MetaFilter posts tagged with pirates

Cutthroat Capitalism

gman — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:35:28 -0800

WIRED contributing editor Scott Carney interviewed an ocean-going hijacker for his story on the economics of Somali piracy. Cutthroat Capitalism: The Game

16 men on a dead bloggers chest...

happyroach — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 15:58:09 -0800

Reports spread around the internet about an offer by a Russian company to do pirate hunting cruises off the coast of Somalia. The news garners a swarm of comments and outrage, and it looks like we have the beginnings of a snowballing controversy. The only problem is, the "cruise" is a hoax. The website for the cruise itself has no contact information, and a little digging reveals the humor website it originally came from. So rather than a searing indictment of decadent millionaires or amoral Russians, this seems to be an indication of how incestuous and self-referential the internet is, and how poor fact-checking can be in the brave new world of blogs. Is this the true face of internet reporting?

Once Rapture starts leaking, the old girl's never gonna stop.

The Whelk — Sun, 31 May 2009 11:30:38 -0800

The Seasteading Institute (previously) is the brain-child of former Google engineer Patri Friedman , and seeks to set up independent governments in international waters. In April 2009, the institute received $500,000 of seed funding from PayPal founder Peter Thiel. After reading it's revised manifesto, Brad Reed (of Sadly, No) remains unimpressed. "The seasteaders briefly address the threat of piracy by explaining that "most pirate attacks are either very small-scale, preying on unarmed ships, or very large-scale, with organized groups stealing entire cargo ships. A seastead will be too tough for small pirates and not financially worthwhile for big ones." Really! An entire sea platform filled with highly profitable illegal drugs would not be financially worthwhile for pirates to attack! Good luck with that."

Wait... No Pirate Vs. Ninja?!

Bageena — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:09:13 -0800

Haven't you always secretly wondered what would happen if a ninja accidentally stumbled into, say, Bill and Ted's time traveling Phone Booth and ended up somewhere around 7th century BC, only to come face-to-face with a feisty Spartan? Have you not pondered what would happen if you locked up an Apache with a Gladiator inside some sort of 21st century battle dome? Are you frustrated because you feel like there's nobody doing proper scientific studies to see what would happen when you pit two historically violent warriors that could have never actually met in real life? Worry no more people - I present to you Spike TV's newest offering - Deadliest Warrior! The show basically goes like this; you take two crazy fighters who, previous to the show, have only been pitted against one another in heated debates between young men in line for the midnight showing of the newest X-Men movie (or really awesome drunk people). The show's 'Host, Simulation Consultant, and Blogger', Max Geiger brings in experts representing each warrior. The experts bring in weapons that are historically accurate which are then tested on a variety of dummies that are stuffed with SCIENCE! The data from said SCIENCE! all goes into a computer simulation based on an unreleased commercial game engine by these guys. Not just the SCIENCE!, which is actually pretty cool (ballistics gel, pig carcasses, high speed photography), but also, as Max aptly put it: "The simulation's inputs include real world scientific data gathered by one of my co-hosts, Geoff Desmoulin, who is getting his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering. Our number crunching is balanced out by Dr. Armand Dorian, an ER doctor who keeps our work firmly grounded in the actual trauma our tests cause." The reviews are in! Variety seems to feel it might be possibly the stupidest show ever, appealing only to the lowest common denominator! Newsarama was a little nicer, pointing out that there are some people on the show trying to make it as scientific as it can possibly be, while also having a great time. Either way, do you care? Don't you want to watch a Viking fight a Samurai? Or a Pirate against a Knight? You can apparently only watch the latest episode on the website, here. Also, looking forward on the Wikipedia, it does look like the show might slip-slide from whatever tenuous grasp they have on ideas for fights as they start doing shows about William Wallace versus Shaka Zulu or finally, the IRA versus the Taliban. I have only one thought. How could they have NOT had a Pirate versus Ninja episode? FAIL!

The Singing Nerd

Effigy2000 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 21:35:10 -0800

The Singing Nerd is a guy who likes to write, play, and record songs about the things that he likes and then post music videos on Youtube. Most of these songs are about nerdy things, such as The Ballad of Catan, a song simply entitled Chess! and a song about Role Playing. But there's also songs about things we can all relate to, like Fast Food Commercials, A Trip To Las Vegas and... um... Pirates?. Hmmm. Anyway, check out the rest of his songs here.

The pirates could only lament their littleness befor the vast number of dolphins

hermitosis — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 07:35:20 -0800

Thousands of dolphins block Somali pirates

Avast ye!

Horace Rumpole — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 15:12:44 -0800

Professor Mills Kelly of George Mason University had his History 389 class spend the fall semester on a class project about the intriguing figure of Edward Owens, the "Last American Pirate". They blogged about their research, made videos for YouTube, and gave Owens a Wikipedia entry. The story even got some media attention. There was just one problem: History 389 was a class on historical hoaxes, and Edward Owens was their fictional creation. Professor Kelly actually warned readers of his blog in advance that the hoax would be coming, and argued that "we need to be playful sometimes in the study of history and that this course is a good way to do just that, even as we do some serious learning along the way." But others question the costs that the class's learning experience might have for the rest of us. There's a good article at the Chronicle of Higher Education if you have subscriber access. (Via).

