Caraccioli

I actually got that one out of the photo archive here. It sort of reminds me of the Buffet song One Particular Harbour.

D'oh! Yet I can give you all the quotes from Caddyshack and Kung Fu Hustle. Magnificent things, our brains...almost chaotic the way they work. "I can see it now: you and the moon - wear a necktie so I'll know you." (The Cocoanuts) So I was talking to my friend Joe, who is a computer software engineer at a college 'round near these parts, and explaining the language that they are developing for quantum computers. (Rather imaginatively named QCL - You can download it here if that entertains you.) Anyhow, I sent him an email entitled Geez! It even has to have its' own language!, the text of which contained the above link and "You should have studied calculus harder." This was sort of a joke between us. He hated Calculus and barely scraped through the only class he took, while I wandered through four classes worth without quite so much trouble. His response was "According to quantum theory, I simultaneously did and did not study calculus harder. It's only when you give me a calculus test that it appears I did not study it much at all." Collapsing the grade function!

Privateers sometimes turned to piracy. The letter of the marque gave the privateer the "right" to plunder selected nation's ships on behalf of the issuing nation. When the privateers could find no ships of that nation, some took whatever they ships they could find, regardless of nationality. Thus a privateer could turn pirate. (This has no reflection on the government issuing the letter of the marque, however.) Also, keep in mind that one nation's privateer was another nation's pirate. The Spanish thought of English privateers as nothing more than pirates with paperwork. ("Pirates with Paperwork" would make a fine short story topic.) Using privateers is actually a pretty good strategy for a fledgling nation. Low cost, possible destruction of the enemy. In fact, it's a pretty good strategy for any nation who is at war. One thought occurs to me, though: The US could not truly have privateers until they became an independent nation. Before then, they have no ability to issue valid letters of marque. (Also, I seem to recall hearing...somewhere...that US issued letters of the marque were not given much credence in the late 18th century. I can't back that up, though.) I do think it's a long stretch to say that the US was founded by pirates. Certain corrupt governors, landowners, portmasters and whatnot did profit richly from the activity of piracy because the US had little ability to stop it, given their limited waterborne military. But that's an individual act, not a unified government-focused effort. I guess you could argue that the sum of the individual acts helped found the government, but that seems pretty weak - the corrupt citizens probably kept most of their ill-gotten booty. The government had bigger fish to fry until the 19th century, when they began to deal with piracy in earnest.

You should definitely see Key West before it changes again. Then you can complain about how, "It's not the way it used to be! When I first came here, etc. etc. etc." Key West is the most polymorphic place I've ever been. Reading its history, I've discovered that this has been pretty well true since the Carib indians wandered down there to battle the mosquitos.

Collapsing the wave function. That sounds very familiar - I believe I have read about it. (Although clearly I didn't understand it very well because this all sounds new.) The realization of Feynman's quantum computer deals in qubits! The man probably would have been appalled to find that they called them that. ___________________ "The length of the ark shall be 300 cubits; the breadth of it 50 cubits, and the height of it 30 cubits."

Articles. All the best pirate ships had them.

Caddyshack Black Jack, you at least have to guess before posting a quote. This is what got Diego all confused the first time. Truthfully, it's still Christine's turn.

I didn't when I combined the threads about different people's lines of work in Beyond Pyracy. Right or wrong, it's part of the history of the board and its users, really. I'd just paste 'em together. The board has the really cool ability to sort them by date and allows you to name the thread. I'd help you if I could, but I'm restricted to Beyond Pyracy.

Ah, you dream in the Scooby Doo realm. Ever notice that the sun is never out in the Scooby Doo cartoons? blackjohn...inspired! The Cocoanuts is one of my favorite movies. _________________ "You can have any kind of a home you want. You can even get stucco. Oh, how you can get stucco."

