The thing with these studies is it doesn't take into consideration longer term adaption. A few months is nowhere near long enough to test this. Look at candy bars have gotten a lot smaller, but they added "Duo" and now a huge range of slabs of chocolate....I wonder why that might be....its because the public keep buying the much larger bars which are bigger than the standard bar before shrinkflation.
I bet longer term people will increasingly buy bottle of wine rather than the smaller "large" glass, just like they buy the Duo or slab of chocolate rather than the single Mars / Snickers etc bar.
The physiology trick might work in short term, but anybody who has been abroad where they often serve smaller glasses of beer and see British tourists, they don't just have one.
"Hundreds of Hezbollah fighters are wounded when their pagers explode Hezbollah said the incident is the largest intelligence breach in group's history"
“The shocking incident…”, starts the second paragraph of that article.
You might say so.
I'm interested in how that was done.
Were the pagers infiltrated with explosives somehow, or is there a sequence of whatever that can make a pager explode? That it was simultaneous suggests the former to me - probably.
For a comparison, when Stuxnet was used to wreck the Iranian uranium enrichment facility it caused the centrifuges to run in a way which burned them out.
I'd imagine there would be something you could do if you could override the firmware, to overload the batteries and burn them out that way.
I'd be very surprised if Mossad was going to the trouble of infiltrating Hezbollah to put tiny amounts of explosives into all their pagers.
That’s exactly how you’d do it, a firmware update that allows an overheat shutdown to be inhibited, followed by a software update that results in a whole load of exploding batteries.
Would the batteries explode, or would they just catch fire? I suppose it depends on whether they have a hard case.
I was assuming the supply chain had been infiltrated. If they all got a message first (as reported) I'd be surprised if you could make a battery explode that quickly. Be a bit mad to have no fuse, too.
Lithium batteries are self-sustaining in combustion, once they start to overheat the only thing you can do with them is put them in a bucket of water to cool them down.
Yes. I always charge lithium drone batteries in a metal case. But you get a fire if it goes wrong rather than an explosion.
If you put them in a hard case then the gas can cause it to fail in a more sudden manner but most times it would just result in a puffy case and eventually a hot pffft rather than an explosion.
I suspect these are 'special edition' pagers made to order...
The cases cast from a high end explosive?
With a software feature to go bang only when connected via a given number *and* sent a specific page?
They all seem to have exploded - not caught fire - at the same time. For maximum psych impact
If you’re in Tehran Damascus or Beirut, right now you cannot trust ANY technology
Awks
There are specific systems for sending out a mass page - that is, sending a page (or pages) to a whole list of pagers.
I wrote one for AT&T long ago, when the world was young.
Think - hospital calls all staff in a specified group to come to the hospital.
I'm quite amused by the technical illiteracy at the BBC - "something called an alphanumeric text message."
Give UK media a horse and cart, and they would wonder what this strange new fangled invention was they had been shown.
A former British Army munitions expert, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the devices could have been packed with between 10 to 20 grams each of military-grade high explosive, hidden inside a fake electronic component.
The interesting thing here is that she took it to a tribunal and won. The Council now apparently have to implement 'freedom of speech' training.
I've come to the conclusion that the most useful thing you can do, if you work in 'ultra woke' public or private sector organisations, is just keep expressing the idea that we should be 'politically neutral'. In the case of 'trans' debates like this, 'gender critical views' are a 'protected characteristic' in the same way that transgender identity is, so the most 'inclusive' thing to do is not signify any institutional allegiance to any perspective, but to respect everyone's right to expression of their own identity.
The problem is that plenty of those tribunals have gone the other way in recent years, leaving many large companies and especially public sector orgs scared witless of activist staff pushing an extreme ‘woke’ agenda.
It does appear that tribunals and courts are starting to see sense on some of the more outrageous ideas pushed, but management are still having to tread on eggshells when it comes to social issues in the workplace.
