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NEXT@CNN
Sony's New PSP Making Big Splash; FBI Uses Internet Chat Rooms To Hunt Pedophiles
Aired March 27, 2005 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Gerri Willis at CNN global headquarters in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN is straight ahead, but, first, here's what's happening now in the news.
There's conflicting information on the condition of Terri Schiavo. Her parents' attorney says the brain damaged woman is, quote, "past the point of no return." However a Schindler family spokesman says Terri is, quote, "not at death's door." Meanwhile, Florida Governor Jeb Bush said there's nothing more he can do to save her.
GOV. JEB BUSH, FLORIDA (video clip): I cannot violate a court order. I don't have powers from the United States Constitution or for that matter from the Florida Constitution that would allow me to intervene after a decision has been made.
WILLIS: The Schindler family spokesman is demanding Governor Bush step in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDALL TERRY, OPERATION RESCUE: If Governor Bush's position is correct, we need to do a post-death apology to the people who were tried at Nuremberg because what they did was legal in Germany at that time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIS: Randall Terry also said Governor Bush is letting Schiavo starve.
The body of an Iowa girl abducted from her home has been found. Officials confirm that a body discovered near an abandoned mobile home was that of 10-year-old Jetseta Marrie Gage. The man accused of killing her is being held on $1 million bond.
The State of Pennsylvania and Philadelphia and forming a task force to combat an epidemic of deadly gun violence in that city. She how ordinary residents cope with constant fear in the next hour.
I'll be back with more headlines at the half hour. NEXT@CNN starts right now.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT : Hi, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN robots are taking on a bigger share of the dirty and dangerous work in Iraq. We'll show you what they can do. Also, it may look like radio and sound like radio, but this isn't broadcasting, it's Podcasting. Is there a Podcast in your future? And we'll look back at one dramatic moment in the gorilla area of a Chicago-area zoo in 1996 that changed many peoples' minds about the great apes forever. All that and more on NEXT.
Pentagon planners envision a future in which some soldiers feel no pain, need no food and never forget orders. Why? Because they're not human but robots. CNN senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This explosion two months ago in Iraq is a result of U.S. soldiers employing the latest in robot technology. Using a small radio controlled vehicle called the Packbot (ph) to detonate a roadside bomb. The Packbot was developed by iRobot, a cutting edge company outside Boston co-founded by Helen Greiner, an MIT engineer who saw her future in "Star Wars."
HELEN GRENER, IROBOT CHAIRMAN: I went to see "Star Wars" with my parents when I was 11 and I was really inspired by R2 D2. R2-D2 wasn't just a machine, he had a personality, he had an agenda.
MCINTYRE: While the versatile Packbot can't think for itself, it can do reconnaissance, disarm bombs and search caves. And it works so well in Iraq and Afghanistan the Pentagon just put in an $18 million order for 150 more.
(on camera): It will be a long time before robots ever replace humans, but what they're perfect for is dirty, dull or dangerous jobs.
(voice-over): The next challenge for a robot designer is deadly urban combat so future urban assaults like the siege of Falluja may be done with the aid of swarms of small robots. Just like tiny mechanical spiders search for Tom Cruise in the movie "Minority Report" these rudimentary machines in development by iRobot use the same swarm principal. They talk to each other so one operator can control hundreds at a time.
VICE ADMIRAL JOE DYER, (R) IROBOT GOV'T/INDUSTRIAL DIVISION: But over time we're going to see robots that can take a mission, go out and execute it, navigate themselves, see, communicate back, gather information, come back and deliver that information in a human-like function.
MCINTYRE: Joe Dyer is a retired navy admiral and F-18 pilot who now works for iRobot. He predicts the world of robots envisioned by sci-fi genius Isaac Asimov and depicted in the movie "I, Robot" is maybe 25 years away.
DYER: "I, Robot," the movie, we think had it about right. You'll start to see full up androids that you might want to go out and have a beer with.
