Daily Archives: May 28, 2020

Parc & Main, LLC Announce Their Move to New Office Space with New Houses For Sale – Weekly Post Gazette

Posted: May 28, 2020 at 7:55 am

Parc & Main, LLChas just announced its move to new office space, and they currently have houses for sale. With Parc & Main, you can begin your search today and browse their incredible real estate listings of homes for sale online. They do not just show you perfect real estate, they also provide top-notch service with years of experience and knowledge that will help you find the perfect home for you and your family.

If you are looking for a superb real estate agent, then contact Parc & Main, with local market experts who will offer you real estate valuation and consulting. It all depends on what you have in mind when you are searching for a house for sale. You may want large or small square footage, or maybe a condo, a townhouse or a traditional home in the suburbs, whichever of those criteria you have in mind, Parc & Main will find it for you.

Finding a home:

At Parc & Main, they want you to take your time browsing from your Dream home, for example, you can learn more about the neighborhoods in Snellville and all of Gwinnett County in Georgia. Get started today by going online to their site and clicking Find a home, and you can begin browsing all the houses.

Parc & Main believes it is essential to take the time to become familiar with not just the house you are looking to buy, but the surrounding areas too. If you are happy with what you see and what you have learned, then proceed with purchasing the house.

Parc & Main Updates:

Parc & Main are consistently updating and uploading blogs and articles on their site with relevant and useful information for homebuyers or sellers. With articles for first time home buyers, giving them solutions on buying their first home, and most importantly, articles about selling your home and help on how to do it.

Parc & Main believes that the real estate market will have a huge boom once this global pandemic clears, and life goes back to normal. The real estate agent linked a site in the article where you can put your house up for sale on the market, and they offer advice once you get in touch.

They even provide useful information on how to save 20% for a down payment if you want to own your own home through its sought-after lease with option to buy program. Parc & Main have found down payment assistance that is run by various cities, which helps their clients to secure the money they need to find a house for sale.

More information:

Parc & Main are so helpful they even offer a full range of valuation products to help you understand your property market position. Depending on if you have unique real estate conditions or real estate services outside of traditional brokerage, the team at Parc & Main has the expertise to achieve these real estate goals.

Contact Parc & Main today and browse the houses for sale they have to offer you, you will not be disappointed with the selection of real estate. Call today on (770) 884-7440 or more conveniently send your details tocontact@parcandmain.com, and they will get back to you with a selection of real estate for sale. Also, go online to their website athttps://www.ParcandMain.comand begin your search on finding the most suitable home.

Source:https://thenewsfront.com/parc-main-llc-announce-their-move-to-new-office-space-with-new-houses-for-sale/

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Heres a Metallica show from 1992 without James Hetfield on guitar – Tone Deaf

Posted: at 7:54 am

Image: Metallica / Facebook

James Hetfield and Metallica. The two go hand-in-hand, and it almost feels wrong to imagine the iconic metal act performing without its co-founder and vocalist strumming along.

But at A Day On The Green festival in Oakland in 1992, Hetfield took to the stage with the band and decided to go completely without a guitar. In the clip, he can be seen bouncing around the stage but not holding on to anything.

This was a very special show with James channeling his inner Danzig as a front man vocalist with no guitar, said YouTuber fromthenosebleeds upon the uploading the video.

There was a pretty good reason for the lack of guitar as well. As Metal Injection points out, Hetfield was burnt on stage by pyrotechnics that went wrong, while Metallica was touring with Guns N Roses.

As a result, former Metal Church guitarist John Marshall fills in with his axe during a period of four weeks while Hetfield recovered from his burns.

Marshall was no stranger to the band by this point, having previously jumped in for Hetfield in 1986 when the bands frontman broke his wrist in a skateboarding accident.

Ive got it amid, its pretty weird just watching Hetfield standing behind the mic stand and without his guitar in front of him.

Its coming up to the 40th anniversary of Metallicas founding in 1981, and speaking ahead of the milestone, Lars Ulrich recently said the band are keen to keep going.

All those clichs about age is just a state of mind, but there is definitely a part of me that still feels like all the best years are ahead of us. I guess thats kind of how I have always thought, he said.

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A YouTuber showed the devastating mental health impact of constant online hate with a raw video documenting her anxiety and panic attacks – Business…

Posted: at 7:54 am

captionImogen Horton hopes people watch her video and know they are not alone.sourceImogenation / YouTube

Imogen Horton, better known as Imogenation on YouTube where she has 386,000 subscribers, gave her followers a look behind the scenes at why she hasnt been uploading lately.

In a video called The effect of hate, Horton posted 30 minutes of raw footage she hadnt used. She showed how shed been struggling to even get out the greeting at the start of her vlogs, and how attempting to film was triggering panic attacks where she could barely breathe and felt like the walls were closing in.

Ive always been quite a positive person and Ive been able to fight against any worries but this last month just became increasingly more difficult, Horton told Insider. I think its such a hard time for everyone at the moment that the online hate and abuse went from being manageable to completely unbearable, and that is when I really began to struggle.

She said YouTube went from being something she loved to something that was completely overwhelming.

I was just looking at the viewfinder and picking out a hundred different insecurities, I was second guessing everything about myself, and I felt like Id lost myself, she said. Id sit down to film and automatically these horrible thoughts would come into my head.

In the video, Horton tries to start a get ready with me vlog, but is clearly incredibly insecure and stops recording when she cant find the right color foundation. In another clip, she cant get further than saying hi before fiddling with her hair or worrying about her voice.

Horton told Insider shes always been an anxious person, but had worked hard to control it throughout her 20s. The constant mean comments she receives meant some of that control started to fade away.

There are only so many times you can keep getting put down until you start to believe it, she said. I guess I reached my breaking point and the panic attacks seemed to come thick and fast when one finished I had a couple of minutes until another one would begin at one point.

She lost sleep because she constantly worried about what would happen and what people would be saying about her during the night.

I felt suffocated, she said.

Horton included some commentary in her video, where she explained how shed become so obsessed with finding and deleting hate comments that it was consuming her life. She said her husband was considering taking away her phone so she couldnt spend so much time looking at the negativity.

I hated the thought anyone that watched my channel who actually liked me would see all these horrendous lies being told about me, she said. I would actively look for hate comments over nice comments because it was almost like self-harm, torturing myself to go back and hurt myself because I felt like that is what I deserved.

She could feel the anxiety and panic grow inside her, but she couldnt stop.

I just felt so lost and heartbroken that anyone could try to hurt me like that, she said. I felt like they were taking every single good thing from me away, anything I used to like about myself was being destroyed in front of my eyes.

Horton said she wanted to show the reality of what she was dealing with, and how nobody lives a perfect Instagram life. She thinks mental health needs to be taken more seriously, and those in the public eye should be judged less harshly.

