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Videogaming Enters Realm Of Outdoors; New Ecological French Car Runs On Compressed Air; Moving An Aquarium
Aired January 24, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: I'm everybody, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, a car that runs on compressed air. I know it may sound far-fetched, but the first ones are due to hit the road later this year.
Also, moving day at the aquarium. How do you move a four foot shark with knife sharp feet feet and fins? Very carefully, I'd imagine.
And a new kind of computer football game for players that find the NFL a little too bland, corporate and conservative. All that and more on NEXT.
Well, it may be hard to believe, but just 20 years ago, most computer users had never used a mouse or seen anything on their monitors other than type. Then on January 24, 1984, Apple introduced a computer that looked a little like this. And did things that no home computer had done before.
STEVE JOBS, CEO APPLE COMPUTER: Today for the first time ever, I'd like to let Macintosh speak for itself.
COMPUTER: Hello, I am Macintosh. It sure is great to get out of that bag.
SIEBERG (voice-over): The year was 1984. IBM was the best-known name in computers. More than 90 percent of businesses were still clicking away on electric typewriters when the upstarts at Apple broke all the rules.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's clearly a pivotal moment in the history of computing.
SIEBERG: Communications professor Ted Friedman said, it started with this Super Bowl commercial, still a classic. A powerful woman runner dodges storm troopers in a dreary landscape full of drones and smashes big brother. The idea? Computers are for everyone.
ANNOUNCER: On January 24, Apple computer will introduce Macintosh and you'll see why 1984 won't be like 1984.
TED FRIEDMAN, GEORGIA STAT UNIVERSITY: It was really the Apple, and then even more the Macintosh, who opened up computing for millions of people. SIEBERG: The Mac added functions to computers and words to our vocabulary: icons, the mouse, point and click. Did its creators know this was the start of something big?
STEVE WOZNIAK, APPLE CO-FOUNDER: The Mac's a symbol of a whole revolution. And those of us that participated in it from the beginning and believed in it and bought into these ideals of computers being more for -- to really help people and not being something you had to fight and memorize and learn, that revolution continues in our hearts to this day.
SIEBERG: But life hasn't always been sweet for Apple. Wozniak left and came back in different roles a few times over the years. And co-founder Steve Jobs left the company in 1988, leaving it to flounder in the PC-dominated market. And Jobs, who is seen by many as a visionary leader, returned in 1995 after investing in that little animation studio called Pixar. Apple then pushed foward with new innovations tied to the Mac, many of which were ahead of their time.
FRIEDMAN: Apple was a brand that spoke to them, that shared their values, and most importantly the Macintosh was actually a tool that could allow them to do things creatively that just weren't possible otherwise.
SIEBERG: Among the notable advancements, Mac-paint, the Newton handheld device, iMovie, laptops like the iBook and Powerbook, the colorful iMacs, and most recently the iTunes Music Service and the iPod music player, which analysts say ignited the legal downloading market.
Apple may have pushed the tech envelope, but other companies sealed and delivered it, leaving the makers of Mac with 3 percent to 5 percent of the overall computer market today. While Apple's cut hasn't gone up or down over the last few years, the company says it will continue to push forward.
WOZNIAK: Something as huge as Apple, that just happens so seldom. It's not really an example, here's a formula, follow it. That's the rare outcome nobody could predict.
SIEBERG (on camera): This next story may be a little more predictable, the Cuban government is cracking down on Internet use. Starting this weekend, the government will block Internet access for most home phones. Lucia Newman reports from Havana.
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The person using this computer, who doesn't want to be identified, is one of thousands of Cubans with an illegal Internet account. Like so many things in Cuba, home access to the world wide web is forbidden for most ordinary citizens.
But like so many things forbidden, countless people have managed to outsmart authorities by borrowing or buying black market accounts. Until now.
People we spoke to were angry. UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think it's wrong, because Internet is the only way many people have of finding out what's going on in the world, says this man.
NEWMAN: The government says the measure is being taken to protect against theft of passwords and fraudulent and unauthorized use of Internet. Only Cubans such as high-ranking officials, scientists, and some academics are allowed to have home Internet accounts.
