I almost forgot about these guys. So a quick pair of stories just to let you all know what’s happening in Iraq’s nutty neighbor. Apparently they’ve started on those centrifuges they shouldn’t have.

Iran has set up two cascades of 164 centrifuges each in its underground nuclear plant, laying a basis for full-scale enrichment of uranium and upping the stakes in a standoff with the West, European diplomats said on Monday.

The cascades were to be vacuum-tested shortly, without uranium feedstock inside, and fuel material would then be added if the trial runs were successful, they said.

The 328 centrifuges would be the vanguard of 3,000 planned for installation in the coming months.

Now, in all seriousness, this could be more than a little problematic. Naturally, Iran is still insisting that it’s all for civilian atomic power, but when you’re repeatedly stepping over the line and antagonizing the world at large, it does not help your case that you mean it peacefully. Tough to insist that you mean something in peace when you’re on the offensive.

I don’t like to call people crazy, though. I find it’s unfair and it’s used nearly always as an insult rather than a descriptor. So imagine my pain and torment at trying to think up an adjective to describe Iran now that they’re claiming they have a cure for AIDS, and… it’s herbal.

Along with the claim of nuclear “rights,” Ahmadinejad was set to tout a purported “herbal” cure for AIDS, the news agency Fars reported.

“The drug named ‘IMOD’ is completely effective and safe with no proven side effects,” Iran’s Minister of Health Kamran Bagheri Lankarani said.

The report could not be verified.

Well no shit it couldn’t. I’m hoping that it turns out it’s something incredibly asinine, like a plant they just had lying around that supposedly cures AIDS just by putting it in a tea. The less scientific their “discovery” is, the happier I’ll be. Simply for comedy’s sake.

Don’t get me wrong, a cure for AIDS would be great, but this is just absurd.