I forgot to say we went to hear Steven Pinker talk about his new book. He’s a pretty charismatic speaker, but he “lectured from Powerpoint,” as it were, which wasn’t really necessary since his slides were just summaries of what he was saying. Also, his connections between language and human nature were sadly flat, as the idea that our languages reflect how we think, feel, and interact is… well… rather obvious. Perhaps the book got deeper into things, though.