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The Science Behind The Love Canal Disaster; Twins Fest In Full Swing This Weekend; What exactly Is In the Food You Eat?

Aired August 02, 2003 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Well, it has been 25 years since Love Canal became a household word, and shorthand for environmental disaster in a neighborhood. We'll talk about the science behind that story with a man who was there and helped residents deal with the mess.
Also, twins have a special bond, and scientists have a special fondness for twins. We'll tell you why.

And if you are what you eat, a lot of us must be a little buggy. We'll have some eye-opening facts on what is in your food.

But first, it has been 25 years since one of the country's most notorious toxic towns first came into the national spotlight. The Love Canal community in Niagara Falls had a pleasant name, but a poisonous secret lurked under the soil.

Maria Hinojosa explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are no warning signs here, nothing marking the site of one of the nation's most famous environmental disasters, Love Canal. Nothing to recall how, 25 years ago, residents discovered that beneath their local schoolhouse and 240 homes, the Hooker Chemical Corporation had buried 22,000 tons of toxic waste.

Nothing except the strange memories of those who grew up there playing with toxic balls of phosphorus.

LOUIS WEST, FORMER RESIDENT: They were called fire rocks, and just picking them up and splatting them on the ground and just watching them explode.

HINOJOSA: Lois Gibbs remembers how her little boy got sick.

LOIS GIBBS, FORMER RESIDENT, ACTIVIST: He developed a number of diseases. He developed epilepsy. He developed urinary tract disorder. He developed a liver problem. He developed asthma.

HINOJOSA: She organized her neighborhood, discovering that 56 percent of the children had birth defects. Many women had miscarriages. Then President Jimmy Carter ordered an evacuation.

GIBBS: They're totally trying to forget it. They took the signs down because they didn't want a reminder. I mean, that's exactly the point. They put a playground right next to the northern end of the dump.

HINOJOSA: Hundreds of homes of the 1980s have been refurbished, now resold. The agency that rebuilt the neighborhood closes down next week.

FRANK CORNELL, AREA REVITALIZATION AGENCY: We're actually finished, end of an era, truly an end.

HINOJOSA: The Environmental Protection Agency has declared most of this area safe for homes. They say the toxins have been sealed underground. The agency will soon move the site off the government's list of emergency hazardous waste sites.

MICHAEL BASILE, EPA: You're going to see economic prosperity completely surrounding this once-hazardous waste landfill.

HINOJOSA (on camera): But what do you say to people who just say, It's just eerie?

BASILE: We have the technology that proves that there's -- it's safe to be around the canal, you know, because we definitely have nothing to gain to tell people that they can't live a very prosperous life around this canal.

HINOJOSA (voice-over): So the new residents of Love Canal say the environmental disaster is a very distant memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never think about the Love Canal at all. And we've been here five years, and we wouldn't even consider moving. We absolutely love it here. It's like living in a park.

HINOJOSA: A park with a 10-foot fence, with just one tiny hazard sign, and a padlock to keep the curious out.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Niagara Falls, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, the Love Canal case helped to rewrite the nation's environmental laws. But what else has changed in a quarter of a century, and what is Love Canal's legacy?

Here to discuss some of the science behind the story is Steven Lester, the science director at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice.

And Steve, thanks very much for joining us.

You were the liaison between the Love Canal community and the New York Health Department 25 years ago. We know that tons of toxic waste was buried beneath the soil. What is the situation there now?

STEVEN LESTER, SCIENCE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, AND JUSTICE: Well, first of all, the contamination, the chemicals, the 22,000 tons are still sitting there in the center of that landfill. They have got a monitoring system that encompasses the landfill, and it's trying to detect whether there's any contamination there, or any of it's coming out.

I mean, they have moved new families into that area, but they have -- there is a big question about whether it still is, really, in fact, safe.

WHITFIELD: But what's your gut tell you? There are a number of people, as you saw in the piece, who want to move back, who are relocating. Is it a safe place to live?

LESTER: Well, despite what the man said in the prior interview, nobody is really saying that the area is safe.

When the New York State Health Department went in there and evaluated the contamination that exists throughout the entire area, including the area where people are living now, they found that when they compared it to other areas of Buffalo, north Buffalo, which they selected as a comparison area out of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- as part of a very detailed public process, they identified several sites, and they found that none of the Love Canal area would have been habitable if they had stayed with their original plan of comparing the contaminants in the Love Canal area to this one control area.

Instead, what they did is, they sort of changed their process, in isolation identified couple of other places, one of which happened to be downwind from the Hooker -- the Occidental Petroleum incinerator, and another one that had a very high hot spot of contamination.

WHITFIELD: Well, at the time, people did not realize that this kind of toxic waste existed there. Do you believe, or is it your gut feeling, that there are other communities that may face the same demise?

LESTER: Absolutely. We work with...

WHITFIELD: Why do you feel that way?

LESTER: Well, we work with communities all over the country every day in our office at the center, and there are constantly people coming to us, calling us, who realize and are awakened for the first time with the realization that there's contamination in their community.

In south Buffalo right now, not very far from the Love Canal, there's a community that was built on top of an old industrial site that the city of Buffalo owned and constructed all of these private homes. And this man discovered, by digging in his yard, a black ash material that turned out to be full of lead, chromium, and other toxic metals.

HINOJOSA: Well, the U.S. Superfund came about as a result of this Love Canal. And there's something like 1,200 other communities that are on this priority list. Is it your feeling that there are a number of these communities that are going to be just -- that there won't be any real cleanup, and perhaps they'll be built right on top of the waste?

LESTER: Unfortunately, that seems to be the direction we're going in more and more. I mean, the U.S. EPA, for example, has now -- is limiting -- is -- their priority for cleanup right now are those sites that can be redeveloped, and not those sites that need cleanup.

And so there are communities all over the country who are angry and frustrated with the fact that the cleanup that had been in process for a year or two or three years, is suddenly the money's been pulled out from it, and their cleanup is not going forward.

WHITFIELD: All right. Steven Lester, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

LESTER: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Well, we'll have more about Love Canal later on today on CNN at 10:00 Eastern time this evening. We'll be interviewing Lois Gibbs, the woman who led the community fight to get Love Canal cleaned up.

When we come back, the annual twins convention is under way. We'll find out why scientists like to use twins in experiments.

And later in the show, the world of online games keeps getting more like the real world, as some players make cyberlife miserable for others. We'll talk to one of them and find out why he does it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now a check of some of the week's tech stories.

Warnings issued this week not once but twice about Internet hazards. In an unusual move, the Department of Homeland Security urged Windows users to go to the Microsoft site and download a patch to fix a security problem. That software flaw could allow intruders to take control of other machines and steal information.

And some businesses faced computer slowdowns Friday when a mass- mailing Internet worm known as MyMail slipped through many corporate e-mail scans, spreading through a different Microsoft security hole.

Local police departments have a new tool to fight identity theft, courtesy of the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security. It's a CD-ROM to help local (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- officers, rather, know what to look for and where to get help when we're faced with an identity theft case. It also provides material to give to victims to help them cope.

Remember the do-not call list, where millions of Americans signed up to avoid telemarketing calls? Well, the telemarketers are suing now. The industry says the registry will cost it as much as $50 billion a year in sales and will eliminate up to 2 million jobs. The industry group calls the list regulatory overkill.

Technology has come a long way since the floppy disk. A new watch from BMW allows you to store files right onto your wrist. The computer hookup is neatly tucked away in the watchband, plugs right into any computer, and you can download or upload pictures, music, documents, presentations, most any computer file. The watch costs $128 with 128 megabytes of storage, a dollar a megabyte.

Well, each year, Twinsburg, Ohio, is proud to host what it calls the world's largest annual gathering of twins. On the first weekend in August, they arrive two by two in the small town just south of Cleveland for a weekend of socializing and celebration sometimes.

But for researchers, the Twinsburg event presents a unique opportunity for studying twins.

Joining us now to tell us why this research is so important is Kelly Willenburg from Vanderbilt University, who is also a mother of twins.

Good to see you, Kelly.

KELLY WILLENBURG, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Thank you, thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about what this convention, so to speak, is all about.

WILLENBURG: Well, Twins Day started about 20 years ago, and it's a celebration for multiple-birth families and their children. And they all converge on Twinsburg, Ohio, for a weekend of activities, such as -- they do a fun run for melanoma research. They're having a parade. And they have contests for the best-dressed, most who -- most lookalike, the least alike, and a variety of contests for everybody, from twins, to triplets, to quads, and their families.

WHITFIELD: So it's a lot of fun, but a lot of these twins are going to find that there are some recruiting measures under way there, because a lot of the scientists have a real fascination over the twins and want to involve them in research opportunities. Why?

