Pirates in the News! January 17, 2008

According to a new study Columbus Carried Syphilis from the New World to Europe
researchers using the genetic markers in syphilis have found evidence that supports the idea that frisky sailors carried the disease from America to Europe. The Spanish Pox (also known as the English Pox, French Pox, Italian Pox and "Various Other Country we dislike at the time" Pox) appeared in its modern sexually transmitted form approximately 3 years after Columbus first returned from his expeditions.

This new research also says that it may have been transmitted non-sexually before it mutated into its modern form. Meaning the jury is still out on where syphilis originated.

For those of you saying eww, just be glad I didn't post pictures of sores, very gross.


You may remember that I reported on the Sea Shepard Alliance's efforts to attack whalers off Antarctica, this has taken an interesting turn as two of the environmentalists have been taken hostage by Japanese whalers.

Hideki Moronuki, the Japanese Fisheries Agency's chief of whaling, said the two anti-whaling activists taken aboard the Japanese ship would not be released unless Sea Shepherd stopped "dangerous and illegal activities".

The two men - Australian Benjamin Potts and Briton Giles Lane - have been held on the Japanese whaling ship the Yushin Maru No.2 since yesterday.

Sea Shepherd has said the men were trying to deliver a protest letter to the Japanese crew.

"The ICR (Institute of Cetacean Research) is ready to release the two intruders provided that full security can be secured for our research vessel. Sea Shepherd is a very violent organisation," Moronuki said.

What a twist, right?