How high to hang pictures

The rule of thumb for hanging pictures is to position them at eye level. This means finding the horizontal line at the middle of the picture and placing it at eye level on the wall.

Assuming that you, your family, or your customers are not as gigantic as the tallest man in living history – a Turk who measured 2.51 metres – or as short as Gul Mohammed of India at a mere 0.57 metres, it’s going to be as simple as looking at the wall in front of you.

If you’d prefer to be more precise, and take into account your visitors, you may like to consider that the average male height in Australia is 1.78 metres and the average female height is 1.63 metres – meeting in the middle at 1.70 metres. You can make this your average eye level.

How high to hang pictures in other parts of the house

If you are still part of the 45 per cent of Australians who like to sit at the dining room table for meals, you may like to hang your pictures a little lower on the wall so you can appreciate them more easily whilst you dine.

Many people hang their pictures too high above other furniture such as beds and mantelpieces. Although you’ll want to be able to clean and organise underneath them with ease, hanging the picture about four to six inches above the furniture is sufficient.

The same goes for the loo – lest you want to crane your neck upwards as you contemplate!

Also, let’s not forget the kids – they too like their art, when they can see it! Whether it’s the multiplication table or Beatrix Potter’s Peter Rabbit pictures, hang them a little lower. Using Artrack’s fully adjustable picture hanging system will allow you to change the height and pieces of art as the kids grow and their tastes evolve – no holes, no mess, no hassle.

Hanging pictures vertically

Treat the pictures as one piece, including the space between them. If you have three 10-inch pieces, the horizontal line of eye level will be found in the centre of the middle (sandwiched) picture.

Slating the 11 times world surfing champion, Kelly Slater

I wince while watching a video replay of Kelly Slater jumping switch-foot between 6-foot barrels at Padang Padang. He’s so awesome and yet I’m so over it. This twenty-year long adulation has become a little schizophrenic of late, a little up and down; I think I have Slater Fatigue Syndrome (SFS). Not to be confused with tall poppy syndrome, SFS is directed more at Slater’s sparring partners – or lack of.

Where has the competitive spirit on tour gone? In a recent post-heat interview a young new talent admitted he’d been “so honoured” to surf with the world champion. Modesty and respect aside, it makes me wonder if he and the other title contenders have lost sight of the competitive point: wanting to win and the faith to do it. Are they afraid to knock the King off his pedestal?

Confidence and competition are so entwined in surfing, or any sport for that matter, that the slightest erosion of either compromises potential and success. Take Tiger Woods as an example of what a blow to the ego can do to a sportsman. Woods’ list of accolades includes 14 professional major championships, 16 World Golf Championships, and 71 PGA Tour event wins, equating to more major career and PGA Tour victories than any other active golfer. But what’s Woods been up to lately? After December 2009′s hyperbolic media attention over the extramarital hanky-panky, he’s finalised a divorce, been dropped by a heap of sponsors, lost the world number one ranking, and hasn’t won another PGA Tour event. “Confidence is contagious, so is a lack of confidence,” said Vince Lombardi, the NFL’s most successful and competitive coach.

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I’m not asking that Slater be cast as a moral reprobate; I’m just looking for a bit of perspective. He was also once a plucky start-up, copping criticism from the old stalwarts as he sidestepped Tom Curren-like flow in favour of air. He didn’t rocket to the top straight away, either. In Kelly’s first year on tour he finished 43rd, and it wasn’t until half way through the following year that he exploded into action to take the title. The tipping point could have been sparked by anything and I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess. But I like to think that he just decided it was time to win, because he knew he could. And he still can, he knows it, the surfers on tour know it, the media feed it, we love it. It’s like a self-perpetuating cycle and it will only end when the surfers start believing in themselves, when they stop snapping under pressure and start giving it back to him.

You can admire Kelly’s alien ability all you like, but don’t underestimate the unwavering faith he has in himself and the cunning competitiveness that clinches each win. After two decades these are very well practised assets. Combined with his skill, it’s the winning trifecta.

