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Soaking Up Oil in the Gulf; 'Chalk Talk'; Blockbuster Filmmaker Wants to Help Capture Oil; Annie Lennox: AIDS Ambassador; Helping Poor Kids See For Free; Helen Thomas to Retire After Comments on Jews

Aired June 07, 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. It's a new hour. We've got a new rundown. It's day 49 of the disaster in the Gulf. Good news. There is more oil that's being sucked out of the water in the Gulf of Mexico. The bad news, clearly the disaster is going to last more than 49 days. A lot longer.

Plus, imagine, the president of the United States speaking at a high school graduation in your town. One high school got him. I'll tell you exactly how that happened.

And stop making women and children second-class citizens. Annie Lennox says that's one way to help prevent the spread of AIDS. She is our newest goodwill ambassador. We'll talk to her in this show.

But first, let me bring you up to speed with what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico right now.

We have -- let's take a look at that camera, Michael, under the water.

Lots of oil gushing out from under the water. That's because even though there is that top cap under the water, it has vents which will allow the oil to come out without the pressure blowing it off. And as a result of that, you're still seeing a lot of oil.

Now, BP is working on a new cap that's going to have a better seal and isn't going to be affected by the same pressure. They say they've captured 11,100 barrels of oil on Sunday. Barrels. Forty-two gallons per barrel, so 11,100 barrels on Sunday. That's the most that's been captured in a single day.

The cap went on, on Thursday. They say they have captured 27,700 barrels since it was installed.

Now, they're not closing those vents because they don't want the pressure to blow the lid off. Also, there's a ship on the surface, the Discover Enterprise, which is collecting this oil, and it can't actually collect enough of it.

Now, here's what they want to do.

They want to tape that top hat off that they've got, replace it with a new one that fits better and has a better seal. They're working on doing that right now. We don't have a timeline as to when that is going to be ready.

The other thing that they're developing is a device which can go on top of this thing, and then be easily disconnected in the event of a hurricane. So they'll -- you can see that on the left there. It will go from the well up, and there will be a device closer to the surface of the ocean that can be taken off, and the ships can get out of there in case there is a hurricane.

Earlier today, President Obama was commenting on this, about the frustration about how long this is taking and what the end result is going to be.

Listen to his words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This will be contained. It may take some time, and it's going to take a whole lot of effort.

There is going to be damage done to the Gulf Coast, and there is going to be economic damages that we've got to make sure BP is responsible for and compensates people for. But the one thing I'm absolutely confident about is that, as we have before, we will get through this crisis.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right. The other thing I want to tell you about is that there are oil globs in Pensacola, there have booms deployed in Destin. But we were talking to our reporter in Destin a little earlier, Samantha Hayes, and there is no actual oil on the beaches in Destin.

Because of the winds and the currents that Bonnie Schneider was just telling us about, the no fishing zone in the Gulf of Mexico has actually been reduced, believe it or not. On Friday, 37 percent of the Gulf was off limits. Now it is just 32 percent. So things have gotten a little bit better in the Gulf of Mexico.

What we want to do is -- we're talking a lot on this show about solutions to what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico. But BP, by the way, says that they have received more than 40,000 different solutions from people. About 247 of those are in the advance stages of consideration.

But all this week in our "Big I" segment -- every week we do a "Big I," a "Big Idea" that makes things better. We're going to be looking at some of the ideas, products, inventions out there that could help the response to the Gulf oil disaster.

Now, today is something called X-Tex. It's a material that basically loves oil and is indifferent to water, so it soaks up the oil and lets the sea slip right through. Get this -- it can be infused with oil-eating microbes to boost its stopping power.

I'm joined now by Sam Bates. He's with X-Tech (sic), and he can talk to me a little bit about this.

Sam, tell me what this is. First of all, you're joining us from -- where are you?

SAM BATES, ULTRA TECH: We're actually at Pensacola Beach. But, Ali, I just wanted to correct with you. I'm actually with Ultra Tech International. X-Tex is the name of our proprietary absorbent material.

VELSHI: I've got it. So the company is Ultra Tech.

BATES: Yes, correct.

VELSHI: And tell me -- OK, so tell me -- I gave sort of a rudimentary explanation of this, but tell me what it is.

