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Who's To Blame For Rising Gas Prices? Germans Debate Creating National Speed Limit
Aired April 10, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HOLLY FIRFER, CNN ANCHOR: The man seen here sitting in the back seat of a car told reporters his convoy had been attacked. The man spoke with a slight southern U.S. accent.
An Arabic TV network reports that three Japanese who were kidnapped this week in Iraq will be released within 24 hours. Al Jazeera says the decision to release the Japanese hostages was made in response to a call from the Islamic Institute, a Sunni Organization in Iraq. The Japanese hostages included a journalist, a nongovernmental organizational worker and aid worker. Al Jazeera has not said how it received that information.
Marines in the Iraqi town of Fallujah continue to take fire, despite a unilateral ceasefire with insurgents. The city is now being described as a ghost town as many families flee from that fighting. An factory explosion in a Mexican town near the Texas border has killed at least one. As many as 70 more people are missing or trapped in the rubble. The explosion leveled two buildings at a tortia (ph) factory in the town of Nueva Progresso. The town is 20 miles from Harlengen, Texas.
Russian officials say a methane explosion killed at least 22 coal miners in Siberia early today. They say 25 are still missing. 16 miners were either rescued or made it to the surface on their own. Rescue operations were hampered by debris scattered near the entrance to that mine shaft.
Governor to the rescue Arnold Schwarzenegger this week plunged into the role of lifeguard in Hawaii. The action hero turned chief executive helped rescue a man struggling in the surf about 100 yards off shore. Arnold Schwarzenegger was in Hawaii for a 10 day get away with his family.
Now to the CNN whether center. Meteorologist Rob Marciano has your forecast for this Easter Sunday.
ROB MARCIANO, METEOROLOGIST: Snow falling across Denver, Colorado. Holding on to winter there, some fresh powder for the hills to the west of I-25. Meanwhile this storm system moving into the midsection of the country the red areas indicate that is where we could see some strong and severe thunderstorms. Cool and rainy across the northern part of this big red L and the rainfall will stretch almost to Washington, D.C. today. That rainfall moves to the east during the day tomorrow.
79 degrees in Atlanta, dry today wet tomorrow. 60 degrees in Dallas, 52 degrees in Chicago and 72 in Seattle with sunshine. Tomorrow's daytime highs, the cool air moves to the east, Chicago 48 degrees for Easter, mostly dry but the rainfall right about in this area. As a matter of fact our next map highlights just that, the area where you'll see showers, heaviest amounts right around here, but it will stretch all the way to New York, maybe even to Boston. Much of the Midwest including the upper Midwest cool, but dry. In Denver, the snows will begin to melt. No snow, sunny and warm across the West Coast.
I'm Rob Marciano, that's a quick weather update. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
FIRFER: And I'm Holly Firfer at CNN Center in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN begins right now.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi everybody, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, gas prices are setting new records, and who's the poor consumer to blame? Is it OPEC, the oil companies, the White House? We'll get a reality check from some experts about what really determines gas prices.
Also, we'll find out how scientists move individual atoms. And why technology on a tiny scale could mean big changes in our lives.
And we'll take you to a village in Germany that runs on solar power and makes money in the process. All that and more on NEXT.
Well, we've all become used to cell phones as conveniences or annoyances of modern life but they can also be tools for terrorists. Jim Boulden looks at a system that could make cell phones less useful to criminals and why some people don't want to see it used.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mobile phones are everywhere, in the hands of millions of people around the world. And it appears, in the hands of more terrorists.
DAVID CLARIDGE, ADVISORY GROUP: (INAUDIBLE) relatively cheap. You can acquire them in relatively large numbers easily and you can build a whole stack of them at one time and place them and set them off. It means that you can step away from some considerable distance, perhaps even on the other side of the world in order to initiate the explosive device.
BOULDEN: The bombers in Madrid used the phone's built in alarm clock. In Jerusalem, it's believed a call to a cell phone in a rock sack set off a bomb in Hebrew University in 2002, killing seven. One of the Bali bombs outside the Sari (ph) Nightclub in October of 2002 had a cell phone attached. As did a car bomb which killed 12 people at the Jakarta Marriott last August.
