Almost on the heels of the announcement of a test by North Korea, came confirmation of the test through seismic information reported by first South Korea, then the USGS.  

It was clear that something had happened.  It was undoubtedly an explosion -- the location was in an area that was not general active seismically, and the indications were that the depth was too shallow to be anything other than a blast.  However, almost from the start, it was equally clear that something was just not right.  There seemed to be a mismatch between what the North Korean government was reporting, and what instruments on the ground were showing.

After a day of reflection, it seems clear that what happened in North Korea was either a fake, or a failure.  Unfortunately for the world, that doesn't matter.