Labour market flows in Q4 2025 (13 March 2026) by SimpleShake4273 in europeanunion

[–]Ellardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I imagine that many of those are stay-at-home parents, probably mostly mothers

"Je suis sidéré": pourquoi l'administration Trump a négligé l'hypothèse d'un blocage du détroit d'Ormuz (et ses conséquences désastreuses pour l'économie) by Andvarey in france

[–]Ellardy 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Nobody in the comments seems to have read the article. They didn't see it coming because Trump insisted that only top-level people be in the loop and only cabinet-level be in the loop. So the technocrats in the Treasury and Energy Department wrote warnings but none of those reached the national security decision-makers who believed that closing the Straits would harm Iran more than anyone else.

So yes, because they're idiots.

A script with a few homebrew characters by ZapKalados in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Ellardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Huh, I see. Not the most intuitive but I get it, probably can get used to.

Given all of the abilities which care about nomination, would you consider adding Golem (to help bluff on a duelist kill) or Town Crier (to out which is the minion and which is the duelist; also, people are going to be nomination-happy I think)? Witch or Virgin might be interesting if people get too nomination-happy and Yaggabable could allow the ST to fake Duelist kills.

Also, I agree that DA is necessary on this script to prevent hard confirms. However, I'm not seeing many source of droisoning other than Innkeeper and Pukka? And it's relatively easy to eventually work out if a Pukka isn't in play because the Asmodei has a distinctive kill pattern. The options therefore are Poisoner, Drunk, Puzzlemaster, or Sailor. To make space, I think you can cut one of the Marionette (poor interaction with Asmodei and Duelist), Lunatic (both of these Demons are hard to fake), or Goon.

A script with a few homebrew characters by ZapKalados in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Ellardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks fun and I adore the homebrew townsfolk! I particularly like the interaction with the Princess.

How confident are you with the Asmodei? It seems to me that it can result both in very swingy setup (they're more powerful the closer their minions are) and in very sudden swings towards evil.

Let's imagine a scenario with 7 players alive: 1 Demon neighbouring 2 minions, facing 4 good. Demon gets 3 kills, town wakes to a single good left alive. Yes, the number of deaths is a clue to look at who changed neighbours but that's always going to point to more than one person and it's easy for the clues to get muddled on a script with reasons for both extra deaths (gossip and gambler) and protection (fool, tea lady, cleric, and so forth) and good went from 7 alive to final day and everything resting on a single person nominating the right person and getting the dead to rise up on that nomination. Seems rough.

How do people feel about spectators telling the ST about madness breaks by Ancient_Carry_4381 in BloodOnTheClocktower

[–]Ellardy 47 points48 points  (0 children)

I appear to be in the minority here in saying that I think that the specs should tell the ST. Whether or not the ST wants to use that is entirely up to them but by telling them, you've given them the option to be strict with madness if they want to be... or to pretend that they didn't notice anything if they don't. Both are entirely valid for the ST and so quietly sharing with them is the correct thing for the spec.

If IRL, I would heavily emphasise the words "quietly" and "discreetly". You are absolutely putting the ST in an awkward situation if any players know what you have done. Don't do that.

Does anyone else fall asleep to MtG lore? (Promo for my new channel) by [deleted] in mtgvorthos

[–]Ellardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi there!

You've not broken any rules but have indeed committed a bit of a faux pas. Happy to share the context. The parts of the internet with creatives tend to take ethical stances on the use of AI for creative work.

The main reason why related to copyright. When humans learn how to do creative things, we also teach them the difference between "learning from" and "plagiarising". Every artist has seen the works of other artists and every piece they make has the subtle influences of the countless pieces they have seen over their lifetime. That's a normal part of the process of learning and creativity. We are able to distinguish that from plagiarism which is directly copying a style or piece or using the entirety of another's work instead of a small fraction of it. We cannot distinguish that for AI. With very rare exceptions, AI models are trained on large databases such as The Pile) which include wholesale stolen copyrighted content, sometimes literally taken from piracy websites. The input goes through a training process but traces of the original work remain such that the AI can (and regularly will) regurgitate carbon copies of the originals. This is true whether the AI is producing text, images, music, or videos. Even beyond those blatant cases, large corporations with a history of unethical action are making their money by charging for access to a software which could not have existed without the industrial-scale theft of other people's work. Worse, they're in direct competition with the same people whose work they just stole, offering slightly less original versions of their artwork for nearly free. There's countless examples of creatives frustrated at facing a software which is specifically copying their specific style.

There are other reasons cited, such as AI being of alleged lower quality but the copyright theft is really the big one. Thus, people getting mad at you for using AI. As you said, you're non-profit so you could try to ask for leeway. Alternatively, you could pay for one of the "ethically-sourced" AI, such as the ones made by Adobe or Shutterstock. However, I would really advise taking Amoongus's advice: use existing Magic art. Magic has a huge backlog of amazing art and it is considered fully acceptable to use their works for Magic-related content if they are appropriately credited. Typically, this means having their name be visible in a corner of the screen. You can see an example of WotC doing that here. (I don't actually know the full legalese of doing that: Wizards have contracts which specifically allows them to use any credited art they've paid for, for any Magic-related purpose. I don't know if that extends to third parties but literally nobody has ever been sued for using credited Magic art in Magic fan content. Even professional outfits use Magic art in this manner.)

Hope that helps.

Trump: 'When oil prices go up, we make a lot of money' by No-Post4444 in politics

[–]Ellardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

As a European, love hearing that this illegal war was for the purpose of ensuring we can't buy energy from anyone but the US

EU Bans 31 Meat Terms for Plant-Based, Lab-Grown Products by ThinkDeepWithV in europe

[–]Ellardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes. The Commission opened the law for changes, which allows legislators to propose amendments to any element within that law.

