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Original Astronauts Gather In Support Of Mars Initiative; Web Logs Join Traditional Media For Reporting Political News; Florida Voters Wary Of New E-Voting Machines
Aired July 24, 2004 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hello I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Atlanta. Here is what is happening now in the news. The mother of a missing Utah woman pleaded today for additional volunteers to help search for her daughter. Lori Hacking was reported missing on Monday. Her husband now in a psychiatric hospital is described as a person of interest in the case.
Sources say Republicans Senator Richard Shelby is under investigation this weekend; the FBI wants to know if he leaked classified information from a senate report on the September 11 attacks. The leak intercept said, "the match begins tomorrow and tomorrow is zero hour." They were not translated and analyzed until September 12th. Shelby has denied he was the leaker.
In his weekly radio address, President Bush said in a vast free society, there is no such thing as perfect security. The president outlined what the administration has done to protect the country against terrorism since 9/11 and he says he will exam the 9/11 commission's recommendations for ideas about how to do that even better.
And now a quick weather update with CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras.
JACQUI JERAS, METEOROLOGIST: Temperatures seem to be either too hot or too cool this weekend. Across the west, heat is word, big ridge in the west, and that is bringing temperatures to record levels across parts of Washington. Oregon, well it is cooler than normal into the upper Midwest and some of the Rocky Mountain states, temperatures there about 20 degrees below normal. If you're going to be traveling today, some of our concerns are going to be some hit and miss thunderstorms across the Southeast and throughout the Florida Peninsular.
High temperatures will be very warm in to the 90s. Mostly morning showers we're drying out here now finally, still some coastal showers possible this afternoon but drier conditions expected, 79 degrees in New York but cool 72 in Boston. 72 in Chicago, also into St. Louis. Isolated thunderstorm in Memphis heavier as you head into Little Rock. Denver only 64 degrees. Watch for temperatures to rebound a little bit as we head towards Sunday. And 98 in Portland, 96 in Seattle. Also heat relief for you by tomorrow. 106 in Las Vegas and some showers and thunderstorms possible from Phoenix all the way over to Houston and code red in Houston, unhealthy air quality this afternoon.
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.
Keeping you informed, CNN the most trusted name in news.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi everybody. I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN there will be something new (INAUDIBLE) at the national political conventions this year; the politicos will be entering the blogsphere.
Sometimes you have to go to great depths to reach great heights. NASA is no exception, we will show you why.
Would daisy look so sweet up on the seat of a bicycle built for seven? We will take you on a weird ride. All that and more on NEXT.
The bloggers are coming; the bloggers are coming to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. For the first time, officials have issued convention press passes to these independent media observers. And like many Internet innovations its impact may be a little bit unwieldy. But hey fun to watch.
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SIEBERG (voice over): For decades reporters have both praised and skewered candidates during political conventions. Their tools have evolved from newspapers to radio to television.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, the candidates will answer questions.
SIEBERG: Then, the Internet. By 1996, most candidates had their own Web sites. In 2000, John McCain inaugurated online fund raising, in 2004 seems to be the year of the blog.
HOWARD FINBERG, POYNTER INSTITUTE: They're knighting a great deal of enthusiasm and energy among partisans, at least among some of the very political blogs out there.
SIEBERG: Howard Dean's young edgy supporters used blogs or web logs to organize and raise millions in cash during the primaries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes it is cool.
SIEBERG: Web logs, for techies, for the media, or just for fun now number in the millions. The technology needed to set up a blog is as easy as one, two, three. Political blogs of often have links galore, ads galore, and hey you can even get the t-shirt.
MARKOS MOULITSAS, DAILEYCOS.COM: The blog is a 24/7 endeavor. I actually dream what I want to blog the next day.
SIEBERG: Marcus's site dailycos.com works closely with the Democratic Party. MOULITSAS: The whole point of blogging is this motion of participatory democracy. And I think people appreciate this notion that they're partners in the endeavor, that it is not just them taking marching orders but it is actually them being asked for their opinions and their thoughts and their suggestions on how to proceed.
SETHI: Glen Reynolds, another superstar among political bloggers has no official party ties. The usually described as conservative law professor and author of Instapundit.com said blogs get people thinking and doing.
