It's that time again. Every so often, life on our planet just seems so bleak there's nowhere to look but out. That was certainly the case this past week. Not only did the usual whack-a-mole wars keep flaring and simmering, even good things had their dark sides. Here in Japan, the welcome birth of a prince sidelined a proposal that might have helped bring women a step closer to full equality.

In Australia, mass mourning for a popular wildlife conservationist, killed earlier this month by a stingray, turned ghastly when multiple stingrays were found slain and mutilated on beaches. Let's face it, people can be depressing. There's nothing for it but to ignore earthly affairs for a bit and check back with Spirit and Opportunity, out there in space.

For those who've forgotten, Spirit and Opportunity are the little unmanned exploration vehicles that NASA launched in the summer of 2003 -- the year a U.S.-led coalition launched a shock-and-awe mission in Iraq -- for what was expected to be a similarly brief sojourn on Mars.