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Wildfires Burning in Northern and Southern California; Armistice and Veterans Day Events; Seoul, Korea Broadband Width Capital of The World; Doppler Radar Registers Large Flock of Birds Taking Off
Aired November 12, 2018 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: We hoped you enjoyed your Veterans Day weekend. We have a report on that coming up and we`re happy to see you this Monday
as we kick off a new week of CNN 10. I`m Carl Azuz at the CNN Center. As we put this show together, strong winds were forecast to be blowing across
the U.S. state of California and that`s probably the last place that needed them. Three major wildfires are burning in the state. One in northern
California, two in southern California and they`ve caused an extraordinary amount of destruction in a relatively short amount of time.
At least 25 people have been killed across the state. Thousands of homes have been destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of people have had to leave
their homes and the town of Paradise, which is home to about 26,000 people in the central part of northern California has been mostly burned up. More
than 6,400 homes have been lost there alone plus more than 250 other buildings in the area. That makes the Campfire, the name of the blaze that
scorched Paradise, the most destructive wildfire in California`s history as far as property damage goes.
The weather is making things worse. The humidity is low and the Santa Ana winds, hot dry guts that blow in from the desert this time of year, help
fires spread by pushing them along. There was a break on Saturday when the Santa Ana winds temporarily died down and firefighters did all they could
to take advantage of the better conditions to save lives and homes. But meteorologists expected the winds to pick back up on Sunday and blow across
parts of the state through Thursday.
The observance that became Veterans Day was first held on November 11th, 1919 on the First Anniversary of the Armistice that ended fighting in World
War I. The 100th Anniversary of that event was yesterday when Veterans Day and Armistice Day events were held throughout the world. At the Arc de
Triomphe in Paris, U.S. President Donald Trump joined dozens of other world leaders for an event paying tribute to the millions who died in the Great
War. This was the largest ceremony that commemorated the Armistice but not the only one.
Members of Britain`s Royal Family led by Queen Elizabeth II attended an event in London Centotaph. And in Washington, D.C. at the Tomb of the
Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie placed a wreath in honor of the fallen. Last week we talked about
how technology had played a dramatic role in the brutality of the first World War. It`s when aerial dog fights made their debut in combat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The aircraft was a brand new invention in World War I. You know, just 10 years after the Wright Brother`s first flew. At first I
think the armies of Europe didn`t really know what to do with the airplane but it very quickly found a very important role. And aircraft production
and training of pilots, they all skyrocketed very quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a brand new way of fighting. Having war machines that operated within the air added a third dimension to the
battlefield and they were just learning how to do it. And pilots were throwing bombs out of the cockpit and they were carrying pistols and rifles
in the cockpit. Or they would have an observer or a secondary cockpit who had a pistol or a rifle and they would be trading rounds with other
airplanes.
I think on the one hand they were terrified because they were young. They were fresh. When they came from the front lines with a unit, you know,
they maybe had a maximum of 20 hours of flying time. They just weren`t that experienced.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have a lot of respect for the young men who flew these really primitive, elemental airplanes back in the day. Often with
only a few weeks of training, it`s like you can imagine being a 17 year old kid jumping into one of these airplanes and then being thrown into combat
versus, you know, another guy who`s probably another 17 year old kid scared out of his mind who`s trying to kill him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. Which of these cities has the highest population density? New York, New York; Tokyo, Japan; Beijing, China; or
Seoul, South Korea. With more than 40,000 people per square mile, the population density of South Korea`s capital is the greatest on this list.
Just under 10 million people live in Seoul. A city that like many world capitals has it`s share of struggles. Long working hours and sometimes low
productivity among workers. We covered that topic on October 29th. The South Korean capital has relatively high poverty among it`s elderly and
high unemployment among it`s youth. It has some programs that are trying to change that but when it come to technology, it`s hard to find a city
that`s more advanced.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bandwidth capital of the world, South Korea. With lightening internet speeds that are only getting faster and plans to roll
out 5G in 2019 allowing Koreans to download a film in just seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a certain DNA to the Korean people. They embrace new. They embrace everything that will advance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From it`s infrastructure to culture, South Korea embraces technology like nowhere else. This is Keith Kim (ph),
entrepreneur and tech blogger. He`s been witnessing first hand the rapid changes happening here in Seoul.