One comment that always sticks in my mind, which I hear very often, is you put yourself on the internet, you have to deal with it and I really dont agree with that at all, she said. Just because someone chooses to upload YouTube videos does not mean they should be told 100 times a day to take their own life.

At her lowest point, Horton said she felt so incredibly alone. She said if she can help just one person feel like they are not alone, shell be content.

Im not perfect, Ive made mistakes and that is all part of being human, she said. Everyone makes mistakes but I know along the way Ive needed guidance and someone to reach out and help me find my path. I wanted to be that person for some people.

Being in a dark place doesnt have to lead to lashing out, she said, because tearing someone else down with trolling and hate comments will never make you happy in the long run.

Surely nobody who has ever sent me hate could watch that video back and feel proud of how theyve made me feel, she said. Even watching the video back myself I found it uncomfortable to watch because it was very raw and painful, and that is what I wanted people to see to hopefully show the direct effects that words have on someone.

She said people dont often realize the true impact of their words on someone, particularly someone who is already battling their own mental health struggles.

I am a smaller YouTuber than many, Im very small in the grand scheme of things, so I can really see how someone in the public eye who has it on a much larger scale could be tipped over the edge, she said. I wish the world was kinder to each other because, especially in todays climate, we need each other more than ever.

Horton is now seeing a therapist and life coach to help her get back on track, to talk more about how shes feeling instead of pushing them down until she reaches a breaking point. She said she knows it will be a long, slow process, but hopefully her journey will inspire others to reach out for help too.

Improving my mental health is definitely at the top of my priority list now, she said. I am actually grateful that all this has happened because it has made me put myself first, and hopefully I can come out of this stronger, happier, healthier, and the best version of myself.

Watch Hortons full video below.

Warning: Some readers may find the footage distressing.

Read more:

YouTubers are calling out the platforms cancel culture that subjects them to a rampant hate mob and sees them lose thousands of subscribers in a matter of hours

Creativity and depression dont go hand in hand, but it can seem like they do heres why

The struggle YouTubers are facing with their body image isnt just a result of vanity. Its a long-standing battle between hate comments, constant comparisons, and self-compassion.

The worlds biggest YouTube stars told us theyre burning out because of the unrelenting pressure to post new videos

Why the beauty community on YouTube is one of the most turbulent and drama-filled places on the internet

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‘I attended a conference in VR for the first time’ – AV Magazine

Posted: at 7:54 am

In these strange days technologies for virtual meetings and gatherings that have been developing steadily and quietly are now finding themselves suddenly ushered to the front of the class as we ask what might change in the workplace post-Covid-19.

These questions were posed in a conference recently and explored through the very medium being asked to step up to plug the gap; namely VR. Theeventwas jointly organised by Immerse UK and Vive and hosted onEngage VRs learning and conference platform.

As a paid-up evangelist for VR as a transformative technology Im often a little bemused by the still commonly held reservations about the tech which often seem to be based on discomfort during fleeting experiences with the first generations of hardware. The state of the art has been moving at breakneck speeds and many of the old quibbles about low resolution, motion sickness and underwhelming experiences no longer apply. Furthermore, the refinements needed for these platforms to become good proxies forin-the-fleshmeetings require a certain amount of constructive engagement to help turn them into the generation of VR tools we now need to protect both our environment and our health.

I attended a conference in VR for the first time, very much in the spirit of exploration, accepting that there would be limitations, inconveniences and glitches, but open to seeing the more subtle merits of meeting in VR.

Being the first conference that I have attended on such a platform I dont mind admitting that I was as excited by the format as much as I was by the content and the speakers. A train of thought recap seems as appropriate a way as any to describe the experience!

Inevitably I spent slightlytoolong before the event perfecting my avatar with the well-intentioned advice of my partner who suggested that my hair should begreyer than that and that my faceshould be chunkier. I made a reasonable effort to faithfully reproduce my earthly appearance by uploading my mugshot which was then draped over a generic 3D male head shape. Something was inevitably lost from my roguish good looks but I reasoned that this was only of marginal importance. I also made sure that in VR I was wearing my trademark jeans and T-shirt ensemble. Then I was ready, with a degree of trepidation, to enter the conference lobby space.

Much like a real-space event, I experienced the visceral anticipation of meeting strangers, accompanied by a slight sense of uncertainty regarding the proper form and mechanics of interaction with other avatars. With my microphone off, I lurked around the edges of the room looking at displays and eyeing the crowd from a safe distance (so far so normal). The hum of conversations, spatially rendered, is a compelling aspect of the immersion. This lobby areas was the holding-pen, and the conference proper would actually take place in three identical virtual venues (each space hosting fifty attendees). While we waited for the main event, I played with a glockenspiel and sank a few baskets.

Once in the Engage VR environment I am equipped (virtually) with a better tablet than I actually own in the real world on which I can make notes, look at presentation slides close-up and best of all, take ill-judged selfies:

The conferences chosen environment was pleasing enough; an open-air amphitheatre under a blue sky, by the sea, but the trouble Id taken over my virtual appearance seemed poorly spent as I looked around at my co-attendees. I realised that as Id joined the event using theOculus Questversion of the Engage app, I was provided with a slightly less rich version of the environment; participants were represented by only torsos and hands and the photorealistic avatars were absent. This wasnt necessarily an issue. but once I realised I opted instead to dive headlong into theuncanny valleyand I rejoined the event using theSteamVRimplementation which provides a much more detailed rendering.

An initial problem, (with the medium rather than the platform) is that the novelty of the environment overshadowed the event itself. I found I was preoccupied looking around at other participants, trying to recognise names and observing their behaviour. Many of the attendees had adopted bizarre and athletically challenging postures. It took me a few moments to realise why: if you put down your VR hand controls your virtual hands might suddenly manifest by your feet. If you take off your headset to rub your eyes or visit the loo, your avatar might be left in the virtual world with your neck angled up at the sky as if expecting an alien invasion. If you have been automatically seated and muted by the event administrator in VR and then actually sit down in the physical world, you may find that your virtual head is resting disembodied on your virtual chair. I ended up taking a lot of photos of these odd VR yoga poses:

To the substance of the event then. The presenters introduced their product solutions for meeting, learning and collaborating (https://sync.vive.com,https://dimension10.com, andhttps://www.imagedreality.com) and each was able to perambulate convincingly around a stage referencing a large projected presentation (impressive projects all though Ill leave you to follow the links). This was followed by a panel session.

