Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Chilean Miners Could be Hours From Rescue; Bill Clinton Campaigning in Las Vegas; Inside the MIT Media Lab
Aired October 12, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: The man's show is stacked. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thank you. Stacked with a lot of the same stuff you were talking about including these Chilean miners whose rescue is just hour as way.
I'm Ali Velshi, and for the next two hours today and every weekday, I'll guide you through the maze of information coming your way. Together, we're going to learn what's going on at home and around the world. You're going to get access to folks who can best explain what it means today and the impact it'll have on your life beyond today.
We'll showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy, and public education. My mission is to help you figure out what's going on around you fits into your life. Let's get started right now. Here's what I've got on the rundown.
Supporters say it makes sense financially and socially. Opponents say it would open the door to crime and drug addiction. We're talking about the battle to legalize pot 21 days ahead of the midterm election.
Plus, air bags, e-readers, wireless mesh networks, the concepts for all of them and much more came out of one lab. What are they working on now? We'll talk to the guy in charge.
And of course, trapped deep underground for 68 days now, those 33 Chilean miners are just hours away from fresh air and sunlight. Their ordeal is only beginning. And that's where we're going to start, and it is just hours from the start. That's the word we're hearing from Chile's minister of mines on when the rescue of the 33 trapped miners will get underway. Beside me here is a basic model we've built of the steel capsule that will be used to hoist the miners from the rock cavern where they survived about half a mile underground for more than two months now.
I want to show you a graphic. It shows you what happened when the cave-in occurred. The cave-in happened over here on the left. You can see the miners tried to get out. They couldn't. So, they went back down into an area underneath sort of the size of a living room. The little line that you can see there, that's where -- that was a supply tube. It's about four inches wide. That's how they got food and water and medicine and that's how they communicated with the outside world.
The big one is the one that was drilled. That one is the one that is where they're getting rescued from. Now, if everything goes according to plan in just a few hours from now, the capsule like the one that you were seeing, we'll show you in these pictures, they're going to lower a rescuer down to the miners to start the process of bringing them to the surface one by one. Over the next couple of hours, officials are testing the capsule. They're lowering it into the rescue shaft, pulling it back.
The minister of mines says the operation will not start until they're sure everything is working properly. Last, we checked they were talking about 11:00 eastern tonight. Now, this gives you -- let me just give you an animation that gives you a rough idea of how this plan is going to work. The miners will get in to that capsule. It goes up up to the top. It's going to take about 10 to 15 minutes for the capsule to travel to the surface.
It's going to take longer to get it down, by the way. It's going to take about 25 minutes to get it down because it's pulled up mechanically with a winch. It comes back down with gravity. Chad is with me here to talk about this a little bit. We have talked for a long time, Chad, about how big this thing is.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
VELSHI: For purposes of efficiency of getting that hole drilled quickly, they made a decision that it's going to be about 22 inches, right?
MYERS: Well, yes. The hole itself about 28.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: And then this structure is going to fit inside it, right?
VELSHI: So, let's just show people what that's about.
MYERS: Right. And there are wheels on this one.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: To help it go along the roadway a little bit better.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That's pretty small.
VELSHI: Yes. I mean, I'm a little shrugged in here. If you're any bigger than me, you're going to be shrugged in pretty close.
MYERS: And I'm sure there will be bigger guys --
VELSHI: Yes. And they've been feeding these guys -- they've been trying to get them on a lower calorie diet and get them to exercise a whole lot, so that they can all fit into here and that's going to help them. They're also ingesting particular foods. They don't want them getting nauseous in here because they're going to be giving them anti-anxiety drugs and things like that.
MYERS: Well, it wouldn't be great if this thing went straight up without any bumps.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: It's not going to happen.
VELSHI: Right. And on the side of the real module, there are little wheels and things that will help them.
MYERS: It doesn't go straight up.
VELSHI: Right. It goes on angle.
MYERS: The hole doesn't go straight down.
VELSHI: Right. Right.
MYERS: So, this thing is going to have to go down at an angle.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: These guys are going to be bouncing along with all their weight on one side for awhile --
VELSHI: Which is why it rotates.
MYERS: It rotates around.
VELSHI: Right. So, you're not just at one angle the whole time.
MYERS: Right. And they think this is going to take about 20 minutes. And I was texting back with some guys from ThyssenKrupp Elevator -
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Thinking how fast do elevators really go?
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: They go between 50 feet per second or up to about 500 feet per minute. And so, -- so, if you're going to go from one floor to the next, you go slowly, so you don't get, you know, you don't lose your lunch. Right. If you're going from floor 1 to 20, it can go much faster.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: But this thing is going to go about one mile per hour.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: The very fastest elevator I can find, series tower, goes 19 miles per hour.