Searches following attacks in Riot, Saudi Arabia last May led to an FBI warning about the use of cell phones. Saying the modifications needed to turn a phone into a trigger are "relatively minor."
MICHAEL MENAGE: And this will block up to 20 feet away.
BOULDEN: There are products on the market to stem mobile terror. This phone-sized device can block cell phone signals in a 20-foot radius. These larger devices can block signals reaching an entire building. But in Britain, the United States and many other countries, it's illegal for civilians to use cell phone blockers. The right to make a call reins supreme.
MENAGE: In the UK as in most other civilized nations they're illegal because you're interfering with somebody else's right to use a mobile telephone and you're also out of these aerials your broadcasting a signal on a wavelength which you do not have a license.
BOULDEN: But governments are using similar technology. It's widely reported a radio jammer inside the car of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf (ph) stopped an attempt to assassinate him last December, a technology that more high profile people are expected to use.
PETER YAPP: I would be surprised if some of these high profile people aren't using this technology for cars and for small areas like that.
BOULDEN: And the U.S. Department of Defense has plans to jam larger areas. Code named Wolfpack, the technology would deny the enemy the use of all radio communications, including mobile phones on the battlefield.
But to deny terrorists the use of a mobile phone would deny it for everyone in a certain area. Like train stations, concerts, sporting events. Which means cell phone terror will continue.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, it seems that mobile phones aren't the only modern convenience also useful to terrorists. Experts say that groups like Al-Qaeda are taking full advantage of the Internet and instant messaging plays a special role. Diana Muriel reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: An Internet Cafe just like thousands of others around the world where computers are readily available. But experts say the computer has also become a powerful weapon and a new virtual base of operations for terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda.
REUVEN PAZ: This process took place mainly after September 11, and it became the main field of activity for at least for propaganda, for indoctrination, for recruitment, for Al-Qaeda. They are trying to build or to create actually a virtual Islamic nation.
MURIEL: Israeli terrorist analyst Reuven Paz believes the net has become the primary communication tool for the Al-Qaeda network.
PAZ: The Internet turned for Al-Qaeda to be what I would call an open university.
MURIEL: And it's finding interested students, say experts not only among disaffected Palestinians here in Gaza, but across the Middle East and further a field. Its reach reflected by the sheer volume of Al-Qaeda material on the net. Thousands of articles and one or two manuals per week.
PAUL EEDLE, AL QAEDA EXPERT: This is Al-Qaeda's main Web site. It's physically located on a server in Germany, but I am fairly sure that it's actually produced in Saudi Arabia.
MURIEL: Terror expert Paul Eedle says some Internet service providers unwittly participate in hosting these sites. When they're shut down in one place, most pop up in another. They're important to maintain, he says, because they're not just a pr tool.
EEDLE: Al-Qaeda uses cheap freely available software such as Web-based message boards, simple e-mail lists, Web-based e-mail both for its propaganda and I would be convinced for its operational communications.
MURIEL: But terrorists are aware that highly encrypted codes attract attention with billions of dollars spent by Western Intelligence Agencies on Internet surveillance and detection. How much simpler just to use an instant messenger program with no key words. Meet me in the cafe at 3:00 p.m. With a message like that, your chances of being detected are close to zero. Still, Al-Qaeda often publishes more explicit information on the net.
EEDLE: They put out a whole stream of material justifying their actions, explaining their strategy. So for instance, a few weeks before the Madrid bombing, they put out a strategy document explaining why they thought that Spain was the weak link in a coalition in Iraq, why it was crucial to get America out of Iraq to defeat America in Iraq for the sake of future radical Islamic expansion.
MURIEL: That threat against Spain was very real as the Madrid train bombings all too viciously demonstrated. Yet the warning was there for all to read, that is, if you know how.
PAZ: The major security and intelligence services in the west are missing a lot by neglecting the enormous amount of writings on the Internet, first of all because this is in Arabic.
