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Super Bowl Safety; Great Britain Calls Attention Toward Global Warming

Aired February 5, 2005 - 15:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: NEXT@CNN with a look at the technology behind the security at tomorrow's Super Bowl. At 4:00 "CNN LIVE SATURDAY" takes you to southern California for a live report on tonight's S.A.G. Awards. At 5:00, "People in the News" takes a in- depth look at the life and career of pop star and accused child molester Michael Jackson.
Now it's time for a check of the headlines at this hour.

Fifty law enforcement agencies are putting the finishing touches on security for tomorrow's Super Bowl. Dozens of cameras capable of zooming into a single seat will keep an eye on 80,000 fans. There's a 30-mile no-fly zone around the Alltel Stadium.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is in Turkey this hour. It's the fourth stop on her whirlwind introductory tour of Europe and the Mideast. Rice plans to meet with her Russian counterpart while visiting Akra, Iran's nuclear ambitions are the main topic on the agenda.

And Pope John Paul II is expected to issue his traditional Sunday greeting from his tenth floor hospital suite tomorrow, but the Vatican says he's not strong enough to read the prayers that usually follow. The Pope is hospitalized for a fourth day recovering from the flu.

Now CNN's meteorologist Rob Marciano with the weather around the nation this weekend.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, weather this weekend, a lot more tranquil compared to last weekend. High pressure and warm air across the nation's two thirds of the country. Just a little bit of rain across western parts of Texas and New Mexico that will be stretching to the east throughout the day tomorrow and a little bit of light rain across parts of the northwest. 46 degrees for a high temperature in Seattle, 46 as well in New York City, 52 in Chicago, some warm winds really popping up the temperatures across the northern plains for today, and that will be pushed slightly to the east tomorrow as cold air finally drops in from Canada.

Rainfall across the central plains up through Chicago tomorrow. That warm air remains intact across much of the east coast, and the west coast at least the Pacific northwest looking for a bit of rainfall, but temperatures still not all that bad. 48 for a high temperature tomorrow in Chicago, it will be 48 as well in New York City, 37 a little cooler in Denver, 55 degrees in San Francisco. The big game tomorrow, Super Bowl forecast, New England against the Eagles in Jacksonville, Florida, kickoff time 6:30, it should be rain free with a game temperature of 58 degrees, some winds gently out of the northeast.

I'm Rob Marciano, that's a quick weather check. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Back to you.

ROMANS: I'm Christine Romans at CNN Center in Atlanta. For news at the bottom of the hour, NEXT@CNN begins right now.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi there, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, we'll show you what it takes to protect the thousands of people at this weekend's Super Bowl.

With global temperatures rising, scientists from around the world gather to discuss the implications of climate change.

And ads on the Internet are not always what they appear. Viewer beware. All that and more on NEXT.

It's finally the weekend football fans are waiting for and you can say the same about law enforcement authorities in Jacksonville, Florida site of this years Super Bowl. Protecting large crowds is always a challenge, but never more so than in these post-9/11 days and technology is playing a big role. As Susan Candiotti reports in CNN's ongoing "Security Watch" coverage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In orders to make Super Bowl fans safe all weekend long, a high-tech game plan is in place. The man calling security shots, Jacksonville sheriff John Rutherford, he says his team is ready.

SHERIFF JOHN RUTHERFORD, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: We've been planning for 18 months. Let's get on the field and do it.

CANDIOTTI: Among his tools, cameras trained on key locations around the stadium. Computers can pull in analyzing catalog shots. The system can zero in on a single seat, or an employee in the nose bleed section. Outside the stadium...

RUTHERFORD: Let's say you have a bus that had been hijacked and it stops on the bridge, because they want that -- the safety of not having anyone around them, we can still zoom in, get very close and find out exactly what's going on.

CANDIOTTI: Over my shoulder, Alltel Stadium right on the waterfront. Along the river, a 14-mile safety zone patrolled by an alphabet soup collection of federal, state and local agencies. Including the Coast Guard, monitoring pleasure boats and commercial traffic in the zone.

