Daily Blog 07/17/2013
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Welcome to the ‘dark web,’ a haven for illegal trafficking – Technology & Science – CBC News
The so-called “dark web,” a shadowy part of the internet you haven’t likely visited and won’t find using Google, has become an online haven for anyone looking to buy or sell drugs, weapons or other illegal goods. And it’s leaving law enforcement stumped.
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In wartime, technology is driven by our shared weakness for violence. In 1939, the RAF was still sending biplanes into battle. By 1945 we had jets. Spitfires and stealth bombers are beautiful things because more design man-hours have been devoted to the technology of killing than into any other field of endeavour.
But in peacetime, sex is technology’s primary driver. Even when the pornographers don’t innovate they’re early adopters. The first known fruity movie was made two years after the first moving pictures of any kind. It’s been suggested that it was the greater availability of porn on VHS formats that helped it to win the video format wars over Betamax. And there’s a reason why Polaroid’s innovative camera that eliminated embarrassing trips to the chemist was called the Swinger.
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Nico Ditch – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nico Ditch (occasionally Mickle Ditch or Nikker) is a six mile (9.7 km) long linear earthwork running between Ashton-under-Lyne and Stretford in Greater Manchester, England. It may have been dug as a defensive fortification, or possibly a boundary marker. It was constructed some time between the 5th and 11th centuries AD.
The ditch is still visible in short sections, such as a 300-metre stretch in Denton golf course. In the parts which survive, the ditch is 3–4 metres wide and up to 1.5 metres deep. Part of the earthwork is protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
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The 15 Most Ludicrous Superhero Vehicles
What superheroes have in high morals and immense powers, they often lack in common sense, at least as regards to vehicles. That’s the only way to explain the plethora of weird, garish or outright idiotic superhero cars, jets and other nonsense clogging our nation’s highways and airspace. Here are 15 vehicles that were wrecks long before they hit the road.
