Beedster

This, 100%. Let's hope his meeting with EU tomorrow is a) more respectful and b) more productive. I genuinely suspect Trump already realises he f***ed up, the problem with surrounding yourself with yes people is that you lose the ability to deal with no people.

You might be right, but would Starmer have the guts, this is a test that I hope he passes

This photo came immediately to mind

The Orange One might just have experienced his first setback, I wonder what Putin's thinking? I understand Zelensky's first post-Agent Orange meeting is with Starmer, let's pray that Starmer sees this for what it is, a test of his minerals

Wow, Zelensky asked by a journalist why he's not wearing a suit to meet The Donald. US media as ever with their finger on the pulse....

Zelensky has been fighting a real and brutal war for three years. He not only sees Trump for what he is but is one of the few politicians in the World - possibly the only one - who has the minerals to say it out loud to his face.

Yes! Mine was the result of keeping amplification volume low to avoid feedback and therefore having to dig in with both hands - increasing muscle tension around the shoulders as I did - just to be heard. The fact that you're now in a band sounds awfully familiar. Advice, make sure you are able to hear yourself and to be heard without you having to do anything different from what you'd do practicing at home. Plenty of folks on here will advise re how that can be done 👍

Agreed, but potentially not depressing. A big part of this is about a reset. For a long time the developed World has lived a certain way with a certain set of expectations. We have a simple choice, reset our expectations and learn to live differently - in essence with less material possessions, less convenience, and less instant gratification - or face the consequences. The only upside of the current mess I can see is that it is already forcing some people to think about a reset. Many years ago when I was quite a decent scientist I was asked at a conference what I felt was the best solution to the public health crisis (obesity, diabetes, etc), and I replied that it would take an even more serious crisis such as a massive economic downturn not seen since the great depression of the late 1920s, a war, or a massive change in the social order to do it. The whole bloody room looked at me as if to say "Is that all you've got", but I stand by it. We're facing a crisis that might just end well. Well someone had to bring a note of optimism

Likewise although it being a Jazz it was never going to work really! I've just looked at the pics on my computer as opposed to my phone and you're right, it's in worse condition than I'd initially thought. might be wrong but the frets look to be either extremely dirty, tarnished or even rusty? Either was I'd be giving it a wide berth

Very well put. I always thought both Trump and Putin must have rubbed their hands in glee when Brexit was formalised, it weakened the EU, and it weakened the UK, and it tipped the balance of power Worldwide

I agree, IIRC average life expectancy then was 72 and most people were in relatively good health until they died. LE is now about 10 years later with most people being in poor health for the last 20 years of their life. The two effects combined mean that the vision in question - no matter how virtuous and no matter how effective it was in at inception - is not fit for purpose now without a level of taxation that would not be sustainable. But a very big part of the problem is that too many decision makers are still working under the misapprehension that it can work in line with that vision

Very nice, I really like P-Basses with a metal control plate aesthetically but also functionally as the circuit can be tweaked/fixed without removing the whole plate. Lovely work Peter @WabiSabi, I might be getting in contact soon 👍

....and we're back to the problems with the UK University sector

That's a pretty robust analysis if you ask me; Brexiteers all shouted for it telling us how much better things were going to be, but very few of them had done their due diligence on how things were actually going to be. Given the state of the EU and the World right now, only history will determine whether Brexit was to the greater good of UK citizens or not (I specifically avoided saying "Whether Brexit was a good decision" because I doubt that the basis for the decision at the time could be described as such in strict terms), but what's absolutely clear is that many of the people driving it actually had no f***ing idea whether it was or not, it was just all about political dick waving with little concern for business/economics/science/security

I suspect they're going to be in with the Trump/Musk/Petersen gang pretty soon

There's no rules, many players use that configuration, you won't know if it works for and your instrument you until you try, but there's no substantial reason why it shouldn't 👍

Second hand DB strings, yep, I've bought used strings on here many times, there's a degree of risk involved - for example one was fine until I installed it and it started to unravel - but the seller couldn't have predicted that and none of the guys here are not going to sell you anything dodgy. You just have to be patient and keep your eyes open 👍

I've owned basses in worse condition, but those strings..... The Fender rosewood necks have had a mixed reception with much talk of movement/instability and sharp/protruding frets, which is a shame because they look bloody lovely

Well these used to be considered budget but are now £500..... https://www.thomann.co.uk/lenzner_supersolo_jazz_double_bass_3_4.htm?glp=1&gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIqtKP2KHmiwMVuZlQBh3MxgzTEAQYASABEgJcFPD_BwE In my view silver wrapped gut A and E strings are often and audible improvement on plain gut equivalents, and they tend to be lower gauge which can be helpful both in playing terms and bridge/nut modification terms but if plain gut isn't working at all I'd be thinking about a more traditional option e.g. guts on G and D with a sympathetic pair of steels or synthetics on A and E. Having said that I do have a new/unused Lenzner silver wound E string here somewhere.....

This^ We've had Brexit We've had Trump's first term We've had Covid We have Ukraine We have Trump's second term People, organisations, and institutions acting as if it's still 2010 are making themselves irrelevant and leaving worrying vacuums in their place

I might be a little out of touch but at the time it started to affect us the issues were less related to employment and more to the threat of terrorism and radicalisation

That assumes they can get visas, my research team is working with overseas PhD students who visit the UK for one year of their research and it can be a nightmare even despite their having registered on formal international research collaboration agreements. I know that's a slightly different case to a student registering with a UK university for the whole of their study, but I doubt it's all that different and it has got a whole lot worse apparently

But this is why the redundancies have to happen. Without wishing to direct this at you (I still have a Uni position albeit no longer FT), I now work mostly in industry where businesses go under all of the time, often with thousands of people losing their jobs and also with devastating effects on communities, for example what's currently happening at Grangemouth. Like industry, universities have to modernise to remain competitive, and in the face of powerful tech, reducing demand, increasing costs, and legacy estates, this means redundancies. Too many UK universities (and that is part of the problem, there are too many UK universities) are simply clinging on to the old pre-2013 ideology. I totally get the reasons why - many academic leaders either started their careers or studies in the golden age and would refer that model to persist - but the redundancies have to happen in the same way they have to happen in industry, because if they don't entire universities will go under.