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Cassini Sends Back Photos Of Titan; Automotive Industry Fudges Numbers On Fuel Efficiency In Automobiles; U.S. Border Patrol To Test UAV's For Patrolling Southern Border

Aired July 3, 2004 - 15:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN is straight ahead, but first a look at the headlines.
U.S. troops today make a bust on a weapons factory in southern Baghdad. Members of the suspected insurgent ring were also arrested. The coalition says some suspects may have been behind the deadly attacks on U.S. soldiers.

Police say 21-year-old Elijah Brown was angry, when he gunned down five of his co-workers at a meat packing plant in Kansas City, Kansas Friday night. He later turned the gun on himself. Two other workers who were shot survived. Police say the shooting started shortly after an employee meeting.

Cooler weather is providing some relief for crews battling at least two major wildfires in Alaska's interior. However evacuation continue officials say the choking smoke has become a health hazard and has been keeping firefighting aircraft grounded.

One lotto ticket worth $290 million is out there somewhere. It contains all six winning numbers drawn in last night's Megamillion Lottery, the winning ticket was bought at a store in Lowell, Massachusetts. The state lottery said so far, no one has come forward to claim their prize.

And have big plans for the fourth of July this weekend? Will the weather cooperate? CNN meteorologist Jill Brown has our holiday forecast.

JILL BROWN, METEOROLOGIST: It's not all bad news. That's what we like to hear. Dry and mild weather expected for the northwest and the Pacific Northwest. Boston and New York look great. Seattle and Portland do too. More rain in the southeast very questionable for fireworks displays, I'm sorry to say, and blazing hot weather for Texas and Arizona. We are looking at all the way from Texas to the deserts of California, we'll be looking at very, very warm weather, warm to hot. If it's not above 100, it may feel like it.

Southeast-scattered thunderstorms, not all day rain. And watch this area of low pressure as it makes its way across the Great Lakes. You have a pretty good chance of seeing showers and thunderstorms today and even better chance for tomorrow in places like Chicago, high of 78. Dallas 96 will feel like maybe a 106 today. Boston, there is your perfect weather, 77 today with sunshine, just as nice tomorrow, 78 is the forecast high.

Fredricka back to you now.

WHITFIELD: All right thanks a lot Jill. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN Center in Atlanta. More news at the bottom of the hour. NEXT@CNN begins right now.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi, everybody. I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today at NEXT@CNN two thumbs up for NASA. The Cassini spacecraft orbits around Saturn. And the space station crew finally complete a risky space walk.

The car makers warn you actual mileage may vary. So why don't they just come clean with the real FUG of that new car. We will tell you why and what officials are doing to fix the situation.

And we will show what device that giving overweight people some interior motivation to stop eating so much. All that and more on NEXT.

You called call it a two-fervor NASA this week, a successful space walk for the crew of the International Space Station and a dramatic arrival at Saturn for the Cassini Spacecraft. Cassini flew through the planets rings on Wednesday, to begin a four year tour. Miles O'Brien reports.

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Talk about a ringside seat, the Cassini's Spacecraft is nestled into Saturn's orbit giving scientist an out of this world main event.

ED WEILER: Citizens of Earth, I would like to present the majestic rings of Saturn.

O'BRIEN: Nearly seven years after it left earth, Cassini the largest most elaborate, most expensive planetary probe ever twice shot a gap in Saturn's rocky wings and ended up safe and sound orbiting the solar systems second largest planet. A rock the size of a marble could have taken the $3 billion craft out. The celebration came after a tense 96 minute engine firing that slowed down the gangly six ton spacecraft just enough to feel Saturn's pull.

CHARLES ELACHI: Probably, this was the longest 90 minutes that I ever spent. I never realized how long 90 minutes was until today.

O'BRIEN: As it stitched between the rings the craft was programmed to aim its cameras right at them. The rings are made mostly of ice, possibly the remnants of a moon that came too close to Saturn and was ripped apart. Scientists are fascinated by the rings because among other things they resemble planets information.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So in a sense, it gives us a picture of how most likely the whole solar system might have formed.

O'BRIEN: Ring scientists, yes, there are such things. Are focusing on the distinct bands that appear to be cleared away by some sort of celestial zamboni it quite likely some of these are created by previously unknown moons of Saturn.