VELSHI: OK. So, it's going to be slow.
MYERS: On the express to the top.
VELSHI: And they're giving them these drugs to help them. So, here's how it's going to happen, by the way. When they give the go- ahead for this mission to start, one rescuer is going to go down in the first shuttle. And he's going to get out there.
MYERS: Yes.
VELSHI: And then he's going to get pulled out. A miner is going to get in. That's going to happen three times.
MYERS: I think two guys are going to go down first.
VELSHI: In fact, I think it's going to be three guys. After the third guy reaches the bottom, then it's just lifting these guys out. The first few to come out will be the ones with the expertise to handle any possible technical problems as this thing goes up. So, they got to be the guys who might be able to do something about. There's an escape hatch, by the way. If this doesn't work, they can be lowered back to the ground while the top of this thing stays up.
MYERS: That scares me --
VELSHI: You know, most of the way up and something goes wrong.
MYERS: Oh, I thought the escape hatch was going to be like this, right?
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: So, that in case you had opened, you could open it.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: And that's as big as the hole is. How are you going to get out of that hole?
VELSHI: So, there's an escape patches to be --
MYERS: Down the bottom.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: Exactly. You can pull a lever, the whole bottom falls out.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: And you'll be lowered back down. Amazing.
VELSHI: All right. So, that's going to happen, and then by the way, after the guys with the technical experience are brought to the top, they're going to lift the guys up who have medical problems.
MYERS: Right.
VELSHI: There are some who have heart conditions, things like that. They're going to be lifted up to the top first. Now, they have received CDs of their favorite music, photos and videos of their loved ones. They've got clean clothes. They are going to be wearing jumpers, green overall sort of as they come up. This whole operation, start to finish, we think about this, if it takes 20 minutes to go up and it takes 25 minutes to lower per person, this thing could take 36, 48 hours from the time it starts.
They've got coveralls with their names embroidered on it. We got pictures of what they had. That's what they're going to look like. That's what the coveralls are going to look like. They're designed of material -- design to resist moisture. They'll wear a special belt that will monitor their vital signs. They'll be given a blanket with their names on it six hours before the mission begins which is about six hours from now.
So, in about six hours from now, they're going to switch to a diet of just liquids, vitamins and minerals in an attempt to mitigate their possible dizziness, and of course, panic. This is like a coffin.
MYERS: And, of course, if it's a liquid diet and if someone does get sick, it's a lot easier to clean up.
VELSHI: Right. Right.
MYERS: And they were thinking about that as well. In the process, do you remember the one that the men that came out of Quecreek mine in Pennsylvania?
VELSHI: Yes, and this is a similar concept to highly (ph) got them out.
MYERS: We loved seeing the pictures.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: We are Americans. We are journalists.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: We loved seeing the pictures. We believe and we have been told by the government that this will be a private event.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That they will cover this up.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: We will not be able to see this. So, maybe, there'll be one pool camera where everybody gets to see one picture. VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: But there may actually be very anti-climactic for us because they may not let us see the men coming up, and you know --
VELSHI: Either way, we'll be on it. We'll be reporting it as it happens.
MYERS: Absolutely.
VELSHI: Chad, thanks very much. We'll show our viewers a lot more about this through the course of the show.
Now, even if this mission goes exactly as planned, the ordeal for these miners is far from over. Life on the surface is actually going to be harder than you can imagine. We're going to take a look at what life is going to be like for them when this is all over.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We've been talking a lot about these miners in Chile. We're going to be talking about them over the next 24, 36, 48 hours as they are rescued from that mine. We can only wonder what they are thinking about as they get ready to leave that cramp, dark world they've been in for 68 days. We've got some hints. Before they ride up, they asked for shampoo and clean clothes, even shoe polish. These are proud men. They're concerned about looking their best when they finally get to see and touch their families.
It means they're in good spirits, but their reunions and their return to life as they know it is probably going to be a lot tougher than even they know. They could, believe it or not, face separation anxiety from the men they bonded with in their long battle to survive and stay sane. And they're all going to be instant celebrities.
On CNN's "American Morning," John Roberts discussed the difficult transition with Dennis O'Dell. He's a former miner who's now the Safety and Health administrator for the United Mine Workers of America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS O'DELL, UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICA: These guys have become immediate heroes throughout the world, and so, that's something they're going to have to deal with, and it's going to be tough for them, you know, to reunite with their families and all this notoriety and attention that they're going to get is sometimes it's tough to deal with, and that's going to be tough for them to be able to blend back in.
