Open mike 19/09/2024

Written By: - Date published: 6:00 am, September 19th, 2024 - 61 comments
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61 comments on “Open mike 19/09/2024 ”

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  1. Ngungukai 1
    19 September 2024 at 6:41 am

    NZ headed for a Triple Dip Recession – well this is what happens when you give massive Tax Cuts to the Wealthy and the Average Joe gets F**k All, I work in the retail fresh fruit and vegetable trade and your Average Joe does not have any surplus cash to put fresh fruit and vegetables on the table after they have paid the rent. Re Tax Cuts I get an extra $15.00 per week on a salary of $50k, not enough to put much extra fruit and vegetables on the table. Meanwhile our PM Christopher Luxton gets an additional $18k per annum, equivalent to $346.00 per week if I am correct. It ain't Rocket Science why we have poverty in NZ and the lower socio-economic groups are struggling. This poverty is also a factor driving Crime here in NZ, however most of the Poly's here in NZ have their heads in the sand like Ostrich's.

    • tWig 1.1
      19 September 2024 at 10:26 am

      Not only $18K extra, but he can continue to take off mortgage interest payments of any investment properties he owns off his tax. With a property investment portfolio of $7mi, that's quite a bit of moolah.

    • Koromeke 1.2
      19 September 2024 at 9:51 pm

      Speaking of "when you give massive Tax Cuts to the Wealthy", the gummint saw fit to give "charity" status to billion dollar corporations, which means they don't pay a cent in tax. Two of these corporations are Ngai Tahu and Tainui. We also see these corporations extorting other business that need to re-apply for resource consent and have to pay the Taniwha tens of millions to billions of dollars for the privilege. Guess who ultimately pays for these excesses? Those that can least afford it as the costs are passed on, not absorbed by the business being extorted.

  2. Jenny 2
    19 September 2024 at 6:50 am

    9 dead, hundreds wounded after another wave of device explosions in Lebanon

    Israel's defence minister declares 'a new phase in the war'

    The Associated Press · Posted: Sep 18, 2024 11:13 AM EDT | Last Updated: 14 minutes ago

    Walkie-talkies and solar equipment exploded in Beirut and multiple parts of Lebanon on Wednesday in an apparent second wave of attacks targeting electronic devices,……

    https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/lebanon-attacks-pagers-radios-1.7326750#

    Solar powered devices?

    When even the solar powered light in our garden could be a weapon, should we be worried?

    How big a threat to us are our battery powered devices?

    Can my laptop be hacked to make the lithium battery overheat, and burn my house down?

    In a war between China and the US will our devices be on the front line?

    Is anyone in the media investigating this problem?

    If Hezbollah or Hamas had launched these attacks every resource available to our society would be invested in giving us the answer.

    Afterall we already know how dangerous these devices can be, even with out evil intent.

    With unintended spontaneous cockpit fires and E bike explosions.

    Lithium battery fires in aircraft

    http://www.lithiumsafe.com › lithium-battery-fires-in-air…

    There is a growing number of lithium battery fires on aircraft. These incidents range from localized and limited fires to large, uncontrollable in-flight fires…..

    Is this how World War III will start?

  3. Tiger Mountain 3
    19 September 2024 at 7:44 am

    Thanks to the Israeli Butchers exploding pagers and two way radios, a huge issue has appeared for the tech and device industry and by obvious implication for users and the authorities.

    International supply lines are involved in the production of devices, lines that can now be seen able to be breached for nefarious purposes. Will air carriers get the shakes about mobiles on board? Will any number of businesses look sideways at mobiles on their premises…will mobile users (say Palestine solidarity supporters) themselves become wary…

    • mpledger 3.1
      19 September 2024 at 10:14 am

      After todays attacks it doesn't seem like it's sabotage of equipment. It's just too many different types of devices – it's just seems like too wide-ranging a supply line to infiltrate.

      • lprent 3.1.1
        19 September 2024 at 12:25 pm

        In my opinion, it is most likely that they have changed some firmware code controlling battery controllers.

