NTK’s HARD NEWS section this week is so amazing (thanks to the wonders of British sarcasm) and so horrifying, I’m reposting it, in its entirety. I think Danny O’Brien is a secretly working for the global conspiracy, making each new outrage disarmingly funny.

It’s not often you catch Slashdot, Kuro5in, Newsnight and BBC’s Question Time [and the Guardian] covering the same story. And while we still await the day Jeremy Paxman screams “MOD THE PARENT UP!” at a ashen-faced spokesman, one topic bound them all this week: the insane new RIP STATUTORY INSTRUMENT. This piece of pseudo-legislation, which the government clearly hoped to sneak past parliament next Tuesday, extends the list of authorities able tap everyone’s traffic data without a warrant. In the original RIP bill, only coppers, customs and the secret services could obtain phone numbers, Web addresses, and cellphone positions willy-nilly. With the new instrument, anyone from a local councillor to the Office of Fair Trading, down to the Post Office^W^WConsignia^Wthe Royal Mail can stalk you without judicial oversight. Over twenty new government departments are listed, with no explanation or justification (the Department of Work and Pensions is fighting terrorism how exactly?). It really is a “shopping” list in every sense but the car-jacking one. As with so much of the original RIP bill, *nobody* thinks this is a good idea. Councillors we’ve spoken with are worried about the abuse potential, other departments are freaking out at the cost of overseeing the new powers. Already the hundreds of faxes sent to MPs and messages to the news media have secured one concession: our gracious leaders have postponed the debate until next Monday, 2002-06-24. If we keep the pressure up, they may be obliged to withdraw it completely. Check out STAND for more info on what the Blunt Instrument means, and what to do about it.

To which I can only add, do you think easyEverything paid for the right to be linked to women in skimpy tops, and invasion of privacy? The Newsnight [2] story clearly states in its alt tags, that the images are of “easyEverything, internet cafe”.

In other NTK news, in reference to the success of xcom2002

It only remains to say: would the owners of the POP logins “steve”, “e.tedeschi”, and “olly” please change their email passwords? They showed up unencrypted in the wireless network traffic logs and – if you hadn’t noticed – we’re trying to campaign quite hard against this kind of thing.

Do you think if I moved to Britian right now I could learn that dry, ironic sense of humor that all the cool technology publications (ie the Reg, and NTK) have? Or is it something you have to be born into? Or at least suffer though the British school system to acquire?