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35 Days & Still Gushing; U.S. History Textbook War; Drug Related Violence in Jamaica; Sitting Down With Dr. Maya Angelou; Facebook Admits to Mistakes; Bittersweet Birthday Wishes to AOL

Aired May 24, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Brand new hour, brand new "Rundown." Here's what I've got on it.

We're hearing plenty of outrage over the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But after 35 days, there is one thing we haven't got, and that is a solution. I'll tell you what's being tried and what we're going to try.

Plus, open royal mouth, insert royal foot. An ex British royal is caught on tape. You might not believe what she was trying to sell and for how much.

Also, criticism of Facebook from Facebook. CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his company made a bunch of mistakes. We'll see what that means for users.

Back to the oil spill though. Let me tell you what's going on right now.

First of all, we have a brand new poll taken by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation telling us what you think about how everybody involved is handling this oil spill. Let's start with BP, the oil company that leased that rig that exploded and then caused all of this oil to leak into the Gulf of Mexico.

We were asking people how they think BP is handling the Gulf oil leak. Twenty-four percent say they're doing a good job, 76 percent disapprove.

Let's take that over to the president. Asking how President Obama is helping the -- handling the Gulf oil leak, 46 percent approve. He's doing better than BP. Fifty-one percent, however, disapprove of how the administration is handling it.

What we saw today was some cabinet officials and senators doing a fly-over of the Gulf of Mexico. You'll hear from them momentarily.

Let me tell you what's been tried so far and what hasn't worked.

First of all, a cofferdam, something called a cofferdam, it's a 40-foot-tall structure that was meant to be put over the leak at the bottom of the ocean and contain it. It didn't work, because at that level, the gases and the water were so cold, that it caused some kind of a slush mixture, and the oil couldn't be siphoned out of the top of that cofferdam. So that was removed.

Then we had something called a top hat, which basically was a substantially smaller version of the cofferdam that was lowered to the bottom of the ocean and, again, was thought not to effectively work. These are pictures of when it was lowered down there. That's been put aside now. They may try and use that again.

Then there was a mile-long -- something called an insertion tube, a mile-loan insertion tube, that was put into where the oil was leaking at the bottom of the ocean, and then was meant to feed the oil to a ship on the surface of the ocean. It's working, but it's not actually collecting all that much oil. And part of the problem is that over the last few days, the pressure, the amount of oil in there being siphoned off, is not -- it's actually dropping. And they're trying to figure out exactly why.

Now that moves us to the next thing that they're preparing for. BP, on Wednesday, is going to launch something called the top kill. We have been trying to break these words down for you, because nobody really says these things. Here's what the top kill is.

You start up at the top, and you dump -- so that's the oil that was going up. Now you dump some kind of a mud mixture into there, and you push the oil down, back down, and then you drop -- once you've got the pipes clear of oil, you put a cement -- well, you put cement in there. You send that right into the ground, and that stops the oil leak. That is exactly what they're going to try to do on Wednesday.

Is that going to work? Well, I don't know. It's been 35 days, and they have been trying all sorts of different things.

This morning, on "AMERICAN MORNING," Kiran Chetry and John Roberts interviewed Doug Suttles. He's the chief operation officer for exploration and production at BP. And they asked him. Listen to what they said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: ROBERTS: If the top kill doesn't work, what's left other than these relief wells that are being drilled? And they won't be ready until August.

DOUG SUTTLES, COO, BP: Well, we do still have some remaining options, both to stop the flow and contain it. If the top kill procedure doesn't actually work, the next step we'll take is the next containment device, which is tool we'll place over the top of the riser. We'll cut and remove the riser where it comes out of the top of the blowout preventer, and put the next containment device, we believe, quite tightly over that piece of pipe which we think will capture even more of the flow than we're doing now.

And then we still have a number of other options to kill the well. Those include the junk shot technique you have heard about. But there are also techniques where we could put another blowout preventer on top of the existing one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Just so you know, at the bottom of the ocean there is a blowout preventer, then there's a piece on top of that. And they're talking about maybe putting another blowout preventer, which handles the pressure on top of it. A lot of things that have to be done still.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was part of that group of cabinet secretaries and senators doing a fly-over. They landed at Port Fourchon in Louisiana, on the southern side.

Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: We have formed an independent estimates group with the best scientists available within the federal government, with peer review by others, to really estimate how much overall oil BP has now spilled into the Gulf of Mexico out of the Deep Horizon spill. That work is ongoing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And, of course, that remains a big question. We don't know how big this is, we don't know how much oil is being captured and how much is going into the Gulf of Mexico. We just know that it is showing up on the shores of the states on the Gulf of Mexico, including, of course, Louisiana.

Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu also spoke at that same news conference. She was pretty feisty.

Listen to what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: I want to say again, if you made $50,000 last year, and you can't work this year, BP is going to write you a check for $50,000. If your business made $1 million last year, and you can't make that million dollars this year, BP is going to make your business whole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right. We'll continue to cover every part of the developments having to do with containing that oil spill and what happens to those people who have been affected by it.

Let's stay down in the South, over to Texas.

Conservatives win the day in the fight over what should and should not be included in social studies textbooks. We'll tell you what Texas schoolchildren will now be required to know about, hot topics like separation of church and state, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: OK. Here at CNN, we're committed to bringing you every development in the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Ed Lavandera is joining us by phone from Venice, Louisiana, with the latest.

Ed, I understand they are gearing up for the next effort, which they hope to launch on Wednesday morning, and that is that top kill, the effort to force the oil down and follow it down with cement, and close that well for good.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Ali, you know, we know that vessels and dozens of ships are out, going toward that site out on the Gulf of Mexico, as we speak. Preparations are under way.

And I don't think we can kind of underestimate the intensity and how important this part of the process could very well be in the long- term effects of being able to cap this well. If top kill doesn't work, you know, there are -- this could take a lot longer to cut off the oil leak.

The ultimate solution is still several months away, going back into August, which is those relief wells. And based on what we're hearing so far, this is really going to be an important step in trying to cut it off, because a lot of the other ideas that are floating around are designed to either collect the oil that's spewing or try to limit its flow. Not really a lot of talk about cutting it off completely.

VELSHI: Right. So, let's just be clear on this. What they have tried now, what this top kill is going to do, is they put some heavy material down this pipe to really push the oil down, fight against that upward pressure on the oil. And then while that oil is out of the way, cement that hole over so that the oil can't push it out.

But the relief wells you're talking about, which are the longer- term solution, it's all got to do with the fact, Ed, that when you drill a hole for oil -- and you're our guy based in Texas -- it doesn't trickle out of the ground, it shoots out of the ground at high pressure, and that's what they're fighting. It's not just plugging a hole, it's plugging a hole against which oil is fighting its way out of the bottom of the ocean.

LAVANDERA: Right. You've got to deliver that cement and that drilling model, or whatever you want to call it. It goes into that well at a greater pressure that it's coming out. You have to be able to overcome that. And essentially, instead of making it go up, you've got to make it go backwards. That's obviously incredibly difficult to do under normal circumstances, even more so considering the depths at which its being done right now.

VELSHI: Ed, what are people talking about in terms of the chances of success? This is a very big endeavor, but there has been so much failure at these attempts. Are people sort of looking to the next thing, or are they thinking this one might be it? LAVANDERA: You know, BP won't come out and say that this will be a complete success. You know, I think one of the executives we had heard from earlier today had mentioned, you know, on a scale of 1 to 10, kind of rated it at a 6 or a 7.

VELSHI: Right.

LAVANDERA: So, clearly, there is some -- you don't see people standing around saying, oh, this is going to be it, this is going to be it. There is clearly a lot of anxiety as to whether or not it will work, even more so considering what -- if it doesn't work, what that means here in the near future.

VELSHI: All right. They're going to start this, we understand, on Wednesday. I don't know how long it will take to find out whether it worked or not, because there are so many component parts to it, as you said, pushing that oil down, seeing if that succeeds, then putting cement. And I suppose that cement has to have time to dry and they've got to figure out that it's actually worked.

So, we're not going to likely know on Wednesday, right, Ed, whether it actually worked or not?

LAVANDERA: That's a good question. I mean, now that we do have access to the video images coming from the ocean floor, we'll be able to get a sense of, I think, you know -- kind of keeping our fingers crossed here -- about how much we'll be able to see. Although, for people who don't know exactly what's going on, it will be difficult, especially considering that most of this work will be going on inside of that blowout preventer.

You know, one of things they have been doing over the last few days is kind of taking scans and images of inside that blowout preventer to see whether or not it can withstand this kind of work. So that's part of the preparation process that they're going on.