        Battery controllers for rechargeable batteries are finicky things, pretty complex code lumps of code to control charging, discharging, and temperature responses. It isn’t that hard to remove safeguards if you read the programming manuals. The last manual I read on a battery controller for Lithium ion batteries was about 200 pages of dense settings.

        I have blown up one Lithium ion batteries by accident during charging when I have been writing settings for a battery controller.

        I don’t imagine that it is that hard to force a fast discharge causing a high temperatures. Probably targeting one of the families of battery controllers firmware. And modern batteries have extremely high energy densities.

        All that would be required is to write code to talk to a controller, get it installed in a pager over the radio as a update, auto-install it, and then provide a online trigger to initiate it.

        • joe90 3.1.1.1
          19 September 2024 at 1:01 pm

          In my opinion, it is most likely that they have changed some firmware code controlling battery controllers.

          Odds that the culprits inserted modified batteries into the supply chain?

          What do we know about Wednesday’s walkie-talkie explosions?

          The walkie-talkies that exploded had new batteries that had arrived in a recent shipment and had been distributed to a narrower range of Hezbollah members than the pagers, people familiar with the matter said. Hezbollah members said some of the explosions on Wednesday were stronger than those in the pager attack. Lebanon’s health ministry said nine people were killed and more than 300 were wounded in Wednesday’s explosions.

          https://archive.li/TMLv6 (wsj)

          • joe90 3.1.1.1.1
            19 September 2024 at 5:37 pm

            This would make any and every device a potential bomb.

            .

            B.A.C. did take on ordinary clients, for which it produced a range of ordinary pagers. But the only client that really mattered was Hezbollah, and its pagers were far from ordinary. Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

            https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/18/world/middleeast/israel-exploding-pagers-hezbollah.html?unlocked_article_code=1.L04.QuJ0.eV6zIo_wjZrR&smid=url-share

            • lprent 3.1.1.1.1.1
              19 September 2024 at 11:36 pm

              Produced separately, they contained batteries laced with the explosive PETN, according to the three intelligence officers.

              Urrgh. The worst possible case. Explode and that will thermally overload the battery which would also burn of explode. I'd guess that they would trigger through a signal from the radio device passed to the battery controller. You'd just have to hook up one of the many extra lines to the controller.

              The batteries are also hermetically sealed against leakage from the battery cells. So you wouldn't get a explosive smell trace. The seal is also designed to expand because that is what lithium batteries do as they deteriorate – that would help to make the explosion more violent from containment.

              • joe90 …
                20 September 2024 at 1:53 pm

                Urrgh. The worst possible case.

                And with little strategic purpose…

                .

                “This might well be the first and frightening glimpse of a world in which ultimately no electronic device, from our cellphones to thermostats, can ever be fully trusted,” Glenn Gerstell, the general counsel of the National Security Agency for five critical years as the cyberwars heated up, said on Wednesday.

                “We’ve already seen Russia and North Korea unleash cyberweapons over which they had no control, which indiscriminately damaged random computers around the globe,” he said. “Could other personal and household devices be next?”

                If Mr. Gerstell is right, it raises the question of whether these attacks, widely attributed to Israel’s intelligence services, were worth the price in our shared sense of vulnerability. The explosions had little strategic purpose. As one Western diplomat with long experience dealing with the Middle East said, they were hardly about to force Hezbollah’s leaders to give up a cause they have battled over for four decades.

                https://archive.li/bqFSN#selection-983.0-1001.423 (nyt)

        • Mountain Tui 3.1.1.2
          19 September 2024 at 2:31 pm

          My brain kind of switches off as soon as I read a manual but I do like how people have skills like this. Not for what happened here, but it's interesting.

          War is just very sad all round and unbearable in many regards. We are the 1% when compared to so many countries and I wish we spent more time appreciating it – rather than being gaslit into poverty and culture wars by some in power.

    • Mike the Lefty 3.2
      19 September 2024 at 10:17 am

      If I were in Lebanon I wouldn't want to be carrying around a cellphone in my pocket right now or getting near a television or computer.

      I feel that the Israelis have something else planned and I'm sure it won't be pleasant.

