An abuse hotline set up by the Catholic Church in Germany melted down on its first day of operation as more than 4,000 alleged victims of paedophile and violent priests called in to seek counselling and advice. The numbers were far more than the handful of therapists assigned to deal with them could cope with. In the end only 162 out of 4,459 callers were given advice before the system was shut down. Andreas Zimmer, head of the project in the Bishopric of Trier, admitted that he wasn’t prepared for ‘that kind of an onslaught’. mass st peters basilica vatican Defence: The Pope celebrates Mass at the Vatican yesterday. The abuse hotline was set up as part of the Church’s attempt to win back trust in the face of escalating abuse claims that threaten Benedict’s papacy The hotline is the Church’s attempt to win back trust in the face of an escalating abuse scandal that threatens the papacy of German-born Pontiff Benedict XVI in Rome. Earlier this week it was alleged that an ally of the Pope, Bishop Mixa, beat children – a charge he has subsequently denied. Former girls […]
The job market is showing signs of life, though its slow recovery suggests unemployment will remain high for years to come. Employers added 162,000 jobs in March, the biggest monthly gain in three years, with one-third of the growth coming from the government’s hiring of 48,000 temporary workers for the 2010 Census. Despite those gains, the jobless rate held steady at 9.7% as new workers entered the job market and people who had previously quit the labor force returned. The average length of unemployment rose last month to the highest point since record keeping began in 1948: more than 31 weeks. The number of workers out of work for six months or more rose sharply. The latest report, which marks the third month since November in which payrolls increased, indicates the labor market is pulling out of a deep downturn that slashed more than eight million jobs since the recession hit in late 2007. ‘It confirms that the economy has turned an important corner,’ says J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. chief economist Bruce Kasman. ‘It’s been growing for a while, but I think what we’re seeing is that this growth is now broadening out to include […]
Steve Hilton remembers months of despair after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Customers rushed to the sales offices of Meritage Homes, the property firm Mr Hilton runs, not to buy houses but to cancel contracts they had already signed. ‘I thought for a moment the world was coming to an end, he recalls. In the following months Mr Hilton stepped up efforts to save his company. He gave up options to buy thousands of lots that the firm had snapped up across Arizona, Florida, Nevada and California during the boom, taking massive losses. He eventually laid off three-quarters of its 2,300 employees. He also had its houses completely redesigned to cut construction cost almost in half: simpler roofs, standardised window sizes, fewer options. Gone were the 12-foot ceilings, sweeping staircases and granite countertops everyone wanted when money was free. Meritage is now catering to the only customers able to get credit: first-time buyers with federally guaranteed loans. It is clawing its way back to health as a leaner, humbler company. The same could be said for America. Virtually every industry has shed jobs in the past two years, but those that cater mostly to consumers have […]
When Matthew Schiefer, a neural engineer at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, first managed to stimulate the leg of an unconscious volunteer by wrapping an electrode around a nerve bundle, he knew he was on to something. Now, four years later, Schiefer has created a new kind of nerve-activating electrical interface that could allow people with paralyzed limbs to activate their legs with the push of a button. Schiefer’s new device flattens out the nerve fibers, exposing more of them to the full electrical current. By attaching this flatter contact to the femoral nerve, Schiefer succeeded in activating four of the six leg muscles needed for a person to go from sitting to standing. Additionally, the flexing knee muscles actually generated the level of force needed to lift someone out of their chair. The significant amount of power in the knee muscle has already led Schiefer to plan longer trials. However, the other end of the connection seems like a taller hurdle. Flexing a muscle with electricity is one thing, but controlling that flexing with a brain attachment or computer program robust enough to allow locomotion may be a whole other story.
WASHINGTON — Oil consumption has fallen, demand from U.S. motorists for gasoline is flat at best and refiners that turn crude into fuel are operating well below capacity. Yet oil prices keep marching toward $90 a barrel, pushing gasoline toward $3 a gallon in many markets, and prompting American drivers to ask, ‘What gives?’ Blame it on the same folks who brought you $140 oil and $4 gasoline in 2008: Wall Street speculators. Experts attribute much of the recent rise in prices to flows of speculative money into oil markets. These bets are fueled by investor expectations that the U.S. and global economies are poised to return to growth and thus spark increased use of oil. Strong growth in China supports the narrative of rising oil consumption and tightening supplies. ‘The thinking goes that rising stock (market) prices implies expanding business activity, implies growing energy demand, implies rising oil prices. I think you can make that case, but it’s awfully weak,’ said Michael Fitzpatrick, vice president-energy for MF Global, a financial firm that brokers the sale of contracts for future delivery of oil. While there are signs of U.S. economic recovery, such as a slight uptick […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
