[chc]

> Before I used Python, Java and C were my main languages. I was amazed at how short programs became in Python. For this reason, saying "Python loves explicitness" strikes me as strange, since it gets rid of braces, semicolons, variable declarations, the 'new' operator...

I think you have confused "explicitness" with "verbosity." Indentation is no less explicit than braces.

> I'm just a little surprised the momentum isn't swinging back to Python. Since IMHO Ruby's syntax makes the language...very undesirable

That is very much a YMMV sort of thing. A lot of people actually like the Ruby syntax because they find the greater flexibility and ability to define pseudo-DSLs to be pleasant.