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NEXT@CNN
Mars Rover Finds New Evidence Of Beach On Mars; The Latest From Telecommunications Trade Show; Swiss Firm Markets Solar Power As Sexy
Aired March 27, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In a matter of minutes "Next@CNN" on the lost rivers of Mars. AT 4:00 Eastern "CNN Live Saturday" and "Dollar Signs" how to get your best deal when buying a new car. After that "People in the News" today profiling Janet Jackson. But first here is a look at the top stories.
An Israel P.D. Station reports prosecutors are recommending the indictment of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the case involves a long simmering dispute over allegations of bribery. The Attorney General's office says a final decision on whether to indict Sharon is at least a month away. An Israel businessman accused of bribing Sharon has already been indicted.
A Florida National Guard soldier who refuses to return to Iraq now faces a court-martial. Camiel Mahea (ph) of Miami is being charged with desertion. The soldier says he believes the war in Iraq is immoral.
Three suspects believed linked to threats against French railroads have been released by police. A group calling itself AZF has demanded $4 million or it says French rail lines will have bombs planted. Police say the three suspects have no connection to AZF, a previously unknown group.
Depending on who you believe a hurricane may have hit the coast of Brazil, or perhaps not. That would be a first in the world of meteorologist. Weather officials say that the country -- this country is calling it a hurricane. But Brazilian forecasters say it's a strong storm with no serious damage expected. No similar problems in the U.S. meteorologist Rob Marciano have your weekend forecast.
ROB MARCIANO, METEOROLOGIST: We have a very slow-moving system that's making its way through Missouri which already saw a lot of heavy rain yesterday. And it will slowly make its way across the Mississippi river later on today, tonight and tomorrow bringing with it some heavy rain, maybe some strong thunder and lightning, isolated severe weather there.
Rain across the northeast today. Slowly drawing out through the rest of the afternoon. Pretty much dry across the southeast and warm, and thunder and lightning hazard, highlighted red areas, some isolated severe weather as this thing slowly moves off to the East.
Salt Lake pretty much dry, Seattle pretty wet today, but you'll look dryer tomorrow, 54 for a high in Seattle, today it will be 72 even with rain and thunderstorms in St. Louis, 60 dry today in Chicago, I think it would be wet tomorrow. 61 degrees in New York. Watch how the northeast cools down a little bit tomorrow. With that cooler air behind it, we're looking at some warm rains that will be moving into, well, Chicago and maybe up towards Green Bay and Milwaukee during the daytime tomorrow.
These are your daytime highs expected. 82 in Atlanta, 57 in D.C., 50 pretty much dry in New York. And pretty much wet in Chicago with a high of about 61-tomorrow afternoon. I'm Rob Marciano. That's a quick weather check. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
WHITFIELD: About 90 minutes from now, government scientists are scheduled to test a new unmanned jet designed to fly at seven times the speed of sound. That's more than 5,000 miles per hour. The aircraft is launched from the wing of a B-52. CNN plans live coverage when the test gets under way at 4:00 Eastern time. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center in Atlanta. More news at the bottom of the hour. Now time for NEXT@CNN.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi everybody, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN: Opportunity hits the beach, or at least it was a beach a long, long time ago. The Mars Rover finds new evidence of what used to be a shallow sea. We'll show you a cell phone you can write with. The latest cutting-edge technology from the wireless industries annual trade show.
And a solar power sexy? The playground for the rich works to promote renewable energy. All that and more, on NEXT.
NASA says it's a profound discovery. New evidence that the cold and dusty landing site of the Rover Opportunity once was covered with salt water. It's the kind of environment that could have supported life. More from Miles O'Brien.
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MILES O'BRIEN, SPACE CORRESPONDENT: You looking for a deal on some seaside property? I've got just the place for you. Opportunity landing. Oh, yeah, you are a few million years too late for actual water. And 100 million miles from most anywhere. Think of the solitude. But there is now no question this is some primo Martian real estate.
STEVE SQUYRES: This was a habitable environment on Mars. This was a shallow sea. These rocks, it's a salt flat. OK, these are the kinds of environments that are very suitable for life.
O'BRIEN: Scientists say they are surfing a tidal wave of evidence to back up their claim these rocks were laid down by water. Check out these ripples. Researchers say the pattern shows clear evidence that water flowed over these rocks during their formative years. Compare these images gathered by Opportunity's microscopic camera on Mars to this one from the Colorado River.
JIM GARVIN, NASA SCIENTIST: We also know that the early conditions on earth were probably not that much different than the early conditions on Mars. So, who's to say Mars didn't have its shot at this magic we call life?