All the while I was comparing this experience to how I might be acting in a real conference. Firstly, I would be Tweeting and I couldnt find a way to do this from within the virtual. I would also be note taking, though the act of typing in VR is currently slightly cumbersome. I found that I would have liked to have been able to scrawl on my virtual tablet instead. I would of course be taking pictures of slides, and it was a nice touch to be able to see the live presentations on my virtual tablet. There were a couple of technical glitches which might have been my end so I wont dwell on them.

As the panel session drew to a close I was looking forward to networking, though with a childlike curiosity rather than any expectation of making meaningful exchanges. This was definitely the most intriguing aspect of the medium for me.

I remember my first video conference experiences and how confrontational it had seemed to be looking directly at someone as they spoke. In real-life conversations we rarely stare so intently at the other party, but the medium seemed to require it. Of course we all got over whatever our personal reservations were and now generally find video conferencing to be a valuable tool. We can see a persons expression and get a sense of their feelings and body language. In VR the body language is there to see, it can be emphatic and exaggerated, but the expression of the avatar never changes. I felt there was almost a need for an intuitive emoji-type interface to quickly and naturally see the mood of your conversational partners.

The spatial audio came into its own at this point too. It was simple enough to move to a quiet corner to concentrate fully on a conversation, but I wondered how one might have a truly private conversation without leaving the VR environment. If someone were so motivated, they could quite easily sneak their avatar behind a digital palm tree to eavesdrop! However, I made a couple of connections that Ive followed up on LinkedIn or social media, but there was no obvious way to swap business cards.

Much of this reflection might sound overly negative though Im simply making observations about a new paradigm of interaction. Overall I was impressed to the extent that Id very much like to see how Kings Digital Lab could use the same tech to augment our virtual and dispersed Lab whilst under lockdown. However, a key obstacle is the availability of the equipment needed. Id love to try this medium with friends and family too, but I feel like the first man on Earth with a phone; who can I call? The irony is that the equipment will be far more available when lockdown finishes.

The annual DH event (now cancelled) brings together thousands of practitioners from across the globe and sustainability is an increasingly hot topic, not just around research and software but from the more traditional environmental perspective. With careful planning I can see how portions of this event could be moved into this sort of communal VR space. For every limitation there are amazing potential affordances; share a 3D model with your audience? No problem. Cant get a wheelchair up the stairs? No worries.

This was a toe dipped into a new world for me. There are other VR meeting platforms; some of them business-focused, some educational and some purely social. Facebook Horizon is due to be released this year and I imagine that the social network giant will take quite a swipe at the B2B market. I do hope that the pioneers dont get swept aside when this happens

I could ramble on as there is a lot to think about, but instead Ill leave you with a group selfie complete with photobombing by the Vive and Engage team!

This article was first published on 24 April 2020 on the Kings Digital Lab bloghere.

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MARKETING FOR THE ‘NEW NORMAL’: IN-STORE CONVERSATIONS GOING ONLINE – Pitch

Posted: at 7:54 am

As part of our new series, Marketers Playbook for 2020 Post Covid-19,Satish NS, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Sales, Haier India says that while consumers for remain the same, the patterns of consumption will change and thats where the marketers need to evolve.

As India grapples with a new way of life and the crisis of Covid-19 peaks, most industries are suffering leading to brands bearing the brunt of this pandemic. Lockdown restrictions have kept customers away from brick and mortar retail stores, logistical issues have severely affected the supply chain and businesses have come to a stand-still.

And in between all of this, the current crisis is intensifying pressure on marketers who are expected to ride this wave of public health crisis. The most critical question one should be asking as a marketer right now is not How can I sell more?. Rather, its How do we help customers in this time?. Marketers across industries are trying to redesign their business models and the white goods industry is no exception.

The Covid-19 has led to a paradigm shift in the consumer behaviour, in a sense that the pandemic has changed the way we work, shop and communicate with people more than any other disruption in the recent past. Post the pandemic, the inflection point will be primarily shaped by two major shifts in consumer behaviour the reluctance to mingle in crowded public places and higher propensity for digital adoption. In the times to come, we will be seeing a sudden change in consumers behavior where we will notice that even traditional buyers who were apprehensive of shopping online, will start turning to that.

While most of the industries will be leveraging the e-commerce platforms heavily, however for large appliances industry, the shop floor will remain to play a pivotal role. For consumers, touch and feel factor will continue to remain a crucial part of shopping. The change that we will notice more evidently is that consumers will now opt to do the product research online and spend minimal time in the store to choose the appliance of their choice.

Another alteration that is going to change the game for the consumer appliances industry is that in the post-Covid world, consumers will be spending a majority of their time being confined to their homes. This means that consumers will constantly be on the look out to enhance their living style with smarter and larger appliances.

The availability and rising affordability of a wide range of high technology products have given rise to a new sort of consumer, a more tech-savvy prospective buyer, who wants to communicate with their smart home, languish in the comfort, luxury and security that it offers. We will see consumers opting for larger refrigerators, fully automatic washing machines, air-purifiers, smart ACS, dishwashers, Vacuum Cleaners, etc. With these new inventions focused upon uplifting the standards of living, consumers now have an access to a new world with tailor-made customized smart products according to their lifestyle and preferences.

Keeping in mind the economic slowdown and the recession accelerating at its peak due to unprecedented times. Also, on the rise will be easy consumer financing schemes, companies will be leveraging flexi EMIs with zero down-payments, cashback offers, lucky draws, extended warranties, attractive offers, etc to lure customers.

Considering these changing trends, at Haier, were strategically creating our in-store virtual meets real world customer experience for our users to make their buying decision easier and wholesome. With rising numbers of customers on the digital bandwagon, were revisiting our approaches and making them more tech-savvy. To provide a 360-degree experience, were uploading product manuals, price comparisons, enabling use of Haiers revolutionary self-cleaning technologies, demo videos of our appliances and detailing the features of our innovative appliances onto the digital world.

At Haier India, we are modifying our offerings to the current times while identifying future sales and consumption patterns. In conclusion, the consumers for every sector will remain the same, but the patterns of consumption, for the product and marketing effort, will change. And thats where the marketers also need to evolve. Its time to re-think, reboot and revive in order to create a more engaging shopping experience for our consumers.

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When the action stops, sports photographers think outside the box – The Irish Times

Posted: at 7:54 am

In the immediate, live action world of a sports photographer, being there is the thing. Bearing witness. Sending back the shot of the spot where the thing happened that everyone wanted to see. But what happens when theres no there to be? When theres nothing to witness, no happening to shoot? What then?

For the snappers at the Inpho sports photography agency, the turning off of the sports tap was an unimaginable turn of events. You can plan for just about everything and make contingencies for all sorts of hellish scenarios. But nobody in their maddest notions ever conceived of sport simply not existing for a while.

