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Designer Invents TV T-Shirts; Environmentalists Protest Bush Plan To Open National Forests To Logging; NASA Considers Final Repair Mission For Hubble
Aired July 17, 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: The car bombing in Baghdad killed four others. The suicide attack in Mahmodia (ph) left an Iraqi national guard and the bomber dead. And dozens of others wounded.
In northern Iraq a U.S. soldier was killed in a roadside bomb blast. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qorei has tendered his resignation but President Yasser Arafat is urging him to continue his work. The Palestinian government shake up comes as a state of emergency is imposed in Gaza following a series of kidnappings, it is not clear if Qureia will stay or go.
A decision by Mr. Arfat to shake up the Palestinian authorities to Qureia and hundreds of demonstrators into the streets of Gaza today. The protestors were members of the Palestinian authority President Fatah (ph) party. Among other things, Arafat fired the police chief and head of national security.
A small Indian town is in mourning one day after a massive fire. At least 90 children died yesterday when a fire swept through their school. Police have arrested five school officials on charges of negligence.
A massive wildfire now threatening the capitol of Nevada. And apparently now, it's half contained. It has burned down 14 upscale homes in the past few days. Hundreds of people are still being kept out of their homes because of wild fires in southern California, about 45 miles north of Los Angeles.
Fire fighters are hoping they get help from the weather as well. Jacqui Jeras has the forecast -- Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, METEOROLOGIST: Fredricka. The weather is going to be improving for fire conditions across much of the southwest in fact today no critical fire weather areas and no fire weather watches. However, we could use a little bit more moisture. Humidity will be on the increase all weekend long, right now it is about 30 to 40 percent and we are expecting to see an occasional shower or two for today.
The winds are flowing in from the southwest, but they are relatively light about 5 to 10 miles an hour. With thunderstorms in the forecast, we do have the risk of those lightning strikes causing more fires and then winds becoming gusty and erratic with thunderstorms as well and that could kick up the flames a bit. So a couple of things to watch out for the weekend. Over all the weather picture across much of the southwest looking much better. And that humidity will continue to rise. Now temperature- wise, it is a little bit on the warm side. Reno right now at 84 degrees. You can see most of the heat though really confined into the desert areas, and we are not expecting dramatic rises in the temperatures, highs will be in the middle to upper 80s pushing near 90 degrees for Carson City -- Fredericka.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks a lot Jacqui. I'm Fredericka 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 on NEXT@CNN, terrorist threats on the Web are nothing new. But the currant crop has officials are worried than usual. We will tell you why.
Also environmentalists sound the alarm over a Bush administration proposal to open up national forest to logging.
And here's a voice you probably hear everyday. Now, meet the person behind the pronouncements. All that and more on NEXT.
President Bush has put a high priority on developing a system to defend against incoming missiles. Some major pieces of that system are now taking shape. David Ensor reports on a radar that's unlike anything that's been built before.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Simply put, the radar under construction in Corpus Christi, Texas is huge.
COL. MIKE SMITH, PROJECT MANAGER X BAND RADAR: What you're looking at is the worlds largest x-band faced radar it's 100 feet tall and in its present condition there. And it weighs about 4 million pounds.
ENSOR: Workers are racing to complete the radar this year to become part of the multiple billion missile defense that President Bush wants to deploy against a ballistic missile attack buy a rogue state like North Korea. The radars job is to figure out which is the real warhead so that missile inceptors can be launched to try to stop them.
LT. GEN. RONALD KADISH, FORMER DIRECTOR, MISSILE DEFENSE OFFICE: This adds that type of capability and would increase our overall confidence that we're shooting at the right target. And not a decoy. And not a decoy.
ENSOR: How good is the x band radar. Col. Smith says if slugger Barry Bonds could hit a baseball into space from the Giants' Stadium in San Francisco and the radar were deployed near Washington, it would--
SMITH: Not just see the baseball but detect see the spinning motion on the baseball. That's how powerful this radar is and that is exactly why it was developed.
ENSOR: The radar will soon be placed atop this platform under preparation in Brownsville, Texas; it is a Norwegian built oil- drilling platform with four engines, which the Pentagon plans to deploy in the Pacific Ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deck size is large enough to hold an entire football field with both end zones.