O'BRIEN: But wait, there's more. Scientists say the chemicals in these rocks, Brahman and chlorine in particular also are screaming out water. And these spheres scientists are calling them blueberries are apparently like hunks of ready mix concrete. You can't make them without water.
ED WEILER, PLASA ASSOC. ADMINISTRATOR: This is a profound discovery. It has profound implications for Astro biology. And I'd like to say if you have an interest in searching for fossils on Mars, this is the first place you want to go.
O'BRIEN: Unfortunately, Opportunity and its twin Spirit are not equipped to see the microscopic fossils that might very well be there. That will have to wait for future missions. The next lander is scheduled to launch in five years. And it might very well head to precisely the same spot. For planetary scientists there is no more desirable piece of real estate in the solar system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIEBERG: Well back here on Earth the hunt goes on for ways to protect against terrorism. Now you're probably very familiar with security changes at airports. But seaports pose more difficult challenge. Deborah Feyerick reports on new technology that can help.
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than 22 million shipping containers enter the U.S. every year. They come by sea, or over land by truck and rail. Some are screened, many are not. Now, a new tool that detects radiation is being hailed by customs officials as a major step in securing America. Specifically targeting those trying to smuggle in dangerous materials into U.S. seaports.
ROBERT BONNER: This increases our ability to detect enriched uranium weapons, plutonium, and even so-called radiation dispersal devices or dirty bombs.
FEYERICK: They're called radiation portals. They look like metal detectors but act like Geiger counters. Every container leaving the port of Newark, New Jersey will be screened from now on, with other ports to get the devices by the end of the year. Containers that get positive hits for any type of radiation will be opened or x-rayed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know that any of the terrorist organizations have been successful in smuggling in weapons of mass destruction. Obviously we're doing everything we possibly can, or reasonably can to prevent that from happening.
FEYERICK: But critics say the radiation detectors are flawed. Containers may sit on the docks for days or weeks before they're ever checked.
MIKE MITRE, INTERNATIONAL LONGSHORE AND WAREHOUSE UNION: What about the workers that unload it? Or what about the people that live next to the park? These containers are going to sit in the port for that amount of time. Wouldn't it have been more well thought out to do these inspections right when they come off the ship?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: Other critics in Washington say containers should be checked before they ever reach U.S. shores. Customs officials say that by the end of August, they expect 70 percent of all shipping containers to be checked at their original ports before they ever reach the United States.
SIEBERG: twenty-five years ago this Sunday, fears of radioactive contamination were focused not on terrorism but on a power plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania. Known as Three Mile Island. We have two reports. One from Elaine Quijano on the state of nuclear power today. But first, Maria Hinojosa visits Middletown, the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. History.
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MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Katherine Mayberry lived a stone's throw away from Three Mile Island 25 years ago, after the partial nuclear reactor meltdown she was evacuated.
KATHERINE MAYBERRY: My friend had small children and she said if you take your child out, make sure you cover them with something. A blanket or something.
HINOJOSA: And the thought that this could protect a baby from that.
MAYBERRY: Well -- I don't know. I didn't understand what I was protecting her from.
HINOJOSA: The photo of her and her little girl captured America's moment of fear. A scared and trepidations mother escaping the unknown.
MAYBERRY: It is so real because you're leaving your home, you're being evacuated and no one could really give you any answers.
HINOJOSA: Others who were there still questioning how they were affected on that frightening day. Deborah Baker is looking for answers on her own using radiation detectors and air filters, maps, and extensive computer tracking system, all part of a citizens watchdog group. You're monitoring radiation in this area 24 hours a day.
DEBORAH BAKER, THREE MILE ISLAND: Absolutely.
HINOJOSA: Baker doesn't know if her son was born with Down's syndrome because he was exposed then.
BAKER: That's the injustice for people that live here. Every time there's a cancer, or a birth defect, or you know, they're left to wonder could it have been?
HINOJOSA: The chair of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says the worrying should stop.
NILS DIAZ, CHAIRMAN, NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION: Three Mile Island was not legally a disaster in radiological terms. There was no significant amount of radiations released. Nobody was hurt. However, there was anxiety.
HINOJOSA: The anxiety has subsided for Katherine, whose daughter now has a healthy newborn.
MAYBERRY: You do breathe a sigh of relief that everything's OK and that he's OK. And you just hope that it continues that way.
HINOJOSA: For as long as it can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It generates about a fifth of the nations electricity. The second largest energy source behind coal. In the 25 years since the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island, nuclear plants have quietly, uneventfully helped meet America's demand for energy. Nationwide, 103 nuclear power stations in 31 states generate electricity. But since Three Mile Island, the industry hasn't made a serious move to open new nuclear plants.