Yes it is difficult. But I have found that most people are not interested in this stuff, even in the most 'woke' organisations, and they also have a tendency to apply a 'common sense' definition of terms like 'equality' and 'diversity'; not the definition which is set out by the state and reflected in intersectional ideology. You can also go in to these discussions and try and direct them towards different purposes - one example was get the organisation to engage more effectively with people who go to work and don't have time to attend public meetings, rather than focussing attention exclusively on those with 'protected characteristics', and using equality and diversity as a justification for this. Another thing was encouraging the organisation to pay professional fees for all employees. When dealing with activists, they are often unable to debate, and struggle to come up with counter arguments - instead appealing to victimhood in increasingly dramatic and emotional terms, which ultimately isolates them.
Leave aside that these pagers are used by doctors and nurses. If Hezbollah blew up the phones or pagers of IDF soldiers, whether or not on duty, inevitably killing and maiming children and bystanders - he'd denounce this as an obscene terrorist attack.
Leaving aside these are special pagers not used by doctors and nurses, I didn't realise how much Owen Jones is doing a very good impression of Jezza these days with sympathetic tweets about terrorists. He really has gone off the reservation.
You can be anti-bibi, you can be concerned about some of Israels actions in Gaza, you can want a two state solution and an end to the war, but he is now equivocating action against members of an recognised army with actions against members of a terrorist group.
Israel doesn't use terrorism now as they are the overwhelmingly superior military so don't need to. But when they were insurgents, they used it readily enough, against the recognised British Army and the Palestinians in the British Mandate.
The two sides in the Middle East are as ruthless as each other when they have to be, the tragedy is the innocents on both sides that get caught in the crossfire.
Absolutely astonishing moonrise over the Pennines tonight. Heading west on the A555 into a pinkening sky, chatting to my daughter, I caught it in the rear view and uttered an involuntary "Whoah..." "What is it? Are you ok?" "You have to see this..." I came off at the next junction, turned around, and headed east - rounded a bend , and there it was, inching up over Kinder, implausibly bright and huge. Just huge. "Wow. Thanks for showing me that."
She gamely tried to photograph it, but photographing the moon without a special lens never worksvery well. So I'm recording it here.
Isn't that a slight exaggeration? Can't you just switch your cheap manual SLR to spot metering or derate by about 2 stops of exposure.
Even the digital cameras I have had let me set the exposure directly, or tweak it.
I think I have most of that in my new Pixel (7) phone, too, including RAW exposure (down, @Leon ), which means I should be able to recover a couple of stops via software, but I'm still focused on finding message history and getting the ads out of the Youtube app as far as possible.
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
Seems Hezbollah operatives are very good at keeping their beepers charged up, unlike most teenagers with their cellphones.
This is one of the most astonishing attacks in living memory.
Doing it with a few dozen pagers would have been pretty damn impressive, but intercepting a shipment and modifying three thousand of them requires an unfathomable level of sophistication in both planning and execution.
If it takes 10 minutes to modify each pager, that’s 500 man-hours just for the modifications themselves. Before that, someone must have needed to work out exactly what the device was, how it was to be modified, arranging materials, and training the execution team.
And to keep it all secret.
It could have all gone wrong if one of the pager owners had gone through an airport with serious security and the pager had set of alarms so I guess the Israelis had to balance finding an optimum time with the risk of discovery.
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
Seems Hezbollah operatives are very good at keeping their beepers charged up, unlike most teenagers with their cellphones.
This is one of the most astonishing attacks in living memory.
Doing it with a few dozen pagers would have been pretty damn impressive, but intercepting a shipment and modifying three thousand of them requires an unfathomable level of sophistication in both planning and execution.
If it takes 10 minutes to modify each pager, that’s 500 man-hours just for the modifications themselves. Before that, someone must have needed to work out exactly what the device was, how it was to be modified, arranging materials, and training the execution team.
And to keep it all secret.
It could have all gone wrong if one of the pager owners had gone through an airport with serious security and the pager had set of alarms so I guess the Israelis had to balance finding an optimum time with the risk of discovery.
How many Hizbollah fighters would pass the background checks to try passing through an airport with 'serious security?'
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
Seems Hezbollah operatives are very good at keeping their beepers charged up, unlike most teenagers with their cellphones.
This is one of the most astonishing attacks in living memory.
Doing it with a few dozen pagers would have been pretty damn impressive, but intercepting a shipment and modifying three thousand of them requires an unfathomable level of sophistication in both planning and execution.