GLENN REYNOLDS, INSTAPUNDIT.COM: You can sit in your living room and shout at your television, which makes you feel helpless. You can turn off the television, which is no great solution or you can try to do better yourself. And I think that is a very constructive response.
SIEBERG: Some lean slightly right or left, others lean really right or left. Candidates even have their own blogs. This is blog sphere helping reshape campaigns and campaign coverage.
FINBERG: So I think the RNC and the DNC should embrace this form of media in the same way they have embraced other forms of media, find a place for it. Invite the ones in that have an impact with their audience and let her government.
MOULITSAS: I mean we are making a real difference and it is just going to grow as the influence of the blogs grows.
SIEBERG: Instapundit and Daily Kos usually rank at the top in the blog influence quotient. But how do you sift through those other oh 140,000 plus essays, diaries and cheap shots?
FINBERG: There's a lot of silliness out there and there's a lot of ranting out there. And I think that will be the challenge for both political bloggers and other forms of bloggers is to get heard over the din.
SIEBERG: So what's it like being among the top dogs of the political blogs?
REYNOLDS: Being a rock star in the blogging world is kind of like being a champion bowler. And you are star trooper in a small segment of people. It certainly doesn't come with limos.
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SIEBERG: Well in other collision of technology and politics, officials still haven't come up with consistent standards and certification methods for electronic voting machines. As Lisa Sylvester reports that's leading some folks to warn of potential Election Day meltdown.
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Florida voters dropped off boxes of petitions requesting the secretary of state reconsider the use of electronic voting machines in 15 of the state's 67 counties this election. The e voting machines have already come under fire. An investigation by the Florida's Sun Sentinel found in the March primary, the ATM sound machines failed at least eight times more than paper ballots read by an optical scanner.
SEN. BILL NELSON, (D) FLORIDA: This is about people having the right to vote and having the knowledge and the confidence that their vote is being counted and counted in the way they intended it.
SYLVESTER: Senator Bill Nelson is asking the Justice Department and the Florida secretary of state's office to conduct an independent audit of the machines. But the problem with electronic machines is not isolated to Florida. Secretaries of State in California, and Ohio have barred the use of the machines in this election. A congressional sub committee held a hearing to address the issue.
But lawmakers acknowledge time is running out.
REP. ADAM PUTNAM, (R) FLORIDA: Anyone could have been Florida in 2000. In my opinion, we haven't passed any legislation that will prevent another Florida in 2004.
SYLVESTER: Congress did pass The Help America Vote Act of 2002 that was supposed to prevent another Florida debacle. But Congress never fully funded the federal agency charged with election oversight. As a result, there are no uniform standards or certification processes for voting machines.
MICHAEL SHAMOS, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: When a flaw is detected in a voting machine, there's no compulsory procedure for reporting it, studying it, repairing it or even learning from the experience. The voting machine industry is unregulated and has not chosen to regulate itself.
SYLVESTER: Unlike the 2000 election, when there were actual paper ballots to recount, most of the electronic voting machines do not keep a paper audit.
SYLVESTER (on camera): The Florida Secretary of State's office remains confident in the security of the electronic machine and has declined to conduct an audit. The Justice Department has yet to comment on the audit request.
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SETHI: Officials are less confident in the security of the Los Alamos National Lab, the nuclear research facility remains shut down as authorities conduct an intensive search for missing data. Kitty Pilgrim reports.
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KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Los Alamos National Laboratory is where the nation's nuclear secrets are kept and now it appears, lost.
REP. DIANA DEGETTE, (D) HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: We had four disks disappear earlier this spring; two of them are still missing. Those disks contain classified information about our nation's nuclear weapons program so obviously we're quite concerned.
PILGRIM: The main work at Los Alamos one of the countries main nuclear labs was shut down last Friday until the security breech can be cleared up. No schedule on when it will be open again. Project government oversight a watchdog group is outraged about lost disks and e-mails sent out that contain classified information.
They chalk it out to an organizational culture among the rank and file employees who disregard what they see as pedestrian security rules. The lab director Pete Nanos said, "Cowboys simply refuse to follow procedure."
DANIELLE BRIAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PROJECT On GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT: The scientists think their work is so important that it must go on at all costs. In reality what is happening is that they're creating a homeland security vulnerability by making these secrets potentially available to people who are hostile to our country.
