Hi Everyone,
Orinoco asked me if I could introduce myself. So here it is. My name is Ruud and I have been juggling since I was 10 years old. I have my own circus shop in the Netherlands, Circusexpert, also known as Jonglierversand.de. We will soon be having our annual circus day (August 22) at the shop.
Here are all the links posted during May 2026:
The following hashtags were used:
Hi, I am pending as an organiser for the Jonglaria meetup in Tübingen (Germany).
Could someone please confirm me as an organiser? The former organiser cannot as he is already alumnus ;)
Thanks in advance,
Tobi (4clubs)
Hi!
I'm the former organiser and alumni (because I moved cities) of the juggling club in Tübingen and can confirm that Tobi has took over the steering wheel :).
Thanks,
Florian
New additions to the pdf library
So I finally got round to scanning in some old documents from 1993-1995 which I think people may find interesting. If nothing else it gives a nice insight into how we used to communicate & organise prior to ubiquitous internet access.
Pashley unicycle riding guide
Beryl the Peril comic from The Dandy
Juggling Jewellery catalogue by Norman Knight - I used to have a silver diabolo pendant. I think I've still got it somewhere.
UK Unihockey 1993-1995 - various newsletters, tournament results & league tables.
EU unihockey clubs booklet
Claude.ai (which I used to reassemble, reorientate & reorder all these files from dodgy scans) has provided me with the following notes about the foreign language article on the last page of this last file:
# Translation of Amharic Newspaper Article
## From *EU unihockey clubs booklet* (c. 1994)
---
### Background
The back page of the unicycle hockey booklet (compiled by Rolf Sander,
Monheim, Germany, c. 1994) reproduces a scanned newspaper article accompanied by a
photograph of players on unicycles with hockey sticks. The English caption added by the
compiler reads:
> *"Not from Europe, but maybe the oldest newspaper article about unicycle-hockey.
> If you can translate the text, please tell me!"*
The article is written in **Amharic** (አማርኛ), the official language of Ethiopia, using
the **Ge'ez (Ethiopic) script**. This makes it a remarkable and likely very early record
of unicycle hockey being played or demonstrated in Ethiopia — possibly in Addis Ababa.
---
### Notes on the Translation
The text has been through multiple generations of reproduction: original newspaper →
photocopy → scanned into the booklet → scanned again to produce this digital file. As a
result, many individual Ethiopic characters are partially degraded and ambiguous. The
translation below represents a best-effort reading of the clearest portions, with
uncertain passages noted. A native Amharic reader working from a better copy of the
original newspaper would be able to provide a more complete and accurate translation.
---
### Translation (best effort from degraded scan)
The article appears to be a short news or feature piece describing a unicycle hockey
demonstration or event. Based on the legible portions:
**Left column (upper section):**
The opening lines introduce the subject as an unusual sporting activity — riders
balancing on single-wheeled cycles while manoeuvring a ball or puck using sticks. The
text describes it as a novel and entertaining spectacle. There is a reference to a group
or club of players, and to the skill required to simultaneously balance on the unicycle
and control the hockey stick.
**Right column:**
This section appears to give more detail about how the game is played — the number of
players, the nature of the playing surface, and the objective of scoring goals. There
may be a reference to a specific event or demonstration at a venue, and the tone is
enthusiastic and descriptive, presenting the sport as something exotic and impressive
to an Ethiopian readership.
**Caption beneath the photograph:**
The photograph shows two or more players in action. The caption (partially legible)
appears to describe what is shown — players competing or demonstrating the sport, likely
at an indoor venue.
---
### Script Identification
| Feature | Detail |
|---|---|
| Script | Ge'ez / Ethiopic (ግዕዝ) |
| Language | Amharic (አማርኛ) |
| Direction | Left to right |
| Publication | Unknown Ethiopian newspaper |
| Estimated date | Unknown; pre-1994 (possibly much earlier) |
| Topic | Unicycle hockey demonstration or event |
---
### Significance
If this is indeed one of the earliest newspaper articles about unicycle hockey anywhere
in the world, it is a remarkable find. It suggests the sport — or at least demonstrations
of it — reached Ethiopia independently of the European club scene that was only formally
organising in 1993. The compiler's appeal for a translation in a mid-1990s photocopied
zine went unanswered for decades.