And then you got to think about, too, you know, weeks from now, they got to figure out, OK, this is how I provided for my family. This is what I did for, you know, and do I really want to go back in a mine? I mean, a lot of these guys, because of the ordeal they've been through, they don't want to go back underground, and they're going to have to figure out where they go from this point. JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. That area of the country, there's not a whole lot of employment around other than the mine. It's going to way up high in the Atacama Desert. There's not a whole lot else around. And so, unless, they want to move to a bigger town or maybe, you know, Santiago or something like that, they would have to go back in the mine if they want to continue to provide for their family. That would have to be a really tough decision.
O'DELL: It will be a tough decision. And some of them won't be able to handle that. Some of them may be able to go back underground, and then, I'm sure a majority of them may not want to. They may have pressure from their family members to not go under too because you got to realize the emotions they put their loved ones through well. So, they're going to get pressure from them don't go, don't go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Now, O'Dell has dealt with a number of U.S. mine disasters including the 2003 accident in Pennsylvania where nine miners were rescued with a capsule that served as a prototype for the one we showed you, the one they're going to use in Chile.
All right. We've been talking about jobs all week because we got our big jobs number last Friday. Not all the decent job possibilities out there are for folks with college degrees. I talked about it a little bit yesterday. We're going to prove it to you now. Your money, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Hey, if you were watching yesterday, we talked with Mike Rowe. He hosts "America's Dirtiest Jobs." He was talking about getting Americans back to work who don't have college degrees, and he said part of it is understanding and respecting the work that's out there. We really do get very tied up in talking about college degrees being the only thing that matters. Hey, listen, I'm not going to tell you don't get a college degree.
It definitely reduces your chance of being unemployed, but you can actually do well and earn a lot of money, a good salary in a number of jobs that don't require college degrees. Christine has written about this in her new book "Smart is the New Rich." It is available today. I love it. And I'm going to keep telling ever body I love it. There you go. There's a picture. Smart is the New Rich."
Christine, you and I talked about this a lot. We really think it's our role to try and at least steer people in the direction of jobs that are available to them. And you focused on jobs that you don't need a four-year college degree for.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right, because you will hear over and over people say, oh, if you want to be successful, you need to get this particular job and health care that pays $190,000 a year and take six more years of training. Well, you don't have a time for that and not everybody wants to be an anesthesiologist or an emergency room physician or mechanical engineer for that matter. So, we put together the (INAUDIBLE) about the really good pay, but no degree.
Now, I want to be clear. A lot of these are ladder jobs. So, it means you got to keep out with the training.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: It takes out in the trenches. And you probably have to do some continuing education but doesn't take a four-year degree. Radiation therapist, tops this list, median pay, 77 grand. The top, top earners here are well over six figures. Construction superintendent, a general sales manager, look, if you can sell it and you are good.
I mean, if you can make a living in sales and become a sales manager, you can do well. Fashion designer, also on this list, although I would probably say there aren't a lot of fashion designer jobs to be going for.
VELSHI: Right. And you actually need to have some -- you have to have some very specific skills for that too that you don't learn in school.
ROMANS: That's absolutely true. Senior charge nurses on here, and as we spoke to second screen (ph), you'll see the health care jobs are also on here. There are lots of different jobs in nursing that take an associate's degree. Two years or maybe, you know, you're adding up the education over the course of the career, but in nursing, there are ladder jobs, as well.
ICU, registered nurse, semiconductor field service engineer, that's if you're a technical person, you can work with your hands. You get the right kind of training, 71 grand. These are median pay. I mean, you're probably mid-career making pay like this.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: But these are areas where you can match your skills without necessarily matching $40,000 a student loan --
VELSHI: But some of them like the radiation therapist, things like that, they do require some training. You do have to go -- you got to take courses for them. Some of them don't. And, again, I mean, I think we need to underscore. You and I are still proponents. When you look at the numbers, it still indicates that if you have a college degree, your chance of being unemployed in this changing dynamic economy is greater, but there really are some great options for you.
ROMANS: There are. And, you know, if you have an advanced degree, the unemployment rate is something like 2.9 percent.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: So, let's be honest. And people who have a lot of skills coupled with the big fancy education, they're doing just fine in this economy, but the question is, Ali, the millions of people who aren't, and what are they going to do in the near term? And so, there's a bigger question here about this pay gap or this jobs gap rather, and I want to bring you this economic policy institute chart that a lot of people have been talking about today.
This is a graphic representation of how far behind we are. That red line, Ali, if we were just to stay steady and add the right number of jobs to absorb new people into the labor market, that's where we'd be. The red lines where we should be --
VELSHI: And the yellow line is where we are.
