Dutch Catholic Church Abuse Investigated, Thousands Of Victims According To Report

THE HAGUE, Netherlands ? Thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions, and church officials failed to adequately address the abuse or help the victims, according to a long-awaited investigation released Friday.

The report by the an independent commission said Catholic officials failed to tackle the widespread abuse "to prevent scandals."

Based on a survey among more than 34,000 people, the commission estimated that one in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of abuse. The number doubled to 20 percent of children who spent some of their youth in a Catholic institution.

The commission said it received some 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages and that the institutions suffered from "a failure of oversight."

The commission was set up last year under the leadership of former government minister Wim Deetman to investigate allegations of abuse dating from 1945.

The investigation followed allegations of repeated incidents of abuse at one cloister that quickly spread to claims from Catholic institutions across the country, echoing similar scandals around the world.

The Dutch branch of the Catholic church agreed last month to launch a compensation system that clears the way for victims of abuse by priests and other church workers to receive payments.

The new compensation system has a scale starting at euro5,000 ($6,500) and rising to a maximum of euro100,000 ($130,000) depending on the nature of the abuse.

According to the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics, 29 percent of the Dutch population of 16 million identified themselves as Catholics in 2008, making it the largest religion in the country.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/16/dutch-catholic-church-abuse_n_1152999.html

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Jackson daughter in film role, gives rare interview (Reuters)

LONDON (Reuters) ? Michael Jackson's daughter Paris gave a rare televised interview this week, during which she discussed life with her late father and a budding acting career.

The 13-year-old's appearance on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has already been taped and airs on Thursday.

According to a partial transcript released to publicize the show, Paris said that as a younger child she felt it was "stupid" wearing a mask when she went out in public with her famous father.

Jackson, who died aged 50 in 2009, would sometimes give his children masks to wear to protect them from the frenzy of media and public attention that accompanied their every appearance.

"Yeah, I'm like this is stupid, why am I wearing a mask?" Paris told show host Ellen DeGeneres.

"But I kind of realized the older I got, like, he only tried to protect us and he'd explain that to us too."

Paris, one of Jackson's three children who are now in the care of their grandmother Katherine, has gradually emerged from her father's shadow in recent months, and the DeGeneres show was billed as Paris's first "solo" interview.

The teenager is set to appear in a movie called "Lundon's Bridge and the Three Keys" based on a young adult fantasy novel.

Asked when she realized that she wanted to act, Paris replied: "When I was really little. My dad was in the movie 'Moonwalker' and I knew he could sing really well but I didn't know he could act. I saw that and I said, wow, I want to be just like him.

"We would do 'improv' together. He would give us little scenarios. He would (say) 'OK, in this scene you're going to cry' and I'd cry on the spot."

The movie's website, to which Paris's official Twitter page is linked, says she will star as Lundon O'Malley in a film combining live action and animation and which is described as "the war between the land and the sea."

It is based on a novel by Dennis Christen, and half the proceeds from the film and sales of the book will be donated to schools with insufficient funding.

There is no release date, although one of the production companies involved, Paralight Films, said on its website that Lundon's Bridge had been due to hit screens in 2010.

It listed the movie's production budget at $31 million and "prints and advertising" at $39 million.

Paris also said she was enjoying her time at school.

"I do have like a regular childhood," she said. "I mean, I'm treated the same. When I came to Buckley (School) they didn't know who I was. I was like, yes, I have a chance to be normal."

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White, editing by Paul Casciato)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111214/people_nm/us_parisjackson_interview

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How Can I Post to Facebook, Twitter, and/or Google+ All at the Same Time? [Ask Lifehacker]

Dear Lifehacker,
I'm getting a bit overwhelmed with all these social networks, and I really don't feel like posting manually to each one every time. I know there are a lot of apps for updating Facebook, Twitter and Google+ at the same time, but which ones are the best?

Sincerely,
Social Stress

Image remixed from an original by Emin Ozkan/Shutterstock.

Dear Stress,

You aren't kidding. There are a lot of apps out there that sync Facebook with Twitter, or Google+ with Twitter and Facebook, but it seems like we gain one and lose three every couple of weeks. Right now, there are a few services we definitely think are a cut above the rest, though, so here are your options.

Share to Twitter and Facebook

If you're only a Twitter and Facebook user, you have a few apps to choose from. Obviously, the official Twitter app for Facebook is always a good choice. It stays updated since it's made by Twitter, but be forewarned it will send every tweet you make to Facebook (excluding replies). That means if you tweet a lot, you could really annoy your Facebook friends.

