Paging autopope

[bellinghman]

BBC: Billions stolen in online robbery

Space trading game Eve Online has suffered a virtual version of the credit crunch.

One of the game's biggest financial institutions lost a significant chunk of its deposits as a huge theft started a run on the bank.

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

So long as there's eternal growth, a lot of sharp practice never gets spotted.

When the economy goes into reverse, a lot of interesting things pop up. In the wider world, Madoff is the prime example, but it looks like Sir Allen Stanford may also be finding chickens coming home to roost.

(What actually is that idiom about? Why is 'chickens coming home to roost' a bad thing? Would anyone want them disappearing forever?)

[sharikkamur.livejournal.com]

The sense of the phrase exists in Chaucer's The Parson's Tale

And ofte tyme swich cursynge wrongfully retorneth agayn to hym that curseth, as a bryd that retorneth agayn to his owene nest.

and seems to suggest that evil deeds will come back to haunt you, much as chickens always return to their roosts.

With thanks to www.phrases.org.uk :)

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Ah, one of those really old metaphors which has lost its flesh over the centuries.