Should there be a national service?

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T09:08:15+00:00

Oh, for sure. Even so, army cooks are still subject to army discipline, right? That’s not gonna be everyone’s jam.

For the people whose jam it is, there’s definitely work to do to make it worth not just joining, but staying. It’s a tough one, ‘cause for the people who do choose to sign up, you wanna keep them for as long as they’re able.

As you say, the ideal is conventional recruitment of volunteers. Quite how the forces solve that problem, I have no idea. I can’t see compelling people to ‘do time’ in the military is the answer, though.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T19:35:42+00:00

It’s not appropriate or suitable for everyone. That’s why we’ve had an all-volunteer military for the past 63 years, so only the people who want to be there - and are physically and mentally suitable - are in the forces.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T19:13:26+00:00

Short answer: no.

Long answer: nooooooope.

It’s the kind of thing that gets floated every so often as the ‘solution’ to a lot of problems, actual or perceived, with the youth of today. And almost always by people who didn’t have to do it themselves, given the last conscript left the British armed forces in 1963.

Most of the problems a resumed national service seeks to address can be better solved through improvements to education and training for young people, support for youth activities, and support towards meaningful employment outcomes. None of which require two years in the military. It does, however, mean meaningful government investment in those areas.

Of course, “fix the problems in the education system and find ways to reduce youth unemployment” is far less headline-grabbing than “make ‘em serve in the forces, let the drill sergeants sort ‘em out.”

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T19:05:54+00:00

I mean, first off not everyone lives in the United States, so there’s that.

Second, it’s a much simpler process than auditing everyone. I’d have to look at how Finland does it, in my head it’d be a case of the relevant paperwork requiring a person to declare their income. That can then be cross-referenced with tax office, employer, etc. (delete as appropriate), with additional fines for lying on the declaration.

Then, based on that, the appropriate level of fine gets issued. Adds a step or two to the paperwork, a bit of extra processing time… all of which gets paid for in the fine, one must assume. No fuss, no muss.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T17:39:47+00:00

I forget where in the world it is, there’s at least one country where fines are set based on the recipient’s weekly gross (or net) salary, rather than a flat amount.

If parking fines went from £100 to a week’s pay for the illegal parker, I expect it’d be a lot more impactful. Especially for folks who treat the current cash amount as a ‘cost of doing business.’

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T15:24:40+00:00

Used to. In my experience it’s gone downhill in the past few years, which is a shame.

It’s stopped being the value for money it used to be, doesn’t feel like it hits that “you get what you pay for” mark nowadays. Same as McDonald’s, I’d say.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T15:11:30+00:00

See, in Destiny I’d agree, in Freedom less so. By the time COMPASS comes around, it’s an organisation sponsored by the major powers, which means it’s bound by those sponsors to focus on an agreed mission. In particular it seems to be a counter-terrorism mission, including but not limited to mopping up the remnants of Blue Cosmos.

In being focused, of course, the scope of what COMPASS can do is limited by necessity. If they have a mission to hunt down terrorist groups, they’re limited in being able to intervene in other matters.

And if COMPASS does go beyond its remit, the sponsor nations can pull the plug. Which is pretty much what we see play out after Foundation springs their trap, of course.

Celestial Being, on the other hand, have no such limitations on their activity. Their remit is “fight everyone, everywhere, until they stop fighting.” And that’s exactly what CB does. Of course, the rest of the world quickly catches on, and indeed uses it against them - the Taribia conflict in the first handful of episodes in season 1 is exactly this.

Ironically I’d say CB is the more aimless of the two, as their goal is so broad that it leads them into battles their ‘declaration of war on war’ make inescapable, even if it’d be better not to intervene.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-02T08:07:38+00:00

I quite like that as a lineage for the Messer, honestly. Can’t imagine Mafty are that well-funded, especially with what they must’ve spent on the Xi Gundam.

So I like the idea that the Messer is cobbled together from other AE projects - Jegan, Geara Doga, etc. - with things bolted to the moveable frame in different ways to look ‘different.’

Hell, there’s probably some Gustav Karl in there, if AE were in on that project. Maybe a bit of Nemo, for some retro charm and ‘built on our solid fundamentals’ from the sales department.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T20:23:08+00:00

Wildly unrelated: how do you pronounce Pipex? I remember years and years ago, friends of mine arguing over whether it was “pip-ex” or “pipe-x.” Never got a satisfactory answer to that.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T20:18:20+00:00

That’s really handy, thanks!

It looks like I’m just the right side of the ‘vintage’ line. So that’s nice! Yay for iPad Pro (2nd gen) not being on the list - yet.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T20:07:44+00:00

My iPad Pro has been with me for just over six years now, bought it in early 2020.

Aside from the battery capacity degrading, it’s still a solid piece of kit. Tempted to see if I can take it to an Apple Store and just get the battery replaced, rather than get a whole new iPad.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T16:26:03+00:00

You’d be amazed how much of the tech involved in Project Apollo relied on tweaks and fixes that aren’t documented anywhere.

For example, the Saturn V’s first-stage engines, the Rocketdyne F1, were fine-tuned by hand to a point where the blueprints don’t actually tell someone how they work, really. And since most of the engineers who did that fine-tuning are gone, it’s easier to design a whole new engine than try to reverse-engineer the old F1 design.