WILLENBURG: Well, twins present a unique opportunity for researchers. I think the challenge for researchers is finding the avenue or venue to find the multiple births that they need for subjects.

The National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs Incorporated, out of Thompson Station, Tennessee, has about 25,000 members across the country and 24 clubs -- 24 -- 420 clubs that can provide a venue for people to participate in everything from hereditary research, to epidemiology research, to psychology research.

And the twins are a good population, especially identical twins in research such as metabolic studies, twinning studies, and genetic studies and DNA.

WHITFIELD: So as a mother of twins, did you involve your twins in any research programs, and if so, what kind? WILLENBURG: Yes. My 16-year-old fraternal daughters, Muriel and Brandy, have participated in some studies. They also participated in a study to find out if they were, for sure, fraternal, because there's always that question. And they did a cheek-swab study, where they sent -- submitted a cheek swab, and we got research back on whether or not they were actually identical.

WHITFIELD: Are there any real downsides to all this as well, though, this research studies, or encouraging these kids to be involved?

WILLENBURG: I think sometimes that there's a notion that some teenage twins will think that if they participate in a lot of studies, they'll make money doing it. There was actually some studies going on out in California, where they were doing space flights of twins and nicotine use in twins. And twins were being utilized in that setting.

So in that realm, you actually have a twin who might be picking up a cigarette for the first time to participate in research.

WHITFIELD: And so what would be your advice to the parents or to the twins who might be involved in such research?

WILLENBURG: Well, I would say that, as a parent, you have an opportunity, and your children and yourself have an opportunity, to participate in important research that's being done that is presented every three years at the International Society of Twin Studies. And next summer it's in Denmark.

And there will be researchers from all over the world who will participate, present, and show studies among multiple-birth children that can show everything from the importance of their learning and the way they learn, and the -- and whether or not you should take conjoined twins and separate, and that's been in the news very much so over the past few weeks.

And we have a physician here at Vanderbilt who is, you know, one of the cutting-edge researchers in that field, and -- Dr. James O'Neill. And he actually participated in the Twin Congress two years ago in London, England. And I was there with a colleague, Patty Beemer (ph), from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and we presented findings in whether or not you should separate twins in school, because sometimes it's a simple question like that for a parent, Do I separate them when they go to kindergarten?

And the NOMOTC, the National Organization of Mothers of Twins, presents that research, and has a Web site that's available to people where they can go on and find out about research and find out if there is an avenue or an opportunity for their family, their kids, or themselves to participate in.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kelly Willenburg, formerly the president of the National Organization of Mothers of Twins, and now representing Vanderbilt University. Thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

WILLENBURG: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Well, when we come back, we'll tell you how to fly from England to France without an airplane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the 1600s, an explorer, quote, "rejoiced in the number of great whales he saw as he sailed the Atlantic to the New World." Whale populations have dropped dramatically since then, mostly due to hunting. Hunting, we're now learning, devastated whale populations, more than we ever knew.

Scientists doing some internal detective work study the whales' DNA and report in the journal "Science" that whale populations were much higher than old fishing records indicate, that hunting took a more drastic toll on their populations.

Scientists at Harvard and Stanford University discovered a lot of diversity in the whales' genetic code. Those variations can only occur in large populations. For example, the whale known for its song, the humpback whale, researchers estimate, were 10 times more plentiful than records indicate. As many as 240,000 swam the Atlantic at one time. Today, there are about 10,000 left.

Scientists estimate 360,000 thin whales once populated the ocean. Today about 50,000 remain.

And they say to restore populations back to the days before commercial hunting could take decades, with some unlikely to ever rebound. The right whales, which were named because these coastal swimmers were relatively easy to catch and were considered the right whales to hunt, are now on the verge of becoming extinct, with about 350 left.

Ann Kellen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: This week brought a milestone for the International Space Station. Tuesday marked the 1,000th day of nonstop human occupation of the station. The first crew took off for the ISRAELIS in October of 2000. The current occupants are the seventh crew to live on the station, but 1,000 days doesn't come close to the record set on Russia's Mir space station. Mir was occupied for more than 3,600 days between 1989 and 1999.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... three, two, one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Ouch! It was an experiment. The FAA dropped a plane 14 feet onto -- on Wednesday to gather data to set new airline safety standards. The yellow commuter plane contained 23 crash dummies. The fall onto a concrete pad, as you saw there, crushed the plane's wings in the fuselage. The plane was equipped with more than 100 sensors and four cameras to record the damage.

An Austrian adventurer flew across the English Channel on Thursday without a plane. Felix Baumgartner jumped from an aircraft more than 30,000 feet over England. He wore a carbon-fiber wing that allowed him to glide for 22 miles and land in France. The trip took seven minutes at speeds that exceeded 200 miles an hour. Baumgartner says at that altitude, you're not aware of the downward motion, just the forward speed, so it feels like you're really flying.

Well, the U.S. is tightening control over transit travelers, international air passengers who transit through U.S. airports en route to other destinations. With a few exceptions, starting today, these passengers will need a visa to pass through U.S. airports.

Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us now the with details. Hi, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.

The U.S. government closing a loophole it believes terrorists may have been looking to exploit. Travelers from other countries will now be required to have visas to transit through the U.S. unless they are citizens of one of the 27 so-called visa waiver countries, whose citizens do not need visas to come here.

Here's an explanation of the kind of passenger that's going to be affected. If someone is traveling from Brazil, let's say, and stops in the United States, even for a few hours to change planes before going on to London, a U.S. visa is now a must. The new policy was signed this morning and goes into effect immediately, with certain exceptions. Passengers traveling right now, for instance, will be able to transit and depart the U.S., subject to inspection and evaluation of risk.

And there are also provisions for some other people now traveling or traveling soon. Details can be found on the Web site www.travel.state.gov.

But about 6,000 people are expected to have to get a visa or change their itinerary in the next 60 days, putting a strain on some U.S. consulates around the world.

The impact is also going to be felt by many U.S. airlines, who are going to have to reroute passengers. Last year American, Delta, United, and Northwest all carried significant numbers of transit passengers. No estimates yet on how much this is going to cost them.

The country's most impacted, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, and the Philippines. Domestic U.S. citizens not going to be affected. This is not the last word on the programs. The Departments of State and Homeland Security will be working with the airlines over the next 60 days to reassess the program and see if it should be reinstated on an airline-by-airline basis, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, Jeanne, earlier this week, officials issued a directive requiring special scrutiny of electronic devices carried by international travelers. Can you tell us more about that?

MESERVE: That's right, there was intelligence received that indicated that terrorists might try to weaponize some items that were commonly carried by travelers, for instance, cameras. And so this week, this directive went out instructing security personnel, both domestically in some cases, but mostly overseas, to take a closer look at electronics that people were carrying to see if, indeed, there had been some modification to them.

They're also looking, I should say, at shoes and also more closely at garments to see if anything unusual has been done with them, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeanne Meserve in Washington, thank you.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge will join Wolf Blitzer tomorrow at noon Eastern on "LATE EDITION" to talk about the issue and more. Please join us for that.

Coming up in our next half hour, online gaming takes players to a cyberworld where they find adventure, mystery, and bullies who want to spoil it for everyone else. We'll look at the phenomenon of griefing.

And do you really know what's in your food? We'll find out about some secret ingredients that may just spoil your appetite.

First a quick break, and then we'll check the latest headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, NEXT@CNN continues just in a moment or two, after a check of what's going on at this hour.

One U.S. soldier died and three others were wounded in a rocket- propelled grenade attack north of Baghdad today. To date, 250 U.S. troops have been killed since the start of the war, 53 of those since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1.

Saddam Hussein's two sons and a grandson were buried today in their tribal homeland of Tikrit, Iraq. Uday and Qusay Hussein, along with Qusay's teenage son, were killed in a shootout with U.S. forces last month in the city of Mosul. The U.S. military handed the bodies over to the Red Crescent earlier in the day, which in turn gave them they -- to the members of their tribe for burial.

Liberian President Charles Taylor says he has agreed to leave office on August 11, handing power to a successor who has yet to be named. West African diplomats who met with him today say a peacekeeping force would be deployed in Liberia in the next two days. Rebel fighters have been besieged -- or, rather, have besieged the capital of Monrovia for the last two months.

More top stories at the top of the hour. Now back to NEXT@CNN.

Star Wars, Galaxies, Sims Online, Everquest, they're all called massively multiplayer on-line role-playing games -- that's a mouth full. And believe it or not, hundreds of thousands of people are playing them, but not everyone wants to play nice. Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is here to talk about a darker side to the online gaming -- Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Fredericka. It's called griefing. Some online game players out there are jumping into these virtual worlds with the single purpose in mind: to harrass, bully, and cause grief for other players in the game.