MURIE: The Internet was designed to survive a nuclear war and analysts say it would also be impossible to deny access to terrorists. So in the war on terror, it's a weapon the west will need to reckon with.
ANNOUNCER: When we come back, we'll trace gas prices back to their source and see where the increases begin. And later in the show, find out what happens when a baby owl's nest is sitting in the past of progress.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: A familiar sight for a lot of people is gas prices in the U.S. hit a record high this week for the second week in a row and the Department of Energy says they're likely to keep rising. So who's to blame and who benefits when gas prices are sky high? With the summer driving season rapidly approaching, record high gas prices are making headlines daily. Drivers aren't happy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oil companies have a lot to do with it. I think they're just really jacking the prices up so that for their own benefit. I don't think it's necessary.
SIEBERG: With the war in Iraq on going and his administration perceived as being biased towards big oil, some consumers place the blame squarely on President Bush.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: George Bush is from Texas. Oil, you know, everyone, I think people all are suspicious of that. And his interests in Iraq and with Dick Cheney and his company. Yes, I think that it's definitely the current administration's definitely exacerbating the situation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prices are rising everywhere. Certainly the war in Iraq and things going on in the Middle East are definitely impacting rising gas prices.
SIEBERG: But is George Bush really the cause of rising oil prices? From the field to the pump, economists believe there is much more to the final cost of gas than politics.
CHUCK LOGSDON: You have the raw material costs, you have the costs of shipping the raw material to the refinery. You have the refinery costs. You have the distribution costs to the gas station, you have your taxes. Every step along the way involves certain costs, and every entity that's involved in that activity takes a margin.
SIEBERG: In fact, one of the biggest contributing factors to rising gas prices may actually be the drivers themselves.
LOGSDON: Specifically gasoline as a product that's refined from crude oil has been in high demand recently, and particularly in the U.S. where refineries are running at about 90 percent of capacity. That sort of demand side pressure is what's really giving gasoline prices that extra oomph right now.
SIEBERG: And some industry observers say rising fuel costs are not necessarily a bad thing.
DAVID DENSLOW, UNIV. OF FLORIDA ECONOMIST: There are many economists who think that the better approach for the United States would be to raise taxes substantially to encourage conservation of oil, to encourage more exact development to, reduce pollution, to reduce accidents and congestion.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG: A novel concept if you're sitting in traffic this summer, but little consolation for those paying high prices at the pump. So what if you just can't afford to pay prices over $2 a gallon in some places? Well Kathleen Koch reports on how people and businesses are coping.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As gasoline prices continue their climb upward, the hardest hit are bailing out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't afford it. I'm going to use the bus now.
KOCH: Some small independent truck drivers are sidelined until prices drop.
PAUL CULLEN, JR., OWNER OPERATOR INDEPENDENT: You see truck drivers declaring that they're parking their truck. They don't make any money out on the road.
KOCH: Bigger freight carriers are buying diesel fuel in bulk months ahead of time, and using satellite technology to track down affordable fuel on the road.
BOB COSTELLO, AMERICAN TRUCKING : They can then contact the carriers, the drivers as they're going down the road and tell them where the cheapest place is to fuel up.
KOCH: Most like this florist are being forced to pass on the higher cost of doing business.
LAILA AZIZI, OWNER FLOWER TOWN: Now I have to charge a delivery charge of 5 or $8. I tried not to, but unfortunately it's very hard now with the gas prices.
KOCH: And some business owners are scaling back.
TOM DOYLE, OWNER DOYLE PRINTING: We've actually traded in some vehicles, bigger SUVs that we have. The bigger gas guzzlers, and we've gone to a smaller vehicles to better gas mileage.
KOCH: But few individuals are changing their habits even when it comes to summer travel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll probably use the car still. Because the distances aren't that far and so I don't think it will make that big a difference.
KOCH: Hybrids that get more than 40 miles per gallon remain a hot commodity.
GINNI GUITON, TOYOTA PRIUS OWNER: It is nice you get to drive by the gas station and don't have to stop.