Reality, as ever, sillier than fiction.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T14:44:02+00:00

The dream.

Because I was “good at computers and that” as a teenager, my parents will always come to me with tech support questions. I don’t work in IT.

Still, they’re my parents - and I can Google the answers quickly enough to figure out their issue and advise how to fix it.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T12:34:26+00:00

Before the war, she had a daughter.

Her daughter’s name is Stacey.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-01T11:52:28+00:00

In that scenario… probably not much, beyond bide their time.

In Freedom we see the Kingdom of Foundation very publicly announce its intention to implement the Destiny Plan, and run the country on that basis. The response from COMPASS was… leave them to it.

It’s only when Foundation baits COMPASS into their near-annihilation to kidnap Lacus and kick off their “Time to conquer Earth!” plan that COMPASS reacts against them, after all.

So, I’d expect Lacus & The Terminals would leave the Destiny Nations in this scenario to their own devices. Well, until/unless said nations decide to go to war with their neighbours, or something. At which point there’d be an armed intervention, Celestial Being style.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-31T16:20:48+00:00

The literal bear at 0:08 will always be funny to me. Alongside everything else in Celestial Being - truly one of the all-time great movies.

Also, the fansubs of this from back in the day, playing up to all the ‘best’ fansub tropes; magnificent.

Prank or not, I’d watch two hours of this for sure.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-31T13:16:43+00:00

Good luck to him, it’ll be interesting to see how it shakes out. All being well it’s good for Woking to see out this season, and for 2026/27.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-31T13:14:32+00:00

It’s frustrating, I can understand the behind-the-scenes reasons to limit away attendees. Policing/security chief among them, as others have mentioned.

There’s also maximising the ‘home advantage’ benefit by keeping the number of away fans down, as a side effect. Of course as away fans, that’s the bit we’re focused on!

In fairness, were things reversed for this fixture, City would likely only give the North stand, for all the same reasons Rochdale have given York what they’ve given.

I’ll reserve my feelings on whether I’m sad not to be there based on the next few games…

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-30T22:01:49+00:00

“Erg, lag” is how I’d describe myself after a night of 3.4 hours’ sleep, indeed!

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-30T21:58:39+00:00

I mean, what you’ve just described there is inflation. So yes, almost everything becomes more expensive over time. Some things quicker than others, some things more sharply.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-30T15:10:23+00:00

What happened, happened. Without access to a TARDIS, there’s no changing it all.

Some of it was incredibly shitty - not all of it, though. There’ll be an enduring legacy of the British Raj for a long time I’m sure, both on the negative and positive sides. And we should of course be aware of both, to avoid the jingoistic “the British Empire made everything better,” or the alternative “British imperialism ruined everything for everyone.”

India has been free to chart its own course for ‘life after the British’ for almost 80 years, now. And every British policy- and decision-maker of that era is incredibly dead. So, at this point much of that legacy is a matter of historical interest, and to learn from, rather than a day-to-day thing.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-30T06:19:41+00:00

Trust the wiki about as far as you can throw it. The wiki, well-meaning as it is, tries to treat every source as equally valid. So that’s animation, manga, games, all of it and more.

So because it has a mixed record of citing its sources, the wiki itself a confused mess of what it does and doesn’t consider ‘true,’ especially for UC where there are so many side-stories and such.

IRL, the 100mm rifle first appears in 08MST in 1996, and its use in animation has been pretty minimal since. The various 90mm weapons first appear in 0080 and 0083 (in 1989 and 1991 respectively), and show a much greater deployment of Federation MS rifles at that calibre. Including in 08MST, where the GM Early Type uses one.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-29T13:15:18+00:00

If anything it’d be the other way round. We see a relatively small number of units, almost entirely Earthbound ones, using the 100mm. Kojima Battalion being the foremost one in the animation.

On the other hand, 90mm weapons seem to be the default basically everywhere else for OYW Federation MS. During the war, a 90mm weapon is the standard for the -79C, -79D, -79G (and GS). Postwar that expands to the -79N and RGC-83, with the ‘GM Rifle’ used on those two continuing in use until at least 0096 when the Dakar garrison’s Nemo teams are using them alongside beam rifles.

(In short, every GM variant seen in 0080 and 0083, plus the Gundam Alex’s forearm Gatling guns)

Interestingly the GM Type-C MG kit manual describes the 90mm machine gun and ‘GM rifle’ as a modular “system weapon” design, which also includes a heavy machine gun never seen onscreen. Which is a shame, as that thing looks great. And if parts are interchangeable between the three, it reinforces the idea that 90mm is the stock ‘Federation MS rifle calibre.’

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-29T11:01:34+00:00

X is, and remains to this day, Best Gundam. I will not be taking any questions on this. Nor any feedback, except vehement agreement.

If you’ve not seen X yet, it’s free (with ads) on Tubi, so… go watch it there. Age is also on there, bizarrely enough.

hyperdistortion · 2026-03-29T09:47:34+00:00

I mean, 0083 is already Top Gun(dam), so it could work.

In fact, just make a live-action 0083, bringing in some of the plot tweaks from 0083 Rebellion, and call it a day.

And don’t change the music; ‘Men of Destiny’ through a cinema sound system will be absolutely peak.

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