      But it does raise the question: what else can be tampered with to cause injury and destruction? and what if Putin and Kim Jung Un got hold of the means to do this?

      • tsmithfield 3.2.1
        19 September 2024 at 10:45 am

        I am sure it is a preemptive strike, either to disrupt Hazbollah plans if they were about to do something, or to prepare for an Israeli invasion, as Ad points out below.

        Either way, looking beyond the nastiness of it, it is a very effective strategy in either scenario.

  4. Jenny 4
    19 September 2024 at 8:28 am

    Tiger Mountain @3

    19 September 2024 at 7:44 am

    …..International supply lines are involved in the production of devices, lines that can now be seen able to be breached for nefarious purposes….

    Will there be any international investigation into how and where these supply lines were breached?

    Will any effort be made to identify the operatives who carried out this so called "sensitive operation"?

    Will anyone be held accountable?

    Like so many other Zionist atrocities before it, will Israel's impunity see this latest atrocity being deliberately and systematically swept under the carpet?

    Will the news cycle move on?|

    Despite the dire implications of this new form of warfare will this shocking event go uninvestigated?

    Where were, and how were, the supply line breaches made?

    Is it possible for Russia to call on its Chinese ally to help it launch a similar attack against Ukraine?

    Production of mobile phones China 2012-2022

    Statista

    https://www.statista.com › … › Telecommunications

    15 Nov 2023 — In 2022, the production volume of mobile phones in China amounted to almost 1.6 billion units. China was the largest smartphone producer worldwide.

  5. Tiger Mountain 5
    19 September 2024 at 8:32 am

    Well, American top security people are very tight lipped at the moment as to implicating Israel, I’m just following media channel reports so far, but it appears a batch of Taiwanese pagers were sent to a possibly bogus Hungarian company set up by Mossad to do the explosive installs.

    Will anyone be held accountable–yes, but not the Israeli butchers!

    • joe90 5.1
      19 September 2024 at 8:48 am

      I'm reading it as a an Israeli controlled front did the deal to supply devices manufactured and sold by a Hungarian company called BAC Consulting, which had a license to use the Taiwanese brand on the pagers.

        • Tiger Mountain 5.1.1.1
          19 September 2024 at 10:46 am

          Thanks for the informative link Matiri.

        • Anne 5.1.1.2
          19 September 2024 at 11:47 am

          To add to the mystery here's another story from a former Israeli operative with the 'secret Israeli weapons division’ describing the preparation:

          “… we know that those pagers came out of a factory in Hungary, but it might be that those pagers left the factory in their original condition. But then maybe the customs diverted it, a delay for a couple of days because of customs issues, and then the [operations team] took care of [inserting the booby trapped devices]. It might be that the European company is an innocent company”.”

          https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350421367/secrets-mossads-fearsome-reputation-revealed-ex-israeli-intelligence-officers

          Fascinating article.

          • Jenny 5.1.1.2.1
            19 September 2024 at 3:38 pm

            Anne @5.1.1.2

            19 September 2024 at 11:47 am

            To add to the mystery here's another story from a former Israeli operative…..

            “… we know that those pagers came out of a factory in Hungary, but it might be that those pagers left the factory in their original condition. But then maybe the customs diverted it,….”

            Fascinating article.

            Fascinating?

            Sounds, a little more like misdirection to me.

            If this wasn't a misdirection, which country's customs service is this anonymous spook alluding to?

            Hungary? Lebanon?

            Were the customs officers allegedly involved, bribed or coerced by Mosad, and no other customs employees in their dempartment noticed?
            The other alternative, the customs officers were ordered to divert these pagers by their government employer?
            And nobody in the government bureaucracy's chain of command, who may have been a little bit uncomfortable at this order, got wind of this operation and leaked it?

            Really?
            Smells like bullshit to me.
            Just a little too convenient, and a way bit far fetched.

            We have one name: Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono

            From the link supplied by Matiri:

            "….the single owner of BAC is named as Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono. The company's most recent annual accounts, signed in May of this year, record a balance sheet of slightly more than $320."

            $320?