(on camera): The idea is to price the illegal Internet users off the black market by requiring almost everyone to pay in dollars, using one of these phone cards. At 8 cents a minute, two hours on the Internet costs nearly $10. More than what the average cuban makes in a month.
(voice-over): And it's not just a matter of money. This man says that at all but one Internet cafe, he's been told only foreigners are allowed in to surf the web.
Amnesty International calls the new restrictions a further blow to the free flow of ideas in Communist Cuba, where the government controls the media. At this university cafe, many agreed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're trying to get more money for Internet or for whatever. At the same time, they're trying to close the information people may have on Cuba.
NEWMAN: Information that is now more controlled than ever.
SIEBERG: Well, the recording industry is continuing its effort to control what happens on the Internet. On Wednesday, the industry sued more than 500 computer users who it said were illegally distributing music over the Web. The lawsuits listed Internet addresses for defendants they're calling John Doe at this point. The industry says it will work through the court to figure out who those John Does are.
A plan to let some Americans vote over the Internet came under question this week. The system which is due for release in less than 2 weeks is meant for military personnel and civilians living overseas. It would be able to cast an absentee ballot from a terminal all over the world.
But a panel of experts says the system could be invaded by hackers. The computer scientists say hackers could votes without too much trouble. However, the Pentagon stands behind the system and says other experts support it.
Well, this week also brought the case of Microsoft versus Microsoft. Sounds the same right? But no, the software giant isn't suing itself. It's upset about a 17-year-old from British Columbis named Mike Rowe who named his Web site, yes, you guessed it, Mike Rowe Soft.
Rowe says the company sent him a letter in November demanding that he give up the name and offering him about $10 for it. After the case started getting media attention this week, the company backed off saying it might be taking its trademark a little too seriously and it just wants a solution that's fair to everybody.
ANNOUNCER: You've heard of walking on air. How about driving on air? We'll show you the car that can do it when we come back.
Later in the show, these cubs bear-ly escape from danger. We'll tell you how.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: New Jersey this week became the second state to ban the use of handheld cell phones while driving. On Tuesday, the governor signed a bill that sets fines up to $250 for drivers caught using the phones while moving. You're okay if you've got a hands-free device, though, those are exempt. New York is the only other state with a similar law.
Meanwhile, a new survey says cell phones top the list of devices people hate, but simply can't live without. 30 percent of the people in the MIT. survey put cell phones at the top of their love/hate lists. Second on the list, yes, that annoying alarm clock sound.
Well, most of us don't hate our cars, but we could probably live without the gasoline bills and the knowledge that we're emitting gas fumes into the atmosphere. So what about an alternative? Like a car that runs on air? Robyn Curnow reports from Nice, France.
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It sounds like an ordinary car, but it's not. Here in the south of France, inventor Guy Negre says he's developed a car that runs on air.
No fuel necessary to power the car to speeds of 110 kilometers an hour, he maintains. Just a whole lot of fresh air. Driving an engine that Negre says is zero polluting. A radical concept that he's been developing since 1997. He's taken out more than 30 patents to protect his invention.
GUY NEGRE, INVENTOR (through translator): The invention is the engine. The invention is in the industrial process. There are lots of innovative things about the car. For example, the framework and chassis, also the concept of the car is innovative.
These technologies is based on a rotation system and exploited by cars which use natural gas. It is used even by people who work with combustion fuel. Hydrogen, on the pressure systems, are based on this type of technology.
CURNOW: So too the ignition systems of racing cars. Both Guy Negre and his son have worked with Formula One engines. Now they've developed their own version, what they say is a clean, green driving machine.
CYRIL NEGRE, HDI RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT: This kind of engine has been developed step by step. And we arrived at this system is very simple. Compressed air in the tank and expand this air on a piston. You push this piston, you drive the crank shaft, and then turn the wheel.
CURNOW (on camera): Looks like a toy car, but it's real.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's real and the technology is like a toy car because the body is in fiberglass. The chassis in aluminum. Even if it seems to be a toy, it's really a car. And it's good technology for this kind of process.