LT. CMDR. DAN DEPTULA, U.S. COAST GUARD: If they're going too fast or not adhering to the rules that we put out in place here then we're going to ask them some questions.

CANDIOTTI: Before sailing into port the seven cruise ships that were to be used as floating hotels were inspected, with divers examining each hull looking for anything out of the ordinary. Once dockside, no water traffic is allowed inside a 4 hundred yard security zone around the cruise ships. If suspect bombs or explosives are discovered anywhere, ATF response teams are ready with dogs that can snip out thousands of explosives, using robots if needed, and as a last resort, agents wearing protective suits to get a closer look.

More than 50 law enforcement agencies trying to make sure this year's Super Bowl has a smooth sail.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: That was security concerns on the open road. Starting this past week, drivers of trucks carrying hazardous materials have to undergo fingerprinting and a background check. Jeanne Meserve reports in this edition of "Getting There."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BOB WELLER, DRIVER, HAHN TRANSPORTATION: I'm Bob Weller, I've been driving for 30 years, hauling transportation, a tanker driver. I haul gas, all kinds of petroleum products.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Monday, Bob Weller's truck is loaded with 8,700 gallons of gasoline. It is a potential bomb.

WELLER: When you think about it, sure you think about it, I mean, I think anybody would be a fool not to think about that.

MESERVE: The federal government has thought about it too, and is changing the rules of the road.

ED KEARNEY, SAFETY DIR. HAHN TRANSPORTATION: From this day forward, anyone that goes for a hazmat endorsement will have to undergo background checks.

MESERVE: Background checks and fingerprints for that special license permission. It's the second phase of a program mandated by Congress and intended to keep terrorists and anyone with certain felony convictions from getting behind the wheel of a truck hauling hazardous cargo like chlorine or propane. It will be five years before all 2.7 million has mat drivers in the U.S. are checked out.

JUSTIN OBERMAN, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMIN: This program over all is going to make it much more difficult for terrorists to have direct or indirect access to hazardous materials. We feel it's a major step forward.

MESERVE: The 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and Timothy McVeigh's attack on the Moroal (ph) Federal Building in Oklahoma City were conducted with rental trucks crammed with explosives. The new checks wouldn't have stopped them, nor would they prevent a terrorist from simply taking a truck.

BARBARA WINDSOR, PRES. HAHN TRANSPORTATION: Anyone can hijack a truck, and with a CDL get into it and drive it. It's not the hazmat endorsement is going to keep anyone one of our trucks.

MESERVE: Truckers will pay about $100 out of their own pockets to undergo scrutiny many would rather avoid.

WELLER: They're going to find out it will be a hassle and they are not going to want to do it.

MESERVE: Ultimately it may reduce the number of hazmat truckers for what some view as a marginal increase in security.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just ahead, dramatic new video of the earthquake that spanned the deadly Asian tsunami. And there was an up side to last summer's fierce some Florida hurricanes. We'll have those stories and more when NEXT@CNN returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: The British government is sounding the alarm about the dangers of global warming and hoping the U.S. government is listening. Climate experts from 30 countries gathered in southwest England this week to discuss the threat, but as Tom Clarke of ITN reports, there was disagreement about just what the threat is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM CLARKE, ITN NEWS (voice over): It's February on the southern coast. Could this be climate change in action? It may well be, but so could this -- the monumental costs of sea defense is to protect the coasts here and elsewhere against extreme weather events expected to rise on the climate change scenarios. But the new headquarters of the Met office in Exeter, the government has convened a meeting of top scientists, accepting that climate change is a reality, they want scientists to tell them how much is too much.

MARGARET BECKETT, U.K. ENVIRONMENT MIN: There could come a turning point where we can choose whether or not we make things worse or whether we gradually begin to stabilize the change that we have instigated. Those are the decisions that we need more information to help us take.

