Sign language is uniquely relational. Unlike phone calls, which can be completed over distance with no visual element, sign has not enjoyed the same ease of communication during the Industrial Revolution and beyond. The good news is that this is changing, and itโs doing so faster than ever. As technological advancements continue to outpace themselves every year, sign language [...]
Indigenous languages have a precarious existence in contemporary times. Although so many local, vernacular languages have been spoken and transmitted for hundreds of years, most find themselves at the threat of extinction today. The severity of the crisis can be aptly conveyed with this one statistic by the United Nations: an indigenous language goes extinct once every two weeks. [...]
In the world of espionage and covert communication, sometimes the tiniest details can hold the greatest secrets. Welcome to our deep dive into the fascinating world of microdots, a pivotal tool in the history of secret communication that has shaped the history of intelligence operations. From wartime espionage to modern-day applications, we'll explore how these minuscule dots have played [...]
International airports are multilingual and multicultural places by nature, but no matter where you are in the world, you're likely to hear English inside a plane. But this goes past the familiar airline phrases โ "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking" and "The seatbelt sign is on," and goes more specifically into the plane's cockpit. All pilots [...]
One of modern civilizationโs most commonly used tools sits just beneath our fingertips, as our keyboards provide us with an arsenal of approximately 80 numbers, letters, and commands, all ready to do our bidding. For those of us who utilize the Roman alphabet (approximately 70% of all major languages), we press these keys in various combinations and assemble the [...]
