
Earn a Pirate Certificate from MIT - worldvoyageur
http://mitpe.mit.edu/Pirate-Certificate/
======
worldvoyageur
TL/DR (but read the link, it's worth it): MIT's Pirate Certificate became
available in the Fall of 2011. MIT students who successfully complete Archery,
Fencing, Pistol (or Rifle) and Sailing get the certificate.

It was intended as a fun way to incentivize students meeting the physical
education component of their degree requirements. The certificate does not
entitle the student to engage in piracy.

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cgb223
> The certificate does not entitle the student to engage in piracy.

Aye, but a pirate requires no charter to sail the 7 seas

~~~
gumby
Of course typically (in the bluebeard era) pirates actually _did_ have a
charter, or really a Letter of Marque from the crown. One country's "pirate"
was another country's outsourced naval agent. This was true also in the
barbary states (hence the song of the US marines) and the straights of malacca
et al.

The ones today in the horn of africa though, AFAIK, are indeed free agents.

~~~
hollerith
There's a reason for the existence of the word 'privateer' and the distinction
between privateer and pirate.

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gumby
The distinction being that if you are on the side that issued the letter of
marque they were "privateers" while if they were attacking _you_ they were
"pirates"

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celticninja
Not dissimilar to freedom fighter/terrorist back in the day.

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ahakki
That still applies.

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anguswithgusto
Okay so this isn't totally related, but there's something about the mélange
between pirates and techies that just makes my heart sing. I get that this
course is just supposed to be fun/a joke... but the cultural kinship between
pirates and technologists is actually strangely similar. Maybe MIT isn't
structured like a pirate ship, but startups most certainly are. Great read:

[https://medium.com/@bagelboy/why-pirates-are-
feared-5be709ae...](https://medium.com/@bagelboy/why-pirates-are-
feared-5be709ae0e74)

~~~
skybrian
Well, except for the part about being egalitarian. As an early startup
employee, you get whatever you negotiated.

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startupdiscuss
Don't steal this idea: a pirate certificate with advantages:

1\. Anyone can get it, not just MIT students

2\. It _does_ allow you to engage in acts of piracy

3\. Includes the accent

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koboll
So, a letter of marque and reprisal

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themodelplumber
Somewhere in Eastern Africa, a real pirate chuckles at the idea of earning a
computer hacking certificate.

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Diaznash
As a person from Eastern Africa, am curious why you chose Eastern Africa & not
North, Central West or Southern Africa.

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mastax
While piracy happens all over including hot-spots such as the Gulf of Guinea
and the strait of Malacca, the only piracy that has received significant news
coverage in Western media is that centered around Somalia.

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majos
Why on earth did they call it a pirate certificate and not a pirate's license?

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tzs
A certificate is authentication. A license is authorization.

~~~
acmecorps
That is.. I've never thought about it that way, but makes lots of sense. TIL
and thank you.

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jere
I would totally latch onto something like this if it were available to me. Not
that there is any point to it, but chasing little achievements is fun. I took
Archery twice in college and sailing sounds like a lot of fun.

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praptak
Yo ho ho, the curriculum is lacking pirate speak, yarrr.

~~~
failrate
Although, the initials are PEGIR. If only they had been PEGR or PEGAR.

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znpy
> Pirate certificate is for entertainment purposes only and does not give the
> recipient license to engage in piracy or any pirate activities.

Lol / Too bad.

~~~
wavefunction
The idea of licensure for pirates or piracy is somewhat laughable.

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gaius
_The idea of licensure for pirates or piracy is somewhat laughable_

Don't they teach history at MIT?
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque)

~~~
wavefunction
I knew someone would bring up letters of marque but that's not really piracy
is it? Especially not in the popular conception of pirates and piracy.

And Google defines a letter of marque as:

"a license to fit out an armed vessel and use it in the capture of enemy
merchant shipping and to commit acts that would otherwise have constituted
piracy."

Sounds like actions taken with letters of marque are perhaps specifically not
piracy.