CURNOW (voice-over): It's designed, says Negre, to be recharged at home. Or filled up with specially designed air pumps.
C. NEGRE: So, in respect to other electric cars or eclogical cars, it's a good system to fill very quickly. Because in town, you don't need to fill the car for more than a few hours. You just have to plug it on an air station, and like petrol station, it's filled in a few minutes.
CURNOW: Negre, says he's getting a lot of interest from international investors. Already they say they've sold more than 30 licenses to investors from Mexico to Italy to South Africa. Or part of their plan to roll out small, local factories producing the various versions of their eco car.
This taxi, one of their first air vehicles to be developed.
Can we go to Nice please? Paris maybe?
Catching a ride in a zero pollution cab, quite an exciting prospect.
So too the promise of a bus that runs on compressed air. This model built to scale all part of a design and production process that the team says incorporates creative vision, innovative technology and a smart business plan.
(on camera): This little zero pollution vehicle, called the Mini Cat, will be one of the first versions to be produced commercially. The team here hopes it will be on the road by the end of 2004.
But it's not just ecologically viable, it's also economically friendly. The price tag is just $6, 500.
(voice-over): A very affordable price, all because the negres say they've kept the car simple, light, and compact. Designed primarily for the city dweller. Protecting the family purse strings, just as important as protecting the environment.
G. NEGRE (through translator): It is unthinkable to create an ecological car that is not also economical, because people are not usually prepared to spend money to be environmentally friendly.
CURNOW: The environment is paying a high price for our reliance on petrol-powered automobiles. It's generally agreed by scientists that gas emissions contribute towards global warming and a host of other environmental evils.
G. NEGRE (through translator): I think everybody knows that it is necessary to create environmentally friendly cars.
CURNOW: But is his vision too good to be true? And is it safe? Some motoring experts are still skeptical about the concept.
NICK RUFFORD, "SUNDAY TIMES": The thing is that with the air- powered car is they must have solved quite a few technical problems that have nagged other developers. One of those is trying to compress enough air into a tank that is not dangerous and you can carry around and won't rupture in an accident, that will give you good extended range, good mileage and good economy.
CURNOW: Questions that will only really be answered when the car can be vetted by independent engineers and goes through crash tests. The first models are due to be rolled out by the end of the year that's when Guy Negre's dream of putting a nonpolluting car on our roads will be put to the test. Until then, though, you need to be careful. About who they let drive their prototype.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, who says computer games can't provide healthy outdoor exercise? Not us. We'll show you how.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: One of the big complaints about computer and video games that is they keep you indoors. I know I can hear my mom now, go outside, get some fresh air. Well, some new games give you that push out the door. One of them gets supposedly intelligent people running around like rats in a virtual maze. But, hey, we are in the great outdoors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa -- hey! Hi, Daniel.
SIEBEG: Funny running into you here. I feel a little bit like a human Pac Man wandering around. What is this all about?
MARC SALTZMAN, GAMING EXPERT: We're playing a game called virtual maze. It's one of the five geolocation games, as they're called, on these Garman devices. I've got the Gecko 301 (ph), you've got the Gecko 201 (ph). They range from $149 to $240.
Along with being a GPS device that does communicate with satellites, there are some game play. We are playing virtual maze. So much like Pacman that has to pic up dots, there are flags that are placed in this environment. We don't see them on the ground, only on our handheld device. You have to walk and navigate through the mas in order to capture the flags.
SIEBERG: I see, avoid the virtual obstacles.
SALTZMAN: Yes, just like pacman, there's these walls you can't go through. So that makes it a lot of fun.
You do need need a space of about 360 square feet in order to play the 5 games on this device.
SALTZMAN: So maybe a school field or something. Does this double as a GPS device as well for mapping purposes?
SALTZMAN: Absolutely. It as navigational device. And it gives you all the information you want out of a GPS. You can't import maps or anything like that but it is a GPS device, an authentic device, that is relatively inexpensive. And now they've added game play to it. So, I think parents won't mind this, because although the graphics are a little crude, it is marrying exercise with game play.