Don't assume for a moment that just because these role games -- role playing games are about creating a utopia where you can meet and chat with new friends online, this is not just what it is about. With such huge numbers involved, these virual worlds have become like a pietry dish of functional and disfunctional social behavior.

Right now our own Scott Thomas is playing one of these games. You're playing the Sims Online, Scott, we're not going to call you disfunctional, but it's not all about rainbows and lollypops, there are some battles that go on this game.

SCOTT THOMAS, ONLINE GAMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Correct, there's been an aspect of the game invented by the players who are interacting in the game. It's almost mafia style because they do hits on each other. They can hire a hit man on each other, and they just do different things that would allow them to enter into combat, such as blocking your screen or not allowing you to join a house.

SIEBERG: Making life miserable, basically, for somebody else who is the game.

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: A big part of it is interaction and chat and trying to meet new friends in the game, but right now, where are you? What are you doing right now?

THOMAS: What I'm trying to do is to join a house that will allow me to interact with people. It's full at the time. The game has become very popular since the beta release.

SIEBERG: About how many people are in the game at any one time?

THOMAS: It's really hard to say. All of these properties are populated from what I can see.

SIEBERG: And those are actual people. We should point out that all the little characters you are seeing, the people you are interacting with, those are real people that are playing all those characters just like you, right?

THOMAS: Correct. None of these are computer simulated at all.

SIEBERG: So there are some real problems. You have to keep you character alive. Try to keep him happey.

THOMAS: Correct you have to keep the fed, and bathed, and everything you do in real life.

SIEBERG: And let them go to the bathroom as well.

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: All right. Well we are going to bring in our guests, our first guests. They are Jennifer and Piers Matheson and they are in Las Vegas. They are joining us live. And Jennifer and Piers are essentially victims of thise phenomenon of griefing. Do you agree with that, first of all? Let's start off, what is grief, being griefed mean?

JENNIFER MATHIESON, ONLINE GAMER: What does griefing mean?

SIEBERG: Yes. Do you feel like you are a victim of some of this activity?

MATHIESON: Well, griefing in particular, has an awful lot to do with just coming at someone and harrassing them nonstop. It's very difficult to deal with and it can really disrupt your game.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, let's start, you both had a very popular character in the Sims Online and then you say that you essentially harrassed, you were picked on. Why do you think that was? What exactly what happened to you?

PIERS MATHIESON, ONLINE GAMER: All right. Let me break it down to you like this, there is two different forms of griefing, ok. There's the fun play, because you just want to mess around and kind of joke and kind of nudge the other players. That's a total, like, acceptable way of griefing. But when you go out of your way to target a specific player, and you just don't let up, and it's just a nonstop things, that's when it becomes a problem.

When Jennifer was the number 1 Sim in Alphaville, Neawallace (ph) -- we both played the account. Tell him what happened. What kind of hate mail.

J. MATHIESON: I would receive all kinds of hate mail. People telling me that, "Oh I'm so jealous, but you are going down. And I'm going to take you out. And I'm never going to stop harrassing you." And it became very, very difficult to deal with and it came to the point where I didn't want play the game anymore. You know, I'm paying all this money to pay a game, why should I pay for it so my friend's and I banded together and we started fighting back.

SIEBERG: All right, let's get into that then. Talk to me about the "Sim Shadow Government" which I understand you helped to form. It acts almost as a neighborhood watch group. What are you doing, exactly, in the game though?

P. MAHTIESON: In the actual game we have to use the same tactics that are being used against us. That's kind of a policy. If someone's going to be harrassing us by sending us a barrage of room mate request, you can't just, in the Sims Online in specific, you can't just ignore someone, becuase...

J. MATHIESON: Griefers have a way of worming in and out of, and find a utilize loop holes within the game. And it happens very, very quickly. So what we do, we just fight back. We use the same tactics that use to grief us against them.

SIEBERG: And we're seeing some of the images right now, I should point out, of what can be done in the game, whether that involves sort of destroying part of your property, or something in your house that you've set up in the game.

P. MATHIESON: For example, when -- what you are looking at -- what you've been looking at right now is a couple of events where someone had harrassed us to the point where they said they were going to demolish our home that we spent, you know, countless of hours. If you ever played Everquest or Star Wars, you know, someone -- any of these games, you know, developing, you know, you're belongings and your funds in the game, within that game, that to have someone come in and destroy something that you've created, or been working hard for is...

J. MATHIESON: It's very disheartening.

SIEBERG: OK, I should point out one thing. You talk about using the same sorts of tactics that some of the groups...

P. MATHIESON: Exactly, so if someone destroys my house or wants to destroy my house you can best believe that we'll get them first.

J. MATHIESON: We'll get them.

SIEBERG: So who are the victims though in this case. I mean, are you really the victims if you are the ones who are also doing those things? Because, we should point out, that we did talk to Maxis and EA, the creators of the game, they did say that this is a small percentage of the game. But they also told us that they have barred you both from playing the game. How do you respond to that?

P. MATHIESON: They've barred us from playing the game?

SIEBERG: They said that at times they have come to you because of some of the activity that you've been doing.

P. MATHIESON: Oh, yes. No, without a doubt. I mean, at any given moment, and EA rep or a Maxis rep can actually come into the game and say, you know, start up a chat with us and say, "hey look, what's going on?" And at the point we explain the situation to them and they say they are going to take care of it.

But you know what? My real life AOL account was hacked by a player in game. This player admitted, in game...

J. MATHIESON: In front of an EA rep who was recording... P. MATHIESON: That they did so and yet this player is still allowed in game, but, an in game exploit which enabled a lot of players to get a large sum of money, they ban people for. Not saying that I'm think that someone would abuse a exploit. Anything that you're going to abuse, if you could get caught in game, then sure, you can get -- face termination. However, to not ban someone for admitting that they hacked your real life account?

SIEBERG: So certainly, obviously some serious consequences if you're playing the game. Jennifer and Piers, I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there. Jennifer and Piers Mathieson from Las Vegas. Thanks so much for joining us to talk about this.

J. MATHIESON: Thank you Daniel.

SIEBERG: So from here, what motivates the griefers. Well we come back, we'll talk to someone who says, it's his right to play the game anyway he wants. Stay tuned for the other side of the story.

Also ahead. Fredericka will be back with more news, including a very quiet car race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back. We've been talking about griefing in online gaming. Griefers are players who entertain themselves by harassing or bothering others in the game. So are they nothing more than neighborhood bullies or are they, as some claim, offering in game protection for those who are intimidated.

Now speaking of in games, Scott Thomas of Cnn.com, a long time gamer himself, is playing this game, and he's in the game right now. Scott where are you. We're going to be talking about the Sim Mafia in a minute. Are you in that house right now?

THOMAS: Yes. I'm actually in what they created as a casino, with black jack tables and even slot machines. They keep it very to the character of the mafia style so...

SIEBERG: A big part of the game is the money too. The samoleans (ph) that are in the game. That helps to buy things and so on.

THOMAS: Correct. The money made on the tables goes straight into the owner of the houses account and he spends it how he likes and through the house.

SIEBERG: All right. We're going to talk to the mob boss now. We going to bring in Jeremy Chase. He's going to join us and talk about what it is to be part of the Sim Mafia, in fact, the head of the Sim Mafia. Jeromy, thanks so much for joining us. You talk about how you're idols are in the mafia, in a sense, and you reference the "Soprano" characters. What are some examples of the things that you are doing in the game. What is the Sim Mafia all about.

JEREMY CHASE, FOUNDER OF THE SIM MAFIA: Essentially the Sim Mafia, back in the day it first got started when the game didn't have a whole lot to it, you know, not a whole lot to do, you get bored after awhile. So we started role-playing mafia characters and now, essentially, it has evolved into pretty much, almost like the real life mafia, only with a little twist.

What we do is if someone wrongs you "in game" you can come to us. Essentially that's a griefer coming to us making a complaint about another player. And we investigate it...

SIEBERG: You started a Web site. You've got a Web site up where people can go. What can they -- what things can you do, for them specifically, in the game?

CHASE: Well, anything really. Protection, you know, that's like body guard services. We can let you know of any possible attempts, hits on your house. We can do debt collection, loan sharking. Literally anything that the mob does in real life, we can reflect that in game, at least with a little twist for it in game.

SIEBERG: And one you had talked about earlier. We spoke earlier and talked about how, if a player's in the pool. We take away the latter so that they end of drowning in the pool. We talked to the Mathieson's earlier, Piers and Jennifer Mathieson. They say the some people like you step over the line. How do you respond to that?