PILGRIM: Los Alamos a historic facility where the atomic bomb was created in 1945 has thousands of employees. One of the most high profile security lapse was when a scientist Wen Ho Lee was charged with taking files home. But members of Congress say Los Alamos has a chronic problem.
REP. JOE BARTON, (R) CHAR, HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERSE COMMITTEE: I think it is very serious this is the third or fourth time they've had a loss of classified material at Los Alamos. And in my opinion that is three or four times too many so I would say it is a serious issue.
PILGRIM: The ultimate solution being considered is go to a to diskless system so employees are not tempted to walk out with their research and take it home.
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ANNOUNCER: Coming up the Apollo 11 astronauts then and now as NASA celebrates the 35th anniversary of the first moon landing.
Also ahead you could call it the creature from Northern Maryland. Attempts to identify a mystery animal. As NEXT@CNN continues.
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SIEBERG: The supposed face on Mars turned out to be just Martian rocks although a few people will never be convinced. And now there is news about another Martian rock turning up on Earth. A meteorite found in Antarctica in December originated on Mars that is according to the National Science Foundation.
It is one of just a few dozen that have been found on Earth. Researchers think the rocks formed from Martian lava more than a billion years ago and arrived on Earth in a meteor impact about 11 million years ago. Studying the Mars rocks help scientists interpret the pictures being sent back from the red planet by various spacecraft. Tuesday marks the 35th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. And Miles O'Brien reports the celebrations were buzzing with talk of new plans to return to the Moon.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One small step for a man.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Thirty five years after that one small step, the right stuff icons of the space race gathered once again. Older and grayer to be sure, but by no means jaded.
BUZZ ALDRIN, APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUT: We need to send humans back to the Moon on the steppingstone approach to be able go to Mars.
O'BRIEN: It was yet another pat on the back from NASA, this time in the form of Moon rocks. Tiny pebbles, really technique on loan from the space agency as federal law makes them the permanent property of all of us.
EUGENE CERNAN, LAST MAN ON THE MOON: Receiving a piece of Moon rock is new for me because a lot of people think we already have a piece sitting on our desk.
O'BRIEN: NASA so honored 37 astronauts or their survivors and one icon from another area CBS anchor man Walter Cronkite covered the space program from its inception.
WALTER CRONKITE, FORMER CBS ANCHOR: I will say tonight, that I feel that I am there to represent the press, all of us who followed the program through from the beginning and interpreted it for the American people.
O'BRIEN: The celebration comes as NASA once again sets its sights on the Moon as a waypoint to Mars. The Bush administration's initiative looms tentatively over this anniversary.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very anxious to be here to pass the baton to the next young man or woman who walks on the moon
O'BRIEN: There will never be another event like it, fueled by Cold War fears and the desire to meet the bold challenge of a martyred president. It was a 21-century technology achievement will to happen a head of its time.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATION: It was about a race it was coming in first and the price for coming in second was catastrophic. Today it's journey, its developing capacity with a plan with a thought with a longer term set of objectives in which you can do and where you a can go.
O'BRIEN: That rush to be the first to plant flags and foot prints led to a disposable approach with no thought of what the next goal might be. As a result, Apollo had an ironic result. ROGER LAUNIUS, SPACE HISTORIAN: Because of the way in which Apollo as a program that was built around a Cold War crisis, that accomplishing those very limited objectives set us back in the long- term exploration of space.
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SIEBERG: Well day after the Apollo 11 crew celebrated their 35th anniversary, they came together again for a presidential tribute in the oval office. Our Miles O'Brien joined the formal astronauts at the White House lawn for this rare gathering.
O'BRIEN: This is a rare gathering of the crew, 35 years after that historic moment. Joining us now Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin. The crew of Apollo 11 just spent time with the president. Lets begin with the commander. How was the president today? What did he say about the current initiatives in space?
NEIL ARMSTRONG, APOLLO 11 COMMANDER: The president was in marvelous spirits this morning. He didn't really talk to us. He thanked us for our participation but he really didn't talk so much about the future, he talked about the character of the country.
