Do you really know?

Ever since the 1960s, the minimalist movement has been captivating art and interior design enthusiasts. It’s all about simplicity, emphasising a return to the essentials, and encouraging us to let go of our attachment to material things as far as possible.  If you tend to struggle with clutter in your home environment, the 12-12-12 method may just be able to help you counter that problem. It was c...

Depersonalization, a dissociative psychological syndrome, can be incredibly destabilising. It often takes years for sufferers to identify it. Characterised by altered self-perception, individuals may feel dead, detached, or anaesthetised. They might not recognize themselves in the mirror and struggle to distinguish between reality and a dream. According to Stanford University School of Medicine, t...

I don’t know about your love life, but let’s be honest; for most people having sex doesn’t work out as smoothly as what you see in the movies. Not only is the act itself idealised, but so is what comes after. On screen, you tend to see couples snuggling and drifting off in each other's arms, all cosy and serene.  But what movies tend to skip over is the part where you have to slip out of bed with...

In late October 2024, thousands of musicians, actors and authors signed a protest letter against their work being used to build artificial intelligence tools. Signatories included actress Julianne Moore, Björn Ulvaeus of Abba, actor Kevin Bacon, and Radiohead.  Their main gripe is that their work is being used to train algorithms that could ultimately jeopardise their very careers. And even worse,...

Society tends to make sex all about penetration, but it really doesn’t have to be that way. Giving your partner oral sex can be an invigorating experience on its own.  Women often like to joke that men don’t know what they’re doing when they go down, so with that in mind let’s discuss some tips for giving your partner the pleasure they deserve. You have to know that every vulva is unique, and ther...

Greying hair can be triggered for a number of reasons, genetics; some people’s hair turns grey earlier than others. Stress, a recent study in mice showed that stress can cause stem cells to leave the hair follicle and migrate to other parts of the body, leaving no cells to produce melanin. Some Illnesses like thyroid disease and of course ageing. But could the days of grey hair be over? Possibly. ...

Are you more of an introvert or an extrovert? Or maybe a bit of both? While introverts often need solitude to recharge and feel more comfortable alone, extroverts thrive on interaction, seeking out social situations and sometimes feeling uneasy in isolation. These two categories are often seen as opposites, but experts at psychologue.net suggest that personality traits actually exist on a spectrum...

he last two and a half years have caused a lot of us to reassess our priorities in life. Are we really living our lives to the full? Are there new experiences that we should be trying out? Within that context, an alternative nomadic lifestyle called vanlife has seen a resurgence.  It’s been around since the 1960s, when hippies would travel across the United States in vans. But social media has mad...

“The enemy of success”; “the thief of time”; “the grave in which opportunity is buried”. Those are just three ways in which procrastination has been described in the past. And according to IE University, “several studies have linked procrastination to depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and overall poor mental health.” You may remember a while back we ran an episode on how to beat procrastinatio...

Ever feel like a grey cloud is hanging over you? Life seems a bit gloomy, and your days are dull. You’re craving a change, but you’re stuck in a rut. Well,  there is good news and  the solution might be much closer than you think. Sometimes, all it takes is tweaking one or two elements of your day to transform your life. Enter the ‘Yes Man’ technique. Where does it come from? Should You Say Yes to...

If you're aged between 30 and 40, you're part of Generation Y, also known as the ‘millennials’ You may have already said to yourself that the next generation, Gen Z, look much older than their age. Millennials grew up amid the rise of the wellness industry and numerous public health campaigns that promoted healthy living, think about the messaging around eating five fruits and vegetables a day, st...

In recent years, dating has become a lot more structured. Terms like "green flags" and "red flags" are now part of everyday language, and the criteria for evaluating potential partners have become more specific and defined. Of course, the main idea behind these colour codes is to help you figure out if someone is right for you based on how they behave. But lately even the flag system has become a...

ChatGPT is a computer program from a company called OpenAI. It along with other forms of AI are changing the way we communicate, create, and learn. They can help us with various tasks, such as writing emails, coding, designing presentations, and much more. However, to use AI effectively, we need to know how to interact with it.  How to use prompts? What are the factors you have to consider? What a...

