MIT Offers Certificates in Piracy

For a generation, the famed Massachusetts Institute of Technology has secretly trained pirates to ravage shipping on the high seas:

It’s been an unofficial, underground practice among students at MIT for at least 20 years: Any student who completes courses in pistol, archery, sailing, and fencing is considered a pirate.

Now it's no longer an informal process. MIT has brazenly admitted to preparing countless sea dogs for lives of villainy. Henceforth, students who complete the program earn actual, physical certificates:

As of this school year, the physical education department is formally conferring pirate status on students, printing certificates on faux parchment with diploma-esque calligraphy. Each paper, authorized by the "swashbucklin’" Massachusetts Institute of Technology, certifies that the named "salty dog" is entitled to a Pirate Certificate “with all its privileges and obligations thereof."

In response, the more sedate CalTech has launched a training program that leads to a letter of marque.

Link -via DVICE | Image: Jappalang