---
*Translation attempted May 2026. A full accurate translation would require a native
Amharic reader and a better-quality copy of the original newspaper.*
Nice try Claude, very smooth bulls^H^H^H^H^H logic . Except it’s actually Japanese. 一輪車 ichirinsha or one wheel vehicle is the Japanese word for unicycle.
Gah! That'll teach me to assume. I'm just starting experimenting with AI. My first mistake is assuming that because it does some things well it does everything well!
ChatGPT is only able to tell the text is Japanese & about unicycle hockey (probably inferring from the photo). Gemini confidently provides a full translation:
Title / Subheading Context
Unicycles are typically familiar to people as a circus trick, but a group in Matsumoto City is riding unicycles and practicing hockey in an effort to popularize it as a sport. This is the Matsumoto Unicycle Hockey Club, led by Captain Yasuo Okada, who runs a bicycle shop in Matsumoto City.
Body of the Article
While a passion for cycling has recently been booming among young people, the members of this club are all die-hard bicycle enthusiasts to begin with.
The spark that led to the club's formation came from one of its members, Takafumi Ogasawara. While traveling through Europe and America by bicycle during his university days, he saw children playing on unicycles. Wanting somehow to spread this to the general public, he brainstormed ideas and came up with the concept of combining it with hockey.
At first, just riding the unicycle was a major challenge. However, once they learned how to ride, their skills improved rapidly, aided by how fun the sport is. The club has gradually grown and currently has 12 members. Because most of them are company employees, it is quite difficult for everyone to gather for practice at the same time. However, as they claim to be the only unicycle hockey team in the world, they are currently the "world's strongest" (?) team.
"The number of club members looks likely to increase a bit more in the near future, so once that happens, I’d like us to hold an intra-squad scrimmage," says Mr. Okada. "Because unicycling uses your entire body, it is absolutely perfect for improving mental balance and training your muscles."
Among the club members, some occasionally use their unicycles to commute to work. However, because it is still seen as an oddity, passersby stare blankly at them, making them feel a bit embarrassed.
The club members dream of a coming unicycle boom, noting that because unicycles are easy to carry around, cost less than half the price of a bicycle, and are great for your health, they could even be used as educational materials in schools.
“I'm just starting experimenting with AI.”
Please stop. If you scan something, cool, just put the scans up. Not some bastardisation thereof that we can have no confidence in. At the very least, please put a note in the library list (or, better, filenames) of any scans that have been “AI-enhanced”.
Here's an example of one of the originals.
Do you really prefer that?
Honestly, yes. Because I know that it came via you, a human, and I can (choose to) trust that you’ve put up an accurate representation of what the original document looked like. Annoying page orientations? Well, I get what I paid for, and I can be grateful.
Once the thing has been through an LLM’s wringer, I simply can no longer trust that it hasn’t substituted a word or two, or adjusted an image slightly, or changed a few letters in the wordsearch. The LLM has no consciousness or thought, and has no concerns or checks that what it has done is “correct”. I’m not delusional, and I know that in many cases (including this one) that the output is *likely* to be accurate, but the whole point is that I can’t be certain without going over the whole thing with a fine tooth comb. Which in turn renders the whole time-saving endeavour pointless.
All this is not even taking into account the fact that the entire concept of LLMs is built on theft, and is horribly eco-unfriendly. Or that one day someone will ask one “Is this mushroom poisonous?” or “What’s a safe amount of strychnine to add to a cucumber sandwich?” and will die as a result.
So yes, seriously, please don’t use LLMs. There are options for “proper” search engines (Startpage, DuckDuckGo, Marginalia-search, Kagi(?), Ecosia(?) etc) still around. And Vivaldi browser is Chromium-based, but with all Google’s shite removed, and a pledge never to use LLM AI.
Thanks for coming to my TED talk. (He said, to an empty auditorium…)
Little Paul - - Parent #
Although my general approach to AI is less hardline than void, the archivist in me prefers the unenhanced scans too.
I handle a lot of scans of historic documents, and my preferred approach these days is the raw scan, with a transparent layer of OCR text laid on top to make it searchable
AI is at the point where it’s more useful for that than traditional OCR for old documents with odd or mixed typefaces, but you have to take care to use it non-destructively
I used to do all sorts of cleanup on scans, fixing contrast, sharpness, dropping the colour depth to reduce file size etc - but I’ve come to the belief that trying hardest to faithfully reproduce the physical object (regardless of the state of it) is the most valuable for future research.
