Commuters, Ahoy!

Travel time studies are important for transport geographers, especially on island archipelagos. Small islands like Gozo depend on outside links for their infrastructure. My (Marthese Cini) research study focused on Gozitan commuters working in Malta and the recent discussions on ‘connecting’ the islands. Specifically, I studied whether a ferry or a tunnel would be more suitable for their needs.

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Virtual Assistants: 21st Century’s Towers of Babel?

Virtual assistants, such as Alexa or Siri, are gaining popularity and becoming our new family members. But these technologies are often designed with English in mind. How can we teach our virtual assistants other languages, such as Maltese? THINK’s Christian Keszthelyi speaks with Prof. Patrizia Paggio, Prof. Ray Fabri, and Prof. Albert Gatt from the Institute of Linguistics and Language Technology (University of Malta) to find out more.

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Uncovering history

Commissioned over half a millennium ago, Antonello Gagini’s Madonna and Child has been silently standing tall in a Franciscan church in Rabat for the past five centuries. Little was known about the Renaissance sculpture, but a recent study is tracing the statue’s history.  Caroline Curmi speaks to art historian Dr Charlene Vella and University of Malta student Jamie Farrugia about their findings.

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A lifetime worth of stories

Like a painting, society is created out of different, colourful brush strokes of social, legal, economic, political, and religious aspects. The work of notary Bernardo Maria Callus depicts the changes and developments, traditions and values, and aspirations of the Order of St John’s as well as Maltese individuals’ needs. The acts of notary Callus are important for the study of continuity, change, and interaction in mid-eighteenth century Hospitaller Malta.

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