O'BRIEN: Michael Collins, are you optimistic that defeat which you accomplished 35 years ago might happen one day again in some form or another?
MICHAEL COLLINS, APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUT: I think so. Certainly, we'll go to the other planets. Mars is the next logical step as we go outbound; it is a fascinating planet, much more so than the Moon. You've recently seen information coming back from Mars and I'd like to see that followed up with people actually populating Mars.
O'BRIEN: Buzz Aldrin, your thoughts on where the space program is now and why it's taken 35 years to get to this point where it was focused on a destination.
BUZZ ALDRIN, APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUT: Back in those days, I think we were very pioneering. In the pioneering age you move ahead rapidly, we had competition in the world and I think that spurred on the competition, it spurred on the support for it. Things are a little different today, we're emphasizing cooperation in the world and I think we need to have more evolutionary approaches.
Much as I would like to see a growing permanent towards Mars, I think we have to start out by going back to the Moon first, the asteroids, the Moons of Mars and a very gradual evolutionary process, one that we can afford and one that we can go as we're able to pay for it.
O'BRIEN: Neil Armstrong, 35 years ago at this moment, can you remember what your biggest concern was? Did you have a sense that you had accomplished the hardest task having manually landed that lunar module, avoiding boulders along the way?
ARMSTRONG: Well I think we tried very hard not to be overconfident because when you get over confident that's when something snaps up and bites you. We were ever alert for little difficulties that might crop up and be able to handle those. In the subsequent flights, they had their difficulties as well but they were always able to surmount those problems.
It says a lot for the people that we worked with, and who prepared us to go there.
O'BRIEN: The crew of Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin. Great pleasure having an opportunity to interview you together. Congratulations on your anniversary. We look forward to new adventures in space, which I'm sure you'll be cheering on.
SIEBERG: To infinity and beyond. Well in case you are wondering you can find more information on the Apollo 11 anniversary and of course on other stories in this week's program on our Web site at the CNN.com/next.
Well as astronauts prepare for a possible return to the Moon, later on NEXT we'll take you to one of their training grounds. Well I guess it's not exactly ground, swimming with the fishes in order to float among the stars. That is coming up.
But first remember the guy who was keeping a tiger in his Harlem apartment? We'll update this cat tale.
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SIEBERG: Remember Antwoine Yates; he is the guy who got in trouble last year for keeping a 400-pound tiger in his New York apartment. Well this week he pled guilty to a charge of reckless endangerment. The judge said the most he would get is six months in jail and that probation is a possibility. Yates said he accepted the plea deal so authorities would drop similar charges against his mother. The tiger Mane was sent to an animal refuge but Yates says eventually he'd like to get the tiger back. We will see.
Well folks in a neighborhood near Baltimore are talking about a wild animal that has been repeatedly seen around their homes. They're not worried it's threat, they just can't figure out what it is. John Sherman from our affiliate WBAL has the story.
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JOHN SHERMAN, WBAL (voice over): For a while, it was just lurking in the woods watching the Wroe family until the Wroe's started watching it.
JAY WROE, RESIDENT: My truck was parked here, I started to get in my truck I kind of saw it there where the sunlight is, and you know I looked at this, and what in the world is that thing?
SHERMAN: Wanting to get a better look at the beast stalking his family, Jay Wroe put technology to work for him.
WROE: That is when the next day I hooked up some just a portable motion detectors and put them back in the woods there.
SHERMAN: The trap worked.
WROE: Very bizarre. I went and got my father and a cousin, and they came and looked at it. All three reactions were pretty much the same, just as anybody else's, saying what in the world are we looking at.
SHERMAN: Now more than a month after the first sighting, the creature has become a neighborhood regular showing up often.
KIM CARLSEN, RESIDENT: It comes to our house; it has been in the woods a while comes up through the bottom of our yard and eats our cat food.
SHERMAN (on camera): But despite the fact it's lurking in these woods and nobody knows when and where it is going to come out, nobody here seems afraid of it.
JACOB WROE, RESIDENT: I don't know, it doesn't look like it is going to harm anybody.
SHERMAN: Even the neighborhood animals like Bull winkle the dog next door seem OK with the beast.
CARLSEN: It's not afraid of the cats and the cats seem to get along with it fine.