KOCH: But it's the SUV that still rules the road with sales up 14 percent over last year. While sales of small and midsize cars dropped.
PAUL TAYLOR, CHIEF ECONOMIST: I think gasoline prices over $2.50 a gallon in the United States, not just in California, would start to change the selection of vehicles that consumers make.
KOCH: And economists say those prices would have to stay high for sometime before most Americans would permanently change their buying or driving habits.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: In germany, there's talk of changing driving habits although it's not related to gas prices it centers around the autobahn where those white knuckle speeds are perfectly legal. A debate is revving up over introducing speed limits would improve safety. Stephanie Halasz reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEPHANIE HALASZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the German highway, the Autobahn where drivers put the pedal all the way to the metal without fear of a fine, but the trial of a fast reckless driver who caused the death of two people re-sparked the question of whether a national speed limit should be introduced. The fatality rate on German highways is slightly below the European average and much less than in the United States.
HANS-JUERGEN FISCHER, (through translator): A car club lobbyist tells us countries with a speed limit have a much higher accident rate. It is reckless, not fast driving that kills.
HALASZ: But Supporters of the limit say fatalities can be further reduced.
ALBERT SCHMIDT, (through translator): Hans suggests the majority of Germans favor a speed limit because of more security and to increase the even flow of the traffic to avoid stop and go.
HALASZ: I found the race exhausting. Well, I'm now driving 200 kilometers an hour or 125 miles and I have to really concentrate. I can't drive this fast for very long. About one-third of German highways have limited speed, some with positive results. Two years ago, a speed limit of 130 kilometers or 80 miles an hour (ph) was introduced on this stretch of highway. The year before the speed limit, eight people were killed in car accidents. The year after, no one died on this highway. On average, 800 people perish on German highways every year. The question, is it fast or bad driving that kills them?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up, we'll tell you why some people get eye surgery on board an airplane.
And love it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Well, NASA's Mars Rover has reached a milestone this week. As of Monday Spirit had been on the Martian surface for 90 days and NASA says Spirit and its twin Opportunity have accomplished most of what they set out to do. One thing on the to do list was for a Rover to travel at least 1980 feet. And Spirit did that last weekend. Both Rovers have gathered intriguing data including new evidence that there was once a salty sea or swamp on Mars. So why stop now? NASA expects the Rovers to be functional for several more months.
Well an airplane known as Orbis is a old DC 10 that has been flying for decades. But the people who get on board it are thrilled to be there. Lucia Newman reports from Havana, Cuba.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: At Havana's International Airport Raul Portela eagerly climbs the stairs of this DC-10.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The incision is approximately --
NEWMAN: Inside the front cabin, Cuban ophthalmologists watch a movie, not the latest from Hollywood, rather the latest modern eye surgery has to offer. That's because the Orbis is a flying eye hospital that takes some of the world's most renowned eye surgeons around the world to cure and share their skills with local doctors.
DR. IBTANHIM PILOTO, CUBAN OBTHOMALIST, (Translator): The surgery and recovery have been spectacular, but many techniques we were unfamiliar with.
NEWMAN: One of those techniques could save the eyesight of 4- year-old Dilana Alfost (ph) who suffers from severe congenital glaucoma. She's already been operated four times, says her mother. Despite that, the child has permanently lost sight in her right eye. To save her left one, Professor Allan Krandal employs a novel procedure which he teaches to his Cuban counterparts.
PROF. ALAN CRANDALL: Blindness is mostly preventable and all we need to do is transfer technology from developed to underdeveloped countries and Orbis is probably one of the most efficient ways to do that.
