(no subject)

While I was out today, resting between walks in the warm spring sunshine, I saw at the public library that the new issue of Utne has a cover feature on transhumanism: Humanity: The Remix is available online ("Is building a better human the key to utopia or the world's most dangerous idea?"), with related articles available in the print version (or for a price).

Was reminded of an old post of random quotes that weren't so random after all, all of which tie in very nicely with the Utne bits.

In other news, a Languagelog joke post about linguists boycotting intelligent design hearings was taken seriously, probably because it does, in fact, sound very much like the real news.

And here's a book some of you might be interested in: The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science "From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the word serendipity--that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident--is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century--chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences."

(Perspicacious readers will note that these links are dots. I was too tired to draw the connections between them.)
(Okay, really I was just looking for an excuse to use the word "perspicacious." One of these days I should start posting my own trains of thought instead of just pointing to the pieces of the model choo-choo.)