But, really, a lot of that will be taking place inside of that blowout present preventer. And for people like us who don't know what is going on, I think to the layperson it will be difficult to kind of assess what is going on. So we'll probably have to wait from Coast Guard officials and people involved with the response and BP to really get a sense of how successful it's been.

VELSHI: All right. We just -- our bureau chief, Marilyn Ryan (ph), actually, just in response to this, was saying that from the time that they start this top kill, it should be at least 10 hours before we know whether it's met with some success. We will be keeping an eye on it with you, Ed, on Wednesday. Thanks so much for that.

Ed Lavandera in Venice, Louisiana.

All right. Another story we've been following very closely around here, conservatives win the day in the fight over what should and should not be included in social studies textbooks in Texas. We'll tell you what Texas schoolchildren will now be required to know about -- about topics like separation of church and state, for instance. That's just one of them.

I'll tell you about this when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. Time for "Chalk Talk." We do this every day. It's all about new ideas -- well, you know what? Hold on to "Chalk Talk." Let's do "Stock Talk" for just a second. That's the stock market.

I just want to show you, because we've had such -- so many ups and downs in the last couple of weeks on the Dow. Right now, it's just down about 34 points. Nothing to really worry yourselves about -- 10,158 points. But many of you have been concerned at this point in the afternoon whether the market is doing something crazy. So that was our stocks.

Now I want to talk about chalk. That's a segment that we do every day about new ideas and innovation that help our kids learn more and learn better.

In today's case, some folks, and perhaps a lot of them, are questioning whether kids in Texas are going to be learning real U.S. history in their textbooks. We're talking about this battle that continues over Texas social studies textbooks.

That battle is history now. Let me give you a bit about this.

Conservatives on the state Board of Education came out on top in the final vote on Friday on what will and will not be included in textbooks used by children. Perhaps students in many other countries will be influenced -- many other states will be influenced by this, as well, because so many of the books bought by Texas are used elsewhere.

The final 9-5 vote came after months of heated and contentious debate that was entirely along party lines. Here is what Texas State Board of Education member Don McLeroy and former Secretary of Education Rod Paige had had to say about the issue on CNN "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DON MCLEROY, MEMBER, TEXAS STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION: We have got the pendulum, I think, steady that we are presenting an accurate view of history.

The second thing, to the specifics of the Atlantic slave trade, the word "slavery" is now inserted twice in that statement. They're very accurate in the civil rights movement. We talk about the key organizations, the key individuals, the key legislation, the key approaches to civil rights. There's plenty of good coverage in the civil rights movement.

ROD PAIGE, FMR. EDUCATION SECRETARY: The point is, we have allowed our education system to become captive to political thinking, both this particular current board and the one in 1999 that this board is responding to. So, it's the concept of we are letting politics take over our education.

And it doesn't matter which spectrum and where that spectrum falls for the right or the left. We want it to be free as possible, our political ideologists, depending on who got elected to the state board at that particular time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, the reason this is happening is because in Texas, they have to update the social studies textbooks every 10 years, and conservatives have said for some time they wanted to do this. Only now do they have the majority in the state to do that.

Now, these new guidelines will be used to teach nearly five million Texas public school students over the next 10 years. They'll also be used by textbook publishers, who often produce textbooks for other states.

Here's a look at some of the changes that are going to be made.

The U.S. government will be referred to as a "constitutional republic" rather than democratic. Students will be taught that separation of church and state is actually something that's not mentioned at all in the Constitution. And they'll study about the decline of the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

We'll, of course, stay on top of this story.

And this hour's top stories begin in the northern Gulf of Mexico.

BP says the latest attempt to plug that colossal oil leak could happen on Wednesday. The so-called top kill involves pumping thick fluid into the ruptured pipe, and then pushing the oil down and sealing it with cement. It's never been tried at 50,000 feet under water. BP says it will be about 10 hours before they know if it's working, once they start on Wednesday morning.

The government of Yemen is expected to try to negotiate the freedom of two kidnapped Americans. The two are said to be tourists who the kidnappers apparently want to trade for some of their imprisoned comrades. A source who managed to contact the victims' driver, who was also kidnapped, says everyone is fine and being treated like guests for now.

And Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in China for economic talks. Her mission has been overshadowed by North Korea, however. Clinton is trying to persuade Chinese leaders to support U.N. Security Council actions against North Korea, which is their ally. North Korea is accused of sinking a South Korean navy ship in March, killing 46 sailors.

All right. When we come back, Chad is going to take us "Off the Radar." Another round of twisters may be coming down the pike in the plains. Plus, he's got amazing, amazing storm chaser footage from the weekend. We'll take a look at that on the other side.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: All right. It is a tourist paradise in the Caribbean, but right now heavily-armed police are patrolling the streets of Kingston, Jamaica. A state of emergency has been declared.

We're going to talk to a reporter on the scene right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. We're going globe trekking right now as we do every day. We're going to go to Kingston, Jamaica. Interesting, a place that is typically associated with a great deal of relaxation. That's not what's going on right now.

Look at this, a state of emergency. Violence has erupted over an alleged drug lord. This popular tourist paradise looked like a war zone over the weekend. Masked men attacked and set fire to several police stations, reports of at least two officers being killed. The unrest apparently triggered by the government's attempt to arrest this alleged drug lord who is wanted in the United States.

Joining us from Kingston, Jamaica, reporter Kirk Abraham.

Kirk, what's the situation now in Jamaica?

KIRK ABRAHAM, RADIO JAMAICA: Right, Ali. Apparently the situation is (INAUDIBLE). As we know now the police -- we're getting information that the police reporting that an all-out assault to re- take (INAUDIBLE) gardens (ph) was launched this afternoon. A wave of violence gripping the corporate area has intensified within the last couple minutes (INAUDIBLE).

But there are reports of hidden gunfire in western Kingston area. Also, that violence is spreading upward into Kingston, going uptown as most (INAUDIBLE). There are reports as well of shooting along Spanish Town Road. (INAUDIBLE) in lower Kingston. But the violence is going up towns in the Red Hills and (INAUDIBLE) area.

VELSHI: Kirk, is there some kind of a popular uprising involved in this? Are there enough thugs to consistently do battle with the police? At some point you would assume the police would get the upper hand.

ABRAHAM: Apparently. But the police are going all-out and they are trying their best to make it a strategic effort on their part, not to create any kind of mayhem. Because the area is known to be a violent area, especially when there is a conflict with police or security forces.

VELSHI: So there's some danger that people could join in on what's going on. But at the moment, it does not seem to be regular citizens involved in these battles with police. It's police, versus, what you're calling thugs. But people involved in the drug trade is what we seem to understand?

ABRAHAM: Right. That's what the police are reporting at this time. And security forces are doing battle.

They haven't said exactly how many persons, we're not aware of a number. It's very difficult to get information at times coming out of West Kingston. But the police are feeding us some information -- limited information -- that we can use at this point.

VELSHI: Kirk, is this something that has been brewing for some time? Obviously to many of us, it's new.

Is this something that's been going on for a while?

ABRAHAM: It has been brewing, but it started in the last week when the Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding here instructed the Justice Minister to sign the expedition warrant for persons of (INAUDIBLE). And warrant was signed on Tuesday. And since that time, the battle wave heated up.

VELSHI: Kirk Abraham, thank you for keeping us up to date, and for letting us know that the violence has intensified in Kingston, in the last few minutes.

We'll keep a close eye onto it.

Let's spin this globe around to continue globe trekking. Let's go now to London. This is a remarkable story. Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, is in hot water again. This one's big. She asked for more than $700,000 in return for access to her former husband, Prince Andrew.

Joining us now, live in London, CNN's Atika Shubert.

Atika, Fergie has actually come out -- it was a very short time between when this was release and had she came out and said, yes, she actually did it.

What are we talking about here?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Basically, Prince Andrew is a trade representative, and she was offering access to him to what she thought was a foreign businessman for the price of about $700,000, and about $60,000 upfront in hard, cold cash.

Turned out that foreign businessman was in fact an undercover reporter from "News of the World.

Here's a little bit of video that they shot showing exactly what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH FERGUSON, DUCHESS OF YORK: If we want to do a big deal with Andrew, then that's the big one.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do. Of course. OK no of course. So you need 500,000 in pounds.

FERGUSON: But that's in wire transfer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That has to be in wire transfer I mean obviously.

FERGUSON: It's a wire transfer that's completely above board. And t6hat goes straight to wire transfer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who do we send that to?

