[HN Gopher] MIT Pirate Certificate
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MIT Pirate Certificate
Author : CharlesW
Score : 128 points
Date : 2023-08-10 16:12 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (physicaleducationandwellness.mit.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (physicaleducationandwellness.mit.edu)
| Dulat_Akan wrote:
| MIT as usually have great results in research and achievements,
| Good guys keep going
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Q. How do you know if the pirate you just met was MIT-trained?
|
| A. Ask them for a probability density from the wavefunction Ps,
| and see if they respond by hitting it with psi-st _AARRRRRR_.
|
| (also useful: reduced Planck's constant or form evaluating to the
| head of a list)
| jachee wrote:
| Ask them their favorite programming language.
|
| You might expect the answer to be R...
|
| ...but a true pirate's first love will always be the C.
| ldehaan wrote:
| [dead]
| kapitanjakc wrote:
| Did you inspire the reddit TIL post or were you inspired by the
| same?
| CharlesW wrote:
| A friend shared it with me, but it wouldn't surprise me if they
| saw it there.
| amelius wrote:
| Does MIT now have a kindergarten on premises?
| ke88y wrote:
| Yes [1]. They also provide tuition scholarships for children of
| staff and graduate students [2] who could not otherwise afford
| childcare in the Boston area (which runs on average $20K/yr
| against a post-tax stipend as low as $31K/yr, ie, completely
| impossible to afford unless you have a trust fund or a
| scholarship).
|
| Not sure what that has to do with a bit of workplace levity at
| an otherwise famously intense undergraduate institution. Having
| a bit of fun is a time-honored MIT tradition; e.g., "All Tech
| Men carry batteries!" [3] and The Journal of the Institute for
| Hacks, TomFoolery, and Pranks at MIT more generally [4].
|
| [1] http://childcare.mit.edu/
|
| [2] http://childcare.mit.edu/tuition-scholarships/mit-
| childcare-...
|
| [3] http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/by_year/1990/H-Y/
|
| [4]
| http://hacks.mit.edu/Hacks/books/ihtfp_leibowitz/ihtfp_leibo...
| fragmede wrote:
| Unless you're, y'know, Aaron Swartz.
| Racing0461 wrote:
| MIT didn't want to press charges but the actual copyright
| owners (the publishing firms did) so it went ahead.
| ke88y wrote:
| Not sure why something that happened when they were 8 years
| old means that current undergrads aren't allowed to have
| fun, buy okay.
| Racing0461 wrote:
| I bet $20 they are gonna remove the pistol requirement from this.
| beeburrt wrote:
| Suddenly I need a pirate certificate in my life
| eschneider wrote:
| Gotta have goals. :) I don't have the cert, but I've covered
| all those skills and I have to say it was fun. :)
| keybpo wrote:
| Avast ye! 'Tis not yet the hour fer me to be makin' use of me
| three-headed monkey, arrrgh!
| pizzaknife wrote:
| if theres any reason for my geriatric ass to go back to school,
| it's this.
| askiiart wrote:
| > The MIT Pirate Certificate is for entertainment purposes only
| and does not give the recipient license to engage in piracy or
| any pirate activities.
|
| Jeez, what buzzkills.
| philsnow wrote:
| A certificate says "we are Some Group that Knows about This
| Stuff and we think that so-and-so is capable of doing pirate-y
| things"
|
| You'd want a letter of marque for an endorsement of being
| "allowed" to do pirate-y things.
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque
| number6 wrote:
| > Article I of the United States Constitution lists issuing
| letters of marque and reprisal in Section 8 as one of the
| enumerated powers of Congress, alongside the power to tax and
| to declare war.
|
| It's still a thing
| dragonwriter wrote:
| "It is a power enumerated in the Constitution of 1789" does
| not mean "It is a practice still relevant in the world of
| 2023". The US hasn't issued any Letters of Marque and
| Reprisal since 1815, and while it remains a Constitutional
| power of the US government that a couple Republican members
| of Congress keep _trying_ to breathe active life into since
| 9 /11, it seems well and truly dead in practice.
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| That just means that the constitution permits it to be a
| thing; if congress doesn't actually issue such letters
| anymore it's not practically a thing.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| Reportedly the Russian government has issued letters of
| marque to hacking and cybercrime groups. I can imagine the
| same has happened in the US.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > Reportedly the Russian government has issued letters of
| marque to hacking and cybercrime groups.
|
| Those would only be metaphorical (and even then not a
| particular apt metaphor) letters of marque and reprisal;
| a literal letter of marque and reprisal is to a private
| vessel to attack and seize property from enemy vessels,
| converting acts which would otherwise be piracy under
| international law into lawful armed combat.
|
| Cyberhacking groups aren't vessels, and what they are
| doing isn't something that would be piracy under
| international law without being under the umbrella of
| government war efforts.
|
| > I can imagine the same has happened in the US.
