Careful, or someone will fetch the Comfy Chair!

I've always heard that failures teach you more about rocket science than successes do, however. Forcing them to learn on their own means they WILL learn, instead of just taking someone elses tech and using it (just like the scores of users that "use" computers but have no clue how they work).

Captain Kirk was able to do lots of things. That doesn't mean we want to do them too ...

Methinks you need to read more Douglas Adams ... ... but explaining the joke always seems to take the fun away.

Don't forget the flamboyant red (or shiny black) cape! A top hat should also help.

didn't read the stop sign fast enough?

You do realize what website this is, don't you?

So, if nobody looks it will never go nova? Hmm ... now we just need to find a way to make sure nobody ever observes it so we can "save the earth" ... ;)

... correct.

How is www.chosenwebsitename.com commonly held? If I choose to purchase and continue to lease this domain, why shouldn't I profit off of it?

There is a significant difference between "purchasing a domain and making a profit by having it" and "purchasing a domain in order to make a profit by selling it".

Actually, the definition I've always heard for hard-SF was:

Hard science fiction is a category of science fiction characterized by an emphasis on scientific or technical detail, or on scientific accuracy, or on both.

This definition does not restrict a story to one particular genre, however.

The only thing stopping any country from doing anything is the inevitable retaliation.

You're forgetting that sanity has to apply to that equation as well. Tinpot dictatorships don't have any of that and are more then willing to sacrifice their people as long as the glorious leadership and it's selected people survive.

But sanity in this case is the governments ability to make a reasonable guess at the results of any particular geopolitical action (e.g., I lob a missile over Japan, and Japan is going to be pissed; so, do I care?).

I'm sure it is a communications 'satellite'. Its job is probably to communicate rocket telemetry back to the North Korea rocket scientists, after all.

I was stationed in the ROK back in the mid '90s when North Koreans lobbed a missile over either Japan or Taiwan (can't remember which now), and a lot of people were worried it was actually the start of something. If they are lobbing the equivalent of ICBMs around now, regardless of the payload of that specific rocket, then I think it is only being intelligent and prepared to be wary of what North Korea is really working on.

I think I get 20 fps with my Mini 9 wigh GMA 945 and 1GB of mem. Of course, I had to reduce

Unless the sentence reads ...

"... and then the people will rise up and change the channel." :/