FERGUSON: You send it to the bank account that I tell you to send it to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you give me the bank account details I'll arrange that no problem at all.

FERGUSON: Then that, is then like you open up all the channels whatever you need, whatever you want, and then that's what -- and then you meet Andrew and that's (INAUDIBLE). And that's when you really open up whatever you want.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUBERT: Now, possibly the most damaging part of this video was the fact that she claimed that Prince Andrew knew about her discussions and was backing her claim to introduction fee of sorts.

The Royal Family has flatly denied that, and Sarah Ferguson herself issued an apology saying, quote, "I deeply regret the situation and the embarrassment caused. It is true that my financial situation is under stress. However, that is no excuse for a serious lapse in judgment, and I am very sorry that this has happened." She went further to say, "I can confirm that the Duke of York was not aware or involved in any of the discussions that occurred. I am sincerely sorry for my actions. The Duke has made a significant contribution to his business roll over the last 10 years, and always acted with complete integrity."

In that apology there, she mentions her financial stress. She is believed to be very seriously in debt. We don't know just how much. Clearly she tried to use this route to pay off some of that debt, but it backfired spectacularly, Ali.

VELSHI: What made the reporter do that? Was there some sense that she has done this at other times?

SHUBERT: Well, basically, "News of the World" had been hearing from some palace insiders and those close to the Royal Family that she had been approaching businessmen for money, for selling this kind of access. And that's why they decided to set up this sting operation. And it's pretty incredible that they caught not only her asking for the money on tape, but the fact that she took the $60,000 in cash, very happily. It's a very embarrassing video.

VELSHI: Wow. Atika, OK. Well, keep us posted on how this all unfolds. It'll be interesting to see what happens next.

Atika Shubert, in London, on that very interesting story.

Dr. Maya Angelou has been everything -- I didn't know this a long time ago -- but from a cable car operator in San Francisco to, of course, an activist. We know her best through her words. And I got to hear them one-on-one. So will you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Strength, courage and wisdom, by India Arie.

Everyday around this time we have a segment called "Mission Possible," where we look at people who are making a difference. Recently I went to Dr. Maya Angelou's 82nd birthday party at her home in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. You know her, she's an activist, a singer, a poet, a dancer, a writer, a mother and a lot more things. She is 82 years old, not just a Grammy winner and a best-selling author, she spent time next to timeless icons. She is a portrait of courage and perseverance and authenticity and optimism. She was abused as a child, she was once mute and she rose above it all.

I sat down with her to hear her thoughts, and they make her today's "Mission Possible."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Well, one of the things that's interesting, though, that's you've also said is don't complain.

MAYA ANGELOU, POET: Don't complain, never.

VELSHI: We're in a time where people complain a lot.

ANGELOU: I know, and they whine. And it's dangerous to whine. You see, whining let's a brute know that a victim is in the neighborhood.

What you can do is protest. If you don't agree, protest like hell, protest like heaven, but don't whine. Damn, don't whine. It just -- more than everything, it makes you ugly.

VELSHI: How then do you reconcile what seem to be such big differences in society?

ANGELOU: Well, because people are unfortunately, without courage. They say -- well, you look different from me and your color, your complexion. They think that the connection between complexion makes you different. No, not. And people have the unmitigated gall to think because you're taller, you're richer, you're poorer than I am, so you're not a real human being. It's just ignorance. Only ignorance. The truth is, we are more alike than we are unalike. VELSHI: What's your evaluation of where we really are? Because, again, if you listen to what some of us do and what we hear in the media, you would actually think we're in pretty bad trouble right now.

ANGELOU: No, I think we're doing so well. We are better than we have been. We're not as good off as we will be if we develop enough courage. We -- courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. You can't be consistently fair, kind, true, generous, loving -- you can't be anything consistently.

VELSHI: What's the next chapter for you? You've had so many.

ANGELOU: A-ha. I don't know yet. I don't know yet.

VELSHI: Let me just remind my viewers. You were a cable car operator in San Francisco.

ANGELOU: That's true, at 15.

VELSHI: At 15. You've written more than 30 books.

ANGELOU: That's true.

VELSHI: You've written plays, you speak several languages.

ANGELOU: Yes.

VELSHI: You worked in the Middle East.

ANGELOU: Yes.

VELSHI: You worked in the Civil Rights Movement.