KEVIN GRAZIER: There's a chance that the moon count will climb in the very near future.

O'BRIEN(on camera): As interesting and beautiful as the planet may be, Saturn's moons may provide the most scientific pay dirt. The highlight could come in January when the spacecraft will send a tiny probe on to the surface of Titan, a Saturn moon that is the size of planet. Scientists believe it has an atmosphere that mimics earth, as it was when it was a toddler. The probe could provide a distant mirror to our own origins here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: In case you're wondering, there is more on Cassini and Saturn on our Web site. That is at CNN.com/next.

Well second time was the charm for the crew of the International Space Station. The space astronauts Mike Finke and Cosmonaut Canadi Padalka ended successfully after five hours and forty minutes on Wednesday as the pair replaced a fried circuit breaker. They tried to do it last week but had to cut the attempt short because of an improperly set switch on Fink's space suit.

The space walk was unusually risky. Not only was the station unmanned while the two men were outside. They also had to use Russian space suits, which meant they had to leave the station through the Russian air-lock and make a potentially dangerous trek 100 feet to the faulty circuit breaker. The American air-lock was much closer but a malfunction main the Americans space suits unusable. The bad circuit breaker had cut power to one of the gyroscopes that keeps the space station on an even keel.

Well moving a little closer to earth now. Unmanned aerial vehicles or UAV's are busy conducting surveillance missions over the desert. We're not talking about the sands of Iraq or Afghanistan. Jeanne Meserve reports.

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JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At an army base 20 miles from the Mexican border, an unmanned aerial vehicle is launched but not for a military mission. Its high-tech cameras and censors are scanning the brush and sands of the desert landscape for illegal immigrants. It is part of a four month study by the Bureau Customs at Border Protection to determine if the UAV's have a part to play in protecting the border.

Is it potentially a silver bullet?

MICHAEL WIMBERLY: Absolutely not.

MESERVE: But the UAV's may be a valuable tool. Able to stay aloft for up to 20 hours at a stretch, sending back real time images night or day, the UAV's are virtually invisible and inaudible to people on the ground, making them ideal for surveillance, and some worry, for spying.

ROBERT SMITH: I can tell you from a policy standpoint, the Department of Homeland Security is not going to use these things to be able to spy on people in their homes or in their back yards, any more than they do any other piece of equipment that they have. We just don't do that.

CHRISTOPHER BOLKON: You don't want people to fear that they're being spied on while sunbathing or engaging in personal activities in their back yard.

MESERVE: UAV's are not cheap. This four-month trial has a price tag of $4 million. Perhaps UAV's could bring some monetary efficiencies giving customs and border protection information that allows them to calibrate their response to intrusions.

WIMBERLY: We should have been here looking at this technology long ago.

MERSERVE: Why weren't you?

Frankly, I don't think we had the vision.

WIMBERLY: Frankly I don't think we have the vision.

MERSERVE: There is little argument that the situation right now is dire. More than 100 migrants have died in the desert heat along the southwest border already this year. UAV surveillance might help save some and stop others, 1500 migrants are captured everyday along the Tucson sector of the Mexican border and no one knows how many cross undetected.

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SIEBERG: Another test of security technology is going on at the Minneapolis Airport. Frequent flyers are submitting to iris and fingerprint scans as Chris Lawrence reports.

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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Between the hand checks and bag searches, frequent flyers never know how long they'll wait in security lines.

CHARLIE ZEELE: Tuesday it took five minutes and Wednesday it took 90 minutes.

LAWRENCE: That could be the reason hundreds accepted an invitation to apply for the new registered traveler program now being tested by the TSA. Like Laurie Stovern, they fly about once a week and don't mind giving fingerprints and optical scans to avoid tighter screenings. They'll still have to pass through metal detectors, but in a special lane at one of the checkpoints.

GARY FISHMAN: Why do you have to put them through the same level of scrutiny at the airport as someone you know nothing about. LAWRENCE: They won't be pulled out of line for flying one way or for random screening. That's just the beginning.

JIM WELLNA: Eventually, we hope to be able to add some things like perhaps not taking your laptop out of your bag or not having to take your shoes off or overcoat off. We are going to build and learn.