CHASE: I respond, it's people like them that actually step over the line. Because I'm very familiar with their group the SSG, the Sim Shadow Government, we're actually in game enemies. I call them the Sesame Street gangsters, because essentially all they are is a wannabe mafia group. They actually used to be the mafia family back in the day and now they formed this SSG to get away from the negativity that was associated with what they had done in the game.

They used to do the exact same stuff they're complaining about now. Essentially, they brought it on themselves, I think.

SIEBERG: The most popular online role-playing game is Everquest. Why don't people like yourself or other players go a play something like that, and Everquest, where you can have weapons and you can battle out other characters?

CHASE: It really depends on the person. Myself, for example, I've been playing the Sims for a long time. Every body knows the Sims and are familiar with it, you know, it's easy to jump into the game, you know. Essentially, it's just a giant chat room, you know, essentially I just involve it into, you know, a story line and a plot to it.

You know, Everquest, and those games, are fun, and you can interact a lot with people, but then you know, things can get a little out of hand. Sims is kind of tame, if you will.

SIEBERG: Maxis and EA, the creators of the game, have said that it is a fairly small percentage of people that are part of this. They also say, that it shouldn't take away from the fun for other people. Why -- do you take this a little bit too seriously? That you and he Mathieson's are taking this game just a little bit too seriously? CHASE: I can see some people's view, you know. Myself, I know, have taken the game seriously. I've had to take a small break from the game, you know, before, when I realised, you know, it was starting to, you know, stress levels in real life were going up. People just have to realise it's just a game and if you take it to real, like the Mathieson's had their AOL account hacked into, that's taking the game too far. At that point, it's not even a game.

SIEBERG: Jeremy Chase, JCSoprano in the game, the head of the Sims Mafia. And Fredericka, we're all going to take a deep breath here and just remember that this is game, and althought some people take some games very seriously, this is all taking place in a virtual world. We can hope that it stays there and that if you don't like it you can just leave the game and stop playing.

WHITFIELD: There you go, simple solution. Teaching us something new, though about this whole griefing game.

SIEBERG: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Never heard it before. All right, well now I know. Thanks a lot Daniel.

Well checking some "Next News" headlines for this Saturday, the army has announce it will start operations at it's new chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston, Alabama this Wednesday. The incinerator will destroy more than 2,000 tons of nerve agent and mustard gas. The weapons had been stored in Anniston for the past 40 years and are old and leaky. Enviornmentalists and some nearby residents say, burning the weapons is just too risky.

A French farmer jailed for destroying genetically modified crops was freed today. Joser Bover will finish out his 6 month sentence with community service according to the radical farmer's union that Bover heads. Bover is a anti-globalisation activist known for trashing a McDonald's restaurant under construction in Southern France back in 1999.

Solar cars were put through their paces at the Alternative Energies Cup in Sozuka, Japan. Most solar car races are run on straight track, well this 8 hour endurance race has climbs and hairpin turns, just to keep it interesting. Well the car from Ashia (ph) University came out the winner averaging 44 miles per hour.

When we come back, do you eat bugs? Don't be too quick to say no until you hear what our next guest has to tell you about all in some very familiar foods.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" SR. EDITOR: We're in a down economy, still. And, particularly a down economy in terms of IT spending. So, along with that, there have been some voices raised that are starting to say, "Hey, IT Doesn't matter anyway." So, as a result of that opinion, there's been a lot of debate about, what -- does IT Matter? I think it does. IT Is a blanket term that involves so many different facets of spending for individuals and companies. It's PCs and cell phones and operating systems and it's all the connective tissue, the software and hardware.

If you think about your experience as a customer, of any company, how poorly they really understand what we want from them. And companies can do much, much better using software and technology to understand their customers. And a lot of that's starting to happen. IT is absolutely more relevant today for business than it's ever been. The reason we get a little confused is that the growth of the stock of the technology companies is not going at the rate that it was during the bubble. There's no question, technology still matters for business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, if you read food labels, you probably don't expect to find bugs listed as one of the ingredients, do you? Well, you might be surprised to find out that bug parts, hair, even mold are allowed in a lot of the things that we eat. With some insight into what's bugging our food is Mary Roach, author and journalist. Her latest book is "Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," and it's now in bookstores, and Mary, welcome to you. You certainly have a curiosity for things most people may find odd. And perhaps your name may have something to do with the affinity of this topic.

MARY ROACH, AUTHOR: I never actually thought about that before, but you might be right.

WHITFIELD: Well, you visited an FDA lab, and what did you find there most recently?

ROACH: I did, I spent an afternoon in an FDA labs, it's actually called a "filth lab."

WHITFIELD: Oh, goody.

ROACH: And, this is where they analyze imports from other countries, and they're trying to figure out -- make sure that they're not going above what's called a food -- a food action level, food detection action level -- like -- that certain foods have certain allowable amounts of unavoidable insect parts, insect heads, legs, rodent hairs, things like that, because these are really basically considered unavoidable things in food.

WHITFIELD: So in effect, these food defect action levels also monitor additional protein that may number your food?

ROACH: That's right. It's actually -- in fact, caterpillars are...

WHITFIELD: Oh, not good.

ROACH: ...have the same amount of protein and less fat and more nutrients than beef, so...

WHITFIELD: Well, you've made me lose my appetite. I was hungry before this segment. Well, let's talk about specifically some of the food that may have these things in it -- these extra added bits of protein. For one, we've got some of the things right here on our set. For one peanut butter, apparently has quite a bit of this food defect action level. We're talking about insect parts right? All together?

ROACH: Yes, peanut butter you're allowed to have 30 insect parts and one rodent hair in an amount that's 100 grams, which is about what you have there on the screen.

WHITFIELD: And why is this? Because we expect that, you know peanuts or any things -- any of these things that are harvested are likely to have some sort of bug matter?

ROACH: Yes, that's right, anything that's harvested, and also sometimes, for example, the rodent hair would be something happening in storage, in a warehouse. So some of these items that are stored in warehouses will have allowances for hair and even actually excreta, as they call it.

WHITFIELD: Okay. Tomatoes, can tomatoes, in particular, it doesn't seem like this should be allowed. Fly eggs?

ROACH: Ah, well, just ten. Come on.

WHITFIELD: Oh, gosh.

ROACH: Yes, ten fly eggs.

WHITFIELD: Just ten?

ROACH: Or you could have five fly eggs and one maggot, that's it. Yes. So you have your choice, there.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. And, berries -- berries such as strawberries and things like that? Those sacred thing of mine?

ROACH: Yes berries. Berries can actually have a very high level of mold, just because it's almost impossible to avoid it. Yeah.

WHITFIELD: And we're looking at raisins, actually, right now.

ROACH: Oh, raisins.

WHITFIELD: Again, mold is something that may be found in raisins, as well?

ROACH: Right. Up to five percent of the raisins in an average sample can have traces of mold on them, and that is -- that's allowable. Again, it's basically unavoidable.

WHITFIELD: OK. So the FDA somewhat finds this acceptable. But honestly, for our health, shouldn't we be a little bit concerned about these "additives" that we didn't really know about? ROACH: Well, Fredricka, you have to think about the alternative, which would be in order to get the levels down to zero, you would have to use so much pesticide and so much chemicals that, in fact, that would probably be more of a risk to your health than the unsavory things in there.

WHITFIELD: And, would no longer be au natural.

ROACH: That's right.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mary roach, thanks very much. Fun talking to you.

ROACH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's all we have time for today, just in time for you to, perhaps, try and grab a meal now? Lost your appetite maybe? Well, NEXT will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Hopefully you won't feel so bad about eating after the segment.

Well, among the stories we'll be covering for you, 10 percent of all the civilian aircraft in the United States have gathered in one small Wisconsin town this weekend. It's the world's largest air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We'll take you on a tour there. That story and more coming up tomorrow. And hope you'll be watching. And thanks for joining us, today.

Straight ahead, CNN LIVE SATURDAY in about a half an hour in the "Dollar Signs" segment, we'll take your questions on the things every child should know about money. That's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern time with profiles of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and a tribute to Bob Hope.

Then it is "CNN Saturday" at 6:00 Eastern time with the discussion of whether the U.S. is so intent on finding Saddam Hussein that its focus on Osama bin Laden, perhaps, has been blurred.

First, a quick break and then we'll be telling you what's happening at this hour.

END

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Full Swing This Weekend; What exactly Is In the Food You Eat?>


Aired August 2, 2003 - 15:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Well, it has been 25 years since Love Canal became a household word, and shorthand for environmental disaster in a neighborhood. We'll talk about the science behind that story with a man who was there and helped residents deal with the mess.
Also, twins have a special bond, and scientists have a special fondness for twins. We'll tell you why.