SHERMAN: The beast is not shy, visiting most often under bright sun. While no one here knows what it is, they do have a name for it.
CARLSEN: The Hyote (ph). That's what the kids call it; it is a combination between a hyena and a coyote.
SHERMAN: Is it a coyote? A hyena, maybe a fox or even a sick wolf, as it walks around the woods near the Wroe family's home, its mysterious legend grows.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up in our next half hour. Controversy over America's missile defense system. And a look at the technology between Lance Armstrong and the other cyclists on the Tour de France.
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SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Well, since the September 11th attacks, President Bush has made it a priority to establish a missile defense system for the nation. This fall, the first pieces of that system should go online. But, critics of the program question whether it's needed at all. David Ensor reports.
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DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a remote Alaskan base, new underground silos in place for the nation's first ever defense against attack by enemy missiles. Tests so far have shown the system can track a missile...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Liftoff is confirmed...
ENSOR: Launch an Interceptor, capable of traveling at eight kilometers an second, and sometimes, more often than not, knock out the missile in space.
LT. GEN. RONALD KADISH, FMR. DIR. MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY: We do not choose to be vulnerable against someone like North Korea or Iran, who are trying to get weapons of mass destruction.
ENSOR: The system will use radars positioned around the world on land and at sea to track enemy missiles. Eventually, about 20 interceptor missiles, tipped with sophisticated kill vehicles, to stop them.
This is just the ground-based portion of a multilayered missile defense system, which will eventually include space-based and sea- launched intercepts. Total projected price tag over the next five years: $53 billion. The cost of the giant radar that will sit atop a massive floating platform that can deploy at sea is, in itself, $815 million.
(on camera): President Bush is likely to point to it as a major accomplishment of his administration when the first missile defense capability comes online, which is expected to be towards the end of September. But critics charge that billions have been wasted, deploying a program that they say is undertested, and they say that 9/11 showed, will not address the main national security dangers to this country.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D-MI), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Even the CIA says that a missile attack is not a likely threat. Terrorists aren't going to use a missile, because you know where it comes from. Terrorist will use a truck, or a human being or a ship.
ENSOR: Advocates counter that the nation must protect against terrorists or rogue states with missiles at the same time.
SEN. WAYNE ALLARD (R-CO), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: It takes a combination of both. And I -- that's my position. I think we need to do both.
ENSOR: But critics also charge President Bush is rushing to deploy a system that may not work. The tests so far have the not been in real-world conditions.
LEVIN: It's got a beacon, in effect on it, so it tells you here I am come and get me. Well, that's not what any potential enemy missile is going to be doing. So you have unrealistic tests.
KADISH: The implication is that somehow we're cheating on the tests, and I reject that out of hand.
ENSOR: The program's outgoing director, General Kadish, says now is the right time to get a rudimentary system deployed.
KADISH: We've tested it enough to know that we can make it work. We have confidence in it working. We need now to put it in place, where we would actually use it to gain more experience.
ENSOR: And by the end of September, the beginnings of a missile defense system will be in place. Skeptics warn it could be a multibillion bust. But Bush administration officials say they believe something is better than nothing.
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SIEBERG: You might remember last week, David Ensor reported on a big piece on the missile defense project, a huge radar system being built in Texas to be deployed in Alaska. Well, a viewer wrote to us to say David should have asked why Boeing wasn't building a project at its facilities in Seattle, obviously much closer to Alaska.
Bob from Phoenix, Arizona wrote, "Does Texas have more qualified workers than Seattle? I doubt it. What it has is Bush the second. It would save big bucks by not sending this thing all the way around South America past Seattle to Alaska."
So, we asked Boeing. And officials said they used a number of criteria to decide where to build the project, including cost, past performance, and which facility had the best experience and equipment for this type of job. They said they surveyed shipyards on the East coast, Pacific coast, and the Gulf coast and Texas won out. Now you know.
Well, the Air Force wants to build a big bomb. I mean a really big bomb. How does 15 tons sound? If the project goes ahead, the new bomb will dwarf the big bombs tested in Florida last year which weighed in at a mere 21,000 pounds. Those were called MOABs, which really stands for massive ordinance air blast, but they soon became known as "Mother of All Bombs." Well, the new ones must be the grandmother. It'll be designed to destroy underground targets, but will be six times bigger than the current "Bunker Busters." Flight tests should start in about two years.
