A White Plains, NY federal court eliminated a woman's $460,000 mortgage debt because the paper trail was so messy that the mortgage lender couldn't prove that it actually owned the debt.
In March, PHH Mortgage filed a proof of claim to the debt noting that it was owed $461,263, which included more ... More.
Interactive designer Lauren McCarthy used Arduino to make a wooly torture device hat that she calls the Happiness Hat — it has sensors that detect when you're smiling — when you're not smiling, it sticks a metal spike into your head. Here's a short description from her web site:
An en... More.
Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez,
Boing Boing readers may remember a year ago when the great State of Oregon asserted copyright over the Oregon Revised Statutes, sending take-down notices prohibiting reuse by Justia and Public.Resource.Org. In a shining example of democracy, the legislature hel... More.
Thank goodness someone built a robot that can play Rock Band on the iPhone. I was getting worried sick about it.
Joe Bowers writes:
Rock Band has been released on the iPhone, and even though its a lot of fun, I would rather have something play it for me. Preferably a robot! The light sensor sends... More.
Your nostrils will absolutely not be taking any crap from each other. Scientists have long known about binocular rivalry--a sort-of competition between your eyes. If you control a person's vision so one eye sees one image, and the other eye sees a completely different image, the images won't merge... More.
RSS Feed
What does "PLEASE RING SARAH" mean in their log? Is this a codeword?
I'm curious what differentiates this particular act of piracy with the hundreds of other cases. The fact that they blog?
Anyone else think the SAS/SBS will go in, bang bang bang, no more pirates? US Navy Seals all over again?
If you offer realtime updates on your progress through Pirate Alley then you can't be surprised when pirates jack your vessel. Perhaps I'm insensitive, but such a stunt vastly decreases one's deservingness of sympathy or international aid, too.
Buy the ticket, take the ride.
Maybe spending a little extra cash on a BFG is not such a bad idea when traveling in pirate infested waters. I am sure the pirates would have listened to reason.
Maybe spending a little extra cash on a BFG is not such a bad idea when traveling in pirate infested waters. I am sure the pirates would have listened to Reason.
"We'll be at sea for 8 to 12 days, maybe 14 as we are now getting into the period of transition between the south monsoon and north monsoon, so the trade winds will be less reliable and we may get more light winds. We probably won't have satellite phone coverage until we're fairly close to the African coast, so we may be out of touch for some time." - http://blog.mailasail.com/lynnrival/116
After what the rest of the world has done to overfish and pollute Somali waters with toxic/nuclear waste we deserve whatever crap they give us.
Perhaps I'm insensitive, but such a stunt vastly decreases one's deservingness of sympathy or international aid, too.
No 'perhaps' at all. You might find that you need a little compassion someday if you ever leave mom's basement.
The truly unfortunate thing is that if these folks are like most of the folks I've known who live aboard their boat, they don't truly have that much. Most have sold their houses, their cars...and if it ain't floating on that boat, they don't have it.
Pirates, sadly, don't realise this...and figure they must be independently wealthy -- not realizing that a GPS, an engine and a laptop are all there is to steal -- and there ain't gonna be money for ransom.
Hope that Sarah either rang or was rung, and the wheels are turning to get them safe.
If @#3 above, yeah, it is insensitive...broadasting their position makes them no more deserving of kidnapping than a young woman wearing a miniskirt makes her deserving of whatever crime some drunken creep tries to get away with.
Your comment demonstrates a failure to grasp the scale of both the Indian Ocean and the Internet. Your theory of this couple's disappearance would require a mindblowingly unlikely coincidence.
1.The pirates would require Internet access. Not impossible, but unlikely in the middle of the Indian Ocean on what is likely a stolen, broken down coastal ship when even wealthy yachtsmen still send e-mail and download weather reports via high frequency radio at a baud rate of something considerably less than 1600. The plotting and blogging was likely done by proxy based on coordinates sent in e-mails via radio to a friend or family member at home ("Please Ring Sarah" is probably a reminder to pass along the message to someone not on the e-mail list), as I did for friends on their trans-Atlantic voyage a few months ago: http://tr.im/DgEM
2. Your theory presumes that the pirates stumbled upon on this couple's blog and recognized it as a target of opportunity, or perhaps actively searched for recreational sailors who were reporting their position in the Indian Ocean to rob. Not impossible, but if I were a pirate, it's not how I'd spend my time at sea.
