News comes mainly from newspapers, TV or blogs. But even the newspapers and TV companies publish their content online these days, generally with comment facilities for the public to make their opinions known. This turns out much as you'd expect.
News published from 6th October 2019 to 4th November 2019
(From BBC News, October 29th, 2019)
An attack on the Leader of the Opposition Paul Harding has been foiled by the Serious Organised Crime Agency, in association with GCHQ. The Aprilists, an international terrorist organisation with links to anarchist groups throughout Europe and the United States is believed to be responsible.
The 35lb (15.9kg) device was planted outside Shoreditch Police Station in greater London during a private visit by Mr Harding. Bomb disposal officers managed to disarm the main explosive charge, but were unable to safely remove the trigger charge. A minor explosion caused interruption of communications and power to the police station, but there were no casualties. SOCA are working with MI5 to determine the nature of the device, which they claim is 'surprisingly advanced'.
A number of suspects have already been arrested by the Metropolitan Police. The Aprilists have claimed responsibility for the attack, although sources within SOCA report that they were already aware of the link before the announcement by the terrorist group.
According to a statement released by SOCA, intelligence leading to the discovery of the bomb was provided by GCHQ and MI5. Whilst civil liberties campaigners have repeatedly protested the close links between police, intelligence agencies and government departments, SOCA reports that it is only these close links which allowed the device to be discovered before it detonated.
Investigations are ongoing into how Mr Harding's schedule was leaked; the Conservative Party are working closely with SOCA and GCHQ to follow the trail of information back to its source; however, the ability of law enforcement agencies to track online communication has been severely limited by the Apirilists' use of Freenet to avoid being traced.
Prime Minister Elizabeth White has reacted with outrage. The government is considering emergency legislation to curtail the anonymity of Freenet, particularly to force users of encryption software to make their decryption keys available to law enforcement agencies. Whilst it is already illegal to use encryption software in a manner that could obstruct legal investigation, this has been difficult to enforce. The proposed legislation would make it much easier for the police to determine who is using encryption software illegally.
Link: Freenet - Blessing or Curse?
Link: Encryption: Know your responsibilities
Link: The Aprilists - to the US and beyond
UNICORNS ARE JUST PONIES WITH TRANSGENIC POISON SPINES ON THEIR HEAD!! - Norway
We can't let you do that, Dave - Houston
Estimated Probability of Mankind's Survival to next Iteration: 99.98% - Various Wiki pages defaced and replaced with this text
のびるびるびるのびるび, のびるびるびるのびるび… - Osaka
ENGLISH GO HOME!!! - Caernarfon
It's over 9000…and counting - Moscow
Never knowingly oversold - Cape Town
CHILD OF CORTEZ - Sprayed over various advertisment boards featuring European produce, Mexico City
Thanks for the Crate! - Found painted onto a disused rusty ship in Portsmouth
Desert Island Discs knows the truth - scrawled on the wall of the BBC radio broadcast centre
The world is out of line - Bern
I have x-ray vision! - A street in Kansas
World not actually hollow. Hollow is bad. - Perpignan
This sentence has been poorly translated! - Eindhoven
I don't like the Drugs, but the Drugs like me - Los Angeles
Apristein Paladyne - Bletchley Park
God Loves Hank! - Hong Kong
It's the bloody Eurofighter all over again, isn't it? They'll throw money at any old crap that's got a good enough marketing division. It's a wonderful gravy train if you can make shit up on the spur of the moment. Silver mesh underlay? How did silver get this reputation as the magic anti-bacterial cure-all? First it's silver particles on your laptop keyboard (nanosilver too, so it gets extra SKIENCE! points), now it's silver in your uniform to stop your stab wounds getting infected. As a great man once said, I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that. Did the MoD Purchasing division sleep though GCSE Chemistry? Do they not realise the difference between an atom and an ion? How exactly are they planning on getting ions out of that silver mesh? And that's not taking into account some of the cracked-out Staring At Goats they're willing to work on in the way of weapons design.
Listen, Skeptics. We do not do our cause any favours by leaping to conclusions. In particular, we need to be aware of the temptation of a particular variant of the Argumentum Ad Hominem that I shall refer to as Argumentum As BloodySillyHat. This is the one which goes “You are wearing a bloody silly hat, therefore your argument is worthless”. I'm sure anyone who's spent any time on the internet will see the temptation of this one, but it's led me in the past to be unwarrantedly rude and dismissive to some people who may have had points, but who were in fact just blending in with the trolls and whackjobs slightly too well. You're all going to think I've gone soft on the cranks now, aren't you, but in fact I'm just advocating making damn sure it really is a crank you're talking to before going off on them, rather than just someone without much in the way of polish or social skills.
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