If it takes 10 minutes to modify each pager, that’s 500 man-hours just for the modifications themselves. Before that, someone must have needed to work out exactly what the device was, how it was to be modified, arranging materials, and training the execution team.
And to keep it all secret.
It could have all gone wrong if one of the pager owners had gone through an airport with serious security and the pager had set of alarms so I guess the Israelis had to balance finding an optimum time with the risk of discovery.
How many Hizbollah fighters would pass the background checks to try passing through an airport with 'serious security?'
Considering the Iranian Ambassador seems to have had one, god knows how many non “fighters” such as the money men also had them who would travel around.
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
Seems Hezbollah operatives are very good at keeping their beepers charged up, unlike most teenagers with their cellphones.
This is one of the most astonishing attacks in living memory.
Doing it with a few dozen pagers would have been pretty damn impressive, but intercepting a shipment and modifying three thousand of them requires an unfathomable level of sophistication in both planning and execution.
If it takes 10 minutes to modify each pager, that’s 500 man-hours just for the modifications themselves. Before that, someone must have needed to work out exactly what the device was, how it was to be modified, arranging materials, and training the execution team.
And to keep it all secret.
It could have all gone wrong if one of the pager owners had gone through an airport with serious security and the pager had set of alarms so I guess the Israelis had to balance finding an optimum time with the risk of discovery.
How many Hizbollah fighters would pass the background checks to try passing through an airport with 'serious security?'
Can’t imagine them getting within a mile of Ben Gurion International!
Starmer and his wife are giving them plenty of targets and then ensuring the scandals continue by never explaining and never apologising.
He's the most out of touch and politically incompetent Prime Minister since ... uh ... the last one.
He seems to be at that stepping on garden forks stage. Did you read his comments about accepting hospitality at football matches? Car crash. These things do get noticed, and I wouldn't be surprised if it starts affecting Labour VI.
"The ammunition warehouse in Toropets, Tver region, in Russia has been turned into volcanic region. It is still exploding. Absolutely spectacular view and possibly the biggest single event of that kind in this war."
A deep dive into the UFO conspiracy theorists/grifters who created all the fuss in recent years and convinced some gullible people, including US politicians, that there was something going on: https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/s/p82r0FsKqf
A deep dive into the UFO conspiracy theorists/grifters who created all the fuss in recent years and convinced some gullible people, including US politicians, that there was something going on: https://www.reddit.com/r/skeptic/s/p82r0FsKqf
I seem to remember a certain illustrious poster occasionally harping on about how new, spectacular evidence was about to come out.
Only for the 'evidence' to be rather... underwhelming.
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
The pagers, which Hezbollah had ordered from Gold Apollo in Taiwan, had been tampered with before they reached Lebanon, according to some of the officials. Most were the company’s AP924 model, though three other Gold Apollo models were also included in the shipment.
The explosive material, as little as one to two ounces, was implanted next to the battery in each pager, two of the officials said. A switch was also embedded that could be triggered remotely to detonate the explosives.
At 3:30 p.m. in Lebanon, the pagers received a message that appeared as though it was coming from Hezbollah’s leadership, two of the officials said. Instead, the message activated the explosives. Lebanon’s health minister told state media at least nine people were killed and more than 2,800 injured.
The devices were programmed to beep for several seconds before exploding, according to three of the officials.
Over 3,000 pagers were ordered from the Gold Apollo company in Taiwan, said several of the officials. Hezbollah distributed the pagers to their members throughout Lebanon, with some reaching Hezbollah allies in Iran and Syria. Israel’s attack affected the pagers that were switched on and receiving messages.
Seems Hezbollah operatives are very good at keeping their beepers charged up, unlike most teenagers with their cellphones.
This is one of the most astonishing attacks in living memory.
Doing it with a few dozen pagers would have been pretty damn impressive, but intercepting a shipment and modifying three thousand of them requires an unfathomable level of sophistication in both planning and execution.
If it takes 10 minutes to modify each pager, that’s 500 man-hours just for the modifications themselves. Before that, someone must have needed to work out exactly what the device was, how it was to be modified, arranging materials, and training the execution team.