ENSOR (on camera): Once the radar is in place and has been tested, it will start its roughly six month journey around Latin America, back up through the Pacific Ocean to its future home port, which is an island in Alaska's allusions (ph) chain.
ENSOR (voice over): Based at Adka (ph) Alaska, the giant radar vessel will have a crew of 62 and be provisioned to operate at sea for 60 days without new supplies. The x band radar vessel will be a strategic target for America's enemies. When at sea, officials say it will have protection from U.S. navy ships and planes.
Critics question whether the $815 million radar vessel will be able to survive the rigors of the Pacific.
PHILIP COYLE, FMR. ASST. DEFENSE SECRETARY: The issue is not simply the size of the waves, but whether or not all that salt water and spray will affect the highly sophisticated electronics.
ENSOR: But Pentagon officials say, like other radars, the x band will be covered. The circuitry is extremely robust and it will sit on two massive pontoons.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will take a beating on the way around, isn't it?
SMITH: It is going to take a beating but it is built to withstand a beating, and that is exactly why we picked an oil-drilling platform. The extreme stability.
ENSOR: Built for stability and built to help stop a missile attack against the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well a panel scientist says NASA needs to find a way to repair the Hubble space telescope. Whether it is new robotic system or a shuttle mission. At NASA's request a National Academy of Sciences Committee looked at the options for keeping the Hubble operating. Hubble's fate has been in question since January when NASA administrator Shawn O'Keefe canceled the final man-servicing mission to Hubble.
NASA proposed using robots instead. The report urged the agency to consider all options, calling Hubble the most important telescope in history. Meanwhile, NASA's Ora spacecraft is finally in orbit. After almost a month of delays, it took off from Vandenberg Air Force Base early Thursday morning on board a Delta rocket. The $785 million satellite will orbit Earth and complete a trio of spacecraft designed to help understand Earth's changing atmosphere.
And the next big thing in fighter jets went into production on Monday as workers as Lockheed Martin plant began assembling the first f 35 test airplane. The super sonic Stelti (ph) jet is designed to serve the Air Force, Navy and Marines and it will be modified to meet the needs of each service. The Marine Corps version will be able to take off vertically. The $200 billion dollar contract for the f35 is a Defense Departments most expensive program.
Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and other U.S. official's say that intelligence continues to indicate Al Qaeda is planning a major attack against the United States. Part of that intelligence can be found in a very public forum the Internet. Justice correspondent Kelli Arena has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This Web site reads in part, oh, Allah, destroy America and shake it. This one says the decisive battle is approaching. Such threats are not new to terror experts who scan hundreds of Al Qaeda related Web sites daily but recently some say there is more reason to worry. Experts say threats are coming with greater frequency and more reliable sources.
EVAN KOHLMANN: A lot of the chatter that we're seeing is not coming from unidentified unspecified sources on Internet chat boards, it's coming from the same sources that have predicted before terrorist acts that have actually occurred.
ARENA: One such source warned of attacks in Spain three months before the bombings there in March. And distributed video of the beheading of American Nick Byrd, it called Global Islamic Media.
KOHLMANN: It is now saying that the death blows and the approaching battles are coming. That the deathblows are upon us and that these deathblows will not only be horrible but that they are sure to happen.
ARENA: Some of the potential targets mentioned include hospitals, parks, airports and houses of worship.
GABRIEL WEIMANN, U.S. INSTITUTE OF JUSTICE: You see many targets are mentioned. If you are involved in psychological warfare, you know the more targets you mention, the more panic you cause and it would be harder to defend against the attacks.
ARNEA: Once more, Weimann says even if the postings are pure propaganda, they help terrorists accomplish their goal.
WEIMANN: I think Al Qaeda knows that one of the most important values of terrorism is the psychological impact. That is, you can widen the scope of the victims by enlarging it to the people who are affected psychologically.
ARENA (on camera): Officials are taking the Web chatter very seriously and have reached out to a variety of experts for assistance. Many are convinced Al Qaeda is prepared to strike and are intent on not missing any clues.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, civilization began near the banks of this river. Now, pollution is making it an uncivilized mess.
