"Not only do we now know that there was widespread abuse by clergy, but more damaging was the way bishops systematically covered up that abuse, " he says.

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Recessions affect all restaurateurs, but far more damaging to Sir Terence is the critical backlash that he has had to endure against his restaurants in the past months, and the feeling that his idea of the gastrodome has had its day.

ECONOMIST: Terence Conran: A man for all seasons | The

For instance, a recent article in the McKinsey Quarterly points out that technology budgets are a favourite place to make cuts, but indiscriminate chopping will be more damaging than ever before because IT systems are now so tightly interwoven with everything from supply chain management to the determination of pricing strategies.

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Far more common--but still damaging--are the high-volume crime spikes, spam e-mail distribution and "phishing, " a pernicious technique for stealing credit-card information. (For more on online scams, check out "Where The Scammers Are".) The carnage is hard to pin down in dollar terms, but Marcus Ranum, chief security officer of Tenable Security, says it's "billions upon billions"--far more than all "major" hacking incidents combined.

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But he admitted the blow was even more damaging as he was only nine games back from a six-month lay-off following shoulder surgery.

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So far this tornado season had been less damaging than most, but not any more.

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But high-altitude carbon emissions are reckoned to be more damaging than low-level ones, although nobody is sure by exactly how much.

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But he said he felt that the current outbreak, although far smaller in scale, could be more damaging to the farming community.

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