STEVE KEREKES, NUCLEAR ENERGY INSTITUTE: Because we found a better, more efficient, more economical way to do it. And that's by getting more electricity out of the reactors we have.
QUIJANO: Others say it boils down to the bottom line. That while it's relatively inexpensive to run nuclear plants, they are expensive to build.
THOMAS COCHRAN, NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL: There's no simple way to make new nuclear plants economical.
QUIJANO: And while critics concede the industry has taken steps to correct problems since Three Mile Island, safety issues still weigh heavily for some.
DAVID LOCHBAUH, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTIST: Nuclear power plants are getting older. The equipment is aging. Their chance of failure is going up.
QUIJANO: But industry officials say their plants are still 20 to 30 years away from needing replacement. Yet they are taking steps to build new plants they say to keep up with demand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're doing a lot of the foundational work, testing the new regulatory licensing processes so we understand them. We do envision that over the next three to five years we'll see some new nuclear power plant orders.
QUIJANO: The industry says those new plants will help satisfy the need for cleaner energy. Unlike coal plants, nuclear power stations do not emit harmful greenhouse gases. But the waste generated is radioactive. And environmentalists worry safely disposing of that material will plague generations to come.
PAUL GUNTER: The legacy of nuclear waste is a timeless legacy that will outlive the last watt of electricity coming from these facilities.
QUIJANO: The government is looking at Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a repository for that waste. But the contentious battle over that site continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUIJANO: The nuclear power industry is still hoping for a revival in the future. But the same issues that were present 25 years ago, safety, cost, efficiency, and clean energy, are still the focus of the debate today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up on NEXT@CNN, a record find for Microsoft. What's next for the software giant?
Also ahead, more lawsuits for online music swappers. But this time, the recording industry adds a new target.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: The U.S. government's antitrust case against Microsoft made headlines for years. Now it's the European Union's turn. On Wednesday the EU slapped the soft ware giant with a huge fine and ordered Microsoft to change the way it does business in Europe. Jim Bolden has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM BOLDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After five years of investigating Microsoft, the European Union laid down the law Wednesday, telling the software giant it is a near monopoly that abuses its dominance. The $600 million fine is the largest ever imposed on a company by the EU.
MARIO MONTI, EU COMPETITION COMMISSIONER: Too much focus is being placed on the level of the fine. What I value the most in this case are the remedies that will be brought about as a result of the decision.
BOLDEN: Those remedies include Microsoft making sure that competitors' server software works well with the windows operating system. Microsoft also has to offer a version of its windows operating system without its media player. Microsoft will appeal the decision. But is not against an out-of-court settlement.
HORACOP GITHERREZ, MICROSOFT: If a settlement is reached it wouldn't be necessary to continue the legal process which otherwise could last for four or five years.
BOLDEN: Washington state-based Real Networks brought the original complaint to the EU. DAVE STEWART, REAL NETWORKS: Microsoft, by forcing PC manufacturers to preinstall the windows media player on their PC there was a chilling effect on trying to lead consumers to just use what already came with the pc rather than taking the extra step to have to look, locate, find, download, add an additional media player to their PC. That's not a level playing field.
BOLDEN: Microsoft's competitors brought these and other cases to the EU, partly because they say the U.S. authorities are too lenient on Microsoft.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDEN (on camera): Will any of this change Microsoft's strategy? Well many in the industry doubt it, noting this case is based on a 5-year-old complaint. But the EC says it does set a precedent, telling Microsoft how it should behave in the future.
SIEBERG: Here in the U.S. the recording industry is also trying to do some behavior modification of sorts. The industry issued another wave of lawsuits this week targeting more than 500 people who it accused of illegal music sharing over the Internet. Now nearly 100 of the defendants used computer networks at universities. It's the first time the recording industry has gone after people for swapping music files over university networks.
Well, tech heads around the country converged on Atlanta earlier this week at the convention hall next door to us. Here at CNN Center for the nations leading trade show of wireless gadgetry. Tireless for wireless. So naturally I had to check out the festivities. Here at the annual wireless trade show there's always sorts of different products on display here. Cell phones of all shapes and sizes that can compress just about everything into a cell phone these days.
And it's probably the only place where you can talk on your cell phone and it's not considered rude. About 35,000 attendees, about 1,000 exhibitors on the show floor. To help us sift through some of the stuff we're joined by gadget guru Mark Salzman.
MARK SALZMAN: Hi Daniel.
SIEBERG: Now Mark, we've got a number of different products here now. We're going to start with one that's in your pocket. It looks like a pocket protector, but this is not actually a pen.