The pipe just stopped, says Morgan Treacy. I had jobs lined up after that Friday that everything went into locked down and they literally just stopped that day. And sport stopped. It took a while to adjust to it, even in my head. Ive been with Inpho 20 years and Ive never had a quiet week. It definitely took a couple of weeks to get my head around it. I was floundering really, not knowing what to do.

Everywhere you look in sports media, the problem has been the same but the solutions have had to differ depending on circumstance. A bit of nostalgia here and there is fine for newspapers and will fill out hours of TV schedules. But sports photography is about the here and now. You turn up, you click, you file, you move on. Next day, next game, next sport.

I was at Clonmel races on the day lockdown was announced, says Bryan Keane. We were there covering the last race as the announcement was being made I was sitting in the stand with my laptop uploading photos. One of the TV guys went, Thats it now, nothing to do for a couple of months. And you know hes right but youre going, Really? What do we do? Its just such a bizarre landscape.

Imagination was the only club in the bag they could use. They started ringing around sportspeople and asking them how they were getting through it all and could they come and take some socially distant photos. In the early days, most the majority, in fact said no. It was hard to blame them, given the fear of the times.

I would say that in those first weeks, 90 per cent of people we rang said no, says Treacy. Understandably nobody knew what they could do and what they couldnt. Everybody was afraid. There was paranoia and fear about even meeting anyone.

As the weeks have passed and everyone has become more comfortable with life in general, the scene has loosened out. Last Monday, the people got back to doing their thing in small doses playing golf and tennis, sailing, rowing, swimming in the sea. The return of some sort of sport meant the snappers were out and about again. Keane got into the sea down at the Forty Foot and his underwater picture of two swimmers giving him the thumbs-up made the front of The Irish Times the next day.

Those are gigs I just wouldnt have been doing before, Keane says. It was cool, I was able to get into the water and just try something. Youre just trying to keep yourself relevant. Being able to leave the house and actually be on a job rather than going looking for a job was a really nice feeling. There was a sense of normality there.

Big time sport isnt back yet but theres a growing sense that were over the worst of it. Inpho will be at the first Irish race meeting in a few weeks. Theyll be wherever teams are starting to train in small groups on June 8th. The world is different now but the job is the same. Just with one or two new things to keep in mind.

I went to do a picture with a local GAA club in Offaly, says James Crombie. Down on the bog where they were footing turf. And even something like that, youre going, Oh God, I hope theyre social distancing properly. I dont want to get them in trouble or anything. They were but you want to be sure. Because not everyone is one place I went to take a photo, they said, Ah sure come on in, youll stay for dinner!

True to tradition, Crombie made his excuses and left.

Photo: The man on the moon

Venue: Croghan Hill, Co Offaly, April 7th

Camera: Canon 1Dx Mk2; 400mm lens with a 1.4 times converter

It was actually my twin brother David in the photo. I had been thinking about the possibility of doing a picture like that for 10 years. I needed to be roughly a kilometre away with a 600mm lens. If you can get somebody at that distance with a clear sky and if you can predict where the sun will come up, hey presto.

Its Croghan Hill, which is actually an old volcano. I had been telling a friend of mine about it and lucky enough hes geophysicist and he basically said its Leaving Cert maths. He calculated to within three or four feet the best spot to stand a kilometre away.

I gave my brother a hurl and sliotar but also a football so I could do both. Unfortunately, he let the football roll down the hill just before we started shooting. And the thing was, there was only going to be about a 90-second window before the moon disappeared below the horizon. So we had to leave the football where it was.

I ran into somebody locally here and they were going, We were on the hill that night looking at the moon. We saw this fella running and jumping and waving his hurley and we couldnt work out what he was at at all. Now it makes sense.

Photo: Andrew Coscoran, 1,500m runner

Venue: Balbriggan Harbour, March 24th

Camera: Canon Eos 1Dx Mk2, 16-25mm lens

Andrew Coscoran, was training in Balbriggan. He was doing a 2km loop along the train track there, down by the beach at the harbour. This was at a time when you could only go two kilometres from your house. So basically this was a guy who was running 100 miles a week and he had a two-kilometre loop near his house to do it in. Thankfully for me, it was a really scenic 2km loop.

It made for some nice images because there was a great contrast between him and the bridge that the train runs along. He was dwarfed by these arches and the light was lovely at that time of the evening. He was a really nice guy and I was actually really grateful at the time that he did it. This was quite early on and Id had so many knockbacks and was casting around a bit.

Photo: Brian Moore, MMA fighter

Venue: Carrig-on-Bannow, Co Wexford, May 14th

Camera: Canon 1Dx Mk2, 24-70mm lens

Brian Moore is an MMA fighter in Wexford. I had never met him before, a very interesting guy. I went down to see him and he was telling me how he is going about his fighting, his mental changes, his goals.

I shot him in a lovely graveyard. He goes there to do some shadow boxing sometimes and to get himself a bit of solitude. Theres a beautiful view over the coast there at Carrig-on-Bannow and its good for the head. I was able to shoot him through an archway in the graveyard, which was a kind of a unique view.

Photo: Annalise Murphy, Sailor

Venue: Dun Laoghaire Harbour, March 23rd

Camera: Canon 1Dx Mk2, 16-35mm lens

I was able to go down to Dn Laoghaire to take photos of Annalise Murphy on the last day before the full lockdown restrictions kicked in. It was right towards the last week of March. The sailors were allowed out on the water but they werent allowed to be coached or have their coach out on the water with them.

That was nice to get to do that. I was able to get in the water and get her as she came back into the harbour. It was a very nice shot you can see the harbour wall in the background as shes coming in. It was cool to get it before everything shut down completely for a while.

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These Celebs Broke The Internet, And Here’s How They Did It – TheThings

Posted: at 7:54 am

Remember when super-rich Kim Kardashian featured on the cover of PAPER magazine with the sole intention of breaking the internet with her butt? Everyone went crazy, she went viral and the internet exploded out of shock, awe, and amazement. She was not the last celebrity to push the internet's limits, however, as more and more people make the same type of claim to fame, either by complete accident or on purpose.

It takes a stylish trendsetter, a mind-blowingly sexy individual flaunting their stuff, or a level of drama found nowhere else in order to go viral to the point of crashing sites or sparking global debates. Here is the list of unique trendsetters who were able to do it better than the powerful Kim K could, so keep reading to learn more.

Also knownby his stage name, Childish Gambino, this multi-talented singer/actor/producer/comedian shot to viral success with the release of his 'This Is America' music video. Known for his comedy and his role on the TV show,Community, his notoriety soared when his music video challenged American society about important issues, including racial identity, gun violence, and spirituality.

His exposition of serious issues was juxtaposed with uplifting, energetic dancing. Glover hasnt given an explanation for the videos meaning, leaving everyone to find their own.