CLARKE: Scientists meeting here have to decide what the unacceptable risks are and where they lie. An example is here in the Arctic. New research points to Greenland ice sheet could melt completely and irreversibly in a few centuries, raising sea levels by seven meters. That cataclysm could feed into another of a very different sort. Melting water in the Arctic could shut down the warm current of the Gulf stream, plunging the north Atlantic into something like an ice age.

It's an obvious contradiction that typifies why it's so hard for scientists to conclude what the risks of climate change are. This current lack of consensus leaves them open to criticism. Just last week, a meeting in London of scientists skeptical of climate change predictions, they attempt to blow holes in the current theories like those on sea level rise.

Climate skeptics have the ears of many in power, particularly the United States government. One of the most prominent climate scientists in the U.S. invited to Exeter doubts this summit will meet one of its aims.

STEPHEN SCHNEIDER, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: There won't be any single international event that is going to force the world into a sensible climate policy overnight. It's already taken 10 to 15 years of negotiations internationally to reach where we are now, just with the Kyoto protocol beginning to enter into force. This frustrates environmentalists it is way to slow. On the other hand, a generation is not that long a time to change global consciousness. So I sort of see this meeting as another whirl on a long dance card.

CLARKE: Tony Blair called scientists here to come to a consensus on what is an acceptable level in greenhouse gases in our atmosphere, but given the complexities of climate, scientists become a little bit like politicians. They find it very hard (INAUDIBLE) to a simple question. They say they have given they've given their warning on climate change and it's now up to people like Tony Blair to decide how to act.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well in the six weeks since the devastating tsunami in Asia, we've all seen horrifying pictures of the killer waves and their aftermath. But amateur video that emerged just this week gives us a new and chilling view of the earthquake that started it as well as the tsunami itself. John Irvine of ITV news reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN IRVINE, ITV NEWS: This is what a 9 on the Richter scale looks and sounds like. The amateur cameraman was recording nature pulling the trigger. People here sat down before they fell down. This mother recited the Koran. These were Banda Aceh is used to earth quakes and people did seem remarkably calm. Several buildings collapsed, but there was time to hunt for survivors. They did manage to free this woman before the second even more destructive phase of this catastrophe.

Patients taken outside this hospital may well have thought their ordeal was over, but soon people got wind of something terrible heading their way. They ran for their lives. The massive surge of water carried everything before it, and this is about three miles inland. Trees, fencing, wooden planking from wrecked homes, this swollen river swept up so much debris it actually formed an island. A lifesaver for those who could teeter on top. They had to duck under the bridge. Some were able to scramble onto the riverbank. The amateur cameraman finished by recording heartbreaking images of the survivors and some of the drowned. The number has been rising steadily.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: The tsunami was a jaw-dropping demonstration of the power of nature to do harm. But the violent forces of nature can also do good. John Zarrella has an example in this week's "Our Planet" segment.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN LAPOINTE, MARINE ECOLOGIST: If you look right over here about ten feet out --

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Marine scientist Brian LaPointe found something unexpected -- how nature's power corrected man's mistake. The discovery came at a coral reef off Florida's east coast.

LAPOINTE: The coral reef is like an aquarium. Everyone knows in their home aquarium when the nutrients get out of balance, they get algae blooms.

ZARRELLA: Coral reefs are his specialty. For three decades LaPointe has studied how human induced algae blooms have lead to reek destruction around the world. In 2001 LaPointe and other scientists from the Harbor Branch Ocean and Graphic Institute began monitoring the spread of a particularly invasive algae called colercobrecky (ph). On reefs off Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. What they saw was an algae invasion that shocked them. It looked like fields of swaying green vegetation.

LAPOINTE: Within two months those reefs had gone to almost complete coverage, 80 to 90 percent coverage of colercobrecky (ph). So the plant is capable of explosive growth.

ZARRELLA: By blocking sunlight and consuming oxygen, the blooms kill off coral and alter reef ecology. They're no longer viable as habitat for fish. And what made it worse, there was no way to get rid of such a widespread algae bloom. No way, they thought. It turned out what humans couldn't do, nature could. Destructive forces above the surface, twin hurricanes, were constructive below. Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne hit the Florida east coast just north of Palm Beach passing over the reefs. Afterwards, LaPointe went to take a look at what the storms had done.

