Braille Landline

Inventing Japanese Braille

Wei Yu Wayne Tan | History Workshop | 1st May 2025

Louis Braille's tactile reading and writing system was devised with alphabetic languages in mind, such as English or French. Japanese Braille came later, as its late 19C adopters wrestled with the problem of codifying a phonetic and semantic script with a limited number of Braille dots. Matching the dots to the kana syllabaries rather than kanji characters proved to be the key (1,600 words)

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The Alabama Landline That Keeps Ringing

Emily McCrary | Oxford American | 23rd April 2025

In 1953, the Dean of Students at Auburn University in Alabama opened a help desk phone line that students, and then the general public, could call to get answers to any query. Seven decades later, people are still phoning in. Many callers are people who, for whatever reason, don't use the internet. Some have troubles and just want to talk. And of course, some are drunk people at parties (2,100 words)