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Next@CNN
We Will Have The Latest On Ebola And West Nile; A Report On Why Ink Cartridges Cost So Much; Email Utilized In Six Degrees of Separation Theory
Aired August 10, 2003 - 17:00 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, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. And coming up this hour, a promising announcement this week in the fight against a frightening disease and an alarming increase in the outbreak of another. We'll have the latest on Ebola and West Nile.
If gasoline costs as much as printer ink, you would need more than $100,000 for a fillup. We'll have more on the high price of printing.
And researchers use e-mail to test a theory behind a popular game, the six degrees of separation, you know, the Kevin Bacon game?
But first -- a decade ago, a new terrifying disease burst into the headlines. Ebola swept through African villages, bringing its victims an almost certain and gruesome death. Since September 11, the specter of terrorists spreading Ebola as a weapon of mass destruction has added to the concerns over this virus.
This week, the journal, "Nature," announced a major advance toward a vaccine that could stop Ebola in its deadly tracks. Joining us now from Washington is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci, how far off are we against or getting something, some kind of vaccine to fight against Ebola?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Well, the successful trial in the monkeys proved that this vaccine is quite effective in protecting the monkeys. We will likely go into what we call safety trials in humans by the end of calendar year '04, and then it will take about three to five years, depending upon how things go, to be able to actually have a vaccine that we'd be able to use.
However, during this period of time in the clinical trials, if there are emergencies, like an outbreak again in sub-Saharan Africa, you could use this type of vaccine in a clinical trial-type setting.
WHITFIELD: So it's been tested on monkeys. How about on humans?
FAUCI: It is going to go into humans within the period of time before the end of '04, 2004. It hasn't yet gone into humans, but very important is that it has completely protected monkeys who were challenged with the lethal dose of this virus, which is quite extraordinary, actually. WHITFIELD: Human health in particular has been kind of the impetus here. But there's also now some fear that Ebola would, in some ways, be used in bioterrorism, particularly after 9/11. What have been the correlations made?
FAUCI: Well, clearly, we have Ebola as one of the category A agents, as we call it, that are a high threat with regard to our capability of being able to deal with it. We don't have any treatment. We don't have a vaccine for Ebola. We know the Soviets were weaponizing Ebola and other hemorrhagic viruses, so it is very important for us to have counter-measures, either treatments and/or vaccines against Ebola.
So this step of being able to develop a vaccine, and the important part about this vaccine is that when you vaccinate the monkeys, they become protected literally within a period of about three to four weeks, which is very important. Of course, the first generation of this vaccine took up to six months. So if we were to have an attack and we wanted to vaccinate the people that might be exposed or health workers, we can do this now within a matter of a few weeks, if this vaccine proves to be successful in humans, which we have, you know, optimism about, because when you get a vaccine to work in a monkey, the relationship between the non-human primate species and humans is close enough to give us optimism to believe that it will work in the humans.
WHITFIELD: Well, it's clear how a vaccine would help humans worldwide, particularly in Africa, where thousands have died from it. But how might this vaccine help, given the fact there are so many breeds of animals that are nearing extinction as a result of Ebola?
FAUCI: Well, that possibility exists. And we're definitely willing to work with the veterinarians who are very concerned about the ape population in sub-Saharan Africa that are dying from Ebola. We don't know what the reservoir it is, but these animals certainly can get infected, and there's pretty good proof that many of them have died from Ebola. So using a vaccine such as this in an animal, certainly feasible and we're now discussing it with the people who would be appropriately involved with that.
WHITFIELD: OK, while I have you, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up West Nile. Are we any closer to a vaccine, given that we're seeing such an incredible, very rapid spread just in the past year alone?
FAUCI: Well, we're definitely making rather significant process in a vaccine towards West Nile. But we're not going to have it for this season. As you know, we're in a situation where we now have over 180 cases already at this time of the year, even more than we had at this time last year, and we had a real bad year last year with thousands of cases, 4,100 cases, and 284 deaths.
So we're concerned, and what we do have, we need to do good public health practices, the way the CDC speaks about on their Web site when they talk about not going out at a period of time, or if you do in the evening, make sure you're well covered. Make sure you use deet, make sure you get rid of standing water as you might see in pots that are not turned over and you could have mosquitoes breeding in your backyard or in a park or what have you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, thanks so much for joining us from Washington.
FAUCI: Good to be here.
WHITFIELD: Well, on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control officially announced that the number of cases of West Nile virus in the U.S. has tripled in the past week. So far this summer, 164 infections of the mosquito-borne virus have been reported in 16 states, up from 112 cases in just four states at the same time last year. The CDC and local health departments are asking people to step up their efforts to prevent mosquito bites.
Joining us now with more on this and what we can do is Rob Blake, from the Metro Atlanta Surveillance Task Force. Good to see you, Mr. Blake.
All right, what is the explanation? Why in the world has this West Nile grown so quickly, so rapidly just in the past year alone?
ROB BLAKE, ATLANTA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: It certainly has spread across the United States very rapidly, going westward, and it seems to be at the end of the summer, going into the fall, we see a rapid rise in the number of human cases, so as Dr. Fauci just said, it's very, very important that people take their preventative measures at this time.
WHITFIELD: Let's talk about those preventative measures. Most people know they should probably be using some sort of bug repellents with deet in it, tip over any kind of bird baths, any kind of standing water. What more can we do?
BLAKE: Those are the critical messages. Really, if you look around your home, it really doesn't take much for standing water to be attractive to a female mosquito to lay her eggs. If you find standing water, dump it out. If you can't dump it out, you can get a larvacidal treatment, which will interrupt the early life cycle of a mosquito. So that helps prevent the mosquitoes in the first place.
WHITFIELD: Who can administer that? Can you? Is that something you can get at your local hardware store and actually administer that yourself?
BLAKE: You could. There are also government programs to help folks out, too. So you would check probably first with your government agencies, for instance, in the Metro Atlanta area we're doing that on a request basis. If it's not available to you, then we'd suggest going to the hardware store and getting those products, the larvacidal products that you can use. But the best method is dump that water out if you can.
WHITFIELD: But if you have like a pond or some kind of slow- moving stream on your property or near your property, you need to know what to look for. What do you look for when you go to these stores to see if you can find an at-home remedy?
BLAKE: Again, we're recommending is you contact your government agencies. Across this country, West Nile is in the forefront, along with other mosquito-borne diseases. They can give you advice about your particular situation. You can go to the CDC Web site, as Dr. Fauci mentioned. There's excellent materials there. Www.cdc.gov. Many useful materials, and you can gain knowledge about those materials when you go to the store.
When you're going out into areas where you know you're going to be encountering mosquito, it's important that we wear long sleeves and long pants. And I know that's difficult in the summer weather, but lightweight clothes...
WHITFIELD: The heat part of summer, yes.
BLAKE: And then for the exposed parts of our body, use that deet-based repellent and it will help prevent the mosquito bites, which is how the transmission of the disease takes place.
WHITFIELD: Are you particularly concerned, given that this year, particularly in the southeast, there's been a lot of rain, and it's just starting to really incubate and become very hot out there, which means breeding of more mosquitoes?
BLAKE: Exactly right, and also we're seeing this transmission across the whole country and seeing areas that prior to this haven't seen cases are now seeing a rapid number of human cases. So it's important across this whole country.
WHITFIELD: All right, and so much for leaving windows up at night for that kind of cool summer breeze. They bring in a lot of mosquitoes, too.
BLAKE: Need to get screens repaired if they're not repaired. You're right.
WHITFIELD: That's right. All right, Rob Blake, thanks very much.
BLAKE: You're very welcome.
WHITFIELD: Good to see you.
