Welcome to pirate-town, we hope you enjoy your stay ...

So, I've posted previously on "polite pirating" off Somalia.

And I've followed with interest the story of the pirates who seized a ship carrying 33 Ukranian battle-tanks, has had a long stand-off with the US navy; meanwhile another hijacked vessel has been liberated by the army of Puntland.

I've known for some time from UN reports that in the Puntland area there are "pirate command centres" and even official pirate spokesmen.

But the surrealism of Somalia's increasingly pirate-based economy reaches dizzying heights with the Port of Eyl where restraunts have been established to feed hostages seized for ransom.

"Welcome to the maison des hostages, may we recommend the beef this evening? We hope you enjoy your meal."

This may even beat inviting your hostages to a BBQ.

Library blogs

An increasing number of law libraries have blogs of their own. As an all round bibliophile and library geek, I'll try and update this post a bit over coming days, but to start with a few palatial libraries ...

The Peace Palace Library (International Court of Justice)

This is a remarkably useful website, as their catalogue is updated more often than the homepages of a number of leading journals. While not full-text searchable, if you want a comprehensive list of everything published on a topic/by a person in public international law, it's a one stop shop.

The library blog is on blogger and candid photos are found on flickr. Some of the photos are really good!

Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale Law School

This really is one to bring out library-envy. I've only ever really studied in modern law libraries, even in Cambridge. The Lillian Goldman not only looks gorgeously kitted out, but it has its own facebook fansite, complete with photos. The blog itself is over here.

More suggestions welcome ...