ROMANS: Yes. And you know, in that September jobs report, we know now that we lost about 336,000 jobs more in the recession than we thought we did. So, for those of you who kept telling us it feels worse than you're saying it is, well, you know, the numbers are now bearing out.
There were another 336,000 jobs eliminated over the course of the recession. We have some (ph) lot of work to do. So, any discussion of jobs I think is important to show something like that to show you how much work we do have to dig to get a hole (ph). VELSHI: And we will continue to talk about it as we have for years together, but read the book. Christine's book is available now.
ROMANS: Thanks, Ali.
VELSHI: You can find this information in her book. It's called "Smart is the New Rich." It really is. It's available today. You can also watch Christine and me every weekend Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. eastern, Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Christine will be having segments about "Smart is the New Rich" in the show every week.
OK. The politics of pot, marijuana, by the way. Twenty-one days ahead of the midterm election, the battle over legalizing marijuana is as heated as ever. We've got both sides in this argument coming up on the other side of the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: We are 21 days away from the midterm elections. One of the hot button issues on the ballot in four states is marijuana. Proposition 19 in California as an example would make it legal to possess pot for recreational use. Let's break this down. It's called the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. It's got three major points to it. It calls Proposition 19 is what it's called. It calls for regulating and controlling pot much the same as alcohol.
The legislation claims the U.S. is the world's largest cannabis consumer and one-third of Americans have smoked pot. Prop 19 also claims that pot is healthier than alcohol and cigarettes. The proposition also wants to rethink police priorities according to the people who put it forward. Supporters say laws criminalizing marijuana aren't working so they say legalizing it would put dangerous dealers out of business.
And the third point is that it's money. The measure would tax pot like alcohol and tobacco saying that California is missing out on millions of dollars of revenue. Proposition 19 would also create a legal regulatory framework for cultivation, distribution and sales, OK? Those are the folks who want Proposition 19 to pass.
Let's talk about the other side, the people fighting against this legislation. Public safety is a concern. Opponents say bus, taxi, train operators could potentially smoke marijuana on the job. There's also the argument that employers would not be able to test for marijuana use and that employees would be able to take pot breaks like smoke breaks. Critics also argue that potentially advertising pot near schools, libraries, parks, things like that would send a dangerous message, and there's also fear of schools losing grants due to violating federal drug-free workplace laws.
And the fear that pot could be grown in people's front or backyards, thanks to the vagueness of the term residents in Proposition 19. OK. So, now we've got both sides of the debate. Now, I want to talk to some people who are on either side of it. Dan Newman is with the organization yes on Prop 19. Roger Salazar is with the organization no on Prop 19.
Thank you to both of you for at least having names that make sense on the topic. Dan, let's start with you. Who are the groups in support of Proposition 19 right now?
DAN NEWMAN, YES ON PROP 19: Well, some of the leaders in the campaign have been the law enforcement community. Retired police chief, sheriffs, people that have been on the front lines of California's failed war on marijuana. They've seen it firsthand. They've seen that the status quo isn't working. That California's war on marijuana has failed, because right now, it's easier for teenagers to buy pot than beer.
And that marijuana has usually passed through the hands of an illegal drug cartel who profits from the sale. So, what Prop 19 will do will be allowed local communities to control and tax marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco so that police can focus on violent crime, so that we can weaken the drug cartels, and then partly degenerate billions of dollars for local communities.
VELSHI: Roger, you were shaking your head when he talked about who's supporting it.
ROGER SALAZAR, NO ON PROP 19: Well, it's because, you know, they claimed that the law enforcement is supporting it. Basically, they've got a couple of retired judges and retired district attorneys and a couple of retired folks, but the folks who are actually online, the active law enforcement officers in California oppose it.
The California Police Chiefs Association, the California district attorneys, the California highway patrol, all of these folks understand that there are some tremendous risks that are still involved, especially with the way this initiative is written, especially with a lot of the loopholes that are written in that allow for people to basically smoke marijuana before they get behind the wheel. They don't set any sort of limits or -- they don't set any standard for what constitutes under the influence. And if you're an employer, you're concerned about it because, you know, especially if you run a transportation type of operation because people can get stoned before they come to work and drive in vehicles that you own or that they're transporting goods up and down the state.
VELSHI: Now, Dan is shaking his head. What's a safety issue? How do you deal with what Roger's talking about?
NEWMAN: Well, you know, there's always been a lot of scare tactics and fear mongering on this issue, but you know, I'm actually astonished what I think I hear my friend, Roger is advocating for (INAUDIBLE) beer. Because, of course, you know, by the same logic, a bus driver could have six beers before he went to work, of course, driving under the influence --
SALAZAR: And DUI is still a problem here in California.
