don't have to worry about being bothered.
Harkening back to his military service, Powell promoted the idea of "guerrilla warfare," encouraging innovators to let "things take root and blossom before the government comes in and finds them." We need to "fight little insurgencies," he said. "You don't have to blow up a whole bridge. You just need to put one charge in the right place to bring it down." The hardest fight he's fought has been to promote commercialization of ultra-wideband: "I didn't accomplish all I wanted to," he said, "but it is a beach head."
Larry Smarr, Michael Powell, and Peter Cowhey
Calit² director Larry Smarr, who co-hosted the conversation with Peter Cowhey, dean of IRPS and a former FCC commissioner himself, asked Powell about the role of universities as "hothouses" for the federal government. "We will not be relevant," replied Powell, "if we don't plug in with the communities." He added that, when he became FCC chairman, he needed to modernize his forces quickly. The vast majority of the staff found themselves within three years of retirement, so he proceeded to hire "more engineers the first year than had been hired in the previous 40." He drew laughs from the audience by acknowledging that the downturn in the telecommunications industry certainly served his hiring goal. But he added that, to keep his staff up to date, he focuses on training, visits by faculty scholars, and opportunities to attend relevant conferences.
For insight and guidance he closely watches the behavior of his 14- and 9-year-old sons. "They are the first generation to start with digital technology," he said, and, by way of explanation, he described how disoriented they became not being able to access any of their electronic devices when the power failed due to a recent hurricane. Resourcefulness did win out, though, he said: "We ended up watching a DVD movie in the car."
Cowhey then posed the question of what lessons might be drawn from the fact that countries like Japan and Korea seem to be ahead of the U.S. in the telecommunications race. Powell said he'd be happy to bet on the U.S.' entrepreneurial spirit any time, which he cited as the reason for the Internet first prospering here. "When you're running a marathon," he said, "it's not bad to be in 3rd or 4th place at the 20-mile mark," believing the U.S. is well positioned to overtake Japan. He pointed to the fact that 93% of Americans gained access to narrowband over a four-year period. If satisfaction breeds complacency, that may account for the sluggishness of large numbers making the effort to move to broadband. He also pointed to cultural differences between the east and west that underlie preferences and investment decisions on a large scale: "Why, for example, do Americans prefer flipflop phones but haven't taken to instant messaging?" he wondered. Both preferences are contrary to those in Japan.
Powell emphasized that the purpose of regulation of telecommunications technology should be to preserve two social goals: ubiquity of access and affordability. "What people unfortunately don't understand is that regulation has been used traditionally to protect the vested interests of 'incumbents.'"
"My job is to create a world for innovation," he concluded, "a 'space' for the government to let the American spirit take over."
Powell was sworn in as a member of the Federal Communications Commission in 1997 and has served as chairman since 2001. He is also the FCC's defense chairman and is responsible for overseeing all National Security Emergency Preparedness functions for the commission.
Click to watch a replay of Powell's comments


On 24 October Allenton Big Local welcomed a group of Big Local people to an event that focussed on how to make young people a part of Big Local. Throughout the day, delegates discussed and shared their ideas and experiences of getting young people involved in Big Local.
The day was organised and delivered by Bill Badham from Practical Participation, hosted at St Martin's Community Centre and supported by the Enthusiasm Trust and Big Kirk Hallam. Catering was provided by the Chatterbox Café.
Thank you to everyone who attended the event and our gratitude to the people involved in delivering a session. Special appreciation goes to all the young people who took part in the event with a big shout out for Sylvie and Matt from Big Kirk Hallam, the excellent roving reporters Courtney, Angel and Katie, and a superb performance from the dance group. In all, 54 people took part, including the three roving reporters and 15 young dancers. Links to the resource materials used on the day are posted at the foot of this page.
Supported by Jane Bettany, Courtney, Angel and Katie worked hard throughout the day to record activities using photography and filmed interviews. They also helped to create a newsletter that served as a written record of the day. Copies of the newsletter were printed out and handed to the delegates to take away with them as the event drew to a close.
It was fantastic to meet people from so many different Big Local areas and share information and ideas about involving young people in Big Local.


Inaugurated in April 2002, the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon (CCCL) is an NGO, affiliated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (St. Jude) in Memphis, Tennessee.
Their mission is to secure the necessary funds for children cancer patients in Lebanon and get them access to the latest cancer treatment at no cost to the parents.
The Cancer Center relies on $15,000,000 of donations annually to continue its free treatment, with an 80% average survival rate in 2018.
On World Cancer Day 2019, the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon is launching a campaign using Artificial Intelligence to raise awareness and funds for its no-cost treatment of cancer patients.
The campaign, created by Beirut-based agency, République, tells the story of an 8-year-old cancer patient, Reina.
Using AI, they recreated Reina in the future to show how donations can guarantee an 80% survival rate in hopes that it will encourage them to keep donating. This is to show that it will help her future and that of other patients. Without these funds, the cancer center can't guarantee the same survival rate.
Through Artificial Intelligence they were able to give a glimpse into Reina's bright future, that through your support they can make sure she lives to see it.
The campaign, directed by Cherine El Khoury, took 5 months of intense work with a team of over 40 people working with data, AI software, motion tracking systems, and graphics filters.
To be able to create the most accurate portrayal of Reina in the future, they relied on a catalog of pictures from Reina's immediate family to analyze their ageing process. This helped develop a digital recreation of Reina, as close as possible to her future self.
The campaign launched as a teaser and will be officially online on Friday, February 1st coinciding with World Cancer Day on the 4th of February.
Donate now to the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon and get the chance to win your dream home!


After much anticipation, the 1Sport4Life campaign launched at midnight on August 31st. This campaign is the product of many brainstorming sessions and many late nights spent thinking about how to grow the sport of bowls in South Africa. WE know it's the best sport on the planet, but how do we share our enthusiasm with everyone out there who thinks it's a boring game for retired people?
This is how we, as bowlers, can share our sport with the world. If you're new to bowls, head over to the "how to get started" page, where you will find all the info you need to get rolling! If you're already a member of a bowls club, ask your club administrator to get your club added to the map. Make sure your club has a welcoming committee dedicated to making new bowlers feel welcome. When you see a new face at your club, go over and say hi!


Baby Girl. Monday , January 21st , 2019 - 08:24:30 AM.
Since baby showers may occur several times before the true birth of the kid, there aren't any limits on the number of baby showers might be hosted by several entities. Mostly, they happen during the first pregnancy and the baby's gender revelation.