Online

In generations past, the world's oldest profession was a tawdry trade practiced mostly in the shadows of unlit street corners and darkened alleys. Today, vulnerable young women and girls are still being tricked or forced into selling their bodies to strangers by predatory and amoral pimps who deceive, threaten and abuse them - but the locus of "the stroll" has changed from sidewalks to computer screens. Increasingly, traffickers are going online to market their victims, and as a new study by the Abell Foundation warns, the rise in Internet sex trafficking is rapidly outstripping efforts to combat it. The study's authors concede that hard numbers are notoriously difficult to come by, since the vast majority of transactions take place out of view of authorities, and traffickers have become extremely sophisticated in managing their businesses.

After hearing rave reviews from his friends, Scott Cover decided it was time to try the pizza at Joe Squared himself. But after a lackluster pie and what he considered overpriced beers, Cover felt the popular Station North restaurant had fallen well short of his expectations. "Initially, I was severely let down," Cover, a 31-year-old information technology consultant, said recently of his March 2010 outing. "It was like, 'This isn't as awesome as everyone makes it seem.'" Then the Federal Hill resident did what many customers do after a bad experience: He turned on his computer and wrote about it. "The sauce was horribly bland, and I couldn't even taste it as it was simply overpowered by everything else on the pizza," Cover wrote.

Attorneys challenging a death sentence before the state's highest court last week dug deeply into online historical documents to divine the intention behind what they think is a never-before-interpreted part of the state's constitution. Public defender Brian Saccenti and a team of lawyers rested their argument in part on a once-famous 18th-century book by a young Italian nobleman named Cesare Beccaria, who suggested that capital punishment should be reserved for treasonous criminals.

Many of us can remember what it feels like to be bullied as a kid in school or in the neighborhood. Perhaps you were the focus of a joke or a kick in the shin, or maybe it was the simple act of exclusion from the lunch table or the dodge ball team. Sometimes no harm was meant; other times the inflicted pain was intentional, and you remember it years later. One thing was certain, however, and that was the ability to escape the bullying in the safe haven of home. No schoolyard antagonist could penetrate the walls of home, and thus that sanctity served as an oasis where a bullied child could regroup and feel safe for a portion of each day while learning to navigate the world.

When some University of Maryland, College Park students return to class for the spring semester, they could be attending lectures, taking quizzes and completing group projects without leaving their dorm rooms. The university is participating in a pilot program that combines massive open online courses with traditional classroom instruction. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation recently awarded $1.4 million to nonprofit research group Ithaka S+R to study how the state's university system could incorporate the increasingly popular online courses "There are two things we're seeking: new strategies that will improve learning outcomes and lower costs," said University System of Maryland Chancellor William E. Kirwan.

If it's already better to give than to receive, technology has made giving even better by making donating to charity more accessible and participatory. Or, as Bill and Melinda Gates put it last week, "easier and more fun. " The combination is especially attractive to seasonal or infrequent donors, such as the many now catching the holiday spirit, gifting for an altruistic friend or seeking to increase their tax deductions. With this audience in mind, the Gateses blogged five ways to give online they believe are innovative and well-run.

Nothing says Christmas to me like the words "free shipping. " The last hurdle on my way to full-online shopping has been cleared by retailers who got the message I sent last year: I am not paying for shipping. I know, I know. I am paying for shipping. I'm sure the shipping costs have found their way into the price of that sweater, that DVD or that set of monogrammed beer mugs, but at least it isn't a nasty surprise waiting with my "shopping cart. " Retailers surveyed shoppers and found that they were very happy with their online shopping experiences — until it was time to check out. Then many of them, like me, bailed when they saw what the convenience was costing.

Good morning and welcome to The Sun's daily online trends column. Every morning we'll try to understand the deranged hive mind that is the Internet and figure out what people are interested in. Formerly an internal memo for just Sun staffers, we've decided to share. So without further ado ... How does it feel to get "Batch Slapped" Baltimore? The Baltimore Ravens are reeling after a heart-breaking loss to the hated Pittsburgh Steelers. And the Steelers' unlikely savior, backup quarterback Charlie Batch ,   is getting much-deserved attention on Google and Twitter this morning.

The Mount Washington School is vying for a $50,000 grant from Clorox, and asking for the Baltimore city community's help to secure it. The school entered into the Clorox CompaNy's "Power a Bright Future" competition under which the company plans to dole out $200,000 to give to schools across the country.  Mt. Washington is among nearly 2,500 schools that have entered to win one of seven grants,  which it plans to put toward boosting its...

NASHVILLE -- Impacted first hand by colleagues being diagnosed by cancer, public relations officials from Major League Baseball and its 30 clubs announced Monday afternoon they have organized a unique online auction to benefit Stand Up to Cancer. The cause has impacted the Orioles directly. The club's public relations director, Monica Barlow, is battling Stage 4 lung cancer. “I don't want to be a spotlight person," Barlow said. "Millions and millions of people are affected by this disease.