BATES: Well, I'll tell you, and I can show you the fabric here. It very much looks like a carpet fiber, and the big difference between our X-Tex material and a typical oil-only absorbent is that this is hydrophilic. OK? So it's actually water-attracting.

So, the water is going to filter through the fabric. At the same time, the particle is going to hold on to any hydrocarbon present. So it's going to take all the oil out of the water, but allow the water to freely pass through the material.

VELSHI: And where do you put that to get that all to work?

BATES: Well, again, we've been working with X-Tex for over a decade in various environmental products. What we have come up with is an idea for an X-Tex fence. And this acts (ph) like a silk (ph) fence for the water.

As you can see here, we've got it on fence posts, and, of course, this isn't contractor-grade. And this is deployed off the beach, or in front of a marsh, estuary, et cetera. You can knock in the posts, and this is going to make it stable.

This is going to capture any oil that comes in with the tide, with the waves, et cetera. And actually, in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, we've already started deploying this silk (ph) fence.

VELSHI: Yes. And this is -- BP is interested in this. This is one of the examples of an idea that BP is actually using. They're funding that.

BATES: They are funding it, that is correct. Work began on this last week.

VELSHI: Now, is any of the oil --

BATES: In the bigger --

VELSHI: Go ahead.

BATES: No, I was going to say, the bigger picture, too, above and beyond the X-Tex, is actually our oil-eating microbe, as you mentioned. We can infuse the X-Tex with the microbes, and those are going to work to eradicate the oil as it contacts the X-Tex material.

VELSHI: OK. So explain that to me. So, you're capturing the oil, the water is flowing through, this thing is attracting the oil, and then you've got these microbes. What is that? They start working on the oil?

BATES: They do. Actually, the microbes will reside within the pores, within the fabric, microscopic level. So, they're going to be infused in that fabric, and they start eating that oil immediately and they start replicating.

Now, the microbes can also be deployed open ocean. We've deployed these in previous Gulf incidents.

It's proven. We're actually on the EPA -- or I should say, we're registered with the EPA. So this is approved for use. You know, everyone knows about it, but it hasn't been specifically used in the Gulf to date.

VELSHI: What do you do with the oil that's collected? I get the microbes will try and eat some of it up, but this thing takes about -- I read it was about 20 times its own weight in oil will be collected, but at some point it's going to be logged with oil. What do you do with it?

BATES: That's correct. You can actually take the X-Tex fabric off, whatever -- if you have it floating, if you have it on the fence, you can wring it out and actually reclaim 80 percent of the oil that's been absorbed, and then redeploy the product.

VELSHI: Are you in a position there, Sam, to give me a demo of how this works?

BATES: I am. Actually, we've got it set up right here.

As you can see, we have our X-Tex on top of a polyethylene tub here. And what we're going to do is to put motor oil -- this is used motor oil, by the way --

VELSHI: Right.

BATES: -- in water. And then we're going to take that and we're going to pour this over the X-Tex fabric. And I'm actually going to have a glass here to capture the water underneath.

VELSHI: Wow. That looks -- wow.

BATES: And as you can see, look at that, crystal clear. And you can see the X-Tex fabric here. It's captured all of the oil.

VELSHI: Wow!

BATES: A hundred percent. VELSHI: And then, so you take that oil that's captured in the X- Tex on a larger scale, you can squeeze it out, they can try and reclaim that oil, and the X-Tex, the fabric there, can be infused with microbes which will help some of that oil -- what will that do? That will eat some of it up?

BATES: It does. It actually consumes all the hydrocarbons that are present.

And what happens is the byproduct is a fatty acid, so, in essence, fish food. We have actually done an experiment where we have had goldfish in a tank, we had oil floating on top, and then we put our microbes in there. And you can see the goldfish actually start eating the fatty acids as they drop off.

VELSHI: Wow. I don't want you drinking that water that you just poured into it, but that looks pretty clear.

BATES: Actually, I think that's seawater, otherwise I probably would drink that.

VELSHI: Interesting.

I want to ask you, Sam, can you do one more of those? Do you have enough oil that you can do another one of those? I just want my viewers to see that one more time. This is incredible.

BATES: Certainly. We're going to do one more.