LAPOINTE: As we moved into Palm Beach County we saw evidence of massive amounts of sediment and reef burial. Where we had been tracking the blooms of colorcobrecky (ph) for several years now, we were astonished to find that the bloom was virtually gone.

ZARRELLA: The violent churning of the water during the storms sandblasted the reefs clean of algae. Everywhere LaPointe looked, the before and after was a stark contrast.

ZARRELLA (on camera): Researchers say the new clean look to the coral reefs won't last forever. At some point the algae will start growing back, they just don't know when.

ZARRELLA (voice over): The environment conditions that led to the algae in the first place haven't changed. Although not definitive proven, LaPointe suspects nutrients from land-based waste and agricultural runoff caused the original blooms and may spark a regeneration. The scientists worry that when the algae shows up again, there won't be a hurricane lurking to take care of the problem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Later on NEXT@CNN what is this? And why does it eat so fast?

Also ahead, why cell phones are going to seed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Did you know that you can use your cell phone for Web surfing, picture-taking, game-playing, who does that? But did you know that you could use some of them to start a garden. The mobile phone industry is continuing thinking of new ways to get tech files to spend money on phones and accessories.

The best rings in life are free? Not anymore. Ring tones and ring-back tones, that's what you hear after you dial someone and you're waiting for that person to answer, have become extensions of their users. The luminating how hip they are and what their values are. So what's the value to phone companies? Billions of dollars worldwide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEX SLAWSBY, IDC ANALYST: Millions of users out there are willing to spend money to download audio clips or snippets of their favorite songs and artists. That is huge and it just speaks to how radically cell phones are affecting the way the world works and really the way people carry out their lives.

SIEBERG (voice over): If you simply can't afford to be away from the workings of the world for even a moment, your next upgrade should include a cell that surfs the net.

MATT FRASIER, OPERA SOFTWARE: So what we had to do is we had to shrink things down a bit, take out the really large engines and the small engines and make it so you can just vertically scroll up and down.

SIEBERG: Opera's fast desk top browser the Norwegian Company Opera invented small screen rendering, so text in pictures you see on the tiny screen are easy to see and scroll through. And soon users will be able to do something even more natural, just tell your phone where to go on the Web. FRASIER: You say pizza service, then it will come up and say what would you like? Large pepperoni, onions and mushrooms, then you say OK that will be this much and then you just click on this, because your phone is your wallet also, your wallet is built in based in this as well.

SIEBERG: But as your phone gains the powers of your PC it may also gain some of the gremlins. The antivirus firm F-Secure identified cell phone malady called skulls, an infection that can make a phone unusable. Skulls and other mobile phone viruses and worms are not yet as widespread then those that have plagued the windows world.

SLAWSBY: Because they're really not smart enough quite yet. They not quite PC like, they don't really have all the elements that are necessary to really download these viruses and then have them cause significant problems.

SIEBERG: While you may not have to worry about viruses and worms quite yet, how about turning your old phone into worm food. Researchers at the University of Warwick in the U.K. combined the proper biodegradable polymers with a sunflower seed embedded in the mobile phone cover. When the old device needs to be upgraded, just cover the old cover with compost and watch it bloom. With more than 700 million new cell phones expected to sell in 2005 it could plant the seed for more comprehensive recycling programs. The magic word convergence still envelopes the cell phone industry. How to make better phones and PDA's, phones and cameras or phones and games.

SLAWSBY: The problem is that those usage models the physical way you hold these devices often are not compatible, so when you try to bring two separate devices together into a single devise, that one device not only tends to be much more expensive, but also tends to be physically harder to use than, say, those individual devices separately. It's kind of a promise and peril situation.

