By Jupiter!

I know you're there, folks - and once I've broken through Google's infinite access loop, I'll acknowledge you better.

Jupiter is amazing now.  Here, it's seen by an amateur astronomer in Malta:

http://www.universetoday.com/90481/video-close-up-look-at-jupiter-in-opposition-and-a-transiting-great-red-spot/

And Venus.  Europe's Venus Express returned hints of a world once bathed in oceans, with Earth-like plate tectonics.  This could have lasted for two billion years.  Here's a link.

http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Venus_Express/SEMUQCLXOWF_0.html

What I've been doing
Mostly - teaching, (yes, really) and shoving out Green pamphlets.

Have fun!

Welcome back!
I've been away, 'Pearl' is finished, and revised n+1 times. (No. I won't tell how many.)  I'm curiously locked in to the story, but find that writing a sequel is more satisfying.  I'm happy while writing it.  The story is located in mesoarchean Earth.  (Yes, I know: uninhabitable without a lot of high tech aids.)

If anyone knows more about this epoch than I do, PLEASE get in touch.  If you know anything, that is.

Your next task is to rush outside, look into the night sky, and see Jupiter in opposition.  It's spectacular, the brightest thing up there.