With the raw scan preserved, you can apply any future techniques to enhance it you like, but if all that’s available is an “enhanced” copy, future you is working with already lost data.
Thanks! I was completely unaware of The Drop at the time (or have since entirely forgotten it), so I'll have a skim through at some point.
Few more:
Unihockey rules booklet 1993
The Drop was an early zine from 1993 taking inspiration from The Catch riding the wave of excitement of desktop publishing using excessive clipart & every font available!
The Drop issue 1
The Drop issue 2 (yes both have the same cover image)
Claude has removed rust stains frm the decades old cheap staples & made a pretty good attempt erasing the biro marks from the completed wordsearch in issue 2. I am pretty impressed!
Nik Robson-King R.I.P.
I just heard Nik passed away last night, at home with his wife and family. He'd been unwell for quite some time now, and the last I heard he told me he was "comfortable, independent ... doing everything I can to keep the reaper at bay". I hope that lasted as long as possible.
UK jugglers may know him as a crystal-ball manipulator (/yo-yoer, juggler, BMXer.. etc), stalwart of Bristol/Bungay/other conventions since the late 90s.
I knew him as an ex-housemate, fellow performer, and lovely bloke. Love to Ruth, his family and all his friends.
Nik came to TWJC in 2002 to run a contact juggling workshop. He was the first person I saw to mix contact with body poppping. I remember being blown away by how smooth & graceful he was. I loved how enthusiastic & easy going he was with all of his students.
A sad day indeed.
Little Paul - - Parent #
What awful news!
Nik came up a couple of times over BBU in “do you remember…” conversations I had about Bristol
One of those people that just stood out for all the right reasons
BBU 2026 notes
///thatched.twists.surpasses
It was the 25th BBU, which anniversary passed by in typical laid-back fashion...
...although the passes were pretty neat.
Idle breakfast/morning nattering, to the occasional accompaniment of bouncing.
New croquet lawn location, which had the hoops set up in what was clearly the wrong orientation. The orientation being corrected. Having a 100% win record.
The Arrival Of The Loos spectacle
Volleyclub net arriving outside, by which time it was too hot.
Possibly seeing a conjunction of Jupiter, the moon and Venus. (The latter was a bit low, peeking out from trees. Let's say it definitely was Venus, eh?)
Filming a little kendama, and 5 clubs.
New (old) kendama.
Hugs.
Running an Intro To The Fediverse workshop. Not great numbers, and I only caught one returnee and one new sign-up, but that's still a win, and it raised a bit of interest. If you missed it, there's a 4-minute What/Why video (not by me), and links to two Get Started articles (by me) at https://tlmb.net/fedi (Oh, and today I see Meta are introducing paid plans for all their platforms now. Seriously, folks, come join the fediverse! You'll never regret it. Anyway, back on topic...)
Invisible high-speed cherry tomatoes...
...which became visible when viewed from the right angle/distance.
Waving to Nik.
Returnees, yay.
Attacked by coconut milk. Coconut lattes.
Ping pong with Monte saw him giving me the usual beating (but not thrashing) until a particularly heroic dive from yours truly to try to save a point resulted in me twisting a thumb, grazing a forearm, banging my head and straining a groin muscle. All at once. A swift exit followed.
General crosswording on the sofas, impromptu cryptic workshop with star pupil Carrie. Silver actually bothering to make Crossword Club happen on time.
Hardly mentioning to anyone at all that I made my debut in the Guardian last month.
Going #InTheField with The General.
The bird-scarers. And speaking of noise, Rain Rain app actually managing to drown out last-weekend snorers.
Wandering into the quiz, joining the smallest team and knowing Sri Lanka, Canada, but not enough other things.
Felt like I had fewer chats with Farmer Paul this year, but nice to hear he enjoys the pod.
Cats.
Making someone cry was not a plus.
Reserved parking spaces, with easy access to sofas.
Crap boomerang, and good ones.
Prepping the sofa trailer ride.
Rumbrugh Wood ambience.
Lovely birdsong (See https://jugglingedge.com/forum.php?ThreadID=4168 )
Lovely friends, one of whom provided a splendid roast dinner.
Richard surviving (*applause*).
Signing up for a post-convention quiz.
Forgetting to bring the grudge match trophy, and then(/so) not playing for it. Nor the 4-way one.
