Virtual Traffic Lights

Guests: Quinn Mecham, BYU political science professor

Guest: Derek Hansen, IT Professor at BYU. He researches interactive systems and human-computer interaction DUST was the name of the exercise, a game really, consisting of online and real-world interaction that unfurled in real-time with some 2000 people participating. The game was designed to engage teenagers in the scientific process. It was created by BYU in collaboration with the University of Maryland and funding from the National Science Foundation. "DUST is a new genre of game with stories that play out over time. As you solve puzzles, the next story elements get revealed. What’s neat is that it’s a fictional story where you interact with the characters, as yourself," says Hansen.

Guest: Sam Payne, host of the Apple Seed Sam Payne tells us the story of his lost iPad. "I left my iPad on the plane when flying back from Oregon. While waiting to hear from the airlines, I called Apple and they showed me how to log into the website and find my pad (I could see it as a green dot out in America somewhere!) I found it on 102nd Street and 6th Avenue in Queens," recalls Payne.

Guest: Robert Morris Solitary confinement is one of the toughest punishments prisons have to discipline offenders. It usually means keeping a prisoner in a small cell for 23 hours a day, denied all human contact. And new research by criminologist Robert Morris finds it doesn't work - at least if the goal is to get prisoners to straighten up and stop acting out behind bars. "We’ve discovered there’s no deterrent benefit from exposing inmates to solitary confinement following a violent act and we also don’t find an aggravating effect," says Morris.

Guest: Storm Gloor, author of the recent study, "Songs As Branding Platforms? A Historical Analysis of People, Places, and Products in Pop Music Lyrics." He is an associate professor of Music Business Professor at the University of Colorado-Denver Pop music and pop culture have always been intertwined. But University of Colorado-Denver music business professor Storm Gloor has just completed an exhaustive research project that finds what we listen to is more closely tied to what we wear and drive than ever before. "Advertainment is the idea of using what we typically refer to as entertainment media (songs, movies, etc.) to advertise. Example: The pop song, ‘My ADIDAS,’ sung by Run-D.M.C, is all about ADIDAS shoes," says Gloor.