Well, coming up -- the next big thing in homeland security may look a bit retro. We'll show you a high-flying idea that's not just full of hot air.
And later in the show, John Zarrella will join us to update a one of a kind rescue -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, indeed. History made here today in the Florida Keys when five pilot whales were released back into the wild. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, taking a look at some "NEXT News" headlines, Ekaterina Dmitriev appeared at a press conference today to announce she has officially wed cosmonaut Yuri Melenchenko. She applied for a marriage license last month to marry the commander of the Expedition 7 crew, currently serving aboard the International Space Station. She said her I dos today in suburban Houston, while he reportedly made his vows over a linkup from space.
Melenchenko and crewmate Frank Lu have been in space for just over 100 days. They're said to return to Earth in late October, when presumably the honeymoon will officially begin.
NASA this week announced its plans for its first Mars scout mission scheduled for launch in four years. They agency chose the Phoenix spacecraft designed by the University of Arizona for the mission. Phoenix will land in a region of Mars where frozen water has already been discovered near the surface. It has instruments to analyze the soil as deep as a yard below the surface. NASA is hoping this will be the beginning of a series of relatively low-cost missions to Mars.
Backyard astronomers will be on the lookout over the next few days for the yearly Perseid meteor shower. The swarm of shooting stars will peak in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning, but the moon will be almost full that night, making it hard to see the fainter meteors. Your best chance for a celestial show is to look up shortly before dawn any day between now and Wednesday, get as far as you can from bright city lights and hope for clear skies.
A piece of aviation history made its last flight last week. The 63-year-old Boeing S-307 Strataliner (ph) landed at Dulles International Airport near Washington on Wednesday after a flight from Seattle. It's headed for a new Air and Space Museum facility, which opens in December. The strataliner (ph) was Boeing's oldest flyable plane and was the first pressurized airliner.
Blimps can do a lot more than hover over sporting events. Law enforcement and military officials are looking at how blimps might contribute to homeland security. But the idea has some critics feeling insecure. Here's Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks like a throwback to an earlier era. But this blimp is being touted as the coming thing in homeland security.
STEPHEN HUETT, NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND: My vision would be to have airships over every major metropolitan area and every major harbor or port in the United States providing continuous coverage.
MESERVE: Tucked away under the gondola of this blimp, a state- of-the-art color imaging system which scans the landscape for suspicious object. TAMARA COTTIS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INTL.: It will pinpoint for us and give us the exact longitude, latitude of it and the size and shape of it.
MESERVE: A high resolution camera zooms in. And all the data can be transmitted instantaneously to a command and control center for distribution to law enforcement or the military.
HUETT: Everybody is interested in the same information. They want real-time, high resolution data on demand.
MESERVE: A blimp is cheap tore operate than an airplane or helicopter. Relatively quiet and vibration free, it is also easier on sensitive equipment. It can stay in one place for hours at a stretch, seeing huge areas from a high altitude. A blimp is virtually invisible to radar and would be hard to bring down with a bullet or missile.
If the burning Hindenburg is the only airship you can remember, forget it. Today, ships are filled with helium, a fire suppressant.
Among those checking out the possible homeland security uses, the coast guard, which sees potential for tracking ship traffic.
CMDR. HANK TEUTON, U.S. COAST GUARD: Right now, we, in the world of aviation, we know where all of the airplanes are. We don't know where all the ships are.
MESERVE: But privacy advocates worry about other things this eye in the sky could potentially see.
BARRY STEINHARDT, ACLU: This is very intrusive technology. It can be used secretly. It potentially can be used to give the government what amounts to Superman's special powers.
MESERVE: There is nothing to worry about yet. Government agencies are still evaluating what blimps with a variety of sensors might someday do.
For now, this is just pie in the sky.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Manassas, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, if you're sitting home watching us because you don't have a job to go to, you definitely want to catch our next segment. We'll talk with an expert about the tech job market and find out why the nation's unemployment rate may actually be worse than the numbers indicate.
And later, printer ink costs about six times as much as Dom Perignon. Ounce per ounce, if you have a computer, that figure may not surprise you. More on that straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When biology professor Todd Dawson (ph) says climb, his students ask, how high? Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley are installing miniature weather monitoring stations in giant redwoods, up to 300 feet above ground. Computer science professor David Collar (ph) helped design the monitors, about the size of a 35 millimeter film canister.
Inside that small package, sensors that measure light, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. It includes a tiny computer to process and store that data. There's also a low power radio and a small battery to transmit the readings. It's designed to last about three months.
And look what the tiny sensor replaces, earlier equipment to do the same job was bulky and weighed about 30 pounds.
This research looks at how the redwoods absorb moisture from fog, to find out why the natural range of these majestic trees is limited to a fog belt. Scientists expect to use sensors to monitor moisture in the future to develop healthier and more sustainable forests, and to assist firefighting crews in determining where the dryer, high-risk areas are.
Ann Kellan, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: With the U.S. economy in the longest labor market slump since World War II, job cut announcements increased 43 percent in July, just when it appeared the economy might have started to turn the corner, Experts say it's taking the average job seeker almost four months to find work, and perhaps the hardest hit industry has been technology. Joining us now is Niels Nielson, author of the "Princeton Management Consultant's Guide to Your New Job." Or at least hopefully, right, the guide?
NIELS NIELSON, AUTHOR AND CONSULTANT: Yes, you bet.
WHITFIELD: All right, what in the world happened? Here in the technology field, the jobs went from boom to bust, suddenly almost seemingly overnight. What's the outlook now for people who have that level of expertise?
NIELSON: The fact of the matter is that this boom to bust was preceded by a real boom. It was really unsustainable. And in January of 2000, all of the sudden it plummeted, leaving an awful lot of excess capacity, an awful lot of excess people, and yes, it is in the technology part of the economy. But it's all through the economy also. Tech was hit hardest, but it's certainly very much a general thing, and the outlook is probably that we're not going to see very much growth, if any, for another six months, even longer than that, in terms of jobs. WHITFIELD: Wow! So someone with all of this experience, where can they go? What are the options? Are you see essentially saying that they have to think about another industry altogether for a while?
NIELSON: There are different ways they can approach it. One is to look for work in other industries. Clearly -- and there's some really good examples of this around that the same kinds of smarts, the same technology and knowledge that they had can applied in other industries, every bit as well. You know, the terrific increase in manufacturing capacity within technology alone is an example. The ability of Dell or an Intel to produce bigger and better, cheaper, is something that can be applied in many of the manufacturing sectors.
You can look at the banking sector, look in the retail sector, health care sector. It goes on and on, that there is opportunity galore for the same kinds of ability to be used in those industries as made the IT industry so successful. So that's one way that people in that industry can find same work in a different situation.
WHITFIELD: Now, in your book, you say that the jobless rate, which is really more like 6 percent, the national jobless rate is, you say it's really more like 10 percent. Why?
NIELSON: Well, I didn't make those numbers up. They came right from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What was new was I found them buried in the statistics. These are people who either have part-time jobs who would very much want a full-time job if they could get it. There are people who are doing odd jobs, and different things than they can really do effectively, and then of course, there are people who really have gotten discouraged and dropped out of the labor market. They'll come back as soon as they see a sign of hope. In fact, that's one of the problems. There are signs of hope all the time that are not materializing, and the false optimism is a misleading thing.
So we really got to stay on the numbers, stay on the realities. It is a tough job market, and the way to beat it is really to stand out in a crowd. You can't expect the job market and technology or the economy as a whole to bail you out.
WHITFIELD: And for the IT worker that's now going to take your advice and look about in another industry, about how long just might it take them to retrain and try to get a comparable position?