VELSHI: BP has got a trial of this going on in Mississippi, in Ocean Shores, Mississippi. This is a fabric that can be put in at the entrance to an estuary so it can capture -- or some body of water. It can capture that oil coming in and separate the oil. It holds the oil back.

Watch this. Let's just take a quick look at this again.

That's oil and water being put on to this fabric. And then there's a glass at the bottom that's collecting the water.

So the water goes through, seawater goes through. The oil is held by that fabric. And that's what it comes out at.

Now, you've got this as an experiment. How widely can this be deployed, Sam?

BATES: Well, we have the capabilities, and, of course, we can always ramp up. But right now we can create about 120 miles or so of this X-Tex fabric. And, again, of course, our production can be ramped up to meet the need.

VELSHI: OK. That's incredible. I'm glad that we got you on here to talk about this.

Sam Bates of Ultra Tech. And we're going to keep on talking about solutions like this. But if people have solutions like this, please just let us know at CNN. We'll make sure that we get the word through.

Sam Bates, thanks very much for joining us. Good luck. I hope that contributes to the cleanup.

BATES: Great. Thank you so much.

VELSHI: All right.

OK. Talk about a year for the record books, the Giants of Kalamazoo Central High School are not only the state basketball champs. The speaker at their graduation tonight, none other than the president of the United States.

We'll tell you what they did to win this special honor right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. In "Chalk Talk," every day we talk about education.

A remarkable victory for a traditional public high school. Later today, President Obama will give the graduation speech at Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The Giants of Central High snagged this honor by winning the administration's Race to the Top high school commencement challenge.

Kalamazoo Central was one of three finalists chosen through public voting on videos and essays that were submitted by the schools. If you want to -- I want you to read part of the essay that was written by students at the Kansas City -- at the KC -- KC, that's what the school is known as.

"Kalamazoo Central is a diverse, dynamic and dedicated community of students and staff committed to our district's mission. Every child, every opportunity, every time. We no longer merely hope for a future; we are confident that we are the future."

Here's part of the school's video. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now it is the home of the Kalamazoo Promise, offering every students four years of free public university tuition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our classrooms are punctuated by resolve of 1,700 sets of lungs breathing and believing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A history. The connections we make daily through scientific feats of wonder --

(END VIDEO CLIP) VELSHI: More than 170,000 people voted online for the six finalists. White House officials narrowed that down to three. President Obama picked a winner.

He cited the diversity of the 1,700-member student body. Also noted was the Kalamazoo Promise -- you just heard about it -- a community program that helps pay graduates' college tuition.

OK. Here's one for you. Hope you're sitting down for this. What happens when lesbian couples raise children? We're going to share results of a study that surprised its own author when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Famous movie director James Cameron doesn't just think up great inventions for his movies, he's actually got an offer that could help clean up the oil spill. But he said he was rebuffed by BP.

Now, he just talked to Larry King and our own Jason Carroll, who's standing by. He's just had a conversation with him. He joins us now from Los Angeles.

What have you got, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me just backtrack just a bit, Ali, and just give you sort of a background of how this all came about.

James Cameron was able to put together a task force, a Gulf oil spill task force of scientists. The reason why he was able to do this is because he's got two decades of experience with deep sea exploration. That's why he was able to bring these people to the table.

They met with members of the EPA last week. And what they have done, Ali, is they've put together a report, a report that's now gone to government agencies today, with their recommendations about how to deal with this crisis.

Just a few hours ago, we met with Mr. Cameron, near his home in Malibu, where he gave us insight into what this report is all about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CAMERON, FILM DIRECTOR: The group's conclusion was there hasn't been enough transparency here. We need to know more about what's going on. They need to take more of an advantage of the engineering and science resources that are out there, you know, because, look, as Americans, everybody loves to get together and work a problem. And here we have a foreign national corporation that's working in a very nontransparent manner.

CARROLL: So what do you think is the next step?

CAMERON: Ideally, for us, the next step would be that the government agencies review our report, and if they see any value there whatsoever, they put us in direct contact with BP, on the one hand, to work the immediate problem of stopping the oil at the source. And they engage with the members of this group, either individually or as a group, to study the environmental impact, you know, with subs, with vehicles, with AUVs and so on, under the surface.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Again, Ali, this report now in the hands of some government agencies that are dealing with this particular crisis.