If you'd rather pick and choose which tweets you send to Facebook, I highly recommend TweetDeck. It's our favorite Twitter client for Windows, and it's available on OS X and mobile platforms as well. Even if you've tried it in the past, the new, non-AIR version is pretty great, so I recommend giving it another shot. It will let you choose which networks you want to post any given status too?Twitter, Facebook, or both. Alternatively, the Selective Tweets app for Facebook can get the job done without a separate app. Just append the #fb hashtag to any tweet you want sent to Facebook, and it'll show up on your Facebook profile as well (without the #fb hashtag). Since this is connected to your Facebook account, it also works for anything you tweet from your phone, which is nice.

The only problem with the above services is that they won't post links or photos on Facebook as proper Facebook links. That is, they won't give them a thumbnail or anything?it'll just show the short link as you'd see it on Twitter. If you really want links and photos to be shared properly, you can use the awesome ifttt service. You can tell it to send any tweet containing a link to Facebook as a proper link, though if you also have it sending regular tweets, it will double up on any link posts, which can be annoying. Ifttt is great for when you only want to share certain kinds of posts?like links or tweets you've favorited?to Facebook.

Share to Twitter, Facebook, and Google+

By far the best way to share statuses between networks is the +Rob Mcgee Google+ account. Just connect your Facebook or Twitter accounts to the +Rob McGee bot using these instructions. It'll only take you a few minutes, and when you're done, anything you post to Google+ will show up on Twitter and/or Facebook, depending on which accounts you attached to the bot. It will also share links as proper links on Facebook, which is great.

The only downsides to this method are that you have to have a Google+ account and that it doesn't send photos to Facebook. If you post a photo on Google+ with a comment, it'll only post that comment as your Facebook status (which sometimes might not make sense). Overall, though, if you have a Google+ account, this is the best method for sending statuses to any network, since it's easy to do, shares links properly, lets you choose which statuses you send, and (like the others) it works on mobile devices, too.

These aren't the only services out there, but they are definitely the best we've found. You have a lot of browser extensions you could use, too, but none seem to be better than the above services, and they require you to use a certain browser (not to mention they won't work from your phone). Hopefully this helps you find a service that's right for you.

Sincerely,
Lifehacker

P.S. Do you have a favorite that we missed? Let us know about it in the comments.

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/vf2YYXGpVPg/how-can-i-post-to-facebook-twitter-andor-google%252B-all-at-the-same-time

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Building For The Long Haul

At a recent Startup School, Mark Zuckerberg made some very poignant comments about?Silicon Valley?s lack of long-term focus.? While the quick turnover of capital, people and innovation makes the Valley an incredibly attractive place for?starting?companies, it also produces an environment that?s almost hostile when it comes to building them for the long haul. The tension is remarkable, yet it?s rarely highlighted among the more explicit challenges ? say, going up against the 800lb gorilla ? faced by entrepreneurs. Every so often, my non-tech friends half-jokingly ask, ?Have you sold yet??? And for the first few years of Box?s existence, to placate them, I would ask for?just a couple more quarters. Right after we get our next product to market, after we double again, and so on.? But soon it dawned on me that I wasn?t going to stop.? I couldn?t.? There was just too much to do, too much unexplored territory. Even when things weren?t going well, the challenge of righting them was like another shot of pure adrenaline.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Jq8iO3v_rlo/

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Herman Cain suspends presidential campaign (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/169534926?client_source=feed&format=rss

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First-class mail: Just a little bit s-l-o-w-e-r (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Already mocked by some as "snail mail," first-class U.S. mail will slow even more by next spring under plans by the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to eliminate more than 250 processing centers. Nearly 30,000 workers would be laid off, too, as the post office struggles to respond to a shift to online communication and bill payments.

The cuts are part of $3 billion in reductions aimed at helping the agency avert bankruptcy next year. They would virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day, a change in first-class delivery standards that have been in place since 1971.

The plan technically must await an advisory opinion from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission, slated for next March. But that opinion is nonbinding, and only substantial pressure from Congress, businesses or the public might deter far-reaching cuts.

Many postal customers will be upset.

"The post office is a mainstay of America, and the fact that these services will no longer be available is absolutely crazy," said Carol Braxton of Naperville, Ill., as she waited in line at a mail sorting center Monday with the holiday shipping season picking up steam.

"Well I'm not happy about them, but what else can you do with this economy? If they're getting ready to go bankrupt, it's better to cut back than to go totally bankrupt," said Deborah Butler of Brandywine, Md., who was at a Washington, D.C., post office. "You still need them. Because everybody can't afford the other ones, like express mail and things like that. .Even though the world is computer literate, everybody doesn't have computers."

At a news briefing in Washington, postal vice president David Williams said the post office needs to move quickly to cut costs as it seeks to stem five years of red ink amid steadily declining mail volume. After hitting 98 billion in 2006, first-class mail volume is now at less than 78 billion. It is projected to drop by roughly half by 2020.

The agency already has announced a 1-cent increase in first-class mail to 45 cents beginning Jan. 22.

