One of the favorite sports of Renaissance artists was a contest called the paragone, the “comparison,” the age-old debate about the most expressive form of art. Like sport itself, the fun lay in playing the game with headlong passion, insisting that painting, or sculpture, or architecture reigned as queen of all the other arts. This spring and summer, the Florentine exhibition “Bill Viola: Electronic Renaissance,” organized around the work of the acclaimed American video artist Bill Viola, has brought the paragone into the twenty-first century.
Month: June 2017
Here’s what the maximum amount of caffeine you should be…
Happy first day of summer from Grand Teton National Park in…
Happy first day of summer from Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. Photo by Manish Mamtani (http://ift.tt/18oFfjl). 🌻🌷🌼
How Would You Spend Online Winnings?
Some days, you see people queuing for the lottery or you hear of some lucky schmuck who’s won money. Now close your eyes and imagine. What if that was you? What if, by some stroke of huge luck, you win money online in some game or contest. How would you spend your online winnings? What would you do do with this sudden windfall?
Well, according to new research from gaming firm Wink Bingo, while a fancy holiday or a shopping spree might sound appealing, we are actually more likely to put an online cash win into a savings account, or use it to pay off debt. Sign of the times? Very probably.
How we’d spend our online winnings
Wink Bingo polled 1,000 Britons, asking them for their views on what they’d do if they won £50, £500 and £5,000 online as well as canvassing their opinions on charitable giving.
The research throws up some surprising results – of all the age groups, for example, would you have put Millennials as the biggest savers?
Let’s take a look at the data.
£50 win
A £50 win on the lottery, scratchcard or game of online bingo might seem a modest sum, but we’re more likely to save it that we are spend it. According to the data, 33% would save it and 14% would use it to pay bills. While 24% would use it to pay for a family treat, only 2% would donate it to charity.
Interesting fact: the research shows that, for a £50 win, almost one in every 25 men who responded said they’d give part of it to charity, as opposed to only one in every 255 women – a whopping tenfold difference.
£500 win
With the stakes raised, what would we do with a £500 win. The Wink Bingo research shows that the majority – 35% – would pay off debt, although 32% would treat family and friends to a meal out somewhere. However, donating to charity (6%), playing again (5%) and spending (just 2%) were all low down our priority list.
£5,000 win
While £5,000 might not be a life-changing amount of money, it’s certainly significant. What would we do with it? Perhaps surprisingly, we’re more likely to save it than spend it. 37% would put it in a savings account while 30% would fund a luxury holiday with it. 25% would pay off debt 23% would invest it. Just 7% would donate to charity.
Interesting fact: When the win amount is increased to £5,000, 4% more women than men said they’d donate some of their winnings to charity.
Charitable nation
While few respondents to the poll said they’d use a cash win to give to charity, the research reveals that we are, in fact, a fairly charitable nation. 61% said they would help a stranger, 60% donate money and 33% volunteer in their spare time. The reason so few of us would use a cash win to give to charity is probably because 34% of us are already giving to charitable projects.
Biggest savers
Does the older generation really save the most money? According to this data, nope. It reveals that the demographic most likely to save are, in fact, the Millennial generation. Asked what they’d do with a £50 win, 48% of 18-24 year-olds said they would save it, followed by 34% of those aged 65 and above.
Popular ways of winning cash
Britons’ most preferred ways of winning money are:
- Lottery (33%)
- Scratch cards (18%)
- Betting (17%)
- Online games and gambling (12%)
- Contests and sweepstakes (7%)
- Casino (4%)
Regional hotspots
Can generosity really be defined by where we live? Perhaps. The research shows that people living in certain parts of the UK are more likely to give away their money. Asked how likely they were to donate to charity or share their winnings with family and friends, people in Northern Ireland, London and Yorkshire and Humber gave more answers in the ‘very likely’ end of the scale than others.