More likely, if in fact this couple are the victims of
pirates, it was a random encounter. If you look at some of the excellent recent reporting on the phenomenon of modern piracy, the common scheme is to hijack a large merchant vessel and then extort a ransom from the owners. Or, in cases when the cargo is something useful or readily salable on the world black market, to steal it and sell it.
In no way is it irresponsible to report one's progress through dangerous waters. If you report your position to people who will sound the alarm when you miss a check in, you're ensuring that someone will notice something is awry within days or hours, rather than weeks later, when you're overdue in port.
To take the attitude "Buy the ticket, take the ride," is no more acceptible in this case than if you were mugged on your way to a late night movie in your hometown after tweeting your plans to your friends.
So why haven't you sent them all your money, then?
So two innocent people should be punished for crimes perpetrated by entire nations? Wow, harsh dude.
Why on earth are we assuming pirates did this? A lot of things can happen to someone in the middle of the freakin ocean, you know. Including a simple loss of Internet access.
re: "Why on earth are we assuming pirates did this?"
well, the pirates say they did it, so that at least points in that direction....
O, minority of commenters here.
Once again the Internet reveals its ability to cloak the morons so they can move amongst the rest of us, dribbling idiocy wherever they go.
Lo, they call themselves "If," yet there is no doubt, and "Individual," but they are legion.
For shame, Internet. For shame.
Honestly, how apocalyptically stupid do you have to be to go anywhere in the vicinity of Somalia with a boat all by yourself?
Just look at this, related story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/somalia/5141937/Rescued-French-yacht-captain-Florent-Lemacon-may-have-died-in-friendly-fire.html
I have a hard time feeling sorry for people that happily blunder into their own Pirate Action Adventure.
I don't know anything about sailing, or life at sea, at all and I am WELL aware of the fact that going anywhere near Somalia with a dingy would be a terrible idea right now.
Oh yeah, attacking complete bystanders is always a legitimate tactic. Where do you live? I want to trash your house, since you're part of a culture that totally deserves it.
Apparently the pirates aren't just going out to sea and wandering around until they see something that looks juicy. An article that I read somewhere recently quoted one of the pirates as saying that they had associates on shore who 'picked out' targets for them.
So the idea that a pirate controller could have spotted the couple's blog and sent a boat out to bring them in isn't completely far-fetched.
Of course, it is equally possible that pirates just stumbled on them. Just as it's equally possible that they weren't snatched by pirates at all but merely ran into one of the many other problems that can affect a small boat at sea.
After what the rest of the world has done to overfish and pollute Somali waters with toxic/nuclear waste we deserve whatever crap they give us.
I'm guessing that after a few years of pirate activity suppressing commercial fishing the fishing off Somalia is among the best in the world right now, and from what I've read of toxic/nuclear waste dumping, it tends to be done as close to the port of origin as the dumpers think they can get away with....which would tend to rule out the Somali coast.
So as well as being loutishly insensitive, you're likely wrong on the facts.
Not sure why pirates would want a wee sailboat - not fast, minimal gear, not much money. Hope they realize their mistake & let those people go.
That said, sailing the red sea is probably, in storm season, almost as dangerous as some of the less spectacular but much more widespread hazards of the world, like driving on the freeway.
The smug types above who dismiss anyone who does anything remotely dangerous are the first to complain when they do something wildly dangerous, like drive a car, and don't get help.
Pretty soon we will find out that they were hiding in the garage the whole time.
took me a second to parse the garden path headline. hope they turn up okay.
RE: ikegently #22
"Pretty soon we will find out that they were hiding in the garage the whole time."
BINGO! You win. Best answer!
How stupid do you have to be to sail into an area that is swarming with pirates? Just look at the ICC's live piracy map and tell me this isn't a bad idea:
http://icc-ccs.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&view=visualization&controller=visualization.googlemap&Itemid=219
RE: arborman
"Not sure why pirates would want a wee sailboat - not fast, minimal gear, not much money. Hope they realize their mistake & let those people go."
Of course they don't want their crappy boat, they want ransom money.
I had a loutishly insensitive, Cheneyesque thought of my own when I just read about this on the Guardian.
Hunt down these 'mother ships' and blow them the fuck up. Fuck them, for preying on the weak and defenseless.
ABC Australia says they've been captured.
