Filtering News

Most national and international news isn't actionable by us as individuals, so do we really need to watch it? 

In 2018, I wrote about how to deal with the effects of the continuous flow of bad news.

I have three rules for filtering news:

1. How will it affect my lifestyle?

2. How will it affect my daily activities? 

3. How will it change my mind in the voting booth?

For most people, if the answer to all three is, "Not much," then ask yourself why you're continually watching the news? Bored? Looking for excitement? Curious?

Keep in mind what it's doing to your mental health.

 

Many people end up watching the news and then complaining on social media about it which spreads the angst. If you really want to do something, then do something actionable. Instead of going to a protest, contact your member of Congress. Do you even know who your three members of Congress are? Mine are Padilla and Schiff in the Senate and Peters in the House. 

Better yet, watch the local news. Everything actionable will be covered there and your local government officials are easier to access when you want to be heard. 

Having simple rules helps. Here are My Three Daily Life Goals.

Anatomy of a Sabotage: Planting Explosives in Hezbollah’s Pagers

I’m fascinated by how Hezbollah’s pagers were compromised. This is the most technically creative and innovative attack I can think of since Stuxnet in 2010. A trojan horse of cyberwarfare. 

It seems that explosives were planted in the pagers and two-way radios – it wasn’t merely an exploding battery. This means that the attacker had to gain physical access to the pagers in order to plant both the explosives and the electronic circuitry that triggered it.

Once that was accomplished, the attacker needed access to the pager network in order to send a message to all of the pagers at once, followed, seconds later, by the detonation signal.

It’s astonishing that none of these explosives appear to have been detected by any measures, including airport screening equipment. Obviously, TSA will be looking at this vector.

How Would I Do It?

Rather than intercept the pagers along the supply chain, I would look for an easier way. Specifically, I’d find a consumer electronics manufacturer who’d be willing to license to me both their brand and rights to manufacture the pagers. From there, it would be much simpler to mass manufacture and distribute the exploding pagers.