Perhaps the most vivid account of pirate torture I've come across is from an account by Aaron Smith from his book The Atrocities of Pirates which was published in 1824: "[The pirate captain] turned to the man, told him that he should be killed, and therefore advised him to prepare for death or confess himself to any of the crew whom I chose to call aside for that purpose. The man persisted in his plea of innocence, declared that he had nothing to confess and entreated them all to spare his life. They paid no attention to his assertions, but by the order of the captain, the man was put into the [row]boat, pinioned, and lashed to the stern; and five of the crew were directed to arm themselves with pistols and muskets and to go in her. The captain then ordered me to go with them, savagely remarking that I should now see how he punished such rascals, and giving directions to the boat's crew to row for three hours backwards and forwards through a narrow creek formed by a desert island and the island of Cuba. 'I will see,' cried he, exultingly, 'whether the mosquitoes and the sand-flies will not make him confess." "Prior to our leaving the schooner, the thermometer was above ninety degrees in the shade and the poor wretch was now exposed naked to the full heat of the sun. In this state we took him to the channel, one side of which was bordered by swamps full of mangrove trees and swarming with the venomous insects before mentioned. "We had scarcely been half an hour in this place when the miserable victim was distracted with pain. His body began to swell and he appeared one complete blister from head to foot. Often in the agony of his torments did he implore them to end his existence and release him from his misery, but the inhuman wretches only imitated his cries and mocked and laughed at him. In a very short time, from the effects of the solar heat and the stings of the mosquitoes and sand-flies, his face had become so swollen that not a feature was distinguishable. His voice began to fail and his articulation was no longer distinct. ... His appearance at this time was no longer human and my heart bled at seeing a fellow creature thus tormented." ... "On our arrival, his appearance was the source of merriment to all on board and the captain asked if he had made any confession. An answer in the negative gave him evident disappointment and he inquired of me whether I could cure him. [smith was the de facto surgeon, forced into duty by the pirates] I told him he was dying. 'Then he shall see some more of it before he dies,' cried the monster. and directed the boat to b e moored within musket shot in the bay. Thus having been done, he ordered six of the crew to fire at him. The man fell and the boat was ordered alongside. The poor wretch had only fainted and when the perceived that he breathed, a pig of iron was fastened around his neck and he was thrown into the sea." Sort of makes you think twice about the romanticism associated with pirates, doesn’t it?

Ah, but what you could do is use the moderator combine function to combine all the outstanding sword posts into one master sword post, all the various hat posts into a master hat post, etc. Then sticky the master posts at the top. If someone comes along and posts another topic on hats or whatever...combine it to the master sticky post. That way, those posts will still be active and will at least appear on the master page for the forum when they are the last active post. People will then click in from the main page and read it without even realizing it's a sticky post. I think that would be cool so long as you don't have more than four or five sticky posts at the top. (Too many sticky posts are annoying IMHO.)

Yes, Mad Jack and Philip Black (sounds like a rhyme), you are both in essence right, but I am trying to understand why. Of course, the answer to that is quite simple: I can't understand why; that's fundamentally impossible. But then we are all slaves to our paradigms. Plus I'm studying a 45 year old text and I'm curious if we have progressed to the point where we actually do know things that weren't known then. Feynman essentially says two things about the fool's errand I am on: Quantum mechanics is like nothing you've ever seen and cannot be understood in terms of anything you've ever seen. Trying to understand it in terms of what you understand is impossible, so you must accept it theoretically and go on with your life, singing a happy tune, possibly in the key of C. We will (most likely) never be able to predict what's going to happen on a quantum level because we affect things by "observing" (whatever the hell that actually means) them. So understanding quantum mechanics and being able to fully explain it would destroy our understanding of quantum mechanics, as Schrödinger explained.

She nearly did the same thing with an email of mine and, based on recent response, may have actually done so since then. ( ) Two of my three bestest pals on the pyracy site have me marked as a generator of spam. (Can I not take a hint, or what?)

*sigh* Yes, ma'am. I followed along with the frist tape of the third volume and started linking ideas to QM right after posting earlier, but I didn't understand the second tape of the third volume very well. As I mentioned to you (unless you deleted it as spam ), the equations are hard for me to visualize without seeing them in print. Everything behaves in a quantum fashion, except when it doesn't, except of course it does, but we don't realize it. I am immensely enjoying the discussion of Quantum Mechanics (first volume), even though it just sends my little chaotic calculating machine awhirl and atilt.

Well, true theoretical democracy is a side of the geometric shape of true socialism, isn't it? Socialism discusses the ownership of the means of production (the People) and democracy discusses the ownership of the decision-making process (the People). Keep in mind that those of you in the U.S. live in what was designed to be a confederal republic and not a true democracy.

