Good news! You can now earn a certification in piracy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. One of the first crop of official pirates, Jacob Hurwitz, showed up for his interview with the Boston Globe "wearing a pirate hat, eye patch, earring, knickers, and a stuffed parrot on his shoulder." So you know it's official. (Via Kevin Zelnio)

  • sharkmark

    Is there some torrent site where I can download the certificate so I don’t need to spend $50,000+ just to hang out there?  It’s easy to embrace piracy when your bursar’s office sends out big bills. 

    • Jonathan Badger

      I’m all for free online education (and so is MIT, who has been offering free videos of courses for years and now with MITx, even full online courses with virtual labs and assignments). But this is really about making physical education fun at a school where (at least according to stereotype) the students are out-of-shape computer nerds. Fencing and sailing don’t lend themselves to online education.

    • http://www.lightning-rose.com/ LightningRose

       If you really fancy yourself a pirate, just steal the damned certificate!

  • jennybean42

    “Any student who completes courses in pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing is considered a pirate.”

    …wow, so oldschool piracy, not the bittorrent kind.

    • Antinous / Moderator

      No grog-mixing or sodomy?  Pathetic.  And in this era of high unemployment, would it have killed him to hire a live parrot?

    • TimRowledge

      Hmm, only need the sailing cert and I’m done… wonder if they consider axe throwing or garotte experience as a substitute? 

  • howaboutthisdangit

    Who wants to bet that they’ll get a DMCA takedown notice from a mediabot?

  • Nonentity

    It’s good to know that MIT is taking the serious steps necessary to combat Global Warming.

    http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/PiratesVsTemp%28en%29.svg