Online Scientologists out in force

I finally got round to watching (on the iPlayer) Panorama's follow up to the John Sweeney shouty investigation into scientology a couple of years back in which the reporter famously "lost it".

I was looking forward to "The Secrets of Scientology" but found it rather pedestrian with lots of "this is the man who will tell me the secrets", "the secrets will be told soon by this man" build up with lots of fuzzy walking shots and not much pay-off.

Whilst the programme was interesting and shocking (although depressingly not really as we all know what goes on) there was nothing really new in it but I suspect the reasons for this was lawyer-inspired! (Has Carter-Ruck ever been on the side of good? (apart from Mr C-R's deathbed conversion to Liberal Democracy of course (always makes by think Blackadder I's archbishop episode))

What amused me is the utter predictability of the online comments on reviews of the programme (examples in the Mirror and the Metro) from scientologists (some claiming to be and some not) that are so transparent. Why do they think that anyone would be fooled by comments randomly going into the personal history and smears of some participants, especially as the programme had just said this is exactly what they do!

Here's hoping for some Scientology-love to boost my google analytics! :)

This is a safety announcement

This post about Government adverts over at Liberal Vision remins me about the announcement I recently heard (repeatedly as I was waiting for someone on a delayed train) at Kings Cross station:

"This is a safety announcement. Please do not run in the station and take care around the station and in the surrounding areas"

Gee thanks, it would never occurred to me to "take care" in the station. Also taking care in the surrounding areas would be a thought that would never have crossed my mind!! I mean seriously!!

There were other similarly pointless announcements endlessly repeated which I can't recall now. Notwithstanding the nannying issues surely people are desperately listening out for announcements regarding the delay/cancellation/late platform change of their train and we should restrict announcement to only immediately useful ones like these. (not to mention the confusion this may cause to foreign visitors trying to listen out for useful information)

In the same way there are campaigns about visual clutter (street signs, barriers etc.) should there also be one against audio clutter?