MCINTYRE: And while Dyer says humans will remain in the loop for a long time. In iRobot they treat their robots sort of like people. In the lobby hangs a memorial to a Packbot who died in the line of duty.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well, from the battlefields of Iraq to the online battlefields where FBI agents work to outsmart sexual predators looking for young victims. The bureau is using Internet and even bringing in teenage consultants to teach the agents how to sound like kids online. Kelli Arena reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over) Stacey Bradley has some images burned into her memory she will never be able to erase. Bradley a supervisory agent for the FBI's Innocent Images task force which uses the Internet in two ways. It tracks down people who prey on children over the Internet and those who use the Web to showcase the horror.
A former fugitive hunter, she came up with the idea of publicizing pictures of suspected predators on "America's Most Wanted." The task force is still looking for those two John Does. In just over a year, 33 children have been rescued and four molesters caught.
STACEY BRADLEY, FBI: It's not the easiest thing in the work. It's not -- I don't want to look at this stuff, any more than anybody else does. But when I go home and hug my children, that's why we keep doing it. Because it's about them. It's about protecting them.
ARENA: Because some predators pose as young kids on the net to lure victims, agents must know how to play the same game. Mary and Karen are both 15 and have been teaching FBI agents how to think and talk like teenagers for more than two years.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some are cocky about this, we know this, but they don't.
ARENA: They give advice on music.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Some people don't even know who Jessica Simpson is.
ARENA: Fashion.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Birkenstocks.
ARENA: How to chat online.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: DOS and MOS, which is dad over shoulder and mom over shoulder.
ARENA: These two know the possible dangers but many of their peers and their parents do not. BRADLEY: I don't know how many times I go to a PTA or a school and the kids are looking at me like there's really -- this really does happen? They're shocked or I have a parent that comes up to me and says, really? There really are -- this is really that out there? Because, I thought, just once in a blue moon thing. There are individuals out there that are looking to hurt your children.
ARENA: The Justice Department says one out of every five kids who goes online is solicited for sex. Bradley says the age-old guidance for children still applies. Don't talk to strangers, especially over the Internet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: You know, it is hard for parents to keep tabs on what their kids are doing online and it's also hard for trucking companies to keep up with what their drivers are doing on the road. But one fleet owner always knows where his trucks and drivers are. Andy Serwer has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SERWER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drivers who haul trash for Ciro Viento have been warned. Ciro sees everything.
CIRO VIENTO, AUTOMATED WASTE DISPOSAL: He's moving 58 miles an hour in a southwest direction. Shows exactly where he is. He's on Interstate 84 and he just passed South Street.
SERWER: Viento commands a fleet of 250 trash trucks in Connecticut and New York. His company, Automated Waste Disposal, pays for a service backed by a global positioning system to track each of its trucks, 24/7. But drivers like Greg Ramos don't mind.
GREG RAOMS, TRUCK DRIVER: It doesn't bother me at all. As long as you get your job done, you don't get no hassle and you go without noticing it.
SERWER: Once the transponders are hooked up, there's no where to hide. Viento can even tell if drivers are stopped at hot spots distractions like Dunkin Donuts or a local bar.
VIENTO: We've also loaded in all of the drivers' homes so we can tell if they're supposed to be on their route and they're at their house with their wife and kids or whatever they're doing.
SERWER: Viento says the GPS system from At Road paid for itself after just two months. For one group of drivers overtime hours plunged 75 percent in just a week.
VIENTO: It was during the wintertime and we had discovered that he had gone home to his house, parked our vehicle in his driveway, got in his personal vehicle, pick up truck with a plow and decided to go out and make some extra money plowing snow that day.
SERWER: On your time? VIENTO: On my time.
SERWER: With an average truck costing $200,000, Viento says he's just protecting the company's investment, but Tom McNally, one of the drivers says, it changed his daily routine.
TOM MCNALLY, TRUCK DRIVER: You're standing in line at the deli and you have to hurry up because big brother's watching.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: When we come back, the top predators in the Arctic food chain are facing an enemy so deadly it could wipe them out altogether.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Scientists this week reported a genetic discovery that experts are calling spectacular. It challenges the conventional wisdom about plant evolution. They found that plants can correct errors by calling up good genes from earlier generations. The plants have some kind of stash of genetic data from their ancestors and can activate it if they inherent flawed genes from their parents. The scientists say if the same thing happens in animals, it would be by a different process. The research done at Purdue University was published in the journal "Nature."
