Another thing:
Just a thought about the Iran earthquake: the casualty counts started out high (10,000), then went down (4,000 to 5,000); now they're talking about 20,000 people dead! This is puzzling, after seeing this page on the city of Bam. According to this, the city was mostly abandoned, so where did all those people come from? I guess a new city must have built itself up around the outskirts. And seeing pictures of the ancient buildings, it would be no wonder if it all fell down. Beautiful but very fragile looking.

More good links on the Iran situation from Iranian Truth blog. This site says 80,000 people lived in Bam. (via Jeff Jarvis.)

More on this and lots more topics on the other blog.