NIELSON: You know, Fredricka, I don't think there's any point in trying to draw any averages in this. Some people can move straight into another job just by changing the vocabulary they use from what has been common for them, where they are, find out what -- through market research, find out what it is people talk about in that different industry. You don't talk like an IT guy in a banking industry, for example.
So that is one way that they can move in faster. On the other hand, there's some people who simply will need to get brand new skills, and there are ways that they can be helped by the government benefit programs, unemployment, to learn new skills altogether. So it's really a very individual matter, and I don't think there's any point in promising anybody they can get a new job in four months. It may be many months. It may be instantaneous.
WHITFIELD: All right, Niels Nielson, thanks very much for joining us. The book is "Princeton Management Consultant's Guide to Your New Job."
NIELSON: Glad to be here.
WHITFIELD: Hopefully this will be some good help for a lot of folks out there.
NIELSON: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, lots more to come in the next half-hour of NEXT@CNN, including the reason why some people are buying new printers rather than buying new ink for their old ones.
Also ahead -- e-mail puts the Kevin Bacon game to the test. It is a small world after all. That and much more still ahead. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
WHITFIELD: In a televised address to his nation today, Liberian President Charles Taylor said he'd bow to international pressure and resign on Monday. Two thousand people have died since June as Liberia's 14-year-old civil war rages on.
Taylor said he would sacrifice his presidency to help stop the bloodshed, but he blamed the U.S. and the United Nations for making the conflict worse. Taylor made no mention today of his earlier announcement that he'd accept an asylum offer from Nigeria.
Tony award winning entertainment Gregory Hines has died. A spokesman said the actor, dancer and comedian died of cancer. Hines won a Tony award on Broadway, starring in films and in television series, like NBC's "Will and Grace", you see there. He was credited with inspiring a revival in the art of tap dancing. Gregory Hines dead at the age of 57.
In England they may have to change the name of the song to broil Brittania. Temperatures at the London's Heathrow Airport today topped 100 degrees fahrenheit for the first time since record keeping began in the 1870s.
More news at the top of the hour Next@CNN resumes right now.
Well, here's a question for you, ever notice that the ink cartridges for your computer printer are either behind the counter or even under lock and key at your office supply store? Well, customers sometimes suffer from sticker shock when it's time to buy more ink, and there are battles brewing between the name brand printer inks and generic ink makers. Joining us now to get a clear picture of the situation, Professor Nabr Nasr, of the Rochester Institute of Tehcnology. He's the director of the National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery there. Good to see you.
NABR NASR, PROFESSOR RIT: Thank you.
WHITFIED: All right, well folks are finding in some cases the ink cartridges cost almost as much as the printers themselves as their home computers. Are a lot of the folks finding out that they are simply slaves to their printers?
NASR: Well, I agree with you, that the cost of the printer cartridges is higher than what we typically look at the cost of any comparable product. I believe that the manufacturers are making probably 150 to 250 percent more margin on printer cartridges than any other comparable product.
WHITFIELD: Well, what's going on? Why is this? Why is it that some printer cartridges are just so expensive and folks aren't able to use just a generic one for their printers? Can you hear me okay, Mr. Nasir?
NASR: I can hear you, yes.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, why is it some of these cartridges don't seem to be interchangeable. What is it these manufacturers of printers are doing to make it so difficult for us consumers?
NASR: I think the heart of the problem, what we see is that the manufacturers are selling the printers at lower costs, counting on making their margin, their profit, from the supply side, from the printer, from the cartridges, not from the printers.
What we actually see, two different supplies used for the printer, use of paper and use of cartridges. On the paper side, you can actually use any paper from any manufacturer, and as a result, consumers have choices and as a result, I think he sees a reasonable price for the paper.
WHITFIELD: But, you can't usually use any cartridge. In fact there are some printers that have a feature called a killer chip. What is that all about? What happens with the killer chip?
NASR: I think as a result of having the manufacturer looking at the cartridges as a source of making good margins, making good profit, you would see a little bit of a competition here. The third party companies, the compatibles and the remanufactured cartridges in the inkjet side constitute roughly 10 percent of the market share, which means the manufacturers have roughly 90 percent of the market share.
WHITFIELD: All right, Mr. Nasr, in the defense of large printer company makers such as Epson and Hewlett-Packard. They had this to say when asked directly by CNN about why they make it so difficult for consumers to have interchangeable cartridges? Epson says "We recommend the Epson printer customers use Epson ink and paper to achieve the best image quality, reliability, and durability. Competitor's ink can cause damage to printers."
And Hewlett-Packard says, "Other brands may work, but they won't have the same quality. The quality differences are huge and they're visible to the naked eye. HP is greater than 99 percent cartridge reliability."
So is that the overall explanation from most of the big printer makers?
NASR: I believe that what they say is correct, for some of the compatibles, some of the remanufactured cartridges, but in general, our tests have shown that we have testing the remanufactured cartridges, we have seen identical quality to the original manufacturers. We have seen terrific yields similar to what you would get, and sometimes exceeds what you get from the original manufacturer. So I think that does not apply to -- it's not an overall statement. I think that applies to some but not necessarily the general statement.
WHITFIELD: So, in the meantime, because so many consumers find that finding purchasing the printer cartridges are so expensive, they'd rather just go ahead dispose of their printers all together, because it just might be cheaper for them to buy one of their lower end printers out there, and because of that, as a result, you're saying there really is producing a major environmental problem.
NASR: Absolutely. I think one of the major issues that we have to look at, we should be as concerned about the environmental side as we are concerned about the cost of the cartridge itself.
In the U.S. alone, we have, we own 80 million inkjet printers today and this number is going in a year and a half or so to 100 million inkjet printers. Than translates to 600 million cartridges a year. This is a very, very high number and the environmental impact of something like that is enormous. And we should be concerned about that.
The fact that we have -- the options that the consumer would have by going to use a remanufactured cartridge, for example, offer tremendous environmental benefit as well as also tremendous cost saving.
WHITFIELD: Professor Nabil Nasr, of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Thanks very much for joining us.
NASR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, straight ahead on NEXT@CNN, using email to test the six degrees of separation theory. Just how close are we to Kevin Bacon?
And we'll tell you how things went as the army fired up its new chemical weapons incinerateor in Alabama.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Well, taking a look at some next news headline. The U.S. army says it was a flawless launch. Yesterday morning the army's new incinerator burned its first rocket, beginning a seven-year project to destroy againg chemical weapons at a mility depot outside Anniston, Alabama. The nerve agent inside the rocket was drained and will be incinerated along with agents from other rockets in a few weeks.
Iceland says it plans to resume whaling despite a worldwide ban on the practice. Iceland says it will kill 38 Minke whales this year for scientific reasons. The government says it wants to study what's in the stomaches of the whales to see how many fish they're eating. Iceland's economy depends heavily on fishing. The leftover whale meat will be sold for food. And that leads critics to allege that Iceland is really resuming it's resuming its whale hunt for commercial reasons.
The famed Matterhorn is losing permafrost as Switzerland endures its hottest summer in 250 years. The meltin ice is causing landslides. Last month the Matterhorn was declared offlimits to climbers for several days while work cruise shored up rock faces.
Ever played the Bacon game? It's a game that shows how actor Kevin Bacon is linked to every other star in Hollywood. Science correspondent Anne Kellan is here with a study, just released, at the theory behind the Bacon game -- Ann.
KELLAN: Well the theory is, it's called six degrees of separation. It was created by social psychologist, Stanley Milgrim, back in 1967. It basically tries to explain what a small world this is, that any one of us in the United States is connected to another by a chain of no more than six people.
