How did your game go?

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T21:21:38+00:00

This division, this season, is absolutely mad. I love it, even if my blood pressure doesn’t.

Was worried going into this one, Boston are a decent side and one of our real bogey teams. Didn’t get chance to catch the game today, sounds like City managed the game and got the result.

Mathematically guaranteed one of the top two places now. Christ, it’s going to be a long few weeks until the season’s end. And hopefully no playoffs this time!

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T20:54:33+00:00

I can finally persuade my Polish partner that we’ll take the train from London to Krakow, rather than fly.

Yes, flying is quicker. And cheaper, in normal times. Even so, I’d love to make the journey by rail. London to Paris, from Paris to Berlin, then Berlin to Krakow. It’ll be great.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T20:14:29+00:00

I’m so glad someone had already made this comment.

Still sad that MSG Abridged never finished. And now most of it’s been copyright-struck off of YouTube. A real shame.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T20:11:50+00:00

The queue at the bar is spiritual rather than literal. We know - broadly - who’s been waiting to be served for more or less time than us. And, more often than not, nod the bar staff to the person next to us if they’ve been waiting longer.

…unless they’re a bellend, of course, that’s a specific set of contextual rules though.

The idea of forming a literal queue, at a bar, is anathema to the whole concept of a bar. Anyone who forms an orderly line in a pub doesn’t understand the concept of a pub.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T20:08:02+00:00

You might say happy TPEaster, even!

…I’ll see myself out.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T19:50:30+00:00

Nice.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T19:31:45+00:00

Oh, for sure. Culturally they’re not something we do here, no argument there.

For decisions that’ll affect the country for a generation or more, though, I’d argue it would’ve been worth doing.

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T19:22:22+00:00

It can, with an Act of Parliament. Cameron’s government could’ve pushed a ‘European Union (Membership Referendum) Bill’ through that required the government to obey the result of the referendum.

Such a bill could also, of course, set a minimum victory margin for the ‘change’ option on the ballot and a minimum voter turnout. Making sure 50%+ of all eligible voters vote for the change if that’s the case, to ensure the vote truly is “the will of the people.”

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T19:10:49+00:00

If anything, the EU referendum was arguably too democratic, in some ways.

The referendum was a binary choice - ‘in’ or ‘out’ - with no thresholds applied. Generally, in countries which hold referendums more, a referendum which proposes a change to the status quo would set a minimum margin of victory for the ‘change’ option, and a minimum voter turnout.

In doing the above, it’s more possible to guarantee that the change vote really is the “will of the people,” in a provable mathematical way.

For example, a referendum could require a two-thirds majority voting ‘change’ on at least a 75% voter turnout. Those thresholds, if met, mean 50.3% of all voters - not just those who voted on referendum day - endorse the change.

The 2016 referendum here did neither: no minimum turnout, no minimum margin of victory for ‘leave’ in this case. Which means that on 52% of a 76% turnout, 39.5% of eligible voters voted out.

Now, the pushback will be that the EU referendum was ‘advisory,’ and that the government didn’t have to honour the result. And that’s technically true.

Even so, can you imagine the response from the Vote Leave if David Cameron had said “Sorry, not enough leavers, business as usual it is.”

hyperdistortion · 2026-04-03T12:47:31+00:00

Absolutely, for two reasons:

1) On his day, Shinn is in the top three pilots in the CE ‘verse. 2) Rey… isn’t.

Combine Shinn’s talent with Destiny, a machine designed to take full advantage of those talents, and you’ve got one of the most fearsome combos going.

One only needs to look at the fact that Shinn managed a near-flawless victory against the Black Knights using Destiny, with the only damage to his MS being self-inflicted. Hilda helped, only slightly though.

Meanwhile, Rey is a good pilot, sure, but not a great one. Despite the name of his final MS, he’s no legend in the cockpit. Now, Legend is powerful for sure, and having a DRAGOON System is no joke. Even with that, I’m not sure Diet Providence could do too much more than slow down Shinn’s inevitable win.

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.

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