You know, there are a lot of people out there who wonder why this man is getting involved with this type of project. But as I said a little earlier, you've got to remember, this is a man who also is a scientist in his own right, in many ways, in that he has a lot of experience dealing with this.

Want to point out that later tonight, on CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE," Cameron will be sitting down with Larry, who will be going into more details about this, so you'll have to watch for that. That's at 9:00 p.m. Eastern, and then also again on "AMERICAN MORNING," tomorrow morning. We'll have more of my interview with James Cameron, as well -- Ali.

VELSHI: You know, it's interesting. For people who have seen "Avatar" or haven't, the fact is it was about the relentless search for something very valuable. And a lot of people felt that it was oil that he was talking about, and the destruction of a planet because of the attempts to get to it. So, not only has he got that scientific background, but he seems to be passionate about the Earth and things that we do as humans that destroy it.

CARROLL: Clearly. And you know where his passion comes from? It's caring about the environment, but it's also, as James told me a little earlier, when he was standing by and watching what was going on, he said, "You know, I know all of these people in the scientific community. Why don't I try to bring them together, put their heads together, see what we can come up with, put these recommendations out?"

Now, initially, when he had reached out to the folks at BP, they said they were not interested, at least at this time. I think what the hope is now is that now that this report is put together, he can get it to the government agencies, they have an independent sort of source to look at, and maybe BP will come back to the table, they'll take a look. Maybe they'll find something that will work, maybe not.

VELSHI: Jason, good to see you. A lot of people don't know you and I were officemates for a long time in New York. It's always a pleasure to spend a little time on TV with you.

Jason Carroll in Los Angeles.

CARROLL: You bet.

VELSHI: Watch his report later tonight and on "AMERICAN MORNING." And watch James Cameron on "LARRY KING LIVE," tonight at 9:00 Eastern, only on CNN.

OK. Soccer, or, as some call it, the real football, the world's most popular sport. If you don't believe me, I'm going to prove it to you when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Let's have that soccer ball.

You've seen me with this before. It's my soccer ball. It is the -- it's a cool ball. It's the final ball for the World Cup, or replica of it, 2010 World Cup.

It's T minus four days until the World Cup, and the world is waiting. The World Cup is the biggest soccer tournament in the world, held every four years, like the Olympics.

This year, the month of matches is being played in South Africa. Soccer is the most popular sport on earth, played in over 200 countries.

We're going to guide you through it, through the World Cup. So, if you want to be a fan, this is the place to watch.

How does it work? Countries across the globe have been competing for two years to qualify. Thirty-two national teams outlined in orange are competing.

They have made the cut. They're the big ones you've heard about -- Brazil, France, England, Argentina. There's some you may not have seen, like Ghana.

Now, to figure out who advances, they divide all the teams into groups of four. The teams play each other in that group. The winner advances and plays the winner of another group.

Let's take a look at team USA. They're playing England this Saturday, for instance.

There are two other countries in their groups, Slovenia and Algeria. After the U.S. plays England, they still need to play Slovenia and Algeria.

Basically, every team in the group plays every other team in the group. Then the top two go on.

So, let's say the U.S. and England win. They go on to the next level. That level will have the top 16 teams.

From there, it's a basic elimination system to determine the winner, the World Cup champion. That is played on July 11th in Johannesburg.

Athletes' vigor will be tested, their futures decided. Millions of viewers bite their nails, cheer on their favorite teams. Soccer, or what other countries call "the real football," has got to be one of the most unifying and divisive sports out there. The whole world will be watching in the next month. So will we.

All right. Here's something you are definitely going to want to watch. Legendary singer and social activist Annie Lennox, also known for her worldwide fight against HIV and AIDS, is standing by. We're going to talk to her, live, right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

VELSHI: All right. One of the best things about this job is some of the fantastic people you get to meet. It's even better when those fantastic people continue to do fantastic things.

Annie Lennox -- you will know her for tremendous solo career, her career with the Eurythmics -- she joins me now. She's been named the United Nations AIDS ambassador.

And on her left, your right, Michel Sidibe. He's the executive director of UNAIDS.

They join me now.

I'm going to be with you guys in a second.

I want to bring our viewers up to speed on what is going on in the world of AIDS right now.

