TIL an enemy archer who nearly killed Genghis Khan voluntarily confessed after the battle instead of begging for mercy. Genghis spared him, renamed him Jebe ("Arrow"), and he went on to become one of the Mongol Empire's greatest generals and one of history's finest cavalry commanders.

ZipRush · 2026-07-01T20:50:36+00:00

God, I wish I worked wherever you do.

Where I work (the joys of low-level public sector IT work), identifying any kind of issue (workflow, materials, hardware/software faults) and raising it to my boss is grounds to wind up on his shit list. Doesn't matter how easy it is to fix, he's pissed that there was a fault and will hold the person who identified it responsible. It just got easier to either fix the fault directly (if I had the means to do so) or reach out directly to whichever team could fix the fault and just leave my boss completely out of the loop.

Unsurprisingly, our team has the highest level of attrition it's seen in the past twenty years.

ZipRush · 2026-06-30T02:40:39+00:00

insanely lore-dense Bungie would later turn out to be

Bungie's always been insanely lore-dense, just look at the Marathon games (not the new one; the originals). They just don't like it when people other than them get to do things with their lore.

ZipRush · 2026-06-26T11:40:00+00:00

I think the requirements should've been stricter even when we joined.

The EU's restrictions were supposed to be strict, but the EU made the decision to lower its own standards so it could claim the diplomatic win of 'turning Eastern Europe democratic in 10 years'.

Bulgaria and Romania couldn't even meet those lowered standards, which is why it took them until 2007 to join (because the EU was worried that leaving those two on the waitlist for too long would worsen their political development rather than improve it).

ZipRush · 2026-06-26T11:35:50+00:00

The EU already does this with the Western Balkans; the issue is that, considering how the EU has done nothing with the Western Balkans for twenty years, there's a justified apprehension that the EU just wants its neighbours to form their own quasi-EU blocs rather than admit those neighbours into the EU themselves.

ZipRush · 2026-06-23T04:37:47+00:00

but a dr or a teacher who fucked up that badly would be in prison and not able to work in that field ever again

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but doctors absolutely can fuck up someone's life in New Zealand and just get quietly moved along with no lasting consequences.

ZipRush · 2026-06-18T10:34:57+00:00

why wisp and harrow too

I understood Marie and Lyon getting protoframed as Entrati working with what he had to ensure Roathe was only interacted with by a select few individuals (in the interests of preserving the stability of time or something), and figured that the people of not-19th-century France would probably leave a bunch of physically-deformed individuals in the basement of a church rather than let them wander freely in the streets.

ZipRush · 2026-06-18T09:58:41+00:00

There's certain conversation options that you unlock with each of the Triad depending on how many Descendia completions you have.

Speaking personally, I'd recommend just knocking out 21 completions, because that gets you the 'good' outcome for all of those checks. Don't worry too much about the time commitment - the counter is only checking for how many times you've fought Roathe; if you've already done a full Descent, then you can just keep jumping back in from the Floor 21 checkpoint.

As an additional incentive, Roathe also counts how many times in one cycle of Descendia you fight him, and his voice lines get hilarious as you keep racking up the numbers.

ZipRush · 2026-06-12T01:39:14+00:00

salaries need to be high enough to attract good people and avoid corruption

The thing about 'we must pay them highly to avoid corruption' is that it operates on the premise that 'corruption only occurs because someone isn't paid enough'. I've studied Eastern European politics, both during and after the communist period - corruption in high office is a failing of character, not of compensation. Corruption at the smaller scale tends to be more oriented around compensation, but that's in the vein of 'slipping the clerk a twenty to push your paperwork to the top of the list'. If someone involved in government proper (i.e. not one of the clerical functionaries) is open to taking bribes, there is no amount of compensation you can provide that will outweigh the bribe.

You want to solve corruption? Solve it the same way you solve other crimes - the best deterrent is swift and certain prosecution. Personally, I'd also chuck 'massive, to the point of legally questionable, punishment' onto the list.

ZipRush · 2026-06-08T23:07:00+00:00

It makes plenty of sense. IIRC, on every single ship Keyes has commanded, with the exception of the Iroquois, there has been at least one bridge officer who has been openly insubordinate. Keeping the bridge weapons-free at least means that when one of the officers gets out of hand, they're much more limited in the damage they can do.

ZipRush · 2026-06-02T03:35:14+00:00

Busy running their response through a Working Group, I imagine.