SALZMAN: No.
SIEBERG: It looks like one.
SALZMAN: It does look like one. And it's called the pen phone. It is a prototype from Siemens, and just as the name suggests it has a pen-like design. But there's more to it, there is some functionality there. You can write a message. Like again there's no ink.
SIEBERG: There's no keypad to type in the number. SALZMAN: That is right, it has voice-to-text technology and text-to-digital technology. So what I mean by that is that you can write a message to your friend, and then you press send, have that sent to another text messaging.
SIEBERG: It may -- it's not going to be hitting the market any time soon.
SALZMAN: No.
SIEBERG: It's a concept design.
SALZMAN: Siemens made that very clear that this is just an idea for the future.
SIEBERG: All right, let me put this in my pocket, and we'll move on to the next one. Now you've got a bar code in front of this cell phone. Why is that?
SALZMAN: This basically, it looks like a regular flip phone, you know total phone with a camera on the side but there's a second lens there. And this is a bar code scanner. And what this allows you to do, in theory, is that say you're reading "Rolling Stone" magazine, April 2005, you're reading a music cd review, beside that review there's a bar code, again theoretically. What you can do is take a picture of the bar code using your cell phone, it will go online, retrieve information and beam right back to your phone some songs that you can sample from the cd. Or you can buy it.
SIEBERG: Ring tones?
SALZMAN: Ring tones, right I mean the possibilities are endless.
SIEBERG: Very interesting device. A little futuristic. Now this one is into the future, for Christmas 2004, in fact, instead of looking into the future, kind of looks like a phone from the past.
SALZMAN: Yes, it looks like a rather large upon.
Don't be fooled by this. This is the Nokia 9500 communicator. Now it does look like a fairly robust phone but the real treat is that it opens up into a communication devise that you can use for Web surfing, e-mail, messaging, and you can also edit attachments and read attachments.
It will be the first phone in the U.S. that has built in wi-fi connectivity. So it's got 802.11b support. So when you're in one of these hot spot like a cafe or airport lounge or if in your work environment or wireless land environment or at home very popular now, you can surf the net at high speed. So it's meant to adapt depending on your environment.
SIEBERG: Price is still to be determined.
SALZMAN: And any time we see a first in the industry like the first wi-fi phone it will have a pretty hefty price tag. SIEBERG: All right. Well seems like everybody these days has a camera in their cell phone.
SALZMAN: Yes over 8 percent of all new cell phones have cameras in them a huge trend.
SIEBERG: Right, now the trend here at the show though it seems are the higher resolution cameras so you can actually print out your pictures. They're not just a novelty item anymore.
SALZMAN: That's right. We're looking at one, two, and up to four mega pixels for next year's camera phones mid to late 2005. Which is now rivaling if not exceeding our digital cameras that we carry around with us. And they'll have things like flash and zoom. Only a couple of phones today have flash and zoom.
SIEBERG: Yes, this is I want to point out this has the flash and the lens in the back here protected. And it even looks like a digital camera when you hold it up. It's got the viewfinder in the back. And you just the picture right here.
SALZMAN: And that's intentional. That is another trend. Is that we're starting to see camera cell phones that look more like cameras. Where you hold it like a camera with two hands. And the reasons for that are there's obviously a lot of controversy about using camera cell phones in health clubs. You know they've been banned in some fitness clubs as well as you're in line at a store, at a department store you don't want someone behind you taking a picture of your credit card. There are obviously some concerns there. So now camera cell phone manufacturers are making them look more like cameras.
SIEBERG: I think the novelty now is you can actually talk on your cell phone as well. That seems like a novelty.
SALZMAN: We should mention that, all these phones you can talk on them, too.
SIEBERG: All right, Mark Salzman thanks so much for joining us today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still ahead, a new type of 3-d animation is taking Japan by storm. Could the world be next?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: You know animated cartoons have come a long way since Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in 1928. Yes, a long way. Some of the most dazzling animated features now come from Japan. Atika Schubert reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ATIKA SCHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Appleseed is the future. Well the financial future as Japan's economist see it. Appleseed is a guns blazing, sci-fi animation movie for adults, typical in Japan, now hoping to crack the international market. Appleseed introduces new 3-d live animation. Landscapes are 3-d computer graphics. So real you could be standing among the movie's futuristic skyscrapers. To keep longtime fans happy the characters remain true to their 2-d animation roots bolstered by motion capture technology.
The jump, kick and somersault in life-like detail. The sound track is the icing on the cake. Cutting edge names like Base Mant Jax (ph) and Paul Oakenfeld (ph) were so impressed with Appleseed they volunteered tracks. Confirming distributors hopes that this movie will sell to a young international audience.