LAWRENCE: If it works, the program could go national. Its potential is the problem for some privacy advocates.

JAY STANLEY: When ever you put the government in the role of judging American citizens and making judgments about who's trusted and who's not, that raises serious questions. That's really an unprecedented thing for the government to do.

LAWRENCE: But one that some frequent flyers are comfortable with.

LORI STOPPEHAN: Especially on heavy travel days, like the weekends. It will be way worth it.

LAWRENCE: The GSA's trusted travelers begin flying next week in Minnesota and over the next few weeks, Boston, Houston, Washington and L.A.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up next, as Iraqis celebrate the handover of their country, they still face problems with basic services, like water and electricity. We'll look at the challenges.

And later how do you protect the first amendment while punishing pornographers who target children? The Supreme Court weighed in this week those stories and more when NEXT@CNN returns.

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SIEBERG: As Iraq begins a new chapter in its history; many of the problems facing the new government are pretty obvious. Here's what you may not know about. In Basra, the water system hasn't worked for years. Brent Sadler reports on a new drive to provide the city with clean water.

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BRENT SADLER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): War-weary Iraqis dig trenches in Basra, not to repel invaders, but to defeat an old enemy. Decades of neglect by Saddam Hussein. The sewage and water system in Basra is on its last legs. And the little water that does trickle through aging pipes has been unfit to drink for 15 years. But now, the tide may be turning. British contractors, guarded by armed royal marines track the Shata (ph) Arab water way.

Dividing Iraq from Iran. Surveying riverbank pumps that are worn out, there's been no serious investment on this equipment in living memory. Saddam Hussein, who is floating palace, is now that resting hulk-enforced policies that wrecked water supplies down here and changed the eco system. Parts of this water way have turned from fresh to salty water, clogging pumps. The product of environmental sabotage by the old regime. Draining, vast tracks of land in southern Iraq inhabited by March Arabs.

DOMINIC D. D'ANGELO: Absolutely and those said to punish the march Arabs, because the March Arabs have never been particularly supportive of Saddam's regime.

SADLER: The Iraqis have their own front line civil engineers on this multi-million dollar water project paid for with coalition money. Muhammad Al Suhail (ph) and Mis Thren (ph) lead a small army of workers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is very important to restore -- to win this battle, very important.

SADLER: It's as much a vocation as a job, though, surrounded by danger. Iraqis like these are routinely killed or kidnapped for helping to rebuild Iraq under American rule.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because we face a very difficult time, face maybe death sometimes. Everything in the future is dark.

SADLER: Meaning that like most Iraqis, they fear for what the first steps in tentative self-rule will bring.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes. I'm afraid. Until everybody is sure that it will be quiet.

SADLER: Nor is anyone sure if and when around a million Iraqis craving clean water here will quench their thirst.

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SIEBERG: Well as you might imagine clean water isn't the only modern convenience that is in short supply. Anderson Cooper reports on the Iraqi power grid, what it will take to get electricity flowing.

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): With Saddam gone, Iraqis hope the dark days would be over. With routine power outages for Ali Zuhare (ph) and his family, the days and nights still seem pretty dark. The power only comes on for two hours he says and it cuts off for four hours. We have children and old sick men. The temperature is so high during the summer, and in the coming months it will only get hotter.

Earlier in the occupation, the U.S. said restoring electricity was a priority, a benchmark of America's commitment and capabilities. $1.4 billion was quickly spent to improve the power grid. And last fall, Ambassador Paul Bremer heralded the first progress achieved.

PAUL BREMER, FRM. CIVILIAN ADMINISTRATOR IN IRAQ: We've made considerable progress here in Baghdad in the six months since liberation. Electricity is back at prewar levels.

COOPER: Bremer pledged electrical output would be up another 50 percent by June 1st. But that hasn't happened. After security threats, German and Russian engineers abandoned Baghdad's largest power plant. Then came months of sabotage, no maintenance few spare parts. The day before we visited the plant, the last of the four turbines broke down.

BASHIR KHALAN OMIN: We have two running. As of last June, two units are running. Now, no one running.