SIEBERG: You mom says, get outside, now you can do it.
You can use this in any weather conditions. You've got one with you right now, another game, it happens that it's sunny today. This uses the sun in the game?
SALTZMAN: That's right. This is a Game Boy Advanced title. So, this isn't using GPS, it is using solar technology. The first video game that has a solar sensor. The product is called Bak Tai (ph) from Konomi. And in the game, you're this vampire hunter that has a solar powered gun. So, just you'd expect from an outside game, you have to power up your weapon using sunlight and the time of the day matters as well. When you first load up, you choose the city your in, daylight savings time, and what time of the day it is.
SIEBERG: So, sun is bad for the vampires, good for you.
SALTZMAN: Exactly. So this is a clever idea. Some game companies are getting really innovative with the kind of titles they're creating. This does requires sunlight in order to beat the bad guys in the game.
SIEBERG: All right. So, some unique ideas for gaming. One that gets you outside, one that gets you walking around.
SALTZMAN: There you go. And there's nothing wrong with that.
SIEBERG: All right. Gaming expert Marc Saltzman, thanks so much for joining us. Let's get going.
SALTZMAN: Let me grab my device.
SIEBERG: Let's go.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half hour, a gadget that can be just as tough as a repo man if you don't make your car payments.
And, how juggling changes your brain.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. All right, let's face it, repo men are not high on the list of popular professions. So, would people who get behind on their car payments, rather be ground bid a robot? Well, Julie Vallese has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIE VALLESE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Tameshia Waring wanted to buy a car, she wasn't sure if there was a dealer will don't go lend her the money. But, when she agreed to have a device called "On Time" connected to the car, it sealed the deal.
TAMESHIA WARING, "ON TIME" USER: With me being a young person, trying to start out, it's a good way of helping me -- reminding me to pay my bills.
VALLESE: Consumers with little or no credit, like Tameshia, are benefiting from this small computerized device.
ASHLEY HERNDON, VP, "ON TIME": It helps people get vehicles, helps people maintain vehicles, it helps the dealers and the finance companies maintain consistent payments, so that they can stay in business.
VALLESE: The "On Time" device uses blinking lights and sounds to remind customers when their car payment is due. Make a payment, input a code that changes every pay cycle, and customers are good to go. The closer it gets to a payment date, lights flash and "On Time" beeps. Miss a payment and the car won't start. "On Time" won't turn a car off, instead, it keeps it from starting.
(on camera): Approximately 100,000 vehicles are fitted with the "On Time" device and the dealerships using it report repossessions have gone down from about 40 percent, to less than five.
RICHARD SHOFER, OWNER, CROWN MOTORS: We know in 24 hours or 48 hours, that their transportation isn't working.
VALLESE (voice-over): "On Time" was designed to help consumers keep payment schedules, and if they don't, it won't replace the repo man, just make it harder to run from him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, efforts to preserve centuries of history in Cairo, and why some critics think they're misguided.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Walk down a street in Cairo, Egypt, and you could be walking beside a 1,000-year-old building. But some of Cairo's historic treasures are crumbling. A restoration effort is underway, but there's disagreement over just what restoration should mean. Ben Wedeman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Skilled masons chip away at new blocks for Cairo's 600-year-old al-Muayyad Shaykh Mosque being built back to life, stone by stone. It's a quintessentially Egyptian combination of techniques that pyramid builders would have easily recognized and more modern methods. The mosque's intricately carved and painted wooden ceiling, carefully treated and cleaned. This work is part of the historic Cairo restoration program, a campaign to save old Cairo's rich cultural heritage from the ravages of man and nature.
By Egypt's multi-millennial standards, old Cairo is relatively new, found add mere 1,034 years ago, crammed with hundreds of unique examples of architecture from Cairo's golden age under a the Fatimid Dynasty, as well as an array of buildings from the later Mamluk and Ottoman eras. The effort has drawn restoration experts from Egypt and around the world and costs millions of dollars. Money well spent, say those involved.
