The @ symbol was a merchant's unit-of-measure mark for centuries before it reached keyboards

pop & funWikipedia1448–1536 · Seville, Spain

The @ symbol was a merchant's unit-of-measure mark for centuries before it reached keyboards

the gist

The @ sign began as a commercial shorthand, not a decoration. A 1536 Florentine trade letter from Seville used it to mean amphora, a standard jar-based unit for measuring wine and other goods, and a Spanish wheat record from 1448 shows a similar symbol. Its name in Spanish and Portuguese, arroba, came from a weight unit of about 25 pounds, borrowed from an Arabic word meaning a quarter. Merchants used it to abbreviate those units long before anyone thought of it as a typographic symbol.

so what

The @ sign carried commercial meaning for centuries before email gave it a new job, which shows how everyday symbols often hide centuries of practical use. The Museum of Modern Art added it to its design collection in 2010, and it appeared in its 2025 Pirouette exhibition of design icons.

fun fact

The Museum of Modern Art added the @ symbol to its design collection in 2010.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