NEWMAN: Everything from the doctor's time to the modern equipment to the plane is donated. While the previous day's patients get a checkup, Raul Portela prepares for his glaucoma surgery. What does he think about being operated on an airplane? This is very modern, pretty, and considering the circumstances, enjoyable, he says. Since it began flying 22 years ago, more than 130,000 people have been operated and 63,000 doctors and nurses trained aboard the Orbis. A plane that has only one thing in common with other DC-10s. It also flies.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: And speaking of surgeons, if you're trying to choose one, you might want to ask your candidates whether they play video games. No, we're not making this up. A new study shows doctors who play video games make fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery. And get procedures done faster. Laparoscopic surgery uses a tiny camera and instruments inserted through a very small incision to let doctors operate from outside the patient's body using, you guessed it, joy sticks. Researchers at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York tested 33 doctors and found those who spend at least three hours a week playing video games made about 37 percent fewer mistakes in laparoscopic surgery. One of the researchers, a surgeon and gamer himself, says he uses the same hand-eye coordination in both.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half hour, a construction project using building blocks too tiny for most microscopes to see. And meet a photographer who finds beauty in a river most people consider ugly. Those stories and a lot more coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN.
All right, the Canadian Poultry Industry has started slaughtering 19 million chickens and turkeys in an effort to wipe out avian flu. The goal is to keep the disease from spreading out of British Columbia's Frazier Valley. Officials say it will take three weeks to kill all the birds and several more weeks to disinfect the farms. The slaughtered birds will be tested and if they're free of the virus, will be processed for human consumption. Still, the chicken industry is anticipating shortages and price hikes in a few weeks as farmers struggle to get back to normal with new flocks.
Will a pair of Great Horned Owls in Colorado thought they'd found a perfect place for a nest this spring, but unfortunately chose a billboard. As a result, their baby is being raised in a foster home.
Paul Johnson from our affiliate KUSA has the story.
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PAUL JOHNSON, KUSA REPORTER: Sigrid Ueblacker is a woman with some very unique skills. And snagging a couple of great horned owls out of mid flight isn't the least of them.
SIGRID UEBLACKER, SANCTUARY OWNER: I always feel like a magician when I do this.
JOHNSON: These two owls are on their way to freedom. They've been recovering at Ueblacker's sanctuary for injured raptors in Broomfield, and they're now well enough to live on their own. Her latest patient though, as quite a ways to go. He doesn't yet look the part, but this owlet is also a Great Horned Owl. Sigrid is keeping him in an incubator and for the time being is hand raising him. She's named him "Odin" and his story is an interesting one.
UEBLACKER: Odin's parents nested in a billboard.
JOHNSON: And when it came time to change the ad on this metro area billboard, Oden's nest had to go, and while he's in good hands now, his parents can still be seen circling above.
Mary Narrod is the wildlife worker who moved Odin.
MARY NARROD, WILDLIFE WORKER: And they did insist that we go ahead remove the bird.
JOHNSON: And while the sign's owner. Lamar Advertising, waited an additional two weeks to change out the sign, Narrod and Ueblacker wished they could have waited untill Odin could fly away on his own.
NARROD: Will make this baby an orphan not to be raised by parents but by -- uk, humans, that I think was inappropriate.
UEBLACKER: Odin is going to go to our foster mama, Nina, and she is going to raise him.
JOHNSON: So like many of the other raptors here, young Odin will be taught how to fly and hunt for himself, and with any luck, he too will end up in Ueblacker's net and then set free, probably this fall.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: OK dog people, look away for a little while. An archaeological site on the island of Cyprus is giving clues about the special bond between people and cats. A human, a cat, and riches of an ancient era, polished stones, axes, and seashells were found buried together. The site is about 9,500 years old, that's several thousand sand years before the earliest evidence that Egyptians respected, even worshipped cats. The cat skeleton was about eight months old, a species a little bigger than domestic cats, today. Scientists are not sure if the felines were kept around for their mouse hunting or if they were just cherished and entertaining buddies to have around the house.
Of course, fondness for cats didn't stop with ancient civilizations. Consider the emotional battle this week in Saginaw, Texas, a suburb of Fort Worth. It revolves around "Gizmo," two-year- old African Serval cat and pet of the Miller family.