And if you are what you eat, a lot of us must be a little buggy. We'll have some eye-opening facts on what is in your food.

But first, it has been 25 years since one of the country's most notorious toxic towns first came into the national spotlight. The Love Canal community in Niagara Falls had a pleasant name, but a poisonous secret lurked under the soil.

Maria Hinojosa explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are no warning signs here, nothing marking the site of one of the nation's most famous environmental disasters, Love Canal. Nothing to recall how, 25 years ago, residents discovered that beneath their local schoolhouse and 240 homes, the Hooker Chemical Corporation had buried 22,000 tons of toxic waste.

Nothing except the strange memories of those who grew up there playing with toxic balls of phosphorus.

LOUIS WEST, FORMER RESIDENT: They were called fire rocks, and just picking them up and splatting them on the ground and just watching them explode.

HINOJOSA: Lois Gibbs remembers how her little boy got sick.

LOIS GIBBS, FORMER RESIDENT, ACTIVIST: He developed a number of diseases. He developed epilepsy. He developed urinary tract disorder. He developed a liver problem. He developed asthma.

HINOJOSA: She organized her neighborhood, discovering that 56 percent of the children had birth defects. Many women had miscarriages. Then President Jimmy Carter ordered an evacuation.

GIBBS: They're totally trying to forget it. They took the signs down because they didn't want a reminder. I mean, that's exactly the point. They put a playground right next to the northern end of the dump.

HINOJOSA: Hundreds of homes of the 1980s have been refurbished, now resold. The agency that rebuilt the neighborhood closes down next week.

FRANK CORNELL, AREA REVITALIZATION AGENCY: We're actually finished, end of an era, truly an end.

HINOJOSA: The Environmental Protection Agency has declared most of this area safe for homes. They say the toxins have been sealed underground. The agency will soon move the site off the government's list of emergency hazardous waste sites.

MICHAEL BASILE, EPA: You're going to see economic prosperity completely surrounding this once-hazardous waste landfill.

HINOJOSA (on camera): But what do you say to people who just say, It's just eerie?

BASILE: We have the technology that proves that there's -- it's safe to be around the canal, you know, because we definitely have nothing to gain to tell people that they can't live a very prosperous life around this canal.

HINOJOSA (voice-over): So the new residents of Love Canal say the environmental disaster is a very distant memory.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We never think about the Love Canal at all. And we've been here five years, and we wouldn't even consider moving. We absolutely love it here. It's like living in a park.

HINOJOSA: A park with a 10-foot fence, with just one tiny hazard sign, and a padlock to keep the curious out.

Maria Hinojosa, CNN, Niagara Falls, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Well, the Love Canal case helped to rewrite the nation's environmental laws. But what else has changed in a quarter of a century, and what is Love Canal's legacy?

Here to discuss some of the science behind the story is Steven Lester, the science director at the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice.

And Steve, thanks very much for joining us.

You were the liaison between the Love Canal community and the New York Health Department 25 years ago. We know that tons of toxic waste was buried beneath the soil. What is the situation there now?

STEVEN LESTER, SCIENCE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HEALTH, ENVIRONMENT, AND JUSTICE: Well, first of all, the contamination, the chemicals, the 22,000 tons are still sitting there in the center of that landfill. They have got a monitoring system that encompasses the landfill, and it's trying to detect whether there's any contamination there, or any of it's coming out.

I mean, they have moved new families into that area, but they have -- there is a big question about whether it still is, really, in fact, safe.

WHITFIELD: But what's your gut tell you? There are a number of people, as you saw in the piece, who want to move back, who are relocating. Is it a safe place to live?

LESTER: Well, despite what the man said in the prior interview, nobody is really saying that the area is safe.

When the New York State Health Department went in there and evaluated the contamination that exists throughout the entire area, including the area where people are living now, they found that when they compared it to other areas of Buffalo, north Buffalo, which they selected as a comparison area out of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- as part of a very detailed public process, they identified several sites, and they found that none of the Love Canal area would have been habitable if they had stayed with their original plan of comparing the contaminants in the Love Canal area to this one control area.

Instead, what they did is, they sort of changed their process, in isolation identified couple of other places, one of which happened to be downwind from the Hooker -- the Occidental Petroleum incinerator, and another one that had a very high hot spot of contamination.

WHITFIELD: Well, at the time, people did not realize that this kind of toxic waste existed there. Do you believe, or is it your gut feeling, that there are other communities that may face the same demise?

LESTER: Absolutely. We work with...

WHITFIELD: Why do you feel that way?

LESTER: Well, we work with communities all over the country every day in our office at the center, and there are constantly people coming to us, calling us, who realize and are awakened for the first time with the realization that there's contamination in their community.

In south Buffalo right now, not very far from the Love Canal, there's a community that was built on top of an old industrial site that the city of Buffalo owned and constructed all of these private homes. And this man discovered, by digging in his yard, a black ash material that turned out to be full of lead, chromium, and other toxic metals.

HINOJOSA: Well, the U.S. Superfund came about as a result of this Love Canal. And there's something like 1,200 other communities that are on this priority list. Is it your feeling that there are a number of these communities that are going to be just -- that there won't be any real cleanup, and perhaps they'll be built right on top of the waste?

LESTER: Unfortunately, that seems to be the direction we're going in more and more. I mean, the U.S. EPA, for example, has now -- is limiting -- is -- their priority for cleanup right now are those sites that can be redeveloped, and not those sites that need cleanup.

And so there are communities all over the country who are angry and frustrated with the fact that the cleanup that had been in process for a year or two or three years, is suddenly the money's been pulled out from it, and their cleanup is not going forward.

WHITFIELD: All right. Steven Lester, thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

LESTER: You're welcome.

WHITFIELD: Well, we'll have more about Love Canal later on today on CNN at 10:00 Eastern time this evening. We'll be interviewing Lois Gibbs, the woman who led the community fight to get Love Canal cleaned up.

When we come back, the annual twins convention is under way. We'll find out why scientists like to use twins in experiments.

And later in the show, the world of online games keeps getting more like the real world, as some players make cyberlife miserable for others. We'll talk to one of them and find out why he does it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Now a check of some of the week's tech stories.

Warnings issued this week not once but twice about Internet hazards. In an unusual move, the Department of Homeland Security urged Windows users to go to the Microsoft site and download a patch to fix a security problem. That software flaw could allow intruders to take control of other machines and steal information.

And some businesses faced computer slowdowns Friday when a mass- mailing Internet worm known as MyMail slipped through many corporate e-mail scans, spreading through a different Microsoft security hole.

Local police departments have a new tool to fight identity theft, courtesy of the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security. It's a CD-ROM to help local (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- officers, rather, know what to look for and where to get help when we're faced with an identity theft case. It also provides material to give to victims to help them cope.

Remember the do-not call list, where millions of Americans signed up to avoid telemarketing calls? Well, the telemarketers are suing now. The industry says the registry will cost it as much as $50 billion a year in sales and will eliminate up to 2 million jobs. The industry group calls the list regulatory overkill.

Technology has come a long way since the floppy disk. A new watch from BMW allows you to store files right onto your wrist. The computer hookup is neatly tucked away in the watchband, plugs right into any computer, and you can download or upload pictures, music, documents, presentations, most any computer file. The watch costs $128 with 128 megabytes of storage, a dollar a megabyte.

Well, each year, Twinsburg, Ohio, is proud to host what it calls the world's largest annual gathering of twins. On the first weekend in August, they arrive two by two in the small town just south of Cleveland for a weekend of socializing and celebration sometimes.

But for researchers, the Twinsburg event presents a unique opportunity for studying twins.

Joining us now to tell us why this research is so important is Kelly Willenburg from Vanderbilt University, who is also a mother of twins.

Good to see you, Kelly.

KELLY WILLENBURG, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Thank you, thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about what this convention, so to speak, is all about.

WILLENBURG: Well, Twins Day started about 20 years ago, and it's a celebration for multiple-birth families and their children. And they all converge on Twinsburg, Ohio, for a weekend of activities, such as -- they do a fun run for melanoma research. They're having a parade. And they have contests for the best-dressed, most who -- most lookalike, the least alike, and a variety of contests for everybody, from twins, to triplets, to quads, and their families.

WHITFIELD: So it's a lot of fun, but a lot of these twins are going to find that there are some recruiting measures under way there, because a lot of the scientists have a real fascination over the twins and want to involve them in research opportunities. Why?

