Oil falls $2 on new signs of global slowdown

Oil is plunging as a dismal report on U.S. job growth adds to worries about a slowing global economy.

Benchmark oil fell $2.34 to $84.19 per barrel Friday in New York. The nearly 3 percent drop extends a month of sharp losses due to concerns about future demand if economic growth weakens. Brent crude dropped $3.05 to $98.82 per barrel in London, its first decline below $100 since October.

The Labor Department says employers created 69,000 jobs in May, the smallest number in a year. The unemployment rate increased slightly.

New surveys indicate that China's manufacturing has slowed. And Europe continues to struggle.

At the pump, AAA says the national average for gasoline dropped about a penny overnight to $3.61 per gallon. That's down 19 cents from a month ago.

Associated Press

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Lies & Alibis.

Jack & Alex get drunk at a party during Warped Tour. They come up with a bet that Jack can't find a girlfriend & keep her happy for at least 9 months. If he wins, he gets to go to Disney World. If he doesn't, he doesn't get to go....

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Lies & Alibis.?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Lies & Alibis."

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MeganGaskarthx

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Oooo, I like it sooo much. Can I take Jack??

kathrin

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Indian growth weakest in nine years, rupee slides

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's economic growth slumped to its lowest level in nine years in the first three months of 2012, marking a dramatic slide in the fortunes of a country whose economy was boasting nearly double-digit growth before the global recession.

"Urgent and bold steps are immediately needed to prevent the economy from descending into a full blown crisis. This must be averted at all costs," said Rajiv Kumar, secretary-general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

The economy grew 5.3 percent in the last quarter from a year earlier, a sharp slowdown from 9.2 percent growth in the last quarter of the previous year, government data showed. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee blamed the poor performance of the manufacturing sector, which shrank 0.3 percent from a year earlier, for the slowdown.

The data was released as the rupee plunged to yet another record low and protesters took to the streets across India to demand the scrapping of a steep petrol price hike announced last week.

The figures were the latest confirmation that the slowdown of Asia's third-biggest economy is deepening.

"This is definitely a very important signal for the government - this is a make or break situation for India and the government has to step on the panic button," said Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist at Bank of Baroda in Mumbai.

"If the government doesn't step in now, India's sovereign ratings may be jeopardized."

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's government largely blames factors beyond its control, such as the euro zone debt crisis, for its economic woes.

But many economists and investors say weak leadership and muddled policies have failed to curb government spending and alienated many foreign investors.

Slowing corporate investment, stubbornly high inflation and ballooning fiscal and trade deficits have led to comparisons with India's 1991 balance of payments crisis, a watershed moment in the country's history that led Singh, then finance minister, to drive through transformational economic reforms.

Critics of Singh's fractious Congress party-led coalition government say it needs a crisis to break the policy paralysis that has stalled major reforms, such as allowing foreign supermarkets into the retail sector and reducing costly fuel, food and fertilizer subsidies.

But Thursday's nationwide strike called by opposition parties to protest the petrol price hike underscored the difficulty the government faces in pushing through unpopular economic reforms. The petrol price was increased last week after a six-month freeze.

The strike forced businesses, public transport, government offices and colleges to shut down in most of India's 28 states.

A usually bustling Mumbai, India's financial capital, looked deserted as people stayed at home and many shops remained closed. Protesters pelted buses with stones and lay down on train tracks to disrupt rail travel into the city.

TV footage showed protesters in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar burning tires and photos of Singh and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi.

The 5.3 percent growth rate was much weaker than expected and was even below the lowest forecast in a Reuters poll that had produced a median of 6.1 percent from predictions ranging between 5.5 percent and 7.3 percent.

Quarterly expansion was last lower in the January-March quarter of 2003 at 3.6 percent, Thomson Reuters data showed.

DATA "SHOCKING"

The GDP data showed that the manufacturing sector shrank 0.3 percent compared with a year earlier. The farm sector grew just 1.7 percent.

Gross domestic product rose 6.5 percent in the fiscal year to the end of March 2012, the lowest growth rate since 4.0 percent in 2002/03 and a sharp slowdown from the previous year's 8.4 percent.

In the three years before the global financial crisis, India's economy was roaring with growth of well above 9 percent.

The yield on India's benchmark 10-year government bonds was down 16 basis points on Thursday as investors started to price in a rate cut to help the economy. India's main stock index was down about 0.6 percent.