ANGELOU: Yes.

VELSHI: What's the next act?

ANGELOU: I don't know. The lord knows. I'm a child of God.

Now, the difficulty for me, I know that I'm a child of God, my difficulty is knowing that the brute, the bigot, the batter, is also a child of God, whether she or he knows it or not.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: And she finished that sentence by telling me her challenge is to learn how to be nice to everybody. She seems like she has got that one mastered. Eighty-two years, and she has still got big plans.

A little side note, after we wrapped up our interview, some people came to take a picture with Dr. Angelou. She was in her wheelchair, so people would try to lean over to her, and she would say, don't lean over next to me, stand strong, stand tall. I found that remarkable. Stand strong and stand tall. Stop whining, get out there and just plain do things. Thank you, Dr. Maya Angelou, our mission possible for today.

OK, let me bring you up to speed on some of our top stories today.

BP is attempting -- or they're prepping at least -- for their next attempt to plug that ruptured gulf oil well. The top kill method, as they call it, shoots heavy mud-like stuff into the hole and then seals it with cement. BP says it will try and start that by Wednesday. Meantime, Louisiana officials say the slick has penetrated 12 miles into the state's marshy coastline coating pelican breeding grounds and oyster beds.

British Airways cabin crew have kicked off a five-day strike, and they're planning several more in the weeks to come. The crews' union and airline have been butting heads since last year over cutbacks that BA said it needed to make it survive. Employees latest grievances? The loss of generous travel perks. Analysts say this week's walkout could cost the airline close to $150 million.

And five months after the death of actress Brittney Murphy, her husband, Simon Monjack, has been found dead in their LA home. Police say there were no signs of foul play or criminal activity. Monjack was 39 years old. Murphy's death in December was caused by pneumonia, anemia, and multiple-drug intoxication according to the LA County coroner.

OK, when we come back, the head of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, admits to privacy concerns. Says his company has made a bunch of mistakes, he's going to tell us how he's fixing them and what that means to you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Normally this time of day, we do "The Ed Henry Segment" with our senior White House correspondent. Ed is not here today, and that means he can't give me a hard time about having fewer Twitter followers than he has. So why don't we just do a little something today. Why don't you all get out there and follow me @alivelshi, and when Ed comes back tomorrow, we'll have something to show him.

Look, instead of talking about Twitter, we're talking about Facebook. I know a lot of you are on Facebook because that's where I get a lot of your comments from. And by the way, I read every last one of them. So get on there. But if you do get on there and you're not on Facebook, make sure you tweak your privacy stuff, because there has been some issue about it.

I want to bring in my good friend, Shelly Palmer, to talk about this a little bit. Shelly is the host of "MediaBytes," he's a technology expert. And to me, he's a little like spell check on a document, because ever since I got spell check, I don't actually have to spell things properly. With Shelly, I don't even have to understand these things properly about technology, because he's here to help clear it up.

Shelly, let me tell you, I want to read you two quotes from Mark Zuckerberg, he's the founder of Facebook. One was from an editorial opinion in "Washington Post." He says, "There needs to be a simpler way to control your information...In the coming weeks, we will add privacy controls that are much simpler to use. We will also give you an easy way to turn off all third-party services."

Here's the second thing, he wrote a letter to a tech blogger named Robert Scoble and he said, "I know we've made a bunch of mistakes, but my hope at the end of this is that the service ends up in a better place and that people understand that our intentions are in the right place, and we respond to the feedback from the people we serve."

Shelly, tell me for people who might be on Facebook, maybe they're not, unlike those of us who use it regularly, what is this whole thing about?

SHELLY PALMER, TECHNOLOGY EXPERT: Well, first of all, let's just set the stage. Facebook is a for-profit company, these guys have shareholder value as their only goal, and by way, consumers don't pay for it. So you get what you pay for. Everyone clicks on a user license agreement that basically gives away the store.

So let's just stop thinking, oh, they're doing this, they're doing that. What does it mean? It means that when you log on to Facebook and you let them use your data, they will aggregate that data to enrich themselves and to make money for their company. They're trying to take Facebook public, and at the end of the day --

VELSHI: And when you say data, you mean who you are, what you spend, where you buy things, what kind of -- what are they -- what do they monetize?

PALMER: You know, they can't monetize you individually, although a lot of people believe they can. They really can't. That's not what this is about.