(KEITH KIM): I honestly believe that it`s - - it is the future city of the world. Korea has the fastest internet in the world. Number one, number
two, we`ll take it right. The government invested into internet infrastructure 20 years ago. So now because of that, we have all this
infrastructure to have the fastest wifi.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the late 50`s, South Korea faced financial struggles. They just come out of the Korean War that ended in 1953 and had
quickly become one of the poorest countries in the world. To turn things around in the 80s` and 90s`, the government pumped a lot of money into
future proofing. Spending billions of dollars building a fiber backbone to bring broadband to every school, office and home. Conditions were perfect
to create a small ecosystem for tech to flourish. Government backing with healthy competition, a dense urban population and a culture ready to engage
in tech making it near impossible for other countries to mimic.
(KEITH KIM): That culture of careers being ingrained in technology has been around for well over, like 25 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In less than a decade, it went from a 3 percent internet penetration rate to more than 75 percent. And in 2017, they hit
the top spot with an average internet speed of 28.6 megabytes per second. Not to mention free wifi just about anywhere you go in Seoul.
(KEITH KIM): It`s awesome. You can connect anywhere. On top of a mountain, inside caves and still connecting and still have like super fast
speed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dazzlingly fast internet speeds changed Korean culture. Online gaming soon became a phenomenon. PC bangs or PC gaming rooms to you
and I sprung up all over Seoul.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: PC bang is a place where you go in a play games right. And what I think it shows is that PC bangs have been around when I was a
middle school student, you know, and that - - that was like in 1999. You go there, you`ll have the fastest computer, the fastest internet. It`s
fun. It`s a fun place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: South Korea is now home to some 25.6 million gamers. That`s almost half the population, not to mention E-Sports. But all this
quick progression has come at a cost. According to state data, on average, Smartphone users are playing games, tweeting or chatting for four hours a
day. Hoping to bring back some balance, the government has recently pivoted focus to cultural places creating break away quiet havens around
Seoul.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, if you`re staring at your phone for eight hours a day. There`s, you know, it`s (inaudible).
(KEITH KIM): This is definitely an effort to be like, hey, slow down. Here`s a book and enrich yourself for a little bit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Starfield Library consists of over 40 foot tall giant book shelves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is like one of the building blocks of - - of the future, you know. You have buildings like this but they`re going to be
popping up all over the place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: South Korea has managed to transform itself into one of the richest countries from less than a century ago being one of the poorest
and it`s not slowing down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Modern day Koreans are still holding on to that concept of like, OK, we`ve got to move forward. We`ve got to move forward. We`ve
got to constantly improve. We`ve got to go get it. This is just the beginning and honestly in about 10 years, I`m not going to recognize it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: Doppler radar recently picked up something unusual in southeast Georgia. It`s a bird. It`s a plane. It`s, let get back to bird. Though
Doppler is mostly used for tracking rain, meteorologists say this vivid looking shockwave is actually a flock of birds, a big one all taking off
together at sunrise. So this is a horrible forecast for worms. In the past, Doppler has also picked up traffic, flying ants and bats. Now it
might be kind of "loony" or even a little "coo coo" that Doppler "coot" be swift (inaudible) graphics of almost "aunniething" that would fly.
Some forecasters might "rail" against it for being "soar-a-sensitive". They might want it`s "ava-settings" changed. Turned or "dove keyed" up to
"pluver" weather with "razor-billed" sharpness instead of being so "gullible" in getting everything is "cannit". Some might be kind of
"bittern" about it but that`s "eggretable" and more than we can "dove" into right now. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN 10 and we`ve got to fly.
END