COOPER: The coalition blames part of the problem at least on increased demand; it is up 30 percent, they say, a sign of growing prosperity. A demand at another plant the coalition has installed new $130 million turbines supposed to increase electoral output by 10 percent this fall. But on the streets of Baghdad, Iraqis are coming up with their own power solutions, sharing generators, not an option for Ali Zuhare (ph), unemployed, he can't afford it. His family will just have to wait for the lights to go back on and for the promises of progress to be fulfilled.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, calling over the Internet could be the next big thing in phone service. We'll have the latest.

And who knew babies were this cute months before they were born? Ultra cool ultra sound pictures later on NEXT@CNN.

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SIEBERG: Free speech advocates applauded a decision this week from the Supreme Court. Critics say it's a step back in protecting kids from online pornography. Bob Franken looks at the latest chapter in the First Amendment versus controlling the net.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Three times the law has been shot down, actually in this case, sent down again to lower courts, to decide whether there is any new technology to filter out pornography and other adult material. That is preferable to censorship justice Anthony Kennedy wrote since content-based prohibitions enforced by severe criminal penalties have the constant potential to be a repressive force in the lives and thoughts of a free people. Probations that might block artistic expression and useful but explicit health information like an advice Web site about sex for the disabled.

ANN BEESON: The purpose of that information is to help disabled people learn about sex. And a lot of people may not want their children to see that but the fact is adults have the right to access it.

FRANKEN: In his dissenting opinion. Justice Stephen Breyer argued that while the legislation risks imposition of some minor burdens on some protective material, it significantly helps to achieve a compelling congressional goal protecting children from exposure to commercial pornography, precisely the sentiments of the congressional sponsor

REP. MICHAEL OXLEY, (R) OHIO: It's a balancing act. And unfortunately I think the kids lost on this one and the adult pornographers won.

FRANKEN: As cast by the courts majority the question is less about indecent material then it is about technology. Can it filter the unacceptable and preserve the acceptable?

DOUG ISENBERG: There are those who think it can be very effective but there's still certainly room for argument any type of filtering software is both under and over inclusive.

FRANKEN (on camera): Justice Potter Stewart in 1964 said, that while he couldn't define obscenity, he knew it when he saw it. The question in 2004, is can the new technology sort it out?

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SIEBERG: Staying inside the beltway for our next story, DC could now stand for dropped cellular. The nations capitol has become the latest region to make it illegal to drive while talking on a cell phone. Hands-free devises will be permitted, as will emergency calls. In addition to some nasty stares violators may receive fines up to a $100. However officers are expected to only hand out warnings during July. Highway officials say driver distraction contributes to about 30 percent of all traffic accidents.

Well your car may be one place you don't want to be contacted. But some phone companies are offering an always connected option it is all part of the growing battle between traditional land lines and Internet services. Fred Katayama dials up the difference between the two.

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FRED KATAYAMA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tech consultant Robert Abgudi doesn't miss a call. Calls to his home office also ring on his cell phone and can buzz him up to four other places. One of those innovative features some Internet phone services offer for free.

ROBERT ABGUDI, TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANT: The locate me feature is great for me because I work out of my home but I'm always somewhere and I don't know where that somewhere is, with a client or I could be out at the beach.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Digital phone, it is a no-brainer.

KATAYAMA: A price war is making digital dirt-cheap and lowering new users. Rob saves $50 on his monthly bills paying AT&T's promotional rate of just $20 a month that service for unlimited local and long distance calls rises to $35 after August. Cablevision and start a bondage (ph) charge $30 that is roughly half that of a similar landline plan offered by Verizon, which doesn't currently offer the digital service. Plus most digital services boast powerful features like online call logs allowing you for example to retrieve a number that you dialed months ago. You can e-mail your friends any audio messages you get and set your phone to not ring.

And take messages instead, so you won't miss that crucial inning. It is easy to set up. All you need is a high speed Internet connection and a cable modem or an adapter which phone companies provide free you hook that up to any standard phone. Sound quality is clear but reliability is a drawback.

JOE LASZLO: When the quality is good, it's very, very good. But it may be less reliability good than the traditional phone network is.

KATAYAMA (on camera): That's because the Internet phone works only if your broadband connection works. And that connection requires electricity. If the power goes out, so does your phone.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still ahead, why your car's gas mileage rarely lives up to the manufactures promise. And construction at sight of the World Trade Center is setting an example for other building projects. We will explain.