Let me just start by showing you that in 2008, the most recent year for which we have full figures, according to the United Nations, 33.4 million people in the world were living with AIDS or HIV, 2.7 people newly infected with HIV in the year 2008. And finally, in the year 2008, still two million AIDS-related deaths.

It's something that some people think is under control. There have certainly been major advances in the treatment and diagnosis of AIDS, but the bottom line is, in 2008, two million people around the world still died of AIDS.

Let's join my guests now, Annie Lennox and Michel Sidibe.

Thank you very much for joining us.

VELSHI: Annie Lennox, you've had a long history with fighting AIDS. Tell me about this new mission.

ANNIE LENNOX, U.N. GOODWILL AMBASSADOR: Well, my history goes back to 2003, when I had the opportunity to join with Nelson Mandela when he launched his 4664 HIV/AIDS foundation in South Africa. That experience completely changed my life and my whole perception of the world, because I realized that women and children were at the forefront of the HIV/AIDS pandemic and it wasn't something that I hadn't understood before. And as a woman and a mother myself, I decided that I have to use my voice and my platform to speak up for those millions of women and children who are just struggling barely to survive.

VELSHI: Tell me about this, women and children being at the forefront of the struggle. What do you mean by that, and what can you do to try and change it?

LENNOX: You know, there are very different worlds that we live in. In the western world, there's no comparison to the kinds of situations that women are constantly having to deal with in the developing countries, or so called. But I still would still like to say third world, you know, because actually, the world is -- their world is so different from ours.

I myself have all the rights -- I can vote, I have freedom of speech, I have access to medical care, education, housing, clean water. When you go to those countries, you are meeting women who have none of those things. It is a completely different thing.

So I feel that a woman like myself and women like myself who have had these privileges, can partner with our -- our generation of women, our sisterhood, if you like, around the globe to make sure that the mortality rates of women and their children starts to come down.

You saw the figure that you just read out from 2008. Millions of people are affected and you don't read about this in the covers of newspapers. You read about swine flu, you read about the bird flu, all these kind of pandemics. You're not hearing about HIV and how it's affecting women. And we absolutely must address this issue. It is a human rights issue.

VELSHI: Michelle, let's talk about those numbers for a second -- 33.4 million people living with AIDS in 2008, 2.7 million newly infected, 2 million dead. Can you give me a sense of the trend? Where are we in the world of more AIDS, less AIDS, better cure, fewer infections, more infections?

MICHEL SIDIBE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNAIDS: I think it's very important to just acknowledge that we have been making progress. During the last five years, for example, we managed to improve (ph) the global solidarity to put 5 million people on treatment. We have to remember that just five years ago, we were having less than 400,000 people on treatment, which means that we scale up our programs by tenfold, which never happened during the last 20 years in any public health programs.

But at the same time, we have to recognize that 10 million people are waiting for treatment and we don't know what will happen with the 4 million people on treatment today because if tomorrow we don't continue to have the negotiation for making sure that we will have access to drugs which are cheaper, we will be certainly facing a major social crisis because those people could start to die.

VELSHI: Annie Lennox, we know what people with your influence and your reputation can do to help these causes. What specifically can you do that hasn't been done before in this new role? What role can you have that can actually draw attention other than things like this, visiting with us, which we appreciate, to actually change the trend of AIDS infection, AIDS treatment?

LENNOX: Yes. My role as a U.N. AIDS goodwill ambassador gives me strength of platform and a breadth of outreach that I haven't had before, and this is of incredible value. I want to get access to the people that are the change-makers, the policymakers, the politicians, the business people, the corporate people, the people that really with their help and their support and with becoming inspired, they can get on board with this issue.

And so, I feel incredibly humbled by being offered this position, indeed. And I simply want to contribute, because I feel that my own life, I've received so many things. This is for me about engagement and giving back and saying that it isn't good enough that so many women and children are dying because they have not got access to good health and good treatment and good nutrition. This is simply unacceptable.

VELSHI: How does this mission compare? I have to ask you. I mean, I'm a big fan of yours. How does this sort of mission compare with the work you did when you were, you know -- when you're on -- when you're on the road, when you're making all these records, and you're performing all of the time. This is a big mission for you.

LENNOX: Yes, it certainly is. It's almost like my second coming.

