Nautical Superstitions

Swallows seen at sea are a good sign.

Swallows are a land based bird and seeing them at sea implies that land is near and your prospects are clear.

Pirate Motivation

Nautical Superstitions

A cormorant sighted at sea is bad luck.
The Cormorant In the picture is eating a pike, for those of you who don't know, pikes will mess you up. So the fact that the bird is OWNING the pike, it's beyond badass.

Pirate Barbie

Pirate Barbie? yes, Pirate Barbie. Created in 2007 for the collector's market.

Pirates in the News, August 13, 2008

Not much in the news this week,

The Associated Press reported that a US Sloop stopped a pirate attack in the Gulf of Aiden.

India doesn't have enough courts to deal with intellectual property piracy:

Take the case of Madala Krishna Prasad who was arrested on charges of video piracy in Ongole on July 22, 2008.

He was remanded in judicial custody the next day. But when the bail petition was moved by his counsel, the judge expressed his helplessness as the case did not fall under his jurisdiction.

Then the counsel, K Venkata Reddy, moved another bail petition before the additional chief metropolitan magistrate court, which is the designated court for such offences. He rejected to hear the petition because the remand was in a different court.

Good to know if you're planning an international piracy ring, or just want to download Wall-E.
And finally, a public interest piece in the vein of the finest of news digesting. In Beaufort, North Carolina, they re-enacts the Spanish invasion of 1747.

In August 1747, Beaufort's population was hardly the size it is today, but when Spanish privateers invaded the harbor, a local militia, joined by townsfolk and farmers, was there to fight them off.

"When the (pirates) came back, they were ready," said Beaufort resident Helen Mason, recalling the history of her hometown.

A reenactment of that day was resurrected Saturday in downtown Beaufort, with a warmer welcome for the pirates that took over the town.

The Beaufort Pyrate Invasion, an event last held in 1983, returned with a pirate invasion on water that drew a crowd to the shoreline along Taylors Creek and a pirate encampment at the Beaufort Historic Site that put the pirates on display.

While a few pirates were captured as the town again held off its invaders by water, most wandered freely around town as they posed for pictures with visitors to the event and gave demonstrations for the public.

Nautical Superstitions

Don’t start a voyage on the second Monday in August.
This is the day sondom & gommrrah was destroyed.

Pirate Booty: the Whydah

The wreck of the Whydah was discovered a good twenty years ago and has yielded literally tons of treasure. This ABC report has pretty neat video of the recovery efforts. Also, children with eye-patches, oh abc.

lolcat

Pirate Comics: Galveston

BOOM! Studios announces its latest mini-series, GALVESTON, a swashbuckling historical epic based on true events where cowboys and pirates collide, written by Tom Peyer and Mark Rahner and featuring interior art by Greg Scott.

Series editor Mark Waid said, "When publisher Ross Richie told me that the famous French pirate Jean Lefitte--true story--lived his later years in Galveston, Texas with his best friend, frontier legend Jim Bowie, inventor of the Bowie knife, I was gobsmacked. First off, I honestly thought that Jean Lafitte was the pirate who fought Cap'n Crunch. Second, the notion of Galveston being a Deadwood-type town run by a mad pirate had me screaming, 'put this on the schedule right away! Why am I not already reading this book?' "

Pirates In the News, July

All right, I know, a month? yes, a month, my bad.

Here's a healthy helping of pirate news, me hearties.

Firstly, this made me very sad because I am a big fan of DIY awesome.

Courts in Vancouver made a man take down his pirate ship treehouse.
Come On!

"The tree house built by Dewberry, an architect, sits two metres up a large, leafy tree in front of the family's home in the tony Kerrisdale neighbourhood of Vancouver. It comes complete with plastic cannons sticking out the ship's side.

But Judge Conni Bagnall said in her ruling Friday that the merits of the tree fort were irrelevant to the charge that it was in violation of city bylaws."

This was apparently part of a feud with a neighbor, which seems to be the leading cause of the murder of awesome treehouses.

In substantive political news, The US Navy has stepped up its patrols of Somali waters.

Along with the international presence has been increased across the board and it is estimated that armed attacks on cruise ships and oil tankers in the area cost $1 Billion a year.

Meanwhile in Puntland, a semi-autonomous part of Somalia, elders have stood up and demanded that local pirates release a ship of Philippine sailors captured.

Lastly for this edition, Ye Olde Velocity Circus Pirate Academy, which teaches children about pirates and how they lived during the Golden Age of Piracy is up and running for this year, making me consider moving to San Fransisco and posing as a schoolchild.

Nautical Superstitions

Sighting a curlew at sea is considered bad luck.

lolcat