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SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Well, hotter temperatures generally aren't a concern for researchers at Britain's Antarctic Ice Station, except when it comes to floating away, observers believe if global warning continues at its current pace, the scientific base on the brunt ice shelf will break off within a decade. That's prompted the British Antarctic Survey to solicit designs for another one, at an anticipated cost of $35 million, the new more durable station is expected to be up and running by 2008.

Upon completion of the station, the Antarctic scientists will likely breathe a sigh of relief and take solace they're not in one of 22 states the EPA has put on notice because of poor air quality. The culprit is the tons of microscopic soot generated by industrial factories and diesel burning vehicles. The colored areas of this map show 243 counties, mainly in large urban centers, where soot levels were found in violation. State officials must control the problem or face sanctions including loss of highway funding.

Well, diesel powered construction vehicles have been a common site at ground zero in New York. This weekend, the cornerstone is set to be laid at Freedom Tower, which will be the tallest building in the world. And the construction project will have some innovations to let many in the neighborhood breath easier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LARRY SILVERSTEIN, SILVERSTEIN PROPERTIES: This building, the building we're in, is (UNINTELLIGIBLE), it's the first of the buildings to go back up at the Trade Center. It was the last to come down on 9/11. By the end of this year, we should top out the steel and by the end of next year, end of '05, beginning of '06, we will have a completed 52 story building on this site containing 1.7 million square feet of space. SIEBERG (voice-over): The developer of these new buildings in Manhattan say there's one thing they don't have, the belching soot, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons that usually accompany the diesel engine on cranes and other heavy construction equipment.

GLENN GOLDSTEIN, NORTHEAST STATES CENTER FOR CLEAN AIR FUTURE: Here at seven World Trade Center, we instituted a program that uses ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel and the most innovative retrofit technology that's available on the market.

SIEBERG: Goldstein's group, the Northeast States Center for Clean Air Future calculated how big a pollution problem there was in late 2001 during the cleanup of ground zero. Hundreds of pieces of construction equipment were working non-stop.

GOLDSTEIN: It was roughly equivalent to about 600 transit buses circling the site 12 hours a day, seven days a week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready to do?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, put the hose back on.

SIEBERG: The environmental group convinced Silverstein properties use the cleaner fuel and to retrofit cranes and other heavy equipment with scrubbers.

GOLDSTEIN: It's essentially like a gigantic Brillo pad. This is very effective at eliminating particular matter, carbon monoxide, and hydrocarbons.

SIEBERG: Critical to success of lowering prolusion is being able to measure, in real-time, each engine's before and after pollution levels.

MICHAL VOJTISEK-LOM, CLEANAIR TECHNOLOGIES: My unit is measuring what leaks the engine and the other unit is measuring what actually comes out of the tailpipe after the catalyst. We downsized the equipment to as much as we can, it's a 35 pound suitcase-sized laboratory.

SIEBERG: This cleaner construction is not yet required by the government, but its use on such a landmark project could make it a model. Just by using the cleaner fuel, soot levels could be reduced by five to 15 percent. The retrofits reduce the total amount of pollution created by 30 to 90 percent.

SILVERSTEIN: To the extent the word gets out, as to what we're doing here, it will have a significantly beneficial ripple effective on construction projects around the country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: All right. Ever wonder why your car or truck doesn't get the gas mileage you were promised? Well the high price of fuel has more people noticing that their vehicle's performance often falls short of the showroom hype. Jonathan Freed explains what's being done about it.

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JONATHAN FREED, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Call it the gas mileage gap, the difference between a vehicle's promised fuel performance and what people really experience on the road.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it getting its proper mileage? No. Not at all.

FREED: The gap has always been there, often as much as 15 percent, fueled by factors like individual driving habits, road conditions, and what you're hauling around. What's driving people to notice it more these days? Higher prices at the pump.

ED GARSTEN, AUTOMOTIVE REPORTER, "DETROIT NEWS": We talked to dealers and said this is the first time in recent memory they can remember people even looking at the sticker to see what the fuel economy standards are.