NEWMAN: Absolutely, and therefore, should we ban beer?
SALAZAR: No, again, but I'm -- why compound the problem is the point? But I also think that there are other things, Ali, --
(CROSSTALK)
SALAZAR: There are other things that we're concerned about. For example, you know again, the proponents of this initiative claim it'll bring, you know, millions and billions of dollars to the state when that's actually not the case. In fact, the state board of equalization did an analysis of this initiative.
And if this initiative were passed the way it's written right now, there's actually nothing in there that would allow for -- there's nothing in there that would bring a single dime to city, state or local governments unless some additional action is taken.
So -- but what would be legal is the possession, the use, the transportation, the growing of 25 square feet of marijuana in your yard. You know, all of those things will be legal, and we wouldn't collect any taxes until somebody takes some additional action.
VELSHI: It sounds to me, Roger, like you're saying, I don't know the words in your mouth (ph) but you're saying that you might actually be able to support something like this. It seems that it doesn't -- it's not meaty enough for you. It doesn't have enough stuff in it. Could you support the legalization of marijuana if there were all these safeguards in place?
SALAZAR: Yes, I think there are folks that are part of our coalition that run the gamut. There are folks who are anti- legalization and there are folks who say, all right, we could do this if it did at the right way. And unfortunately, this is not the right way to do it. And it's not just me saying this. Every single major daily newspaper in California -- VELSHI: Let me ask Dan for a quick response to that, Dan. Just give me quick answer to the issue, you might get more supporters if it were structured differently.
NEWMAN: It's very meticulous being carefully crafted. Honestly, the marijuana market exists in California. It's a $14 billion market. California's largest cash crop yet all that revenue and all of those jobs goes to illegal drug cartels and violent drug gangs. Let's take those jobs and take those moneys away from the criminal and give them to California families and communities.
VELSHI: Oh, I appreciate the respectful debate you guys have had with each other and helping my viewers to understand this a little better. Thanks to both of you, Dan Newman with yes on Prop 19 live from San Francisco, Roger Salazar, no on Prop 19, live from Sacramento. Thanks, guys. We'll talk to you again.
SALAZAR: Thank you.
VELSHI: Mind your own business, usually that's a teenage comeback, by the way, not a career goal. We're going to meet a student entrepreneur who's taking her business plan to the oval office.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: With jobs in real short supply right now, now folks are having to develop different skills, craft new plans, get creative. Stands to reason getting into the entrepreneurial mindset early could be invaluable. How early is too early? Well, you're going to find out.
This is something that the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship -- short form NFTE -- has been pushing for over 20 years, bringing entrepreneurship education into U.S. schools with a focus on lower income communities. A brilliant idea. Some of those students really blossom and they take part in an annual challenge that NFTE co- sponsors. This year's finalists are about to present their business plans to President Obama in the Oval Office. They are about to present them to the president.
Joining us from the White House North Lawn right now, Nia Froome, she's the winner of 2010 Oppenheimer Funds NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge. And with her is NFTE's president and CEO, Amy Rosen.
Congratulations to both of you. And to you, Nia, tell us about your business, tell us about what you did.
NIA FROOME, 17 YEARS OLD: Thanks. My business is a Mama Nia's Vegan Bakery. And I bake vegan, organic great tasting cookies.
VELSHI: I don't know how you can put vegan, organic and great tasting in the same place, but you have clearly made some kind of a business out of it.
First of all, how did you even get the idea to make vegan, organic, great-tasting cookies?
FROOME: My parents have been vegan for 10 years. After my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer and when I started to bake, I always had to modify my recipes for -- to make them vegan and so they could eat them. So I love cookies and that became my favorite thing to bake.
VELSHI: So you saw a cause out there. Who buys these vegan, organic nifty-tasting cookies?
FROOME: Everybody buys them. My friends, my family. Strangers have been buying them. Health-conscious people, people who just love them for the taste. They seem to be really popular.
VELSHI: All right. Well that's what we like. We like great ideas. What a fantastic lesson in entrepreneurship. You saw a need because of something in your personal life and you have made it bigger.
Amy, tell me what NFTE does. Tell me about this, tell me about what this can do for our economy and for our young people.
AMY ROSEN, FOUNDING PARTNER OF PUBLIC PRIVATE STRATEGY GROUP: Well, first of all the cookies are really delicious. I personally can swear to that and they're online and anybody can buy them. Mayor Bloomberg just bought them for his staff. They're being ordered by anybody. They're delicious. And Nia beat out 24,000 young people all over America who did business plans and presented them in the classrooms, in the regions, in the citywide. And finally the top 32 kids come to New York and have a final competition, and Nia was number one.