NASA says a discovery by the Spitzer space telescope has opened new era in planetary science. The telescope detected light from two planets outside our solar system. While scientists have already discovered the presence of more than 130 of these so-called extra solar planets, it's been impossible to actually see them. The bright light from their sun overwhelms the reflected light. However, the Spitzer telescope detected infrared light from two of the planets. NASA says they appear to be two Jupiter sized gas giants.
And speaking of gas, greenhouse gases that contribute to global warning continue to build up in earth's atmosphere. But how much has climate change really affected the planet? As Miles O'Brien reports, if you live in the arctic, the answer is lots.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call it the polar bear capital of the world. Churchill, Manitoba on the western banks of Hudson Bay is probably the best place in the world for humans to catch a glimpse of the magnificent mammals that rule the arctic ice pack.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello. Polar Bear Alert.
O'BRIEN: But the bears are in trouble, big trouble. For them, it's a matter of survival.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been chasing her since Wednesday about 10:00 we got the first call. O'BRIEN: That's Richard Romagna (ph), polar bear policeman. He's a very busy man these days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, last night we had four calls. One at 5:00, one at about 1:00, one at 3:00 and one about 5:00.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, buddy, you here by yourself?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The last three years 2001, 2002, 2003 were the busiest years the program has ever had.
O'BRIEN: The bears are coming to town with alarming frequency, weak, famished and scavenging for food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last year there were 176 bears captured. About 135 were captured in and around the dump.
O'BRIEN: Polar bears are nature's ultimate binge eaters. During the winter, once the Hudson Bay freezes over, they take to the ice with a veracious appetite for seal. They hunt and eat as much as they can get their paws on and then when the ice gets thin in the spring, they return to terra firma for a four-month fast.
NICK LUNN, CANADIAN WILDLIFE SERVICE: The amount of time bears in Hudson Bay can spend on the sea ice is critical.
O'BRIEN: Scientist Nick Lunn has logged two dozen years studying polar bears for the Canadian Wildlife Service.
LUNN: We have seen bears coming to shore in poorer and poorer condition.
O'BRIEN: Adult males are 15% percent lighter than they were 20 years ago and adult females with cubs 20 percent skinnier. The reason? The polar bear buffet is opening later and closing sooner. Over the past three decades the thermometer has steadily risen and the ice has just as steadily receded. Today the Hudson Bay returns to its liquid state three months earlier than it did in 1970.
LUNN: They're coming ashore earlier with less fat and they have to make a reserved amount of fast reserves last longer.
O'BRIEN: So who could blame them for coming here searching for a snack and running afoul of Richard Romagna (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people will refer to it as the polar bear jail. We don't like to refer it as a jail.
O'BRIEN: After all, it isn't about punishment, the idea is to protect the people and the bears from each other. The bears are held here, then released when the bay freezes over.
RUSS SCHNELL, CLIMATE RESEARCHER, NOAA: Polar bears are going to be very uncomfortable when they can't have enough ice to hunt seals from. This isn't something that hasn't happened many times in the history of the earth. O'BRIEN: Russ Schnell is a leading climate researcher for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
SCHNELL: It's just that we're compressing something that happened over millions of years into hundreds.
O'BRIEN: And that's the rub.
SCHNELL: That's the rub.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Our planet is littered with proof that pushing the fast forward button on the climate machine can mean big trouble. Sixty five million years ago scientists believe a killer asteroid shook the Earth kicking up the mother of all dust storms.
The sun rays' were blocked, plants and trees died en masse and before too long it was curtains for the dinosaurs. Ironically, it was that event laid the groundwork for the climate change issue we're dealing with today. The dust settled, the path was clear for mammals and humans to dominate the planet and eventually go on to burn large amounts of fuel derived from the fossils of those dinosaurs.
(voice-over): And burning fossil fuels creates carbon dioxide. Russ Schnell likens the effects of CO2, along with the other greenhouse gases, to a featherbed.