What they can do, though, is they can aggregate and you people like you, and they can bring whole audiences to advertisers. And the advertisers like that, because advertisers like to define target audiences who might to buy their stuff and go and reach them, and Facebook is an interesting and good way to do that and it's a very closed system.

So remember, Facebook is in business for Facebook, and when you log on and you decide you're going to take advantage of all these wonderful free things, nothing is free. It comes at a cost.

VELSHI: Now, bottom line is, Facebook is saying they are going to change some things. Is it really going to change things, or is this to satisfy critics who say that they're on some kind of information grab?

PALMER: First of all, they can easily change a couple of things. They can make it significantly simpler.

I mean, what Mark Zuckerberg said in his letter, and he is absolutely right, they had given you very granular control over your privacy settings. And what that means is they gave you a lot of little details you could fix so you could decide if you wanted to make your stuff available to friends, friends of friends, everyone, or basically nobody. But it's too much control and everyone gets confused, and no one knows how to just shut it down. So if they do simplify that, that will be a big help to everyone. And I believe they're going to do that and I believe they think they're going to do that.

VELSHI: And they said they will have something out probably within the week where they'll show you some changes.

Look, if you're going to get on there, it's the same thing, Shelly, you and I both love technology, we love being out there, we love social media. Just use it responsibly, and know that if you're going put something out there, someone might see it. Be careful, use your privacy controls.

SHELLEY: Absolutely right. That's just set 'em and forget 'em.

VELSHI: Shelly, good to see you, my friend.

Thank you so much for making this clear to us.

Shelly Palmer, watch him on "MediaBytes."

PALMER: Always great.

VELSHI: He is our resident technology friend.

All right, straight ahead it is "Wordplay," a crude solution to a crude disaster when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Every day, we take a word or phrase from a big story and show you why it's in the news. We call it "Wordplay."

Today there is very little play, "Top Kill" is our phrase. It's serious business, you've heard it in our coverage of the BP oil leak, a potential means of the broken well bore. Crews dump what they call mud -- it's not really mud, it's a heavy chemical lubricant -- into the hole, it pushes the oil down. If it does push the oil down sufficiently, they will seal the hole with cement.

It's a simple idea, it has worked before above ground. Like so many other ideas, it's never been tried at 5,000 feet under water. Not much has if you're not a fish. They expect to try it around midweek, start Wednesday. Whether it works or doesn't work or sort of works, you'll hear it first right here on CNN.

It was a company that became a part of people's daily lives. These days, not so much. AOL turns 25 today. I'm going to wish is a bittersweet birthday in my "XYZ."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Time for "The XYZ of It."

You've got mail -- it was a phrase and a sound that stood for a new generation, the Internet generations. AOL, through its website, what was then known as a portal, and the access to the Internet that it sold to millions was gateway to the worldwide web.

To many people, you couldn't' have the Internet without AOL either because you used AOL to connect from your home computer or AOL was the home page that popped up, or because your e-mail address ended in AOL.com.

AOL extended the reach of chat rooms from computer nerds into the general public. AOL was where you searched for news, people, and an ever-growing number of web pages. AOL even had its own search system, something called AOL keywords, which for awhile looked like it was going to emerge as the single search method.

At its peak, AOL had 30 million user users. It may not sound like much today, but we're talking over 10 years ago. It was an example of the new media and in the year 2000, it bought one of the world's biggest media -- traditional media companies, Time Warner, the parent of CNN. The company was called AOL Time Warner for awhile.

At its peak, AOL was worth $240 billion, making it the world's biggest media company and most valuable in the world combining AOL's massive online reach with Time Warner's content. It seemed like the best deal in the world, and then the dot-com bubble burst.

AOL's value plummeted, the beginning of an end for a corporate pioneer. AOL tried to make history and in some ways wrote itself out of history. It's not gone. AOL is still a prominent presence on the Internet, and there are still millions of AOL.com e-mail addresses.

Twenty-five years later, the beauty of the Internet is we don't have to worry about how it got to be what it is, just that the Internet works. Today I heard someone say AOL is your grandmother's e-mail. What's so bad about that? I don't know about your grandmothers, mine were women ahead of their time. And for awhile, very a important while, AOL was a company ahead of its time.

That's the "XYZ of It." Time now for Rick Sanchez and "RICK'S LIST."