In a country as diverse as India, there are at least 20 different languages being spoken by at least a million people, so one could imagine the difficulty to communicate with one another. Of course, many people speak more than one language so it's not really a problem.

But when Union Home Minister Amit Shah proposed the 'one nation, one language' policy, actor Rajinikanth weighed in on the issue and said that such a thing is not possible for India.

Speaking to reporters, Rajinikanth said, “Any country that has a common language will find it beneficial to its growth and unity. Unfortunately, we cannot have that in India.

Language is power and whatever is the dominant or ruling language gives the speakers of that language preeminence and social mobility. So despite making communication easier, having one language spoken by all will still alienate and isolate certain groups of people. There will always be people who are left out of the conversation.

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No matter how hard one trains their body to build strength and endurance, there will always be limits to how much we can do or take. Even the Marines who are some of the fittest and most well-equipped people, both physically and mentally, get exhausted and need help with some labor-intensive work.

Fortunately, the Marine Corps is looking to get some help with their heavy duty physical work from a full-body autonomous exoskeleton suit, similar to the one used by Ripley in "Alien".

"It keeps the human instinct and intelligent judgment and combines it with a robotic precision, strength and endurance to get to a more efficient, effective, more productive -- and frankly safer -- work environment," said Jim Miller, Sarcos Robotics' vice president of defense solutions.

The intuitive, autonomous suit can be used by operators ranging from 5 foot, 4 inches, to someone who's just over 6-and-a-half-feet tall. It stays powered for up to eight hours on a single charge and can repeatedly lift 200-pound objects without fatigue or strain.

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Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Joseph Stalin were considered the Big Three of the Allied Forces in WWII. If any of them were captured or assassinated, it would have spelled the end for the Allied Forces and history would have been much different than it is today.

However, when the planned assassination mission called Long Jump, which was led by Otto Skorzeny, had been put into motion, the Axis didn't realize that the Soviets had learned about their plan through one of their guerrillas who infiltrated their ranks.

When Hitler was putting together a team to attempt the assassination of the Big Three, Skorzeny was the man he turned to as the leader. The plan they developed was called Long Jump.

Meanwhile, the Soviets had a group of guerrillas operating in the Ukraine which was occupied by the Germans. One of the guerrillas was Nikolai Kuznetsov, the famed Soviet espionage officer, who spoke perfect German and was masquerading as a German lieutenant.

He became friends with SS-Sturmbannführer Ulrich von Ortel, who gave details of the Long Jump plan one night while they were drinking together. Ortel even offfered to introduce Kuznetsov to Skorzeny.

The Soviets were now aware of the German plans but allowed them to continue to proceed without intervening.

Learn more about the details of the event and the outcome at War History Online.

(Image credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R81453 / CC-BY-SA 3.0; Wikimedia Commons)

No doubt the sleeping giant has awakened and has become one of the most terrifying economic and political powerhouses in the world. As it flexes its muscles in the region, several governments are being affected immensely by the policies being implemented by the Chinese government. Here are some of the highlights from Foreign Policy's China Brief.

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Though art embodies one's freedom of expression, the people curating art galleries and museums can help provide a vision and direction for the type of art and ideas being expressed and shown to the public.

However, in the Haus der Kunst, three different curators have suffered odd circumstances in their tenures, causing them to be driven out of the institution. It seems that there is a trend of anti-globalist thought pervading in Germany's cultural scene as exemplified by the pressure being exerted on artistic directors who lean toward internationalist and postcolonial stances and their subsequent dismissal from their post.

Munich’s Haus der Kunst is at the centre of a disturbing trend in German cultural politics, whereby artistic directors are hostage to political approval. Internationalist and postcolonial positions are under fire, as are those highlighting the migrant experience.

In the last two years, three of the world’s most prominent artistic directors have been driven out of Germany’s leading state institutions. The reason that this has happened so transparently in Germany is that leaders of state-funded institutions are hired and fired by the responsible ministry, whether that’s the city of Berlin, the state of Brandenburg, or the federal government.

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Masks can be anything that you use to cover your face or simply to put something on it. And you can have your way with how you want it to look. These mask designs from the Masters of Disguise collection presented by London gallery Seeds feature some of the weirdest, funkiest, and most outrageous masks you will ever see.

(Image credit: MLXL/Masters of Disguise)

In a constantly fluctuating world, one can never be sure of what's going to happen tomorrow or the day after that. There will always be risks. The only thing we can do is to take opportunities that would suit our needs and circumstances, and prepare to face every possible contingency that might come our way.

Executives in emerging markets across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa are facing pressure to innovate at a time of mounting trade tensions and a great deal of uncertainty.

“Risk is the only certainty we have,” said Adrian Tanase, chief executive of the Bucharest Stock Exchange and one of the top-ranked CEOs in Institutional Investor’s 2019 Emerging EMEA Executive Team.

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Nine years ago, Patricia Spottedcrow was thrown into jail plus $2,740 in fines after being found guilty of selling $31 worth of marijuana. Since this was her first time being sentenced for this crime, she was let off after two years. However, last week, she was brought back to jail because she wasn't able to pay the fines she owed.