@hallpass: The pirates don't need decent internet access in the middle of the seas to do their recon; it is documented that they have intelligence spotters in places like London, checking out shipping info they can publicly obtain and sending tips to Somalia. It's not implausible that one of those could have found the blog and kept an eye on it, letting the pirates know when the prey was approaching.
And @acb
While it might be true that a spotter in England or elsewhere saw the blog and targeted the couple, it doesn't make sense or fit the scheme that these sophisticated pirates off the Somali coast have been using.
The Times article says this was not a wealthy couple. Therefore there would be little likelihood of obtaining a worthwhile ransom.
These hijackings are more like insurance scams. The pirates capture a large merchant ship and then attempt to obtain a ransom from the owners of the vessel and cargo.
I suppose it's plausible that the pirates stalked this couple by following their blog, but it seems unlikely they would go to the risk for a booty that would amount to a paltry sum of cash, some tinned food and booze and some electronic gear that would largely be useless once removed from the sailboat.
Honestly, how apocalyptically stupid do you have to be to admit "I don't know anything about sailing, or life at sea, at all" yet then continue to spout uninformed opinions on the IntarWebs?
If you look at their course, they're about 1000 miles from Somalia. Can you plot a better route for them? It looks to me like they did give Somalia a wide berth.
Honestly, how apocalyptically stupid do you have to be to travel through Kentucky, when there are news reports of a murder in Detroit, less than 1000 miles away!
Anyway, some possibly good news:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,569747,00.html
They may have been spotted. Individual @ #8 - take a look at the faces you condemned. You would have the same attitude if it was your Mom & Dad? Or were you just looking for some controversy?
My thoughts are with them - hopefully everything will work out.
K
Let me be the first to express hope they make it out safe.
"No 'perhaps' at all. You might find that you need a little compassion someday if you ever leave mom's basement."
How Nice to see the staff here hurling insults at the readership.
Sad to see BoingBoing going down the "Tubes"
As for the Story..
Yes, it's mind blowingly stupid to travel in those waters. Come on now.. they have to have been aware of the danger that lurks in those waters.. And Ignored it.
How Nice to see the staff here hurling insults at the readership.
To paraphrase Mel Brooks: Comedy is when strangers are abducted by Somali pirates. Tragedy is when someone is snarky to you on the internet.
Looks like their last contact was at the Seychelles.
This guy took an even wider route...
"The "word" at Chagos was "piracy". Apparently conditions in the Seychelles had deteriorated since I'd left Galle. It was like none of the boats in Chagos wanted to go any farther west. The Cornell waypoint from Chagos To Madagascar passes you well to the North of the Saya bank at about latitude 10 degrees. I decided to cut through at the 13 degree latitude for insurance which gave me more distance from the Seychelles."
http://lucidsalt.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html
Pleasure sailing off the east coast of Africa- what could possibly go wrong? I'm sure these are nice people and all, but sailing through that part of the world these days seems like a bad idea. Good luck to them.
RTFA, people...there are a number of articles there that report the pirates as claiming that they're holding these folks...and another one that says they may have been spotted (hope so).
Antinous is completely within his rights to call insensitivity when he sees it. Anyone who thinks otherwise has obviously not been reading BoingBoing for very long. Why should Antinous be happy-ass just because he's a moderator, especially when given such a mind-blowingly insensitive comment such as was posted?
Got news for you, folks -- this couple are in good company on their trek around the world. Nobody has numbers, as there isn't any body that tracks it, but there are tens of thousands of people living on their boat and making their way around the world at any given time...since there are only two ways around the coast of Africa (and it's winter in one of them) -- you probably ought to have some idea what you're talking about before making any judgements at all about why they're there.
Once in a while, somebody gets taken by pirates...when I did it, there were some active piracy cases in the Bahamas...so damidan's idea of a BFG is how people who live on boats travel...when there's no 911 or 12 or any other emergency access number, no police station round the corner and some crazed bastard standing in the cockpit demanding your wife and your daughters, Reason is your only option.
The point is, even people that are not sailing know about Somali pirates. Congratulations on your completely pointless analogy though, too bad it doesn't fit at all (not even a little bit).
If you look at the ICC piracy map, they were inside the area where there has been a lot of incidents of pirate attacks, including what seems to be three actual attacks on the course they were taking according to their blog.
These pirates are not interested in their vessel or their stuff as much as they are interested in getting a ransom paid. And these pirates have shown time and time again that they are resourceful enough to track down vessels that pass through their area. I doubt they used the blog though.
I hope their boat wasn't called "Beagle"