And what we basically do is we take what kids have -- from these neighborhoods -- innately have, these "street smarts" and we turn them into biz smarts and academic smarts. And kids who are given an opportunity to start seeing opportunity and being able to see what you can actually do if you make a plan with your life, do it. Every one of our kids does a business plan, every one of our kids presents to entrepreneurs, to big business people. They get coaching, they get mentoring.
And the most important thing probably today as we deal with this dropout crisis, the vast majority, 80 percent of the kids that are dropping out of school say that if they'd learned something relevant they would stay in school.
VELSHI: Right. And this is relevant.
ROSEN: And if you take kids and, you know, from low-income communities and start talking about how to make money, you can teach them -- you can't learn a return on investment without learning how to multiply fractions.
VELSHI: Hey, Nia, I want to ask you this. You're going to talk to the president.
What are you going to tell him?
FROOME: I'm going to tell him about my business. I'm going to ask him if Sasha and Malia want to order some cookies. I'm going to tell him what a great president I think he is.
VELSHI: All right. Close the deal. Make a sale.
Nia Froome, great to see you. Congratulations. Boy, Nia is only 17-years-old. She makes organic, vegan, delicious cookies. The name of the company is Mama Nia's Vegan Bakery. She's the winner of the 2010 Oppenheimer Funds NFTE Challenge. Amy Rosen is the president of the network for teaching entrepreneurship or, NFTE.
Thanks to both of you. Good luck. And like I say, close that deal.
The whole world is watching. Just hours from now, rescuers are going to start pulling those Chilean miners from the underground chamber where they have survived for more than two months. The latest from the site of the mine coming up next in Globe Trekking.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Time now for Globe Trekking. Our destination: northern Chile. After more than two months trapped a half a mile underground. those 33 miners may be only be a few hours from the beginning of their rescue.
Karl Penhaul is at the mine site. He has been there for a long time. Unbelievable that this day has finally arrived. Karl, what's the latest estimate on when that rescue gets underway and what's the latest news on it?
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Ali. I mean, you can just tell from the pace of things are moving here that that rescue is imminent now. What the mine's Minister Laurence Golborne has said is that some time in the last quarter of the day, I guess that could mean any time after about 6:00 p.m. local time, that would put it about three and a half hours from now that the rescue attempt could get underway.
And what he did say, although it takes a little bit of time to get a rescue cage down, they've also got to get five rescue personnel down to sort out the miners, give them the preliminary medical check, and see who comes up first. This is a bit of procedure and all of this. But the mine's minister says that the first miner could be back on the surface by midnight tonight, Ali.
VELSHI: Wow, that's got to be fascinating. And we will be keeping a close eye on it as you know.
Karl, we've been demonstrating to our viewers what that capsule looks like. We've got a mock-up of it here. It is going to be remarkable. We'll be coming back to you and your colleagues at the mine. I think the entire world is going to be watching this rescue.
Karl Penhaul in northern Chile for us.
Keep in mind we will be on top of this story at every point. You'll want to tune in to it to watch the rescuers in their triumphant moment more than two months after getting trapped underground.
Hey, former President Bill Clinton, he's been hitting the campaign trail in the last few days. His popularity still there. He's helping candidates. He is heading to Las Vegas. Wolf Blitzer tells us why. A political update, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Three weeks left, 21 days until the midterm elections. Tonight former President Clinton will be in Nevada.
That and more now from CNN's Wolf Blitzer who is not just part of the Best Political Team on Television, he's kind of the heart and soul of the Best Political Team on Television.
Hey, Wolf.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "SITUATION ROOM": And it is the Best Political Team on Television. We say it because it also has the added advantage, Ali, of being true.
The former President of the United States Bill Clinton, heading to Nevada to Harry Reid try to beat Sharron Angle. A very competitive contest. The Senate Majority Leader is in deep trouble right now. Sharron Angle in some of the most recent polls is actually just a little bit ahead. She's the favorite, of course, of the Tea Party movement. The former President Bill Clinton will try to generate that Democratic base. He's still very popular out in Nevada. We'll see how he does.
Another story we're covering on the Political Ticker over at CNNPolitics.com is a new autobiography by the former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Here it is, Ali. This is the book. I've been going through it, Condoleezza Rice's new book called "Extraordinary Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family."
It's not a story of her years as the national security adviser to President Bush or as the secretary of state, it's the story of her growing up in the segregated south in the United States in Alabama, specifically how her parents struggled to give her an education, what it was like. It's really an amazing story.