Ok, how? Something must be interacting with the electrons, right? Otherwise it's our act of observing - isn't observing intangible and non-physical? Observing is a mental process involving the thought that I should observe and the self-contained physical elements of my eyes (the targeting system) and my mind (the "engine"). If our act of observation is changing the electons physically, and the act is self-contained and shouldn't interfere...is our mind somehow producing...something tangible? Is this proof of the mind's ability to move things? Are there physical consequences of pure thought? ( Besides the obvious physical consequences...you know what I mean.) Is this why Blackjohn and Christine dream future realities, because pure thought is manifested? It almost sounds like some of the Unitarian doctrine! Do you accept that?

Eric, you bring up such interesting points. Really. I concur that the basic underlying principle is Socialist in nature. It also adopts all the flaws of what we have today in that those that administer such systems get an unequal share. From Philip's articles: "1. Every man shall obey civil Command; the Captain shall have one full share and a half in all Prizes; the Master, Carpenter, Boatswain and Gunner shall have one Share and quarter." From Low's: "1. The Captain is to have two full Shares; the [quarter] Master is to have one Share and one Half; The Doctor, Mate, Gunner and Boatswain, one Share and one Quarter." Socialist in nature, yes. Flawed by human nature, definitely.

It's only secret from the Feds. They're auditing Mission. I'm posting from Brazil now. (I'm protecting my Dread Pirate-ness and the lovely roundness of my post count. We are so enamored with nice round numbers, aren't we just?) Ok, check this out, Duchess. It is true that the probability of electrons passing through one or the other of the two slits is affected by something which the clerics and mystics would call observation. But isn't it, in fact, the effect of the photons contained in the light required to see the electrons and not the act of observation itself? Or am I still missing something here? ______________ "Tah, Tey, Tee, Toe, Too." "Tay, Tey, Tye, Tow, Tyo." "No, no. Round tones. Now, say your line."

That's the same thing blackjohn told me recently. What do you make of me now? _________________ "I'm Pirate Sam. The meanest blood thirstiest Doggone worstiest Shoot 'em up firstiest Pirate to ever sail the Spanish Main."

It's Hitman's turn, but he hasn't been around to post . Try this on for size (If Hitman shows up and trumps me, I'll tell you what it is and we'll all forget I ever posted anything. Ever.): "Well I'll tell you something. This is no longer a vacation. It's a quest. It's a quest for fun. I'm gonna have fun and you're gonna have fun. We're all gonna have so much -effing- fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our GD smiles. You'll be whistling 'Zip-A-Dee Doo-Dah' out of your a-holes! I gotta be crazy! I'm on a pilgrimage to see a moose. Praise Marty Moose!"

Oh, ah, sorry if my comments offend, my friend. I was actually just promoting my childish 1000 word essay here in Twill where it sort of kind of belongs. However, I selfishly placed in my alter-ego's forum - think of it as a quirky place to put it. Good ol' Bucky! I read one of his books and found him to be quite the thimblizing philosopher...all the worlds troubles can be neatly tucked into a small space like the ocean into a thumble without spilling a drop. I'll bet none of you realize that this is where Schultz got the idea for The Great Pumpkin. (I'll bet none of you realize it because it's not true.)

Quirky place? Who would be up to doing such a daft thing as starting a serious discussion in this thread? I mean, really... You know, John, I've tried to write a response to your post up there twice now and failed miserably. So let me settle with this: It's good to have many and various options, but it's also good to limit them and come to some decisive ends. Some lean towards more options, others more decisive ends. Now that's a nice middle ground answer, isn't it just?

I think you would be remiss in writing that. You can rephrase to say something like "There is evidence that life aboard some pirates ships, contrary to popular belief, was well organized and the certain rules were abided by." Then I'd go on to explain what you meant. We have four or five articles that circulate around and we conjecture that this must surely have applied to all pirates, ergo pirates were democratic. Given that each ship was its own little pirate nation, who knows what actually went on in every, or even most, pirate ships. Heck, we don't really even know if they followed their articles or not. Human nature being what it is, we're apt not to follow rules if we can get around them. (BTW, your articles are from Phillip's ship. To see more on the other articles, check out this thread. Note who uses references and who doesn't before you believe everything you read.) Foxe mentioned the Pirates as terrorists thread which is over in the Popular forum. We've been discussing the basic idea there as well. Lastly, I point you to my 1000 Word Pirate Essay which may solve all your problems without further research.