            Fancy that. A not for profit electronics company that only makes pagers.

            Can we expect that a certain 'Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono', is being sought by interpol for questioning, with her description at every airport?

            Probably not.

            Israel's impunity makes sure that Western authorities including police and security forces will look the other way.

            • Jenny 5.1.1.2.1.1
              19 September 2024 at 4:23 pm

              Who is Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono?

              An A4 sheet on a glass door, sounds the definition of a front company.

              British-educated businesswoman Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono

              British-educated businesswoman Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono (Facebook)

              From the Independent 12 hours ago:

              British-educated businesswoman denies making Hezbollah explosive pagers which killed at least 12 people

              Alexander Butler 12 hours ago

              …..her company’s website – which went offline on Wednesday morning – her work was described as “bridging technology and innovation from Asia”. The firm’s address was registered to a residential-looking two-storey building in Budapest, with its name posted on the glass door on an A4 sheet.

              https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/hezbollah-pagers-explosions-bac-consulting-israel-hungary-b2615049.html

            • Anne 5.1.1.2.1.2
              19 September 2024 at 4:35 pm

              I consider that a handful of ex Mossad and related agency officers know a damn sight more than you or I how Mossad operates. That was the intent of the item I linked to. Nothing more nor less.

              You on the other hand have chosen to interpret it as a pro-Mossad piece rather than an educative and factual piece of writing which was both informative and revealing.

              • Jenny …
                19 September 2024 at 7:06 pm

                "……a handful of ex Mossad and related agency officers know a damn sight more than you or I how Mossad operates…." Anne

                I am sure they do. I am also pretty sure that they are very unlikely to tell us.how they operate.

                "You on the other hand have chosen to interpret it as a pro-Mossad piece" Anne

                No, I just think that their version is unlikely, And I said why.
                I think it is unlikely that Customs officers were bribed or coerced to divert a shipment of pagers without it being noticed by someone else. Even more so, if they were ordered to do so by their superiors.

                I might add that more and more and evidence is leading back to BAC, rather than border Customs of some unamed country.

                However, I would be interested to look at anythiing Mossad comes up with, that they wan to to add, to back up their vierson, that it was Customs.

                Which Customs? Of which Country? would be a good start.

                • Jenny …
                  20 September 2024 at 7:22 am

                  Who is Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono?

                  Few Great accomplishments are achieved singlehandedly. Most have their Tenzing Norgay.

                  And how do you spot a Norgay? You start with the people with the funny names.

                  • Jenny …
                    21 September 2024 at 9:10 am

                    ‘
                    Calling Heinz, the Baron Krauss von Espy/Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono

                    ‘

                    • Jenny …
                      21 September 2024 at 7:57 pm

                      But all jokes aside, under international law, boobytrapping civilian devices is a war crime.

                      The ICC prosecutor Karim Khan may yet be adding another name to his list of alleged war criminals that he has applied to the ICC for arrest warrants for.

                      AP — The woman whose company was linked to thousands of pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria this week is under the protection of the Hungarian secret services, her mother told The Associated Press on Friday.

                      https://www.timesofisrael.com/ceo-of-company-linked-to-hezbollah-pagers-being-guarded-by-hungarian-secret-services/

                      Lebanon is a not a signatory to the Rome Statute, but Hungary is.

                      Presumably if an arrest warrant for Cristiana Bársony-Arcidiacono is issued, the Hungarian secret service would have to hand her over to the Hague for trial.

                      So will the weird individual with the Hollywood film star looks, and the double barralled surname, and the padded CV, ever see the inside of a court room?

                      “Our country takes the case very seriously,” said the prosecutors office from Taipei’s Shilin district in a statement Friday.

                      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/20/hezbollah-pager-explosion-gold-apollo-hsu-chingkuang-taiwan

                      While the Taiwanese authorities may be taking this act of terrorism seriously, the authorities of the Western powers, not so much.

                      The ICC while swift to act to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, like a rabbit caught in the headlights of an approaching freight train load of Western disaproval to any challenge to Israel's impunity, the ICC have become paralysed. A paralysis from which they may never salvage enough credibility to ever issue an arrest warrant against anyone ever again, not even Yahya Sinwar.