And later in the show, these people are upset about TV's Nielsen ratings. They are not producers whose shows were canceled. We'll tell you what's bothering them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Well it seems everyday we hear about Iraqis being killed by bombs and bullets. But another major cause of illness and death is largely overlooked, the polluted Tigris River. Michael Holmes explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the Tigris River brothers Ali and Muhammad buy an ancient trade ignoring the sounds of their countries unfinished war, seeking the local shabot (ph) and other species of fish as locals swim near by, another cast, another empty net.
The river is not clean because there is sewage in it, so it is 100 percent dirty, says Muhammad. There is even kerosene and oil and sewage smell in the fish.
ANNA BACHMANN, ENVIROMENTAL RESEARCHER: The river is treated like an open sewer.
HOLMES: And it's there for all to see. Sewage pouring into the river. Plenty of trash as well and it's suspected chemicals and factory waste. The image of Ali and Muhammad fishing in the shadow of a power plant is symbolic of what lurks in the Tigress. Their customers aren't happy.
Some people cannot bear it, says Muhammad, because when you cut the fish to grill it, when you eat it, it tastes of kerosene.
HOLMES (on camera): The Tigris River is like the backbone of Baghdad, one of the biblical rivers of Eden. It flows for a thousand miles from Turkey in that direction to the Persian Gulf on its journey crossing through this capital and sustaining fisherman and those who consume their catch. But this is now a river far from the days of Eden.
BACHMANN: This is the primary source of drinking water for the population of Iraq. It's huge public health nightmare really.
HOLMES (voice over): Water treatment plants in Baghdad are being rehabilitated. Still, many are not operating effectively due to years of neglect, power cuts and post war looting. Two of the cities three sewage treatment plants are being rebuilt and don't operate at all. The third is running at 30 percent capacity. American engineers hope to have all three operating again by October. Not long ago a UN agency reported 70 percent of all children's sicknesses in Iraq are linked to contaminated water. To at least get an idea of how bad things are, the first environmental survey of the Tigress since the war carried out by the ministry of the environment with the help of outside NGO's. Some polls taken will be analyzed the first step to finding out how bad things have become.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: In San Diego, officials already know things are pretty bad for dozens of sick pelicans. But they don't know why. More than 100 juvenile brown pelicans have been found on beaches and brought to Sea World. Veterinarians say the birds test negative for disease or exposure to toxins, but they are all starving.
Sea World vets perhaps the fish the birds eat may have moved farther offshore or the water is to deep for the young pelicans to reach. Many of the birds died after being rescued but some have recovered enough to be released.
In Loxahatchee, Florida Tuesday, wild life officers shot and killed a pet tiger that had escaped its enclosure a day earlier. The big cat name Bobo belonged to Steve Sipek who played Tarzan in the 1960s b movies. With the tiger's blood on his shirt, Sipek said the wild life officers didn't need to kill the de-clawed animal. The officials say the officer who killed Bobo felt threatened. Authorities are investigating how the tiger escaped Sipek's compound where he also keeps other big cats.
Well environmentalists are once again taking President Bush to task this time for a proposal to open up more federal forests to logging. Kimberly Osias reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KIMBERLY OSIAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Robert McCleary, Benji and Shelby like to retreat to pristine open spaces to camp, to hike and just get away.
ROBERT MCCLEARY, HIKER: It's pretty much the way it was way back then.
OSIAS: This area is called Glacier Peak L, one of hundreds in the U.S. currently designated as road less, where logging or other commercial activity is off limits, it was protected under a rule President Clinton signed during his final days in office. But a new plan rolled out by the Bush administration would reduce the protection of these forests. For the environmentalists it's an emotional issue.
TOM UNIAK: I will not allow this to be taken away from the American people and from you know my unborn son and people's grandkids, 60, 80 years from now.
OSIAS (on camera): The new directive pushes power down to the states allowing governors more authority over whether or not to build on previously protected forest lands.
Ninety seven percent of almost 60 million acres of road less land is concentrated in 12, mostly western states. Those in the private sector said national land has always been meant for public purpose. From conservation to logging. Not all areas though are suitable for commercial use; some are too expensive or simply too remote. But there's enough potential for industry insiders to have lobbied hard for overturning the Clinton rule.
