Do you really know?

As thunderclouds gather and winds intensify, the decision to shut off the power becomes a critical one, balancing safety concerns with the practicalities of daily life. The risks associated with electrical installations depend on the location of your home. For example, the consequences are more severe if your home is in a rural or mountainous area, for a number of reasons. Lightning poses a signif...

Restless sleep, a hollow feeling inside and the sting of heartbreak; most of us have been through that kind of ordeal at least once in our lives. Let’s be honest: when it comes to your career and work life, a breakup doesn’t exactly bring out the best in your productivity. And at work, you can’t always afford to be distracted. Earlier in 2024, a Filipino lawmaker proposed an unexpected solution: a...

The "cuffing season" refers to that time of year—typically from October through February—when people are more likely to pair up. It’s not about finding "the one" for life, but rather seeking temporary companionship to get through the colder months. In essence, it’s a way of finding some warmth and connection to help navigate the winter chill. A study published in Perception and covered by Slate ex...

In some religions, people believe in reincarnation or an afterlife, but in medicine, life is generally considered to end when the heart stops beating. Recently though, researchers have challenged that view.  In November 2024, American biologists Peter A Noble and Alex Pozhitkov published groundbreaking findings in The Conversation under the title “Biobots arise from the cells of dead organisms − p...

On November 5, 2024, Donald Trump was elected the 47th President of the United States. That same evening, his opponent, Kamala (like calm) Harris, conceded at Howard University, urging supporters to “never give up the fight,” especially for women’s reproductive rights. Abortion rights were overturned in 2022, leaving it up to states to decide with Trump’s appointment of conservative Supreme Court...

A Pew Research Center survey from August 2023 found that 52% of respondents were more concerned than excited about AI in daily life, compared with just 10% who felt the opposite. It’s not surprising really when you think about it; after all, things that we don’t understand tend to both fascinate and frighten in equal measure. It’s only very recently that AI has started becoming part of many people...

For many new year’s is a great time to take a look at your life and make some changes. Unfortunately, According to the time management firm FranklinCovey, one third of resolutions fail before the end of January.  There are three main reasons resolutions fail. Firstly, resolutions made because of what you think you ‘ought’ to do, are not likely to succeed. Next, being too vague and finally not havi...

Marketing technique shrinkflation is becoming more and more common in large retail stores, in particular down to the ongoing war in Ukraine. It sees manufacturers quietly reducing the size of their products, but maintaining prices at the same level. Shrinkflation is often a result of an increase in raw material prices and other production costs, but is seen as a form of hidden inflation and has be...

If you use Tiktok, you may well have seen videos of people walking on a treadmill at a steep incline. Many of them claim to have lost weight and improved their fitness, all thanks to the 12-3-30 workout. If you’re thinking those are some oddly specific numbers, you’re right. The method involves walking on a treadmill that is inclined at 12%, for 30 minutes, at a speed of 3 mph. That's it. No runni...

Nitrous oxide, which is also known as laughing gas, is sold in metal canisters and is one of the most commonly used drugs by teenagers and young people. However, heavy use can lead to a host of problems. Prof Alastair Noyce, a consultant neurologist at Queen Mary University of London, told BBC News: "These are young people we are seeing - teenagers and people in their 20s. What's striking now is t...

On the evening of December 24th, as many households in the UK prepare for festive gatherings with traditional roast turkey and yule log, an intriguing Christmas tradition unfolds in Japan. In the land of the rising sun, people aren't bustling around their kitchens; instead, they're braving the winter cold to queue up for a unique holiday feast at KFC.  Many Japanese then return home with a special...

In the UK, Christmas is synonymous with festive meals, Yule logs, and the classic roast turkey. We adorn our homes with red, gold, and green decorations, and the Christmas tree takes center stage – a topic we've previously explored on this podcast. These traditions have become so ingrained in our lives that we rarely question their origins. Take, for instance, the tradition of exchanging Christmas...