YASUHIRO KINOSHITA, CONTRIBUTOR APPLESEED: I think it's changing. Because kids they watch this kind of animation. And they grew up. So I think they would like to see these kinds of movies right now.
SCHUBERT: Animation like Appleseed may be Japan's ideal export. It's uniquely Japanese but translates easily overseas. And doesn't even have to make it big at the box office. Half of the revenues are expected to come from DVD sales. For a movie that costs a fraction of a Hollywood blockbuster, that suits Appleseed just fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ahead in our next half hour, a new type of fingerprinting that doesn't involve fingers.
And later, software and hardware recommendations for parents of toddlers as we check out some NEXT@CNN viewer's e-mail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Well, no matter where you go on the internet -- oh. They just seem to appear. Those pop-up ads can be pesky. Where is that "x" button when you need it? But, you know, the Republican National Committee says that they're proving to be a good campaign tool. Since January, the RNC has bought pop-up ads on more than 1,400 news sites. Those who click on the ad are taken to the republicans' website, University of Pennsylvania marketing professor, Patti Williams says the timing is right to do some online experimenting.
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PROF. PATTI WILLIAMS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: There's certainly some risk, but I think there are lots of advantages that might outweigh those risks. In particular when you're talking about a campaign that has money to burn. I think it's a real opportunity, because the internet is so flexible and you can change the messages so quickly. I think it's relatively easy to send out several messages, test them, see which ones get the highest click-through rates and know that those are the messages that are most likely to resonate with the voters that you're trying to reach.
The biggest risk is just that people are irritated with pop-up ads. Some of the data I've seen suggest people like door-to-door salesmen more than they like pop-up ads.
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SIEBERG: An RNC spokeswoman says so far she hasn't gotten any complaints about the pop-ups being an annoyance. Hey, that's what she said. The Democratic National Committee tells us they don't have any pop-up ads running now. But since the early days of the primary they have used the internet to test campaign ideas with supporters.
All right, read my lips. Do you move your lips when you read? Well, even if you don't, your brain is sending signals to your throat. Now NASA is figuring out how to turn those signals into words. Researchers found that small sensors stuck under the chin could get nerve signals when a person silently reads or talks to himself. They came up with a computer program that translates the nerve impulses into words. NASA says that eventually the research could lead to systems for use in space suits or in noisy places like air traffic control towers so astronauts or controllers could communicate without making a sound.
Well, nerve signals are central to a system called Brain Fingerprinting, whose inventor says it can detect whether a person is telling the truth more accurately than a polygraph test. The controversial system could save a convicted murderer in Oklahoma from the death penalty. Kelli Arena reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jimmy Ray Slaughter's brain waves are about to be measured for how they react to images of a double murder, one he's convicted of, but claims he did not commit.
JIMMY RAY SLAUGHTER, DEATH ROW INMATE: We're inside the house, the infant victim was shot. What was printed on the front of the adult victim's tee-shirt.
ARENA: If slaughter's brain registered positive on the visual details of the brutal murders of his ex-wife and infant daughter, the test's creator, who recorded this, says that would have proved Slaughter was at the crime scene. But it did not.
LARRY FARWELL, BRAIN FINGERPRINTING LABORATORY: Jimmy Ray Slaughter's brain does not contain a record of some of the most salient features of the crime for which he's been convicted, and sentenced to death.
This is where the computer...
ARENA: Farwell is promoting brain fingerprinting and was called in by Slaughter's lawyers in an last-ditch effort to save his life.
SLAUGHTER: It means that what I've said all along is true.
FARWELL: What did you say all along?
SLAUGHTER: That I was innocent. I'm sorry.
ARENA: As his execution nears, Slaughter's lawyers are hoping Oklahoma's appeals court will allow a new hearing.
ROBERT JACKSON, SLAUGHTER'S ATTORNEY: I am completely confident that if we are given the opportunity, this technology, brain fingerprinting, will be found to be admissible in the courts of Oklahoma.
ARENA: Brain fingerprinting was admitted in court once before, last year, by a judge in Iowa. State prosecutors refer to it as "junk science," claiming there is no track record establishing reliability.
(on camera): The FBI says more research needs to be done, yet even critics say the technology shows some promise.
SLAUGHTER: I would just like to put my life back together.
ARENA (voice-over): As for Jimmy Ray Slaughter, it could be his only hope.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, a few years back we told you about one of the most heavily polluted PCB sites in U.S. history, a former Monsanto plant in Anniston, Alabama. Well, area residents won their lawsuit and this month the amount they won was announced. So was the amount the lawyers got. As David Mattingly reports, justice may be blind, but it sure pays well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Every day of her life, Sylvia Curry of Anniston, Alabama, has lived in the shadow of a chemical plant. Her strongest memories are of the small.