BOB DICK: We're interested in a timber base we need to have lands that can us to grow and harvest timber. That's our interests.
OSIAS: And that's exactly what environmentalists fear that this untouched forest will be harmed. For now the directive faces two months public comment then an 18 months period where governors can prepare their requests. Until then it's a federal issue the forest service decides if hikers or loggers will have a clear path.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up, does this make you reach for your credit card?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Introducing the NS5 the world's first fully automated domestic assistant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well not so fast. This apparent ad is currently promoting the new movie "I Robot." The robot in question is fictional. When we come back we'll see if truth is stranger than fiction.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: All right, don't rush off to the theater after this next segment. We want you to stay around until the end of our program at least. The movie "I, Robot" opened this weekend but the notion of bots walking dogs or cooking dinner left us scratching our heads. It is time for a robot reality check.
SIEBERG (voice over): The promise of technology. In 2035 "I, Robot" offers the world's first fully automated domestic assistant. And of course all well until the robots try to kill you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are experiencing a car accident.
SIEBERG: Fantasy can be frightening. In reality we can all breath easy. While bots can be programmed to perform a variety of tasks, most of them couldn't think themselves out of a wet paper bag. Here's what they can do.
Starting in the 1970s, robotic workers became ubiquitous on assembly lines and later we sent them out to explore other worlds and more of our own. Robots help doctors perform surgery and soldiers clear caves in Afghanistan. And on to more important matters, domestic robots can vacuum your floors; mow your lawn and even keep you company without messing up the carpet. But when autonomous bots, those are machines built to think for themselves attempt more complex tasks well that's where they run into problems. Not a single brainy bot in the DOD's million-dollar race last March completed the 150-mile trek through the Mohave Dessert. The most successful machine made it a whopping seven miles. Bottom line, robots just aren't that smart yet.
Honda's can dance and kick a ball. Most of its brainpower is concentrated on keeping it upright and balanced. Balance is something we mere mortals take for granted but it's no small feet for a robot. No, this bionic prototype won't be watching your kids any time soon. Do we even want robots to look human? Perhaps in the spirit of "The Stepford Wives," which deranged men replace their spouses with happy homemaker bots?
Graduated student David Hansen has created life like robotic heads that resemble his girlfriend Kristen. The faces have 24 motors to generate countless expressions and cameras for eyes. The problem here of course is they can be a little creepy. So it's a debate among scientists whether human-like bots are repulsive or if machines that mimic our mortal movements put us at ease. But at the end of the day no matter what the robot looks like its promise depends on brainpower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They don't get hungry, they don't sleep.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. I have even had dreams.
SIEBERG: And the brainiest bots are still on the big screen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well to publicize the movie "I, Robot" promoters used t-shirts. No big deal you say? Well these t-shirts are really TV shirts. Jeanne Moos explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Please stay tuned for t-shirt TV.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What in heavens name.
MOOS: An 11 inch screen with built-in speakers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh that is awesome.
MOOS: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like I shouldn't be looking at their chest.
MOOS: That's not what guys say.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You kill two birds with one stone. You know you get to watch a movie and a get a thrill at the same time.
MOOS: Must see TV, must not touch. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's the on/off switch.
MOOS: Just like any TV, you can do it manually or with a remote. But only creator Adam Hollander of Brand Marketers is allowed to fine tune the t-shirts. The models are used to the jokes.
ARDIE COWLAH, T-SHIRT TV MODEL: Oh, the boob tubes.
MOOS: And then there is the line actor Tom Hanks used when he crossed paths with a t-shirt TV wearing model.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're very attractive for a flat-chested girl.
MOOS: Right now, t-shirt TV is being used to promote the movie "I, Robot". It plays digitized media and it played a live feed from a video camera shooting us.
ADAM HOLLANDER: Every time we wear it out, people ask where can I buy it? They offer us money for it.
MOOS: This is no $10 t-shirt. Until the technology gets cheaper, a t-shirt TV would run several thousand dollars.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Does it hurt to wear that?
MOOS: No, the models say it feels like a push-up bra though even the pushiest bra doesn't weigh seven pounds and take 10 minutes to put on.