SCHNELL: So, if you can visualize laying in a featherbed and continually adding feathers, eventually you're going to get an extra inch or two in there and your heat is going to be retained. And that's exactly what's happening to the earth.
O'BRIEN (on camera): And the feathers, carbon dioxide and all the other greenhouse gases, are very stubborn. They just sit in the air up there and they act an awful lot like panes of glass in a greenhouse. They allow the solar energy in but still trap the heat that is radiated back from the planet.
SCHNELL: Even if we stop producing CO2 today the effects would last for a couple centuries.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Where there is fossil fuel smoke, there is heat if not fire. Here's the verdict from a United Nations report signed by more than 2,000 scientists from around the world. Most of the warming observed over the past 50 years is attributable to human activity.
SCHNELL: We're going into this huge experiment not really knowing where it's going to end.
O'BRIEN: Climate change is not new, but this time it is different and it is happening fast. And unlike the dinosaurs, we can do something about it. But will we before the polar bears of Hudson Bay go the way of T-rex?
LUNN: There is going to be a point in time when the bears are forced to leave so early that they just simply won't be able to survive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: And for more on climate change turn into a special CNN PRESENTS this Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern Time. "Melting Point," tracking the global warning threat.
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, gamers in the U.S. can finally get their hands on the play station portable. I'll show you why you might want to.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Good news for technophiles. This week brought the moment that many U.S. gamers have been waiting for, the launch of the newest version of the play station.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(voice-over): If your pockets feel a bit full, well, you might need to make room for the latest gotta have it gadget. Sony's PSP or Playstation Portable is on sale in the U.S. for about 250 bucks.
SCOTT STEINBERG, VIDEO GAME REVIEWER: The Playstation Portable plays movies, it plays music, it plays games and it functions as a PDA. It even has wi-fi Internet access.
SEIBERG: "Spider-Man 2" is one of the first movies available along with about two dozen games for starter. One glance at the sleek device and you know it's going to make waves. Sony unveiled the PCP with much fanfare at a trade show last may and then released it in Japan in December where the black cased palm player went white hot.
Sony delayed the upcoming European launch to make more units available in the States. But the PSP faces fierce competition. Nintendo which has long been the handheld leader has a new one called the DS. Nokia's NGage, a combination cell phone and game device is also out there and hundreds of game titles are downloadable to many cell phones. Offering a convenient way to get games on the go.
Apple's iPod isn't aimed at gamers but Sony clearly has its musical player in its sights. Just a coincidence they both have white headphone?
STEINBERG: I think that iPod is probably going to be the predominant gadget in terms of the casual user but as an all all- purpose gadget the Playstation Portable is unmatched.
SEIBERG: Sony brought us the first portable 20 years ago and touts the PSP of the Walkman of the 21st century. Retailers say preorders for the PSP were through the roof and with demand so high, analysts are predicting more than a million could be sold in the first few days, the trick may be getting your hands on one.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SEIGBERG: (on camera): Well, if you do manage to get your hands on one and you're looking for some unusual content how about a Podcast. We'll tell you all about Podcasting in our next half hour.
Plus an update on a gorilla that was a media star almost ten years ago. Tell her what she has been doing since her 15 minutes of fame. Those stories and a lot more coming up right up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WILLIS: I'm Gerri Willis with a look at what's now in the news. An attorney for the parents of Terri Schiavo say she is, quote, "passed the point of no return." But another spokesman for the Schindler family denies that. Family members on both sides of the dispute have stopped speaking to the media for now and the Schindlers asked protesters to go home for Easter Sunday.
Supporters of Schiavo's parents are still pushing governor Jeb Bush to intervene in some way. Governor Bush says his heart goes out to Schiavo's parents and to her husband and he tells CNN he cannot violate a court order.
A dangerous storm system is pulverizing the South and heading towards the northeast. Let's get an update from meteorologist Brad Huffines at the CNN weather center. Brad, what's going on?
BRAD HUFFINES, CNN WEATHER REPORTER: Well, Gerri, the good news is that the storm will start losing strength moving up towards the Northeast, but right now it's packing a punch across parts of Alabama, Georgia and into East Tennessee. Right now we have severe thunderstorm watches in effect for East Tennessee and tornado watches still up for north Alabama, northwest Georgia and into the southern parts of Georgia and Alabama, as well.
