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Tomas Threatens Haiti; Plane Engine Falls Apart Mid-Flight; Fed's Idea to Boost Economy; Skyfire App Sells Out in Five Hours; A Preview of the 2012 Elections Already?
Aired November 04, 2010 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Don, good to see you. And we're both back in the same place. You have yourself a great afternoon -- Don Lemon.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, sir.
VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi.
And as Don says, for the next two hours, I'll be with you, today and every week day, to guide you through this maze of information coming your way. Together, we're going to learn what's going on at home and around the world. You'll get access to some of the folks who can best explain what it means today and what the impact is beyond today.
We'll showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy, public education. My mission is to help you figure out how what's going on around you fits in to your world.
Let's get started right now. Here's what I've got on the rundown.
A blown engine, an emergency landing on the biggest, newest jumbo jet in the sky. Qantas Airlines quickly grounds it A380 fleet. How worried should other airlines and passengers be?
And with this year's election in the books, it's time to talk 2012 with Republicans already lining up to take on Barack Obama. We're going to run down the early favorites and handicap them.
And if this week's GOP shellacking wasn't a big enough blow to the president, now he's been knocked down to number two on the "Forbes" list of the world's most powerful people. Wait until you see who has taken over as the world's most powerful person.
But, here's the story I want to tell you about. As hurricanes go, this storm, Tomas, is not going to set any records, but we're watching its every move because of where it's moving.
At the moment, Tomas isn't a hurricane at all, not anymore. It's a tropical storm. But it's closing in on Haiti, probably the most vulnerable, least prepared nation in the hemisphere.
As if the total devastation from January's earthquake weren't enough, a wave of cholera has been spreading into the countryside. That's a by-product, as you know, of natural disasters, especially in underdeveloped countries. An infection caused by drinking contaminated water, or eating bad food, cholera causes severe diarrhea and vomiting. If not treated, it can kill within hours.
Now, look at these numbers. As we speak, 1 million or more men, women and children are living in tents, 10 months after the quake.
Some shelters are available. Some evacuations are planned, but the vast majority of the homeless have nowhere to go.
The Pan American Health Organization tells us 442 Haitians have died, so far, of cholera. More than 6,000 others are hospitalized.
And then there is Tomas. It could dump five to 15 inches of rain on a country susceptible to floods and mudslides in the best of times. And those winds -- well, the damage that they can do to those tents.
Chad has been following this and this is what he's been warning us about.
And we saw those pictures about -- I mean, I think that's what you can say. This is the last place that we want a hurricane to go. We don't want hurricanes hurting anybody but -- wow.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Could you imagine taking shelter in rubble because that's essentially what's going to be going on.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: When those blue tarps and tents start to get 15, 20, 30 miles an hour, they're going to go away. The only significant place to get out of the wind will be behind cinderblock buildings that are unstable.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: And people are going to scatter for that area. This storm has significantly increased in intensity overnight. The numbers don't really show it. It's 45, 50 miles per hour.
VELSHI: But as you pointed out, that's a different story. When you live in a place that has safe buildings, you can withstand three times that wind.
MYERS: In Marathon or Key West, Florida, they're having a hurricane party at 50 miles per hour, OK?
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That's not going to happen in Haiti. There will be no party. These people will be trying to take shelter, just simply to save their life.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: Now, the good news is, there's Port-au-Prince right here. There is a mountain chain right through here.
VELSHI: OK. That will give a bit of a break.
MYERS: That mountain chain is where the earthquake actually occurred.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: That chain of events where the earthquake and the earth moved is because of that seam right there in the fault line. So that may stop, at least help a little bit. As the air comes up this way, a lot of the rain will fall on this side of that mountain range.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: But as the storm gets here, the starts to --
(CROSSTALK)
MYERS: That's the problem. Even for CNN crews --
VELSHI: Yes?
MYERS: -- when they say go down to -- go down to Stewart, Florida, and set up a safe place for the truck.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: There's no safe place for the truck because at 2:00, the wind is coming this way -- 3:00, 4:00, 5:00, 6:00, all of the sudden, the truck is in --
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: OK, we're not talking about trucks. We're talking about 1 million people that don't have homes as this storm comes up.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: Now, at least at this point in time, it doesn't get to be the category one hurricane until 8:00 Friday night in the Turks and Caicos. But notice where else this is going. What's right there?
VELSHI: That's Guantanamo Bay?
MYERS: That's Gitmo. That's exactly Gitmo. And then a skirt shot right here to Jamaica.
VELSHI: Yes.
MYERS: And, OK, if you're every here at Montego Bay (INAUDIBLE), you're probably OK.
But right through here, Ocho Rios, all those people -- there's cruise ships going through here. It's going to be a rocky road for them. All of that said, the biggest player right there will be Haiti.
VELSHI: It's the most vulnerable still (ph).
MYERS: It probably still won't be the fact that they're going to get 67-mile-an-hour winds. This is an estimate of where the heaviest rainfall will be.
VELSHI: OK.