I mean this really is the Tele Tubby's.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is.
MOOS: Well tele-booby.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up in the next half hour, would you like to know about your neighbor's political contributions? Would you like them to know about yours? We'll visit a Web site where both can happen.
And why would someone ride a bike that goes into a bog? We're not sure, we can explain, but we will try. Those stories and a lot more coming up right after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Well, technology once used to identify World War II fighter planes as friend or foe is making its way into retail stores. Radio Frequency ID looks to change the way suppliers and vendors do business and could bring savings to consumers. Veronica De La Cruz has that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It may be a simple beep to you, but to businesses, it's the sound of more money in the bank. Radio frequency identification, or RFID, is the next generation of the technology family that includes bar codes and machine vision, consistent of silicone chips and an antenna that can transmit data to a wireless receiver. Tags used for tracking are attached to pallets and sensed by readers as they move through a portal. Without their own power source, they reflect the energy from the scanners to relay information.
BRUCE WELT, UNIV. OF FLORIDA, ASST. PROF.: At the core of it is technology that allows the RFID tag to use the power that's being sent it by the reader -- by the reader antenna, what it does, it essentially reflects that back, it modulates a reflection back to the reader so that it doesn't need to have its own power source.
DE LA CRUZ: while bar codes need to be scanned manually one by one, radio id tags don't require line of sight for reading and hundreds of tags can be read every second. The technology is prompting retail giant Wal-Mart to push its top suppliers to use, RFID technology by January 2005. Home Depot is also investing in it. Industry experts say even smaller venders are climbing aboard amidst the buzz.
(on camera): But there are limits with RFID, at present, the cost of the tags is too expensive for basic food products and plans to tag individual items, tracking customer purchases in detail faces opposition from privacy advocates.
(voice-over): Transmission is obstructed by water and possibly other liquids, like soaps, which restricts RFID applications to the wholesale level. Wal-Mart says tracking individual items is 10 years away. In addition...
WELT: In the protocols of RFID, there is a provision to have tags be inactivated once they're done.
DE LA CRUZ: Users are still working how best to use RFID technology to collect data. The answers will be unique to each company, but there is real excitement about the potential.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: OK, so at least for now, you don't have to worry about someone tracking your junk food purchases, but how about someone tracking your political contributions? Well, that's already easy as Alina Cho reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Easy as typing in your name. In this case, Patty Kennedy finds her address and a record of her $1,250 donation to Joseph Lieberman on the website fundrace.org, political contribution, part of the public record.
(on camera): You like Kerry? PATTY KENNEDY, CONSULTANT: I do. I like Kerry. I don't think he's perfected.
CHO (voice-over): Kennedy traditionally votes Democratic. Also gave money to Wesley Clark.
KENNEDY: I don't mind letting people know where I stand politically, and who I've contributed to. I'm happy to talk about it.
CHO: What about celebrities? Jerry Seinfeld may not publicize it, but he gave $2,000 each to Kerry and Clark.
JERRY SEINFELD, COMEDIAN: Why do people always say that, I hate everybody. Why would I like him?
CHO: There's the $2,000 to Dennis Kucinich, courtesy of Matt Damon.
MATT DAMON, ACTOR: How do you like them apples?
CHO: Then there's Donald Trump.
KENNEDY: He's covering all his bases. John Kerry, George Bush. There you go.
JONAH PERETTI, FUNDRACE.ORG FOUNDER: Check out your neighbors, check out your coworkers, and your boss and see who they're giving to is something that's the kind of thing people will do.
CHO (on camera): Fund Race was created to get people politically involved. It has blossomed into a voyeuristic thrill, getting 200,000 hits a day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can keep track of everybody. It's good for the media.
CHO (voice-over): At this Internet cafe...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think that's anybody else's business.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just don't think there's expectation of privacy when you do that kind of thing.
CHO: Privacy experts say blame it on the Internet.
STEWART BAKER, PRIVACY EXPERT: Most of us are used to the idea that we're in control of who we tell about our political views, but those days are over.
CHO (on camera): Well, your money's out there.
KENNEDY: My money's there. I put my money where my mouth was. Let's hope it counts.