Well, this theory has really never been proven, but it was just put to the test on a worldwide scale using email.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Kevin Bacon is more than a movie star. He's a game because he's in so many movie, the University of Virginia created a Web site, testing the six degrees of separation theory. Type in any movie star, and there are at most six contacts away from being in a film with Bacon. Turns out, we're all connected. A study released in the journal "Science" had people tracking down strangers using email.
Columbia University set up a Web site called the "Small World Project." More than 60,000 people put it to the test. When you signed up, you were given a target person to find, knowing only their name, where they went to school and a general location where they lived now. To reach that target, you e-mail someone you think will get you closer to the target. That person e-mails someone else and on and on. Richard Griffiths who works at CNN got one of the e-mails from a friend in California and joined in. Their target, a student in Russia.
RICHARD GRIFFITHS, CNN: It worked. The friend in California sent it to me, I sent it on to a friend in Moscow, and she passed it on to somebody else, who passed it on to somebody else, and ultimately it got there.
KELLAN: It took nine e-mails.
GRIFFITHS: Ultimately, we were able to reach someone we'd never met with simple e-mail.
KELLAN: Lynn McConville e-mailed a colleague in Rockford, Illinois and five emails later, tracked down a person in western Australia. Pf tje 24,000 email chains most did not reach their target. Emails got lost, people got busy, but those that did, about 400 in all, less than 2 percent, made it in an average of six emails.
Researchers say it's a tribute to the ability of humans to network with each other, even strangers, and how a little persistence can go a long way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Now joining me now from our New York bureau, one of the researchers on the project, Robi Muhamad.
Welcome, Robi. But, why didn't more people succeed in the chain? Did they just get discouraged or does say that the six degrees of separation doesn't work? What do you think?
ROBI MUHAMAD, SMALL WORLD PROJECT: Yes, the main reason is because of the lack of motivation from people to participate. So if we're stuck with the 20,000 people, and we have the respond rate of about 37 percent, at the second step, we have about 8,000 people, and at the third step, we have about 3,000 people and by the eighth step, we are only left with ten people.
KELLAN: So people just basically got discouraged. They weren't given enough incentive to go on and find that target person, huh?
MUHAMAD: Yes, that's correct. Our people do this for free. We don't provide any reward of any kind.
KELLAN: So one of your favorites, you were telling me, started in the U.K. Tell me about that chain.
MUHAMAD: Yes, it started from Eastborn U.K., a military officer there. Then, his target is a student in Siberia. So he sent to his uncle in Uganda. He sent it to his uncle, because his uncle has visited Russia before. So he sent it to Uganda, and his uncle sent it to his internal friend in Moscow.
So then this student in Moscow sent it to Siberia, who is also a student, but this student in Siberia turns out to be in the same school with the target person. So it reached the Siberia from U.K. with just four steps, but went through like Uganda, which is very unlikely if you think beforehand.
KELLAN: No, six degrees of separations for the United States, you were saying that a 100 degrees of separation is more accurate for the world. Is that correct?
MUHAMAD: Well, actually, the number -- there's no reason why the number should be six. The number may or may not be six but it should be small, and I would say that it should be less than 100. Why the number is six is still a mystery.
KALLAN: To get people to join up, you still are looking people to hop on board and take -- to try out and see if they can reach a target?
MUHAMAD: Absolute. We hope more people to participate, because the more people we will certainly get more completed chains.
KALLAN: And the e-mail address is -- I mean the Web site is www.smallworldproject.columbia.edu
MUHAMAD: www.smallworld.columbia.edu
KALLAN: OK, smallworld.edu.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
MUHAMAD: Glad to be here.
KALLAN: And it is a small world.
MUHAMAD: Yes, it is.
KALLAN: Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Thanks a lot, Anne.
Well, coming up, it was a happy ending to rival "Free Willie." John Zarella will join us live from the Florida Keys to tell us about this whale of a tale. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Two male water striders are duking it out over a female, all on the surface of the water. These familiar aquatic bugs skim across ponds, lakes and oceans and have existed on the planet for at least 200 million years.
They do more than fight. They can also walk on water. How? Using high speed video cameras, scientists for the first time are getting a close look. They even created a robot version, the first step in creating other robots that could one day skim the water, too, helping in search and rescue missions and surveillance work.
According to researchers, these six-legged creatures don't make waves to stay on top, as once thought. They use their middle two feet and row, just like oars in the water. Reporting their findings in the journal nature, M.I.T. researcher, John bush says it's the circular rowing actions that keep water striders trucking and they're fast, moving nearly four feet a second.
Even though they range in size from a half to a whopping ten inches long, researchers say they have the perfect dimensions to say on top. Ann Kellan, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Wild stuff.
Well, five pilot whales that stranded themselves in the Florida Keys last April are now swimming free in the open ocean today. They have been rehabing in a lagoon in Big Pine Key under the watchful eyes of an army volunteers and scientists who helped nurse them all back to help. John Zarella joins us now from the Big Pine Key. Which is a little deserted, although you've got some people, just no whales anymore, John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's a good thing, Fredricka. The whales are gone after that four months of rehabilitation. Today at about 1:00 this afternoon, the whales were rereleased into the wild, and tonight, it's nice to report they are, in fact, swimming free.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: They slipped gently back into the ocean, five pilot whales returned to the home they left nearly four months ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whew!
ZARRELLA: Clapping and cheering rose from the marine scientists and volunteers, who championed the effort to save them.
LAURA EIKBEW, WOAA FISHERIES SERVIE: It's just a real mix of emotions, I guess. You worked so hard and it's -- you're so excited to see history in the making, and at the same time, you're anxious to know how they're doing.
ZARELLA: The whales were part of a pod of 28 that beached themselves in April in the Florida Keys. Most of the others died. A few made it back to deep water. These were saved, and nursed back to health.
Before their release each of the whales was fitted with a satellite tracking device. The trackers serve a dual purpose. First, to allow scientists to further study the whales and to keep a close eye on them in the next couple of weeks in case any of the whales gets in trouble.
A plan is in place to recapture the whales if they can't make it in the wild. Two of them were fitted with the trackers on the way to the release site. The others, tagged onshore before the trip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully we've done a good job preparing them for the wild, but again, we just need to track them and see, you know, how they're doing long-term. ZARELLA: As the whales were hoisted and then lowered into the slings for their journey home, they were vocally nervous. Marine mammal experts sponged them with water and calmed them with a gentle touch, and now they are free again, because one species helped another to survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARELLA: And there's a bit more good news this evening. We are hearing, in fact, that at least three of the five pilot whales have been picked up by that satellite tracking system. So they will be able to monitor them, and they're pretty confident that if they haven't already, before long, they'll have the other two locked in as well -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Wow, any idea just how far they've traveled so far?
ZARELLA: Well, they haven't traveled too far yet. They're hanging out about 12 miles out. There was another report of a pod about 25 miles ought. Ultimately the hope is that they will join up with another larger pod and get together with them and make one big, happy family.
WHITFIELD: Won't that be sweet. All right, John Zarella, thanks very much from Big Pine Key.
Well that's all we have time for now, but before we go, here's a peek at what's coming up next week.
What on earth of these people doing? Get the trendy techy program? It's a flash mob. We'll tell you all about these hip urban pranks just next weekend on next. join us for that and a whole lot more.
Coming up though, "CNN LIVE SUNDAY" with a look back at the life of Gregory Hines who died at the age of 57 of cancer.
That's followed by "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS", profiling Kobe Bryant and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And at 8:00 Eastern "CNN PRESENTS", whatever it takes, pursuing the perfect ten.
CNN continues right after a quick break.