She's going to be in "THE SITUATION ROOM," by the way, on Friday. We'll go in-depth with Condoleezza Rice. Her memoir coming out this week.
Finally, we're all getting ready, as you know, Ali, for the big debate tomorrow night in Delaware at the University of Delaware. The Republican candidate Christine O'Donnell, the Democratic candidate Chris Coons, they'll be face-to-face; I'll be co-moderating that debate. We have a lot of really good questions on substantive issues, the economy, jobs, some of the social issues, national security issues, two wars underway right now in Afghanistan and Iraq, a war on terrorism, tension with North Korea, Iran -- there's no shortage of stuff to ask. We'll go through it. A 90-minute debate, we'll see it here on CNN, 7:30 p.m. Eastern, Ali, tomorrow night.
VELSHI: All right, and that is going to be something. It's going to be one of those races. There are several across the country that are more than the races in their states, they're of national interest. We'll be watching you closely on that, Wolf.
Good to see you, my old friend.
BLITZER: Thanks.
VELSHI: Wolf Blitzer.
For our next political update, an hour away on CNN as Wolf says, the home of "The Best Political Team on Television."
This election campaign is revving the debate over who was responsible for the 2008 financial meltdown. That meltdown is also the topic of a new documentary called "Inside Job." CNN's Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer talked about it last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHLEEN PARKER, CO-HOST, "PARKER/SPITZER": What I really loved about this movie is that it helped me understand the complex series of events.
But what struck me was -- and you just can't blame only Republicans, you can't blame just Democrats either. You can't pin it on President Bush or President Clinton. And it really didn't matter who controlled Congress. It's really just a story of runaway greed of a relatively small number of people who nearly destroyed our financial system.
ELIOT SPITZER, CO-HOST, "PARKER/SPITZER" Well, the only thing I'd say is it's all of the above. It was President Bush, it was also President Clinton, and the folks around him. The Fed, the SEC, Congress sitting there. Everybody bought into this notion that Wall Street could just make everybody rich.
But you know what they did? They made themselves rich and we are poor. This was one big Ponzi scheme because we had to bail them out and they kept all of the money and they gave nothing back to us. And that is what is outrageous and I think has people really angry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Don't miss CNN's newest show "PARKER/SPITZER" 8:00 Eastern only CNN, home of "The Best Political Team on Television." Quiz time for you. What do Guitar Hero, the Kindle and airbags all have in common? Let me see it again, Guitar Hero, the Kindle and airbags -- what do they have in common? I'm going to tell you after the break in today's "Big I."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Every day we bring you "The Big I"; "I" stands for idea, ideas that change the world in which we live. Well for today, we're not just talking about the future today, we're talking about the past.
I'm taking you back to 1985. Personal computers just becoming popular. The Internet didn't really exist for any of us, it existed for some other uses. We had cell phones the size of bricks. Music was on cassette tapes.
Now before the break, I asked what Guitar Hero, the Kindle and airbags all have in common. What they have in common is the MIT Media Lab. The folks in that lab have spent the last 25 years developing the technology and science of the future. They are connected to everything that keeps you connected in the world. We're talking about the latest in cell phones, photography, the Internet, medicine, computers, software, robotics, social networking, education, music.
They have their hands on every part of our lives, so I want you to know who they are. Let me introduce you to the director of the famous MIT Media Lab, Frank Moss. He's the executive director joining me from Cambridge.
Frank, good to have you on the show. We love talking to you folks, but I think I want my viewers to understand what you people do.
You are the ultimate eggheads. You guys are the smartest of the smart and you're devising the future for us. So before you tell us what you're making for us -- because that's going to be a treat for you -- I want you to talk about some of the things that I just talked about.
Airbags -- what did you guys have to do about airbags?
FRANK MOSS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MIT MEDIA LAB: Well that's a great story, Ali.
First of all, I wish we could show this from our brand new shiny glass and aluminum building on the other side of campus, because what's so important about the Media Lab is how we do our research.
It's completely undirected. Our students research according to their passions the things that really move them, the things that really inspire them. That's what the Media Lab was all about from the beginning.
You know, in 1985, it was not heard of to bring together creativity and computers. Computers were all about computation, as you mentioned before, and just beginning to be about communications, but people didn't bring together the idea of creativity in computers. Now you mentioned airbags and the story I'll give you very, very quickly. Professor Todd Machover, one of the lead and most famous digital composers of our generation, was early at the Media Lab and he wanted to enable everyone to create music. And in order to do that, he began by instrumenting professionals like Yo Yo Ma, his bow and a cello, to see how it was created. And then moving from there to instruments he created to something everyone could use.