FREED: The Environmental Protection Agency tests hundreds of cars every year and decides what goes on that fuel economy sticker.

CHRISTOPHER GRUNDLER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF TRANSPORTATION AND AIR QUALITY: Every new vehicle is tested exactly the same way, under the same conditions so that people can compare one model's fuel efficiency with another model.

FREED: But, the EPA admits that its test criteria hasn't been revised in 20 years, contributing to the mileage gap.

GRUNDLER: Air-conditioning wasn't as widely used as it is today, speed are limits higher, there's more urban congestion, people spend more of their time in traffic.

FREED: So to help short circuit this type of sticker shock, the EPA is designing a new test. Automakers, especially those building hyper-efficient hybrids say that will only fix part of the problem.

MARY ANN WRIGHT, CHIEF ENGINEER, ESCAPE HYBRID PROJECT: Educating the customer on what they're getting is going to go a long way in terms of managing their expectations.

FREED: Hybrid makers like Ford, Honda, and Toyota believe they're fuel frugal cars are often unfairly criticized, insisting the gap is just more noticeable if you're promising as much as 60 miles per gallon?

CHUCK SCHIFSKY, HONDA MOTOR COMPANY: It's our experience that about 85 to 90 percent of our customers are getting the mileage that they're seeing window sticker. Certainly, some people get less, we've had a number of reports of people getting more.

FREED: The EPAs updated test won't be ready for months. And it says if a manufacturer knows a vehicle doesn't live up to its window sticker promises...

MARGO TSIRIGONS ODG, DIR. TRANSPORTATION AND AIR QUALITY, EPA: Car companies are allowed to use the best data that they have available, even if the data does not agree with EPA's values.

FREED: But, automakers worry if they do that and the other guy doesn't, they'll be at a competitive disadvantage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, saving money is a big reason people are turning to alternative fuel vehicles, but a new ad from the EPA implies that an energy efficient kitchen could prove more beneficial then ditching that gas guzzling SUV. David Mattingly looks at whether the agency's use of humor is hitting home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At first it sounds serious...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Global warming...

MATTINGLY: A public service ad from the EPA about the problems of air pollution. But, who knew the EPA had a sense of humor. There's no doubt the gags are geared to make you chuckle, as we follow the husband, Mark, in his less than practical quest for a clean running car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best part is the car lets (PH) only helium. Genius. Genius.

MATTINGLY: But, after nearly four years of bashing Bush administration policies on the environment, the Sierra Club watches the ad and sees a political jab at reducing auto emissions.

DAN BECKER, SIERRA CLUB: So, the Bush administration shouldn't make fun of it and do what the auto and oil industry wants them to do, they should tell Americans that we can of both cleaner homes that use less energy and cleaner cars that use less energy.

MATTINGLY: Others however, only see humor hitting a nerve.

SAM KAZMAN, COMPETITIVE ENTERPRISE INST.: Because that humor is directed at what has almost become a holy grail, a religious objective and in this case, it is -- you know, the perfect car and that is simply, totally out of proportion to what is going on in this ad campaign.

MATTINGLY: Well publicized EPA reports show that fuel efficiency of U.S. cars is getting worse, hitting a 20-year low. With so much focus on SUV's agency believed that the environmental impact of home energy use wasn't getting enough attention.

DAVID FRIEDMAN, UNION OF CONCERNED SCIENTISTS: The energy use in our homes produces about the same carbon dioxide emissions, one of the important global warming gases, as do our cars.

MATTINGLY: And that's the message the EPA says is behind the campaign.

RICHARD STAPLETON, EPA CHAIRMAN: Oh, I want to say lighten up, folks, and get a sense of humor and let's pull together.

MATTINGLY: No punch line there. That comment was serious.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, how technology is sparking a boom in the documentary business. And later, amazing pictures of what babies can do while still in the womb.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Summer has officially begun and with rising temperatures comes higher air-conditioning bills. Wouldn't it be nice if AC were free? If only you were a bee. Researchers at the University of Sidney in Australia have determined honey bees have a built-in beehive temperature control system. The study found that worker bees regulate temperature by using their wings to fan hot air out of the nest when things get too toasty. And they cluster together to generate metabolic heat when it starts getting chilly. It seems that bees have internal thermostats set at different points in their body. Because of genetic differences certain bees start buzzing at slightly different temperatures than other bees. This keeps the temperature management system running smoothly. Voila, free bee AC.