RELATED:Childish Gambino Dropped His New Album The Exact Way Wed Expect

The film,A Star Is Born (2018), was enough to bring tears to the eyes of even the most stoic movie-goers. Followed by the live performance these two songbirds gave at the 2019 Oscars, performing the song 'Shallow' from their movie, we can see how the internet broke.

The performance made hardcore and brand-new fans go crazy, and the best part is that it's Bradley Cooper's actual voice in the movie and on the stage. He went through intensive vocal training for the role.

The way our favorite friend from the FriendsTV show, Jennifer Aniston, broke the internet came as a bit of a surprise. Our previous two internet breakers pulled it off with stand-out performances, but Aniston had a different card up her sleeve.

In 2019, Aniston opened her own Instagram account, uploading a selfie featuring herself and her co-stars fromFriends. This simple act caused a stampede. Everyone rushed to follow her account, momentarily crashing Instagram.

At the XBOX E3 2019 showcase, Reeves presented his cameo role in the 'Cyberpunk 2077' video game. During his presentation, Keanu Reeves heard a fan in the crowd shout out to him, "You're breathtaking". This caused the actor to reply back to the fan, "You're breathtaking!" He then pointed to the whole audience and yelled, "You're all breathtaking!"

The wholesome moment went viral, turned into a meme, and made us fall in deeper in love with Keanu Reeves.

Generating 2 million likes on Instagram in an hour, the picture you see here was the first image released by Beyonc of her twins, Rumi and Sir Carter, when they were 1 month of age. The rest of the world was guessing at the names of the second and third children of Beyonc and Jay-Z. These ultra-famous parents have sincetrademarked the twins' names.

The floral background and color palette in this image is reminiscent of the image Beyonc used to announce her pregnancy with her twins.

RELATED:Beyonce And Michelle Obama: Everything We Know About Their Friendship

Miley Cyrus has broken the internet more than once. Many of her viral performances turned into memes that continued circulating online - they just kept gaining momentum. The most notable of these moments was her Wrecking Ball music video. That video took the song from number 50 on the US Billboard Hot 100 to number 1.

Then, there was her pole dancing at the 2009 Teen Choice Awards, twerking on Robin Thicke at the 2013 VMAs, and her relationship with Liam Hemsworth.

Although the First Lady of the United States has had many memorable moments, there are two, in particular, which really stand out.

The first comes from Mrs. Trump's "Be Best" anti-cyber-bullying campaign, which experienced surges in popularity as President Trump attacked his political opponents online, and later started bullying environmental activist, Greta Thunberg.

Her other viral moment came from a perfect photo where Melania appeared to be diving in for a public kiss with Canada's Prime Minister, Justin, Trudeau - this generated endlessinternet memes.

Barrack Obama combined this picture of himself with the Nelson Mandela quote "No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion..." after the racially charged violence in Charlottesville, 2017. Twitter later stated that this image has received the most likes of any post on the social media app (3.3 million in August 2017).

In 2015, it was Caitlyn Jenner's first tweet that drew everybody's attention. Within 4 hours and 3 minutes, she had already set a new record (that's a Guinness World Record by the way) for the fastest post to reach 1 million likes, beating one of Barack Obama's posts for the spot. The image that she chose to tweet for her grand public reveal was a portrait of her, which was taken forVanity Fair magazine.

Another multi-viral hit, it seems like Kylie Jenner's daughter, Stormi Webster, just keeps getting cuter. The first picture posted of young Stormi appeared on February 18, 2018, when she was just 17 days old and clutching mom's thumb.

More recently, the little star has gone viral again, for successfully getting through the fruit snack challenge. Instead of fruit, the temptation was chocolate. The excitement and giggles resulted in cuteness overload.

RELATED:Kylie Jenners Bare Face Breaks the Internet Again, As Many Celebrities Embrace Natural Beauty

The royal couple has spent a lot of time in the headlines; however, certain times that they broke the internet do stand out. The first was the announcement of their engagement in 2017. This caused a frenzy because it meant an American was one step closer to marrying into this prestigious family.

The next was their glamorous wedding, followed by the birth of their son, Archie. Finally, the announcement that they were stepping down from their Royal Family positions blew everybody's minds.

Jeremy Meeks, the 'hot felon', is the only person on this list who didn't already have celebrity status. In 2014, an American police department posted his mugshot on Facebook, regarding spates of shootings and gang violence.

Meeks, who was in prison at the time, became a social media god, but it wasn't for his criminal history. Worshipers commented on his chiseled jawline, tattoos, and abs, and shortly after his release, Meeks was modeling high fashion and living the good life,. He became a legitimate celeb.

The Congressional Testimony from Mark Zuckerberg over Facebook's privacy breaches alone was a popular topic. However, what went viral was the memes that were generated from the hearing. In reference to the number of cameras and people in the above image, one meme said "gonna have to untag a lot of photos", poking fun at Facebook's facial recognition algorithms and privacy settings.

Both of these actors had superhero roles in the DC movie,Justice League, as well as their character's standalone movies. Their time together on-set must have led to an enduring bromance - just look at this shot of Momoa sneaking up on Cavill with a childish grin! The pic went viral (along with the rest of their antics). This photo was taken on the London red carpet, for theSuicide Squad movie premiere.

Madonna's return to the spotlight left a lot of people confused and/or unhappy. The 2018 MTV Video Music Awards were jamming, and it was soon time for Madonna to get onstage to pay tribute to Aretha Franklin, who had passed away just four days prior. Her speech enraged fans and critics, as Madonna quickly shifted the focus onto herself and her career, barely keeping Aretha Franklin in mind. The event went viral, and it wasn't Madonna's proudest moment.

Sources: bbc.com, usatoday.com, npr.org, washingtonpost.com, eonline.com, telegraph.co.uk.

NEXT:16 Women Who Probably Regret They Ever Went Viral

Next These Are The Most Beautiful Women Keanu Reeves Has Been Linked To

Matt has a passion for writing about everything trending in modern pop-culture, constantly anticipating the next viral hit that will drive everyone crazy. Being a qualified linguist and English teacher, his previous work experience includes writing and editing for sites such as The Richest, Wanderside, and his own Grow The Thought as well as language tutoring and working on language analysis projects through his university.His hobbies include but aren't limited to creative writing, language learning, cooking, woodworking and travel.