MYERS: You know, we talk about computer models. Hey, those computer models saying this and saying this and saying this. I want you to take a look at this spot right there --
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: -- and look how much rain falls for how many hours.
VELSHI: Right.
MYERS: And we're going -- we're backing up. This is now, this is live.
VELSHI: Right. So, here's where it starts, heavy rain starts now.
MYERS: Thursday, Friday, Friday, Friday, Saturday, and we -- you said, five to 15 inches of rainfall. Cholera, things in the streets that we can't even think about as a first-world nation at this point in time --
VELSHI: Yes, right.
MYERS: -- because they're not even living as that kind of a nation at this point of time.
VELSHI: That's right.
MYERS: There's subsisting and they're surviving, and cholera is already out there. It's going to be worse.
VELSHI: We'll keep a very close eye on that. I just hope that they dodge whatever tragedy could be coming their way and you'll keep on it. I know you can do that for a few days, Chad. Thanks so much.
MYERS: Sure. You bet.
VELSHI: Hey, five shootings in 2 1/2 weeks targeting military buildings near D.C. The FBI confirms the same gun has been used in each. No word on any suspects, but the profilers have been hard at work. Today's "Sound Effect" targets one expert's opinion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGG MCCRARY, FORMER FBI PROFILER: Could be a former military guy. Could be active. Could be someone who didn't get into the military that wanted to. Someone that was phased out, they feel unfairly.
Could be a family member of a military person, could be a would- be terrorist who has no association with the military.
Certainly, it would be easy enough to shoot people if he cared to do so. But he seems to be making a concerted effort not to do that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Now, this all started October 17th when shots were fired at a Marine Corps Museum in northern Virginia. Then the Pentagon was shot at. After that, the Marine recruiting facility, the Marine Museum again, and this week, a Coast Guard recruiting office. All the incidents have taken place late at night. So, thankfully, nobody has been injured.
OK. A big problem for a very big plane, an Airbus A380, the big super jumbo jet, the biggest thing that flies, blows an engine and loses parts in midflight. It's not the first time this plane has had an engine issue.
My friend Richard Quest joins me to break this down, explains what's going on and what you should know about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Terrifying incident involving a Qantas Airlines flight over the skies in Indonesia. The engine of the Airbus A380 blew out and part of the engine's cover fell off in flight, scattering debris on the ground. The A380 is the biggest super jumbo jet, the largest passenger plane in the world.
I've flown on this plane. It's huge. You get some sense of it by seeing the men working on the engine there.
This flight had 440 passengers on it -- 440 passengers and 26 crew. This aircraft, by the way, can carry more than 500 passengers in this configuration when it's full.
The engine shut down just six minutes into the flight. This is how one of the passengers described it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ULF WASCHBUSCH, QANTAS PASSENGER (via telephone): We heard a loud bang. I was sitting right on the side where the engine is, a loud bang. A little bit of flares, and the engine was shut off pretty much immediately from the flight deck. The flight deck analyzed the situation. Kudos to the Qantas crew, by the way, for doing a phenomenal job in bringing us down safely.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Look at the hunk that came out of that thing. Richard Quest, who has flown on this plane before, as I have. And he's our aviation expert tells us more about this. Richard, what do we -- what do we know about this?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We can tell and we can deduce from the pieces on the ground that some part of a blade and maybe the disc, the fan disc, from the hot section of the engine did either ingest a foreign object or for some reason, there was a detachment within the engine, and that literally created a mini explosion within it. The part of the engine exploded out of the engine. Parts then went and damaged the wing as we can see.
VELSHI: Which is just -- which is a major issue, of course. That's where the engine is. So the wing is a big concern. Tell me what happened to the wing.
QUEST: Well, that is the concern. The first question is: why did the engine -- this is known as an uncontained engine failure. The engine fails, bits of the machinery blow out, but the nozzles (ph) supposed to contain most of it, certainly a fan blade. It wouldn't contain a disc. But then something comes out of the nozzle and right through the wing.
Now, where those -- where those holes in the wings are is where you would expect to find just forward of that, behind it is the fuel tank. There are hydraulic lines leading to the other engines. And tonight, people are starting to question just how much damage was actually done to the other engine in terms of control of that engine. We don't know at this point, Ali.
What we do know is that this was frankly a serious incident that was handled extremely well by the pilots. You know aviation better than I do in terms of actually controlling an aircraft. These pilots didn't have reverse thrust when they landed because the inboard one was broken. It's questionable that they could deploy the slats because obviously that was also damaged. And the aircraft was heavy because they'd only managed to jump fuel to maximum landing weight.
Put it in that context and you see they did a first-class job.
VELSHI: Rolls-Royce and General Electric are the biggest makers of jet engines. This was a Rolls-Royce engine. They're investigating this. But in the meantime, Qantas has grounded its entire fleet of A380s.
Anybody else done this? And is there any reason for further concern right now? What's your sense of this investigation and how soon they'll solve this problem?
QUEST: Airbus and Rolls-Royce have sent a notice to Singapore Airlines and to Lufthansa to check, to precautionary check their engines. And that's happening at the moment. Singapore says that there will be delays because the 380s are being checked.