  6. koina 6
    19 September 2024 at 8:35 am

    The next 9/11 is coming.

    Its not a matter of if.

    Its just a matter of when.

    • Ad 6.1
      19 September 2024 at 9:46 am

      … 23 years and counting.

      Maybe the anti-terror security architecture we all rely on is working.

      • koina 6.1.1
        19 September 2024 at 11:01 am

        23 years?

        Hitler festered about the Jews from 1915 and took action 25 years later in 1940.

        There are now millions of Muslim Hitlers out there planning revenge.

        The Jews became the most hated people in the world before the Nazis

        with the support of all Western European Christian lowered the boom.

        6 million Jews were not so smart between 1940 and 1944.

        The Jews are on the way to becoming the most hated people in the world again.

        Its gonna be 1940-1944 deja Jew all over again."

        6 Muslims with two knives brought down the entire USA defence system. at 9/11.

        Who will protects the millions of USA travellers when they are over seas?

        In the last month a couple of old blokes have beaten the USA security system

        just abut knocking out Trump.

        Another big one is coming.

        Will be great viewing

        • Tiger Mountain 6.1.1.1
          19 September 2024 at 11:13 am

          You are on thin ice with that kind of comment…

        • PsyclingLeft.Always 6.1.1.2
          19 September 2024 at 12:55 pm

          Hitler festered about the Jews from 1915 and took action 25 years later in 1940.

          There are now millions of Muslim Hitlers out there planning revenge.

          6 million Jews were not so smart between 1940 and 1944.

          Its gonna be 1940-1944 deja Jew all over again."

          Another big one is coming.

          Will be great viewing

          Oh really? What hateful things to say. No place for nazi fans here !

        • Ad 6.1.1.3
          19 September 2024 at 1:09 pm

          Disgusting comment

        • hetzer 6.1.1.4
          19 September 2024 at 3:53 pm

          Koina, plenty of vids on youtube on Treblinka, Auschwitz, Ravensbruck etc for your "great viewing" . Your post is abhorrent.

    • SPC 6.2
      19 September 2024 at 7:12 pm

      Is that it … is it a curious bird … more questions than answers …

      https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=koina+meaning+maori

      9/11 was to provoke the PNAC to action, because they needed regime change to create the vacuum for Islamic State (but Iran backed Shia rule Iraq and Syria now – what a defeat for both al Qaeda and PNAC).

      Today the divide is between those who want Israeli permanent rule of the WB and defeat of Israel. Will both lose, if there is a two state peace?

  7. Jimmy 7
    19 September 2024 at 9:11 am

    Some good news for Aucklanders with an electricity account, the Entrust dividend of $350 is being paid over the next few days. If you receive it by direct credit, it may be in your bank a/c now. Some people have it credited to their electricity a/c.

    Entrust dividend: Who’s in line for the $350 payout – NZ Herald

    • Visubversa 7.1
      19 September 2024 at 9:37 am

      We also note that the Entrust Election is always held at the same time the dividend is paid out.

      • Ad 7.1.1
        19 September 2024 at 1:08 pm

        An Entrust I want would use the dividend to buy back the 25% of shares in the NZ sharemarket …

        … then hand the while thing as a CCO to Auckland Council. And ACC rates would go down.

        • Visubversa 7.1.1.1
          19 September 2024 at 5:29 pm

          I want them to spend more $$$ undergrounding power lines instead of carving out big "V for Vector" cuts in the middle of the street trees to maintain the required clearances for the power lines. It is a tragedy that they did not piggyback off the other works being done on Hendon Ave with the new housing developments there. The street trees are great and an important part of the streetscape.

    • tc 7.2
      19 September 2024 at 1:21 pm

      Pity about the network having $12m foregone infrastructure investment for ticket clippers who do absolutely zero toward the security of electricity supply get reelected.

  8. tsmithfield 8
    19 September 2024 at 9:37 am

    It looks to me that the exploding communication devices amongst Hezbollah operatives is a preemptive strike.