SIEBERG: There's seldom peril in making phones more fun, so if you're missing your hockey fix on a bigger screen for about $8, you can get a mobile version from TH2 Wireless. Experts say it's a slam- dunk that games will continue to thrive in the mobile market. All these features and services can only mean one thing. Cell phone companies hope one day you'll never want to hang up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (on camera): Well if you're surprised when someone tells you they don't have a cell phone, how would you feel this someone told you they didn't have any phone at all. That was the situation in Mink, Louisiana until this past Monday when the rural community finally got phone service. Shortly after the phones went on line, the Louisiana governor placed a ceremonial call to Mink resident Alma Voltine (ph), but that wasn't her first call. You guessed it, that call was from a telemarketer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After the break, advertising running amok on the Internet. While Volkswagen is upset over an ad that talks up the toughness of its cars. That story and much more when NEXT@CNN returns.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Pilot Steve Fossett is about to try for another aviation record, for the first solo nonstop flight around the world without refueling. His plane, called "Global Flyer" is in Salina, Kansas waiting for just the right weather to make the attempt, the team hopes that will come next week. The flight will take about three days, covering 23,000 miles, and reaching altitudes of 52,000 feet. The plane has 13 gas tanks and will weigh about 22,000 pounds when it takes off, but that'll mostly be fuel. It'll only weigh 4,000 pounds by the trip. Richard Branson's Virgin Atlanta is backing the venture.

Well, there's a new U.S. spy satellite in orbit this week. The top secret payload was carried into space on an Atlas 3 rocket from Cape Canaveral in the predawn darkness early Thursday. It's actually the last mission for Atlas 3, which is being replaced by the more powerful Atlas 5. The launch was handled by International Launch Services, that's a joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Russia's Khrunichev Space Center.

ILS also launched a proton rocket from the Russian Space Center about five hours before the Cape Canaveral launch. The Russian rocket carried a commercial communications satellite.

So, do you ever wonder what country has the best computer programmers? Well, a company called top coder runs programming completions and they've got the answer. Christine Romans has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In head-to- head competition, American-based computer programmers win. Connecticut's TopCoder runs competitions to find the best and the brightest. The prizes are thousands of dollars and job offers from top tech companies. Seventy-six thousand contestants from all over the world have tackled TopCoder's math and science problems. The champions come from the U.S., Poland, Canada, China, and Germany. India programmers and universities lag far behind. An Indian-based coder has never finished in the top 10 of any division and only once has finished in the top 20.

JACK HUGHES, FOUNDER, TOPCODER: Knowing algorithms which is the underlying piece of logic in a computer program is an extremely important skill for programmers. So the fact that Indians haven't placed particularly well in our competitions, to me, shows that that's not being focused on enough in the education system.

ROMANS: The best programmers come from MIT, Stanford, Warsaw University, Cal Tech, and No. 5 China's Zhejiang University.

Indian universities don't show up until numbers 60 and 89. Technology headhunters say companies could outsource some remedial programming jobs, but the best trained and most productive computer architects are still educated here.

MARY VOSS, CEO, FOXHUNT STAFFING: In the United States, we have a history of a technical education far beyond that of other countries simply because we've been at it longer.

ROMANS: She says that's why it's so important to focus on science education in this country at all levels to make sure the U.S. technical education stays on top.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: After several months of testing, Microsoft, this past week, launched its first Internet search engine. Jim Boulden checked it out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sure Microsoft has come late to the search party, but we are talking Microsoft, here. It claims the new MSN search engine is faster than Google, it also boasts its own databases like Encarta, and it should meld nicely into the Microsoft monopoly of the desktop.

VICTOR BASTA, ARMA PARTNERS: Microsoft is coming at the search market from the desktop point of view, so they will be able to offer desktop-related search capability: you can search locally and then on the web, combine the searches, et cetera, and be able to do it from a desktop in a way that Google isn't able to do it because you have to go to a browser.

BOULDEN: Tech guru, Victor Basta, took MSN Search and Google for a spin for us. First, a question: How much does Bill Gates earn? Google put what we wanted right to the top.

BASTA: Welcome to the Bill Gates Network page.

BOULDEN: No such luck with MSN Search.