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ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, we'll tell you how wildfires in the Florida in the Spring could be a sign of an especially bad season hurricane season in the summer.
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SIEBERG: Ann Gorsuch Burford a controversial EPA administrator during the Reagan administration died last weekend at the age of 62. She headed the environmental agency for almost two years and resigned under pressure. In 1982 she was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to give the House subcommittee documents on toxic waste. She died last of Cancer last Sunday in a Colorado hospital. Well, attorneys general from eight states and New York City are going to court to force some big power companies to clean up their emissions. They announced on Wednesday they'll file suit against five major power producers. The suit alleges emissions from the companies are a public nuisance contributing to global warming and causing health problems. Industry spokesmen responded by calling the lawsuits are a nuisance saying that hauling their five companies into court would do nothing to stop global climate change.
Well, in Florida, storm forecasters are worked that heat and a very dry spring could be signaling a very bad hurricane season in that state. John Zarrella explains.
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JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Wildfires producing thick, choking, blinding smoke have been more of a nuisance this summer in South Florida than usual. The reason, a very dry spring; in fact, this past May was one of the driest Mays here since record keeping began.
Jim Lushine, a National Weather Service expert on severe weather says this could be a sign of bad things to come.
JIM LUSHINE, NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE: There is a positive correlation between the dryness in the spring months, here in South Florida, and the event of a major hurricane.
ZARRELLA: There's no way to know if a big one will hit here, but Lushine says, if you look back historically, it's somewhat ominous. After three of the previous driest Mays, South Florida was hit with major hurricanes, Andrew in 1992, the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane and Betsy in 1965. Hurricanes hitting South Florida and unusually dry weather are both caused, to some degree, by the same weather feature in the Atlantic called the Bermuda High. When it sets up close to the U.S. East Coast, as it has this year, storms can be steered into Florida. But Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield says the high won't stay in the same place indefinitely.
MAX MAYFIELD, DIR., NAT'L. HURRICANE CENTER: I would hate to characterize the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of the whole season by what's going on right now. It would be unheard of for this condition to persist.
ZARRELLA: The satellite image of Hurricane Isabel, last year, shows what happens when the Bermuda High is nudged away from the East Coast. Isabel turned to the north. Good for Florida, bad for the Carolinas.
(on camera): Because weather patterns are ever changing, hurricane forecasters say it's impossible to know which area, if any, will be in the bull's eye a month or six weeks from now when hurricane season peaks. Which means no one from Texas to Maine should think they've dodged a bullet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Ahead, on NEXT@CNN, undersea training for an out of this world mission.
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VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Fiddler Crabs are providing a lesson about safe neighborhoods and when it's prudent to lend a hand or a claw. When an outsider male threaten to take over a burrow, scientists found that nearby resident males would assist that neighbor in defending his territory. And in most cases that cooperation helped him successfully hold his ground. The invertebrates somehow figured out that it's less costly to help out a familiar neighbor than to set up new boundaries with a different, perhaps more powerful crab.
The study in this week's "Nature" magazine is the first time such helping behavior has been documented in the animal world. Australian biologist, Pat Blackwell says these Fiddles prove you don't have to have a big brain to be capable of some very complex behavior.
I'm Veronica De La Cruz, and that's "Cool Science."
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SIEBERG: The International Whaling Commission held its annual meeting this week in Sorrento, Italy to consider a renewed effort by Japan, Iceland, and Norway to legalize commercial whaling.
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SIEBERG (voice-over): In the closing minutes of the meeting, the delegates decided against a June 2005 deadline for coming up with new rules to manage whaling. Conservationists say that would be a step toward lifting the ban on commercial whaling and they're breathing a sigh of relief that the rules won't be changed next year.
Despite the 18-year-old ban hundreds of whales are killed every year under exceptions for scientific research. But some say this only commercial whaling in disguise.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, 35 years after astronauts first walked on the moon, NASA's been told to go back. Gear, of course, will need to be tested and astronauts trained, but some of the training will not be done in our atmosphere. Miles O'Brien explains.
