The Truth Behind Pirate Legends and Myths

The Truth Behind Pirate Legends and Myths With new books and movies coming out all the time, pirates have never been more popular than now. But is the iconic image of a peg-legged pirate with a treasure map and a parrot on his shoulder historically accurate? Lets sort the facts from the myths about pirates of the Golden Age of piracy, which lasted from 1700 to 1725. Pirates Buried Their Treasure Mostly myth. Some pirates did bury treasure - notably, Captain William Kidd - but it was not a common practice. Pirates wanted their share of the loot right away, and they tended to spend it quickly. Also, much of the loot collected by pirates was not in the form of silver or gold. Most of it was ordinary trade goods, such as food, lumber, cloth, animal hides, and so on. Burying these things would ruin them! They Made People Walk the Plank Myth. Why make them walk off a plank if its easier to throw them overboard? Pirates had many punishments at their disposal, including keel-hauling, marooning, dispensing lashes, and more. Some later pirates allegedly made their victims walk off a plank, but it was hardly common practice. Many Pirates Had Eye Patches and Peg Legs True. Life at sea was harsh, especially if you were in the navy or on board a pirate vessel. The battles and fighting caused many injuries, as men fought with swords, firearms, and cannons. Often, the gunners - those men in charge of the cannons - had the worst of it. An improperly-secured cannon could fly around the deck, maiming everyone near it. Other problems, such as deafness, were occupational hazards. They Lived by a Pirate â€Å"Code† True. Almost every pirate ship had a set of articles that all new pirates had to agree to. It clearly set out how the loot would be divided, who had to do what and what was expected of everyone. Pirates were often punished for fighting on board, which was strictly forbidden. Instead, pirates who had a grudge could fight all they wanted on land. Some pirate articles have survived to this day, including the pirate code of George Lowther and his crew. Crews Were All Males Myth. There were female pirates who were just as lethal and vicious as their male counterparts. Anne Bonny and Mary Read served with the colorful Calico Jack Rackham and were famous for berating him when he surrendered. Its true that female pirates were rare, but not unheard of. Pirates Often Used Colorful Phrases Mostly myth. Pirates would have spoken like any other lower-class sailors from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, or the American colonies. While their language and accent must certainly have been colorful, it bore little resemblance to what we associate with pirate language today. For that, we have to thank British actor Robert Newton, who played Long John Silver in movies and on TV in the 1950s. It was he who defined the pirate accent and popularized many of the sayings we associate with pirates today. Sources: Cordingly, David. Under the Black Flag: The Romance and Reality of Life Among the Pirates. Random House Trade Paperbacks, 1996, NY. Defoe, Daniel (Captain Charles Johnson). A General History of the Pyrates. Edited by Manuel Schonhorn, Dover Publications, 1972/1999, USA. Konstam, Angus. World Atlas of Pirates. Lyons Press, 2009. Konstam, Angus. The Pirate Ship 1660-1730. Osprey, 2003, NY.

Research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Research paper - Essay Example In addition, the course has helped to ward off my ignorance about the environment, culture, geopolitics, oil, Islam, conflict and war in the Middle East region. From the course, I learned the importance of global significance of the Middle East to the entire world. The Arab world has a significant value at political, cultural, economic, and religious levels domestically, regionally and internationally. The significance of religion in the region centers on the fact that it is perceived to be the original place of single or monotheistic Islam (Mohamed n.d). There is changing nature of geopolitics in the Middle East or Arab world in the sense that the impact of Iranian and Turkish rapprochement will make the Middle East nations to experience pressure from Iran and worsen the situation in Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. These complexities and pressure may have been exacerbated by the U.S president’s recent moves. Combined, the nightmare in the Middle East has been redoubled. The United Arabs Emirates, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia form an effective political bloc in the Middle East. These countries would soon come up with a single currency for the Gulf countries thus isolating certain Middle East countries such as Iran, Palestine, and Kuwait. Israel has isolated itself and formed a formidable relation with the U.S. For instance, I learned that currently, both Israel and the U.S. clearly expressed their goal to control their competitors economically throughout the next 10 years. Furthermore, California is currently a laboratory for energy research and development led by Israel such as the Bright source Company energy. It is vital to note that the U.S. support to Israel is destroying the country. The U.S. is been supporting Israel financially when its own internal economy is weak or struggling (Wright 78). Issues and problems in the Middle East The main issues and problems in the Middle East are the water crisis, war or conflict and dictatorship. In countries of Middle E ast, water shortage is a common problem. For example, in Jordan ‘the drying of streams has led to the lowering of water levels across the country. The water scarcity or shortage in the Middle East has been attributed to the extremely dry climate and the rapid economic development of the country supported the increase of population, which, in its turn, led to the increase of need for water (Wright 89). Water has an additional economic aspect in countries that have scarce water resources. Due to this, the Arab world or Middle East import water for both agricultural and domestic use. This is costly because under certain circumstances, the needs surpass the availability of the resources. The above issue is of critical importance if taking into consideration the fact that the needs for water tend to be increased in countries where the rate of increase of population is high; in Middle East countries such trends have been reported the last decade. For example, the population of Abu D habi ‘has been increased with an annual rate of 6.5% since 1975. In addition, in Jordan, a key member of the Arab league or Middle East, the needs for water supply are expected continuously increase for the next 27 years. The crisis of water in the Arab world or Middle East has been worsened by the deteriorating quality of water in recent years. The utilization of water for industrial, agricultural,

