1. The Weekly Piracy Report

The International Chamber of Commerce has for years published a fascinating Weekly Piracy Report on its website. These fairly detailed accounts of attacks on commercial vessels at sea must read like the sports page for real pirates. Thousands of pirate attacks happen every year, still today. The report is a fun, if twisted, site to read for anyone on any day of the year. For example, this week's report includes this account:

"13.09.2007: 0550 UTC: Posn: 18:33.9N - 072:23.0W: Port au Prince, Haiti. Robbers, armed with knives, boarded an anchored general cargo ship unnoticed. Ship's general alarm sounded and crew mustered. Robbers jumped overboard and escaped with ship's stores. Attempts to contact local authorities were futile."

2. Pirate Music from CDBaby

Online CD retailer CDBaby's got a page for kid-friendly pirate band Bogg and Salty where you can listen to all the songs on the album online. The site also recommends a variety of other pirate themed bands. If you've got wee ones to indoctrinate into the lifestyle, this could be a great way to do it.

The always creative Andy Carvin has started a pool for pirate-themed lolcats on Flickr. You can make your own with the LolcatBuilder. Flickr itself is getting into the spirit by changing their logo for the day (or was it hijacked?) and including "Arrr!" as an interface language choice at the bottom of the screen. Consider it a form of pirate sensitivity, typical of liberal landlubber stuff like this it's only for one day of the year!

4. Pirates on Video

Video search engine Blinkx is a good source for finding videos about pirate attacks, both musical ones and serious ones. Note that at least some of these videos are concerning the Sea Sheperd Conservation Society, who fly a pirate flag at sea while "enforcing laws" and stopping indigenous tribes from hunting. Weak. Real pirates can watch these videos like a football coach and come up with some better strategies.

5. Current Debates About Pirates

Speaking of controversy, there's no shortage of it over on the talk page of Wikipedia's entry on piracy. Are there any real pirate treasure maps still in existence? Was a pirate's life more or less democratic than it would have been on shore? Should pirates be considered terrorists? Check out these and other heated debates down below deck of this extensive Wikipedia page. Maybe you'll even join the WikiProject Piracy, a collaboration area and group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of Piracy.

Bonus! Pirate.app for Your iPhone

Those rascals over at TUAW have built an iPhone app that lets you dress up photos of your friends like pirates. What a bunch of rogues!

If anything struck me as the most absurd pirate resource online today, it would be the special pirate theme over at classified ad site Oodle. There you can find all kinds of booty listed - for sale with a price next to each item. Umm, I think somebody's a bit unclear on the concept. :)

Thanks for stopping by; we at Read/WriteWeb lift our pints of grog to you and wish you a happy Talk Like a Pirate Day. Now get back to swabbing the deck!