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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet the next crew NASA is sending into an extreme environment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sand patch is at 63 feet. O'BRIEN: They're not astronauts training to blast into space, at least not yet. They're aquanauts getting ready to splash into the deep blue sea. David Williams and his team will be descending 50 feet to the world's only manned underwater research center, Aquarius. Teams work and live for days and sometimes weeks at a time without ever resurfacing. This is a training mission and the team will return to the surface after only 40 minutes.
On board Aquarius, another team of NASA aquanauts. This is their eight day underwater.
JOHN HERRINGTON, AQUANAUT: We've been down here so long our body is saturated with nitrogen and if you go to the surface it pops out, just like you see bubbles in a soda bottle.
O'BRIEN: It's what divers call the bends and it can kill you. By staying here, John Harrington and his crew avoid the tight time constraints imposed on divers to avoid getting the bends. It's called saturation diving. But it is not for the claustrophobic. The quarters are tight, about the size of Winnebago or a space shuttle, for that matter, with similar amenities. But the view is unbeatable with windows everywhere into a world they are now a part of.
HERRINGTON: You look in an pond of fish and you see Coy swimming around, something like that, and people think that's very soothing. You come down here and they're everywhere. I mean the fish are all around, you go on the wet porch and you can sit there and watch fish feed. It is -- it's remarkable to see to see this interaction of fish in their environment and to be a part of that.
O'BRIEN: Just watching from the window would never do. Unlike a submarine, the aquanauts can venture out into the ocean, even for hours at a time. And, because Aquarius is kept at the same pressure inside as the ocean water surrounding it, getting in and out of the water is as easy as jumping into a swimming pool.
Jim Buckley watches every move of the residents of Aquarius, from a condo in Key Largo. A makeshift mission control, even equipped with a pressure chamber in case of emergency. Aquarius is operated by the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, and rented to scientist organizations for $12,000 a day, American plan, meals include. A surface buoy supplies fresh air and communication, while a support staff brings up and down airtight pots carrying everything from food to laptops, even our camera. This NASA team is testing equipment here that is destined for space.
HERRINGTON: The things that we're doing down here, working -- the tools that we use to do schedules, communicating with our ground teams -- ground support team, the equipment that we're using, all those type of things are going to make it easier for us to go to different places.
O'BRIEN: First stop, the International Space Station. Aquanauts are working out the bugs for new software, wireless technology, and even antibacterial clothing, all I headed to the outpost which has more similarities to Aquarius than just size. BILL TODD, PROJECT LEADER: That's a very close analog to living in space. In Aquarius, when you're in saturation diving you can't leave. It's very inhospitable and it takes about 15 hours of decompression before you're able to come back to the surface, very similar to the time it would take from leaving the space station to getting back to earth -- returning to earth.
O'BRIEN: And that's also what these missions are about, testing the hardiness of these humans as crews as well as the gear.
JIM BUCKLEY, HABITAT OPS MANGER: They go into this as individuals and come out as a group, as a team.
O'BRIEN: A team literally immersed in training for an even more remote outpost. Every now and then they or their support team pick up the phone and give space a call to trade notes with space station keeper Mike Fink.
MIKE FINK, INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION: You might like it up her man, there's no fish.
O'BRIEN: But, whether it's inner or outer space, the view is something to write home about.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still to come, mass transportation in Times Square takes on a new look.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: All right. The Tour de France bicycle race is making news this weekend. And we hear a lot about the athletic ability and fighting spirit of the competitor, but their high-tech bikes are also an important part of the race. Steve Overmyer has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE OVERMYER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Year after year victory celebrations along the Champs-Elysees in Paris have been focused on one man, Lance Armstrong.
Lance's legs have proven to be as strong as his desire to endure the world's most grueling bicycle race six years in a row. But even his mighty U.S. Postal team needs some help from technology along the way.
SHANNON HUTCHISON, PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST: There's all sorts of things, they'll do wind tunnel tests, use the lightest materials, there's carbon fiber, titaniums, aluminums.
PETER WICKER, OWNER, OUTBACK BIKES: And this is a limited edition Lance Armstrong bike, No. 29 of 500 that were made.
OVERMYER: From trick arrow handlebars and helmets to special frames and wheels, bike companies are doing whatever they can to keep their teams ahead.