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Artists, Writers, Musicians, and More Explore the Intersections of Art and Ecology – Hyperallergic

Posted: at 7:53 am

Adam Chodzko, O, you happy roots, branch and mediatrix (2020), screen 2, two-channel video, Hildegard von Bingens lingua ignotae, and image recognition algorithm (image courtesy the artist)

In the last few years, the humanities have seen a marked shift in interest towards nonhuman forms of intelligence. The recent vegetal turn in eco-philosophy and curatorial practice, for example, attempts to recognize the central but overlooked cultural and ecological presence of plants and to find imaginative ways of engaging with them. The upcoming exhibition The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree at Camden Art Centre, London, looks likely to be a high point on this trajectory towards using creativity and criticality to reveal and correct a modern tendency towards what scientist Monica Gagliano has called plant blindness.

The show was scheduled to open in mid-April, but when the ongoing coronavirus pandemic caused its postponement the Camden Art Centre team worked to create alternative ways of accessing the ideas and imagery touched on in the exhibition. The result is The Botanical Mind Online, a dedicated website exploring the key themes of the exhibition combined with new commissions by artists, writers, musicians, and philosophers.

The Botanical Mind Online opens with an introductory video narrated by curators Gina Buenfeld and Martin Clark, offering an impressively succinct summary of the projects journey through a series of complexly interconnected topics including plant intelligence, patterns and geometry, music and harmony, psychedelia, and the notion of the tree as an axis mundi. Together, they suggest, these aspects point to an encoded intelligence in the patterns of nature a botanical mind.

The online platform draws on perspectives that offer alternatives to Western rationalism: outsider artists and philosophers, Indigenous cultures from the Amazon rainforest, and recent investigations into plant sentience. As such, it hints that an understanding of the vegetal can help to challenge the destructive dualistic divides that characterize much Western post-Enlightenment thought.

Moreover, The Botanical Mind is a laudable attempt to achieve what eco-philosopher Michael Marder describes as encountering plants on their own terms while maintaining a recognition of their radical alterity. This can be seen in Adam Chodzkos new digital commission O, you happy roots, branch and mediatrix (2020). The film uses an algorithm to scan footage of a forest for ciphers visual traces of a secret language created by the 12th Century Christian mystic Hildegard von Bingen. Chodzko has assigned the ciphers a sound from Hildegards choral compositions and uses them to spell out the names of plants both real and imagined. The website features a clip from the work which, in the curators words, attempts to become an idea of botanical transformation at once both a process and its experience.

Elsewhere on the site, ideas and imagery are collected under a range of tantalizing headings, such as Sacred Geometry, The Cosmic Tree, and Astrological Botany. The chapter on Indigenous Cosmologies explains how the patterns found in nature are the basis of sacred geometries found in the visual cultures and music of Indigenous Amazonian communities, many of whom believe these patterns weave the universe together. There is a particular focus on the Yawanaw people, a group of whom Camden Art Centre had been working with to develop a new artwork for The Botanical Mind in collaboration with Delfina Muoz de Toro, an indigenist, visual artist, and musician from Argentina. As the Yawanaw collaborators are currently self-isolating in their village (Indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to foreign diseases), The Botanical Mind Online presents artworks related to their community. These include two experimental ethnographic films and a series of atmospheric sound recordings by Priscilla Telmon & Vincent Moon, which are presented alongside photographs and musical compositions by Muoz de Toro.

Meanwhile, the chapter on Vegetal Ontology picks up on the theme of patterning and applies it to the biological functions of plants. Gemma Andersons Relational process drawings, for example, are made in collaboration with a cellular biologist and a philosopher of science. They re-imagine the dynamic patterns of plant life by expressing the relationships between processes on molecular, cellular and organismal levels as musical compositions or dance choreographies.

Much has been made of recent research which shows that plants send each other electrical signals and nutrients through strands of symbiotic fungi, dubbed the wood wide web. The Botanical Mind Online effectively makes use of this parallel between plant communication and the internet, using the branching nonlinear structure of a hyperlinked website to subtly hint at plant forms and create a resource rich in multidirectional thought. During this period of enforced stillness, the curators argue, our behavior might be seen to resonate with plants: like them we are now fixed in one place, subject to new rhythms of time, contemplation, personal growth and transformation.

The Botanical Mind Online continues at http://www.botanicalmind.online/. The online platform and related upcoming exhibition at Camden Art Center, London, are curated by Gina Buenfeld and Martin Clark.

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In Search Of A Grand Unified Theory Of Free Expression And Privacy – Techdirt

Posted: at 7:53 am

from the time-for-a-gut-check dept

Everytime I ask anyone associated with Facebooks new OversightBoardwhether the nominally independent, separately endowed tribunal isgoing address misuse of private information, I get the sameanswerthats not the Boards job. This means thatthe Oversight Board, in addition to having such an on-the-nose propername, falls short in a more important wayits architectsimagined that content issues can be tackled substantively withoutaddressing privacy issues. Yet surely the recent scandals that haveplagued Facebook and some other tech companies in recent years haveshown us that private information issues and harmful-content problemshave become intimately connected.

Wecant turn a blind eye to this connection anymore. We need thecompanies, and the governments of the world, and the communities ofusers, and the technologists, and the advocates, to unite behind aframework that emphasizes the deeper-than-ever connection betweenprivacy problems and free-speech problems.

Whatwe need most now, as we grapple more fiercely with the public-policyquestions arising from digital tools and internet platforms, is aunifiedfield theoryor,more properlya GrandUnified Theory(a.k.a. GUT)of free expression and privacy.

Butthe road to that theory is going to be hard. From the beginningthree decades ago when digital civil-liberties emerged as a distinctset of issues that needed public-policy attention, the relationshipbetween freedom of expression and personal privacy in the digitalworld has been a bit strained. Even the name of the first bigconference to bring all the policy people, technologists, governmentofficials, hackers, and computer cops reflected the tension. Thefirst Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference was held inBurlingame California, in 1991, made sure that attendees knew thatPrivacy was not just a kind of Freedombut its own thing that deserved its own special attention.

Thetensions emerged early on. It seemed self-evident to most of us backthen that the relationship between freedom of expression (and freedomof assembly and freedom of inquiry) had to have some limitsincludinglimits on what any of us could do with the private information aboutother people. But while its conceptually easy to define infairly clear terms what counts as freedom of expression,the consensus about what counts as a privacy interest is murkier.Because I started out as a free-speech guy, I liked thelaw-school-endorsed framework of privacy torts, whichcarved out some fairly narrow privacy exceptions to the broadguarantees of expressive freedom. That privacy tortssetup meant that, at least when we talked about invasion ofprivacy, I could say what counted as such an invasion and whatdidnt. Privacy in the American system was narrow and easy tograsp.

Butthis wasnt the universal view in the 1990s, and itscertainly not the universal view in 2020. In the developed world,including the developed democracies of the European Union, thebalance between privacy and free expression has been struck in adifferent way. The presumptions in the EU favor greater protection ofpersonal information (and related interests like reputation) andsomewhat less protection of what freedom of expression. Sure, theinternational human-rights source texts like the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights (in Article 19) may protect freedomto hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impartinformation and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.But ranked above those informational rights (in both the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civiland Political Rights) is the protection of private information,correspondence, honor, and reputation. This differencebalance is reflected in European rules like the General DataProtection Regulation.