Substance use Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Substance use - Essay Example It appears that availability of opioids and subcultural factors are key in opioid use† (Encylopedia of Mental Disorders par. 19). In recent times, opioid abuse has increased through being given routine 30-day prescriptions for opioids as painkillers for illnesses requiring only a day or two for the pain to subside (Kluger par.2). 2. Give some examples of the use of hallucinogenic plants or drugs in connection with religious practices. The article on hallucinogens published in Medical Discoveries indicates that hallucinogenic plants or drugs have been used in connection with religious practices. (1) â€Å"Medicine men, shamans, and other spiritual leaders have used natural hallucinogens found in plants and mushrooms since ancient times, believing in their power to help contact the spiritual world or mystical beings for guidance in serving their people† (par. 4); (2) â€Å"In Mexico, mushrooms called Psylocybe mexicana, which contain the fungi psilocybin and psilocin, hav e been used in religious rituals since the time of the Aztec civilization† (par. 6); (3) â€Å"Peyote is the only psychedelic agent that has been authorized by the federal government for limited use during Native American religious ceremonies† (par. 7). 3.

A tale of two airlines case Essay Example for Free

A tale of two airlines case Essay As Professor Roger McPherson’s wait to go through the security process a second time dragged on into its third hour on this Spring day in 2002, (all passengers had to be rescreened upon the discovery that one of the airport screening machines was unplugged) he was reminded of another delayed business trip and the role that information technology played in the story. At 5:30pm on February 15, 1995, 200 feet off the ground, Professor Roger McPherson gazed anxiously through the fog as his airplane moved to touch down at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta, more than 1 hour and 15 minutes late. He had 30 minutes to catch his 6:00pm flight to London, where he would be meeting with the executive leadership of a major British power company to discuss their information strategy. He felt fortunate, however, to be flying this carrier, which had a reputation for outstanding service. He was even more comfortable because he had a full-fare first-class ticket and was a Gold Card member. Professor McPherson was always uneasy about the large premium charged for full, first-class tickets, but knew that in a crunch it often meant the difference between a making a connection and missing one. He well remembered a decade ago flying this airline from Milan to London to connect to a flight to New York. Bad weather then had also reduced his 1-hour-and-30-minute connect time to 10 minutes. A discussion of the problem with the first-class cabin attendant had resulted in a phone call from the pilot to London (the airlines hub city), and a car to whisk him and one other passenger to the New York flight, which took off only one minute late. That extraordinary service had made Professor McPherson a 10-year devotee of the airline. In the network age, he knew it would be different and he was secure. The airline flying to London would have identified him off their computer as a close-connecting passenger. It would have noted he checked no bags through, and it would be anxious to capture his $2,500 fare—about 10 times that of the average passenger—on an only moderately loaded flight. As his plane pulled into the gate at 5:40pm, he knew it would be tight but he would make it, particularly given the fact that all planes were coming in late. Moving his 57-year-old frame into a dim recollection of a high school 400-meter specialist, he set off. Two escalator rides and one train ride later, the gate came into sight and he braked to a halt at 5:53pm. It was close, but he had done it. Looking through the airport window, however, he was stunned to see the air bridge detached from the plane with splendid teutonic efficiency 7 minutes early. The door to the bridge was closed, no agent was in sight, and he was reduced to waving his bags through the window to the pilot 20 yards away (it had, after all, worked once in a similar situation on Continental Airlines). Alas, by 5:58pm the plane was pushed back, and the agents emerged and quite cheerfully (and unregretfully; they had no clue who he was) booked him onto another airline that would leave 1 hour and 45 minutes later. He would be 30 minutes late for his meeting in London, but the executives would understand. Distinctly irritated, he straggled off to the new airline’s first class lounge to begin a frantic series of phone calls and faxes to the United Kingdom. As he trudged through the airport, McPherson began to see the beginning of a lecture on service in the network economy and the fact that technology is only a small enabling piece of a total service concept. At 7:50pm, comfortably seated in the first-class cabin of his new carrier, McPherson jerked to attention as the captain came on to announce that because of a leak in the hydraulic system, there would be an aircraft change and a two-and-one-half-hour delay. Sprinting off the plane, McPherson realized that the meeting with the power company executives, planned three months ago, would be over before he got there. The following day he was due in Frankfurt to give the keynote address at a major information systems conference. Flying to the United Kingdom to connect to Frankfurt would be a hassle and unnecessary since the purpose of stopping in the United Kingdom   was now totally negated. Glancing up at the departure board, McPherson was surprised to see a 7:55pm boarding departure for a plane to Frankfurt, nine gates away. Pulling into the gate at 8:02pm, he discovered several things: 1. The plane was at the gate, and with commendable dispatch the gate agent relieved him of his London boarding pass and his London-to-Frankfurt ticket and hustled him onto the plane minutes before the door closed. 2. The cabin attendant, giving him his favorite drink, explained that because of favorable tail winds across the Atlantic and the fact that eight passengers (plus now McPherson and one other) had very tight connections, they had decided to hold the plane for 15 minutes to get the extra passengers and still arrive on schedule. The note of pride in the cabin attendants voice was evident. One-and-a-half hours later, appropriately wined and dined, McPherson drifted off to sleep, reflecting on what a remarkable case study had played out in front of him in the previous two hours. Information technology, operations strategy, management control, an empowered (also unempowered) work force, and service management had been interwoven into a tableau. A revised format for his speech in Frankfurt began to emerge. Best of all, he would not have to go through a case release process because it had all happened to him.