BASTA: This is the march issue of "PC Adviser," which doesn't quite tell you, yet, how much Bill Gates earns, and by the way, it tells you prices for CDs and things like that. Then you have to go down a little bit further before you see quotes and sayings from Bill Gates.

BOULDEN (on camera): Presumably he is not saying how much I earned.

BASTA: I didn't think so, but there's a very nice picture of Bill.

BOULDEN (voice-over): Then we typed in just three words: London, Rome, distance. The results from google:

BASTA: So, that's exactly what you need to know.

BOULDEN (on camera): It's an advertised link, but it still gives you some information.

BASTA: Exactly, where as Microsoft puts an advertised set of links that didn't give you information relative to what you were looking for, at least not yet, it'll get better, but at least not yet.

BOULDEN: But they've been working on it for years.

BASTA: So has google.

BOULDEN: So is four years ahead, Google, five years, six years ahead .

BASTA: Yes, and that makes all the difference.

BOULDEN (voice-over): But "Googling" and "Googled" is now part of the popular culture. Somehow MSN Searching just doesn't have the same ring to it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, you know you can search for and find just about anything on the Internet, including, believe it or not, suicide bombers in an ad for Volkswagen. The trouble is, like so many things on the web, it's fake. The ad's creators have apologized and Volkswagen has dropped legal action. Robyn Curnow has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At first glance it looks genuine enough. A man drives through the streets of London in a Volkswagen Polo, stopping outside a restaurant, where he then detonates the car. Fake commercial, complete with logo, enraging the carmaker. A spokesperson telling CNN "We are disgusted. There is the chance that people could believe we condone this, which we do not. It is in incredibly bad taste."

The creators of the bogus commercials are two advertising professionals with a Web site of their own. CNN's efforts to reach them have been unsuccessful. Now, the ads may be in poor taste, but there's no doubting its popularity. It's been e-mailed around the world and downloaded from Web sites like Boreme.com.

RICHARD LEISCNMAN, BOREME.COM: It's been very popular in the last week. It's only been up for a week or so and we've had hundreds of thousands of downloads, and people generally rank it fairly highly. You know, they quite like it.

CURNOW: And it's not alone. This commercial showing a cat being mauled by a sunroof was created for Ford. The company was appalled and rejected the ad, but then it was leaked onto the Internet. Industry analysts saying these professional made bogus ads can harm a company's reputation if they spread quickly on-line. But the Internet has been used effectively for legitimate advertising.

MICHAEL WALL, PRES. FALLON WORLDWIDE: What the Internet has provided, in it's most simplest sense, is a new form of media, a means of getting through and talking to a lot of people globally, very easily, very cheaply. So, from an advertising agency's perspective, it is an incredibly powerful tool, potentially, in telling people the message that you want to in a quick and rapid way.

CURNOW: Some commercials are made specifically for on-line distribution.

WALL: One of the examples that my company has had great success with is Bmwfilms.com, which a series of on-line film featuring Clive Owen in action-packed chases shot by Hollywood directors.

CURNOW: As for Volkswagen, it's just launched its latest official commercial, which is itself a spoof with Gene Kelly breakdancing in the rain. Art imitating art?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Later on NEXT, we'll show you some of the world's most destructive animals and plants and the toll they're taking on ecosystems.

But first one of the world's most unusual mammals, and how it searches for its supper.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: A labor of moles? Who comes up with this stuff? Well, if you were wondering the same thing, we get the animal group names from a list put together by a division of the U.S. Geological Survey.

So, ever seen a Star-nosed Mole? Well, you wouldn't have any trouble figuring out where it got its name. And now researchers have figured out why the critters are such successful hunters even though they're blind. The tendrils around the mole's mouth can feel and do a great job of finding grubs and worms they gobble up at lightning speed. The research, done at Vanderbilt University, found that the moles make out better than the animals that can see. It was published in this week's "Nature."