The current tornado warnings, the only warnings we have on the map, Bledsoe and Sequatchie, Tennessee. That warning expires at 5:45 with a thunderstorm that has a potential tornado north of Chattanooga moving northeast at around 50 miles an hour. A very fast-moving storm presently. A look at the severe weather potential for the rest of the evening. Except to see the chance of severe storms all the way from the Gulf Coast of Florida up through the Carolinas through the evening. Tomorrow, that slight chance shifts up to the Mid-Atlantic. Another update at 6:00.
WILLIS: Robert Kennedy Jr. is on a campaign to teach Catholic children that god wants them to care for their environment. We'll talk with him next hour on CNN LIVE SUNDAY. More headlines in half an hour. Now, back to NEXT@CNN.
SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. By now you've seen these ubiquitous white headphones but iPods and other portables are not just music to the ears. You can download talk shows. Podcasting offers quirky personal shows that you listen to whenever you want. Radio stations are even jump nothing to the fray, but for good or bad, just about anybody can be a Podcaster. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to Grape Radio where an enthusiasm for wine gets personal.
SIEBERG: Grape Radio has mikes and a mixing board, all the tell- tale signs of a radio station except for one minor detail. Grape Radio is not actually on the radio.
MICHAEL GEOGHEGAN, EXEC. PRODUCER, GRAPE RADIO: The magic of the fact that once somebody puts a show up, it's automatically downloaded into your computer I just really found compelling?
SIEBERG: Meet Brian (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is sweet, very nice.
SIEBERG: Lee (ph) and Jay (ph). Wine enthusiasts turned talk show hosts, not just in the studio, but also on the road.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the suit I was talking about.
SIEBERG: The show was recorded and then uploaded to the internet and becomes a Podcast. An audio file playable on any iPod or portable music device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just like a song, no different.
SIEBERG: They had 50 listeners for their first Podcast in January and five weeks later the hosts say their 12th show was downloaded 3,000 times. Websites like Popdcast Alley list scores of different shows, some produced with nothing more than a computer and a microphone. Favorite DVDs, geek talk about gadgets, college sports and even Podcasts about Podcasting and a racy talk show from a couple named Dawn and Drew in Wisconsin. It's ranked number one. Click on the number one you want in this case, Grape Radio, and you're halfway there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're looking for this link up here.
SIEBERG (on camera): Then you just have to copy and paste your link into a program like iPodder and your Podcast is ready to roll. You may have heard of Podcasting through the grapevine. What started as an experiment last summer has grown to 3,000 Podcasts online. Will podcasting give broadcasting a run for its money?
HARRY SHEARER, ENTERTAINER: KCRW is handpicked music and NPR News streaming in now, Podcasting, imagine that.
SIEBERG: Harry Shearer, a: voice on the Simpsons and former cast member of "Saturday Night Live" has been on the radio since he was seven years old. His weekly broadcast is now also a Podcast.
SHEARER: There is a certain sadness to me that the broadcasting model we've known is dissolving. I think radio stations have to, and broadcasters generally, have to chase the audience. You know, the audience is moving to different technologies that are more convenient.
SIEBERG (voice-over): Shearer says Podcasting lets the listener pick the time and place, a necessity in today's busy society, but the quality of Podcasts, well, Shearer says the jury is still out.
SHEARER: What Podcasting reminds me of is blogging five years ago. Which started out as a very personal form of communication via the Internet and has now become a medium for its practitioners to declare their own self-importance.
Hello.
SIEBERG: Back at Grape Radio, the guys say they just wanted to clear their passion for wine and have fun hobbying as talk show hosts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a blast. It is an absolute blast.
SIEBERG: Perhaps it is the 21st century equivalent of ham radio. Talking to the void just to see if anyone can hear you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still to come, if you're looking for an SUV with a hybrid engine, you'll soon have some new options.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: You've probably already noticed this but the cost of gasoline hit a record high this week. Gas prices jumped 3.2 percent over the last month. Put some places are feeling the pinch more than others. Alan Chernoff has this week's edition of "Getting There."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pump and weep. Thirty bucks and counting to fill 'er up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gas is a killer, especially in New York. It's a killer.
