Interesting Facts

According to Bloomberg, the computer trading error that cost Knight Capital, the US market maker $440m (£282m) (see IF 9th Auguts 2012) can be blamed on disused software. (On August 1, the dormant system was accidentally reactivated when a new program was installed. As a result stock trades were multiplied by 1,000, causing wild swings in the share prices of almost 150 companies. So, now we know. The big question is, what are we going to do about it?)

According to AC Nielsen, a marketing research firm, the British pie market is worth £229 million a year. (The traditional steak, and steak and kidney pies are still Britain's favourites, but you can also buy more sophisticated varieties; including Aberdeen Angus minced steak with stilton, chicken and Wiltshire ham, and even lamb and mint pies. References to 'pyes' as a food have been noted in English and Latin literature from as early as the 12th century and the full description of a pie as we would know it appears in books of the 14th century.) You can read more about British food here. Source

A Japanese restaurateur at Japan's Tsukiji fish market has paid nearly three-quarters of a million dollars for a single tuna. (This is the most ever paid for this endangered species; bluefin tuna. The beautiful animal weighed 269-kilogramme (592-pound), which means it cost a whopping 210,000 yen per kilogramme. It was caught off the coast of Japan's northern Aomori prefecture. Japan consumes three-quarters of the global catch of bluefin, a highly prized sushi ingredient known in Japan as "kuro maguro" (black tuna) and dubbed by sushi connoisseurs the "black diamond" because of its scarcity. Of course tuna is often loaded with mercury and a mix of nasty industrial chemicals such as dioxins, pesticides and PCBs, which have been dumped in our seas and oceans, and with the risk of contamination from the nuclear waste swept away in the Tsunami, this fish may have the last laugh.)