I'm Femi Oke, and that's "Cool Science."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: With the success of "Fahrenheit 9/11," would-be documentary makers may be wondering how they can become mini Michael Moores, so to speak. Well, new technologies are making it easier for the average folks with little film experience to make a movie. CNN producer, Emily Russ, talked with John Dilligan, he's an advertising exec who quit his job to make a documentary about an author who inspired him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES BUKOWSKI, AUTHOR: One more beer, I'll take you all, all of you.

JOHN DILLIGAN, FILM MAKER: As a first-time documentary film- maker, you have no idea what you're getting into. I encountered a book called "Post Office" by Charles Bukowski and in that book he chronicles his woes as a postal employee, and he writes about the bureaucracy and the soul crushing authoritarian bosses. I could relate to that. And at the end, he say, "I quit my job to write a novel and this is it." And that just inspired me to do something. I had no idea what at that point, and I approached Linda Bukowksi, she suggested that I do a documentary.

This is my dining room/production office. This is where I'm working on the film in its final phases.

The technology is enabling a lot of people to go out and create films that would never have been able to do it before. Now that you have mini DV cam, you can buy a camera for $1,500 roughly and for a few grand you can set up an editing system. I go to my Starbucks up the street and the young guy that makes my latte says wants to be a director and he's going out and filming his own stuff.

Oh, there it is.

While it's easy to go out and make a film, it's more complicated than you think. So, it's not an easy process.

Bukowski is somebody who touched my life. The message I got from him was -- you know, follow your dream.

BUKOWSKI: Don't quit.

DILLIGAN: If you have a dream to make a film, the worst thing you can do is keep putting it off, and you'll regret it. You'll die with it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: By the way, Dilligan's documentary made it to the Sundance Film Festival; it's now being released in theaters and art houses across the country.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, on NEXT@CNN, the device that fools people into thinking they're full before they overeat.

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SIEBERG: A new type of ultrasound is giving researchers great views of babies in the womb and they found that young fetuses can do things much earlier than previously thought. This fetus, at just 12 weeks appears to be taking it's first accepts. At 18 weeks the fetus could opens its eyes. Doctors previously believed the baby's eyelids were fused shut until 26 weeks. And here at 20 weeks, this fetus is yawning. The new technology is called 4D Ultrasound, the added dimension being movement. It was originally created to help identify defects, but now it's becoming available in specialty shops, popping up around the country. This, despite an FDA warning that not enough is known about the long-term effects of repeatedly sending high doses of energy across a mother's womb.

Well, wouldn't it be nice to have a gadget that would tell you to stop eating before you ate too much? Believe it or not, they're working on such a device. Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You've seen the ads promising dramatic weight-loss. No surprise, though that most of those fancy gadgets don't work. But Candy Bradshaw says she's lost her cynicism and several dress sizes by shocking her appetite. She dropped from a size 28 to a size 14, something she attributes to controlling her appetite with the weight-loss pacemaker.

CANDY BRADSHAW, IGS WEIGHT LOSS SYSTEM PARTICIPANT: I actually stay full for a longer period of time.

GUPTA: It's called the implantable gastric stimulator or IGS. It doesn't actually change the size of your stomach the way invasive procedures like gastric bypasses do and it doesn't stop you from eating but...

DR. SCOTT SHIKORA, CHIEF OF BARIATRIC SURGERY, TUFTS NEW ENGLAND MEDICAL CENTER: It's telling your brain that you've eaten more than you have and you're full.

GUPTA: A device the size of a pager is implanted into the abdomen through a small incision. Two wires send electrical pulses to the stomach at a regular pace. These pulses stimulate appetite hormones and create a feeling of fullness.

BRADSHAW: I'd like to refer to it as my Thanksgiving full feeling, that feeling that you get when you just have completely stuffed yourself and can't move.

GUPTA: Candy lost more than 100 pounds. But doctors caution that shocking the appetite isn't for everyone.

SHIKORA: Somebody who probably would not do well with this would be someone with a history of binge eating or other eating disorders because those folks generally don't listen to the signals of fullness.