During a performance of Yo Yo Ma using this hyper instrument, Penn and Teller actually saw this and said we'd like you to use the same gesture mechanism to create music in a chair that we can use in our Las Vegas show. And sure enough, Penn and Teller used the spirit chair in which they could actually gesture and conjure up spirits and electronic music.
When this chair was brought back to the Media Lab, a representative of one of our sponsors who was thinking about the problem of how airbags can hurt or injure small adults and children in the passenger side of an automobile, and when he saw that he actually moved forward and licensed the technology that was actually used for Yo Yo Ma's performance as well as the spiritual chair.
VELSHI: So this is the beauty of it. You're talking about a lab that we only read about these days that used to exist, the bell labs, the places where you would just hire smart creative minds to come up and invent things and some of them would be commercialized and some of them would not end up with the use that they were designed for. They were almost accidental discoveries.
Frank, I want you to wait right there. I want to take a break and then I want to come back and I want you tell me about the future, about the things you're working on that could hold opportunities for my viewers in the future, things they can buy and invest in and go to school and study and why they want to be working at the MIT Media Lab one of these days.
Frank Moss is the executive director of the MIT executive director of the MIT Media Lab, I'll have more with him right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK, back to today's "Big I." We're talking to Frank Moss, the executive director of the MIT Media Lab.
Before the break, we talked about some of the big inventions from the last 25 years that have come from that lab. Let's talk about the next 25 years.
Frank, I understand you're working on a foldable car.
MOSS: We sure are, Ali.
But before I do, I want to mention one more thing about that story. The very same technology that led to the sensor to cut off airbags in automobiles actually was being studied by students who actually went on to form the company called Harmonics and today, of course, they're a provider of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
VELSHI: Of course, that's right. Because we talked about that in our quiz that that's what airbags and Guitar Hero have in company.
MOSS: That's the serendipity, one thing leads to another and you never know where it's going to lead.
VELSHI: Let's talk about cars.
MOSS: OK. Let's talk about cars.
One of our groups called Smart Cities about 10 years ago asked the question what kind of city would you like to live in, and then design a car for that city. The amazing thing is none of the students in this group were car designers. They were architects, they were doctors, computer scientists, visual and graphic designers, and they asked what would a car look like that you would have in the city.
The first thing was a robotic wheel where all the mechanical components of the cars themselves -- the electric motor, steering, brakes, the steering mechanisms -- are contained within the wheel. When you do this, if you look at this little model here, very simple prototype model, you can actually move the central transmission of the car, so the car can then fold up in this fashion -- and this is simply just an engineering model for design purposes -- to the point where the distance from back to front is about five feet.
And so that you can either drive it directly into the curb where the passengers can exit and enter from the front of the car or in this position -- and I think all of us would love to do this -- the wheels can turn 90 degrees and the car can actually pull into a five food space. This is going to change parallel parking.
VELSHI: Yes, I don't need to be an MIT scientist to understand how that will be beneficial.
MOSS: I think we'd all enjoy that. But I think what we're looking forward to is a world where we don't own these cars but lease them. They move from one part of the city to the next on a one-way rental system just like the bikes in cities now in Paris and elsewhere.
And when we do this we can cut down on pollution, noise, congestion, simply by beginning with the question what kind of city would we like to live in and then designing a wheel and a car that could fit into that kind of city and into our lifestyle.
VELSHI: OK, Frank. I know you have another thing there but I don't know if I have enough time for it. That little foot on the right, can you show me that in 30 seconds?
MOSS: Professor Hugh Herr aims to restore mobility to amputees and anyone. This is actually a robotic foot. He wears two of these regularly. It contains about five computers, 12 sensors. This actually was designed to duplicate the motion, the dynamics, the biomechanics of a human foot. The ultimate goal is not only to restore motion to amputees, but for older people to allow them to maintain mobility late into life by perhaps not this kind of foot but an exoskeleton they can pull on in the morning and enable them to be mobile the entire day.
That's the goal of the Media Lab to enable everybody to unleash their own powers, whether it's creative powers, mobility, the ability to move around a city, controlling our own health, our own wellness. This is what we're trying to do with the Media Lab for the next 25 years.
VELSHI: Frank, if I could do it all over again, I would make it my goal to somehow get to work there one day. Thank you, congratulations for 25 great years and our thanks and our gratitude to the folks at the MIT Media Lab who invent things that make our life better, we'll check in with you on a regular basis.
Frank Moss is the executive director of the MIT Media Lab. To check out all the research begin conducted at the Media Lab -- and I really, really encourage you to do this -- go to my blog at CNN.com/Ali. We've also posted the top 25 ideas and products that have been put out by the Media Lab's research over the last 25 years.