    From what I have read, Hezbollah received the pagers about five months ago. Perhaps the Israelis set this up so they could disrupt Hezbollah's plans if they were about to do something major.

    This type of action is within the Israeli MO. For example in the Six Day War the Israelis undertook a preemptive strike against the Egyption air force and took out most of their planes befoe they even got off the ground.

    • Ad 8.1
      19 September 2024 at 9:49 am

      You don't make the move of blinding your enemy unless you're preparing for war.

      Israel's 98th Division is now on the border, and is believed to include thousands of troops, including paratrooper infantry units and artillery and elite commando forces specially trained for operations behind enemy lines.

      7 October will be the 1-year anniversary. Under 3 weeks from now.

      • joe90 8.1.1
        19 September 2024 at 10:55 am

        Blinding the enemy in the middle of the fight would be an ace up the sleeve, too.

        Israel decided to blow up the pager devices carried by Hezbollah members in Lebanon and Syria on Tuesday out of concern its secret operation might have been discovered by the group, three U.S. officials told Axios.

        https://www.axios.com/2024/09/18/hezbollah-pager-explosions-israel-suspicions

        • SPC 8.1.1.1
          19 September 2024 at 6:34 pm

          The USA does not want Israel to start a war. And Hezbollah knows starting one when Lebanese hospitals are over-run would place its forces at risk.

      • Jenny 8.1.2
        20 September 2024 at 1:13 pm

        Ad @8.1

        19 September 2024 at 9:49 am

        You don't make the move of blinding your enemy unless you're preparing for war…..

        I intend to agree, this has all the hallmarks of a classic, 'softening up operation'

        …..the process of preparing a target for an attack by weakening its defenses or capabilities before the main assault occurs. This can involve various tactics, such as:

        1. Artillery Bombardment: Using artillery or air strikes to destroy or damage enemy positions, equipment, or fortifications.
        2. Psychological Operations: Conducting operations aimed at demoralizing the enemy or creating confusion.
        3. Surveillance and Reconnaissance: Gathering intelligence to identify vulnerabilities in the target's defenses.
        4. Electronic Warfare: Disrupting enemy communications.

          https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-meaning-of-softening-up-of-target-in-military-parlance

        This attack seems to have combined all four of these various softening up tactics.

        Step #1. May not have exactly been an artillery attack, sometimes it's not. But it did involve explosives.

        In WW1 and the American Civil War, tunnels were sometimes secretly dug under enemy lines and packed with explosives, That were detonated to soften up a target just before the main assault. This attack is not too disimilar. differing only in not lieterally being an underground operation.

        Steps, 2, 3, and 4 are selfe explanatory, and were all achieved by this one assualt.

    • SPC 8.2
      19 September 2024 at 6:06 pm

      The Israelis got intell a year before the Oct 7 attack. Those above said it was too ambitious for Hamas to realise. 6 months before they got intell of Hamas training for the attack. Again it was dismissed.

      The biggest intelligence and IDF failure in their history.

      The attack came 50 years after 1973 (Yom Kippur war – they knew an attack was coming – but the Americans said if they acted first they would not be supplied with arms).

      An attack 50 years later fits the black September timing of attacks at "harvest time" because of the nature of the Jewish calendar (Sept/Oct harvest month – and there is historic significance to Oct 7 as well, in 2023 the first sabbath day after sukkoth – ending on the Friday Oct 6).

      For mine, this is a pre-empting of any Hezbollah attack on Oct 7 2024, or Sukkoth later in the month.

      Bravado 101, a warning that any war will involve stuff Iran has not warned them about. Iran itself, not being a safe place for pro Hamas Arabs to visit.

      As our local fan of all things Rainbow (Dec 2016 UNSC decision hate speech against McCully) puts it.

      Hezbollah is recognised as a terrorist entity by over 60 countries including the EU, UK, US, the Arab League, and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/

      They get tech to spy on their citizens.

      People sometimes forget that many Arabs (and Turks) see Iran as having a hegemon ambition, exploiting Israel to pose as leader of the Moslem world. The Arab League (and Turkey) position is now a two state outcome, Iran is the outlier.