CHO (voice-over): Whether the information is public or not.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up: Rodents that cheat on their mates. Oh, don't worry; this is still NEXT@CNN, not a Jerry Springer rerun. We'll see how a study of rodent romance could shed light on humannen relationships.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: You know, some people, like animals, tend to be less than faithful, moving from mate to mate, but researchers have found out how to make at least one species stick with just one partner. They inserted a gene from a monogamous Prairie Voles into the promiscuous Meadow Vole. It made the Meadow Voles less likely to stray. Denise Belgrave explains how the gene works.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DENISE BELGRAVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Love is in the air. Or maybe it's the genes. Dr. Larry Young, a scientist at Yerkes Primate Research Center, says it's not only a question of romantic love.
DR. LARRY YOUNG, EMORY UNIVERSITY: We're interested in the human social brain, what makes us be able to bond, form relationships, what makes us want to engage in social activity to begin with.
BELGRAVE: Dr. Young says about 95 percent of species are promiscuous. That means that they mate, but they don't form a bond with their partner. Prairie Voles, one of the animals Dr. Young studied, are monogamous, but their cousins, the Meadow Voles, are not.
What Dr. Young discovered is that a particular receptor in the reward center of the brain is responsible for the difference in the voles behavior. Here's how it works. When a male vole mates, the hormone dopamine is released to the reward center; the animal feels good. At the same time, the hormone vasopressin is releases and it causes the male to want to bond with the female. In the promiscuous vole, there are no receptors to process the vasopressin, so it has no effect. In the monogamous voles, the receptors are, so the vasopressin hormone is processed and the male vole bonds with its mate.
More studies are required to relate Dr. Young's findings directly to human behavior.
YOUNG: It's going to be very exciting to compare gene structure within -- across individuals with various aspects of their normal social behavior, like how long do they stay in relationships, are they social, antisocial?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Incidentally, researchers say these genetic studies could someday help shed light to behavioral problems such as autism.
Well, DNA testing has helped shed light on a lot of crimes and exonerated a lot of innocent people. But there are some situations were the technology hits a brick wall. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports on one of them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One crime, two suspects. Tyrone Cooper was linked by DNA to the horrible rape of a Michigan college student. The problem is, so was his twin, his identical twin, Jerome Cooper.
SGT. TIM WILLIAMS, GRAND RAPIDS POLICE: One is saying it's his brother. The other one is saying it's -- the other one is saying no.
GUPTA: Usually, your DNA, a genetic fingerprint, is so unique that it can conclusively distinguish you from any other human, living or dead. But in a situation that is becoming increasingly common, sophisticated genetic equipment is being duped by identical twins.
DR. LOUIS J. ELSAS, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI: Now, DNA would not be the way to distinguish between identical twins.
GUPTA: It's the same sperm and the same egg that come together, form a zygote, and then split, resulting in two zygotes that haven't same DNA and are impossible to distinguish, almost.
ELSAS: You're looking for very small sequence differences, which means, a lot of work.
GUPTA: So if DNA isn't reliable for these types of cases, what type of evidence is? Well, experts say fingerprints between identical twins are distinct, based on how they develop in the womb, and hair samples are reliable as well.
ELSAS: Hair might be a good sample to evaluate because it can be altered by the environment and thus, identify one identical twin as different from the other.
GUPTA: And, finally, eyewitness accounts may be the best bet, because, while identical twins are born looking very much alike, they often change as they grow up. In the case of the Cooper twins, police are still looking for leads. The crime remains unsolved. Both Jerome and Tyrone are in jail, but on unrelated charges.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the British video industry launches a tough new campaign against DVD pirates.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SIEBERG: TV's Nielsen Ratings are under fire. In a Senate subcommittee held hearings this week to investigate complaints. Critics say a new monitoring system undercounts minorities and that could lead to cancellation of shows that appeal to those groups. Sibila Vargas reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIBILA VARGAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the streets of New York to the steps of Los Angeles City Hall, protesters are criticizing Nielsen, the company that provides advertisers with ratings data, for its new Local People Meter System.
ALEX NOGALES, NATIONAL HISPANIC MEDIA COALITION: This is a civil rights issue. We need to be counted. This is like the census. Unless we are counted, we're going to be invisible.