(LAUGHTER)

LENNOX: It's -- there are certain similarities. I guess I learned how to respond in interview situations, and I had a lot of experience in that and a lot of experience in dealing with people. So I think that when you fuse the platform of music and music-making with social issues, issues about human rights and justice, then you really have something very strong, have a powerful message to send to people.

And I'm very motivated, because as I say, I'm a mother. I identify with all women who have children and their children, too. And so I think this is a real privilege for me to be able to do this kind of campaigning work.

VELSHI: Great. And it's a privilege to have you on here, Annie Lennox. Thank you so much for joining us. Michel Sidibe, thank you for joining us and we wish you continued good work in the fight against HIV and AIDS. Thanks for being with us.

SIDIBE: Thank you very much. Thanks a lot.

LENNOX: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right, we want to continue with our "Mission Possible" after this. The vision to help needy kids see. It's a high-fashion mission. High-fashion "Mission Possible," actually, right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, I'm going to check out some top stories for you right now.

Oil has leaked into the Gulf of Mexico for 49 days. Now we're covering every angle of this disaster. A bleak assessment today from the government's point man. Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says it will take years to clean up the damage. But according to Allen and BP, the total amount of crude collected from the ruptured undersea well is going up.

The battle against the oil right now involves hundreds of thousands of individual patches, according to Thad Allen, and in the think of the battle, small vessels in the area are helping capture the patches using skimmers. The oil slick has stained beaches and marshes in spots along more than a hundred miles of coast from Louisiana to the Florida panhandle.

And it is time today, as we always do, for "Mission Possible." A designer with a vision to help kids in need. Yves Behar started a new program called "See Better to Learn Better." It aims to give out 300,000 pairs of glasses, eyeglasses, to school kids age 6 to 18 years. It's an effort in partnership between Behar's fuseproject, the Mexican government and Augen Optics.

Yves Behar joins us now from San Francisco. Yves, thanks very much for being with us and telling us a bit about this project. Tell me how this came about.

YVES BEHAR, INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER & FOUNDER, FUSEPROJECT: Absolutely, thank you, Ali.

This project came about on the -- right after we designed the one laptop per child, the $100 laptop. And this organization in Mexico called "See Better to Learn Better" contacted us and realized that if we could design the glasses so they would be attractive, we could do something for Mexican kids. On average, 11 percent of Mexican kids are not learning in school, basically because they can't see very well. And so this is an obvious smart investment into the kids' schools there.

VELSHI: Fascinating. Because you were involved in the One Laptop per Child, and I think everybody in the world can get that, wow, that's great, bringing technology to kids who can't afford it, but we don't think of the simple stuff, these kids who can't afford eyeglasses can't see properly. What's interesting with yours is that these are sort of fashionable eyeglasses.

BEHAR: Yes, the idea is to really go, you know, beyond the stigma. In Mexico, there is a stigma, kids don't want to wear glasses, it's really seen as a handicap. They get sort of standard issue black glasses, and that isn't something they want.

So we designed glasses where they can make choices. They can pick their own colors, they can really customize them themselves. So when they get to be a part of design process there, they really sort of own them and they love the fact that they make them unique.

And in all of the distribution we've done so far, the kids, you know, really sort of love their own glasses. They own them now.

VELSHI: What do they pay for them, what do you pay for them? How does this all work out financially?

BEHAR: Well, financially, there's a nonprofit called "See Better to Learn Better" based in Mexico City. And they -- you know, they cover half the cost, which is about $10, and that includes an eye exam, that includes the glasses, custom lenses, and shipping of the glasses. So all this for $10. The Mexican government pays $5. Verbyn (ph) gets contributions for the other half.

VELSHI: Excellent Does this have the Yves Behar name on them? How does it -- these kids are wearing fashionable glasses, does that get the word around about your company?

BEHAR: You know, it's really important to me to demonstrate -- to continue to demonstrate that, you know, design creates value. I mean, Apple's valuation today is exactly the same as Microsoft's, right? But, you know, to extend, you know, beyond products for profit and into products that people need, I think what is really important.

So we sort of do a lot of this work pro bono. It's worked, it's really important to do as designers. And we believe it's work that changes the world with design.

VELSHI: Well, you've got a real history of this sort of thing, especially with the One Laptop per Child. Tell me about this FlexBook program. What's that all about?