If you were a WWE fan in the 2000s, a mere mention of the name Dave Bautista is likely to get you feeling all nostalgic. During his wrestling career, Bautista became well known for his muscular build. And even after quitting the WWE, he stayed in the spotlight, going into acting and being recognised as the “best wrestler-turned-actor” out there, according to the likes of ScreenRant, AVclub.com and...

On 10th September 2024, Kamala Harris made her presidential debate debut in Philadelphia, going head-to-head with Republican candidate Donald Trump. It was a fiery affair, and when all was said as done most observers had the sitting vice president down as having come out on top. From political columnists to casual social media commenters, Harris had everyone impressed. Just how popular has Kamala...

Do you ever feel like time is slipping through your fingers? That you had several hours to complete one or two simple tasks, but you didn't notice the clock ticking away? The problem might stem from poor time management or a tendency to procrastinate. It could also result from an inability to isolate yourself from sources of distraction. Let’s delve into a productivity strategy that could potentia...

Halloween is the only time of year when you can scare yourself silly! While some people go trick-or-treating around the neighbourhood, others prefer a thrilling film. Being scared and anxious are generally unpleasant sensations. So what’s the point of watching a film that makes you feel uncomfortable? It may seem paradoxical, but horror films are incredibly popular. According to a Statista study,...

LoFi, short for "Low Fidelity," it  blends elements of jazz with hip-hop rhythms, creating a relaxing soundscape. This genre has gained immense popularity, in part due to the YouTube channel *Lofi Girl*, which, as of October 2024, boasts over 14 million subscribers. The channel offers a 24/7 livestream of LoFi tracks designed to serve as ambient background music. Research on this topic offers mixe...

The US presidential election is now just a few days away, and polls between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris have been tight ever since the sitting vice president replaced Joe Biden as the Democrat candidate. Experts agree that, as is often the case in the US, the election outcome will be determined by what happens in certain swing states. All eyes are on these seven battlegrounds ahead of Election...

We’ve all heard the saying, "This is giving me grey hair!" But is there any truth to it? Actually, yes. Several scientific studies confirm that stress can speed up the process of hair turning white. One such study, published in the journal Nature in 2020, involved Harvard scientists who used mice to explore how stress affects hair pigmentation. What did they find? Is there any way to reverse this?...

Zombies are familiar to most of us Westerners through popular culture; thanks to depictions in classic horror movies, TV shows like The Walking Dead, or even video games like Resident Evil. But the idea of zombies actually goes beyond the realm of fiction. In fact, some people in the real world claim to have encountered them, and not just as gory monsters with a taste for brains. Today, we’re goin...

“Spring forward, fall back” goes the saying; that’s right - today, Sunday the 27th of October 2024, saw the clocks go back an hour, meaning it gets dark earlier all of a sudden and winter is on its way! If there’s one day, or rather two days, of the year where you don’t want to schedule any important appointments, it’s on a day when the clock changes. Forgetting the time change is something that’s...

Sex is generally synonymous with pleasure, but sometimes it can bring on headaches that are unpleasant at best. They’re known as sex headaches or orgasm headaches, but the scientific term is “primary headache associated with sexual activity”. And they don’t just kill the mood in the bedroom. The resulting pain usually lasts at least a few minutes according to The Mayo Clinic, but it can be a matte...

Figures from Cancer Research UK show that there are an average of nearly 57,000 new breast cancer cases detected each year in the country. It’s the most common form of cancer, accounting for 15% of all cases. While the vast majority of breast cancer cases are in women, there are actually around 370 diagnoses in men each year too. That’s right; men also have breast tissue around the nipples, so are...

Have you ever felt tiny when contemplating the vast, 14-billion-year-old universe? Maybe you’ve wondered, “Is there another form of intelligence out there, pondering the same questions I am?” This thought often leads to another: “If the universe is infinite, there must be other forms of life! So why don’t we have any proof?”  Congratulations, you’ve just stumbled upon the Fermi Paradox! What is th...