Dolphins=Badasses

Here's a story that drives home that dolphins are awesome.

A Dolphin was observed saving whales from looming death. A mother and calf had beached themselves on a New Zealand beach and a dolphin, Moko, showed them how to escape their doom.

“Moko just came flying through the water and pushed in between us and the whales,” Juanita Symes, another rescuer, told the Associated Press. “She got them to head toward the hill, where the channel is. It was an amazing experience.”

I'm glad to hear a story of dolphins helping their family out, for those that don't know, the cetation group is only distinguished between porpoise, dolphin and whale by rather arbitrary size distinctions, they're all the same kind of creature.

Why I Blog: a Meme

Famed Medievalist and Pirate Fan, Jennifer Lynn Jordan of Per Omnia Saecula tagged me in this meme and I would be remiss if I did not post it. I'd also be remiss if I did not board and sink her various enemies, no matter how land-locked, in the cause of friendship, but I digress.

So here are the rules.

Repeat the meme rules.
Give three reasons why you blog.
Tag three bloggers to continue.

Let the Meme Begin!

1. The first reason I blog is because I love pirates and have spent several years studying them and writing about them in ways that don't lead to a degree and while there was a chance of my work being published, it now seems unlikely. I was part of a group who put together some internal documents for a popular pirate trilogy that came out recently but that I have to refer to indirectly for legal reasons and while they held out the carrot that our work might be delivered to the hands of the pirate-loving populace, I despair at the hope that my name will be published on that particular piece of work. Therefore I have taken my love of pirates and not-un-significant 3 years of research and bring it to your, me hearties.

2. In my travels through the web searching for pirate sources, I did not find a blog that covered piracy and pirates in a broad way that incorporated: multiple epochs of time, modern piracy, piratical themes, movies, video games, internet resources, news, or events. I hope I'm helping to fill the void for those who enjoy pirates and who are searching for information both piratical and engaging.

3. The third reason I blog is personal, I'm a freelancer and I spend a lot of my time working from home, taking care of my one-year-old first mate, the notorious pirate, Beatrix of the Stinky Pants. I often have days where I haven't got a deadline bearing down on me and writing about Pirates and the High Seas is fun for me.

I hope you all like this blog and that you're getting something from reading it. Any ideas how I might improve the blog or something you'd like to see me cover, I'd love to talk to you about it.

I hereby tag the Occasional Superheroine, Abundibot at the Daily Kos, and You, the reader whose blog I have yet to read! post your link in the comments section and I will read it with a vengence.

Antigua and the Pirate Bay

Ususally I don't report on intellectual property piracy, but my love of Temporary Autonomous Zones and Pirate Utopias provokes me to throw this news into the mix.

Antigua is holding out its hands to The Pirate Bay as a data haven, creating a nation that does not recognize copyright laws.

The World Trade Organization awarded the tiny island nation the right to ignore American copyright laws last December if negotations [between the US and Antigua over Antigua's lucrative online gambling business] fail.

Antigua has a rich pirate history and it's no shock that they are parlaying the independance and free-thinking of their heretage into the modern era.

From G4, Antiqua Threatens to Host Pirates

From ValleyWag, Antiqua could offer Pirate Bay safe harbor

Burning Pirate, Ahoy!

Hey there Puerto Ricans, this weekend there's the first Burning Pirate Party, which should be awesome. Two years ago I was down on Vieques for the International Pirates Convention, AHRRRCON, and some of the same folks are putting this on.

Pirate Links- BBC Documentary on Pirates

The BBC has a great documentary on Pirates going on right now;

It's being released in multiple parts including past piracy, modern pirates and intellectual piracy.

Check it out here.

Nautical Supersitions

The First Day of April is supposed to be the day that Cain slew Abel, it is unlucky to start a voyage on April 1.

Pirates in the News! March 21, 2008

Most of the pirate news this week comes out of Nigeria where piracy has been increasing in the past several months.

Nigeria is Africa's largest producer of oil and has a correlating high incidence of piracy feeding off of it. Officials are saying that the recent rise in pirate activity is because of a decrease in security in the region.

"Before, it was maybe one death every two months or once in a fortnight, but five deaths in five different locations and five different companies?" says Paul Kirubakaran, managing director of the Seabless fishing company, whose boats are among the 200 shrimp and fishing vessels docked in Nigeria's commercial capital since a strike began in January. "When people are killed like this how can we ask them to go back [to sea]?"

With the increase in piracy there are also increased reporting of raids and other incidents around the coast of Nigeria. Such as this raid against pirates last week.

"We have been receiving reports of robberies on that route, so we positioned our men. This morning, unknown to the pirates, our men were around the area when they tried to rob some passenger boats and we engaged them in a long gun battle."

In Somalia the Svitzer Korsakov and its crew was released by its pirate captors:

A local government official says the British captain, Irish engineer and four Russian crew aboard the Svitzer Korsakov are all "safe and healthy" after being held for more than a month.

Ahmed Said Aw-Nur, ports minister in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region of northeast Somalia, says the ship was freed after its Danish owner "negotiated with the criminals and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for ransom."

The Canadian Press reports that the hostages were released after a ransom of $700,000 was paid.

Pirate Links- Lost Liners

Check out Lost Liners it has a repository of epic tales of lost ships at sea. It's moody and filled with interesting tidbits.

Pirates in the (local) News! March 21, 2008

A mock pirate ship in the Virgin Islands sank as its owners were trying to move it.


In Greenville County, North Carolina, the area is being invaded by Painted Pirates, gearing up for the city's PirateFest. The Statues will be on the streets April 12. Check out the Slideshow here.

In Paris, Ferdinand Herold's ``Zampa ou la Fiancee de Marbre'' (Zampa or the Marble Bride) has been excavated from history. The opera was immensely popular in the 19th century. From its premiere in 1831 through World War I, it clocked up 694 performances at the Opera Comique alone, not to mention productions across Europe.It is playing at the Opera Comique, Paris, through March 21. For more information, go to http://www.opera-comique.com

ack!

This commercial eats my brain, but has pirates.