Puntland

JVA — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 07:38:03 -0800

Visit beautiful Puntland! "You can find more or less everything in Puntland: mountains, wide beaches, clean lakes, deep forests, world-class historic monuments, and friendly people." Enjoy a traditional Somali breakfast over the daily paper. If you plan on an extended visit, consider taking a course at good ol' PSU.

We're Only In It For the Money

Marisa Stole the Precious Thing — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 12:25:34 -0800

Somali pirates have captured a Saudi oil tanker, demanding a $25 million ransom. Somali pirates are well known and active - as of 30 September, 12 vessels remained captive and under negotiation with more than 250 crew being held hostage. But this time they may have gone too far: by capturing a ship of a Muslim nation, the pirates have drawn the ire of Somali Islamist fighters, who have vowed to combat the pirates. The pirates say they're just doing it for the cash, while some report they're living large. Who are Somalia's pirates anyway?

Yo-ho-ho

gman — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:02:25 -0800

Piracy may be on the rise, but it's never really gone away. Each pin in the first link contains an incident report.

'Our sources say it contains chemicals, dangerous chemicals'

VicNebulous — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:53:33 -0800

A tense standoff has developed in waters off Somalia over an Iranian merchant ship laden with a mysterious cargo that was hijacked by pirates. Somali pirates suffered skin burns, lost hair and fell gravely ill "within days" of boarding the MV Iran Deyanat. Some of them died.

Avast, Ye Scurvy Homophobes!

EmpressCallipygos — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:58:56 -0800

On September 19th, the Westboro Baptist Church planned a protest outside the National Conference of Editorial Writers, claiming that they were "responsible for the satanic milieu in this evil land" and for assisting the "satanic agendas" of "baby-killers and fags." But September 19th also happened to be International Talk Like a Pirate Day. And thus, a group of local residents were inspired to stage an effective, and entertaining, counterprotest.

No, it won't have the pirate comic...

Artw — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:00:58 -0800

Who watches The Watchmen? Kevin Smith has, Dave Gibbons has, Alan Moore won't (Gibbons hopes he'll watch the DVD), and if Fox has its way maybe YOU won't either.

Talk like a Lanun!

loquacious — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:30:38 -0800

Bored with Talk Like A Pirate Day? Investigate the real thing in the Straits of Malacca with National Geographic.

And mark well my words, mateys. Dead men tell no tales...

Katemonkey — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:34:55 -0800

Ye come seeking adventure and salty old pirates, aye? Sure you've come to the proper place. But keep a weather eye open, mates - and hold on tight, with both hands, if you please! There be squalls ahead, and Davy Jones waiting for them what don't obey!

Zombies, Pirates, Buffalo, Ninjas

carsonb — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 13:06:59 -0800

The Fuzzwich mini-vid widgit lets you build easy little animations.

Arrr?

Burhanistan — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:16:28 -0800

Introducing rPhone - Industry insiders at PiratePalooza have the specs on the first iPhone killer.

Pirate myths...they're drivin' me nuts.

nasreddin — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 20:18:27 -0800

Pirate myths debunked. Slate's Explainer attacks your favorite pirate stereotypes: walking the plank, saying "arrr." Not a myth: pirate republics. Pirates formed egalitarian mini-states based upon utopian values, a prime reason for their brutal suppression by European authorities.

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good God would permit us to be pirates.

monju_bosatsu — Wed, 30 May 2007 16:03:47 -0800

An-arrgh-chy: The Law and Economics of Pirate Organization. [alternate link] To effectively organize their banditry, pirates required mechanisms to prevent internal predation, minimize crew conflict, and maximize piratical profit. [ssrnfilter]

"..." (I'm miming it)

meech — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:42:26 -0800

Why do people hate mimes ? First you should get to grips with the history then get into a mime version of 9/11. Follow it up with an interpretation of Camus's The Outsider and Daniel Reyes's Mimes of the Caribbean. End your lesson with Mime World.

Conan O'Brien HD Bumpers!

myopicman — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 07:42:29 -0800

Late Night with Conan O'Brien Bumper Art Site, mostly from HD TV screencaps. [Personal faves: 1, 2, 3.]

Kinda like Tailspin, but as a game...

Navelgazer — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 15:58:30 -0800

Skyrates, pronounced like "pirates," is a new flash game currently open for beta testing. Designed by a group of seven students at Carnegie Mellon University, the concept was to create an MMORPG that you could simply check on every few hours throughout the day, like you would with your e-mail. The outcome is a simple but enveloping, and somewhat silly game that manages to be addictive as hell while only taking up a few minutes per day. (plus it's free.)

Be thrifty, kind and a good MPAA brainwashing canidate.

IronLizard — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 21:46:10 -0800

The MPAA has come up with a new way to stop pirating early (PDF), let the scoutmasters drill it into the kids while their brains are still malleable. via

Rated...oh, nevermind

kosher_jenny — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 13:12:06 -0800

Pyrats! In celebration of today being that day, here's a very well-made cartoon short from a group of students from the French animation school Gobelins. Be sure to check out the making of page for character designs, and some great shorts from the crew showing their process.

Here is my website full of things that are not quite good enough to be put into books and sold for actual money. You will see that I have cleverly given the site a serious looking title, so you can re

drezdn — Wed, 05 Jul 2006 15:47:50 -0800

Pirates! in an Adventure With The Internet Author Gideon Defoe offers the missing link between ham and piracy in his hilarious Pirates! novels. Feel free to thrill at the marvelously dry NPR interview