The NY Times has an excerpt of the first chapter of The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb. Accompanying the excerpt is a review by Gregg Easterbrook. "History, he writes, proceeds by 'jumps,' controlled by 'the tyranny of the singular, the accidental, the unseen and the unpredicted.'" Sounds like punctuated equilibrium.
...is a weblog about the liberal arts 2.0 edited by Jason Kottke since March 1998 (archives). You can read about me and kottke.org here. If you've got questions, concerns, or interesting links, send them along.