WICKER: I think if you level the playing field, you see that technology does make a difference. You know, the strong houses, of postal, T-Mobile, some of these larger teams they have technological 5,000 or $10,000 a time-trial bikes.
OVERMYER: And much of the same ultra light materials tech teams see in the Tour de France ends up in their local bike shop.
WICKER: This is a full titanium Bianchi bike. Actually the same bike, Juan Perry Ribay, it's in the tour right now, ridden in the Alessio-Bianchi team. Pro tour by the Zertz technology, which is -- if you look here has the elasomer (ph) inserts which are molded into the carbon which absorbs shock. A lot of these bikes, they do incorporate high-end technology, which it's costly. The titanium is aerospace grade titanium; it's what they use in satellites.
OVERMYER: Beyond the bikes themselves, teams make use of devices like ear pieces for communication between riders and team managers. And tiny computers that monitor everything from bike functions to altitude, speed, distance, cadence, and even power output. All of the information is then downloadable.
WICKER: You can take that with infrared or USB port and download your workout that they're doing in the tour. The keep track, everyday a diary of what they've done.
OVERMYER: Although team managers know these gadgets certainly help, professional racers say training and discipline are still what drives them.
HUTCHISON: At this level, training, supplements, taking care of yourself, making sure you're rested and recovered. A race of that magnitude, you definitely have to be focused on what you're doing.
WICKER: Focus certainly doesn't seem to be a problem with the U.S. Postal team and with a little help from technology, Lance Armstrong's run may not yet be finished.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: OK, that's for the serious technology, now something for the not so serious rider. If a bicyclical built for two isn't enough for you and all your friends, CNN's Jeanne Moos has found what you need.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You won't see this bike at the Tour de France.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is this, sir? What is it?! MOOS: This bike seats seven. If that doesn't make you wonder, wonder woman in drag might.
SYBIL, WONDER WOMAN DRAG QUEEN: Hi. Ladies.
MOOS: The seven seat bike is turning heads in Times Square, even Spiderman's head.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah! Hold on tight, guys!
MOOS: There are about a dozen of these seven seaters in this country. The ones in Times Square Cater to tourists.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love it. This is awesome!
MOOS: One person steers, all seven pedal. The inventor is an American artist living in Amsterdam. Erik Stahler is the creations he calls "Urban UFOs" like the "Light Mobile," a Volkswagen Bug with computerized lighting patterns, and the "Bubble Heads" wearing Plexiglas spheres, and even a "Bubble Boat" with the top made out of a grain silo, sort of makes a seven seat bike seem tame.
DON DAMEIT (ph), BIKE OWNER: This is the SUV of bicycles.
MOOS: Owner Don Dameit (ph) paid $16,000 for what's called the "Conference Bike." He hopes to acquire a fleet of ten.
DAMEIT: I have hydraulic brakes down below are.
MOOS: It's got what's called a universal joint, one gear, front wheel steering.
(on camera): Have you taken out any pedestrians ever?
DAMEIT: Only the ones I didn't like.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Watch out, girl.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It says walk.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get over yourself, buddy.
MOOS (voice-over): Despite a couple of close calls.
PAUL CRECI, BIKE OWNER: Oh, sorry about that.
MOOS: Paul Creci says he's never had an accident.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, we're going to hit that guy.
MOOS (on camera): You feel the bumps.
CRECI: Oh yeah, you do.
MOOS (voice-over): Almost as eye catching as the bike...
SYBIL: Oh, my gosh. Make some noise.
MOOS: Is a driver in drag named Sybil?
SYBIL: Peddle forward. Forward honey, forward.
MOOS: On a bicycle built for seven, you can even powder your nose.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it's better than the naked cowboy.
MOOS: Though we recommend against riding the seven seat bike naked.
NAKED COWBOY, (SINGING): Like a naked cowboy, hell yeah!
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Ah, the naked cowboy, a staple in downtown Manhattan. And by the way, we should point out that technically it's not a bicycle. I think I counted at least four wheels on that thing, so maybe a quadcycle.
Anyway, that's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week.
Manmade diamonds have always been considered second rate, but now a new process is making diamonds that even the experts can't tell from natural ones, and at a fraction of the cost.
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 joining us. For all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.
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