North Korea is an isolated place, with unreliable and outdated information. Anytime the world hears something from Korea, we're never quite sure what the story is.

Are they running out of food; has there been a coup; did they just start the next world war, or are they finally coming around and being nice?

This week North Korea had a major explosion. The last explosion-explanation didn't add up. Neither does this one.

Read here why the "we're making a dam" explanation doesn't add up.

Gasoline fire during NoDong missile refueling.

One of the interesting challenges the North Koreans have is to explain away a problem. Lately, they've invited inspectors to the explosion site. Small problem. The detected location of the explosion does not match where they visited.

That's right! The rumblings were in one location, but the idiots drooled in another.

Also, the north Koreans have attempted to explain away the "measured earthquakes" as related to gunpowder. Small problem. The totals are not consistent with the measured Richter scale readings.

Brilliant. This note explains why the North Koreans explanation doesn't work, and why the amount of tonnage reported to be used doesn't make sense.

OK. The analysis is done. The votes are in.

Here's your chance to compare the above analysis with the TIME version.

Given "TIME" is a system, how would we assess Time magazine's coverage of the i ncident; and would you rely on TIME to do some thorough checking?

After what I've looked at, and comparing "my view" with the TIME-version, I'm inclined to think many in the media really don't do all the much digging, but parrot whatever version sounds easiest to explain. Kind of like government. So much for checks and balances.

Surprise!