Anyone know why about half the entries on Blogdex today are Persian sites?

I don't speak persian (farsi?), but if you check the Blogdex sources (http://blogdex.media.mit.edu/browseSource.asp?url=http%3A//www.persianblog.com/&s=50&c=25) a HUGE number of links from other persian blogs. Judging from the pictures, I'd guess it was earthquake related. Another guess would be it was an Iranian gov't outrage being reported.

Earthquake makes sense.

That is seriously spooky, though...

Given the timing, it does seem likely that it's earthquake related. If there are 1000+ Persian blogs, as someone (I forget who) has said, and only a few of them are in the immediate area of the earthquake, it seems likely that all of the other ones are suddenly linking to them for on-the-spot reports.

It's also possible that Persian bloggers have just discovered 'Blogdex bombing' and are busily swapping links to raise their Blogdex ratings. This would be easy to do, since they could discuss it openly without non-Persian-speakers knowing what they're up to. On the other hand, do Persian blogs care how they rate on Blogdex? My second hypothesis seems less likely than the first, but still possible, which is why I mention it.

There was an article recently about Persian blogs on the BBC's website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2044000/2044802.stm

Apparently the Iranians have taken to the internet in a big way -- it's one of the few places they can express themselves freely, and apparently the mullahs are still clueless, or don't care, or aren't threatened by it, or something. One hopes that that state of affairs continues.

Near as I could tell by browsing around, it was earthquake related. (As someone previously mentioned). A lot of links on the blogs I hit had links to earthquake info sites as well as other Persian blogs talking about the earthquake.