Laws of War, Chocolate Milk, Sex Trafficking and Tech

Laws of War (1:09) Guest: Eric Jensen, BYU law professor The law of war is Top of Mind today as we kick things of with our monthly visit from BYU international law expert Eric Jensen. He is just back from a conference in Geneva, Switzerland debating the legality of a new generation of drone warfare. We also talk about the Blackwater guards who have recently be sentenced to lengthy prison terms for killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in a Baghdad traffic circle back in 2007. We also touch on the desertion charge now facing Bowe Bergdahl - the soldier who was freed nearly a year ago in exchange for several high-value Taliban leaders being held at Guantanamo Bay. “I would like to make a brief distinction between this idea of autonomous weapons and artificial intelligence,” says Jensen. “When people talk about killer robots sometimes what comes to mind is 'The Terminator' or a self-thinking machine. This is not what autonomous weapons are. We’re not talking about artificial intelligence, which is a system that can learn on its own and make its own decisions. We’re talking about an autonomous weapons system which means it’s only applying the alga rhythms and instructions that have been given by the human. There is a human putting all the information into that machine and telling that machine how to respond. That is a key difference.” Positive Effects of Chocolate Milk (35:04) Guest: John Ivy, an emeritus professor in kinesiology and health education at the University of Texas, whose research specializes in exercise and human performance That iconic image of a winning football coach getting a bucket of Gatorade dumped on his head after the game could get a lot messier as new research about the benefits of chocolate milk catches on. Yes, chocolate milk. It is no longer just a childhood favorite or special indulgence. Researchers have found it also just might be the perfect beverage for athletes. “We put the cyclists through two experiments. In the first, they did 1½ hours of intense exercise and at the end did sprints to simulate a road race and to fatigue them. They did this on two occasions. The first occasion, they received chocolate milk as post exercise supplement. Then, 2 hours later, they received the chocolate milk again. In the second treatment, they received the same amount of calories but in carbohydrate form. Then, after 4 hours of recovery, we then had them complete a simulated cycling time trial, about 40 kilometers. What we found was, when the individuals received the chocolate milk for the recovery supplement, they were able to do time trial somewhere around 10% faster than when they received the carbohydrates," explains Ivy. Sex Trafficking and Technology (50:50) Guest: Vanessa Bouche, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas Christian University and lead researcher on a new report for the anti-human trafficking non-profit THORN Technology has proven both a blessing and curse in many aspects of society. Perhaps nowhere is its dual nature more stark than in sex trafficking. Police use the internet to catch perpetrators. But a new report by the anti-human trafficking organization THORN finds traffickers are also rapidly leveraging digital networks and platforms to recruit, groom and sell children for sex. The report was based on a survey of more than a hundred victims of the sex trade in America who were first trafficked at the age of 16 or 17, on average. “There are a variety of factors that make children at risk for sex trafficking. (Over 300,000 victims in the United States). Some of the factors include poverty, parental abuse, and neglect. Also, parents being drug addicts. Sometimes these factors lead children to want to run away or seek some kind of community of belonging outside of their family and, it many times, makes them vulnerable to sex trafficking. The statistics are that 48 hours after running away, the minor will be picked up and recruited for the purpose of sexual exploitation," says Bouche. Parent Previews: Paul Blart, Monkey Kingdom (1:07:58) Guest: Rod Gustafson and Kerry Bennett The film is "Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2." Comedian Kevin James returns as a hapless mall security guard who succeeds in spite of himself. This time he has to save the day at a convention for security guards in Las Vegas. Another film came out over the weekend. It is the latest nature documentary from Disney. Drought Resistant Plants (1:21:40) Guests: Mikel Stevens, professor of genetics and biotechnology in BYU's Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences Mike Alder, director of BYU's Technology Transfer segment More than half of the United States is currently experiencing abnormally dry conditions and 30 percent of the country is in full-fledge drought according to the federal drought monitor. The worst of it is focused across the west, where drought conditions have persisted for years and climate models predict more heat and less rain in coming decades. The traditional water-intensive methods of landscaping yards, highway medians and public spaces in the West will have to change and BYU professor Mikel Stevens is working to help that along. "The reality is, with a little effort, we can actually find opportunities to find things that will bloom longer and get greener a little later in the season and still be drought tolerant. I don’t think we have to completely give up the bright green Kentucky Blue Grass," says Stevens.