Somalian pirates, the real-life version of childhood story time, have captured the world's attention and were a large draw to a local lecture Thursday night.

The horn of Africa was the official topic, but many of the questions tied back to Somalian pirates and the instability they are causing off the coast of east Africa.

Tim May, head of the college's Department of History and Philosophy, led the event and said piracy is a foreign concept for many Americans.

"Piracy always gets attention. It's just something that we think of being part of a bygone age. But it's still a large part of instability in the world. ... It's something you don't hear about every day so we're not jaded about it."

He said Americans don't hear about the majority of pirate takeovers — there have been 300 of them in the last year — unless they involve U.S. citizens.

Some audience questions centered on combating the problem and May pointed to the recent capture of a pirate ship near the city of Mogadishu, hundreds of miles south from most pirate activity, as a reason why the problem is so hard to police.

"The Red Sea is pretty much pirate-free now, but they've moved out into the Indian Ocean which is just huge," he said. "Even with satellite technology you can't keep tabs on all of the hundreds of ships crossing the Indian Ocean."

He added that many nations don't have large Navy forces and those that do have commitments elsewhere.

Nearly 75 people attended the Great Decisions Lecture Series event, hosted by North Georgia College & State University at the Gainesville Civic Center.

The event was attended by a group of students from Riverside Military Academy's Advanced Placement U.S. History class.

"We wanted them to come out and get a feel for a college professor talking about a subject and current event that was very relevant to what they studied in social studies," said John McCleary, chairman of the school's social studies department.