~~~
gaius
_are perhaps specifically not piracy_

Well you'd still get to do all the pirate stuff, buckling your swash and
splicing the mainbrace and all that. And there would be pieces of eight
aplenty. You just wouldn't get hanged afterwards. Win-win situation!

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fencepost
Looking at this makes me want to dig in and find out what locales in the US
actually license exotic dancers, because (if cheap enough) it would amuse me
to be able to say I was a licensed exotic dancer during Meetups and meet-and-
greets.

I also think that such might be amusing to MIT students who pursue the Pirate
Certificate.

~~~
gumby
With my physique this would be especially hilarious.

Although surely in some corner of the internet there's a subculture that
fetishizes overweight, out-of-shape guys in leotards.

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heheocoenev
I would go to MIT over other great schools just because this course alone.

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UncleEntity
There's a physical education requirement to get a degree?

Me, straight out of the airborne infantry before entering college, would've
just looked at them with a disbelieving look and laughed...

~~~
gumby
Actually MIT not only has a phys ed requirement but you can't graduate without
proving you can swim. And it has a pretty active club sports program.

I don't remember folks laughing at one another at MIT since we were mostly
misfits in our prior schools anyway.

Here's a telling anecdote: I was at prize day (pretty much only people who
actually get prizes go so it's in a small lecture hall), and one student got a
major athletic award, apparently having set various NCAA records (presumably
we were in some very minor subdivision of NCAA but anyway). He was huge, and
he kinda stumbled on the stairs as an athlete will, and when he came up to the
stage he merely mumbled inarticulately. I was astonished: a stereotype of the
dumb jock! Then last they gave out the scholar-athlete award. No surprise, it
was this same guy...but in addition to playing three sports he had a 4.8
average as a double major aero-astro and physics. No wonder he was so quiet:
his brain was super busy!

I felt really humbled.

~~~
ghaff
You dont need to prove you can swim. But you do need to take one, maybe two,
swimming courses even if you don’t end up learning to swim at the end of the
day. I’ve never determined how rigorously this is enforced if push comes to
shove but it is a requirement.

~~~
gumby
Back in '88, in my final semester, I was only registered for 5.11( or 5.41?
Who can remember) as I had somehow never gotten around to satisfying the
freshman chemistry requirement, though I had otherwise enough credits to
graduate. I was checking my paperwork and the registrar's office told me I
could not graduate unless I passed the swimming requirement.

I didn't even live in massachusetts any more though I came back frequently to
make sure I took all the chemistry quizzes. Turned out they were closing the
pool early to renovate it (I don't know if it's still there but it was behind
building 26 IIRC). Apparently I luckily came by a couple of days before they
closed it, right under the wire for the pool _and_ registrar.

Back then there wasn't a swimming _class_ requirement, you just had to take n
semesters of PE. I remember doing ballet, badminton and pistol, but don't
remember what else. Though I love to sail I didn't want to go anywhere near
the charles or the harbor in those days.

~~~
ghaff
>Back then there wasn't a swimming class requirement

What I meant was you had to either pass the swimming test or take it once or
twice for PE whether or not you ever got to the point you could pass the test.

I actually never did either but that was because I had a SCUBA certification
at the time which did have a swimming test requirement. So I got a waiver.

I regretted a bit that I didn't take better advantage of the PE options. At
the time, I really liked playing ice hockey although I wasn't great at it so I
mostly just took hockey as an option.

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thesumofall
I remember a talk with either Elon Musk or Peter Thiel at MIT who was given
one of these at the end of his talk (instead of the obligatory flowers)

~~~
oceliker
They gave a “space pirate certificate” to Matt Damon at commencement 2016.

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userbinator
Before I clicked, I thought it would be a course about the warez scene.

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orthopodvt
Almost makes me wish I had gone to MIT instead of Harvard....

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booleandilemma
Next we’ll have pirate bootcamps.

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SeanLuke
Why archery?

~~~
jere
[https://www.quora.com/Did-pirates-1600s-1700s-use-weapons-
li...](https://www.quora.com/Did-pirates-1600s-1700s-use-weapons-like-
crossbows-or-longbows-If-not-why-not)