Standard & Poor's cut India's credit rating outlook in April to negative from stable, worried by India's fiscal and current account deficits. The decision jeopardizes India's long-term rating of BBB minus, the lowest investment grade rating.

Mukherjee said on Thursday most of the factors that had led to India's growth slowdown had "bottomed out".

Private economists have cut growth forecasts to between 6 percent and 6.5 percent for the fiscal year to March 2013. The government forecasts close to 7.5 percent.

The rupee fell on Thursday to a record low beyond 56.50 per dollar. Its slide of 14 percent from its 2012 high adds to inflation concerns in the country and raises its import bill.

That leaves policymakers in a bind. The government ran a fiscal deficit in the year to March 2012 of 5.9 percent of GDP so has little room to stimulate the economy.

The central bank will be wary that reducing interest rates could fuel inflation, which is already above 7 percent.

"The RBI is fighting a multi-faceted battle - managing currency, supporting growth, fighting inflation. I think they will wait for fiscal consolidation before cutting rates further," Rahul Bajoria, an economist at Barclays in Singapore, said.

(Additional reporting by Annie Banerji, Satarupa Bhattacharjya and Arup Roy Choudhury: Writing by Ross Colvin; Editing by John Chalmers and Neil Fullick)

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More Summer Musings | Quilting and Other Passions

Seeing those fireflies got me thinking about summer when I was a child.? That was in the 1950?s, just to give you a point of reference, and I have to say that it both seems like yesterday and another lifetime.

My father was a big fan of books like Penrod and Sam by Booth Tarkington.? If you aren?t familiar with it, think Tom Sawyer without the danger.? Or Little House on the Prairie without the hardship and the locusts.? I read them all and the idyllic life they portrayed seemed so wonderful.

The funny thing is that our life wasn?t that different.? We lived in a time when we could ? and did ? leave the house unlocked almost all the time.? My parents sent us out in the morning, confident that the neighborhood was safe and if we needed anything, we could knock on almost any door for help.

We had one TV and three channels.? My dad was the one who got to choose the programs but, honestly, there wasn?t much difference between Gunsmoke and Cheyenne, Red Skelton or Milton Berle, I Love Lucy or I Married Joan.

We did things together as a family, like playing cards or board games.?? Cards were a way to learn your numbers and do math in your head.? Board games helped you count or read.? No one said these things to us but they were true.? My father never let us win, so when we beat him at something, it felt like an achievement.

I was fascinated with the badge requirements in the Girl Scout handbook and was always trying to do the assignments.? I can clearly remember starting a little campfire and trying to make stew.? Patience was not my strong suit and 30 minutes was about all the time I could wait.? The potatoes were raw and disgusting.

Of course, I was doing it by myself.? There were only two girls close to my age in the neighborhood.? Kathy and her family had moved by the time I tackled the campfire stew and Leslie and I just never hit it off.? I liked her mother a lot, though, and often went to visit with her.

(My actual experience in the Girl Scouts wasn?t memorable.? In general, it seemed like too much regimentation and not enough fun.? Did I mention that I have often been accused of not working well with others?)

My sisters were both more gregarious and more willing to play sports.? Badminton was about as athletic as I ever got.? The appeal of running around and getting sweaty eluded me as a child and I never changed my mind.

So I would wander off alone, exploring the creeks and wooded areas that still existed near where we lived.? I would sit with a book under a tree or spend hours coloring the paper doll clothes I had designed for my sisters to play with.

I learned to sit quietly and listen to the adults talk.? I read adult books.? And I dreamed of growing up and doing what I wanted.? Not that I had any clear idea of what that was, but happily ever after had a nice ring to it.

My mother didn?t drive until I was almost 15 years old, so we weren?t shuttled around to a lot of activities.? Really, no one lived that kind of life in the 50?s.? I guess Little League ball must have been around, but none of the kids in our neighborhood were players.

It was just the long, hot, endless time of getting to know yourself, doing what you wanted (within reason) and just being a kid.? I tried to give my own children that experience when they came along.? In the 70?s and early 80?s, computers had not taken over our lives.? But now?? I listen to what children do with their time and wonder if someday, they won?t wonder what happened to their childhood?

Which kind of childhood summer did you have?