SYLVIA CURRY, ANNISTON RESIDENT: You can't describe the smell it was so bad.
MATTINGLY: But, Curry and her neighbors now know there was something much worse in the air, in the soil, and in the water. Dangerous amounts of PCBs. A chemical Curry believes killed her husband with cancer, caused her son's skin disorder, and gave her cancer, as well.
CURRY: I'm very tired. I -- like I'm just trained a lot.
MATTINGLY: But last September, Curry and thousands of others in two class action lawsuits were awarded a staggers $700 million. Paid by plant owner Solutia and previous owner, Monsanto.
(on camera): Anniston residents wanting long-term health care and the needs to move out of this contaminated neighborhood were elated. Some believed their problems were over. They were wrong.
BEVERLY CARMICHAEL, ANISTON RESIDENT: We didn't get nothing but spill. That's exactly what we got.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): What started as $700 million soon diminished, $100 million was earmarked for environmental cleanup and a free health clinic, then it was split between two sets of plaintiffs. The judge awarded attorneys on one side $120 million, leaving some plaintiffs an average of only about $7,000. Compare, the $29 million alone to Johnnie Cochran who handled the litigation, and $34 million to the lead Alabama attorney, Jere Beasley.
JERE BEASLEY, PLAINTIFF ATTORNEY: The judge found that the fee was necessary, reasonable, and because of the complexity and the difficulty, set this figure.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn't come in here for the community. They came in here for themselves. And they got it, and they're gone.
MATTINGLY: Angry plaintiffs are complaining to the judge and the attorneys. In a letter Johnnie Cochran said he would consult with other attorneys and the judge to provide clarification. Meanwhile, had her husband lived, Sylvia Curry would now be celebrating her 33rd wedding anniversary. Instead, she wonders if she will see enough of the settlement to move away in hopes of prolonging her own life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Up next, luxurious Saint Moritz, where the rich and trendy go for skiing, shopping sprees, five star hotels, and a lesson in renewable energy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: You may think the main thing that's green in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, is the money. Lots and lots of it. But the ritzy ski resort is displaying some green tendencies when it comes to alternative energy sources. Alessio Vinci has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mention Saint Moritz and what comes to mind is glitz and glamour, designer labels, luxury cars, 5-star hotels. It is all here in one of the world's most prestigious winter playgrounds.
This Alpine resort boasts Olympic ski runs and an average of 322 sunny days a year, residents like to say, more than the desert city of Las Vegas. True or not, the sun here plays a fundamental role, and not just because of the tan it gives. Saint Moritz is, in fact, using the sun as a key element in a project called Clean Energy Saint Moritz, aimed at promoting renewable energy.
HANS PETER DANUSER, PRESIDENT TOURISM BOARD: Nowadays, it's a topic of our time and the future. We have always had some affinity, something with energy. The first electrical light of Switzerland, for instance, was turned on here exactly 125 years ago. The first electrical tramway, or train, of the Alps was also in Saint Moritz. So, we thought we should continue with this pioneering and innovations.
VINCI: Clean energy is taken so seriously here that it is being touted as a tourist attraction as well.
GALLUS CANODAU, DIRECTOR SWISS SOLAR AGENCY: We try here also to show that solar energy is also sexy. It's a very nice thing. It's clean. You have no waste. You'll have no pollution, you have clean air.
VINCI: To prove his point and allow me to breathe that clean air, Gallus Canodau, director of the Swiss Solar Agency, took me to Piz Nair, at 3,057 meters, they call it the roof of Europe. It is one of the stops on a clean energy tour which Canodau helped create, his idea to combine tourism with green energy awareness, showcasing different types of alternative energy available in Saint Moritz.
The entire facade of this ski station, for example, is covered by solar panels, part of a more than $1 million investment into building solar and wind power plants on this mountaintop, which provide only a small part of the overall needs.
CANODAU: Awareness is also a question of personal knowledge about the environment, but you can see here people are thinking to do something that you might have a good conscience when you make your holidays and you'll spend your holidays in Saint Moritz.
VINCI: The tour includes some 30 stops in and around Saint Moritz, showcasing renewable energy at work.
Riding the train to the Corviglia slopes, rows of solar panels for which sponsors helped pay for by contributing more than $3,000 each.
(on camera): How much energy do these panels produce?
CANODAU: The whole station has about 15 kilowatts, but you can say every third person will come to Corviglia by solar energy.