WILLENBURG: Well, twins present a unique opportunity for researchers. I think the challenge for researchers is finding the avenue or venue to find the multiple births that they need for subjects.

The National Organization of Mothers of Twins Clubs Incorporated, out of Thompson Station, Tennessee, has about 25,000 members across the country and 24 clubs -- 24 -- 420 clubs that can provide a venue for people to participate in everything from hereditary research, to epidemiology research, to psychology research.

And the twins are a good population, especially identical twins in research such as metabolic studies, twinning studies, and genetic studies and DNA.

WHITFIELD: So as a mother of twins, did you involve your twins in any research programs, and if so, what kind? WILLENBURG: Yes. My 16-year-old fraternal daughters, Muriel and Brandy, have participated in some studies. They also participated in a study to find out if they were, for sure, fraternal, because there's always that question. And they did a cheek-swab study, where they sent -- submitted a cheek swab, and we got research back on whether or not they were actually identical.

WHITFIELD: Are there any real downsides to all this as well, though, this research studies, or encouraging these kids to be involved?

WILLENBURG: I think sometimes that there's a notion that some teenage twins will think that if they participate in a lot of studies, they'll make money doing it. There was actually some studies going on out in California, where they were doing space flights of twins and nicotine use in twins. And twins were being utilized in that setting.

So in that realm, you actually have a twin who might be picking up a cigarette for the first time to participate in research.

WHITFIELD: And so what would be your advice to the parents or to the twins who might be involved in such research?

WILLENBURG: Well, I would say that, as a parent, you have an opportunity, and your children and yourself have an opportunity, to participate in important research that's being done that is presented every three years at the International Society of Twin Studies. And next summer it's in Denmark.

And there will be researchers from all over the world who will participate, present, and show studies among multiple-birth children that can show everything from the importance of their learning and the way they learn, and the -- and whether or not you should take conjoined twins and separate, and that's been in the news very much so over the past few weeks.

And we have a physician here at Vanderbilt who is, you know, one of the cutting-edge researchers in that field, and -- Dr. James O'Neill. And he actually participated in the Twin Congress two years ago in London, England. And I was there with a colleague, Patty Beemer (ph), from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and we presented findings in whether or not you should separate twins in school, because sometimes it's a simple question like that for a parent, Do I separate them when they go to kindergarten?

And the NOMOTC, the National Organization of Mothers of Twins, presents that research, and has a Web site that's available to people where they can go on and find out about research and find out if there is an avenue or an opportunity for their family, their kids, or themselves to participate in.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kelly Willenburg, formerly the president of the National Organization of Mothers of Twins, and now representing Vanderbilt University. Thanks very much for joining us. Appreciate it.

WILLENBURG: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: Well, when we come back, we'll tell you how to fly from England to France without an airplane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the 1600s, an explorer, quote, "rejoiced in the number of great whales he saw as he sailed the Atlantic to the New World." Whale populations have dropped dramatically since then, mostly due to hunting. Hunting, we're now learning, devastated whale populations, more than we ever knew.

Scientists doing some internal detective work study the whales' DNA and report in the journal "Science" that whale populations were much higher than old fishing records indicate, that hunting took a more drastic toll on their populations.

Scientists at Harvard and Stanford University discovered a lot of diversity in the whales' genetic code. Those variations can only occur in large populations. For example, the whale known for its song, the humpback whale, researchers estimate, were 10 times more plentiful than records indicate. As many as 240,000 swam the Atlantic at one time. Today, there are about 10,000 left.

Scientists estimate 360,000 thin whales once populated the ocean. Today about 50,000 remain.

And they say to restore populations back to the days before commercial hunting could take decades, with some unlikely to ever rebound. The right whales, which were named because these coastal swimmers were relatively easy to catch and were considered the right whales to hunt, are now on the verge of becoming extinct, with about 350 left.

Ann Kellen, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: This week brought a milestone for the International Space Station. Tuesday marked the 1,000th day of nonstop human occupation of the station. The first crew took off for the ISRAELIS in October of 2000. The current occupants are the seventh crew to live on the station, but 1,000 days doesn't come close to the record set on Russia's Mir space station. Mir was occupied for more than 3,600 days between 1989 and 1999.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... three, two, one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Ouch! It was an experiment. The FAA dropped a plane 14 feet onto -- on Wednesday to gather data to set new airline safety standards. The yellow commuter plane contained 23 crash dummies. The fall onto a concrete pad, as you saw there, crushed the plane's wings in the fuselage. The plane was equipped with more than 100 sensors and four cameras to record the damage.

An Austrian adventurer flew across the English Channel on Thursday without a plane. Felix Baumgartner jumped from an aircraft more than 30,000 feet over England. He wore a carbon-fiber wing that allowed him to glide for 22 miles and land in France. The trip took seven minutes at speeds that exceeded 200 miles an hour. Baumgartner says at that altitude, you're not aware of the downward motion, just the forward speed, so it feels like you're really flying.

Well, the U.S. is tightening control over transit travelers, international air passengers who transit through U.S. airports en route to other destinations. With a few exceptions, starting today, these passengers will need a visa to pass through U.S. airports.

Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us now the with details. Hi, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka.

The U.S. government closing a loophole it believes terrorists may have been looking to exploit. Travelers from other countries will now be required to have visas to transit through the U.S. unless they are citizens of one of the 27 so-called visa waiver countries, whose citizens do not need visas to come here.

Here's an explanation of the kind of passenger that's going to be affected. If someone is traveling from Brazil, let's say, and stops in the United States, even for a few hours to change planes before going on to London, a U.S. visa is now a must. The new policy was signed this morning and goes into effect immediately, with certain exceptions. Passengers traveling right now, for instance, will be able to transit and depart the U.S., subject to inspection and evaluation of risk.

And there are also provisions for some other people now traveling or traveling soon. Details can be found on the Web site www.travel.state.gov.

But about 6,000 people are expected to have to get a visa or change their itinerary in the next 60 days, putting a strain on some U.S. consulates around the world.

The impact is also going to be felt by many U.S. airlines, who are going to have to reroute passengers. Last year American, Delta, United, and Northwest all carried significant numbers of transit passengers. No estimates yet on how much this is going to cost them.

The country's most impacted, Brazil, Mexico, Korea, and the Philippines. Domestic U.S. citizens not going to be affected. This is not the last word on the programs. The Departments of State and Homeland Security will be working with the airlines over the next 60 days to reassess the program and see if it should be reinstated on an airline-by-airline basis, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, Jeanne, earlier this week, officials issued a directive requiring special scrutiny of electronic devices carried by international travelers. Can you tell us more about that?

MESERVE: That's right, there was intelligence received that indicated that terrorists might try to weaponize some items that were commonly carried by travelers, for instance, cameras. And so this week, this directive went out instructing security personnel, both domestically in some cases, but mostly overseas, to take a closer look at electronics that people were carrying to see if, indeed, there had been some modification to them.

They're also looking, I should say, at shoes and also more closely at garments to see if anything unusual has been done with them, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeanne Meserve in Washington, thank you.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge will join Wolf Blitzer tomorrow at noon Eastern on "LATE EDITION" to talk about the issue and more. Please join us for that.

Coming up in our next half hour, online gaming takes players to a cyberworld where they find adventure, mystery, and bullies who want to spoil it for everyone else. We'll look at the phenomenon of griefing.

And do you really know what's in your food? We'll find out about some secret ingredients that may just spoil your appetite.

First a quick break, and then we'll check the latest headlines.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, NEXT@CNN continues just in a moment or two, after a check of what's going on at this hour.

One U.S. soldier died and three others were wounded in a rocket- propelled grenade attack north of Baghdad today. To date, 250 U.S. troops have been killed since the start of the war, 53 of those since President Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1.

Saddam Hussein's two sons and a grandson were buried today in their tribal homeland of Tikrit, Iraq. Uday and Qusay Hussein, along with Qusay's teenage son, were killed in a shootout with U.S. forces last month in the city of Mosul. The U.S. military handed the bodies over to the Red Crescent earlier in the day, which in turn gave them they -- to the members of their tribe for burial.

Liberian President Charles Taylor says he has agreed to leave office on August 11, handing power to a successor who has yet to be named. West African diplomats who met with him today say a peacekeeping force would be deployed in Liberia in the next two days. Rebel fighters have been besieged -- or, rather, have besieged the capital of Monrovia for the last two months.

More top stories at the top of the hour. Now back to NEXT@CNN.

Star Wars, Galaxies, Sims Online, Everquest, they're all called massively multiplayer on-line role-playing games -- that's a mouth full. And believe it or not, hundreds of thousands of people are playing them, but not everyone wants to play nice. Technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is here to talk about a darker side to the online gaming -- Daniel.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Fredericka. It's called griefing. Some online game players out there are jumping into these virtual worlds with the single purpose in mind: to harrass, bully, and cause grief for other players in the game.