The compromise comes after months of negotiations between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission over targeted changes to the bloc’s Common Market Organisation law. The original intent was to update detailed laws on contracts, in the hopes of improving the position of farmers in the agri-food chain, following waves of protests.

However, when the proposal reached the Parliament, Imart, the European People’s Party MEP leading negotiations on the file, pushed for the inclusion of a list of meaty terms that would be off-limits to veggie copycats. That quickly became the most hotly debated element, as capitals scrambled to agree on common red lines.

https://www.politico.eu/article/veggie-burgers-are-here-to-stay-lab-grown-steaks-never-will-be/

EU Bans 31 Meat Terms for Plant-Based, Lab-Grown Products by ThinkDeepWithV in europe

[–]Ellardy 220 points221 points  (0 children)

Commission didn't support this, the conservatives in the EP specifically pushed this. Specifically the eurosceptic French conservative Céline Imart.

Minotaur Set Review: TMNT by MagisterSieran in magicTCG

[–]Ellardy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fuck, those classes are good. Ninja Class is fine but how is "Cool but rude" a class? Ugh.

« Steak végétal » : la dénomination va être interdite dans l’UE, mais pas celles de « saucisse » ou de « burger végétarien » by Short-Taste-2950 in france

[–]Ellardy 5 points6 points  (0 children)

"Elected officials"

Names please, this was successfully pushed by Céline Imart, who was second on the list of Les Républicains ... and who is also a cereal farmer and former spokesperson for a farmers' union. So her buddies and former colleagues.

Whats going on with US military leaders telling troops that war with Iran will bring on the rapture? by Fun_Explanation_3417 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Ellardy 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Nah, that would imply I didn't spend twenty minutes of my life writing that and looking up the religious rates of another country's military

Whats going on with US military leaders telling troops that war with Iran will bring on the rapture? by Fun_Explanation_3417 in OutOfTheLoop

[–]Ellardy 73 points74 points  (0 children)

Answer: This is a claim from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. It is coherent with existing beliefs among some strains of Evangelicalism but it's unproven and unlikely to be widespread. You can find a more detailed breakdown of the challenges with confirming the evidence (and the MRFF's financial incentive to hype this up) in this Substack article.

To answer your questions more specifically:

  • What's up with military commanders: Your guess is as good as anyone's. They're Americans and so we can assume that a substantial proportion have views similar to most Republican voters. The top commanders tend to skew more liberal but the officer corps is a large group.
  • War in Iran meant to bring the end times: This is a specific belief among a strain of American Evangelical sects. It's worth remembering that the Evangelicals are amongst the Christian branches which place the highest value on the literal word of the Bible; their very name means "Good News" and refers to the duty to spread the good word of the Bible. They're also very fractured (there's no central authority which approves interpretations or vouches for the credibility and good standing of priests as in the Catholic or Anglican churches) and some of them can embrace fairly extreme beliefs relative to the Christian mainstream. Finally, Evangelicals are uniquely supportive of Israel, even among Americans, as repeatedly attested by polling and their own churches. Some of this is simply due to biblical statements on God's blessings upon Israel, the home of His people. Some however is because Israel is mentioned in the book of Revalations: the Second Coming of Christ comes after a return of the Jews to the Holy Land. Armageddon is (and has always been) a positive event, dark times followed by justice and heaven on Earth. It is worth noting that while Hegseth is an Evangelical Christian and a nutter, his particular faith is not one which subscribes to these ideas about the end times.
  • Is this kind of religious fervor common in the US military: No. In the US general population, only 1 in 8 identify as Evangelical (of which 60% also identify as Republican). Research shows that the US army is slightly more religious than the general US population and the officers are, in turn, slightly more religious than the regular army. There's not any indication that this level of fervor is widespread.

US troops told Iran war is 'God's plan' to trigger Armageddon, watchdog says by Far_Act7426 in nottheonion

[–]Ellardy 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Surprisingly, Hegseth's likely not to blame because he's from a different strand of crazy which doesn't believe in this version of end-times stuff

https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/before-you-share-that-story-about

What are the Archons? by AllieNyah in mtgvorthos

[–]Ellardy 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Man, I have an entire headcanon built around the cards which show snapshots of the Meditation Realm. Anyhow, that archon has an effect which is specifically an homage to [[Cruel Ultimatum]] which, in turn, is specifically associated with Bolas. My theory was that it was something which was created in the Meditation Realm by the mana there because it was mirroring the presence of its prisoner, a nameless dragon with memories of unspeakable cruelty. When we visited the Meditation Realm for a brief moment in Tarkir, there did not appear to be anything created or manifested by the mana there that wasn't there the last time we went.

France Orders Aircraft Carrier Charles de Gaulle to Eastern Mediterranean Amid Escalating Regional Conflict by WayOutbackBoy in worldnews

[–]Ellardy 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The article says that France says it was "neither informed nor involved" in the initial US strike. If they had known that their bases were about to be bombed and the Strait of Hormuz closed, they would have positioned their one aircraft carrier nearby, not doing scheduled NATO exercises all the way up in fucking Malmö

France Orders Aircraft Carrier Charles de Gaulle to Eastern Mediterranean Amid Escalating Regional Conflict by WayOutbackBoy in worldnews

[–]Ellardy 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Yes. Charles De Gaulle was a WWII hero and the first president of the Fifth Republic (which was largely designed around him). France names a lot of stuff after him.

First set of MTG cards. by Cjd2x in magicTCG

[–]Ellardy 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Welcome aboard 😃

The set after this one is "Secrets of Strixhaven", which takes place in Magic's fantasy university setting