The one of the big big fish picture&news,hings

Part One of a Sweet Scene in the Great Fairy-tale-like Movie Big Fish

Big Fish” scours lakes and rivers in search of that one big fish.  Both entertaining and educating the audience on the type of gear, equipment, boat, and techniques that are needed to put the “big ones” in the boat. We not only feature some of the top guides and tournament pros, but also those crafty “old-timers” with decades of experience chasing the big guys. We will leave no stone un-turned, and no spot un-fished as we bring the excitement of these big fish to the living room.
The 

Friday night fish story

THOMAS TON  — The Friends of the Thomaston Public Library presents a weekly series of films in Room 208 of the Thomaston Academy Building, 60 Main St./Route 1. Summer screenings take place Fridays at 7 p.m.

The movies for July have Just for Laughs as their theme and will conclude July 29 with "Big Fish." In this Tim Burton fantasy based on the novel by Daniel Wallace, William Bloom (Billy Crudup) tries to learn more about his dying father, Edward, by piecing together disparate facts from a lifetime of fantastical tales and legends of epic proportions. Ewan McGregor co-stars as the young Edward, a traveling salesman, with Albert Finney playing him as an older man. Helena Bonham Carter and Steve Buscemi also star.

The PG-rated movie was released in 2003 and runs 125 minutes. Admission is free, but donations are appreciated. The academy building is handicap accessible by the elevator off the parking lot in back. The Hallway Books bookshop on the first floor is open before each movie. For more information, call the library at 354-2453.

The Big Fish Small Pond problem

Speaking at the Institute for New Economic Thinking annual conference in New Hampshire today, Andrew Haldane – Executive Director for Financial Stability – discusses a number of public policy questions which arise as a result of observed and potential future international capital flows.

Andrew Haldane begins by stating that there is a tension between the speed with which emerging market economies’ capital markets are widening and deepening and the extent to which international investors are seeking to diversify their portfolios to spread risk and boost returns. He calls this the Big Fish Small Pond (BFSP) problem. He says any imbalance between the rates at which international capital is distributed and absorbed could “...cause ripples right across the international monetary system”. As an example, he notes that last year’s flow of capital into emerging markets was large relative to some emerging asset markets. This caused “bubbly behaviour in emerging asset markets” and public policy responses ranging from capital flow restrictions to macro-prudential measures.

That leads Andrew Haldane to consider whether these ripples might be expected to rise or fall in the future. He constructs simple illustrations to consider whether portfolio diversification will outpace deepening in emerging markets over future decades. He explores two key factors that influence the result. First, the extent to which the current degree of ‘home bias’ among advanced economy investors is eroded over time. Second, the changing size of emerging market economies’ capital markets compared with developed economies. He says that: “Taken together, these projections do not suggest a dissipation of the BFSP problem. More likely, they suggest it could intensify.” Relative to market size, peak inflows could easily be twice as large as those seen in the past. That is a recipe for financial instabilities.

The big big Fish Picture this All........

Andrew Haldane turns finally to consider what the public policy response might be to the emerging BFSP problem. He suggests some of these responses would have been frowned upon by many international policymakers in the past. But times have changed and the BFSP scenario raises new policy questions for developed countries, including what role capital controls, financial deepening and macro-prudential measures might play. He concludes: “Capital restrictions and macro-prudential policies have entered the policy bloodstream, if not yet the mainstream. The debate today is how best to integrate such tools into established macroeconomic policy frameworks.” This might require new international “rules of the financial road” for global finance.

A rendition of Big Fish, by Daniel Wallace, done for a high school project.

Big fish numbers dwindling:

The population breakdown in the world's oceans is changing dramatically, with big fish numbers dropping while smaller fish become more plentiful, according to a new study.

Villy Christensen, a researcher at the University of British Columbia Fisheries Centre, says that means predators like tuna, cod and swordfish have seen their numbers drop by two-thirds over the past century, while small prey fish such as herring, caplin and anchovies have doubled.

He compares it to human beings visiting Africa's Serengeti region, seeing gazelles and antelopes everywhere, and wondering where the lions are.

"With the big predators gone, the population of prey species would soar. The underwater is an ecosystem just like the Serengeti, where you have predators and prey and a big complex food web.

Fish tastes must change

The solution could include encouraging humans to try more eco-friendly fish such as sablefish, albacore tuna, mackerel or sardines, says marine biologist Mike McDermid.

He's the program manager for the Ocean Wise conservation project at the Vancouver Aquarium, and works with restaurants and the seafood industry to get consumers to stop chowing down on overfished species such as orange roughy and bluefin tuna.

"We need to get away from our traditional tastes a bit — always eating the same thing, always focusing on those big, predatory species — to open up to some new cuisine," McDermid said.

In food lingo, that means eating lower down on the food chain in an attempt to right the underwater imbalance of predator and prey.

Part Two of a Sweet Scene in the Great Fairy-tale-like Movie Big Fish
see that all of you......