The Millers say when they first got Gizmo, they were told to register him like any cat, but recently they got a letter saying that Gizmo had to go because he was in violation of the city's exotic animal law. The Miller and their supporters got their backs up at that, and after some lobbying and a petition drive, the city council voted on Tuesday to allow properly registered animals already in town to stay. The Millers were thrilled and Gizmo responded, well, like a cat.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: When we come back, while many dot coms were going bellyup in the past few years, some kept thriving. We'll look at a web-based success story.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: For years now, we've heard how nanotechnology would change the landscape of everything from electronics, to medicine, to manufacturing, but physically, how do you build things with atoms? Well, we found out it takes some big thinking to conquer such a small world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): From computer parts, to pollution control, to longer lasting pants. Nanotechnology is making its mark. With the help of one of these, a Scanning Tunneling Microscope or STM for short, scientists are exploring ways to use atoms and molecules as building blocks for manufacturing, medicine, just about anything you can think of. It took years to design and build this device at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. It functions in a world that's, oh, about a billion times smaller than ours.
ROBERT CELOTTA, NATIONAL INST. OF STANDARDS AND TECH.: So early on, STM was used like an archeologist tool where you were seeing things for the first time, it was like Galileo looking up at the stars, but you're looking inward and you're saying "boy is that neat" and now we're getting more like mankind tends to be, it's rearranging it the way we want.
SIEBERG: Celotta used a low-tech model, packing material and some golf balls, to illustrate what's happening under the microscope, a needle whose point ends in just a single atom scans across the surface with a special electric current, known as a tunneling current, to map the atoms.
CELOTTA: By doing this, we can create an image, so you see here these white, little round dots are each cobalt atoms which are on a copper surface and that image has been obtained by programming a tip to scan over the surface...
SIEBERG: For these atomic construction projects, cobalt atoms are dropped randomly on to a copper surface. It's minus 460 degrees Fahrenheit and it's an ultrahigh vacuum, meaning there are no stray molecules to interfere. The ripples you see in the background are due to copper electron waves bouncing off the cobalt atoms, sort of like dropping pebbles into a pond. The device first maps out where the atoms landed on the surface, then scientists tell it how to rearrange them into a square, a triangle, a circle, or the tiniest CNN logo ever created.
CELOTTA: Then it'll figure out how to move each atom, in what order, to what place, following some rules that we've given it.
For example, we have guard fields around each atom which allow the other atoms to pass only within a certain radius so they don't collide with each other, see how it went around that to avoid it?
SIEBERG: In many ways, this is a new world for physicists. The laws of physics sometimes go out the window with raw materials this small. For instance, changing the size of a nanostructure changes some of its properties, such as color.
CELOTTA: So, size has changed from two nanometers, giving you the blue color to about six nanometers giving you the reddish color.
SIEBERG: And who knew? Atoms make noise when they move. The atoms displayed a lengthy protest a couple months ago when they were interrupted by a mild earthquake centered more than 100 miles away from the Gaithersburg, Maryland laboratory.
CELOTTA: So, it went pretty far away and got really excited by that earthquake and then went back to work again.
SIEBERG: While it can't do much about earthquakes, the device is shielded from just about everything else, vibrations, electricity, cellphones, and radio stations. This NIST facility is expected to find some efficient atom assembly techniques. They'll pass those on to other scientific and medical researchers for commercial projects.
CELOTTA: This is very precious and unique environment we can study these quantum phenomenon. It's a quantum workbench for us.
SIEBERG: Nanoscience components are already in many computers and on the horizon in medicine, nanoparticles known as "quantum dots" could be a major improvement over organic dyes in helping doctors make faster more reliable diagnoses for breast and other cancers. But like any emerging technology, medical uses of nanoparticles will need close safeguards and ethics reviews.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, while the dot com boom was going bust, some web- based businesses were thriving. Case in point, Netflix which gives customers an easy way to get the latest DVDs. Jen Rogers has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEN ROGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Apollo 13" made $172 million at the U.S. box office. But it's made Reed Hastings even more.
REED HASTINGS, NETFLIX, CEO: "Apollo 13," great movie, but I don't know if it's worth a $35 late fee.
