Abstract and interesting essay on languages and also indirectly the why of languages. What makes a particular language worthwhile and lasting.
The remarks on descendants of languages and Java as a dead end is right on the money (and no, C# is not a java descendant - if it is anything it is Delphi with C syntax). Nobody's going to want to bring Java philosophy along to their next language. The libraries are downright hideous, and all the interesting stuff is done better elsewhere.

This link also discovered through the marvelous Ongoing.

There's an important learning experience here, which is that as dull as mainstream programming environments may seem, they are actually undergoing a massive change inspired by features of the classic dynamic languages (i.e. lisp) with reflection and genericity as the key things.