You may have heard of AI art generators, tools that use artificial intelligence to create images based on language prompts. For example, you can type “a picture of Elmo from Sesame Street in the style of Pablo Picasso”. These tools are fun and impressive, but they also pose a serious threat to artists who share their work online. AI art generators rely on large datasets of existing images to learn...

According to a World Bank report from March 2023, the global pace of reforms toward equal treatment of women under the law has slumped to a 20-year low. This decline constitutes a potential impediment to economic growth at a critical time for the global economy. Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, women’s rights have been systematically curtailed. From March 2022, it became the...

Nicknamed the "seventh continent" or “trash vortex" the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is an expanding mass consisting of 1.8 trillion plastic waste pieces in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. According to a study by NGO The Ocean Cleanup, which was published in Scientific Reports in 2018, it covers an area of 620,000 square miles, which is bigger than France, Germany and Spain combined. How was it fo...

As we enter 2023, we’re desperately looking for ways to combat human-induced climate change. It’s a worthy cause, but it’s clear that some irreversible effects have already happened, and that will continue for some time.  So it would be foolish not to prepare for the reality of living on a planet which has undergone significant warming. There’s relatively little known about how our bodies will rea...

The Walt Disney Company is celebrating its centenary this October, but the prevailing mood is far from festive. That’s because Disney's image is taking a hit. In May 2023, Axios-Harris placed it 77th for reputation in a ranking of America’s 100 most visible companies. When you consider that it had figured 4th on that same list as recently as 2019, the impact is clear. On that front, it's not doing...

Prof Kehinde Andrews, the UK’s first professor of Black studies and one of the UK’s leading experts on race, has called for a public holiday to remember the horrors of slavery.  According to Andrews there was ‘really nothing more important to Britain’s development than slavery.’ He feels that an official public holiday is needed to keep its memory alive and preserve a conscience of the horrors of...

Every year, 1st December is World AIDS day. To mark the occasion, let’s look back at the story of the Act Up group. Act Up started causing a buzz in New York in 1987, four years after the AIDS virus had been discovered. The highly organised group met several times a week to discuss their action plan. They demanded more prevention and communication campaigns from the state, better access to care, t...

What is an Advent calendar? If you’re anything like us, you’ll have been eagerly waiting for the clock to go past midnight on December 1st to have the first chocolate from this year’s Advent Calendar! These special festive calendars are used to count down to Christmas, all through the month of December. They traditionally offer simple treats like chocolate, but in recent years, holiday shoppers ha...

The perineum is a group of muscles that works like a hammock, stretching from the pubic bone to the tailbone. To pinpoint its location, try coughing; you’ll feel a downward pressure in your lower abdomen.   It provides support for your internal organs, like the rectum and bladder, and for women, the vagina and uterus. It also absorbs physical impact. For example, when you run, the increased abdomi...

AI is transforming many industries and sectors, from manufacturing to healthcare, from education to entertainment which will inevitably affect the way we work. But will AI replace humans or create new opportunities? Artificial intelligence, or AI, is the ability of machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as recognizing faces, understanding speech, or making decisio...

According to the Office for National Statistics, the number of smokers in the UK is estimated at 6.6 million. The proportion has been steadily dropping for years now. Given the health risks, you’d think smokers would be delighted to give up, but the prospect of putting on weight is a cause of concern for many. To be fair, it i’s a well-founded fear to some extent. In 2014, Addiction journal report...

Since Elon Musk acquired social network Twitter in October 2022, the company has been pretty much constantly in the spotlight, and not really for the right reasons. It started very shortly after, with controversy erupting when the new owner fired 80% of the company’s workforce, including CEO Parag Agrawal. Of course, the change of name from Twitter to X.com then followed in summer 2023. There’s be...

You may remember that we’ve talked about the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index in the past on Do You Really Know, which assigns each of the world’s countries a score from one to ten based on how democratic they are.   But have you ever heard of a kleptocracy? It’s a phenomenon that can creep into democracies and drag down their scores. A kleptocracy is a political system where corrupti...