ROGERS: Fed up with fees, Hastings started Netflix, a subscription online rental service, 20 bucks a month, as many DVDs as you want, three at a time with no late fees. Five years later, the company boasts over one point five million subscribers.
JULIE HOGAN, NETFLIX CUSTOMER: We'd always be afraid to rent another movie because we knew we were going to be presented with late fees for the last ones and we really didn't want to know...
JUD HOGAN, NETFLIX CUSTOMER: Yeah, he'd like drop them in the slot and run away. Run away!
ROGERS: The only thing running at Netflix it seems, conveyor belts.
(on camera): Every weekday, Netflix ships a half million DVDs from its 23 distribution centers around the United States. The company says 80 percent of those DVDs make it to consumers the very next day.
(voice-over): Netflix, one of the postal services biggest clients sports a $1.5 billion market tap, thanks to a stock that soared 400 percent last year. But shares are struggling in 2004. Amid concerns over higher marketing costs, deep pocket competitors, namely blockbuster and Wal-Mart, and the looming threat of video on demand and movie downloads.
HASTINGS: In the three to five, ten-year time frame as those things develop, it'll be a great expansion area for us.
ROGERS: Netflix believes revenue will expand to $1 billion by 2006. If only all late fees had those results.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, a village that runs on renewable nonpolluting energy and gets paid to do it. We'll show you how.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: All right. There's a village in Germany's Black Forest that produces more energy than it uses, and it's not because there's any kind of conventional power plant there. Chris Burns reports on a place where every sunny day turns into money.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS BURNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Here the sun's rays have been lapped up for centuries by photosynthesis in the hillside vineyard, and now by photovoltaic cells in a solar village down below, a village that produces more electricity than it uses.
(on camera): Welcome to the Black Forest city of Freiburg, where sun power is not only earth-friendly, it's a money-making opportunity and a way of life.
(voiceover): Award-winning solar architect Rolf Disch has built nearly 50 apartments and a concept house in the past four years, and he's far from finished.
European Union officials call him a pioneer with cutting edge technology.
Though the architecture of the apartments is simple, buyers can pick the color and trim, inside and out.
"Isn't this a bit idealistic, this sort of concept?" I ask.
"Yes, it is not only idealistic, it is economical," he says. "I have no extra charges here. They rise with other apartments while here I have no more extra charges. On the contrary, here I have income. I get money."
Up to 500 euros, or about $600 a month, he says, money from the local power company that's required by German law to buy surplus power from the home owners.
That money is partly offset by charges for central heating. Though residents say good insulation keeps those costs minimal. Also under construction, Disch's so-called solar ship, with penthouse apartments on top, offices and shops below.
We climb up to the top to get a bird's eye full of Disch's village, a project he hopes could help change the world to one that runs on renewable energy.
"We're on the winning path," he says. "The sun will succeed, there's no question. While oil, gas, uranium, these are finite."
Disch was part of the '60s generation and a protest movement that wanted a different world, one without nuclear power, especially in their backyard. Disch says protests in Freiburg successfully blocked constructions of a nuclear plant in the area.
"But back then, we also thought if we're against that, what are we for? What do we want?" he says.
The result, a strong Freiburg eco-movement, from solar powered parking meters to a solar powered stadium, to Disch's solar village.
The two bedroom apartments start at 300,000 euros or about $452,000. Residents say that's roughly what similar apartments in central Freiburg. Plus, you're saving a few thousand euros a year in surplus electricity.
For the better-heeled, Disch built what he calls the Heliotrope, where he and his wife live, at a cost of up to 1.5 million euros, about $1.9 million. Seven levels, lots of rooms, lots of eco-options, like solar water heater tubes on a circular balcony, a satellite-style solar panel that can tilt and turn to get the most power, and the most remarkable part, you can turn the whole house to follow the sun, or if you get tired of the same view.
Disch says he's sold a few of them.
"What would you say if someone said this is a curiosity?" I ask.