On the other side of the scale, people in the south-east ranked bottom for sharing money with family and friends for all categories of winning – £50, £500 and £5,000. Perhaps there’s something in the water down there…
Shh! It’s a secret…
If you won lots of money playing bingo or on the lottery you’d tell your family and friends, right? Well, not all of us would. The Wink Bingo research reveals that 18% of people wouldn’t even tell their partners and friends if they won £5,000! We’ll leave you to be the judge of why that might be…
For more research into how we’re likely to spend online winnings, check out the rest of Wink Bingo’s infographic.
The post How Would You Spend Online Winnings? appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
5+ Trends for Bloggers to Follow This Summer
Being a blogger is very exciting because you are part of something that is forever evolving. There are always new trends emerging and old trends taking a back seat. It does sometimes become challenging to keep up with these trends, but you definitely should not fear change.
There are many tools online to help you become a successful blogger. You can find anything from a paraphrasing tool or even a topic generator when you’re a little stuck.
We should be happy that we are living in these times wherein we have technology and software available to us for free. Let’s get right into the trends every blogger should follow this summer.
Longer articles
We have been seeing this trend make its way into the blogging world for a while, but it has become more prominent as of late. Readers are looking for longer and more high-quality content as opposed to shorter posts.
This isn’t a bad thing since it is better to do one long post once a week rather than doing 5 shorter posts a week. Of course, these posts need to add value to the reader’s life and cannot be a simple rehash of common information. Use a text paraphraser to eliminate any badly worded sentences and produce only high-quality content.
See Also: How to Write a Blog Post That Millennials Will Read
No comments
Many bloggers have started to turn their comments section off and those who decide to leave the comments section activated will see a definite decrease in comments.
This does not mean that commenting in blogs is becoming outdated. Rather, the means of communications is simply changing. Social media is becoming the new comments section and it is vital that no blogger forgets this. Being active on social media is part and parcel of the job and you will be left behind if you do not participate.
Email list
This is a typical trend that we have been following for a while, but some bloggers still do not understand the importance of an email list. You cannot simply start an email list without interacting with those who subscribed.
Make sure that your emails are engaging and add additional value to the subscribers, more so than your blog already does. There has to be something extra for the subscribers because they took their time to click that button and fill out your form.
Branding
I am sure that as a blogger, you already know the importance of your blog’s brand. What will become more of a trend this summer is personal branding. Humans interact and relate to humans and you want your audience to get to know the face behind the blog.
There are great benefits in paying attention to your own brand. The face behind the blog is what people are searching for. If the readers feel like they connect with you as a person, you have the ability to build a relationship of trust.
Mobile traffic
You are going to see more of your traffic coming from the mobile phone. This trend is not going anywhere and will continue to increase. With all the strides in smartphone technology, many will use their phones more for internet activity.
In anticipation of this, you want to make sure that your blog is mobile friendly and navigates at a fast pace on mobile phones. Our generation has become a little impatient in terms of speed and quality. If you want to win them over, always test your websites on various pieces of technology to make sure it is up to standard.
See Also: 5 Proven Strategies That Can Massively Increase Blog Traffic
Forget about ads
Ad revenue has been dropping for a while because consumers have become aware of the money-making vehicles behind it. Unless an ad seriously interests the viewer, they are unlikely to click on that link.
Also, people have become afraid to click on foreign links for the fear of a virus on their computers or cellphones. There are many other way to make money on the internet and ad clicks are no longer it.
Conclusion
Always be on top of trends. Do not sleep on things that can potentially skyrocket your blog to success. It is not impossible for you to become the next big blogger, but you will have to move with the times.
There are many blogs that are honestly fantastic, but fail to reach maximum heights. The cause could be that they are stuck in the past and refuse to change. A lot of hard work goes into a blog and what you put in is what you will get out. Remember there is a lot of competition out there, but they have nothing on you. Stay committed, be persistent and you will see your blog evolve.
The post 5+ Trends for Bloggers to Follow This Summer appeared first on Dumb Little Man.
Fantastic Hotel Located in the Historical Heart of a Magical Mediterranean Island
This fantastic hotel is located in the historical heart of this magical Mediterranean island, in Birgu, the oldest of the three ancient cities of Malta. The historic building dates back to the 16th century, and has been sensitively restored to its former glory and furnished with a mixture of antiquities and accessories. As such, its luxurious interior provides hospitality and a great cultural experience. It was restored in the year..