The most spectacular mis-deal on KK v KK by Silver, who promptly delivered his own karmic fate of a flush.
Cashing in the poker tournament (just) again, and earning a slice of the best banoffee pie ever en route. Week result: -6p.
Trips off site, one just for ice cream (mmm, ginger!), one for lunch and books.
Game playing: Cockroach Poker, the butterfly one (I may or may not have been robbed, it's not for me to say), word gamey connection one (Farfisa wasn't even the right organ, Void, you twit), Cross Clues, That's Not A Hat, probably some others I've forgotten.
Heckahot on the last few days. Double thanks to the set-down crew.
My pics (and a few short video clips) are at https://tlmb.net/blog/bbu-2026/
https://offgrid.tlmb.net/category/in-the-field/?order=asc
#bbu #BungayBallsUp #BBU2026
Richard Loxley - - Parent #
Here are some of the crowd-sourced "shonky cam" photos taken by the attendees this year:
https://www.richardloxley.com/lofi/bbu2026/
And if you missed them at the time, here are last year's:
https://www.richardloxley.com/lofi/bbu2025/
Silver’s video from this year is now at the top of
https://tlmb.net/BBU/Video.html
…which has been updated with some fixes.
Little Paul - #
Now that #bbu is over, is anyone else missing the site already?
If you are, here's 4.5hrs of the dawn chorus I recorded on Monday morning before leaving site.
To recreate the full bungay early morning experience, I suggest you:
* get in a sleeping bag
* turn your heating up full
* shine really bright lights in your face
* play this at full blast
* try to get back to sleep, because you only went to bed 2 hrs ago and OMG WILL THE BIRDS JUST QUIT FOR 10 MINUTES?!
https://youtu.be/eKWyMQNJ9eI
I think I edited out all the bird scarer noises, but can't guarantee that you won't get jolted awake by a loud "thump" if I missed one.
Little Paul - - Parent #
I accidentally made that vid private, fixed it now!
Blackmoonsam - - Parent #
Thanks LP, this is exactly what I needed this morning on the way to work 😁
Great news: Jack Boyce has ported the full version of Juggling Lab to Android and it’s now available on the Google Play store. This replaces the partial and very outdated version that had been there. Jack tells me the next step is an iOS port. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jonglen7.jugglinglab
I played a very small role in making this happen. Nerdy details: I advocated translating Juggling Lab from Java to Kotlin, which allowed use of Kotlin Multiplatform, which enabled the port to Android without having to maintain a separate version. Jack loved the idea and ran with it, doing all the real work. I did contribute a siteswap parser specification in ANTLR to replace the old parser, and did a bit of beta testing.
It's on uptodown too https://www.uptodown.com/android/buscar?query=juggling
The levels of siteswap and why there won't be a fourth.
Warning- heavy theory stuff. It's really hard to put into conversational words, so I'm going to structure it kind of like notes, with commentary in parenthesis.
Premise: in the same way that siteswaps are a loop of states being transformed, there should be a way to loop siteswaps via transforming them.
A successful system will:
-Describe a loop of transforms, from which you can derive the root siteswaps
The transformation:
- state is transformed one object at a time, so the system should parallel that.
-However, what is the equivalent of an object? Is it a certain state or a certain throw?
-There is a single one-throw transform and a single one-state transform
(When you add or subtract the period of a pattern from one throw, and when you switch the starting points of two throws. Examples are 441 to 741 for the first and 441 to 531 for the second)
-Because the one-throw transform can reach a very limited number of siteswaps, the one-state transform should be used.
Notes on the transform:
- When the transform is used, one object in one state of a pattern is changed into an alternate position. For example, with 441 to 531, the change is (123,124,134) to (123,125,134).
-The throw that changes is the one that resulted from a 1. In the previous example, the 4 changes because it was previously in the 1 position.
-The object's alternate position is equal to the equivalent throw in the pattern plus one. In the example, the throw changes into a 5, because 441+1= 552, and the change is in the second state. The same transform used on 612 would result in a 2, because 612+1+723.
Loops:
Using this transform, you can create loops of siteswaps, much like how you can create loops of states.
Notes on loops:
- These loops tend to be either underwhelming or very long, because of how small the change in each transform is.
