Bilingual

Ship traces journey Spanish Armada sailors made in 1588
21 days ago
- The Galeón Andalucía, a replica Spanish galleon, sailed off Ireland's coast, honoring historical Spanish sailors from the 1588 Armada.
- It anchored at Streedagh Beach, where three Armada ships sank, commemorating over 1,100 lives lost during a storm.
- Local enthusiasts and officials welcomed the ship, highlighting its role in tourism and the annual Remembering the Armada Festival.
- The galleon is nearly 50 meters long, built from wood, and crewed by international cadets and volunteers.
- The visit strengthens cultural ties and offers public engagement with maritime heritage in Sligo and along the west coast.
The Second Life of Sanskrit
10 days ago
- Prathosh AP developed Vagdhenu, a tool that recites Sanskrit verses like a pandit, attracting millions of page hits and being used for conversational practice.
- Samashti Gubbi promotes spoken Sanskrit through events like the Kimbho Sanskrit Riders’ Club and social media, blending the language with modern activities.
- Spoken Sanskrit courses, like the one from IIT Roorkee, have seen high enrollment, especially among young adults, showing a shift from archaic to cool.
- Sanskrit's revival is supported by state projects, universities, and online markets, expanding beyond traditional custodians to new users.
- Radhavallabh Tripathi notes a revival in serious literary and philosophical Sanskrit works, including modern writings and translations from Indian languages.
- Sanskrit periodicals, children's books, and Dalit poetry in Sanskrit are emerging, with younger writers expanding the language's range.
- The language adapts by borrowing forms like haiku and tanka, and its grammar allows continuity from ancient to modern texts.
- Online platforms and tools, like those for machine learning datasets, are making Sanskrit newly visible and teachable globally.
- Prime Minister Modi highlighted Sanskrit's resurgence on social media, with young creators using it in comedy, music, and education.
- Teachers and students are increasingly engaging with Sanskrit through interactive methods, games, and digital content, overcoming past aversion.
We don't use AI in any of our design or production processes
6 days ago
- Letters are the result of millennia of evolution, tracing back to ancient symbols like the ox-head representing 'aleph' which became 'A'.
- The design of modern typefaces, such as asymmetrical shapes and serifs, originates from historical human practices like Roman brush techniques.
- Generative AI lacks human experience and creativity, unable to invent new techniques or understand cultural nuances, risking the stagnation of visual culture.
- AI tools are limited by training data up to 2021, potentially overlooking underrepresented traditions and ideas, and may not support diverse languages or cultures.
- The author advocates for human-driven type design to preserve innovation, support new designers, and avoid a future where AI dominates and stifles creativity.
Ise Jingu and the Pyramid of Enabling Technologies (2021)
6 days ago
- Ise Jingu is a sacred Shinto shrine in Japan, dating back over 2000 years, and is perpetually renewed through a 20-year rebuilding tradition called Shikinen sengu.
- The rebuilding process involves recreating 65 structures, including main shrines, using traditional techniques and materials like hinoki cypress, and requires reproducing thousands of ceremonial artifacts.
- This tradition preserves process knowledge—tacit skills passed down through generations via hands-on training and institutional continuity, ensuring techniques for construction and craftsmanship survive.
- Process knowledge is vulnerable to loss in modern society due to specialization, globalization, and reliance on few experts, as seen in cases like Fogbank production for nuclear warheads.
- Institutions like Ise Jingu adapt over time to maintain knowledge transfer, highlighting the need for dedicated efforts to safeguard process knowledge against cultural and technological changes.

Hasty Briefsbeta

#cultural heritage

Ship traces journey Spanish Armada sailors made in 1588

The Second Life of Sanskrit

We don't use AI in any of our design or production processes

Ise Jingu and the Pyramid of Enabling Technologies (2021)