  9. Adrian 9
    19 September 2024 at 12:17 pm

    There got to be more than what matches the eye here. Hamas have apparently had them for 5 months but it stretches the imagination that no one has changed a battery or tried to fix one and gone ‘ hang on, what’s this ‘ , 5 months and thousands of devices.. makes no sense. Also the sabotaging of household battery walls is just shitfuckery of the highest order.

    • lprent 9.1
      19 September 2024 at 12:41 pm

      …but it stretches the imagination that no one has changed a battery or tried to fix one and gone ‘ hang on, what’s this ‘ , 5 months and thousands of devices.. makes no sense.

      It was probably code that sets the settings on the battery controller chip (or any power controller chip). Those things come in families and they get used in a wide variety of devices. Almost every device that stores and releases power uses controller chips or boards to make sure that the power in charged or discharged at a safe rate and that their energy store doesn’t overheat.

      In lithium-ion type batteries, every one that you plug into a device has a battery controller of a particular type or type family inside the battery casing. It carries the settings allowing safe charging, discharging, and temperatures. You can typically reprogram those settings from code in the device itself.

      It is usual to update code on most remote devices via comms. I’ve written a lot of code using internet, wifi, bluetooth, satellite, radio, ethernet, usb, jtag and just straight serial to update devices. Pretty hard to find a nasty even if you actually have the source code and compile it yourself. That is why remote updates or installation need a secure review / build / supply chain.

      • Jenny 9.1.1
        20 September 2024 at 11:51 am

        The internet is full of videos of lithium batteries bursting into fire, (which may be what gave Mossad the idea) Many of these fires have been caused by incorrect charging. ie using a different brand charger for a different brand battery. Proving the point that incorect charging parameters that could possibly be altered remotely, could cause communication devices with these batteries to catch fire.
        But Mossad may have wanted more.
        Rather than just catching fire, BBC footage shows percussive explosions. Which lends credence to the speculation that a small amount of high explosive had been inserted into these devices.

        https://www.bbc.com/news/videos/cdenk2721p8o

        • Jenny 9.1.1.1
          20 September 2024 at 12:18 pm

          Adding more weight to the theory that explosives were inserted in these devices.

          From AP, despite quoting an anonymous source, to make this report. AP are considered an authoritive journal of record AP. So I give it some weight. But make of it what you will. Personally I don’t think the journos whose names I have left in, are trying to mislead us. Like most journalists I know they are trying to do a good job to the best of their ability. Often under trying circumstances. Often they can’t reveal the identity of their sources.
          (Generally, whenever I post a link, I try to mak a point to include the names of real people authors, and journos, I do this because I don't believe the conspiracy theorists that all journalists working in the Mainstream Media are corruptted liars.)

          By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS, MICHAEL BIESECKER, SARAH EL DEEB and SARAH PARVINI

          Updated 5:08 AM GMT+12, September 20, 2024

          NEW YORK (AP) — Just one day after pagers used by hundreds of members of the militant group Hezbollah exploded, more electronic devices detonated in Lebanon Wednesday in what appeared to be a second wave of sophisticated, deadly attacks that targeted an extraordinary number of people….

          …..An American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Israel briefed the U.S. on the operation — where small amounts of explosives hidden in the pagers were detonated.

          https://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-hezbollah-pager-explosion-e9493409a0648b846fdcadffdb02d71e

      • Jenny 9.1.2
        21 September 2024 at 7:02 am

        Can we expect a blanket ban on all electronic devices being taken on to planes?

