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Showing posts with label Plankton. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plankton. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Plankton Bloom [Today's News Poem, June 30, 2010]

Plankton Bloom [Today's News Poem, June 30, 2010]

Earnings are sport; just a game on the screen.
Wealth is the score and the players are meat.
Markets determine the price of a bean,
Residue running from acre to ocean;
Where plankton will bloom
And choke out the fish:
An oily wound plumes
In petri gulf dish.

Drunken suspenders are typing by dark,
Networks of millions are trading their points;
Feeding the creatures that dine on the spark
Arbitrage sends in a wire through computers—
With cables for nerves
And motorized arms,
A camera eye serves
To watch as we farm.

“By 10am it emerged that Mr Perkins had single-handedly moved the global price of oil to an eight-month high during a "drunken blackout". Prices leapt by more than $1.50 a barrel in under half an hour at around 2am – the kind of sharp swing caused by events of geo-political significance. Ten times the usual volume of futures contracts changed hands in just one hour... The FSA will consider re-approving him as a broker after the ban, if he has recovered from his alcohol problem, but noted "Mr Perkins poses an extreme risk to the market when drunk".”
– Rowena Mason, The Telegraph, 5:45AM BST 30 Jun 2010
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/energy/oilandgas/7862246/How-a-broker-spent-520m-in-a-drunken-stupor-and-moved-the-global-oil-price.html



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Saturday, May 15, 2010

Autumn Stargazer [Today's News Poem, May 15, 2010]

Autumn Stargazer [Today's News Poem, May 15, 2010]

I panicked. I drank it. I sucked up the river.
The jungle was slimy, the ocean was salty,
The desert was arid; I lounged on the prairie.
I burped up the bones of the fish in the ocean.
The plankton consumed it, I'm certain they flourished.
And somewhere a creature subsists on my garbage.
I'm certain that something evolves in the sewer.
I claw through the mountains in search of my succor
In baubles; like rubies and diamonds. The treasure
In heaps in my pasture looks heady. The seasons
Are changing. My belly is full, but the omens
Are certain. I ponder my fate from my vista—
The oak—and I notice the cosmos are shining.

“On Friday there was renewed panic selling and the euro slid to an 18-month low against the dollar after reports that French president Nicolas Sarkozy threatened to pull his country out of the single currency to force Germany to agree to the multi-billion rescue plan. Trichet said: "There is always the danger of contagion in the market. And this can happen very quickly, sometimes within a few hours."”
– Julia Kollewe, The Observer, Sunday 16 May 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/may/16/european-central-bank-president-warns-crisis-war

“A $1 trillion rescue package unveiled at the week's start gave only temporary relief to investors, who are increasingly worried about the impact of the crisis on the global recovery and the euro. ”
– Caroline Valetkevitch, Reuters, May 14, 2010 8:48pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64D6NL20100515

“Four East African states have signed an agreement to seek more water from the River Nile - a move strongly opposed by Egypt and Sudan. ”
– BBC, 16:18 GMT, Friday, 14 May 2010 17:18 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8682387.stm

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