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Comment by senectus1 | Hacker News Reader

Gods I hate it when they use "exploded" to describe battery cascade events.

These are not bombs (like the pagers), batteries in consumer products flare and catch fire they do not "Explode".

There is a very big difference.

Although our day-to-day devices are not meant to be explosive devices (and boy, are they unstable despite our best efforts [0]). I can't help but feel like a line was crossed by whomever performed that type of supply-chain attack: they were effectively a much-more productive Unabomber.

We've been told that surely a couple of grams of explosives were at fault... My main worry (as a ChemEng who has pivoted to InfoSec) is if this was a much harder to detect combination of different battery-chemistry + firmware attack as detonator.

I confess I haven't had the time to read much more into reports but it'd be great to put that worry at hand if there's any writeup about unexploded device tear-downs.

My highest concern is the chilling effect that this can have on freedom of speech (and thought): Can I raise objections about anything or will hacker mercenaries from BigCorp/BigState detonate my device in my hands or sleep?

[0]: https://youtube.com/watch?v=xlLDKVDl9gA&t=225

that video is very interesting but again, we're talking about much higher density forms of energy storage than phones and bluetooth headphones and nothing like the "BANG" of the pagers with actual explosives in them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYmuK_pLIbQ

As a consumer for me the end result is equivalent- I don’t want any cascading events near my soft parts regardless of them resulting in explosions, fires, or flares.

Do you think the person who now has permanent hearing loss cares whether the technically correct term is explode or battery cascade event? This is so far detached from reality it's downright silly.

The news is not wholly about an individual's damage - it is also about a warning, about technical and engineering information...

I don't think I care about that, when exposing the story to millions of people, but I do care about the word usage. This is not detached from the reality at all. Media should report the horrible thing with the correct terminology, and not latch onto words with established reputation, but hey, as long as it brings in the clicks.

I googled "battery cascade events", and this comment was the top result.

Nice try, dear Mossad agent.

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