BEHAR: FlexBooks is basically delivering textbooks for kids in high school, and those are delivered for free and they're delivered online. This is the mission of an organization called CK-12 that headed by Neeru Khosla. It's another way to sort of bring ease of use, to bring, you know, design, to bring technology to children in ways that make it customizable, make it easy for them to use and reduce the cost.

VELSHI: What drives you through all this? Because we -- we do this every day. We talk to somebody who does something, and sort of -- is kind of a driver for them to try and change the world. What got you into this whole let's make learning better for kids?

BEHAR: Well, you know, I always thought -- my definition of good design is that good design treats people well. And as I said earlier, you know, that creates profit for, you know, businesses.

But nonprofits need the same thing. They need to, you know, make essentially their constituencies, they need to make, you know, their customers happy. And that means that good design can be used for other ends. Good design can be used to provide, for example, high- quality products.

The problem is, most products design for the developing world are really, you know, cheap, low-cost, low technology, hand-me-downs, really. And I think when you do something for the developing world, which is made just for them, just for the kids, just for what it is that they need, very specifically designed for them, it makes a whole difference.

I mean, I'll use an example right now. You know, these glasses, they're made out of a material, you can see -- you know, you can't break them. They're made out of a material which is very high-tech. And that kind of material, you know, never makes it into -- into those types of projects. And, you know, that really demonstrates to these organizations that they can achieve their aims, just much better through design.

VELSHI: I want to see if I can do that. I can't do that with my glasses, by the way. I won't try that.

Yves, great to see you. Thanks so much for doing all this great work and thanks for visiting us. I like the idea of design making people's lives better.

Yves Behar, designer, talking about "See Better to Learn Better." Thanks for being with us. Excellent-looking glasses, by the way.

BEHAR: Thank you, bye-bye.

VELSHI: All right, let's see what kind of glasses he's got on. Is he wearing anything? There he is, Ed Henry.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I'm wearing something, yes. No glasses, but I'm wearing something.

VELSHI: He's a fashionable guy. We'll be talking to Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent. He's on "The Stakeout," coming up next.

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VELSHI: Hey, Ed was here the other day, we were bandying around calling his gig "The Stakeout," because he's always where -- you know, he follows the president around, has to get there before, has to talk about what's going on. So we're trying this out for size. "The Stakeout" with our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry.

Good to see you, Ed.

HENRY: Good to see you. You say it with such gusto. It's impressive.

VELSHI: Well, it's big. You're always there for us. You're always giving us a different angle. Even this shot, it's different than everyone else's.

And today I want you to tell us what angle we need to know about with the president, who is meeting with his cabinet, and he gave us a little bit of a sneak preview in there, he's talking about the oil spill. What did he say?

HENRY: I think the angle to watch now is how his rhetoric is shifting to say, look, the spill is maybe finally turning the corner, maybe the cap is finally starting to work, but nevertheless, this is going to be a huge problem for weeks and weeks, months and months. He's preparing the American people now, essentially, for the worst environmental disaster in American history. We've already heard that that's the case. But he's realizing now, for the foreseeable future we'll see these birds with oil all over them, washing up on shore.

I mean, Thad Allen was in the briefing room here today with Robert Gibbs basically saying that they feel like they're starting to contain this, but there's still hundreds of thousands -- he said hundreds of thousands of patches of oil washing up not just in Louisiana, obviously, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. We've been watching it constantly around the clock on CNN.

And so it's a case where the federal government is just constantly trying to get its arms around this thing and it's going to take a long time.

VELSHI: Ed, tell me why you're standing where you are right now.

HENRY: Well, I am right in front of Helen Thomas's seat. You can see the sign down there that will be coming off soon. She announced her retirement today, and it's a sad day around here, because that's the word I keep hearing from colleagues at all kinds of other networks and newspapers. She is a constant presence here, she has been for so long.

A quick story. Four years ago, I started -- I moved over to the White House beat. My first morning I wanted to get here real early. It was 5:00, 5:30 in the morning, I went to the Starbucks at the corner of 17th and Pennsylvania, the only other person there was Helen Thomas talking to a friend of hers drinking coffee, 5:00 in the morning. And I thought, wow, she was about 86 years old at that point and here is a woman beating most of us into work every morning, still pounding pavement for a story. That was impressive.