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Fantasizing about your dream vacation could lead to poor decision-making

ScienceDaily (May 31, 2012) ? Summer vacation time is upon us. If you have been saving up for your dream vacation for years, you may want to make sure your dream spot is still the best place to go. A new study has found that when we fantasize about such trips before they are possible, we tend to overlook the negatives -- thus influencing our decision-making down the line.

"We were interested in the effects of positive fantasies -- what happens when people imagine an idealized, best-case-scenario version of the future, compared to when they imagine a less idealized version," says Heather Barry Kappes of New York University, co-author of the study published online this week in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. "This is one of the first papers to examine selective information acquisition at this early stage, before people are seriously considering a possibility."

Say, for example, that you would like to take a trip to Australia this year but think you are very unlikely to do so -- you have no more vacation time left, cannot afford it, or would rather save up for a new car. But you still daydream about how nice it would be to see the Australian Outback and lie on the white sand beaches, perhaps without thinking about the long plane ride there or the poisonous animals. Those daydreams, Kappes says, have powerful effects.

To test those effects, Kappes and co-author Gabriele Oettingen asked people to imagine a particular future about one of three topics: wearing glamorous high-heeled shoes, making money in the stock market, or taking a vacation. To induce positive fantasies for each topic, the study participants were prompted to think about how great it would be to do each activity. In the control condition, participants also imagined experiencing the future, but were prompted to think about the negatives as well, with questions like "Would it really be so great?" In both conditions, participants wrote down what they were thinking, for the researchers to ensure they were engaged in the imagery.

After that exercise, the researchers offered the participants a choice of different types of information. For example, participants could browse a website describing the positive and negative health consequences of wearing high heels, and researchers noted how much more time they spent reading about positive versus negative consequences. Or, they could choose which of five (fictitious) tripadvisor.com reviews they wanted to read, and researchers recorded whether they chose one that was more pro-trip (i.e., five stars) or con-trip (i.e., one star).

Kappes' team found that for each topic, imagining the idealized version made people prefer to learn about the pros rather than the cons of the future event. "These effects are pronounced when people are not seriously considering pursuing a given future," Kappes says.

The work has important implications for even the most deliberate of decision-makers. "When people are seriously considering implementing a decision like taking a trip, they often engage in careful deliberations about the pros versus cons," Kappes says. "Our work suggests that before getting to this point, positive fantasies might lead people to acquire biased information -- to learn more about the pros rather than the cons. Thus, even if people deliberate very carefully on the information they've acquired, they could still make poor decisions."

People need to be aware of these effects to ensure that they acquire balanced information before it is time to make a decision, she says. The study also contributes to a larger body of research about the powerful consequences of mental imagery -- and shows that positive thinking may not always be best. "Although there are benefits to imagining a positive future, there are also drawbacks, and it's important to recognize them in order to most effectively pursue our goals."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Society for Personality and Social Psychology.

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Journal Reference:

1. H. B. Kappes, G. Oettingen. Wishful Information Preference: Positive Fantasies Mimic the Effects of Intentions. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2012; DOI: 10.1177/0146167212446163

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

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Help Your Kids and Teens Eat a Healthy, Nutritious Diet for ...

Sometimes we wonder why kids can be lethargic, unmotivated, learning poorly or not retaining information or just plain unhappy. Diet is a major factor in the behavior and emotions of our children, just as it is with adults. You know how bad certain foods can make you feel when you eat them, and think of the effects they have on growing children. A growing child should be fed healthy, nutritious, quality food, organic whenever possible.

Coloring dyes, additives, preservatives, too much sugar and unhealthy fat have all shown in studies that they can have dramatic effects on behaviors, emotions and the health of children and teens, even causing allergies in some instances that can manifest as behavioral issues and disease. While ?nutrition therapy? is considered an alternative treatment in our mainstream society, diet and healthy eating should actually be a primary focus for concerned parents who want to alleviate problems before they even start, in addition to healthy eating for the sake of it helping a child be and feel at his best. Often, healthy, happy kids have an extremely clean eating style (aka no junk).

Childhood obesity has become epidemic in our society due to our unhealthy eating and fast-food lifestyle many subscribe to. In addition to the problems already stated above, overweight children are often victims of bullies, low self esteem and negative self talk, which often leads to comfort eating and overeating to soothe the hurt. This quite often evolves into full blown food addiction. It is truly a vicious cycle that often begins as an innocent coping mechanism when stress relief techniques are not taught or are unknown to parents, teachers and role models.