END
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On Why Ink Cartridges Cost So Much; Email Utilized In Six Degrees of Separation Theory>
Aired August 10, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. And coming up this hour, a promising announcement this week in the fight against a frightening disease and an alarming increase in the outbreak of another. We'll have the latest on Ebola and West Nile.
If gasoline costs as much as printer ink, you would need more than $100,000 for a fillup. We'll have more on the high price of printing.
And researchers use e-mail to test a theory behind a popular game, the six degrees of separation, you know, the Kevin Bacon game?
But first -- a decade ago, a new terrifying disease burst into the headlines. Ebola swept through African villages, bringing its victims an almost certain and gruesome death. Since September 11, the specter of terrorists spreading Ebola as a weapon of mass destruction has added to the concerns over this virus.
This week, the journal, "Nature," announced a major advance toward a vaccine that could stop Ebola in its deadly tracks. Joining us now from Washington is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci, how far off are we against or getting something, some kind of vaccine to fight against Ebola?
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: Well, the successful trial in the monkeys proved that this vaccine is quite effective in protecting the monkeys. We will likely go into what we call safety trials in humans by the end of calendar year '04, and then it will take about three to five years, depending upon how things go, to be able to actually have a vaccine that we'd be able to use.
However, during this period of time in the clinical trials, if there are emergencies, like an outbreak again in sub-Saharan Africa, you could use this type of vaccine in a clinical trial-type setting.
WHITFIELD: So it's been tested on monkeys. How about on humans?
FAUCI: It is going to go into humans within the period of time before the end of '04, 2004. It hasn't yet gone into humans, but very important is that it has completely protected monkeys who were challenged with the lethal dose of this virus, which is quite extraordinary, actually. WHITFIELD: Human health in particular has been kind of the impetus here. But there's also now some fear that Ebola would, in some ways, be used in bioterrorism, particularly after 9/11. What have been the correlations made?
FAUCI: Well, clearly, we have Ebola as one of the category A agents, as we call it, that are a high threat with regard to our capability of being able to deal with it. We don't have any treatment. We don't have a vaccine for Ebola. We know the Soviets were weaponizing Ebola and other hemorrhagic viruses, so it is very important for us to have counter-measures, either treatments and/or vaccines against Ebola.
So this step of being able to develop a vaccine, and the important part about this vaccine is that when you vaccinate the monkeys, they become protected literally within a period of about three to four weeks, which is very important. Of course, the first generation of this vaccine took up to six months. So if we were to have an attack and we wanted to vaccinate the people that might be exposed or health workers, we can do this now within a matter of a few weeks, if this vaccine proves to be successful in humans, which we have, you know, optimism about, because when you get a vaccine to work in a monkey, the relationship between the non-human primate species and humans is close enough to give us optimism to believe that it will work in the humans.
WHITFIELD: Well, it's clear how a vaccine would help humans worldwide, particularly in Africa, where thousands have died from it. But how might this vaccine help, given the fact there are so many breeds of animals that are nearing extinction as a result of Ebola?
FAUCI: Well, that possibility exists. And we're definitely willing to work with the veterinarians who are very concerned about the ape population in sub-Saharan Africa that are dying from Ebola. We don't know what the reservoir it is, but these animals certainly can get infected, and there's pretty good proof that many of them have died from Ebola. So using a vaccine such as this in an animal, certainly feasible and we're now discussing it with the people who would be appropriately involved with that.
WHITFIELD: OK, while I have you, I would be remiss if I didn't bring up West Nile. Are we any closer to a vaccine, given that we're seeing such an incredible, very rapid spread just in the past year alone?
FAUCI: Well, we're definitely making rather significant process in a vaccine towards West Nile. But we're not going to have it for this season. As you know, we're in a situation where we now have over 180 cases already at this time of the year, even more than we had at this time last year, and we had a real bad year last year with thousands of cases, 4,100 cases, and 284 deaths.
So we're concerned, and what we do have, we need to do good public health practices, the way the CDC speaks about on their Web site when they talk about not going out at a period of time, or if you do in the evening, make sure you're well covered. Make sure you use deet, make sure you get rid of standing water as you might see in pots that are not turned over and you could have mosquitoes breeding in your backyard or in a park or what have you.
WHITFIELD: All right, Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, thanks so much for joining us from Washington.
FAUCI: Good to be here.
WHITFIELD: Well, on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control officially announced that the number of cases of West Nile virus in the U.S. has tripled in the past week. So far this summer, 164 infections of the mosquito-borne virus have been reported in 16 states, up from 112 cases in just four states at the same time last year. The CDC and local health departments are asking people to step up their efforts to prevent mosquito bites.
Joining us now with more on this and what we can do is Rob Blake, from the Metro Atlanta Surveillance Task Force. Good to see you, Mr. Blake.
All right, what is the explanation? Why in the world has this West Nile grown so quickly, so rapidly just in the past year alone?
ROB BLAKE, ATLANTA DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: It certainly has spread across the United States very rapidly, going westward, and it seems to be at the end of the summer, going into the fall, we see a rapid rise in the number of human cases, so as Dr. Fauci just said, it's very, very important that people take their preventative measures at this time.
WHITFIELD: Let's talk about those preventative measures. Most people know they should probably be using some sort of bug repellents with deet in it, tip over any kind of bird baths, any kind of standing water. What more can we do?
BLAKE: Those are the critical messages. Really, if you look around your home, it really doesn't take much for standing water to be attractive to a female mosquito to lay her eggs. If you find standing water, dump it out. If you can't dump it out, you can get a larvacidal treatment, which will interrupt the early life cycle of a mosquito. So that helps prevent the mosquitoes in the first place.
WHITFIELD: Who can administer that? Can you? Is that something you can get at your local hardware store and actually administer that yourself?
BLAKE: You could. There are also government programs to help folks out, too. So you would check probably first with your government agencies, for instance, in the Metro Atlanta area we're doing that on a request basis. If it's not available to you, then we'd suggest going to the hardware store and getting those products, the larvacidal products that you can use. But the best method is dump that water out if you can.
WHITFIELD: But if you have like a pond or some kind of slow- moving stream on your property or near your property, you need to know what to look for. What do you look for when you go to these stores to see if you can find an at-home remedy?
BLAKE: Again, we're recommending is you contact your government agencies. Across this country, West Nile is in the forefront, along with other mosquito-borne diseases. They can give you advice about your particular situation. You can go to the CDC Web site, as Dr. Fauci mentioned. There's excellent materials there. Www.cdc.gov. Many useful materials, and you can gain knowledge about those materials when you go to the store.
When you're going out into areas where you know you're going to be encountering mosquito, it's important that we wear long sleeves and long pants. And I know that's difficult in the summer weather, but lightweight clothes...
WHITFIELD: The heat part of summer, yes.
BLAKE: And then for the exposed parts of our body, use that deet-based repellent and it will help prevent the mosquito bites, which is how the transmission of the disease takes place.
WHITFIELD: Are you particularly concerned, given that this year, particularly in the southeast, there's been a lot of rain, and it's just starting to really incubate and become very hot out there, which means breeding of more mosquitoes?
BLAKE: Exactly right, and also we're seeing this transmission across the whole country and seeing areas that prior to this haven't seen cases are now seeing a rapid number of human cases. So it's important across this whole country.
WHITFIELD: All right, and so much for leaving windows up at night for that kind of cool summer breeze. They bring in a lot of mosquitoes, too.
BLAKE: Need to get screens repaired if they're not repaired. You're right.
WHITFIELD: That's right. All right, Rob Blake, thanks very much.
BLAKE: You're very welcome.
WHITFIELD: Good to see you.
Well, coming up -- the next big thing in homeland security may look a bit retro. We'll show you a high-flying idea that's not just full of hot air.