|
| Not under US law (even if it still wouldn't make any
| sense under international law for the reasons described
| above), since Constitutionally that would require an
| active of Congress authorizing such letters, which has
| not occurred. You can imagine what you want, but its
| simply not a reality.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| > Not under US law (even if it still wouldn't make any
| sense under international law for the reasons described
| above), since Constitutionally that would require an
| active of Congress authorizing such letters, which has
| not occurred. You can imagine what you want, but its
| simply not a reality.
|
| As we all know, the US defense apparatus, particularly
| its clandestine branch, has never done anything illegal.
| gattilorenz wrote:
| > the US defense apparatus, particularly its clandestine
| branch, has never done anything illegal.
|
| That's irrelevant: the point of the letter is exactly to
| make it _not_ illegal. If anything, it proves they didn't
| have a (literal) letter of marque.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > As we all know, the US defense apparatus, particularly
| its clandestine branch, has never done anything illegal.
|
| A letter of marque is a specific legal instrument.
|
| If the US (or Russian) government is recruiting and
| employing private sector hacking groups as cyberwarfare
| agents (as both probably are), whehter or not they are
| doing so legally under domestic and/or international law,
| they aren't issuing letters of marque.
| pclmulqdq wrote:
| If they're issuing "non-prosecution agreements" or
| "immunity agreements" (which is likely what they're
| actually doing) isn't that fundamentally the same thing?
| The difference is essentially just semantics.
|
| It's like how the US hasn't officially been to war since
| World War II.
| dragonwriter wrote:
| > If they're issuing "non-prosecution agreements" or
| "immunity agreements" (which is likely what they're
| actually doing) isn't that fundamentally the same thing?
|
| No.
|
| A letter of marque makes you not pirates but lawful
| combatants under _international law_ , where there has
| long been a norm that pirates (but not lawful combatants)
| are the common enemy of all humanity ( _hostis humani
| generis_ ) and subject to summary punishment by any
| nation, for piracy against the shipping of any nation,
| without limit. Whereas privateers are, to other nations,
| of the same legal status as military forces of the
| sponsoring power.
|
| A nonprosecution agreement gives you immunity from
| punishment under the domestic law of the country issuing
| it.
|
| Not the same thing at all.
|
| > It's like how the US hasn't officially been to war
| since World War II.
|
| So, a popular myth? US Courts have long rejected the
| notion that any particular magic words are necessary for
| Congress to exercise its power to declare war, and that a
| Congressional authorization of military force that does
| not use terms like "declaration of war" (the earliest of
| which was issued in 1798, this is _not_ a new practice)
| nevertheless is an exercise of the power to declare war.
| There are some statutes to which magic words are
| relevant, but that's a choice of Congress to structure
| other statutes that way, not something inherent it what
| makes a state of war under US law.
| krapp wrote:
| Privateer. When you want to be a pirate but also want to stay
| a law-abiding normie.
| irq-1 wrote:
| > Jeez, what buzzkills.
|
| Sure, but what about the preceding sentence?
|
| > Non-MIT courses and _life experience_ are not counted towards
| completing the certificate. (emphasis added)
| paulddraper wrote:
| They _say_ that, but realistically no one ever checks for your
| pirate license anyway, so you can get away with it.
|
| YMMV
| mikrl wrote:
| Who even gives out letters of marque these days?
| Asparagirl wrote:
| A US Congressman (from Texas, naturally) introduced a bill to
| grant letters of marque to be used against Russian oligarchs'
| property early last year, just after the Russian invasion of
| Ukraine. Alas, it did not pass. But letters of marque are
| still explicitly enumerated as a power granted in the US
| Constitution, and notably the United States was _not_ one of
| the signatories to the 1856 treaty that mostly banned them.
|
| And that treaty was the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime
| Law, which came about at the end of a war for...Crimea.
|
| https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/6869
| akomtu wrote:
| Is the certificate recognized in major pirate organizations?
| Can you go to Somali, show the certificate and receive some
| respect?
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| Well, sure, it's a bummer. But one has to wonder why we glorify
| a practice of pillaging, raping and destruction. What's next
| for MIT? A Hitler Certificate? A KGB Certificate? A Slave
| Whipping Certificate?
| devjab wrote:
| I mean, wouldn't it be a privateer certificate if it gave you a
| license?
| nyc_data_geek1 wrote:
| You mean to tell me I can't get a Letter of Marque from MIT? I
| mean technically then I'd be a privateer but still
| eschneider wrote:
| Eh, you don't need a certificate to engage in piracy. Also, do
| they have a Highwayman Certificate if you also make the
| equestrian team? Asking for a friend...