Theemerging international balance, driven by the GDPR, has created newtensions between freedom of expression and what we loosely callprivacy. (I use quotation marks because the GDPRregulates not just the use of private information but also the use ofpersonal information that may not be privatelikeold newspaper reports of government actions to recoversocial-security debts. This was the issue in theleading right to be forgotten caseprior to the GDPR.) Standing by themselves, the emerginginternational consensus doesnt provide clear rules forresolving those tensions.

Dontget me wrong: I think the idea of using international human rightsinstruments as guidance for content approaches on social-mediaplatforms has its virtues. The advantage is that in internationalforums and tribunals it gives the companies as strong a defense asone might wish in the international environment for allowing some(presumptively protected) speech to stay up in the face of criticismand removing some (arguably illegal) speech. The disadvantages areharder to grapple with. Countries will differ on what kind of speechis protected, but the internet does not quite honor borders the waysome governments would like. (Thailand'slse-majestisa good example.) In addition, some social-media platforms may want tocreate environments that are more civil, or child-friendly, orwhatever, which will entail more content-moderation choices andpolicies than human-rights frameworks would normally allow. Do wewant to say that Facebook or Google *can't* do this? That Twittershould simply be forbidden to taga presidential tweet as unsubstantiated?Some governments and other stakeholders would disapprove.

Ifa human-rights framework doesnt resolve thefree-speech/privacy tensions, what could? Ultimately, I believe thatthe best remedial frameworks will involve multistakeholderism, but Ithink they also need to begin with a shared (consensus) ethicalframework. I present the argument in condensed form here: "ItsTime to Reframe Our Relationship With Facebook.(I also publisheda book last yearthat presents this argument in greater depth.)

Cana code of ethics be a GUT of free speech and privacy? I dontthink it can, but I do think it can be the seed of one. But it has tobe bigger than a single companys initiativewhich moreor less is the best we can reasonably hope Facebooks OversightBoard (assuming it sets out ethical principles as a product of itswork on content cases) will ever be. I try not to be cynical aboutFacebook, which has plenty of people working on these issues whogenuinely mean well, and who are willing to forgo short-term profitsto put better rules in place. While it's true at some sufficientlyhigh level that the companies privilege profits over public interest,the fact is that once a company is market-dominant (as Facebook is),it may well trade off short-term profits as part of a grand bargainwith governments and regulators. Facebook is rich enough to absorbthe costs of compliance with whatever regimes the democraticgovernments come up with. (A more cynical read of Zuckerberg's publicwritings in the aftermath of the companys various publicwritings, is that he wants the governments to get the rules inplace, and then FB will comply, as it can afford to do better thanmost other companies, and then FB's compliance will be a defenseagainst subsequent criticism.)

Butthe main reason I think reform has to come in part at the industrylevel rather than at the company level, is that company-levelreforms, even if well-intended, tend to instantiate a public-policyversion of Wittgenstein's "privatelanguage" problem.Put simply, if the ethical rules are internal to a company, thecompany can always change them. If they're external to a company,then there's a shared ethical framework we can use to criticize acompany that transgresses the standards.

Butwe cant stop at the industry level eitherwe needgovernments and users and other stakeholders to be able to step inand say to the tech industries that, hey, your industry-widestandards are still insufficient. You know that industry standardsare more likely to be adequate and comprehensive when theyrebuttressed both by public approval and by law. Thats whathappened with medical ethics and legal ethicsthe frameworkswere crafted by the professions but then recognized as codes thatdeserve to be integrated into our legal system. Theres aninternational consensus that doctors have duties to patients (First,do no harm) and that lawyers and other professions havefiduciary duties to their clients. I outline howfiduciary approaches might address Big Techs consumer-trustproblems in a series of Techdirt articles that begins here.

Thefiduciary code-of-ethics approach to free-speech andprivacy problems for Big Tech is the only way I see of harmonizingdigital privacy and free-speech interests in a way that will leavemost stakeholders satisfied (as most stakeholders are now satisfiedwith medical-ethics frameworks and with lawyers obligations toprotect and serve their clients). Because lawyers and doctors aregenerally obligated to tell their clients the truth (or, if for somereason they cant, end the relationship and refer the clientsto other practitioners), and because theyre also obligated todo no harm (e.g., by allowing companies to use personalinformation in a manipulative way or to violate clientsprivacy or autonomy), these professions already have a Grand UnifiedTheory that protects both speech and privacy in the context ofclients relationships with practitioners.

BigTech has a better shot at resolving the contradictory demands on itsspeech and privacy practices if it aspires to do the same, and if itembraces an industry-wide code of ethics that is acceptable to users(who deserve client protections even if theyre not paying forthe services in question). Ultimately, if the ethics code is backedby legislators and written into the law, you have something muchcloser to a Grand Unified Theory that harmonizes privacy, autonomy,and freedom of expression.

Ima big booster of this GUT, and Ive been making versions ofthis argument before now. (Please dont call it Godwin-UnifiedTheoryhaving one lawnamed after me is enough.) But here in 2020 we need to do more thanargue about this approachwe need to convene and begin tohammer out a consensus about a systematic, harmonized approach thatprotects human needs for freedom of expression, for privacy, and forautonomy thats reasonably free of psychological-warfaretacticsof informational manipulation. The issue is not just false content,and its not just personal informationopensocietieshave to incorporate a fairly high degree of tolerance forunintentionally false expression and for non-malicious ornon-manipulative disclosure or use of personal information. But anopen society also needs to promote supporting an ecosystemapublic sphere of discoursein which neither the manipulativecrafting of deceptive and destructive content nor the manipulativetargeting of it based on our personal data is the norm. Thatsan ecosystem that will require commitment from all stakeholders tobuilda GUT based not on gut instincts but on critical rationalism, colloquy, and consensus.

Filed Under: data protection, facebook oversight board, fiduciary duty, free speech, grand unified theory, greenhouse, multi-stakeholder, oversight board, privacy

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Civilization 6: How to Play as the Mayans | Screen Rant – Screen Rant

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The Mayans and their Leader, Lady Six Sky, are the latest newcomers to Civilization 6 in the New Frontier expansion. They have a unique play-style that favors tall strategies, which means settling fewer cities with a high population as opposed to having an empire with many less developed cities. Their civilization and leader ability both lend themselves to this playstyle with Lady Six Skys leader ability, Ix Mutal Ajaw, that grants 10% yields to all cities within 6 tiles of the capital and -15% to all cities not within 6 tiles. In addition, all units within the 6-tile parameter gain +5 combat strength. Lady Six Sky only rules a limited area on the map but will certainly dominate it. With their unique campus district and play-style, the Mayans are well suited for peaceful science victories.