Don't assume for a moment that just because these role games -- role playing games are about creating a utopia where you can meet and chat with new friends online, this is not just what it is about. With such huge numbers involved, these virual worlds have become like a pietry dish of functional and disfunctional social behavior.

Right now our own Scott Thomas is playing one of these games. You're playing the Sims Online, Scott, we're not going to call you disfunctional, but it's not all about rainbows and lollypops, there are some battles that go on this game.

SCOTT THOMAS, ONLINE GAMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Correct, there's been an aspect of the game invented by the players who are interacting in the game. It's almost mafia style because they do hits on each other. They can hire a hit man on each other, and they just do different things that would allow them to enter into combat, such as blocking your screen or not allowing you to join a house.

SIEBERG: Making life miserable, basically, for somebody else who is the game.

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: A big part of it is interaction and chat and trying to meet new friends in the game, but right now, where are you? What are you doing right now?

THOMAS: What I'm trying to do is to join a house that will allow me to interact with people. It's full at the time. The game has become very popular since the beta release.

SIEBERG: About how many people are in the game at any one time?

THOMAS: It's really hard to say. All of these properties are populated from what I can see.

SIEBERG: And those are actual people. We should point out that all the little characters you are seeing, the people you are interacting with, those are real people that are playing all those characters just like you, right?

THOMAS: Correct. None of these are computer simulated at all.

SIEBERG: So there are some real problems. You have to keep you character alive. Try to keep him happey.

THOMAS: Correct you have to keep the fed, and bathed, and everything you do in real life.

SIEBERG: And let them go to the bathroom as well.

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: All right. Well we are going to bring in our guests, our first guests. They are Jennifer and Piers Matheson and they are in Las Vegas. They are joining us live. And Jennifer and Piers are essentially victims of thise phenomenon of griefing. Do you agree with that, first of all? Let's start off, what is grief, being griefed mean?

JENNIFER MATHIESON, ONLINE GAMER: What does griefing mean?

SIEBERG: Yes. Do you feel like you are a victim of some of this activity?

MATHIESON: Well, griefing in particular, has an awful lot to do with just coming at someone and harrassing them nonstop. It's very difficult to deal with and it can really disrupt your game.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, let's start, you both had a very popular character in the Sims Online and then you say that you essentially harrassed, you were picked on. Why do you think that was? What exactly what happened to you?

PIERS MATHIESON, ONLINE GAMER: All right. Let me break it down to you like this, there is two different forms of griefing, ok. There's the fun play, because you just want to mess around and kind of joke and kind of nudge the other players. That's a total, like, acceptable way of griefing. But when you go out of your way to target a specific player, and you just don't let up, and it's just a nonstop things, that's when it becomes a problem.

When Jennifer was the number 1 Sim in Alphaville, Neawallace (ph) -- we both played the account. Tell him what happened. What kind of hate mail.

J. MATHIESON: I would receive all kinds of hate mail. People telling me that, "Oh I'm so jealous, but you are going down. And I'm going to take you out. And I'm never going to stop harrassing you." And it became very, very difficult to deal with and it came to the point where I didn't want play the game anymore. You know, I'm paying all this money to pay a game, why should I pay for it so my friend's and I banded together and we started fighting back.

SIEBERG: All right, let's get into that then. Talk to me about the "Sim Shadow Government" which I understand you helped to form. It acts almost as a neighborhood watch group. What are you doing, exactly, in the game though?

P. MAHTIESON: In the actual game we have to use the same tactics that are being used against us. That's kind of a policy. If someone's going to be harrassing us by sending us a barrage of room mate request, you can't just, in the Sims Online in specific, you can't just ignore someone, becuase...

J. MATHIESON: Griefers have a way of worming in and out of, and find a utilize loop holes within the game. And it happens very, very quickly. So what we do, we just fight back. We use the same tactics that use to grief us against them.

SIEBERG: And we're seeing some of the images right now, I should point out, of what can be done in the game, whether that involves sort of destroying part of your property, or something in your house that you've set up in the game.

P. MATHIESON: For example, when -- what you are looking at -- what you've been looking at right now is a couple of events where someone had harrassed us to the point where they said they were going to demolish our home that we spent, you know, countless of hours. If you ever played Everquest or Star Wars, you know, someone -- any of these games, you know, developing, you know, you're belongings and your funds in the game, within that game, that to have someone come in and destroy something that you've created, or been working hard for is...

J. MATHIESON: It's very disheartening.

SIEBERG: OK, I should point out one thing. You talk about using the same sorts of tactics that some of the groups...

P. MATHIESON: Exactly, so if someone destroys my house or wants to destroy my house you can best believe that we'll get them first.

J. MATHIESON: We'll get them.

SIEBERG: So who are the victims though in this case. I mean, are you really the victims if you are the ones who are also doing those things? Because, we should point out, that we did talk to Maxis and EA, the creators of the game, they did say that this is a small percentage of the game. But they also told us that they have barred you both from playing the game. How do you respond to that?

P. MATHIESON: They've barred us from playing the game?

SIEBERG: They said that at times they have come to you because of some of the activity that you've been doing.

P. MATHIESON: Oh, yes. No, without a doubt. I mean, at any given moment, and EA rep or a Maxis rep can actually come into the game and say, you know, start up a chat with us and say, "hey look, what's going on?" And at the point we explain the situation to them and they say they are going to take care of it.

But you know what? My real life AOL account was hacked by a player in game. This player admitted, in game...

J. MATHIESON: In front of an EA rep who was recording... P. MATHIESON: That they did so and yet this player is still allowed in game, but, an in game exploit which enabled a lot of players to get a large sum of money, they ban people for. Not saying that I'm think that someone would abuse a exploit. Anything that you're going to abuse, if you could get caught in game, then sure, you can get -- face termination. However, to not ban someone for admitting that they hacked your real life account?

SIEBERG: So certainly, obviously some serious consequences if you're playing the game. Jennifer and Piers, I'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there. Jennifer and Piers Mathieson from Las Vegas. Thanks so much for joining us to talk about this.

J. MATHIESON: Thank you Daniel.

SIEBERG: So from here, what motivates the griefers. Well we come back, we'll talk to someone who says, it's his right to play the game anyway he wants. Stay tuned for the other side of the story.

Also ahead. Fredericka will be back with more news, including a very quiet car race.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back. We've been talking about griefing in online gaming. Griefers are players who entertain themselves by harassing or bothering others in the game. So are they nothing more than neighborhood bullies or are they, as some claim, offering in game protection for those who are intimidated.

Now speaking of in games, Scott Thomas of Cnn.com, a long time gamer himself, is playing this game, and he's in the game right now. Scott where are you. We're going to be talking about the Sim Mafia in a minute. Are you in that house right now?

THOMAS: Yes. I'm actually in what they created as a casino, with black jack tables and even slot machines. They keep it very to the character of the mafia style so...

SIEBERG: A big part of the game is the money too. The samoleans (ph) that are in the game. That helps to buy things and so on.

THOMAS: Correct. The money made on the tables goes straight into the owner of the houses account and he spends it how he likes and through the house.

SIEBERG: All right. We're going to talk to the mob boss now. We going to bring in Jeremy Chase. He's going to join us and talk about what it is to be part of the Sim Mafia, in fact, the head of the Sim Mafia. Jeromy, thanks so much for joining us. You talk about how you're idols are in the mafia, in a sense, and you reference the "Soprano" characters. What are some examples of the things that you are doing in the game. What is the Sim Mafia all about.

JEREMY CHASE, FOUNDER OF THE SIM MAFIA: Essentially the Sim Mafia, back in the day it first got started when the game didn't have a whole lot to it, you know, not a whole lot to do, you get bored after awhile. So we started role-playing mafia characters and now, essentially, it has evolved into pretty much, almost like the real life mafia, only with a little twist.

What we do is if someone wrongs you "in game" you can come to us. Essentially that's a griefer coming to us making a complaint about another player. And we investigate it...

SIEBERG: You started a Web site. You've got a Web site up where people can go. What can they -- what things can you do, for them specifically, in the game?

CHASE: Well, anything really. Protection, you know, that's like body guard services. We can let you know of any possible attempts, hits on your house. We can do debt collection, loan sharking. Literally anything that the mob does in real life, we can reflect that in game, at least with a little twist for it in game.

SIEBERG: And one you had talked about earlier. We spoke earlier and talked about how, if a player's in the pool. We take away the latter so that they end of drowning in the pool. We talked to the Mathieson's earlier, Piers and Jennifer Mathieson. They say the some people like you step over the line. How do you respond to that?

