THEMIS launch

Successful launch today of a NASA mission to study the northern lights using 5 identical satellites. There's a neat video of the launch on board a Delta III rocket over at nasa.gov. I think the best part is at 1:15 and 2:28 where 5 and 3 solid rocket boosters are jettisoned, respectively; by way of comparison, a typical Shuttle flight uses only 2 SRBs, so that many being shed at one time is quite a show.

Iran: match your Quds Force fanatic and raise you one MEK lunatic?

Something I find interesting is reports of a series of bombings in Iran in recent days. I don't understand much about the "Jondallah group" which claimed responsibility, but I do wonder if this is a sign that the U.S. has decided to start using the Mojahedin e-Khalq against the mullahs. That's a risky strategy - the MEK is pretty universally disliked across Iran (think ETA in Spain) and their ideology is pretty violent and twisted in and of itself. However, if the Coalition has concluded that Iran has set Quds Force operatives into Iraq to attack our troops, freeing the MEK from their confinement camps across the border into Iran could be construed as a proportional response by the Powers That Be in the Pentagon.