ZAHI HAWASS, EGYPTIAN SUPREME COUNCIL OF ANTIQUITIES: I think this is important, to tell the people that even before we eat, it's very important to restore our monuments. Because restoring our past, you can in the future, will have a good future.
WEDEMAN: The program began in earnest after a 1992 earthquake highlighted the threat to Cairo's historical treasures posed by pollution, rising groundwater, and the heat, noise, hustle and bustle of one of the world's most crowded cities.
Six years of hard work went into restoring Bab al-Zuwayla a thousand-year-old Fatimid gate. When workers cleaned the massive doors, they found hundreds of human teeth lodged between the rusting iron and ancient wood, left by those who believed the spirit of a local saint would cure them of their toothaches.
DR. NAJRY HAMPIKIAN, BAB AL-ZUWAYLA RESTORATION PROJECT: The finds were wonderful, because we could get the story of the building. So, what we have exhibited here is not an exhibition per se, it is what the building had kept for years under the ground, inside the walls, which we have exposed.
WEDEMAN: Bab al-Zuwayla was witness to a critical moment in Cairo's crowded history.
(on camera): In 1517, al-Ashraf Tumanbay, who the last of the independent Mamluk sultans was executed here on the orders of the Selim the Grim, the leader of the concurring Ottoman Turks. Tumanbay was hung from this bar here. Twice the rope broke, on the third try, his luck ran out.
(voice-over): Work is almost done on a school established in the early 1800s by the Muhammad Ali, founder of modern Egypt. On the wall a cracked monitor shows how much stress this building is under. Even the experts can't stop time.
AGNIESKA DOBROWISKA, AMERICAN RESEARCH CENTER IN EGYPT: Our work is like delaying the damage for some times and my colleagues say if we achieve the task of delaying it for 100 years, we are successful.
WEDEMAN: Bayt El Razzaz once the home of a noble family, has well over 100 rooms and is showing its age. No one can guess how long it will take, or how much it will cost, to fix this place up.
HUDA ABDEL-HAMID, AMERICAN RESEARCH CENTER IN EGYPT: It's one of the very few examples left of a residential complex or residential building. It gives us a lot of insight into what the city used to be and it's important to preserve those small sections of our history.
WEDEMAN: For the people who live and work in old Cairo, these projects are a source of pride.
"This is good for Egyptians and foreigners," says this street vendor, Muhammad Hussein. "When they see what our grandfathers did, they will understand us and our history."
But critics of the old Cairo project say too much is being done too fast, blurring the line between restoration, and reconstruction.
FAYZA HUSSAN, JOURNALIST: Why not redo the pyramids? We could reface it, because we know it had a face. We could start refacing the pyramids with granite. It's going to be OK, it's going to be a new pyramid. Is that what we want?
WEDEMAN: What most of the restorers say they want is a new future for old Cairo, a facelift for a city that is definitely showing the signs of age.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still to come: Moving a dog or cat can be traumatic. So, how would you like to move all the residents of a 72,000 square foot aquarium? We'll show you how it's done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID KIRKPATRICK, "FORTUNE" SENIOR EDITOR: RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification Device, and what an RFID is, is a radio reflector, essentially, that carries data. So that if a transmitter is pointed at it, it can read the data that's stored on the card. It would be as if bar code scanners could read not only what the product is, but how long it's been on the shelf, which warehouse it was in and a variety of other data.
RFID's being driven by two major organizations most of all, it's being driven by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, and the Department of Defense, and it's really pushing to whole industry towards deployment.
It will allow much more efficient control of inventory, of things like the expiration dates on foods so that, not only will you buy a carton of milk that has an RFID tag that the grocery will know when it was created, when you bring it home it will potentially tell your refrigerator when it's time to order more milk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: You can see some strange things rolling down the nation's roadways, but how about a giant oak tree? Well, on Tuesday, a developer in California moved the 400-year-old oak tree to make room for a housing development. The tree only traveled an eighth of a mile to a preserve where it'll be prepared for transplanting. But, the move took an hour and cost John Lang Homes about $1 million. It came after years of protests by environmentalists, including a man who lived in the tree for a couple of months.
