Guy Steele is leading a group to build a new programming language called Fortress. In homage to the old SATs, Fortress is to Fortran as Java is to C++. :-) That is, Fortress is about doing high-performance number crunching. Alas, Fortress is not yet available for us to play with. The complete article is: The Soul of a New Programming Language.

The most telling quote:

"I'm now not convinced that a single programming language can serve everyone's needs, because the needs are so diverse." —Guy Steele