Do you really know?

Could Male Polish be the next big thing in men’s fashion?   A 2021 report from Persistence Market Research predicted that within the next decade, annual sales of cosmetics for men would double around the world. The sector’s growth is largely down to beard grooming products, but makeup is also on the rise, including nail polish. The annual Met Gala brings together the creme de la creme of American...

Why are there so many spin offs in the world of cinema? The world of cinema is full of films and sagas which leave their mark on a generation, sometimes becoming cult films. And another phenomenon is becoming more and more common: that of the spin off. Spin-off films involve the creation of a new work based on the original, focusing on the story of a secondary character. There are a number of reas...

What is cancel culture? Cancel culture is the popular practice of withdrawing support for an individual or company, to such an extent that they become irrelevant as a result. This is usually due to something the person has done or said that is considered offensive. Cancel culture has become an effective tool for so-called social justice movements, with feminist, antiracist and LGBTQ+ activists inc...

What does the future hold for Marvel Cinematic Universe? Marvel has long been one of the most prominent and iconic publishers in the world of American comics. From the turn of the century onwards, its cinematic adaptations breathed new life into the franchise. It started out with the somewhat timid X-men film in the year 2000, but really took off with the launch of the shared MCU universe in 2008,...

How were the Stonewall riots the starting point for the LGBT struggle? In 1960s New York, a bar called the Stonewall Inn was one of the few establishments to serve homosexuals. It was a shabby venue, which operated without a liquor license and had blocked out windows to protect customers from suspicious looks. Situated in the Greenwich Village district of South west Manhattan, it was controlled by...

How did Internet Explorer go out of fashion?  On 15th June 2022, American internet giant Microsoft cut off Internet Explorer, its long standing web browser. At the end of the 1990s and through to the 2000s, it set the standard when it came to browsers. In 2004 it had a usage share of as high as 95%, a figure which was under 1% by the time it closed, according to Irish traffic analysis website Stat...

What is the US Supreme Court? Following the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in September 2020, Donald Trump made clear his desire to quickly appoint a new justice to the US Supreme Court. To understand the importance of this nomination, it’s important to consider the major political influence of the Supreme Court justices. The Supreme Court was created in 1789, thirteen years after the United States...

What is Face Wine, the latest viral beauty product from Tiktok? Over the last few years, Chinese platform Tiktok has taken over as the social network of choice for teens and young adults. Unsurprisingly then, it’s also become a prime target for influencers and brands looking to promote their products, ahead of Instagram, Youtube and Snapchat. Since the start of May 2022, a beauty product called Gr...

What are the signs you might have sleep apnea? According to a study published in the Journal of Thoracic Disease in 2015, 10% of all people are affected by obstructive sleep apnea. That figure rises for some population groups, like men, over-50s and overweight people. It’s actually a mechanical disorder, rather than an illness. When we go to sleep, our muscles relax; that's totally normal. But whe...

The annual celebration of World Music Day on 21st June is upon us and Do You Really Know? is aiming to strike a chord with listeners. We'll be harping on about music all week long, covering related terms, concepts and famous figures. Who is Rosalia? Following the release of her latest album Motomami, Rosalia Vila Tobella was called a visionary and compared to artists like M.I.A. and Madonna by the...

Can carbon farming help us reach net zero by 2050? Reaching carbon net zero by 2050 is one of the main objectives in the struggle against global warming. It’s also part of the Green New Deal the EU agreed upon in 2019. Since the start of 2022, many figures in agriculture have been pushing for a carbon farming policy which would see farmers rewarded for their efforts in sequestering carbon.   How d...

The annual celebration of World Music Day on 21st June is upon us and Do You Really Know? is aiming to strike a chord with listeners. We'll be harping on about music all week long, covering related terms, concepts and famous figures. What is the Mozart Effect? What if listening to 10 minutes of Mozart could increase your IQ? That’s exactly what Frances Raucher and her Californian research team sug...