And later in the show, John Zarrella will join us to update a one of a kind rescue -- John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, indeed. History made here today in the Florida Keys when five pilot whales were released back into the wild. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, taking a look at some "NEXT News" headlines, Ekaterina Dmitriev appeared at a press conference today to announce she has officially wed cosmonaut Yuri Melenchenko. She applied for a marriage license last month to marry the commander of the Expedition 7 crew, currently serving aboard the International Space Station. She said her I dos today in suburban Houston, while he reportedly made his vows over a linkup from space.
Melenchenko and crewmate Frank Lu have been in space for just over 100 days. They're said to return to Earth in late October, when presumably the honeymoon will officially begin.
NASA this week announced its plans for its first Mars scout mission scheduled for launch in four years. They agency chose the Phoenix spacecraft designed by the University of Arizona for the mission. Phoenix will land in a region of Mars where frozen water has already been discovered near the surface. It has instruments to analyze the soil as deep as a yard below the surface. NASA is hoping this will be the beginning of a series of relatively low-cost missions to Mars.
Backyard astronomers will be on the lookout over the next few days for the yearly Perseid meteor shower. The swarm of shooting stars will peak in the pre-dawn hours of Wednesday morning, but the moon will be almost full that night, making it hard to see the fainter meteors. Your best chance for a celestial show is to look up shortly before dawn any day between now and Wednesday, get as far as you can from bright city lights and hope for clear skies.
A piece of aviation history made its last flight last week. The 63-year-old Boeing S-307 Strataliner (ph) landed at Dulles International Airport near Washington on Wednesday after a flight from Seattle. It's headed for a new Air and Space Museum facility, which opens in December. The strataliner (ph) was Boeing's oldest flyable plane and was the first pressurized airliner.
Blimps can do a lot more than hover over sporting events. Law enforcement and military officials are looking at how blimps might contribute to homeland security. But the idea has some critics feeling insecure. Here's Jeanne Meserve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It looks like a throwback to an earlier era. But this blimp is being touted as the coming thing in homeland security.
STEPHEN HUETT, NAVAL AIR SYSTEMS COMMAND: My vision would be to have airships over every major metropolitan area and every major harbor or port in the United States providing continuous coverage.
MESERVE: Tucked away under the gondola of this blimp, a state- of-the-art color imaging system which scans the landscape for suspicious object. TAMARA COTTIS, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY INTL.: It will pinpoint for us and give us the exact longitude, latitude of it and the size and shape of it.
MESERVE: A high resolution camera zooms in. And all the data can be transmitted instantaneously to a command and control center for distribution to law enforcement or the military.
HUETT: Everybody is interested in the same information. They want real-time, high resolution data on demand.
MESERVE: A blimp is cheap tore operate than an airplane or helicopter. Relatively quiet and vibration free, it is also easier on sensitive equipment. It can stay in one place for hours at a stretch, seeing huge areas from a high altitude. A blimp is virtually invisible to radar and would be hard to bring down with a bullet or missile.
If the burning Hindenburg is the only airship you can remember, forget it. Today, ships are filled with helium, a fire suppressant.
Among those checking out the possible homeland security uses, the coast guard, which sees potential for tracking ship traffic.
CMDR. HANK TEUTON, U.S. COAST GUARD: Right now, we, in the world of aviation, we know where all of the airplanes are. We don't know where all the ships are.
MESERVE: But privacy advocates worry about other things this eye in the sky could potentially see.
BARRY STEINHARDT, ACLU: This is very intrusive technology. It can be used secretly. It potentially can be used to give the government what amounts to Superman's special powers.
MESERVE: There is nothing to worry about yet. Government agencies are still evaluating what blimps with a variety of sensors might someday do.
For now, this is just pie in the sky.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Manassas, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, if you're sitting home watching us because you don't have a job to go to, you definitely want to catch our next segment. We'll talk with an expert about the tech job market and find out why the nation's unemployment rate may actually be worse than the numbers indicate.
And later, printer ink costs about six times as much as Dom Perignon. Ounce per ounce, if you have a computer, that figure may not surprise you. More on that straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN SCIENCE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When biology professor Todd Dawson (ph) says climb, his students ask, how high? Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley are installing miniature weather monitoring stations in giant redwoods, up to 300 feet above ground. Computer science professor David Collar (ph) helped design the monitors, about the size of a 35 millimeter film canister.
Inside that small package, sensors that measure light, temperature, humidity, and barometric pressure. It includes a tiny computer to process and store that data. There's also a low power radio and a small battery to transmit the readings. It's designed to last about three months.
And look what the tiny sensor replaces, earlier equipment to do the same job was bulky and weighed about 30 pounds.
This research looks at how the redwoods absorb moisture from fog, to find out why the natural range of these majestic trees is limited to a fog belt. Scientists expect to use sensors to monitor moisture in the future to develop healthier and more sustainable forests, and to assist firefighting crews in determining where the dryer, high-risk areas are.
Ann Kellan, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: With the U.S. economy in the longest labor market slump since World War II, job cut announcements increased 43 percent in July, just when it appeared the economy might have started to turn the corner, Experts say it's taking the average job seeker almost four months to find work, and perhaps the hardest hit industry has been technology. Joining us now is Niels Nielson, author of the "Princeton Management Consultant's Guide to Your New Job." Or at least hopefully, right, the guide?
NIELS NIELSON, AUTHOR AND CONSULTANT: Yes, you bet.
WHITFIELD: All right, what in the world happened? Here in the technology field, the jobs went from boom to bust, suddenly almost seemingly overnight. What's the outlook now for people who have that level of expertise?
NIELSON: The fact of the matter is that this boom to bust was preceded by a real boom. It was really unsustainable. And in January of 2000, all of the sudden it plummeted, leaving an awful lot of excess capacity, an awful lot of excess people, and yes, it is in the technology part of the economy. But it's all through the economy also. Tech was hit hardest, but it's certainly very much a general thing, and the outlook is probably that we're not going to see very much growth, if any, for another six months, even longer than that, in terms of jobs. WHITFIELD: Wow! So someone with all of this experience, where can they go? What are the options? Are you see essentially saying that they have to think about another industry altogether for a while?
NIELSON: There are different ways they can approach it. One is to look for work in other industries. Clearly -- and there's some really good examples of this around that the same kinds of smarts, the same technology and knowledge that they had can applied in other industries, every bit as well. You know, the terrific increase in manufacturing capacity within technology alone is an example. The ability of Dell or an Intel to produce bigger and better, cheaper, is something that can be applied in many of the manufacturing sectors.
You can look at the banking sector, look in the retail sector, health care sector. It goes on and on, that there is opportunity galore for the same kinds of ability to be used in those industries as made the IT industry so successful. So that's one way that people in that industry can find same work in a different situation.
WHITFIELD: Now, in your book, you say that the jobless rate, which is really more like 6 percent, the national jobless rate is, you say it's really more like 10 percent. Why?
NIELSON: Well, I didn't make those numbers up. They came right from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What was new was I found them buried in the statistics. These are people who either have part-time jobs who would very much want a full-time job if they could get it. There are people who are doing odd jobs, and different things than they can really do effectively, and then of course, there are people who really have gotten discouraged and dropped out of the labor market. They'll come back as soon as they see a sign of hope. In fact, that's one of the problems. There are signs of hope all the time that are not materializing, and the false optimism is a misleading thing.
So we really got to stay on the numbers, stay on the realities. It is a tough job market, and the way to beat it is really to stand out in a crowd. You can't expect the job market and technology or the economy as a whole to bail you out.
WHITFIELD: And for the IT worker that's now going to take your advice and look about in another industry, about how long just might it take them to retrain and try to get a comparable position?