On September 9, the Oklahoma City police arrested her, with the state ordering that Spottedcrow be locked up until she could furnish $1,139.90 of the $3,569.76 she still owed. Meanwhile, she was hit with yet more fines with the new arrest, and they would accrue while she was in jail.

After her case was publicized, some strangers donated enough funds to wipe her slate clean. As she walked out of jail on September 11, she was completely free for the first time in nearly a decade.

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Let's face it, in many parts of the world, progress and development will come at a cost, whether it be in economic terms or in health and environmental terms. India's economy has been growing but with that is the increase in pollution as well.

But there are ways, argues Dean Spears, in which progress can happen without being detrimental to the environment and people's health. In his book, Air, he tackles the heart of that very issue.

As Spears shows, pollution is killing Indians, especially babies, and those it doesn’t kill it harms as seen in statistics on stunting and respiratory disease. Spears isn’t naive, however, he knows that manufacturing is also bringing tremendous benefits.

The issue, however, is that a lot of pollution in India comes from relatively low value activities like burning crops. Moreover, solar power in India is cost competitive with coal today, even before taking into account health benefits. Thus, the harms of pollution are tragic because they are unnecessary.

(Image credit: Marginal Revolution)

Freedom of expression is foundational to any democratic society, something Singapore is being criticized for its stringent policies on such matters. And so it came as a surprise to Yale University, which has a joint project with the National University of Singapore, when the college cancelled its course on dissent.

The president of Yale, Peter Salovey, expressed concern about the cancellation of the course, which the university described in a statement as a “one-week outside-the-classroom offering starting in late September in which a small group of students would examine the political, social and ethical issues that surround democratic dissent, chiefly by hearing from those who have practiced it.”

It was to be taught by the Singaporean playwright Alfian Bin Sa’at. Salovey said Yale would review the decision to cancel the program.

-via Marginal Revolution

(Image credit: National University of Singapore; via Yale Alumni Magazine)

Learning to follow traffic rules and regulations isn't just so that you don't get caught violating them. It's for everyone's safety. But it wouldn't matter if somebody, who has no apprehension whatsoever about such rules, is given a license. That's the grievance driving instructors have with driving exams being used not just in Washington state, where people seem to find themselves having more road accidents when it rains, but also with the rest of America.

More collisions happen when roads are wet, the Washington State Patrol confirms. In particular, the first rain after it’s been dry for a while can bring all the leaked oils and fluids from cars to the surface, and it’s hard to get traction on a road that slick.

But if we’re being honest with ourselves, the answer might be simpler: We’re not that good at driving in the first place.

Bad behind-the-wheel behavior isn’t isolated to the Puget Sound region. Compared to the rest of the world, Americans are mediocre drivers at best, said Mark Hallenbeck, director of the Washington State Transportation Center at the University of Washington.

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Dorothy Wilding's portraits, especially those of the British Royal Family, are breathtaking. In fact, some of the photos she took of Queen Elizabeth II made their way onto Britain's postage stamps which were circulated between 1953 and 1967.

She also took many gorgeous portraits of other celebrities and famous people. Here is a collection of portraits she took of classic beauties between the 1920s and 1950s.

(Image credit: Dorothy Wilding/Vintages)

Synth pop became popular during the 1970s and later on, evolved into other forms like electropop, house music, and EDM. With its ambient beats and somewhat futuristic style, it gives one a chill vibe that kind of makes you want to dance.

One of the bands that focused their music on synth pop was Grauzone but they only lasted two years before they disbanded. In the short span that the they were together, they produced a popular synth pop classic called Eisbaer.

Grauzone are most famous for their amazing 1981 song “Eisbaer” (“Polar Bear”) which is an all time classic example of an early 80s new wave synthpop dancefloor magnet. “Eisbaer” made it to #12 in the German pop charts and #6 in Austria’s.

It’s one of those songs that you fall in love with before it’s halfway over. It’s something every working DJ needs in their repertoire. It is, I promise you, cannot fail dancefloor fodder.

(Image credit: Discogs)

This odd-looking installation of three concentric circles forming a wave-like pattern serves both an aesthetic and a practical purpose. The installation titled "Please Be Seated" was built by Paul Cocksedge and was designed to be a communal bench wherein people could lounge around the areas where the waves touch the ground.

Built in Finsbury Avenue Square alongside Make's Number One Broadgate office block in the City of London, Please Be Seated is made of three rings of benches that rise and fall in a wave-like pattern.

Each of the undulating forms – which increase in size and height from the smallest central element – are made from a steel structure topped with scaffolding planks.

"Every single aspect of this is tailored to its environment as well as the function it serves," said Cocksedge. "The curves raise up to create backrests and places to sit, as well as space for people to walk under, or pause and find some shade," he continued.

(Image credit: Broadgate/Mark Cocksedge)

China may be one of the largest countries in the world in terms of demographics but the situation might change in the next decades if it will not address the issue of its population. To be clear, the issue here is that China will have a long-term population decline which, experts say, could hamper its economic growth in the future.

Should fertility rates remain unchanged, then China could even shrink to 1.17 billion people by 2065, according to the China Academy of Social Sciences.

“From a theoretical point of view, the long-term population decline, especially when it is accompanied by a continuously aging population, is bound to cause very unfavorable social and economic consequences,” the report said.

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