My guess is that it was done at source, before it left the factory in Taiwan. But they don’t want to say that.
Our son was guest snowboarder there when he was a professional and his MIL has a holiday home there
Your son was a professional snowboarder? From what I know of your family he is, what late 50s? He must have been a very early adopter of the sport.
He was, and with a couple of friends here in Llandudno they learnt on the dry slope before spending winters in Chamonix and then to North America and Whistler where is was the guest celebrity snowboarder for a holiday company
He lived life to.the extreme witnessing several tragic deaths on the slopes before he settled down in 2003 and emigrated to New Zealand
Ah, Llandudno dry slope. That was my first skiing experience. Pleased it launched a career.
You're a skier? Forgive me for being a little surprised. You holiday in Cornwall?
Well I've dry slope ski'd.
Actually, I am, or was, a snowboarder. Used to go every year from the age of about 26 to 33. Kids kind of put a stop to that. Hence Cornwall. We did do a family snow holiday in Finland a couple of years back - brilliant, but fucking expensive for a family of five in school holidays. Can't do it every year.
Why don’t we stagger our summer hols? Have some kids take off June some July some August. Then rotate
It’s horrific the prices that holiday companies inflict on families simply because they all have to head out in August. Execrable profiteering
I believe the French now do a version of this at Easter
It's been mooted. I'd be in favour. Change is, however, very difficult - people are hardwired to value what they have and those who think they will lose out complain more. In this case, teachers whose children attend schools in different local authorities.
In 2019, due to an administrative error, Trafford schools got February half term too early. It was brilliant. Pretty much the whole of Trafford went on a cheap holiday. Trafford primary schools also get - along with a few others - a two week Whit holiday. And everyone goes away the second week, because holidays are absurdly cheap. Not secondary schools, sadly, so that wheeze is in the past.
Just do it. Is my opinion. Teachers will cope
This is exactly the kind of imaginative, family friendly, helping-regular-folk policies that I hoped Labour would have “shovel ready” when they took office. Something to cheer everyone up and also not hard to do. Cheaper holidays for hard pressed British families!
And yet: nothing. Not a sausage. It’s like they’ve spent the last 14 years simply dreaming of all the freebies they will get and who gets to live in Dorneywood
They are useless, ugly and objectionable
It's a good idea to stagger school holidays, but I can't see Labour doing anything to annoy teachers.
I think its a bad idea as some parents will have children at different schools. I think they would prefer holidays together. Better to cap airline prices.
Comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Emergency_Alert_System
I'm quite amused by the technical illiteracy at the BBC - "something called an alphanumeric text message."
Give UK media a horse and cart, and they would wonder what this strange new fangled invention was they had been shown.
A former British Army munitions expert, who asked not to be named, told the BBC the devices could have been packed with between 10 to 20 grams each of military-grade high explosive, hidden inside a fake electronic component.
This, said the expert, would have been armed by a signal, something called an alphanumeric text message.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz04m913m49o
Does anyone have any friends at the BBC? Can you send them a normal text message saying BANGSKI .
The two sides in the Middle East are as ruthless as each other when they have to be, the tragedy is the innocents on both sides that get caught in the crossfire.
Even the digital cameras I have had let me set the exposure directly, or tweak it.
I think I have most of that in my new Pixel (7) phone, too, including RAW exposure (down, @Leon ), which means I should be able to recover a couple of stops via software, but I'm still focused on finding message history and getting the ads out of the Youtube app as far as possible.
BOOM!
Wonder what might happen to him there…?
"The ammunition warehouse in Toropets, Tver region, in Russia has been turned into volcanic region. It is still exploding. Absolutely spectacular view and possibly the biggest single event of that kind in this war."
https://x.com/Tendar/status/1836264666592383070
The home site seems to have the new comments at the top again.
Perhaps I am just late to notice, or have temporarily had a life.
Or a shorter article: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/07/how-believers-paranormal-birthed-pentagons-new-hunt-ufos.html
https://x.com/osinttechnical/status/1836277502030799017
Looks like hundreds of millions of dollars of ordnance that’s gone up in flames.
Only for the 'evidence' to be rather... underwhelming.
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