Williams said in certain narrow situations first-class mail might still be delivered the next day ? if, for example, newspapers, magazines or other bulk mailers are able to meet new, tighter deadlines and drop off shipments directly at the processing centers that remain open.

But in the vast majority of cases, everyday users of first-class mail will see delays. The changes could slow everything from check payments to Netflix's DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order prescription drugs and even threaten the existence of newspapers and time-sensitive magazines delivered by postal carrier to far-flung suburban and rural communities.

The Postal Service faces imminent default ? this month ? on a $5.5 billion annual payment to the Treasury for future retiree health benefits and expects to have a record loss of $14.1 billion next year.

"Are we writing off first class mail? No," Williams said. "Customers are making their choices, and what we are doing is responding to the current market conditions and placing the Postal Service on a path to allow us to respond to future changes. We have to do what's in our control to put the Postal Service on sold financial ground."

The cuts would close 252 of the nation's 461 mail processing centers beginning next spring. They would result in the elimination of roughly 28,000 jobs. The number of employees varies by processing facility but generally ranges from about 50 to 2,000. Cincinnati, Boston, Orlando and New Orleans are home to some of the largest centers.

Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards. Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one to three days. That would lengthen to two to three days, meaning mailers no longer could expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take two to nine days.

About 42 percent of first-class mail is now delivered the following day. An additional 27 percent arrives in two days, about 31 percent in three days and less than 1 percent in four to five days. Following the change next spring, about 51 percent of all first-class mail is expected to arrive in two days, with most of the remainder delivered in three days.

The Postal Service initially announced in September it was studying the possibility of closing the processing centers and published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments. Within 30 days, the plan elicited nearly 4,400 public comments, mostly in opposition.

Catalogue companies worry they won't be able to predict when their catalogues will arrive and therefore when to add staff to handle increased call volumes. Small business owners say sluggish first-class mail will slow their businesses because merchandise and payments will spend more time in transit.

On Monday, postal customers said they valued having mail service but also acknowledged the realities of the Internet in everyday life.

"The post office services that we need as a nation are just too big at this point, so things have to be cut and there is nothing that can be done to change it other than email goes away," Ron Connor of Naperville, Ill., said as he walked into a local post office branch.

Lily Ickow, from Silver Spring, Md., said the post office needs to find other ways than wide-scale cuts to reach profitability. "It's definitely too bad," she said at a Washington post office. "I think the Postal Service is necessary personally. ...It would be useful to see if there are ways that they could innovate and come up with other types of services."

Separate bills that have passed House and Senate committees would give the Postal Service more authority and liquidity to stave off immediate bankruptcy. But prospects are somewhat dim for final congressional action on those bills anytime soon, especially if the measures are seen in an election year as promoting layoffs and cuts to neighborhood post offices.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has been pushing for congressional changes that would give the agency more authority to reduce delivery to five days a week, raise stamp prices and reduce health care and other labor costs.

But the agency also opposes current provisions in the House and Senate legislation that would require additional layers of review before it could close post offices and processing centers.

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive tax money, but is subject to congressional control on major aspects of its operations. The changes in first-class mail delivery could go into place without permission from Congress.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate committee that oversees the post office, believes the agency is taking the wrong approach. She says service cuts will only push more consumers to online bill payment or private carriers such as UPS or FedEx, leading to lower revenue.

The Senate bill would refund nearly $7 billion the Postal Service overpaid into a federal retirement fund, encourage a restructuring of health benefits and reduce the agency's annual payments into a future retiree health account. No other agency or business is required to make such health prepayments.

Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a member of the House committee that oversees the agency, said he would fight the postal changes.

"This privatization plan is bad for Americans, bad for businesses, bad for the economy and bad for workers. We can do better than to dismantle the Postal Service and privatize its operations," he said.

Ruth Goldway, chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission, said the commission will be reviewing the proposal closely to ensure that the Postal Service can continue its mission of providing adequate, effective service in a fair manner to all parts of the U.S. She said, "I think if the Postal Service does not respond to public concerns, it will bear the consequences of that itself."

___

AP video journalist Robert Ray in Naperville, Ill., AP television producer Kelly Daschle in Washington and business writer Jonathan Fahey in New York contributed to this report.

___

Online:

List of facilities to be closed:

http://about.usps.com/news/electronic-press-kits/our-future-network/study-list-110915.pdf

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111206/ap_on_bi_ge/us_postal_problems

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Monster Slides Make Playgrounds Better Than Amusement Parks In Japan [Video]

If this monstrous snaking course is what slides are like at Japanese playgrounds, my mind probably won't even be able to begin to comprehend the magnitude of their swingsets. I imagine they must tower over skyscrapers. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/KKI1fktB8Fk/monster-slides-make-playgrounds-better-than-amusement-parks-in-japan

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