You may find that your whole family needs to begin eating healthy, not just the kids. If you live a typical fast food lifestyle where restaurants cook the majority of your family?s meals, then change is needed for the health and well being of everyone. Change does not have to be drastic but by implementing small changes one at a time, before you know it, everyone in the family will be healthier and happier for it. While eating out may seem like a needed break, the health impact of doing so regularly are severe and tend to cause weight gain in most people due to the added fats and sugars in restaurant foods.

What can you do?

First, cut out the soda pop. Soda is one of the worst culprits for too much sugar, colors and empty calories. Soda contributes to weight gain and keeping weight on. Start replacing soda and other sugar filled beverages with water and seltzer water. The body needs water to flush out toxins and to stay healthy. Of course we have all heard that we need 8-10 glasses of water a day, but how close do your children come to that amount? How close do you come to that? If you are making the transition from soda to water, you may want to try cutting seltzer water with a bit of vanilla extract, a splash of cream and ? t. stevia (natural sweetener) to create a homemade vanilla cream soda that is delicious and cures the craving for soda.

Eat meals at home. You can easily master the art of the Crockpot which you can launch in the morning and have a wonderful home cooked meal waiting for everyone at dinnertime. Set the table and eat together as a family. Make sure you add your veggies or a big salad to whatever Crockpot dish you choose to cook. A savvy health conscious parent may have their Crockpot on every single day to ensure that the whole family is getting ?slow food? that?s healthy and ready for them when they need it.

Eat meals together. Surprisingly only 28% of American families eat dinner together at the dinner table. Sitting down and enjoying a family meal is not only good for family bonding and closeness, it?s good for digestion and is almost always more nutritious than restaurant meal choices. Eating on the run is never healthy. Make sure your family gets to sit down and eat as a family as often as possible, preferably every night.

Make sure you introduce new fruits and vegetables to your children as often as possible. Get adventurous and learn to cook or slice new foods and experiment! Kids love novel things, and although they may get into the rut of preferring to eat only what they know and like, as a loving parent, you should repeatedly introduce the same new food to your child often until they get used to it. While it may not be their favorite, and you should never force any type of food.. several presentations and asking them to try ?just a few bites? will help them explore new textures and flavors, in addition to giving them more nutrients and vitamins than are available in a child-imposed limited menu.

If you are a role model for healthy eating and encourage your child and teen to make healthy food choices along with you, establishing a baseline of healthy eating in youth, children will always come back to what is natural and healthy, because it feels so good. As they get older and realize the impact of any unhealthy food choices they make, they will remember your wise attitude and instruction concerning food.

Present fruits of veggies as a snack instead of junk foods. Of course kids will go for ice creams or pastries or cookies if that?s what they are used too. But instead, stock your home with healthy choices that kids love, such as apples with almond butter, celery with cream cheese, freshly made air popped popcorn, apples, bananas with raisins and yogurt, or plain full fat yogurt sweetened with honey and fresh blueberries. All these suggestions are healthy and kids love them! They are also more economical than a box of grocery store cookies.

Over processed foods are linked to feelings of depression, which is one more reason to transition into wholesome natural foods. Healthy eating naturally makes a child feel great due to the high quality of nutrition available in natural wholesome foods and low sugar and fat content. A healthy child or teen feels good about himself too and this healthy self-esteem and confidence spills over into all areas of life.

No parent is perfect, but we must try to help our children learn the basics of healthy eating for their health and well being. We are responsible for what we buy at the grocery store or local famer?s market, not our children. When healthy food is in the house, healthy food will be eaten. Make it fun and ask your children to help with the preparation. When everyone has a hand in the pot, everyone has fun, and healthy eating becomes your family?s way. Bon Appetite!

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Canada's Rogers network counting down to its own Galaxy S III preorders

A countdown related to the Samsung Galaxy S III has appeared on Canadian carrier Rogers website, which ends at noon EDT, so it looks like we'll see preorders start today.  We already knew that Rogers was going to carry the Galaxy S III, as well as a majority of the Canadian carriers.  We've seen evidence that the phone will be released on June 20 in Canada, and this is just one more indication that this may hold true.  There's no official word on specs or what proc is inside, but it's a pretty safe bet that the LTE flavored Galaxy S III will have the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 inside due to LTE compatibility problems with current quad-core chips.

Source: Rogers

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