Related:XCOM: Chimera Squad Review - Breaching Simplicity Through Strategy

Because of the special 6 tile radius, planning out where to settle Mayan cities is of utmost importance. Using the in-game pin tool, players can easily place notes to plan out where they will settle cities. There are a few obstacles that could potentially hinder this ring, such as natural barriers like oceans and mountains, or harsh climates like deserts or polar regions. Areas like this mean that the ring will include less area for the player to create cities. If a players spawn location is near one of these, then moving a few tiles away before settling the capital is advisable to establish the parameter in a more optimal location. Resetting the game for a better start is also an option, but restarting repeatedly until getting a perfect start can be a never-ending pitfall and is unavailable in multiplayer games. Even if the placement isnt 100% perfect, it is still playable thanks to the bonus yields.

When settling, keep the Mayan Mayab ability in mind: cities dont gain housing from water but gain additional housing from farms to make up for it. This means players dont have to worry about settling near rivers and can find areas more suitable for the 6-tile area instead. Mayan cities also gain a +1 amenity for every luxury resource adjacent to the city center, which can help keep the massive cities happy later. Dont forget that cities cant be placed within 3 tiles of other city centers, but borders can touch. Its also important to consider the Mayans unique science district, the Observatory. Instead of gaining adjacency bonuses from mountains and jungles, they gain +2 for every adjacent plantation and +1 for every 2 farms or districts. Because farms cant be built on hills tiles until later in the game, settling cities or building districts on hills saves the flatland for farms. Planning out where the Observatories are built is as crucial as planning cities, so keep this in mind.

Its possible there will be other entities within the 6-tile radius, like neighboring civilizations or city states. Thanks to Lady Six Skys +5 combat strength and the unique Hulche unit, it can be easy to ensure the 6-tile zone becomes under Mayan control. Hulches replace the archer and gain +5 combat strength when attacking a wounded enemy. Through these bonuses, these strong units can easily gain +10 strength. Archers normally have 25 ranged strength, but the Hulche, having base 28, can reach a whopping 38 under the right conditions. The drawback is that they are less effective at attacking cities, but are still serviceable; especially against barbarians. Whether players plan to complete their 6-tile circle or defend it, the Hulche is an important aspect of the Mayan early game.

Now that the city placement is planned out, what should be built and researched? There are a few options to keep in mind, but there is no perfect path and the situation will alter depending on the starting location and the players own strategies. Scouting out the 6-tile ring as soon as possible is important for properly planning Mayan cities and training a scout can help accomplish that. Slingers upgrade to archers or Hulche in this case, so training a few will help set up an army of them once theyre unlocked. It takes 60 gold to upgrade slingers on Standard game speed, so make sure the Mayans have enough in their reserve when taking this path. What research paths to take is also important; the Wheel unlocks the Hulche, Writing unlocks Observatories, and Irrigation unlocks plantations which must be built to grant the +2 adjacency bonus. If there arent any threats around, the Hulche can wait in favor of the Observatories which would help research the other techs quicker. There are 2 notable civics that Mayans can utilize well: Agoge, which increases infantry unit production, or Colonization which increases settler production. The former will help to develop an army of Hulche quickly, while the latter helps the player set up their cities earlier on.

Players in Civilization 6 have the ability to found their own religion, which has numerous benefits, but Lady Six Sky has few situations where she would want one. Mountains and natural wonders in their starting location provide strong adjacency bonuses for Holy Sites, which allow for more missionaries and in turn more religious spreads. If the player starts near a location that would yield a strong Holy Site, then they might consider investing in Religion. Founding a religion requires researching the Astronomy tech and spending production building a holy site for great prophet points, and the Mayans have more important uses for their early game research and production as stated above. In addition, building their unique Observatory has a higher priority than a Holy Site, as cities can only build one district for every 3 population.

By Mid Game, a lot will have changed in the Mayan empire. Their core cities should be settled by now and their many farms, which gain bonus gold, will have grown their cities to high population levels. Most, if not all, of their cities, will have Observatories which will gain another boost once the University building is unlocked. If Mayans arent ahead in science now, they likely will be soon after. The 10% bonus yields can help build Wonders a tad quicker, so check to see if there are any available ones. Oxford University, which grants 20% science in its city, 2 free technologies, great scientist points, and Great Writer slots, is a great choice for science victories if the player is able to build it before other civilizations do. Also keep an eye on the Civil Engineering civic, unlocked in the Industrial era, which allows farms to be built on hills. This will further improve the Observatory adjacency and the tile yields of nearby farms but might take longer to research if the player isnt investing much into culture. The Rationalism policy can also improve Mayan science output drastically, so keep an eye out for the Enlightenment civic.

Even if Lady Six Sky does best around the capital, it is still important to explore the outside world. Every new civilization you meet is a new potential ally or trading partner, and there might be city states with strong bonuses that suit your victory path or play-style. If the player has the Rise and Fall expansion, these events also trigger an era score which is vital for obtaining golden ages and avoiding dark ages. While exploring, the player might come across a natural wonder in a secluded location or an island with strategic resources on it. Even if they lose 15% of their yields, this should not deter the player from settling there. Aluminum, a resource discovered around the late game, is essential for Science victories which the Mayans excel in. There might not be Aluminum available in Mayan territory and trading it from other civilizations requires them to have researched it. They might not be willing to trade it away so easily either. It is still wise to settle a few satellite cities to obtain these resources even if the city itself isnt too strong. These cities can also be used to builddistricts to increase trade route capacities for more gold, like Harbors and Commercial Hubs.

If the cards are played correctly, Mayans should have at least one city with 20 population and will be among the furthest ahead in technology. The player should start eyeing some flatland for the spaceport district, which is required for science victories. Spaceports are where the space race projects are built, like the satellite launch, so determine which cities have the best production to help build the rockets. Building more than 1 is a safe option so multiple projects can be worked on at once, and ensure a spy is stationed in the spaceport so foreign spies have a harder time sabotaging the rockets. If the player hasnt been warmongering, which is likely as the Mayans, then other civilizations will possibly befriend the player if they havent already; especially those that value high population and science. Trade routes with allied civilizations can increase production significantly when the Arsenal of Democracy and E-commerce civic are enacted. However the player chooses to lead the Mayans, they are a solid new addition to Civilization 6s cast.

Next: Endzone- A World Apart: Beginner's Guide to Expeditions

Sid Meier's Civilization 6is available for PC, Switch, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and App Store.

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