NIELSON: You know, Fredricka, I don't think there's any point in trying to draw any averages in this. Some people can move straight into another job just by changing the vocabulary they use from what has been common for them, where they are, find out what -- through market research, find out what it is people talk about in that different industry. You don't talk like an IT guy in a banking industry, for example.
So that is one way that they can move in faster. On the other hand, there's some people who simply will need to get brand new skills, and there are ways that they can be helped by the government benefit programs, unemployment, to learn new skills altogether. So it's really a very individual matter, and I don't think there's any point in promising anybody they can get a new job in four months. It may be many months. It may be instantaneous.
WHITFIELD: All right, Niels Nielson, thanks very much for joining us. The book is "Princeton Management Consultant's Guide to Your New Job."
NIELSON: Glad to be here.
WHITFIELD: Hopefully this will be some good help for a lot of folks out there.
NIELSON: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, lots more to come in the next half-hour of NEXT@CNN, including the reason why some people are buying new printers rather than buying new ink for their old ones.
Also ahead -- e-mail puts the Kevin Bacon game to the test. It is a small world after all. That and much more still ahead. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
WHITFIELD: In a televised address to his nation today, Liberian President Charles Taylor said he'd bow to international pressure and resign on Monday. Two thousand people have died since June as Liberia's 14-year-old civil war rages on.
Taylor said he would sacrifice his presidency to help stop the bloodshed, but he blamed the U.S. and the United Nations for making the conflict worse. Taylor made no mention today of his earlier announcement that he'd accept an asylum offer from Nigeria.
Tony award winning entertainment Gregory Hines has died. A spokesman said the actor, dancer and comedian died of cancer. Hines won a Tony award on Broadway, starring in films and in television series, like NBC's "Will and Grace", you see there. He was credited with inspiring a revival in the art of tap dancing. Gregory Hines dead at the age of 57.
In England they may have to change the name of the song to broil Brittania. Temperatures at the London's Heathrow Airport today topped 100 degrees fahrenheit for the first time since record keeping began in the 1870s.
More news at the top of the hour Next@CNN resumes right now.
Well, here's a question for you, ever notice that the ink cartridges for your computer printer are either behind the counter or even under lock and key at your office supply store? Well, customers sometimes suffer from sticker shock when it's time to buy more ink, and there are battles brewing between the name brand printer inks and generic ink makers. Joining us now to get a clear picture of the situation, Professor Nabr Nasr, of the Rochester Institute of Tehcnology. He's the director of the National Center for Remanufacturing and Resource Recovery there. Good to see you.
NABR NASR, PROFESSOR RIT: Thank you.
WHITFIED: All right, well folks are finding in some cases the ink cartridges cost almost as much as the printers themselves as their home computers. Are a lot of the folks finding out that they are simply slaves to their printers?
NASR: Well, I agree with you, that the cost of the printer cartridges is higher than what we typically look at the cost of any comparable product. I believe that the manufacturers are making probably 150 to 250 percent more margin on printer cartridges than any other comparable product.
WHITFIELD: Well, what's going on? Why is this? Why is it that some printer cartridges are just so expensive and folks aren't able to use just a generic one for their printers? Can you hear me okay, Mr. Nasir?
NASR: I can hear you, yes.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, why is it some of these cartridges don't seem to be interchangeable. What is it these manufacturers of printers are doing to make it so difficult for us consumers?
NASR: I think the heart of the problem, what we see is that the manufacturers are selling the printers at lower costs, counting on making their margin, their profit, from the supply side, from the printer, from the cartridges, not from the printers.
What we actually see, two different supplies used for the printer, use of paper and use of cartridges. On the paper side, you can actually use any paper from any manufacturer, and as a result, consumers have choices and as a result, I think he sees a reasonable price for the paper.
WHITFIELD: But, you can't usually use any cartridge. In fact there are some printers that have a feature called a killer chip. What is that all about? What happens with the killer chip?
NASR: I think as a result of having the manufacturer looking at the cartridges as a source of making good margins, making good profit, you would see a little bit of a competition here. The third party companies, the compatibles and the remanufactured cartridges in the inkjet side constitute roughly 10 percent of the market share, which means the manufacturers have roughly 90 percent of the market share.
WHITFIELD: All right, Mr. Nasr, in the defense of large printer company makers such as Epson and Hewlett-Packard. They had this to say when asked directly by CNN about why they make it so difficult for consumers to have interchangeable cartridges? Epson says "We recommend the Epson printer customers use Epson ink and paper to achieve the best image quality, reliability, and durability. Competitor's ink can cause damage to printers."
And Hewlett-Packard says, "Other brands may work, but they won't have the same quality. The quality differences are huge and they're visible to the naked eye. HP is greater than 99 percent cartridge reliability."
So is that the overall explanation from most of the big printer makers?
NASR: I believe that what they say is correct, for some of the compatibles, some of the remanufactured cartridges, but in general, our tests have shown that we have testing the remanufactured cartridges, we have seen identical quality to the original manufacturers. We have seen terrific yields similar to what you would get, and sometimes exceeds what you get from the original manufacturer. So I think that does not apply to -- it's not an overall statement. I think that applies to some but not necessarily the general statement.
WHITFIELD: So, in the meantime, because so many consumers find that finding purchasing the printer cartridges are so expensive, they'd rather just go ahead dispose of their printers all together, because it just might be cheaper for them to buy one of their lower end printers out there, and because of that, as a result, you're saying there really is producing a major environmental problem.
NASR: Absolutely. I think one of the major issues that we have to look at, we should be as concerned about the environmental side as we are concerned about the cost of the cartridge itself.
In the U.S. alone, we have, we own 80 million inkjet printers today and this number is going in a year and a half or so to 100 million inkjet printers. Than translates to 600 million cartridges a year. This is a very, very high number and the environmental impact of something like that is enormous. And we should be concerned about that.
The fact that we have -- the options that the consumer would have by going to use a remanufactured cartridge, for example, offer tremendous environmental benefit as well as also tremendous cost saving.
WHITFIELD: Professor Nabil Nasr, of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Thanks very much for joining us.
NASR: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Well, straight ahead on NEXT@CNN, using email to test the six degrees of separation theory. Just how close are we to Kevin Bacon?
And we'll tell you how things went as the army fired up its new chemical weapons incinerateor in Alabama.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Well, taking a look at some next news headline. The U.S. army says it was a flawless launch. Yesterday morning the army's new incinerator burned its first rocket, beginning a seven-year project to destroy againg chemical weapons at a mility depot outside Anniston, Alabama. The nerve agent inside the rocket was drained and will be incinerated along with agents from other rockets in a few weeks.
Iceland says it plans to resume whaling despite a worldwide ban on the practice. Iceland says it will kill 38 Minke whales this year for scientific reasons. The government says it wants to study what's in the stomaches of the whales to see how many fish they're eating. Iceland's economy depends heavily on fishing. The leftover whale meat will be sold for food. And that leads critics to allege that Iceland is really resuming it's resuming its whale hunt for commercial reasons.
The famed Matterhorn is losing permafrost as Switzerland endures its hottest summer in 250 years. The meltin ice is causing landslides. Last month the Matterhorn was declared offlimits to climbers for several days while work cruise shored up rock faces.
Ever played the Bacon game? It's a game that shows how actor Kevin Bacon is linked to every other star in Hollywood. Science correspondent Anne Kellan is here with a study, just released, at the theory behind the Bacon game -- Ann.
KELLAN: Well the theory is, it's called six degrees of separation. It was created by social psychologist, Stanley Milgrim, back in 1967. It basically tries to explain what a small world this is, that any one of us in the United States is connected to another by a chain of no more than six people.
