World Events, Clear Wood, Pain Medication Monitoring

World Events Guest: Quinn Mecham, PhD, Professor of Political Science at BYU Quinn Mecham joins us monthly to highlight three international events worthy of a bit more attention. Today, he joins us by phone from Washington DC where he’s currently directing BYU’s internship program for students in government and politics. Targeted Online Ads Guest: Christopher Summers, PhD Candidate at Ohio State University The thought of being “targeted” brings a bad taste to one’s mouth. To be singled out, inspected, aimed at . . .targeting often goes hand-in-hand with discrimination, too.  And yet, marketing research conducted at The Ohio State University finds people can be persuaded to buy more stuff if they know they were targeted by a specific ad. It’s an ironic twist – and underscores just how susceptible we are to marketing persuasion. Disaster Relief Guest: Juanita Rilling, Director at USAID (United States Agency for International Development) Center for International Disaster Information When natural disaster strikes, we often think, “what can I do to help?” Recently, for example, the entire town of Fort McMurray in Alberta, Canada, had to be evacuated. Aid agencies published requests for particular items online: sanitary supplies, groceries, even kennels to house displaced dogs.  It’s important to adhere to the specific requests of aid agencies, or well-meaning donors could trigger what relief workers call “the second disaster,” when massive amounts of unsolicited donations—think winter coats sent to Honduras in the summer – can end up being worse than useless. Clear Wood Guest: Tian Li, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Scholar at the University of Maryland How many different materials went into the construction of your house: wood, cement, vinyl, steel, glass? In the future you may see more uses for wood, in places you’d never expect such as in window panes. That’s right, you may one day be gazing out windows made not of glass, but of wood. How can that be . . . transparent wood?? Pain Medication Monitoring G