Louis Braille’s Vision

historyNLM Circulating Now1820s · Paris, France

Louis Braille’s Vision

the gist

Louis Braille was born in Coupvray, France, on January 4, 1809, and was blinded at age three in an accident with his father's tools. At the Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris, he found existing raised-print books too hard to read by touch. He adapted a 12-dot code called night writing, devised by Charles Barbier for soldiers who needed to communicate silently, into a simpler system. His version used a cell of six dots, arranged in two columns of three, to represent letters, numbers and punctuation. He published the first book about braille in 1829. The system has since been adapted to almost every language.

how it works

Each braille character is a cell of up to six raised dots in a two-by-three grid. Reading means passing fingers over the dots, and different patterns stand for letters, numbers, punctuation or whole words.

so what

Braille gave blind people independent reading and writing, and its six-dot design is still used worldwide, with new technologies such as refreshable displays built on it.

fun fact

Braille's six-dot cell was based on a twelve-dot code originally designed for soldiers to communicate in the dark.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

Illustrative photo · Henri Thiriat, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

source: NLM Circulating Now ↗

historyWikipediaclassic1336–1565 · Karnataka, India

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 ↗