The annual celebration of World Music Day on 21st June is upon us and Do You Really Know? is aiming to strike a chord with listeners. We'll be harping on about music all week long, covering related terms, concepts and famous figures. What is K-Pop? On October 15th, Big Hit Entertainment debuted on the Korean stock exchange. If you’re not familiar with the company itself, you’re more likely to have...

How did Where’s Wally become an international phenomenon over the last 35 years? With his red and white hooped jumper, round glasses and funny hat, our man Wally is easy to recognise, but much more difficult to find! Anyone who’s read through one of his books will tell you that. And that’s a lot of people, given that as of 2007, 73 million copies had been sold. As the series turns 35 years old, le...

The annual celebration of World Music Day on 21st June is upon us and Do You Really Know? is aiming to strike a chord with listeners. We'll be harping on about music all week long, covering related terms, concepts and famous figures. Who are Oasis?   On August 10th 1996, Oasis drew over 250,000 fans to their gigs on two consecutive nights at Knebworth Park. Much like the band, these record-breakin...

What is art nouveau and how did it flourish around the turn of the 20th century? This aesthetic movement dominated many artistic fields in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was influenced by nature and used trademark organic shapes and sinuous lines, moving away from previous limits to create new kinds of design objects. Let’s take a few minutes to reflect on where art nouveau came from,...

The annual celebration of World Music Day on 21st June is upon us and Do You Really Know? is aiming to strike a chord with listeners. We'll be harping on about music all week long, covering related terms, concepts and famous figures. Who are Abba? A full forty years after their last LP “The Visitors”, Abba have only gone and released a new album! That’s right, with Voyage now available for downloa...

What are subliminals? If you listen to some people out there, they’ll tell you you can improve your self-esteem, change your eye colour, or become a mermaid simply by viewing or listening to certain clips on Youtube. Sounds far-fetched right? Well, the idea is based on subliminal messaging, so let’s discuss how realistic it is. It’s important to distinguish between audio and visual subliminals. Th...

What is sadfishing? Since the advent of social media, we’ve gotten used to seeing highlight reels of people’s lives on our newsfeeds. But in recent years, people have been more and more willing to share posts about moments of sadness, rather than acting like everything’s perfect all the time. More authentic, or simply another veiled form of attention seeking and like hunting? The practice has been...

What is Jurassic Park? The recently released Jurassic World Dominion concludes the storyline which first started out in the original Jurassic Park trilogy, from 1993 onwards. Reviews of the latest film have so far been poor, but that won’t take anything away from the legendary franchise’s legacy. Let’s look back at some of the main talking points and secrets behind Jurassic Park. How did Jurassic...

Today is the World Blood Donor Day. This event brings awarness on the importance to donate blood and it encourages people to become a donor. What is the World Health Organization? The World Health Organization is a United Nations agency that is responsible for international public health. In the case of a global health pandemic, such as the ongoing Coronavirus crisis, the WHO has a central role in...

What are carbon bombs? The controversial East African Crude Oil Pipeline project moved one step closer to construction in March 2022, with the signing of a $10 billions Final Investment Decision between French multinational Total Energies and its joint venture partners. The pipeline is set to become the longest in the world, at 1000 miles long, and will transport petrol from Uganda to the Tanzania...

What are umbrella species? Within an ecosystem there are many different species, and it can be difficult for conservationists to come up with specific strategies to protect every single one of them. That’s why some have started focusing on umbrella species, because of the benefits that protecting them has for other co-occurring species. It’s as if they’re putting an umbrella over the entire surrou...

What is rewilding? Over the history of life on planet Earth, there have been five mass extinction events, due to changing sea temperatures, volcano eruptions and the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. And now experts fear a sixth mass extinction is underway, this time directly linked to human activity. According to a study published in Biological Review in January 2022, 10% of the plane...

What is the Russian Oil Embargo? The EU unanimously took this decisive measure on the night of 30th May 2022, a little over 3 months since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. Between now and the end of the year, the Union’s 27 member states will cut imports of Russian oil by 90%. Russia is one of the three biggest oil producers in the world, after Saudi Arabia and the United States. The embargo...