Moving on now, some of the most ecologically important areas on the planet are in danger of disappearing. That's according to a study by Conservation International that uncovered nine new environmental hot spots increasing the group's global list of threatened areas to 34. The four-year-old project is conducted by hundreds of experts from around the world. It classifies hot spots as areas seriously at risk that shelters species found nowhere else on the planet. Scientists warn that habitat destruction, climate change and other pressures are squeezing the life out of these sensitive ecosystems, a concern since hot spots shelter about 75 percent of the planet's endangered animal and plant species. Researchers report that some hot spots have now less than 10 percent of their original habitat. All right, from endangered species to species that endanger others. Shanon Cook has the latest findings about invaders, and we're not talking about aliens from another planet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHANON COOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're not from the "X-Files," but scientists are sounding the alarm: Aliens have invaded the planet. In a report from the World Conservation Union, or IUCN, warns that if left unchecked these aliens stand a good chance of taking over.

MAJ DE POORTER, WORLD CONSERVATION UNION: Worldwide, invasive alien species are the second biggest threat to any native biodiversity after habitat destruction.

COOK: Invasive, or aliens species, are plants, animals or other species that have been introduced into an area where they don't belong. Without natural predators to curb their population, aliens species pose real dangers to the long-term health of the native ecosystems they inhabit.

Experts say the international trade of animals and plants is the main reason that invasive species hot spots can now be found all around the globe, but that's not the only cause, degradation and weakening of the natural habitat, the explosive rise in international travel and tourism, and the current global marketplace give safe passage to diverse organisms ease eager to hitch a daily rides country to county.

Unwanted pets that end up in the wild and even science experiments gone awry have led to species creating larger biological problems than they were enlisted to solve. Experts from the World Bank warn that introduced plant, animal, and other species now pose a severe threat to the world's food supply. Around the globe, the urgency to control the spread of invasive has costs countries billions in lost crops, lowered property values, and the development of countless control programs. Scientists scour the world armed with research as they experiment with toxins and traps, and still there is no end in sight.

DE POORTER: In addition to being very detrimental to biodiversity, the invaded species do a lot of economic damage. If you look at some species that affects, for instance, the rice industry in the Philippines, where the golden snail apple has been introduced, so far the accumulative impact there has been more than billions of dollars.

COOK: Experts from the IUCN say that while their list includes 100 significant alien species...

DE POORTER: There are many, many more very damaging invasive species which are not on this list. The reason why we picked 100 of them is to really get across to people how much variety there is in species. COOK: Some species biologists considered noteworthy for their destructive potential and difficulty to control are zebra mussels that have stifled aquatic systems and cost millions of dollars in damage to the Mississippi basin.

Asian long-horned beetles that have decimated many of the hardwood trees in the United States. Experts suspect they came in wood packing crates.

South America water hyacinth, popular in back-yard ponds is choking the live out of waterways in over 50 countries.

Experts caution that as large number of species that span the continental divide, more effort is needed to keep invasive from having them take hold and choking the life out of the natural environment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You can go to our Web site for more information about invader species and other stories in our show, the address, as always, cnn.com/next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Next up, gadgets to help you keep tabs on your kids' computer time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: If the worlds "log off" are just not part of you kid's vocabulary and you're having a hard time controlling their time on the PC or the TV, we have some products that'll help you parents out. We're joined right now by our gadget expert, Marc Saltzman.

And Marc, it can't hard to control kid's time on the PC or the TV.

MARC SALTZMAN, CNN GADGET EXPERT: Yeah.

SIEBERG: You've got some kids who are young, and maybe even becoming PC savvy.

SALTZMAN: Yeah, and it's very addictive. You know, a lot of these PC games and video games, stuff like that, and parents are often concerned. You know, they say the latest stats are that 30 hours a week are spend a week on a TV, on a computer, or playing games these days.

SIEBERG: All right, what's up first for us?

SALTZMAN: Let's look at product called Enuff PC, e-n-u-f-f p-c. Just like the name suggests, it allows you as the administrator, parent or guardian, to decide how much time kids can surf the Internet from five to 10 p.m. everyday on the weekday, for let's say, homework, but only with -- only for two hours, so within that five- hour window, she can choose how much -- you know, when that two hours is spread -- is spread out. So she has to put in a password, five minutes before her session ends, she's warned, so Sally can save whatever she's working on and that's it. So, you're granting her two hours a day, you may, of course, even want less than that.

