Holy Molly,
I have been discovering Python, IPython, Jython, IronPython, Numpy, Scipy over the past few weeks and I have to say that I am now infatuated with both Python and scientific computing (mainly python though, not smart enough yet for scientific computing). So why do I love Python? Well, because of it's simplicity, documentation, and interactive mode. Python uses simple rules (it seems) and it shows that many things are possible with simple abstractions. That's it, I'm not going to go much into it, but check it out for yourself, if you want to program for fun while using a serious language, Python or Jython, or IronPython is the one(s). Enjoy.