“Kelly plays the heaviest mind games,” says Maurice Cole. Having shaped the board Kelly won his first world title on and enjoying a working relationship with him since, Maurice would know. “He might say, ‘You’re riding that board? I reckon your other one was better this morning. He’s always planting that seed of doubt and that’s part of his psychological edge.”

Before this year’s Quiksilver Pro final Kelly asked Taj, “40 minutes, right?” He was referring to a Hurley Pro a few years ago where Kelly trumped him in the dying minutes of a final that had five minutes added to it. It was a tactical psyche-out and it seems to work every time. After 14 years on tour Taj can only come second so many times before succumbing to a severe case of Slater Fatigue Syndrome, surely. ”Second is the first fuckin’ loser,” Andy Irons told Stab a few years ago. “If I can’t get first I’d rather get last.” Surfing has enjoyed some spectacular rivalries: Midget Farrelly and Nat Young, Rabbit and Mark Richards, but none as ruthless as the fight between Irons and Slater.

Irons had true grit. He understood that while surfing is fun, winning is business and business is cutthroat. “My whole driving force right now is to take his little pretty picture and just crush it,” he said in Blue Horizon, a movie that portrayed him as an arrogant prick. His whole driving force, that’s what it took to lift three world titles from Slater. While it’s all the Hawaiian master would muster, he never lost the mongrel and he never backed off.

Today, there seems to be a disquieting lack of hunger on tour. “There’s no room for nice guys,” Maurice reminds us. “You’ve really got to be his enemy. Everybody is too scared because they want to be liked and the last person you want to be hated by is Kelly Slater,” he laughs. “That’s part of the psychology and he plays the card very heavily.”

There’s one guy on tour Maurice thinks doesn’t have the ability to beat Slater, but at least he’s not afraid to hate him. Adriano de Souza represents a new crew of ambitious Brazilians who have come from hardship and have had to fight for every dollar, scrap for every win. Unlike many of their Australian or American counterparts, these guys have already faced their fears on the streets and slums of Brazil. They’re up for it.

Irons wrote the blueprint to beating Slater, and Mick squeezed a couple out through sheer will. Otherwise the Darth Vader intensity has debilitated the confidence, competition and ability of three generations of surfers. In 2011 though, a couple of new kids on the block have shown themselves to be precocious much in the same way that Kelly was twenty years ago. It is now their turn to challenge the status quo, to come up with the antidote to SFS. They just need to decide that they can.

This story received some contentious commentary here. What do you think?

Turtles, women, and two Kiwis

What do baby turtles, village women, two Kiwis and an United States NGO have in common? Follow the journey of 24 women from the village of Kia as they discover the Arnavon Islands and what marine conservation means for their present as well as their future.

Read this and MORE at Unstuck Travel.

An in-depth perspective of the women’s visit can be found here.

A giggle a day with Insanity Streak

For a real giggle check out unstucktravel.com

Facebook and the consumer/brand connection is a revolution: online expert

By Keri Algar 

SYDNEY, NSW: It’s not news, it’s a matter of fact: social media impacts brand awareness and opinions, according to the latest Nielsen report which says almost three quarters of Australians are “tapping” into other consumers’ opinions as seen on social media sites.

The increased facility social media sites, such as Facebook, offer consumers and brands to interact – whether with complaints or compliments – is allowing brands unique (and often affordable) market research insight and is simultaneously offering consumers greater brand transparency.

It is a revolution in terms of consumer and brand connections, said Melanie Ingrey, director of market research at Nielsen Online. Ingrey said Australian consumers are increasing their engagement with social commerce and “this decade’s favourite site – Facebook”.

“Social media has truly been a revolution for online Australians with the most common activity, (done by 73 per cent of online Australians) being tapping into other consumers’ opinions found on social media,” said Ingrey.

“It has been a revolution in the methods by which consumers can connect with brands, connect with other consumers to discuss brands, and source other consumers’ opinions about brands. 

“To keep pace with this revolution marketers have had to evolve. Social media has provided them with more customer touch points, more methods of content and communication distribution, and more information about customers and their preferences.

“While it has not yet revolutionised marketing, social media has certainly forced a revolution in the behaviours of consumers, and an evolution of the way marketers and providers interact with those consumers and distribute content.”