Cruise shows his crazy side

It’s been taken off YouTube due to complaints from the Church of Scientology, but Gawker is hosting The Tom Cruise Indoctrination Video. In what some are calling “Crazy-gate”, Cruise says he only wants to read about opponents of Scientology “in the History books”, talks about “getting ethics in” on himself and says that in an emergency, it’s only the scientologists (not the paramedics, firefighters or police) who can help. The last 40 seconds of the video are the most jaw-dropping. The Gawker reader comments include some classics (“I hope he gets help for his repressed ego”). Reminds me that my Scientology criticism site is due an update.

Dangerous things for kids to do

I sang the praises of TED last year and I’ll probably continue to sing them for a long time. Some sensible advice here on how the culture of excessive safety is training children to be powerless. I’m not sure about getting children to drive: it didn’t work for me. I can heartily recommend the point about deconstructing appliances, though: I well remember my Dad opening up a vacuum cleaner while it was on and using a stroboscope to visually “freeze” the rotating motor.