Will there be a report of Pirates seizing a boat during the month of May?

Will this be settled based on seizure of any boat or a ship? The title says "boat" the small text says "ship" and the settlement details don't say either.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship says "A ship is usually large enough to carry its own boats, such as lifeboats, dinghies, or runabouts. A rule of thumb used is "a boat can fit on a ship, but a ship can't fit on a boat"." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat has similar size-based defination

If they seize a ship they will also have seized the lifeboat.

if they seized the lifeboat, did they also seize the ship?

This is why I don't create these types of questions. :)

I'm not sure how to answer this. To make it more confusing, the first article I cited uses "boat" in the headline, then interchanges "ship" and "fishing boat" throughout the article. The second article uses the word "ship" in the headline, then uses the word "yacht" throughout the article.

Merriam Webster defines boat as a "small vessel" or "ship"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boat
and ship is defined as "a large seagoing vessel" or "boat"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ship

I recently went to a boat show, where many of the "boats" (i.e. yachts) had life boats, jet skis, even helicopters on board. However, none of those were referred to as ships.

As the above news stories included crews of 26 and 30 respectively and the fact that pirates are most likely going to be interested in attacking a "vessel" large enough to carry significant cargo, I would probably go with the above "rule of thumb" and say either a boat OR ship large enough to carry another boat, lifeboat, dinghie or runabout would be good for settlement.

I have a headache now!

and you tried to make it simple, after your 420 "debacle" ...
well, I think we should not "split hairs" on the term ship/boat/yacht.
It will be in the media whenever another means of transportation floating constructions is seized by pirates.
keep going creating questions that are not US election nor US sports related ... everything is fine to me :)

Could any HubDubSpellChecker take responsibility of comment #5, please?

Application of the "common sense" rule suggests that it should be any vessel that is seized by pirates at sea.

Yeah! I like the common sense rule! Hopefully we have a consensus here. I had kind of assumed that it would have to be at least an average sized vessel, as there would be less to gain by attacking a dinghy (at least that's what the pirates that I've talked to would say). lol

<-----I can hear it now..."how do you define 'average sized vessel'"

Oh, and even after all of the debate over the "420 debacle," it was settled as "yes," despite the point being made that the settlement was based on a specific source and the comments pointing that out.

On that note, I can't promise not to do more sports questions as I am a big sports fan...and they're straight forward! :)

"It will be in the media whenever another means of transportation floating constructions is seized by pirates."

I think that kruijs has provided an excellent description for settlement of this prediction in Comment 5.

HubdubSpellCheckSupervisor

tnx :)

Will Common Sense Prevail in 2008?
Y 51%
N 49%

Uhhh..why?

You're more optimistic than me on that one, mork...I'll put $H500 on No. :)

I think there is 200 to 300 ocean going vessels that are intercepted by pirates every year. Many more apparently go unreported due to a desire to reduce publicity and insurance claims.

The settlement of this question will come down to filtering through media reports unless mainstream media's newfound trend of reporting these incidents continues.

I think the first incident was only reported on because they French sent in special forces,

I'm gonna match your $H500 on Yes. :p

But you didn't ask, whether it happens, mork. You asked whether there will be a report of it.
I stay with my "NO" stakes.

I think they eye is on the pirates.
Does CNN have drone flights?
I'm glad we don't all agree.
What a bore this would be.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080422-pirates-video-ap.html

Nice timing! Looked like that video was released today. See...I should have gone with the over/under question! And those were definitely ships in the video! lol

Semantics...You got a good question here.

more today
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/04/080423-piracy-video-ap.html

aaarrrrrr!

I saw that your balloon question was on "featured stories," mork. way to go!

thx perfkt

Yo ho, yo ho...a pirate's life for me (isn't so bad after all)! lol
Story on 4/27/08 says that pirates were paid $1.2 million for freeing the Spanish "boat."
While the story says that the pirates "disappeared into their villages," will they take their 1.2 million (and that's not H$!) to sip on pina coladas, living the high life, or will they be back in May to help me settle this question?! :)

On a more serious note...doesn't it seem like paying the ransom only encourages this to continue?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/04/27/pirates.spain.ap/index.html

This story was in the top 10 most popular on CNN today...
http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/04/29/pirates/index.html?iref=hpmostpop#cnnSTCVideo

Note, I did set this question to suspend at the end of April. Maybe I should have left it open longer. Oh well.

I've extended the suspend date to the end of May. Let me know if you want me to pull the suspend date back a couple of days.

(Lesley's computer is broken so I'm World editor for the day)

Okay. Thanks Nigel. Enjoy being world editor for the day!