So, that's how you move a tree, but how do you move a shark? Well, that's not a hypothetical question for biologists at San Francisco's Steinhart Aquarium which is moving to new quarters. Sue Kwon from our affiliate KPIX has this story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUE KWON, KPIX CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After eight years of swimming in circles around the Steinhart Aquarium shark tank, Charlie the Black-tipped Reef Shark is migrating South. The aquarium is being rebuilt and another in Long Beach offered to take him in. The challenge: Moving him.
PAM SCHALLER, AQUATIC BIOLOGIST: We will have gloves to protect our hands.
KWON: With only a pair of gloves and a net, Pam Schaller and a second biologist must first catch the four-foot meat eater.
SCHALLER: Certainly people have been bitten by this type of shark in the wild. Generally that's because the shark is very hungry.
KWON (on camera): So you fed it first?
SCHALLER: No. No, we didn't. Which sounds very strange, it's better not to. And, the best thing is to have the animal a bit on the -- basically so (UNINTELLIGIBLE) is empty.
KWON (voice-over): She enters the tank and Charlie knows something's up.
SCHALLER: I'm going to try to get as close to it as possible so it goes away from me towards another diver who's got a big thane (PH) net. They do have a lot of teeth in them still, and they do have very erect fins and those fins have been known to -- if they brush up against you and you have exposed skin, they could cut you. The skin is very sharp.
KWON: With no incident, they net the shark and place him in a holding tank to rest before a 10 hour road trip.
(on camera): 90 percent of the animals will have a shorter trip down town, to a temporary facility. When they return here, this tank will be 30 times the size.
(voice-over): Then movers will use tube socks to transport the aquarium snakes and they'll coax the alligators into wooden crates. The majority of animals will move back in 2008.
But, aquarium director, Bob Jenkins, says Charlie is different. BOB JENKINS, STEINHART AQUARIUM DIR.: He is being placed on a breeding loan so he's still technically our shark, so to speak, but we have to wait and see how things go.
KWON: Sorry, Charlie, there's a bigger plan and a bigger tank ahead for you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Coincidentally, another critter named Charlie was in the news this week, too, except this one's a parrot. Now, the first thing you need to know about this parrot is that she's a female. The second is, she's reportedly 104 years old, which may explain that threadbare look you're seeing. Charlie's 15 minutes of fame started this week when a British magazine reported that she had belonged to Winston Churchill and now spends her time muttering profane remarks about Hitler and the Nazis. But, Churchill's daughter said he never owned a Macaw like Charlie, just an African Gray Parrot. And she says that the idea that the World War II leader taught a parrot to curse is quote, "Too tiresome for words."
Police in Northern India broke up a poaching ring, last weekend, and wound up with appealing prisoners. Yes, they're pretty cute. The five bear cubs were rescued from poachers after informers tipped police off to the ring. One man was arrested and authorities are looking for four others. Police say the little Sloth Bears would have been trained as dancing wears for entertainment or sold to foreigners. There are only 8,000 Sloth Bears in the wild, and wildlife officials say more than 100 cubs are captured illegally every year.
ANNOUNCER: When we come back: A computer football game for those who would rather play pickup ball on the mean streets than NFL ball on a manicured gridiron.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FEMI OKE, CNN C(voice-over): Balls, clubs, plastic rings seem unlikely scientific props, but not if you're studying the brain.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's multitasking. Very multitasking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Learning is a very attention-intensive activity.
OKE: Keeping balls in the air is a major mental workout. And according to a new study, you can grow brain cells while you juggle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That sounds fantastic. I can use all the new brain cells I can get.
OKE: Hmm, couldn't we all. The research appears in the journal "Nature." Out of a group of 24 people, half learned to juggle.
(on camera): According to the study, after three months the juggling group grew brand new brain cells at the back of the brain that deals with visual information. (voice-over): But the control group didn't.
CHARLES SHAPIRO, ATLANTA JUGGLERS ASSOCIATION: Many people have told stories about how after they learned to juggle; suddenly they started catching things that were falling in front of them much better than they had been.