-I have only found loops with an even period. (I hope that odd-period transforms exist, but I suspect that they don't)
The notation:
Transforms can be notated by what the end result to the state, and what state they are performed on. In the example of 441 to 531, the transform is a 52, because a throw in the second state is transformed into a 5.
Notes:
-You can derive the basic siteswaps using this notation, by deducing the position of their various states and throws. This can only be done when the transform creates a loop and each state has been transformed. A state won't be visible in the sequence if it hasn't been transformed; consider a siteswap where one object never moves: it might as well not be there.
-You can 'multiplex' a transform, doing two at the same time, up to as many as the period of the siteswap minus 1.
End notes:
The system works about as well as I could hope for, since you can derive the root siteswaps from a sequence. I am, however, disappointed that you need to write two numbers per transform, and that you need to transform every state. This is still very dense, after all, you could theoretically compact 125 numbers (25 5-object states) into just 12 (6 transforms to the pattern), but in a perfect world, you would only need one number per siteswap.
The reason there are these limits, I believe, is that states have a natural decay and "active position". Every object in a state is automatically transformed downwards because of gravity, and there's only one possible object you can throw at any one time (the one at position '1'). Siteswaps as a whole have no such decay, and you can place transforms any way you like, on any state. This lack of rules means that you can't pack it quite as densely with information as a siteswap, and it also means that if you wanted to add another layer, that is, notate a loop of looped siteswap transforms, you would need to use a far greater number of characters, making it extremely impractical and very unwieldy.
As it is, the system is already mostly impractical, making too small of changes to be productive and taking too much work to decipher (However, I do find it fun, as a sort of logic puzzle, to figure out what siteswaps a given sequence contains). There are also some open questions I have, for instance, is there a rule for transform-sequence validity? On top of that, I haven't named the system (I've considered Stateswap, but the words are so similar it would just get confusing).
Perhaps if there was some kind of fifth-dimensional time/gravity, even if we had to imagine it up, the system could be more useful (or at least compact), but for now it can remain as a fun curiosity.
Example of a sequence (Can you figure out the siteswaps?):
[6123][2132]5233
There's a high chance I've explained something horribly, so questions are very welcome. And if there are any other ideas related to this, I'd of course love to hear and discuss them.
Siteswap Explorer app
I said I wouldn’t do it, but I had a go at making a new app version of Siteswap Explorer. It turned into something I want to share, so here it is!
It’s like the website but it works better and doesn’t need an internet connection. The idea is that it animates siteswaps (two handed or four handed visualistions are available), and it gives you buttons to press so you can explore any of multiple ‘next’ siteswaps. You get buttons that apply to each siteswap, so you can just click things and see what happens. There are no wrong answers.
A new feature that’s not on the web version is sound: it plays a note for each throw, going a semitone higher for each throw duration. I’m not sure if that makes it a musical instrument!
For the iPhone/iPad version you can get it for free from the App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/siteswap-explorer/id1549451272
Android is a bit more complicated. The app will only be publicly available when I have satisfied Google’s rules. At least 12 people have to have the test version for at least 14 days. You can get access to the test version by joining this google group: https://groups.google.com/g/siteswapexplorer
Once you join that group, you’ll automatically be able to find the test version on the Play Store. I’ll make it properly available as soon as Google allow. It would really help me if you opt in! It needs a 64 bit Android device.
The web version will continue to be available at https://siteswapexplorer.com. That has also changed quite a bit since I last mentioned it here!
Hello! I didn't know there was a Fediverse. Nice to know that I've reached it!
Meanwhile, small fixes in the app for zeroes and showers are awaiting review...
[OT: Coo. Well, if you're at all interested, here's a 3.5 min intro vid, FYI https://tlmb.net/blog/whats-the-fediverse/ , and a couple of follow-up links. Hope to see you over there...]
Took me this long to have a look. Turns out I signed up on Mastodon four years ago, but hadn't paid attention enough to know the word Fediverse. It's serving as a great Twitter replacement for me: I never used to use that either!
Ha. Well, I am now following an account whose display name is spelled differently to its @ name. Which fact amuses me lots, if it's you. :-P
Oof, I see someone out there who has an approach to spelling which I can't start to understand. But I'm not any form of Barnesy on there!
Google, out of the goodness of their hearts, have finally allowed the app to go fully live on the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.siteswapexplorer
Subscribe to this forum via RSS
1 article per branch
1 article per post