A woman, who when she first started covering the Kennedy administration, you know, the National Press Club was really only open to men. Women had to stand up in the balcony. It was because of her and Fran Lewine of the Associated Press, later of CNN -- the late Fran Lewine, I should add -- someone that many people at CNN just love. They fought and they fought and they finally got it opened it up to women, as well. So she broke so many barriers. But she made these comments last week about Jewish people, and there is no way to spin them.

And I should disclose that I'm on the board of the White House Correspondents' Association, and we put out a tough statement today saying that they're indefensible. A short while later, she announced she is stepping down.

And there's just no way to defend the comments, but there's also no way to erase the many, many years that she was in this briefing room pressing presidents of both parties and she -- she leaves quite a legacy.

VELSHI: Ninety years old, is that right?

HENRY: She turns 90 on August 4th, I believe it is. It's the same day of the president's birthday. And you'll remember that last year, in August, president brought some cupcakes out to her seat. So, you know, they were planning a big party for her, maybe, on August 4th and now I'm sure there will still be a party, but it's going to be a much different mood, I'm sure.

VELSHI: Ed Henry and "The Stakeout." We will talk to you again tomorrow. Great to see you, my friend.

HENRY: Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, today, "Wordplay." The word we're going to use been knocking around in the headlines for a few weeks, but we're still hearing that people are a little fuzzy on it. By the way, so is BP, so we're going to fill you in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. Time now for "Wordplay," where we take a term out of the top stories in the news, we give you the bottom line on it. Today we're taking another look at the word "plumes."

We're used to doing a double take at them. The standard usage, of course, is for feathers on birds, male birds by the way. But about eight definitions in, we got this -- a moving or rising expanding fluid body of smoke or water or in this case, oil.

Separate groups of scientists have reported multiple oil plumes, some miles wide deep below the Gulf. They can be made up of microscopic dispersed oil droplets, oily globs, marble to golf-ball sized.

BP has been pushing back, though. Just last week, CEO Tony Hayward said emphatically, there are no plumes. I guess we'll see tomorrow. Government and University of South Florida scientists reveal whether the undersea oil has the same chemical fingerprint as the oil from the BP-busted well.

OK, disasters may end, but people still suffer. I'm going to look back at one of the worst industrial disasters in history, one that is still taking a human toll. That's in my "XYZ" coming up next.

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VELSHI: Time now for "The XYZ of It."

As our coverage of one of the biggest manmade disasters continues, I'm reminded of the lives ruined by disasters in the past and how companies don't always do the right thing long afterward. In December 1984, 25 years ago, a toxic chemical escaped from a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, in central India. Today, an Indian court convicted seven top executives of negligence, endangering public life and causing hurt. Four thousand people died instantly in what is still one of the world's worst industrial disasters, another 1,000 or so died soon after; more than 10,000 other deaths have been blamed on related illnesses and more than half a million survivors have reported serious health problems.

The seven executives of the now defunct Indian arm of U.S.-based Union Carbide got the maximum punishment allowed in the case, a two- year prison term and the equivalent of a $2,000 fine each. They had faced stronger charges of culpable homicide, but in 1996, India's supreme court downgraded those charges. One defendant escaped punishment, he died during the trial. Not too surprising, given the case took 20 years to conclude.

Today, Union Carbide is a subsidiary of Dow Chemical. In 1989, the company paid a $470 million settlement. It claims the disaster was a result of sabotage by an employee, and it says it has no further liability. Indian prosecutors blame maintenance and design of the plant.

One victim's advocacy group says the average survivor has received about $500 in compensation. They say the Indian government hasn't done enough to prosecute, because they don't want to seem unfriendly toward foreign investment.

Twenty-five years later, the disputes continue. People say they're still getting sick and that the payouts were too small. That's the legacy of massive disasters that pit humanity and nature against profit and industry.

We're now 49 days into the Gulf oil disaster. Certainly Bhopal was much larger as a human tragedy, but let's remember that lives were lost directly in this oil disaster, too, and livelihoods were and continue to be ruined. Let's hope people suffering from the disaster in the Gulf don't have to wait a quarter of a century for a resolution.

That's my "XYZ." Here's Rick.