Vehicle Drive Train Systems Essay -- physics car automobile vehicle

Before the advent of the automobile, buggies were typically propelled by one or more horses. Even with the first automobiles there was a need for a drive system, though, since those horses were no longer there. One thing that has remained common to every car is a motor and transmission system of some sort, but what varies greatly between cars is what is between the transmission and the wheels, also known as the drive train. There are many different styles of drive trains, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Front Wheel Drive The most common style of drive train is that of the front wheel drive, abbreviated FWD. Front wheel drive was not, however, the first drive system. Front wheel drive first made its appearance in the automobile market in 1933 with the French Traction Avant, which literally means "pull from the front." At the time, the idea of having a car pulled by the front wheels was rather different, but this style of getting the power to the wheels worked rather well. What made the Traction Avant successful was that it was lighter and more fuel efficient than other car models made at the time. This increased efficiency was a result of not only eliminated weight, but also reduced power loss in moving the rotational energy to the back. The idea of front wheel driven cars was not embraced immediately by major car manufacturers, though, since having all the driving mechanisms placed right under or in front of the engine added complexity in production and maintenance that was not worth the extra gas mileage. It was when the gasoline shortage hit America in the early 1980s that the front wheel drive car first became popular. Chevrolet first implemented the system in its "Citation," in 1979, which became an... ...front and rear differentials. Taking this into consideration, all wheel drive systems are almost always on full time. In order for all wheel drive to work, a specialized computer and a matching set of sensors is needed to tell which wheels are spinning and to which wheels the power should be transferred to. The change is done through a series of automatic wheel braking, adding another complicated and costly mechanism to the brakes system. For this reason all wheel drive systems were usually only used in vehicles like Mercedes and Porches. Lately, though, due to the advances in manufacturing technology, there have been a few domestic vehicles released, like the newer Ford Explorers and the Saab 9-2X, both of which feature all wheel drive. Should the cost of production of all wheel drive systems continue to decrease, more domestic vehicles will feature it in the future.