VARGAS: The electronic system for gathering ratings eliminates the need for paper diaries. It's already in place in Boston and New York and was introduced last week in Los Angeles. But it's under fire from some minority groups and major broadcasters like Fox, CBS, Univision and Tribune. Several minority organizations partly funded by Fox say the meter system needs a lot of improvement.
NOGALES: It is technologically much more advanced. The other one had too many ways it could be flawed and so forth. But, it doesn't really matter. If the methodology is incorrect, you're not going to have the proper number of Latinos and African-Americans and other people of color.
VARGAS: Early test data from People Meters in New York show declines for a variety of shows like "The Simpsons," as well as some that are especially popular with minority viewers. Critics fear the new system could lead to less diversity in programming.
AL SHARPTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This could mean a lot of jobs in our community. And it could also mean that we have the whitenizing of American television, based on a system, rather than based on fairness.
VARGAS: It could also mean the loss of millions of advertising dollars to networks whose shows dip in the ratings.
CAROLYN BIVENS, PRESIDENT INITIATIVE MEDIA: There's a lot of dollars at stake. And that's where, actually some of this controversy is also coming.
VARGAS: Nielsen declined our request for an interview, but its website said it will increase the number of people meters in African- American and Hispanic households in New York.
Nielsen plans to roll out the new system in Chicago early next month. We should add that CNN is a Nielsen client, as is Turner Broadcasting.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG: OK, turning to a different sort of tracking now, two new studies tracking internet piracy show the illegal activity is on the rise. Of course that's troubling news for record labels and movie studios. The first study from bigchampaign.com found a million and a half more free loading downloaders compared with June of last year and that a billion songs are available on illegal file swapping services. That figure up 20 percent from last year.
Another report from a company called Cash Logic found that internet users swapped the equivalent of three billion songs or five million movies daily most of it illegally. And the activity is costing internet service providers $10 million a year in bandwidth and maintenance.
Well, illegal downloading is a problem in Europe, too. And this week the British video industry launched a major anti-piracy campaign. It links DVD bootlegging to organized crime and terrorist groups. Diana Muriel Has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's build as a blockbuster and it's in cinemas in the U.K. from Monday. But, you'll have to wait a while before you can get this movie on DVD, unless of course, you're prepared to buy a pirated copy. The sheer number of people in the market for pirated DVDs is costing the industry around 20 percent of potential revenues.
MAREK ANTONIAK, COLUMBIA TRISTAR: We want to continue to invest in new movies like "Spider-Man 2." They're very expensive to make, fantastic special effects, the public loved them and we need the revenue stream to come back so we can reinvest in new movies and if the pirates take that revenue we will be unable to do that.
MURIEL: Also launching in British cinemas Monday, a $3 million anti-piracy campaign aimed at highlighting the public's awareness that buying copyrighted copies of their favorite movies is a crime. They may be cheap, say the campaign organizers, but they're also not worth the money.
LAVINIA CAREY, BRITISH VIDEO ASSOCIATION: If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys. They should watch out, because most of the pirate DVDs that are on sale before a film is released in this country have been camcorded in the back of a cinema in America, and they are rubbish.
MURIEL: The worst offenders are on the net. A recent international survey for America's Motion Picture Association found 56 percent of net users say they plan to continue with internet piracy. Thirty-eight percent believe it's acceptable to download a movie before it's out on general release, and 72 percent don't have a problem with downloading films illegally after they've been released on video and DVD.
It's a big and growing problem. In the U.K. alone, in the first half of this year, there was an increase of over 200 percent in the seizure of pirated DVDs.
(on camera): The organizers of this campaign want to challenge the public's perception of a DVD crime. Purchasing a badly recorded pirated DVD doesn't just make the buyer a victim, they say, it's also contributing to an international web of organized crime with hundreds of thousands of victims around the world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, do you know this woman? You may not think so, but chances are you've had lots of phone conversations with her.
And a sport for people who can't decide whether to go mountain biking or snorkeling.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: So, who's the woman you talk to most often? Is it your wife, your mother, maybe your best friend? Actually, it might just be Liz Helgeson. Bruce Burkhardt explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LIZ RAPHAEL HELGESON, VOICE: Please hold while we access your records.