VINCI (voice-over): The sun isn't the only element exploited for energy here.
(on camera): Now, visitors who want to take the clean energy tour actually do not have to wear skis, but one of the stops is this wind turbine, built right here on the slopes of the World Championship downhill run. Now the energy that it produces is negligible. However, tour organizers use it as a symbol to raise awareness of the potential of green energy.
(voice-over): In fact, solar and wind energy produced here amounts to less than one percent of local electricity needs. Other environment friendly plants, like this hydroelectric power station, supply a fifth, while the rest comes from traditional energy sources, leaving some skeptical about Saint Moritz's clean energy ambitions. Tourism officials, though, insist the effort is worth it.
DANAUSER: Everybody, including hedonistic resorts, like Saint Moritz, have to do whatever they can for a clean climate and to reduce all the problems our climate has and to help to fulfill the decisions of Kyoto. And I think if Saint Moritz does a lot in this field, this is a good example. It's a sign for others.
FELIX SCHLATTER, LA DONELLA HOTEL: So, this is the system...
VINCI: Among those embracing the project is Felix Slater (ph), who runs the La Donella (ph) Hotel in the heart of Saint Moritz.
SCHLATTER: You have two boilers like this. This is the one...
VINCI: The system he is referring to is this heating equipment in the hotel basement, connected through a series of pipes to solar panels on the roof.
SCHLATTER: And, may I show you some of the panels? We have half the installation on that side, 70 square meters, where we just heat up hot water, and the connection is through the big boilers in the cellar, and it comes back up as the hot water of the saunas, the showers, and also the heating of the floor is being done by this solar-thermic system.
VINCI: Tourism officials admit the Clean Energy Project plays a small role in reducing pollution, but they say, the symbolism is big.
DANAUSER: This is a good example. It's a sign for others, and it wouldn't be the first trend set by Saint Moritz, to say -- why the hell shouldn't we allow something for the environment?
VINCI: Judging from the lifestyle of many visitors to Saint Moritz, it looks like it could take a good while before clean energy becomes a priority and a lifestyle for all here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Ahead on Next@CNN: A mini mouse and simple software for 2-year-olds. Tech expert, Marc Saltzman, answers viewer e-mail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: All right, this next story is definitely full of hot air, you could say. A British balloonist said he set a new altitude record this week for a gas and hot air balloon. David Hempleman-Adams say he reached 42,000 feet flying over Colorado on Tuesday. Now, the claim isn't official until a sealed instrument that was onboard the balloon is shipped to Europe and tested and that could take several months. The current record for gas and hot air balloons is 38,500 feet. That pales compared to the altitude record for all manned balloon flights though, almost 114,000 feet. That's more than 21 miles, set in 1961 by a gas balloon.
Time now to check out viewer e-mail and for that we return to the Wireless Association Trade Show held earlier this week in Atlanta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERT: Marc Saltzman you're the perfect person to answer this question. Not only are you a gadget guru, as we like to call you, but you're also the father of twins who are about to have their second birthday.
MARC SALTZMAN, SCITECH CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right.
All right, let's read the question. It's from Ora in Chicago. She writes:
"What's the best computer for a child, age two? His birthday is coming up and I am sure he wants to imitate his parents. He's a very gifted child."
That's Ora in Chicago. Definitely sounds like a gifted child. But, you know kids these days, they start so early.
SALTZMAN: Yeah. They pick this up like, you know, it's amazing. But, the short answer is that there isn't a computer designed for a toddler, for a 2-year-old -- you know, per se. But there are a number of hardware and software solutions that can get them adjusted and comfortable with using a computer, because we all know that they're going to need to know that come school, you know -- who needs a library anymore? You just go on the internet.
SIEBERG: Right.
SALTZMAN: So, it's good to get them started young. In moderation, of course.
SIEBERG: Something we all wish was around when we were kids.
SALTZMAN: Oh, absolutely. Wouldn't that be great?
Let's start with some hardware ideas. Travel mice are very popular now for lap laptops. These are, of course, a lot smaller, so they're perfect for little hands. And, you know, Targus makes one, Microsoft makes one. Here's one from Creative, again, it's just a lot smaller, so it's more comfortable. There's actually a product designed for kids called KidzMouse. That's one word, with a "z," kidz with a "z." And actually it's a softer material that wherever you squeeze on it, it will activate the mouse. So, it's a cute idea, as well.
SIEBERG: OK, and we've got a laptop set up for some software ideas.