CHERNOFF: Never mind that adjusted for inflation gas remains cheaper than it was in the early '80s, it still squeezes the wallet.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's too high. I have a truck, so, it's like $50 to fill up.
CHERNOFF: The energy squeeze gets tighter at home. Remember last month's heating bill? Yes, even the price of a slice. Carmine Malanga claims he had to cover the cost of heating the ovens and deliveries.
CARMAN MALANGA, SAL AND CARMINE'S: Everything goes up and you add it to the bill.
CHERNOFF: Some airlines pushed through two fare increases in recent weeks to help cover soaring jet fuel expenses but continental retreated from an additional $5 a ticket hike. FedEx has also slapped on an 8.5 percent fuel surcharge for air deliveries and truckers are passing along their extra costs for filling up. But the cost of transportation economists and retailers say accounts for only about a penny of every dollar in price on the store's shelf.
STEVEN JENKINS, FAIRWAY: The delivery charge is just a small, small bit of the total cost of whatever's on that truck and it's just splitting hairs. It doesn't make sense to us. It seems to me a little bit petty to pass on a cost like that.
CHERNOFF: That helps explain why consumer prices for the past 12 months are up only three percent, even after the jump in gas and other fuel prices. The cost of gas may go higher, but economists argue that's because the energy markets are simply out of whack and the increases won't stick. Because while refining capacity is limited, oil supplies are actually plentiful, which means the pain at the pump may not be permanent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well a lot of drivers are not waiting for gas prices to go down. Tens of thousands of Americans now own hybrid vehicles. As Dan Sloan reports from Japan, two new models are set to hit the road next month.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAN SLOAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sales of Germany's hybrid cars are going off road and Toyota is aiming for even greater market traction. With two SUVs set for April release, the world's number two automaker will triple this year's gasoline-electric hybrid sales target of $300,000. Toyota joins Ford, the first to sell a hybrid SUV adding the luxury Lexus stamp to its Harrier (ph) models to be sold outside Japan.
Priced over $4,700 more than their non-hybrid peers, Toyota's SUVs get 40 miles per gallon, almost twice that of gasoline-only engines. With oil pricing still flirting with record highs, better gas performance may be a critical factor for consumers in car choice, even for SUVs.
Toyota's hybrid sedan has a U.S. following of Prius patriots who see ownership as a call to less dependence on foreign oil. With over 56,000 Prius sold last year in America alone, the world's most profitable automaker already makes money on hybrids. But as the eco- friendly market expands globally, Toyota's own green push may take on an even broader meaning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: All right. So if hybrids burn too much gas for you, how about this contraption? Well, it's really more art than transportation. It's a kinetic sculpture created Denver artist Ira Sherman. Among Sherman's collection, a tick plucker that is powered by gasoline. A pavlovian trainer, which keeps you from talking too much, and the arbitrator which locks together two people having an argument and presumably they can't get out until they come to an agreement.
Maybe someone could send it to the NHL and the players' association, eh?
ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, we'll go inside the world of blogs and meet some people who enjoy sharing the most intimate details of their lives with strangers on the Internet.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Texas is suing a company that provides Internet phone service over the way it handles 911 calls. The state says Vonage is not making it clear enough to VOIP customers that they won't automatically be able to call 911 the way they can on a traditional phone connection. The company says it already tells new customers twice that emergency service has to be activated to work. Vonage says it also sends e-mail reminders. The suit comes after a case in Houston last month when a teenager tried to call for help during an armed robbery.
Well, Web logs, blogs for short, keep making news in the political arena from the Howard Dean campaign to the controversy over Dan Rather's report on President Bush. But many bloggers aren't political operatives or media critics, they're just regular folks who like sharing their lives online. Candy Crowley reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Crack open cyberspace and tiny bits of life rain down. I stayed on the couch all morning while Jeff took MC to gymnastics, to Starbucks and to Sam's. All three kiddos passed their tests with flying colors, unfortunately it was rapid stress test. The wire under my boob in my bra broke. OK, here's my exciting news.