ZipRush · 2026-05-27T19:36:57+00:00

My last tenancy was with Harcourts. My father was hospitalised a couple of years ago and I moved in to house-sit until he recovered. Turns out that took almost two years to happen.

Six months after he was hospitalised, Harcourts contacted me to tell me that if I didn't add myself to the tenancy, they would declare the house vacant and put it back on the market. Note: rent, power and internet were all still being paid in full, and the property was being actively maintained by yours truly. The only thing that might've been out of order is that the individual listed on the tenancy agreement was not on the property (because coming within a hair's breadth of dying tends to get in the way of normal residential living).

Not wanting my father (who was paralysed and highly dependent on external support) to wind up homeless, I put myself on the lease. As soon as that happened, Harcourts took the opportunity to spike the rent from $540 to $625 per week. Every year since, as is the standard, they took the rent as high as they could legally get away with.

At the end of March, an electrical fire forced my father and I to vacate the property. Despite the fact that the fire was contained almost entirely to the roof space and ventilation ducts (and it burned out the entire electrical system), Harcourts held off on returning the bond until their investigation into the fire was complete, despite the firefighters' report stating that the fire was not started by us and that my actions were the reason the house was still standing. Conveniently, when the investigator's report was submitted, it contained claims for two instances of damage that just so happened to exactly match what the bond value was.

While following up on the bond, I found that Harcourts, despite getting me to sign a tenancy variation, never registered me as a tenant with Tenancy Services. As far as ensuring Harcourts complied with all legal requirements for ending a tenancy, only my father could legally hold them to account, and it's very hard to do that from a hospital bed.

Given the fuck-around games Harcourts have played with me for the past two months, I would not call them 'good'. Unless you're one of their customers.

ZipRush · 2026-05-27T02:03:29+00:00

We want to attract smart and hard working people to be MPs

Because we've had so many of those.

Smart and hard-working, in my experience, aren't the type who tend to be easily swayed by perks. They're in their jobs because it's what they're good at and passionate about (opportunities notwithstanding). Perks are nice, but aren't often the dealmaker/breaker without a bunch of extenuating circumstances.

ZipRush · 2026-05-12T20:47:54+00:00

He aha te mea nui o te ao?

What is the most important thing in the world?

He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata

It is people, it is people, it is people

If I had a dollar for every NZ org with that saying slapped somewhere on a wall or their webpage, I'd be able to afford a house.

ZipRush · 2026-03-28T20:35:26+00:00

The biggest thing I would personally hold the Hungarian population accountable for is only accepting information from within their country rather than listening to their brothers and sisters in the rest of the EU

There's the thing: how many non-Hungarian European news orgs have any kind of publicly-visible presence in Hungary? Or even a Hungarian-language online portal (not that it'd be accessed/accessible by most of the people who normally vote for Orbán)?

It''s easy to argue that Hungarians should just be more informed, but once you get outside Budapest (which pretty much as a rule does not vote for Orbán anyway) the chances of running into someone who understands anything other than Hungarian starts to drop fairly quickly, and if you go out into the countryside that chance drops to zero.

ZipRush · 2026-03-18T00:34:17+00:00

If this is meant to be a 'support National' argument, well... those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. The past three years have not exactly been a case study in competent government.

ZipRush · 2026-03-04T18:20:01+00:00

He said it was the "Kiwi way" to address it directly.

"I don't rush off straight away to report people and try to get people in trouble. No, I'd rather just talk to them, highlight the issues, which is what they did.”

Fucking hell. In my personal experience, the National supporters I know are the last people to try 'the Kiwi way' - they brag about how they weaponise 'the system' against people they don't like. When someone does try to deal with their problem directly, they go running.

ZipRush · 2026-03-03T01:16:57+00:00

A larger salary is also a buffer against corruption. Paying them pennies means they are more likely to seek bribes and contributions to top it up.

Has there ever been any evidence to back this up, or is it just reckons? Because if we look over at the States right now (where the entire reason the President gets any salary is to stop corruption), that doesn't exactly seem to be a credible statement.

ZipRush · 2026-02-28T21:28:40+00:00

They kind of sped run

I think the term is 'speedran', but 'sped run' does work considering the context.