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That voice, I keep hearing that voice over and over and over. We all do.
HELGESON: For residential, press one. Please enter your account number. We are unable to locate your loan.
BURKHARDT (on camera): She's everywhere. In this day and age a phone call hardly ever gets through to a real person or does it. Are you a human being?
HELGESON: Sorry, we still didn't understand that.
BURKHARDT (voice-over): A likely story. It's time to peel back the curtain.
HELGESON: Press four to play back the message, five to listen to the message header. Press pound to skip to the next message.
BURKHARDT: Liz Raphael Helgeson is very much a real person, a real successful person.
HELGESON: This call may be monitored or record.
BURKHARDT: From a small recording studio in the basement of her suburban Atlanta home, Liz Helgeson talks to us.
HELGESON: If that's not what you wanted just say "go back."
BURKHARDT: She likes talking to us.
HELGESON: It's about my passion to get a message across and to make sure that when you have ended your interaction with me, your experience with me, you've gotten what you needed.
T mobile.
BURKHARDT: From cell phone companies.
HELGESON: Wachovia.
BURKHARDT: To banks,
HELGESON: Charles Schwab.
To investment firms. And even when you're not on the phone.
HELGESON: The NEXT station is five points.
BURKHARDT: It's hard to get through a day without talking to Liz. About 20 years ago this one-time majorette was working in human resources for a telecommunications company, one of the first to offer voice mail products. Someone around the office asked her if she wouldn't mind lending her voice. That was her start.
(on camera): This is where the voice emanates from?
HELGESON: This is it, this is our unfinished basement.
BURKHARDT (voice-over): With her voice insured by Lloyds of London and an annual income above $200,000, Liz is now in a position to be both a stay-at-home mom with her four kids and one of the top voices in the business.
(on camera): Have you, in your experience, ever been anxious -- you know, trying to call somebody, anxious to get through to a person and heard your own voice and went damn it.
HELGESON: No, that's never happened. I -- you know, I've heard my voice and I'll laugh. I mean, sometimes I'm just returning normal phone calls -- administrative phone calls for myself or my company or my family, and I'll come across myself, and it is thrilling.
If you ever need help knowing what you can say, just say "help."
BURKHARDT: For so long this pleasant, but disembodied voice, has led us through the techoage. Now, she's out of the closet.
HELGESON: I don't want to be a secret. I -- you know, these voices that you hear that guide you through your life are typically unknown. I'm the most popular person that no one's ever known. Well, I want the world to know me.
BURKHARDT (on camera): If I want to do a bank transaction over the phone, can I just call you up here at home and do it?
HELGESON: No.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: All right, speaking of what we don't know, did you know there's a British grand prix for pedal cars? Well, neither did I. But it took place last weekend in Ringwood, England. Thirty-seven teams took part. Fans of more conventional races may know that they started with it a checkered flag. In most races the checkered flag ends the race. Pit stops were not as complicated as in your NASCAR or Formula One race, one driver hops out and his relief takes over. And crashes were less than catastrophic. But, there was just as much excitement when the winning team crossed the finish line after two hours of knee-popping pedaling.
Well, if pedal cars aren't extreme enough for you, how about this, mountain bike bog snorkeling. Yes, it's just about like regular bog snorkeling except on bikes.
It's a big deal in a small town in Wales whose name I won't try to pronounce. A six-foot deep trench is cut into the bog. The goal is to ride to the end of the trench, turn around and come back, about 15 yards in total, without falling over, hitting the side or inhaling the foul smelling swamp water. All the competitors use the same bike which is weighted down to help it stay on the bottom. Looks like a synch for X-Games 10.
Well, that's all the time we have for now, but here's a quick peak at what's coming up next week.
Not just any old journal list is allowed to attend the republican and democratic national conventions, but this year there will be new faces. Both parties are allowing bloggers, those are folks who run web logs, to cover the festivities. A look at how these independent journalists are affecting the political scene.
That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let hear from you. You can send us an e-mail, NEXT@CNN.com and don't forget to check out our website that's at CNN.com/NEXT.
Thanks so much for joining us, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg. We'll see you next time.
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