        The current CAA rules:

        • You can take a maximum of 15 portable electronic devices with you. If you want to carry more you must get approval from your airline.
        • It's okay to use your laptop, tablet or cellphone onboard, but please follow onboard crew instructions on when you can cannot use these devices.
        • The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 cellphone are prohibited as there have been occasions where they have spontaneously burst into flame causing significant burn injuries.
        • Earbuds charging pod [case] are a type of power bank they can go in your carry-on bag but must not go in check-in luggage under any circumstances.

        https://www.aviation.govt.nz/passenger-information/what-can-i-bring/show/cellphones-laptops-and-other-electronic-devices

        • Jenny 9.1.2.1
          21 September 2024 at 7:37 am

          Unitended Consequences

          After 9/11 when box cutters were used to hijack planes and bring down the Twin Towers, you weren't even allowed to take nail clippers with you on to a plane,

          https://www.quora.com/Why-are-nail-clippers-not-allowed-on-planes#:~:text=Although%20nail%20clippers%20are%20not,and%20prevent%20any%20potential%20threats.

          When every portable device is now a potential bomb, will we see the same sort of blanket ban?

          1 day ago — Qatar Airways said the PETN bomb "could not be detected by x-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs".

          ….I have several cell phones, tablets, walkie talkies, laptops, and more, which recent events have me wondering about the safety of.

          Is there a way I can determine if someone in the supply chain has tampered with them such that they can be remotely detonated?

          In the recent pager detonations I believe it was determined that Pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) was inside the pagers. I haven't heard the same about walkie talkies, but I'm cautiously assuming the mechanism was similar

          According to that wikipedia page on PETN[1]:

          Both parcels in the 2010 cargo plane bomb plot were x-rayed without the bombs being spotted. Qatar Airways said the PETN bomb "could not be detected by x-ray screening or trained sniffer dogs". The Bundeskriminalamt received copies of the Dubai x-rays, and an investigator said German staff would not have identified the bomb either. New airport security procedures followed in the U.S., largely to protect against PETN.

          If these are undetectable by dogs, is there any method to detect explosive chemicals, such as detection strips, that are available to consumers?

          [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentaerythritol_tetranitrate

        • joe90 9.1.2.2
          21 September 2024 at 9:50 am

          Can we expect a blanket ban on all electronic devices being taken on to planes?

          Probably.

          .

          Beirut airport and some Middle East airlines have banned passengers from carrying certain electronic devices following the shock attacks on electronic devices in Lebanon which left 32 dead and thousands badly injured.

          Lebanon's aviation authority said on Thursday that all passengers would be barred from carrying walkie-talkies and pagers on flights from Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport.

          https://www.newarab.com/news/mena-airlines-ban-walkie-talkies-pagers-after-lebanon-blasts

    • David 9.2
      19 September 2024 at 2:56 pm

      It’s certainly a massive security breach for Hezbullah and Hamas, I could imagine a handful of devices being swapped for ones with the explosive device, but numbers are in the thousands. Now today we are hearing about other communications devices exploding.

      If Israel were to invade southern Lebanon, It would make sense for the Israelis to control the pagers and communication equipment remotely, while intercepting messages and feeding misinformation, not destroying them.

      This is something different, it may be part of an internal civil war within Hezbollah and other Palestinian organisations. There will be other regional players involved, not including the US, China, Russia or the UK.

  10. Stephen D 10
    19 September 2024 at 1:34 pm

    We all know that the US backs Israel, and takes the flak accordingly.
    So how is it that Iran gets a free pass. They’re the ones supporting, and arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. With Iran’s avowed intent to wipe Israel off the face of the map, is it surprising that Israel takes the fight to their proxies?

  11. gsays 11
    19 September 2024 at 2:37 pm

    "We all know that the US backs Israel, and takes the flak accordingly."

    What does that "flak" look like.

    I venture the US gets off scot free.

  12. Hunter Thompson II 12
    19 September 2024 at 5:58 pm

    We are told Auckland real estate values are now at 4 year low, falling below $1 million.

    No worries for real estate agents though, cos of the way their commission structure operates.

  13. Jenny 13
    21 September 2024 at 8:47 am

    It appears that a third wave of exploding electronic devices is unfolding in Lebanon.

    Not just portable devices, but any internet connected device can be laced with undetectable PETN and remotely detonated.

    Apparently some Lebanese retailers have been buying electronic goods including solar panels from Israel because they are cheaper.

    Lebanon’s official news agency confirms solar energy systems exploded in Beirut

    The video appears to show the front of a cell phone retail shop blown out.

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