Guessing the source of the pagers didn't matter at all and Israel probably intercepted a shipment to plant bombs in them themselves. Lithium batteries can ignite, but they don't just explode like that. There were bombs put in those pagers, be it by Israel or whoever else, coordinated as a targeted operation.

[–] DNOS@lemmy.ml 29 points 2 months ago (3 children)

So it wasn't just here in Italy that they tried to make us believe it was just a cyber attack... On national tv they brought up an old man so called expert who said they probably disabilitated overheating protection remotely and somehow magically the battery exploded causing that damage ... I don't know if I need to interpret this as an attempt at psychological terrorism or just one of the usual diminishing policy in favor of Israel To be fair they mentioned the probability of an actual bomb but in my opinion such an obvious error must not be carried over especially world wide 😱 It gives me chills that the news industry could make such big errors also while talking about politics crime health ...

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 months ago (2 children)

You can absolutely make a lipo battery "explode" by overheating it by drawing too much power. But it's the kind of explosion where it spews hot gas and maybe catches on fire. You'll definitely get hurt, but that's about it.

You can do MUCH worse by overcharging it. (note the size of that battery). There will eventually be a fireball if you overcharge it and keep overcharging it when it's already swollen to a balloon. But you generally don't charge stuff while it's in your pocket.

These were actual killing-people-explosions. Lipo batteries don't do that.

[–] DNOS@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah I know i think that everyone that has ever heard of Lipo fires and dangers with a basic Google search can distinguish between a lipo fire and a high explosive detonating ... Lipo are more like a jet of flames ( I had one in my 6 m^3 room wasn't nice but I'm here) yeah contained what you want It could be a bang, but to some extent... I don't know what you have seen but videos shown in my local news are impossible to explain with lipo fires ...

Can't find a link sorry

[–] vonxylofon@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

errors

Assuming it was totally inadvertent. Totally.

[–] 0xD@infosec.pub 8 points 2 months ago

Those people are idiots. You always need to check the credentials and history of people telling you something, and even then - if they're an expert in security they may know nothing about electronics or explosives or how secret agencies operate.

And yes, news can be really unreliable - on purpose or just out of mistakes. Gotta always keep that in mind as well, but it also reeeally depends on the particular media company.

[–] Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Lipo's can absolutely burn your house down, but only while overcharging. Igniting a battery while you're walking around with it will at most burn your pants down, not kill you.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago

Exactly. I remember early days of smartphones before a lot of the safety precautions we have today were implemented, where we saw tons of videos of batteries spontaneously combusting. They expand, there's a pop, and then a small burst of flame that will ignite anything it touches, like your pants, tables they're sitting on while charging, etc. You can get pretty badly burned if this happens while it's in your pocket.

It's just that the videos that have come out of these pagers shows an actual explosion, as if they had been packed with C4. Enough to instantly kill some people with them on their person and harm adjacent passerbys.

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah as in BURN DOWN and not as in EXPLODE WITH FORCE AND SHRAPNEL.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lithium batteries can ignite, but they don't just explode like that.

These pagers don't use lithium battery.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So what other kind of battery would a pager be using that might explode if not lithium? Hydrogen cell?

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

(CH~2~N~2~O~2~)~3~

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not a battery but sure, that's what I was suggesting.

[–] wildbus8979@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

My point is that the lithium battery angle is a diversion and isn't even relevant.

[–] Stovetop@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Agreed

[–] BriarTalker@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 months ago

Now I'm wondering how much of the price we pay is due to the cost of manufacturing and how much is just a bunch of middle-men driving up prices. Maybe this is just a case of a bunch of shell companies organized for military purposes but I'm going to guess that the practice is relatively normal enough that it didn't raise any red-flags among the other firms involved.