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Combine the two and capture prize ships from horseback: https
| ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_the_Dutch_fleet_at_... ?
| eschneider wrote:
| Tempting, but I've already been dinged by the local police
| for asking motorists to "Stand and deliver" at stoplights.
| polygamous_bat wrote:
| Fun fact: registration for the classes required for the pirate
| certificate (sailing, archery, pistol/rifle, fencing) generally
| run out within a minute of opening.
|
| However, this being at MIT, I was never sure whether this was
| because of humans or bots.
| giantg2 wrote:
| They probably have a team or club you could participate in if
| you are interested beyond the course credits.
| extraduder_ire wrote:
| I realized this list didn't include swimming and thought it was
| missing, until I remembered that MIT requires swimming prowess
| in order to graduate.
| jefftk wrote:
| Pirates (and other sailors) often didn't know how to swim.
| trillic wrote:
| Rule #1: stay on the boat
| abdullahkhalids wrote:
| I don't know why universities think the best way to decide
| enrollment is smashing the register button.
|
| My undergrad university had the sense to let everyone pick
| their first preferences within 24 hours of enrollment starting.
| Then for over-selected courses, people were enrolled randomly
| [1]. This was repeated once more, iirc, and then in the third
| round enrollment was instantaneous.
|
| This, thankfully, prevented virtual stampedes and allowed for
| people to select their courses in a non-panic manner.
|
| [1] after required-for-graduation enrollments.
| mminer237 wrote:
| That also has the advantage of allowing the school to
| potentially open a new another timeslot for the course if
| they know there's enough serious interest in it.
| Tade0 wrote:
| You can have that without this sort of race.
|
| My college just sorted people by GPA and if there were
| enough of them for an additional group and staff to lead
| it, an additional timeslot would appear.
| frob wrote:
| For a few semesters at least, the phys ed requirement was a
| pool system. You wod choose your top 3 or 6 options. There
| were lotteries if classes were oversubscribed and those who
| didn't get their first choice, got lotteries for their second
| choice, and so on.
| ocdtrekkie wrote:
| I mean, in this case it is probably considered a net win, MIT
| is known for its culture of "hacks", and having to game your
| way into the required courses adds to the challenge!
| xhkkffbf wrote:
| Or why not just hire more faculty and start up more sections?
| The students are paying huge tuition bills. Why can't they
| get the courses they want?
|
| This is why I often tell everyone, not just high school
| students, to consider other marketplaces for information like
| uDemy or Coursera or any of the dozens of upstarts. They're
| sooo much better than old school universities because they're
| not designed to enforce artificial scarcity. There's no bogus
| song and dance for the admissions department and after that
| there's no limit on how many people can take the course. This
| is what the digital world has to offer and we should
| celebrate the unlimited access to knowledge.
| evanb wrote:
| "If they ever come up with a swashbuckling school I think one of
| the courses should be laughing, then jumping off something."
|
| -- Jack Handey
|
| I tried to register for pistol every single term and never got
| in; I think this may be the most difficult obstacle in obtaining
| MIT's pirate cert.
| labster wrote:
| You never had a shot.
| WillPostForFood wrote:
| He was too slow on the draw.
| everyone wrote:
| Not actually related to article, but the title made me think
| this...
|
| I feel like the piracy / p2p / scenegroup communities have been
| aging and being whittled down by brutal relentless lawsuits and
| lobbying from corps. I get the impression not many younger people
| are interested and are generally more content to accept the
| corporate slop they are given.
|
| This is a bad thing. However u feel about piracy, keeping the
| skills alive to circumvent unfair systems imposed on you is
| really important for society and egality imo.
|
| MIT _should_ teach a computer piracy course.
| jlev wrote:
| This was an informal thing for a long time, but I didn't know
| that there's now an actual certificate. I may have to go back and
| request mine retroactively.
| JohnFen wrote:
| Any pirate worthy of the title would just forge their own.
| p1mrx wrote:
| https://www.google.com/search?q=mit+pirate+certificate&tbm=i.
| ..
|
| Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free.
| madars wrote:
| MIT also famously does not award honorary degrees [1] which
| restricts its commencement speaker pool. However, commencement
| speakers can get honorary Pirate Certificates which is way
| cooler: https://alum.mit.edu/slice/arrrr-mit-pirates-and-matt-
| damon-...
|
| [1] https://news.mit.edu/2001/commdegrees
| esrauch wrote:
| Do famous people really choose not to speak at MIT Commencement
| because they won't get an honorary degree for it? You'd think
| "spoke at MIT Commencement" would be an equal line item for a
| CV given the context.
| madars wrote:
| From what I've heard, yes. The choice is not between speaking
| at MIT+no honorary degree and not speaking at all; speak at
| MIT+no honorary degree/speak at Harvard+honorary degree ->
| well, could be swayed to speak at Harvard then!
| JohnFen wrote:
| Do these people think that others are impressed by honorary
| degrees?
|
| _Are_ there people who are impressed by honorary degrees??
| jstarfish wrote:
| > Are there people who are impressed by honorary
| degrees??
|
| Yes. Yokels who don't know what "honorary" means.
| krapp wrote:
| RMS stans who insist that he be referred to as "Dr.
| Stallman."
| giantg2 wrote:
| I would think if someone was important enough to speak at
| commencement, the act of speaking at commencement would be a
| relatively unimportant and not worth putting on a CV (if
| someone in those positions actually needs to use CVs).
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(page generated 2023-08-10 23:00 UTC)