Well, this theory has really never been proven, but it was just put to the test on a worldwide scale using email.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Kevin Bacon is more than a movie star. He's a game because he's in so many movie, the University of Virginia created a Web site, testing the six degrees of separation theory. Type in any movie star, and there are at most six contacts away from being in a film with Bacon. Turns out, we're all connected. A study released in the journal "Science" had people tracking down strangers using email.
Columbia University set up a Web site called the "Small World Project." More than 60,000 people put it to the test. When you signed up, you were given a target person to find, knowing only their name, where they went to school and a general location where they lived now. To reach that target, you e-mail someone you think will get you closer to the target. That person e-mails someone else and on and on. Richard Griffiths who works at CNN got one of the e-mails from a friend in California and joined in. Their target, a student in Russia.
RICHARD GRIFFITHS, CNN: It worked. The friend in California sent it to me, I sent it on to a friend in Moscow, and she passed it on to somebody else, who passed it on to somebody else, and ultimately it got there.
KELLAN: It took nine e-mails.
GRIFFITHS: Ultimately, we were able to reach someone we'd never met with simple e-mail.
KELLAN: Lynn McConville e-mailed a colleague in Rockford, Illinois and five emails later, tracked down a person in western Australia. Pf tje 24,000 email chains most did not reach their target. Emails got lost, people got busy, but those that did, about 400 in all, less than 2 percent, made it in an average of six emails.
Researchers say it's a tribute to the ability of humans to network with each other, even strangers, and how a little persistence can go a long way.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Now joining me now from our New York bureau, one of the researchers on the project, Robi Muhamad.
Welcome, Robi. But, why didn't more people succeed in the chain? Did they just get discouraged or does say that the six degrees of separation doesn't work? What do you think?
ROBI MUHAMAD, SMALL WORLD PROJECT: Yes, the main reason is because of the lack of motivation from people to participate. So if we're stuck with the 20,000 people, and we have the respond rate of about 37 percent, at the second step, we have about 8,000 people, and at the third step, we have about 3,000 people and by the eighth step, we are only left with ten people.
KELLAN: So people just basically got discouraged. They weren't given enough incentive to go on and find that target person, huh?
MUHAMAD: Yes, that's correct. Our people do this for free. We don't provide any reward of any kind.
KELLAN: So one of your favorites, you were telling me, started in the U.K. Tell me about that chain.
MUHAMAD: Yes, it started from Eastborn U.K., a military officer there. Then, his target is a student in Siberia. So he sent to his uncle in Uganda. He sent it to his uncle, because his uncle has visited Russia before. So he sent it to Uganda, and his uncle sent it to his internal friend in Moscow.
So then this student in Moscow sent it to Siberia, who is also a student, but this student in Siberia turns out to be in the same school with the target person. So it reached the Siberia from U.K. with just four steps, but went through like Uganda, which is very unlikely if you think beforehand.
KELLAN: No, six degrees of separations for the United States, you were saying that a 100 degrees of separation is more accurate for the world. Is that correct?
MUHAMAD: Well, actually, the number -- there's no reason why the number should be six. The number may or may not be six but it should be small, and I would say that it should be less than 100. Why the number is six is still a mystery.
KALLAN: To get people to join up, you still are looking people to hop on board and take -- to try out and see if they can reach a target?
MUHAMAD: Absolute. We hope more people to participate, because the more people we will certainly get more completed chains.
KALLAN: And the e-mail address is -- I mean the Web site is www.smallworldproject.columbia.edu
MUHAMAD: www.smallworld.columbia.edu
KALLAN: OK, smallworld.edu.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
MUHAMAD: Glad to be here.
KALLAN: And it is a small world.
MUHAMAD: Yes, it is.
KALLAN: Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Thanks a lot, Anne.
Well, coming up, it was a happy ending to rival "Free Willie." John Zarella will join us live from the Florida Keys to tell us about this whale of a tale. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLAN: Two male water striders are duking it out over a female, all on the surface of the water. These familiar aquatic bugs skim across ponds, lakes and oceans and have existed on the planet for at least 200 million years.
They do more than fight. They can also walk on water. How? Using high speed video cameras, scientists for the first time are getting a close look. They even created a robot version, the first step in creating other robots that could one day skim the water, too, helping in search and rescue missions and surveillance work.
According to researchers, these six-legged creatures don't make waves to stay on top, as once thought. They use their middle two feet and row, just like oars in the water. Reporting their findings in the journal nature, M.I.T. researcher, John bush says it's the circular rowing actions that keep water striders trucking and they're fast, moving nearly four feet a second.
Even though they range in size from a half to a whopping ten inches long, researchers say they have the perfect dimensions to say on top. Ann Kellan, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Wild stuff.
Well, five pilot whales that stranded themselves in the Florida Keys last April are now swimming free in the open ocean today. They have been rehabing in a lagoon in Big Pine Key under the watchful eyes of an army volunteers and scientists who helped nurse them all back to help. John Zarella joins us now from the Big Pine Key. Which is a little deserted, although you've got some people, just no whales anymore, John.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And that's a good thing, Fredricka. The whales are gone after that four months of rehabilitation. Today at about 1:00 this afternoon, the whales were rereleased into the wild, and tonight, it's nice to report they are, in fact, swimming free.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: They slipped gently back into the ocean, five pilot whales returned to the home they left nearly four months ago.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Whew!
ZARRELLA: Clapping and cheering rose from the marine scientists and volunteers, who championed the effort to save them.
LAURA EIKBEW, WOAA FISHERIES SERVIE: It's just a real mix of emotions, I guess. You worked so hard and it's -- you're so excited to see history in the making, and at the same time, you're anxious to know how they're doing.
ZARELLA: The whales were part of a pod of 28 that beached themselves in April in the Florida Keys. Most of the others died. A few made it back to deep water. These were saved, and nursed back to health.
Before their release each of the whales was fitted with a satellite tracking device. The trackers serve a dual purpose. First, to allow scientists to further study the whales and to keep a close eye on them in the next couple of weeks in case any of the whales gets in trouble.
A plan is in place to recapture the whales if they can't make it in the wild. Two of them were fitted with the trackers on the way to the release site. The others, tagged onshore before the trip.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hopefully we've done a good job preparing them for the wild, but again, we just need to track them and see, you know, how they're doing long-term. ZARELLA: As the whales were hoisted and then lowered into the slings for their journey home, they were vocally nervous. Marine mammal experts sponged them with water and calmed them with a gentle touch, and now they are free again, because one species helped another to survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARELLA: And there's a bit more good news this evening. We are hearing, in fact, that at least three of the five pilot whales have been picked up by that satellite tracking system. So they will be able to monitor them, and they're pretty confident that if they haven't already, before long, they'll have the other two locked in as well -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Wow, any idea just how far they've traveled so far?
ZARELLA: Well, they haven't traveled too far yet. They're hanging out about 12 miles out. There was another report of a pod about 25 miles ought. Ultimately the hope is that they will join up with another larger pod and get together with them and make one big, happy family.
WHITFIELD: Won't that be sweet. All right, John Zarella, thanks very much from Big Pine Key.
Well that's all we have time for now, but before we go, here's a peek at what's coming up next week.
What on earth of these people doing? Get the trendy techy program? It's a flash mob. We'll tell you all about these hip urban pranks just next weekend on next. join us for that and a whole lot more.
Coming up though, "CNN LIVE SUNDAY" with a look back at the life of Gregory Hines who died at the age of 57 of cancer.
That's followed by "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS", profiling Kobe Bryant and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And at 8:00 Eastern "CNN PRESENTS", whatever it takes, pursuing the perfect ten.
CNN continues right after a quick break.
END
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