April Fool's Day, 2007, I wrote a post on Linfen, China. Although it was written as a joke, the premise is true. Linfen is a royal mess. Its mighty pollution problem has earned it the number 2 spot on the recent "Hells on Earth" list. The air quality in Linfen is so horrific that there is a perpetual feeling of dusk in this coal dust laden city.

Here's the rest of the ten places that have a hellish quality. Perhaps you know of others that should have made the cut.

Call me naive and uninformed, but I honestly didn't think that pirates still operate in the world the way they do in the movies. That is obviously not the case.

According to this IHT article, the International Maritime Bureau, which tracks piracy, says that global pirate attacks rose 10 percent in 2007, marking the first increase in three years. Pirates seized more than two dozen ships off the Somali coast last year alone, AP reports. The U.S. Navy has led international patrols to try to combat piracy in the region. Last year, the guided missile destroyer USS Porter opened fire to destroy pirate skiffs tied to a Japanese tanker.

Just last Friday, pirates seized control of a French cruise ship off the coast of Somalia. Attackers stormed the 288-foot Le Ponant, in the high seas in the Gulf of Aden, as it returned without passengers--but with 30 crew members--from the Seychelles, in the Indian Ocean, toward the Mediterranean Sea. Elite French troops were sent to East Africa to bolster efforts to free the yacht captives.

According to the latest update from AP, pirates just freed those 30 hostages. The French government would not say whether any pirates were captured nor whether the vessel had been retaken.

Have you ever seen Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean?

Of course you have!

The wild and drunken antics of Johnny Depp are nothing short of hilarious, which is why Disney's Pirates trilogy has swept the globe from Hollywood to Tokyo.

But, today's posting isn't about the Black Pearl, but rather the distressing fact that real pirates aren't anything like Johnny Depp.

Since October, Somali pirates have been occupying a Japanese chemical tanker, and demanding a ransom of US$1 million (that's dollars, not gold doubloons).

The Panama-registered MV Golden Nori was carrying an enormous amount of benzene from Singapore to Israel when it was hijacked on October 28, just off Somalia in one of the world's most dangerous shipping lanes.

Just to be clear...

Nori (のり) is a delicious Japanese snack of pressed, roasted and salted sheets of seaweed that can be eaten whole or crumpled up over just about anything.

Benzene (ベンゼン) is a colorless, sweet-smelling and highly flammable liquid that is used as an industrial solvent.

Anyway, according to an article last week by the Nairobi division of Reuters, the pirates decided to abandon ship without hurting any of its crew.

Almost 300 years after Blackbeard's unseemly death, pirates are still a problem. A big problem. In the first nine months of this year, there have been at least 198 attacks, versus 174 for the same period last year. But there may be some relief in sight. The New York Times is reporting that international organizations are taking pirate attacks seriously, starting with authorizing troops to hunt them.

Don't think this is just a problem for giant shipping containers. Tourists may also run into trouble. The two pirate hotspots are the Strait of Malacca in Southeast Asia and off the coast of Somalia in Africa. There's two well reported and insightful features about pirates in these regions, one from Peter Gwin in the October issue of National Geographic and the other by the renowned writer-explorer Paul Raffaele in the August issue of Smithsonian Magazine.

Luckily you can read both articles online, and you definitely should. Not only do they put the global cruise and marine tourism industries in jeopardy, but pirates have their hands bloody with terrorism and smuggling operations. What we see on the big screen, such as from the Pirates of the Caribbean series (and the pornographic knockoff of that) trivializes what could become a crisis within the decade.

See also: Real Life Pirate Hangouts

Here at Gadling, we usually profile places people WANT to go. However, sometimes it's useful to mention places to avoid. Consequently, here's an interesting (and not altogether surprising) list of the 2007's 12 Most Dangerous Destinations:

• Somalia
• Iraq
• Afghanistan
• Democratic Republic of Congo
• Côte d'Ivoire
• Pakistan
• Burundi
• Sri Lanka
• Haiti
• Chad
• Lebanon
• Liberia

Of course, you probably don't think of these places as vacation destinations, unless you're a whacked-out Robert Young Pelton. However, employees of governments, oil and mining industries, and telecom industries are increasingly being dispatched to these locations. If you work for one of those groups, be certain to ask about insurance, hazard pay -- and a bodyguard.