SIEBERG: So you can limit time on the Internet and say, on other programs like games?

SALTZMAN: That's right. You can also isolate this to an instant program, like an instant messaging program, if you think your kids are spending too much time chatting or playing games, you can isolate it to an individual program, too.

SIEBERG: Well, that's enough on that one, and what about the next one?

SALTZMAN: So, this next product is Net Nanny 5. This is a program that also filters out inappropriate content for kids. It's been around for awhile and this latest version allows you to also set time limits, much like the first product we saw. So here, as the administrator, you have to put in your password, because of course, you're the only one that can make these changes. And what you can do is you click No. 5, "time limits," and you choose "enable time limits," and you set who it's for. So, you can say, OK little Billy is only allowed on the PC one hour a day and then three hours on the weekends. It's a little bit different interface than the first product we saw, but equally as easy to pick up.

SIEBERG: Now, this next product allows you to control the time on a PC, but also TV or playing video games, too.

SALTZMAN: Yeah, that's right, it's called EyeTimer, and uses the PC as a hub in order to send information wirelessly to a switch that you've got the TV plugged into. So, I'll show you how it works. This is the transmitter, it plugs into the USB port of the PC. It's a simple transmitter that does communicate with the switch that you plug into the wall, it's a standard AC plug. And that's where you plug the TV in, and there's some tape on there that you know if it's been tampered with. Parent's are going to be a little bit -- yeah, they thought of that, too. So the product works very similar to the other two we've seen. The software is actually very nice -- it looks very good, it's a very graphical interface, and little Billy can log in and put in his password, here. And this will -- again it's set up by the parents how much time he has access to the PC or to the television.

SIEBERG: All right, well, it's time for us to log off. Marc, thanks for helping us out.

SALTZMAN: Thanks Dan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Still to come, the problems of getting giant reptiles in the mood.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: It must have sounded like a great way to make money. You get a bunch of crocodiles, you feed them well, let them make more crocodiles, and sell the hides to make shoes and purses, but as some Chinese entrepreneurs discovered, reptile romance is not that simple. Andrew Brown reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREW BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the late 1990s, businessmen in southern China saw a big opening. They imported thousands of crocodiles from tropical parts of Asia, hoping to breed them, partly for their skins. They had an eye on the lucrative fashion accessories market, but before being sliced up and made into bags, many of these crocks were pampered.

HE ZHANZHAG, CORCOPARK GUANGZHOU (through translator): We fed them as much food as possible to ensure that the crocs wouldn't starve.

BROWN: Things were going well at this giant crocodile farm near Guangzhou, until staff noticed the crocs weren't reproducing very much.

(on camera): It turns out the crocodiles like food more than they like sex.

(voice-over): At one stage, the males were so fat the farm says they lost the urge to chase females and during the winter months, romance was dead in the water, because the crocs went off food altogether.

ZHANZHAG (through translator): When the temperature goes down, the crocs will stop eating, that drains their energy so they won't mate.

BROWN: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) colleagues are building a canopy to protect these crocodiles from winter temperatures, which can dip to four Celsius, about 39 Fahrenheit, in southern China. But Chinese breeders admit it's a struggle to keep up with farmers in tropical countries where crocs don't seem to have a problem with sex drive.

ZHANZHAG (through translator): They can just breed naturally.

BROWN: Last summer tourists began paying to see live croc shows at this farm, providing owners a much-needed revenue boost.

The music that's piped to every corner of the park is also very romantic. That doesn't appear to have lifted the libido of the crocodiles, though. China is becoming a formidable economic force in the world, but this business has yet to deliver a crock of gold.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You know, maybe the crocs are smarter than we think. I mean, would you just have kids send them off to be slaughtered?

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

The Internet is a godsend for people who want to snoop into other people's lives and some of them say that's just fine.

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