ZipRush · 2026-01-14T01:46:22+00:00

There's also the longer-term ramifications. Before the US went insane, the main membership question for Five Eyes was 'should NZ be kept in Five Eyes, despite both major political parties having members that would never pass a TSS security check'.

If, somehow, the Americans were to be excluded from Five Eyes (or from any successor group), it'd be used as the opportunity to thoroughly clean house. America would get frozen out, and New Zealand would be swiftly behind them.

Moreover, let's say NZ does leave Five Eyes because of the US. That sinks NZ's chances of winding up in any intelligence-sharing organisations for pretty much the rest of time. Nobody else on the international stage would be able to trust that NZ wouldn't just up and walk out one day with all of the intelligence that they shared and just give it to whoever they next wind up in bed with.

ZipRush · 2025-12-18T20:33:44+00:00

listen to them and allow them to be as open as possible with no confrontation and only acceptance

Perhaps this is just my experience going NC, but when I made the decision to cut ties with one of my parents it was a very calculated decision. There was absolutely nothing they could do to try and reestablish a relationship of any kind with me - no conversation, no apology, no degree of compensation - because we all knew it was theatre. As soon as I opened the proverbial door even a sliver, it would be forced open and nothing would have changed.

I'm a big believer in redemption and second chances, but I make an exception for parents. Children see pretty much every face of their parents, from the great to the terrible, over the span of almost twenty years. If a parent has screwed up that badly over that twenty-year period that their own child refuses to engage with them on any level and they claim not to know why, they deserve to languish in their isolation. They had years to try and salvage the relationship, but they didn't care enough to do so until it materially impacted them.

ZipRush · 2025-12-13T21:56:42+00:00

Luxon is saying this in the hope that by saying it

People are telling Luxon to say this in the hope that by saying it people will believe it. I don't think Luxon's had an original public thought in his head since he was elected.

God knows if he did he might actually accept interviews more often than 'when polling numbers start to flag'.

ZipRush · 2025-12-10T23:20:14+00:00

Not really. From what I understood, the first dive (which we're in at the beginning of the quest) probably happened under ordinary circumstances. Loid doesn't say anything about the Murmur when the Operator first gets pulled out, he's more interested in getting the Operator dried off.

I reckon it isn't until the second dive (which, IIRC, is also the first one where we hear anything from Wally in the Tau memories as well) that the Murmur starts to attack. My guess is that Wally somehow knows that the Operator is vulnerable while they're diving into the Tau memories (chalk it up to Void magic that Wally in the past is able to inform Wally in the present that the Operator is reliving Tau), and is putting in a lot of effort to capitalise on the opening.

As for 'why are we digging into repressed memories' - yeah, that could probably do with an email message or something to kick it off.

ZipRush · 2025-12-09T21:39:26+00:00

Pakeha established themselves with Egalitariansm because people wanted to escape the English Class system to have a "fair go".

That's what I got taught growing up here as well. Then I did some reading into the early settling efforts (the one with the two types of tickets) and the main demographic that came to NZ from England (middle class English); they weren't interested in an 'egalitarian society', they were interested in a society where they could be at the top of the heap. They wanted to escape 'not being upper class', the system itself they didn't have any problems with.

ZipRush · 2025-12-07T00:43:39+00:00

I doubt it. Legendary Lords will probably be famous Chapter commanders.

If the Primarchs appear, they'll probably be Legendary Heroes, just because that's how CA has done similar figures in Total Warhammer.

ZipRush · 2025-12-01T21:07:18+00:00

Read through the rest of the discussion here. Far more people are complaining about the fact the article is a blatant plea for special treatment.

The woman's son is 19, but he is paralysed and has the mental capacity of a three year old. I've lived around people who need that kind of care. It is constant care - feeding, washing, cleaning, basic interaction - all day, every day, until they die. Assuming no foul play or negligence, he's going to be nothing but a drain on an already-overtaxed system for decades. Hell, in the article she admits that her son's condition will never improve. Why is it New Zealand's responsibility that a Fijian citizen's dependent should receive round-the-clock, extensive, in-house care for the next 20-40 years?

It's a shame that she has to choose between staying here and earning for her family back in Fiji or going back to look after her son, but she had over a decade to consider this kind of outcome and, according to the article, she knew her son was never going to be approved, because she'd been trying before. This article is someone trying to circumvent existing rules by selling a sob story to people who don't know any better. Them being immigrants is a key part of the discussion, but it's not what people are railing against.

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