How would you feel if you could look up the smallest building block of your identity on Wikipedia? That is what a group of researchers are currently working on through Wikipedia. In an attempt to bring the scientific world into the land of the layman, a dedicated group of scientists are editing the 650 current entries on genes, and creating thousands more.

When finished, the gene entries will become the most widely available databases for gene information, putting you in the the drivers seat. No longer will a doctor’s babble of this gene or that gene be a mystery to you or me, because it will be right there in normal speak. Now here is the real question, if Wikipedia is a completely manipulatable by users, then how can we verify that the information is correct? Well thankfully the community of Wikipedia is so vast and so incredibly controlling that as information is added it is also edited. So there we go, Wikipedia is now a scientific resource. Congratulations Wikipedia and lets thank these scientists for doing such a service for us.

The BBC did a story recently on the torture of captives both domestically and abroad. The story detailed some of the interesting methods that soldiers use to make their captives talk. Since physical torture is frowned upon (like water boarding and beating) mental manipulation is often used to embarrass, defame, and break the minds of those held captive. One form of torture, believe it or not, is torture by music.

Both US and British psychological units use music torture on suspects. These units also use methods like leaflet and propaganda drops to gain support. Music torture includes playing songs that may suspects feel awkward because of cultural differences (ex. sexually explicit songs to uber conservatives) or playing songs on loop. The interesting part to this is not so much the method as it is the songs, so many of them you wouldn’t even think of as torture.

Does your kid like Sesame Street? Did you grow up singing Barney songs? These are just some of the songs that are blasted to detainees to get them to talk. Buddhist chants have been used, as have snippets of David Gray and the Meow Mix commercial. The psychological idea behind the method is that the repetition and loud noise creates a stress on the mind that lowers resistance and it works. So next time you turn on Neil Simon, just give it a minute and think how lucky you arethat you can change the song on your iPod.

The JonBenet Ramsey murder was the slaying of a six year old beauty queen in Bolder. The little girl was killed in her home in 1996, her body found by her father after she was molested and redressed. for the past 12 years the murder of JonBenet has been a mystery, and until 2006 both her father and mother will diligently searching for the killer. When her mother died in 2006, police believed that they had found the man responsible hiding in Thailand, and America rejoiced. But the man who became America’s most hated actually didn’t kill that darling little girl.

Now, 12 years after the slaying the parents of JonBenet are just finally being proven innocent. The parents of JonBenet were always under suspicion for her murder, especially when a ransom note was found in the Ramsey house after JonBenet had already passed away. A DNA test on some skin cells found on JonBenet’s clothing just proved that the person who killed JonBenet was not her parents, it was a mysterious stranger as her parents claimed. While we have finally exonerated her parents, the mystery still survives. So readers, are you hiding any clues out there in cyber space?