The post Fantastic Hotel Located in the Historical Heart of a Magical Mediterranean Island appeared first on HomeDSGN.
June 21st
You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus.
Mind Over Matter: How To Train Your Subconscious Mind Part 2
You’re reading Mind Over Matter: How To Train Your Subconscious Mind Part 2, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’re enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
In the first part of this 2-part article on how to train your subconscious mind, we were looking at how the mind consists of both conscious mind and sub-conscious mind. Both are equally you, but they feed off each other in a positive loop or a negative loop. Which one dominates, is what you will have to decide.
Who runs your part of the Unknown?
The Sub-conscious.
Where does the Sub-conscious get its information from? The Mind. What happens if the Mind thinks “I don’t want to put myself out there again and be vulnerable, it hurt so much last time, I don’t want to go through that again, I better just stay home / not call / not send the email / Whatsapp / friend request”?
The Sub-conscious takes this feeling or vibration that you are putting out there, and it forms a very powerful bubble around you that protects you from all forms of connection where you could be hurt. That is when you decide to NOT try.
Let’s say that you think the same thing as above, but you decide you’re going to try anyway, that you will be brave BUT your mind is running the same commentary and your Sub-conscious is experiencing the same feeling or vibration.
What do you think will happen?
There will be some strange negative result or self-sabotage that happens that you can’t quite explain, but you will probably think something like “I knew it, see I should never have tried this”. Now you are in a downward spiral and it is painful to experience as it usually leads to a crash because the momentum is too big to stop.
So that is one scenario where your Mind controls your Sub-conscious and the latter creates some very powerful situations to protect yourself – remember, it cannot discern what is true and what is false.
Another scenario is the following: What if you can reconfigure your Mind to take on a role that it is not always used to? What if you can reason with your Mind and ask it to be cautious in communicating with your Sub-conscious. Even better yet, what if you can assign your Mind the extremely important title of “Guardian to the Gates of the Sub-conscious” and implore it to protect your Sub-conscious by not letting in any unwanted thoughts. To keep guard and prevent entry to any negative thought patterns, doubts, fears, anxieties, guilt, judgement and vanity. To ask it to only allow in thoughts of courage, acceptance, hope, faith, abundance and love.
What if you asked your Mind to let you know when negative, energy draining thoughts are on the horizon, trying to break down the gates to the Sub-conscious? What if you asked it to empower you with this awareness of a threat to your Inner World, and that you could call on your Mind to take action to stop the negative thoughts and be the hero?
What kind of Inner World would your Sub-conscious create for you with the protection of a strong Mind letting in good, energy giving thoughts?
What would you choose the next time a thought comes around that wants to stir the pot and take you on a journey of fear, guilt or judgement?
What do you choose? In this moment, before you move on, make that choice.
If you liked this article and would like to know more about the connection between your Inner and Outer Worlds, contact me here.
Ann x
You’ve read Mind Over Matter: How To Train Your Subconscious Mind Part 2, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you’ve enjoyed this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.
Matisse: The Joy of Things
Matisse, unsurprisingly, had strong feelings about the objects of his daily life. They delighted, inspired, or confounded him, in their humble ordinariness and in all that they evoked. These mundane items, the organizing principle for the exhilarating show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, served as sparks for Matisse’s art. The exhibition’s considerations of these objects enable us to see Matisse’s works anew.
The Nihilism of Julian Assange
About forty minutes into Risk, Laura Poitras’s messy documentary portrait of Julian Assange, the filmmaker addresses the viewer from off-camera. “This is not the film I thought I was making,” she says. “I thought I could ignore the contradictions. I thought they were not part of the story. I was so wrong. They are becoming the story.” By the time she makes this confession, Poitras has been filming Assange, on and off, for six years. He has gone from a bit player on the international stage to one of its dramatic leads.
Sig Nordal 