KATE, BLOGGER, KATESPOT.COM: I'm being interviewed by CNN. How exciting. I was contacted a few days ago and to make a long story short they're here right now filming me.
CROWLEY: According to a recent CNN/Gallup Poll, 74 percent of Americans don't know what a blog is.
KATE: I'm just a mom blog and just write about my stuff.
See you later.
CROWLEY: Her stuff is the stuff of being a mom and a wife, of suburban life in Central New Jersey.
KATE: It was cold at the bus stop, very windy.
CROWLEY: At Kate's spot, it ranges from a riff on Nair hair removal, worries about her daughter's allergy, shock at a contractor's estimate.
KATE: I blog every day. Sometimes I can have one or two entries for the day or i put goofy stuff up like a quiz or jokes. Sometimes it will be like five or six entries.
CROWLEY: A blog is a diary about the things diaries have always been about. Life, thoughts, knowledge. Blogs are written for all the reasons diaries have always been written.
KATE: It's cleansing, kind of cathartic, somewhat -- it's nice to put the thoughts down.
CROWLEY: It allows intimacy without closeness. While Kate was cyberchatting with complete strangers she never told her mother she had a blog. John Grohol has researched Internet behavior for a decade.
DR. JOHN GROHOL, ON-LINE PSYCHOLOGIST: The Internet has this effect that when you go online and communicate with others through email or what have you, you're more disinhibited than you would be if you were talking to someone face to face or you were talking to them or over the telephone.
CROWLEY: But a blog is diary out from under the mattress, out there for the world to read. About 250 people a day drop by Kate's spot. Some of them talk back. Like Jaynee.
KATE: She has two small children, I have two small children. It's nice to read about other people. She lives in New Jersey and she lives up north. It's just how she goes through life and it's neat. I don't know her personally.
CROWLEY: Jaynee began blogging on Cootiehog as a way to communicate beyond the weekly phone call to far away family. Then she noticed complete strangers were reading and commenting.
JAYNEE, BLOGGER, COOTIEHOG.COM: It kind of freaked me out but then i was excited. I think my site is really mundane but obviously somebody else is enjoying it.
CROWLEY: And in the blogosphere, to read is to get read, so she read and left comments and her link on other blogs. She posts at work and at home about books and movies and television and kids and church and exercise class.
JAYNEE: So maybe if my take on a situation can help somebody else or not. It doesn't matter. I just think it's fun. I enjoy reading other people's lives. So, in turn, I guess people enjoy reading about mine, as well.
CROWLEY: Blogging is in a way beyond a diary to connect with yourself and somebody else. It is affirming.
JAYNEE: It comes down to there is an audience there.
CROWLEY: I blog, therefore I am.
JAYNEE: I think it is more I am, therefore I blog. I have my life, so, I might as well talk about it.
CROWLEY: How long do you think you'll keep this up?
JAYNEE: Till there's no more space left.
CROWLEY: There are an estimated 8 million bloggers offering an array of musings so unending that they sometimes have to pull themselves back into the neighborhood. Do you worry that you could get suck under to the computer?
KATE: Yeah. And never come back and make that my soul focus? There are days after I have done three or four posts in a row, OK, I have got to walk.
CROWLEY: Kate and Jaynee have been and out of each other's blog world for almost a year. Talking about kids, husbands, movies, even deaths of loved ones. They know each other well, and next month they plan to meet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: One when we come back, camels aren't just for the desert any more. You may be surprised at where you can get a camel ride these days.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Okay, how is this for a romantic vacation. You climb on to a camel for a breathtaking ride through fantastic scenery. But wait a minute. There is snow on the ground and aren't those the Alps? Yes, this is southern Germany which an entrepreneur thought was a perfectly good place to give camel rides. She says that the only problem that the camels have is that their feet aren't built for slippery snow, but she says they're used it now and the neighbors are getting used to seeing camels in Bavaria.