GUPTA: IGS is currently in stage three clinical trials and could be on the market as early as 2006 as a mechanism to treat the morbidly obese. So far, no side effects have been reported.

And Candy recognizes the IGS is just one part of her weight-loss.

BRADSHAW: It's not going to motivate you to exercise, and it's not going to prevent you from eating the wrong foods. So, I think of this as my conscience. It's just a tool to tell me, OK, you've had enough.

GUPTA: Or just a little help with your willpower.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIEBERG: Well, there's something we'll never lose our appetite for, viewer e-mail. We've been telling you about the Cassini mission to the planet Saturn, and Lloyd and Deloris of Nipomo, California wrote us to ask:

"Is Saturn a gas planet -- or do they know if it has a rocky core?"

Well, we posed the question to Bill Nye the Science Guy who's watching the Cassini mission at the Jet Propulsion Lab in California.

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BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY: A charming thing about Saturn, if you had a bucket of water big enough, you could get Saturn to float because its density is so much less than rocks that we're familiar with here on earth. But, by looking at the gravity and looking at the motion of the many moons and the waves of gravity going through the rings and stuff, people think that Saturn has a rocky core, that's very dense in the middle. But even stranger than that, it's surrounded by hydrogen, that's under such high pressure. How high is the pressure? It's so high that the hydrogen is like a metal, it's metallic hydrogen and it conducts electricity and it produces this crazy magnetic field that we're measuring with our spacecraft. It's like, if I may, another world out there. So, wait. You're both right, it's got a -- it's a gas planet with a rocky core.

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SIEBERG: Don't forget you too can send us your questions on the sci-tech beat. Our e-mail address is NEXT@CNN.COM, just keep in mind we won't be able to answer every letter on the air.

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ANNOUNCER: Still to come, on NEXT@CNN, the mystery of the disappearing yellow ribbons.

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SIEBERG: You know, for years, yellow ribbons have symbolized waiting for someone to come home, from military duty oversees or worse. So, what kind of creep would tear down someone else's yellow ribbon? Well, a family in Iowa recently found out. Chris Minor from our affiliate WQAD has the story.

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CHRIS MINOR, WQAD: While Bob and Alexis Staskowski anxiously waited for their son's safe return from the war in Iraq, they found comfort in decorating their trees with yellow ribbons in support of the troops. But, earlier this year...

BOB STASKOWSKI, RIBBON THIEF WATCH: The ribbons started to disappear. Every time it disappeared I would hang a new one up. MINOR: It went on for eight months. The last straw: Three stolen ribbons in three days.

ALEXIS STASKOWSKI, RIBBON THIEF WATCH: Who would do something like that? I mean, who is just so unpatriotic that they would go out of their way to rip off a yellow ribbon?

MINOR: At their wits end, the couple set up a video camera.

B. STASKOWSKI: I was going to try and catch the culprit.

MINOR: Six long weeks went by, the video camera focused on the back yard.

B. STASKOWSKI: And one Saturday afternoon, I walked in, I looked at the monitor, the ribbon was missing and I said, "Gotcha!"

MINOR: The sneaky thief caught on tape.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were thinking that it was some kids playing a prank.

B. STASKOWSKI: I caught him and it was a squirrel.

A. STASKOWSKI: a squirrel, a rodent -- a tree rodent is doing this.

MINOR: Yep. It's no teenage prankster, but a wily rodent causing all the grief. It's tough to see him at first, but take look at the left. There's no denying the ribbon being shimmied slowly down the tree trunk and once at the base, the squirrel cuts the ribbon, presumably with his teeth and takes off, scampering with the yellow ribbon in tow towards his den of thieves -- another score.

B. STASKOWSKI: And we can laugh now. Before, it was not funny.

MINOR: The best part is though, the yellow ribbons worked, the Saskowski's son is home.

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SIEBERG: OK, that's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week:

Back in April well told you how researchers in California were hatching bald eagle chicks in the lab, then sneaking them back in their parents nest. So how are the little eagles doing three months later? Well, we'll have an update.

That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's hear from you. You can send us an e-mail at NEXT@CNN.com.

Thanks so much for join us, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg. We'll see you next time.

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