Essay on Hiv

Home reading. As my qualification paper is devoted to the global health, I decided to analyze 4 newspaper articles from BBC, The Guardian and the NY Times concerning the cure for HIV/AIDS. In all the articles the topic of possible existence of the cure for HIV is discussed. They scientists from different world laboratories share their opinion on the right way of creation of this vaccine. It is extremely hard to find the appropriate therapy for patients, because the virus has a tendency to a very rapid mutation.So while the scientists are creating the drug for a patient according to his analyzes, the virus can change in a day and the treatment won’t be effective. Some scientists think that it’s necessary to create a cocktail of many steams of the HIV virus and then create one vaccine. But it will take a very long time and too much many. Moreover the reaction of the patient’s organism can be unpredictable. Other specialists presume that it’s important to pay attention to those patients who carry the neutralizing antibodies in their organisms.Because the cells that produce antibodies have to go through up to 100 mutations before they make neutralizing ones, Dr. Fauci said, a vaccine to induce that would require many shots, given month after month, to â€Å"push† the cells through those mutations. But the problem is that only 20 percent of the infected have the neutralizing antibodies in their organisms. There are two officially registrated cases when a patient didn’t have a virus in his blood after medical treatment.The first one was in Germany, when a patient with a destroyed immune system, induced by his cancer disease, was transplanted with a stem cell from a donor with a rare genetic mutation that resists HIV infection. The second case took place in the US with a new-born baby in a rural hospital, whose mother just received a positive HIV reaction. The treatment continued for 18 months from the first days of life of th is little baby-girl. After the treatment the scientists were astonished not to find the signs of the virus in her blood.But unfortunately not everything is so easy because this kind of treatment doesn’t suit to adults. The virus in the adult’s organism has already made a mutation and after several years of being infected the virus will infect all the cells in the body and then hides in the DNA, where it will be impossible to cure. On the other hand, 80 percent of all the infected live in the African countries where the possibilities to be cured and appropriate drugs are extremely poor. To conclude my essay I would like to say that an HIV pandemic has become a serious problem of our world.No one is safe enough not be infected by the virus. Nowadays there’s still no single way of treatment that can heal every patient. But the only thing that the scientists wanted us to remember that HIV virus is easier to prevent than to cure. Scientists use the most sophisticated technologies for eliminating this disease all over the world, but many people still don’t know usual requirements for protecting their health. It’s necessary to understand that your momentary pleasure can worth you a long-life HIV treatment. Internet resources: ) http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/health-21653463 – Analysis: A cure for HIV? By James Gallagher. 2) http://www. bbc. co. uk/news/world-us-canada-21651225 – US HIV baby ‘cured' by early drug treatment 3) http://www. nytimes. com/2013/04/04/health/aids-vaccine-path-suggested-by-study. html? ref=aids&_r=1& – Possible Path to Vaccine for AIDS Is Suggested. By DONALD G. Mcneil Jr. 4) http://www. guardian. co. uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2012/jul/19/hiv-infection-infectiousdiseases? INTCMP=SRCH – A cure for Aids?

A Turning Point Of American History - 841 Words

Kolinski, Bella AP English 11 Mrs. Gittins 26 February 2016 A Turning Point in American History December 7th, 1941, also known as â€Å"a date which will live in infamy† (par. 2) was a turning point for America. On this day in history, the Pearl Harbor attack from Japan occurred leaving the entire nation in shock. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was left to rally America. His speech is known as one of the most memorable and powerful speeches in history and it is clear to see why through his use of diction in an attempt to appeal to pathos, the employment of ethos to create a sense of trust with America, and strategically using logos to clearly organize his speech. Roosevelt carefully chooses diction to effectively use pathos in his speech. One famous example of it is when he says that this attack is a â€Å"date which will live in infamy† (par. 2). They are words used to reach into the hearts of America and highlight how tragic this event was. Those six words create an appropriate theme for the rest of his speech showing how necessary it is to go to war with Japan. It sets up an ambience for the speech, really making it a sincere and sensitive topic for him to talk about. His repetition of the word â€Å"attack† in his speech shows that Japan did indeed attack our country and he displays the unjust cause of this event by using the harsh word â€Å"attack† repeatedly. He also states phrases such as â€Å"deliberately attacked† (par. 2) and â€Å"premeditated invasion† (par. 16) to provoke emotionShow MoreRelatedThe Battle Of Antietam Was The Turning Point Of American History1511 Words   |  7 PagesThe battl e of Antietam was the turning point in American history pertaining to the possible division of the nation, the abolishment of slavery, and the success of a democratic government. The battle analysis examines the strengths and weaknesses of the Confederate and Union army leading up to the battle on September 17, 1862. 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