Well, certain images just stick in your mind and seem to take on a life of their own. Keith Oppenheim takes us back to 1996 and some remarkable video of a gorilla.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): She sits in her favorite spot quietly scratching her head seemingly unaware she was once a star. But nine years ago Binti (ph) got as famous as gorillas get.
CRAIG DEMITROS, KEAD KEEPER, PRIMATES: We did receive a lot of inquiries about what happened the day it happened. But on the Saturday that that tape went out it just exploded. It became a huge story.
OPPENHEIM: Craig Demitros, keeper for primates at Brookfield Zoo in suburban Chicago, took us back to a day he won't ever forget, a day documented on this home video. On August 16th, 1996, a healthy crowd was walking through Brookfield's primate building. The unphotographed prelude a 3-year-old boy, restless toddler that he was, got into trouble. DEMITROS: We heard that he climbed over the railing, teetered on the edge of the planter and as he fell in and did a somersault. And fortunately landed on his rear end.
OPPENHEIM: And went down how far?
DEMITROS: It's roughly 24 feet or so down to the bottom of the exhibit.
BILL LAMBERT, TAPED INCIDENT: Right there, heard the scream.
OPPENHEIM: Bill Lambert was the man with the camera nearby with his wife and children videotaping when he heard screams and a thud. Lambert actually forgot he was still recording.
LAMBERT: So I wanted to see what was going on and I met up with one of the zookeepers here, started running.
OPPENHEIM: In seconds Lambert got to the gorillas and zoomed in just to get a closer look and in the mist of the exhibit's waterfall, Binti (ph) picked up the boy and carried him. Lambert was surprised that a gorilla who was carrying her own baby on her back would appear to take such care of a human child. Still not aware he was recording, Bill Lambert got what became a lasting image.
LAMBERT: After the gorilla went around to the corner to end up in this position here, it looked like she was rocking him, you know. It just didn't - didn't think that she was going to hurt him.
OPPENHEIM: The zoo staff sprayed water, a signal for all apes to leave the main exhibit and go down to their nighttime quarters.
DEMITROS: The exhibit space is the animal space so having a person in there or object that is not part of the normal routine, you're not quite sure what that response is going to be.
OPPENHEIM: Vinty's response was to set the boy down, gently. As the gorillas were herded out, paramedics came in and took the unconscious child to a hospital.
(on camera): We're told by zoo officials though the boy suffered head injuries, he made a full recovery and perhaps if he and his family had spoken up this tale might have taken a different turn. But they never did. The identity of the boy was never publicized. Instead at the urging of Bill Lambert's boss the tape turned up on local TV, then of course on national TV and next with a Democratic convention coming to down in 1996, loads of international news crews looking for something to do came to the Brookfield Zoo all wanting a picture of Binti.
MELINDA PRUETT-JONES, CURATOR: This story took on a life of its own, from the moment it became a story.
OPPENHEIM: Melinda Pruett-Jones is a curator at the zoo. She says the staff realized that on video Binti had broken a myth that gorillas are like King Kong. Aggressors who attack. PRUETT-JONES: From our perspective, the story that could be told was how she really behaved in a way that is indicative of her species. How -- what an incredible ambassador she could be for gorillas.
OPPENHEIM: Today, nines later, Binti is still that ambassador. Visitors to the zoo still ask, which one saved the little boy. Staff point out Binti and explain she's pregnant now. About to give birth any day and, oh, remember the baby on Binti's back. Her name is Koola (ph), she just gave birth to her own daughter making Binti a pregnant grandma. And for everyone else, Bill Lambert realized he stumbled into history.
LAMBERT: If I had pushed the record button to tape, I was already taping. It would have stopped and I never would have got this. It's dumb luck.
OPPENHEIM: And the Brookfield Zoo staff realized they got an unforgettable lesson in public relations, that a crisis caught on tape could teach the world more about these gentle giants than words alone might have ever accomplished.
PRUETT-JONES: You can talk about it, you can describe it. An eyewitness could have said, this is what I saw, but to actually be able to see it and draw your own conclusions, it's amazing.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Clearly some amazing footage. Well, that does it for this 800 pound gorilla.
That is all the time we have for now, here's what is coming up next week.
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