CHASE: I respond, it's people like them that actually step over the line. Because I'm very familiar with their group the SSG, the Sim Shadow Government, we're actually in game enemies. I call them the Sesame Street gangsters, because essentially all they are is a wannabe mafia group. They actually used to be the mafia family back in the day and now they formed this SSG to get away from the negativity that was associated with what they had done in the game.

They used to do the exact same stuff they're complaining about now. Essentially, they brought it on themselves, I think.

SIEBERG: The most popular online role-playing game is Everquest. Why don't people like yourself or other players go a play something like that, and Everquest, where you can have weapons and you can battle out other characters?

CHASE: It really depends on the person. Myself, for example, I've been playing the Sims for a long time. Every body knows the Sims and are familiar with it, you know, it's easy to jump into the game, you know. Essentially, it's just a giant chat room, you know, essentially I just involve it into, you know, a story line and a plot to it.

You know, Everquest, and those games, are fun, and you can interact a lot with people, but then you know, things can get a little out of hand. Sims is kind of tame, if you will.

SIEBERG: Maxis and EA, the creators of the game, have said that it is a fairly small percentage of people that are part of this. They also say, that it shouldn't take away from the fun for other people. Why -- do you take this a little bit too seriously? That you and he Mathieson's are taking this game just a little bit too seriously? CHASE: I can see some people's view, you know. Myself, I know, have taken the game seriously. I've had to take a small break from the game, you know, before, when I realised, you know, it was starting to, you know, stress levels in real life were going up. People just have to realise it's just a game and if you take it to real, like the Mathieson's had their AOL account hacked into, that's taking the game too far. At that point, it's not even a game.

SIEBERG: Jeremy Chase, JCSoprano in the game, the head of the Sims Mafia. And Fredericka, we're all going to take a deep breath here and just remember that this is game, and althought some people take some games very seriously, this is all taking place in a virtual world. We can hope that it stays there and that if you don't like it you can just leave the game and stop playing.

WHITFIELD: There you go, simple solution. Teaching us something new, though about this whole griefing game.

SIEBERG: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Never heard it before. All right, well now I know. Thanks a lot Daniel.

Well checking some "Next News" headlines for this Saturday, the army has announce it will start operations at it's new chemical weapons incinerator in Anniston, Alabama this Wednesday. The incinerator will destroy more than 2,000 tons of nerve agent and mustard gas. The weapons had been stored in Anniston for the past 40 years and are old and leaky. Enviornmentalists and some nearby residents say, burning the weapons is just too risky.

A French farmer jailed for destroying genetically modified crops was freed today. Joser Bover will finish out his 6 month sentence with community service according to the radical farmer's union that Bover heads. Bover is a anti-globalisation activist known for trashing a McDonald's restaurant under construction in Southern France back in 1999.

Solar cars were put through their paces at the Alternative Energies Cup in Sozuka, Japan. Most solar car races are run on straight track, well this 8 hour endurance race has climbs and hairpin turns, just to keep it interesting. Well the car from Ashia (ph) University came out the winner averaging 44 miles per hour.

When we come back, do you eat bugs? Don't be too quick to say no until you hear what our next guest has to tell you about all in some very familiar foods.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" SR. EDITOR: We're in a down economy, still. And, particularly a down economy in terms of IT spending. So, along with that, there have been some voices raised that are starting to say, "Hey, IT Doesn't matter anyway." So, as a result of that opinion, there's been a lot of debate about, what -- does IT Matter? I think it does. IT Is a blanket term that involves so many different facets of spending for individuals and companies. It's PCs and cell phones and operating systems and it's all the connective tissue, the software and hardware.

If you think about your experience as a customer, of any company, how poorly they really understand what we want from them. And companies can do much, much better using software and technology to understand their customers. And a lot of that's starting to happen. IT is absolutely more relevant today for business than it's ever been. The reason we get a little confused is that the growth of the stock of the technology companies is not going at the rate that it was during the bubble. There's no question, technology still matters for business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, if you read food labels, you probably don't expect to find bugs listed as one of the ingredients, do you? Well, you might be surprised to find out that bug parts, hair, even mold are allowed in a lot of the things that we eat. With some insight into what's bugging our food is Mary Roach, author and journalist. Her latest book is "Stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers," and it's now in bookstores, and Mary, welcome to you. You certainly have a curiosity for things most people may find odd. And perhaps your name may have something to do with the affinity of this topic.

MARY ROACH, AUTHOR: I never actually thought about that before, but you might be right.

WHITFIELD: Well, you visited an FDA lab, and what did you find there most recently?

ROACH: I did, I spent an afternoon in an FDA labs, it's actually called a "filth lab."

WHITFIELD: Oh, goody.

ROACH: And, this is where they analyze imports from other countries, and they're trying to figure out -- make sure that they're not going above what's called a food -- a food action level, food detection action level -- like -- that certain foods have certain allowable amounts of unavoidable insect parts, insect heads, legs, rodent hairs, things like that, because these are really basically considered unavoidable things in food.

WHITFIELD: So in effect, these food defect action levels also monitor additional protein that may number your food?

ROACH: That's right. It's actually -- in fact, caterpillars are...

WHITFIELD: Oh, not good.

ROACH: ...have the same amount of protein and less fat and more nutrients than beef, so...

WHITFIELD: Well, you've made me lose my appetite. I was hungry before this segment. Well, let's talk about specifically some of the food that may have these things in it -- these extra added bits of protein. For one, we've got some of the things right here on our set. For one peanut butter, apparently has quite a bit of this food defect action level. We're talking about insect parts right? All together?

ROACH: Yes, peanut butter you're allowed to have 30 insect parts and one rodent hair in an amount that's 100 grams, which is about what you have there on the screen.

WHITFIELD: And why is this? Because we expect that, you know peanuts or any things -- any of these things that are harvested are likely to have some sort of bug matter?

ROACH: Yes, that's right, anything that's harvested, and also sometimes, for example, the rodent hair would be something happening in storage, in a warehouse. So some of these items that are stored in warehouses will have allowances for hair and even actually excreta, as they call it.

WHITFIELD: Okay. Tomatoes, can tomatoes, in particular, it doesn't seem like this should be allowed. Fly eggs?

ROACH: Ah, well, just ten. Come on.

WHITFIELD: Oh, gosh.

ROACH: Yes, ten fly eggs.

WHITFIELD: Just ten?

ROACH: Or you could have five fly eggs and one maggot, that's it. Yes. So you have your choice, there.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my goodness. And, berries -- berries such as strawberries and things like that? Those sacred thing of mine?

ROACH: Yes berries. Berries can actually have a very high level of mold, just because it's almost impossible to avoid it. Yeah.

WHITFIELD: And we're looking at raisins, actually, right now.

ROACH: Oh, raisins.

WHITFIELD: Again, mold is something that may be found in raisins, as well?

ROACH: Right. Up to five percent of the raisins in an average sample can have traces of mold on them, and that is -- that's allowable. Again, it's basically unavoidable.

WHITFIELD: OK. So the FDA somewhat finds this acceptable. But honestly, for our health, shouldn't we be a little bit concerned about these "additives" that we didn't really know about? ROACH: Well, Fredricka, you have to think about the alternative, which would be in order to get the levels down to zero, you would have to use so much pesticide and so much chemicals that, in fact, that would probably be more of a risk to your health than the unsavory things in there.

WHITFIELD: And, would no longer be au natural.

ROACH: That's right.

WHITFIELD: All right, Mary roach, thanks very much. Fun talking to you.

ROACH: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Well, that's all we have time for today, just in time for you to, perhaps, try and grab a meal now? Lost your appetite maybe? Well, NEXT will be back tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time. Hopefully you won't feel so bad about eating after the segment.

Well, among the stories we'll be covering for you, 10 percent of all the civilian aircraft in the United States have gathered in one small Wisconsin town this weekend. It's the world's largest air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. We'll take you on a tour there. That story and more coming up tomorrow. And hope you'll be watching. And thanks for joining us, today.

Straight ahead, CNN LIVE SATURDAY in about a half an hour in the "Dollar Signs" segment, we'll take your questions on the things every child should know about money. That's followed by "People in the News" at 5:00 Eastern time with profiles of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez, and a tribute to Bob Hope.

Then it is "CNN Saturday" at 6:00 Eastern time with the discussion of whether the U.S. is so intent on finding Saddam Hussein that its focus on Osama bin Laden, perhaps, has been blurred.

First, a quick break and then we'll be telling you what's happening at this hour.

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Full Swing This Weekend; What exactly Is In the Food You Eat?>