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With the the mentioned x-ray images.

Britain has basically done the same thing.

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news...

I expect you mean the ANPR cameras that check for valid tax and insurance. These are always accompanied by signs letting you know they're there, just like speed cameras.

Firstly, they are not all accompanied by signs. Many trunk roads have fixed ANPR cameras which aren't marked. All the police's traffic cars (including unmarked cars) have ANPR cameras and don't have any signs. Even back in 2010 there were over 4000 ANPR cameras operating with absolutely no regulatory oversight.

Secondly, the cameras are hardly just used to "check for valid tax and insurance". Some are operated by the Ministry of Defence, FFS. Every plate checked has its location, time (and in many cases a photo) stored on the ANPR database. This data is held 'routinely' for two years, but you can bet your bottom dollar it's held in perpetuity if you are a suspected 'person of interest'. If it was just for checking tax and insurance there would be no need to store data for anyone who was taxed and insured.

Nor would there be stories like the one where an 84 year old peace protester with no criminal record is tugged because the ANPR database flags him as “of interest to public order unit Sussex”. The story goes on say that Sussex Police alone record over 1.2 million car positions a day.

The 'tax and insurance' excuse is just like the terrorist/child pornographer excuse. If you disagree with widespread invasion of privacy by the state you must be untaxed or uninsured, right?

Nothing happened; the press still use sensationalism and the people are still subject to about the same level of surveillance as in most other First World countries.

How would you know? Under the RIP Act, the authorities can monitor any and all private communications without a warrant from a judge (merely with permission from -- for example -- "any customs officer designated for the purposes by the Commissioners of Revenue and Customs"), and no figures on how many people have been affected are available.

A street artist down in Brighton already took the opportunity to have some fun with these simple green boxes:

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8174462.Brighton_s_Cassette_Lord_on_graffiti__art_and_brushes_with_the_law/

"...by objects re-entering from space."

Except for these people:
http://www.switched.com/2009/06/15/german-boy-hit-by-meteorite-lives-to-tell-about-it/

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/meteorite-996599-human-first.html

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8289863.Sussex_man_hit_by_meteorite/

Sure, though it is still worrying if they cave into political or media scaremongering (it's one thing for them to decide they don't want the material at all, but that's not what's happened here - it's just the UK they're blocking). We can still criticise them for that, and I wouldn't put it past the UK Government to try to bring in new laws either to block content or criminalise it (either publication or possession). Some MPs have called for this; there's also the recent plans to criminalise pro-choice suicide websites not to mention the recent criminalisation of possession of "extreme" adult images.

Here in the UK, the Royal Society of Chemistry ran a maths challenge to highlight the fact that Chinese teenagers were required to solve a university entrance paper containing harder questions than those used to bring the maths skills of first-year British undergraduates up to scratch. I won the competition, and tried to get the message across to the press that we needed to improve our teaching and require more of university entrants, otherwise we would lose our position as one of the leaders in science and engineering. The press reported it as either 'British man beats the Chinese' or 'RSoC says British crap at maths - Shoreham man proves them wrong'.

I get the feeling that people in general take a pride in not caring about science/maths because they found it hard at school and want nothing more to do with it. If anyone wants me, I'll be crying into my beer on my blog and learning how to chip flint arrowheads for when society implodes back to the stone age.

Ok, one ray of hope: the BBC education report wasn't too bad.

If a bunch of little punks had tried that sort of bullshit back in Omaha, they'd have likely gotten the living hell beat out of them. But Europe's a different place. People don't dare to fight back against these youth, as they will assuredly be convicted of committing a "hate crime".