Piracy up 75%

Real piracy, on boats and everything. [Link]

Somewhere on the world's waterways, a pirate will try to strike today. Another will tomorrow. And another the day after that. Piracy is on the rise, across the globe -- up nearly 75%, from last decade to this one, according to a new report from the RAND Corporation. There's now at least an attempt at a pirate attack nearly every day.

Why? Mainly, the RAND report says, because there are now more targets to loot. "First and most fundamentally, there has been a massive increase in commercial maritime traffic. Combined with the large number of ports around the world, this growth has provided pirates with an almost limitless range of tempting, high-payoff targets."