There are several schemes for checking that electricians and other people carrying out skilled work are qualified and safe to do the job. While there are certainly people who have good skills and may well be able to do a good job even if they don’t... (read more)

The Turner Prize is a prize awarded every year to a British artist. It is for visual arts only and all candidates must be under 50 years old. The prize is named after the British painter J. W. W. (Joseph Mallord William) Turner, who died in 1851. Turner... (read more)

Both of these new devices are just going on sale for the first time in the run-up to Christmas 2013, so the question of which is the better one to buy is very topical just now. The Xbox One from Microsoft was actually released a few days ahead of the... (read more)

There are quite a lot of jobs which require wine tasting skills. As well as the job of tasting wines for retailers and other buyers, some bar jobs use them, and of course a sommelier in a top restaurant is a wine taster and expert as well as a waiter.... (read more)

The honorary Oscar, or to give it its official title the Academy Honorary Award, was first given that name in 1948 at the 21st Academy Award ceremony. Before that there was a similar category called the Special Award (not to be confused with, though in... (read more)

Family use could refer to one or several children, of course. If you have a large family then naturally you’ll be looking at larger models; but let’s assume for the moment you have a typical UK family... (read more)

The first commercial airport was in Croydon, just on the edge of the neighbouring borough of Sutton. It wasn’t originally opened for commercial purposes though; the two Croydon airfields (originally known as Bedlington and Waddon) were first used in... (read more)

The modern mince pie is quite a lot different from the traditional one, and originally they did have meat inside. They probably began to be eaten in the Middle Ages; with increased trade from the Middle East, and even with the wars that were fought there... (read more)

Kim Jong-un has two brothers and two sisters as far as is known. The private life of his father, Kim Jong-il, isn’t very well known due to the very restricted media access to the lives... (read more)

Singles Day in its origin is a Chinese festival which is celebrated on 11 November. The idea started at the University of Nanjing in 1993, and began as a fun day for students. The date... (read more)

It surprises many people to learn that it is actually much more common for male mammals to have nipples, or something that resembles them, than it is to be without them. It is only quite a small group of male warm-blooded animals – including mice, oddly... (read more)

Figures for the exact number of notes and coins in circulation don’t seem to be published, although according to the Bank’s Head of Notes division the number of notes is about... (read more)

This year it is expected that the average parent will spend £100 on each of their children at Christmas, and a lot of this will be spent on toys, so it’s clearly a very big market for retailers. A lot of families have started their Christmas shopping... (read more)

If you want to go away for Christmas there are probably three main types of break that are good for families with children. Briefly, you could describe these as: snow based, sun based and home based (I’m assuming home is the UK for you?) Indeed, if... (read more)

For many French people, the more important part of Christmas is Christmas Eve. Traditionally on this day, families would go to midnight Mass in the local church, and then come home for a special meal. Nowadays not so many people go to Mass and the meal... (read more)

He did become very famous during his lifetime, but it took many years; for a long time he worked with little recognition. He was born Laurence Stephen Lowry in 1887 in Old Trafford, Lancashire. His father was a clerk and his mother a teacher, though she... (read more)

The law was changed to allow girls to inherit the British throne on 28 October 2011. A summit was held in Perth, Australia, at which all the members of the Commonwealth (the group of 16 countries of which the UK monarch is the official head) voted. They... (read more)

Owls are not usually considered dangerous, but the first thing you have to remember is that there are so many different species of owl and they vary enormously in size and behaviour. The largest owl in the world is Blakiston’s fish owl, a very rare... (read more)

So far the lowest temperature ever recorded in the UK is in Scotland. This is -27.2 degrees Celsius, and this exact temperature has been reached just three times since records began. The first time was in Braemar in Aberdeenshire in Northern Scotland... (read more)

In fact pugs are generally viewed as being among the best breeds of small dog to have around children. With small and in particular toy dogs, there can sometimes be problems with them being bad-tempered and inclined to snap (though at least part of the... (read more)