Interestingly, the piece argues that the world is NOT getting more dangerous right now. Rather, globalization and the attendant "shrinking" of the planet is largely responsible for making the world APPEAR more dangerous now than before. Whether or not you agree with that assertion, the article is interesting, and the gallery is frightening.

Should you be in Somalia and in need of a lift call out for one of these...

Today's word is a Somali word used in Somalia:

tagsi - taxi

Since Somali isn't spoken by a large population learning the language online for free will be a difficult task to accomplish. Start with this Fortunecity site. They offer a 600 word English to Somali dictionary and vice versa. You maybe able to find an exchange partner online at My Language Exchange, provided there are Somali speakers registered with the site. Your best bet would be travel within the country, finding a local tutor or purchasing language software from African Language dot com. Their CD-ROM is priced at $99 USD, so may wish to shop around before buying.

Past Somali words: maxaad shektay, qaalin, khapar, aabbe, waddan, magacaa, Igu celi

Pulling a phrase off the list a good friend of mine sent me to help out with spreading the Somali language was no easy task. Most were crazy long and dizzying to look at to say the least. I took the shortest, easiest and most useful I think, but you'll need to use it in Somalia to get a good or bad look of approval or the opposite.

Today's word is a Somali word used in Somalia:

Igu celi? - Could you repeat that?

Since Somali isn't spoken by a large population learning the language online for free will be a difficult task to accomplish. Start with this Fortunecity site. They offer a 600 word English to Somali dictionary and vice versa. You maybe able to find an exchange partner online at My Language Exchange, provided there are Somali speakers registered with the site. Your best bet would be travel within the country, finding a local tutor or purchasing language software from African Language dot com. Their CD-ROM is priced at $99 USD, so may wish to shop around before buying.

Past Somali words: maxaad shektay, qaalin, khapar, aabbe, waddan, magacaa

With the current conflict going on between Ethiopia and Somalia, my mind immediately began to wonder what the writers at Polo's Bastards had been up to and what dangerous lands they've been exploring. Last time I checked in they'd just posted a piece on Rio's favelas. Since then North Korea and Chechnya have also made their blog pages.

To round off the year though, Lee Ridley spent a little bit of his Christmas day highlighting some of the world's worst destinations in 2006. Iraq assumes the position of No. 1, which doesn't come as a shocker at all. The conflict created by the Hezbollah kidnappings of Israeli soldiers earned Lebanon the No. 10 spot, and in the middle you'll find Haiti, Afghanistan, the entire Horn of Africa (poor Eritrea), Nepal, Chad, Chechnya and North Korea. If you've been in the dark concerning the political climate of these particular areas, you might want to mosey over and see what the deal is. Otherwise, just be sure to proceed with caution in the upcoming year. It is a far, far more dangerous world out there.

I'm on the run this evening so I'm hitting you with another Somali word to start the month. Hope this one comes in handy someday.

Today's word is a Somali word used in Somalia:

magacaa - What is your name?

Since Somali isn't spoken by a large population learning the language online for free will be a difficult task to accomplish. Start with this Fortunecity site. They offer a 600 word English to Somali dictionary and vice versa. You maybe able to find an exchange partner online at My Language Exchange, provided there are Somali speakers registered with the site. Your best bet would be travel within the country, finding a local tutor or purchasing language software from African Language dot com. Their CD-ROM is priced at $99 USD, so may wish to shop around before buying.

Past Somali words: maxaad shektay, qaalin, khapar, aabbe, waddan

Occasionally for some of the harder languages to learn online, I try to go back and do some more site searching. It can be an exhausting task at times. Many sites are just dead ends to error messages or really aren't worth visiting, but here is one for the Somali language I think will work great if you are interested! They have a list of some 600 English to Somali words which should put anyone off to an awesome start. I believe the site was started to help Somali speakers learn English, but really it should help anyone.

Today's word is a Somali word used in Somalia:

waddan - country (also noted as "dal" in Somali)

Since Somali isn't spoken by a large population learning the language online for free will be a difficult task to accomplish. Start with this Fortunecity site. They offer a 600 word English to Somali dictionary and vice versa. You maybe able to find an exchange partner online at My Language Exchange, provided there are Somali speakers registered with the site. Your best bet would be travel within the country, finding a local tutor or purchasing language software from African Language dot com. Their CD-ROM is priced at $99 USD, so may wish to shop around before buying.

Past Somali words: maxaad shektay, qaalin, khapar, aabbe