SALTZMAN: Right, Well, I just one more example for hardware, is that if you have a desktop keyboard, not a laptop, there are some overlays of some plastic toy-like devices that you put on top and it gets them comfortable with keys. Bigger rounder buttons with colors and shapes. So, that's an idea, and they range from 40 to $60 for desktop keyboards. SIEBERG: But you're right, I have my laptop here because I want to talk about software. One of my favorite series for youngsters is called the JumpStart Series. And there's JumpStart Baby, this is JumpStart Toddler for 18 months to 3 years old. And it's three CDs of lots of activities and games, teaching them colors and shapes. You know, I mean, my twins are only 20 months, so I have them on my lap, they don't quite get it, but they do love playing around with that. So, I put my hand over theirs on the mouse. And, you can do fun things like this: This is just picking a background, choosing some characters. Again, it gets them used to moving the mouse and seeing that changes what they do on screen. So, you're putting little characters there. You can then dress them up with little -- you know, costumes and things like that.
You're a very artistic guy...
SALTZMAN: And I'm not left-handed, so I'm struggling a bit. But, you get the idea. Then you can -- you know, print out what you've created or save it. Once again, it's just getting them comfortable with using the mouse and teaching them things like colors and letters.
SIEBERG: And, eventually they'll be the ones who are designing these products for everybody else.
SALTZMAN: And they'll teach you. When you get older and there's a whole new generation of products out there, absolutely.
SIEBERG: All right. Marc Saltzman, thanks so much.
SALTZMAN: Thanks, Dan.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUCER: Still to come, an endangered species at the San Diego Zoo may be a little less endangered thanks to cloning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: A serial killer, of sorts, is on the loose in the zoo in Sao Paulo, Brazil. More than 60 animals have died there in January. Security is tight at the zoo. The victims include the mate of this elephant, five of the zoo's six camels and all but seven of its porcupines, an orangutan, three chimpanzees and a pair of rare Capuchin monkeys. They were all killed with a particularly deadly rat poison that's banned in Brazil. Now, authorities haven't figured out a motive, but they do say it appears to be an inside job since many of the dead animals were in areas inaccessible to the public.
Well, zoos are known for trying to restore populations of endangered species through breeding programs. Well, the San Diego Zoo is going a step further. The story from Miguel Marquez.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The San Diego Zoo, it is home to many of the world's most exotic animals. Among the pandas and the rhinos, there is an endangered bovine species called a Banteng.
DR. OLIVER RYDER, SAN DIEGO ZOO: A Banteng is a kind of wild cattle from Asia.
MARQUEZ: Jahava, as he's called, is a native of the Indonesian island of Java. But what makes this 10-month-old special is that he is a clone. Skin cells of Jahava's donor were inserted into the empty egg of a normal domestic cow. Now, the hope is Jahava will reproduce.
RYDER: He's literally a conduit from a richer genetic past to the genetic present.
MARQUEZ: Jahava is special in another way. He is a carbon copy of another Banteng that died almost 25 years ago.
RYDER: We have the cells of over 6,800 animals in this collection.
MARQUEZ: Since 1975, San Diego Zoo has collected and stored live cells of thousands of animals. It is a frozen zoo. About 400 species of animals suspended in liquid nitrogen.
RYDER: Here are cells of a European bison. Here are cells of a brush mouse. Here are cells from timberwolf.
MARQUEZ: The San Diego Zoo is one of a few places worldwide that maintains a catalog of frozen animal cells. But, researchers stress the only way to ensure survival is through maintaining their native habitat. Cloning is seen as a last-ditch effort to stave off extinction.
GAYLENE THOMAS, SAN DIEGO ZOO: He is getting along with the ladies, you can definitely see a preference for the female.
MARQUEZ: Although Jahava is still too young to mate, Gaylene Thomas, who has been caring for San Diego Zoo's Banteng for eight years is hopeful.
THOMAS: He is young. He's still not quite full-grown. He probably is going to get about double the size he is now, at least. So, I think he's about right where he should be for a young male Banteng.
MARQUEZ (on camera): Zoo officials hope Jahava will start breeding in the next year. But even if he does, scientists won't know whether this cloning experiment is a success until they know whether his offspring are healthy.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, if manly names have anything to do with Jahava's success with the ladies, he's got it made. His name in Javanese means "bull."
All right. No bull about it, that's all the time we have for now. But, here's what's coming up next week:
You've seen video of tornadoes before, and you've probably seen video of the people who chase tornadoes. But we'll show you what happens when a tornado chaser gets pictures from the middle of a raging funnel cloud.
That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let us hear from you. You can send us an e-mail at next@cnn.com and we might even answer your question on the show. And don't forget to check out our website that's at cnn.com/next.
Thanks so much for joining us this week. For all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg. We'll see you next time.
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