OKE: Excellent story, but why would scientists be curious about jugglers? Well, if you can grow brain cells, it may also be possible to help stroke victims and similar patients remain some of their abilities. And that's called science.
Femi Oke, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: The countdown to the Super Bowl has begun, but if you can't make it to the big game, there are a slew of videogames out there that will let you test your virtual skills. And at least one new game is trying to distance itself from the pack. EA's "NFL Street" has a decidedly different approach to the game of football. And, joining us now is one of the spokespeople from that game, Ricky Williams, a running back with the Miami Dolphins. Ricky thanks so much for joining us.
RICKY WILLIAMS, MIAMI DOLPHINS: Well, thanks for having me.
SIEBERG: Let's start by talking about the game play in this, because first of all it's very different than a lot of the other football games we've seen on the market, a little more loose and free- wheeling in the style.
Well, a lot of people play "NFL Madden," and that's -- that's kind of the comparative that I have too make the comparisons to. Madden, it's 11 on 11, it's real football and it's extremely realistic. In this game is seven on seven and it's kind of where we all started on the streets, and it's a lot faster, and it's a little bit of less strategy.
SIEBERG: A little less strategy, so is the game play entirely different? I mean, how do you make up your team? Because with a game like "Madden," you'd be familiar with a team name, like the Dolphins, for example, in street are you just picking players from different teams?
WILLIAMS: Well, there's a couple of different modes, there's one mode, it's a pickup game and you and the computer or you and our friend, who you're playing with, will just pick random players and go back and forth just like you used to do back home on the street. Or, there's another mode where you can pick a team, and every team will have 12 players and some of the 12 players -- like there's Dolphins, I'm on the game. There's 12 players and you can pick seven on your team. There's also where you can create your own players and make up your own team with your logo, and own colors, and everything like that. SIEBERG: Now, because the game is totally different than, say, the typical game of football, "NFL Street" is, does the realism kind of go away from the game? Because a lot of times gamers like the realism, they like to try and recreate a real sport, if you will.
WILLIAMS: The great thing about it is it's still real. I think it just -- it just -- it's more for -- you know, people who play on the street and there's nothing that you can't do in real life. I mean, there's fancy passes, there's -- the best part to me is there's so many options, I mean, you can go out there, you talk trash, you can wear anything you want, different types of shoe, different types of short, you can wear sunglasses, bandana, different hairstyles, different color hair.
SIEBERG: Different hairstyles.
WILLIAMS: Different hairstyles: You have a Mohawk, you can have dreads, you can have dreads in a ponytail, I mean, I think there's 15 or 16 different hairstyles.
SIEBERG: All right now, how closely were you involved in the workings of the game? Did they do motion capture with you to get the game set up?
WILLIAMS: Well, I think because they -- EA Sports is so big in football, they have -- they have all that already taken care of and I think they talk to us about -- you know, the trash talking, and about things to make the game as real as possible. I mean, it's amazing how much work they put into making these games as realistic as possible.
SIEBERG: Did they get your hair right, Ricky?
WILLIAMS: They got my hair perfect, they my tattoos great on the cover, also.
SIEBERG: All right, and just finally, a big part of this game is also the music, as well. A lot of different artists contributed to this.
WILLIAMS: Yeah, I mean, what EA Sports has done is they've brought a lot of great musicians in and given them chances. Old musicians, new musicians and set them on a different game on this. It makes the game more fun and it give musicians a chance to get out there.
SIEBERG: All right, Ricky Williams, running back with the Miami Dolphins. Sorry you didn't make it to the big game this year. Better luck next year.
WILLIAMS: Maybe next year.
SIEBERG: All right, thanks so much for joining us, Ricky Williams.
We hope that tides over all you football fans until the big came next week. Well, that's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week.
Winter driving takes some very special skills and obviously a lot of drivers don't have them. We'll take you to a school where people who have to be able to drive well on snow and ice learn their chops. That's coming up on NEXT.
Until then, we'd like to hear from you. You can send us an e- mail at NEXT@CNN.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week, from all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.
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