"Then I would say it isn't," he says, "That this is how people will build in the future."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ANNOUNCER: When we come back, a lot of people consider the Los Angeles River a pretty poor excuse for a river. We'll meet a photographer who finds the beauty in it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Our next story is about a photographer who takes pictures of a river. And, you're probably imagining something like this, fairly picturesque. But, the river that interests John Humble is the Los Angeles River which is more of a glorified drainage ditch. Here's his take on finding beauty where other people don't see it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN HUMBLE, PHOTOGRAPHER: I began photographing the river because I have been photographing L.A. for a long time. And I kind of ignored the river like everybody else. It's not really a river anymore, as you can see, it's a big concrete ditch now. I just decided to do it in an almost pictorial way -- you know, to take something as ugly as this and really create beautiful, beautiful photographs from it. So a lot of it had to do with lighting and had to do with my selection of the time, the angle, all that sort of thing.
Up through the Glendale Narrows, they could not put concrete on the bottom because the water level was too close to the surface and so there are areas through there where there's a lot of vegetation that gross along the river so it looks more like a real river because it looks like fall in Vermont. I created that much through lighting because the fact is that the sun is going down and creates all of those reds and yellows and oranges across the foliage so it looks like fall and in fact it's green, because of the light on it.
And then I shot under the bridge and the river is traveling under the bridge and you see the pillars there. And again, that's only a photograph because of the lighting, because of the fact that it was late afternoon and the light -- kind of golden light was coming under and illuminating that area under the bridge.
I think a lot of people look at the power wires in Los Angeles and think they're relatively ugly. And in a way I guess they are, although, of course, they remind me of Paris and the Eiffel Tower, but they also are a stark reminder of how we live in southern California, that everything is visible. And they help me, in a way, compositionally when I'm making photographs because I can use them to slice up areas that would normally not have anything happening in them.
That's the head waters of the Los Angeles River. And right there, what you see, is you see Royal Calabasas and Bell Creek and when they come together, right behind the Canoga Park High School, that's the beginning of the Los Angeles River.
All of the water from all around here, from the mountains, from the streets, everywhere flows into this river. And 51 miles of concrete later, it gets taken out to the ocean in Long Beach.
I think that it's too bad more people in Los Angeles aren't aware of the really rich history that this river has. The reason that Los Angeles is here today as a city is because of this river. And by the time I finished photographing the river I felt some affection for this river.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: And speaking of unusual artistic endeavors, we send with a Seattle musician who plays, well it looks sort of high tech, there are pipes and -- well, you have to see it for yourself. Mike Silverman demonstrated his invention for our affiliate KING.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE SILVERMAN, MUSICIAN: Do it like this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stainless steel.
SILVERMAN: Kind of tangled up today.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's different, definitely.
SILVERMAN: We are in front of the Crocodile Cafe on Second Street here in settle, washington. I'm going to be playing here tonight. Yeah, it's a big circular energy rhythm thing that just starts to move, and I kind of get caught up in it and just keep going with it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eiyiyi. Oolala.
SILVERMAN: You know, a little bit of confusion, of course, because they don't know what's making all the sounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome, what's he playing? What is it?
SILVERMAN: It's so different that they really can't put it in a box right away. So they sort of accept -- they're sort of forced to accept it for what it is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's called what?
SILVERMAN: That one guy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
SILVERMAN: I'm paying the bills -- you know, I get to tour, travel the country, a little bit of the world and I get to play my music -- you know, and put gas in the car, get to the next gig and can't complain about that. It takes a lot of work, but I love doing it. Yeah, you know, it's real -- when I hit that last note, just the fact that I made it through a whole gig and everything still works is a pretty good feeling. Yeah.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG: Hard to imagine what the sheet music might look like for that instrument, and we've made it through a whole gig here, as well. That's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week:
We'll take a tour of what's going to be the world's largest passenger plane, it's even got a shower in first class. But, if crowds make you nervous, well, you may want to avoid it.
That's coming up on next. Until then, we'd like to hear from you. You can e-mail us at NEXT@CNN.com and we might use your e-mail on the air or you check out our website, that's at cnn.com/next.
Thanks for joining us this week, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg. We'll see you next time.
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