According to the Washington Post, there are at least 7,102 living languages in the world today, although 2,000 of those languages have fewer than 1,000 native speakers. The Post article has a number of interesting facts about languages in the world, but it also predicts, sadly, that about half of those languages will be lost by the end of this century. Chinese is by far the most commonly spoken language, and English is the language most commonly studied in the world, with about 1.5 billion people currently learning the language.
The controversy over the Obama Administration’s refusal to use the word “genocide” in describing the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 continues. In this phase of the controversy, however, the concerns take the form of a personal attack on the US Ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power. Power wrote a brilliant book on the Rwandan genocide that took aim at the Clinton Administration for its refusal to act on the tragedy. Now, in the face of the horror in Syria, Power represents an Administration that is also doing little to alleviate the suffering. The difference between the perspectives of a private citizen and those of an agent of a state is immense.
Calbuco volcano in Chile has erupted after over 40 years of silence. Chile is no stranger to volcanic eruptions since Chile sits on the “ring of fire” that circles the Pacific Ocean. But the eruption is truly spectacular and the photographs are eerily beautiful.
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