Has the Next Solar Cycle Begun?

Woo, Hoo! The folks in the Solar Physics community are all buzzing this week (and so are the hams!) about the activity on the Sun this week. On December 11th a region appeared on the sun that is high in latitude and has "reversed" magnetic polarity. These two conditions (of a sunspot) are what signals the beginning of a new Solar Cycle. The only thing that is keeping the scientists from announcing that this is the beginning of Cycle 24 is that this is just a "region" that "may" turn into a sunspot. If it does, then we can all start to hope for better propagation sooner rather than later.