So far, no one else has grounded their fleet in the way that Qantas has. I suspect the grounding at Qantas is an abundance of caution because the airline has had one or two incidents in recent years. And the chief exec, Alan Joyce, wants to make it absolutely clear there will be no threat or messing around with safety.
In the next few hours, we will get a good idea of what caused this, because, frankly, if they don't discover that soon, then they will have to revisit which planes should be grounded.
VELSHI: All right. I know you'll keep a close eye on this and I'll do that with you. And you and I are back in about one hour from now for Q&A this week. We're going to talk about quantitative easing. I know. I know, it's already boring our viewers.
Stop, don't change. This is very important to the world's economy. Richard and I will go head-to-head to argue it in an hour.
Richard, good to see you.
QUEST: Good to see you. See you in an hour.
VELSHI: All right.
Listen, the economy is not doing so well. I think you all know that. The Fed is trying something and I just talked to Richard about it. It's called QE2 and we're not talking about a cruise ship. Quantitative easing and why this matters to you -- I'm telling you, listen to me because you'll win some prize at a bar if you know the answer to this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Action-packed night on CNN tonight, action-packed day at the New York Stock Exchange.
But, first, listen to this number. Look at this number, I supposed you don't listen to it. Look at it, 457,000. That's the number of people who filed for unemployment claims for the first time last week.
It's a lot of people. It's also 20,000 more people than the week before. It's also higher than people expected it to be.
In fact, economists say that's high enough to signal continued weakness in the job market. I think that's obvious, we need to be gaining jobs, not losing them.
Another number you should know about: 2 million. That's the number of people who risk losing unemployment benefits if Congress doesn't extend them past the end of this month. We've been down this road before. Tomorrow, we'll have the government's monthly unemployment report, the monthly labor report, showing us what the unemployment rate is for the country and showing whether we lost or gained jobs in October.
But right now, the mood at the New York Stock Exchange is hot. I want to tell you why with my friend, Alison Kosik, who is standing by at the New York Stock Exchange, up 188 points right now.
What is driving this? This is a record. If we close anything above where we closed yesterday, this is the highest point the Dow will have closed at in a year, Alison.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes, Ali. I'll tell you what -- traders here at the New York Stock Exchange are downright giddy. And for people watching, this is important because it means if they're happy, it means you can finally open up those 401(k) statements and take a look, because I know you haven't been looking for a while.
VELSHI: Right.
KOSIK: And better yet, traders think that this rally is going to stick at least until the spring. You know, Ali, the way it's been here at the stock exchange over the past few months, traders were really losing faith that people would really invest in the stock market again. By then, poof, one day the mood changed.
Two things happened: Republicans took control of the House; the Fed announces buying up $600 billion worth of U.S. treasuries. These are good things for the market -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right. Allison, you'll keep a close eye on this. We'll check back with you to see how this rally continues going on.
KOSIK: I will.
VELSHI: Alison just talked about the Fed investing this -- announcing that they're going to buy bonds worth $600 billion. Let me talk about your money now.
The Fed is going to spend the $600 billion in its attempt to give the economy a boost. Now, they can only do a few things to help. They can lower the interest rates. We know they've already done that. That's why mortgage rates are so low.
Now, they're doing something called QE2, for short. The "2" is because it's the second time they've done it. The QE stands for quantitative easing, probably the worst word ever invented. It's six syllables and it bores me by the third syllable, but it is really, really important.
This is when the Fed buys bonds back from banks. That gives the banks more cash. The banks then use that money to lend to people or to companies.
Now, the idea is that these companies will spend it. Basically it's a complicated stimulus package. Not really all that complicated. The real goal here is to drive interest rates down. Banks will have more money to lend. They'll -- you know, people will start using the economy again.
This is going to have some effect, according to traders, it would encourage people to spend. When people spend, that creates demand. And then people get hired.
Let's talk to Christine Romans about this to see what sense this makes. Why it's happening. But, Christine, the question that is in most people's minds, you've got this Republican Congress now, this Republican House that's been elected. They're going to pull back any money that hasn't been spent on stimulus.
They're going to -- they might even try and do a U.K. -style thing. But in the U.K., this was a parliamentary government. They could do what they were empowered to do. Here there still be battles about it.
But the Federal Reserve has put not billions, not tens of billions, not hundreds of billions, trillions of dollars into this economy in the last three years.
ROMANS: Sure -- $1.7 trillion at first. And that was the QE1. And I kind of like quantitative easing, Ali. It's six syllables, but I kind of rolls off the tongue.
And another 6$600 billion now. And the Fed chief, Ben Bernanke, in a very clear opinion piece in "The Washington Post," he said, look, we understand your concerns that this is something we -- is kind of untried, but in other financial crises, this has worked. And we've made all kinds of contingency plans and we think this is going to be long-term, good for the economy and this is going to help create jobs and that's the most important thing for us right now.
So, he laid this out, lower mortgage rates, he said, are going to be good and they're going to help the housing market. Lower corporate bond rates because of low interest rates will encourage investment, higher stock markets will boost consumer wealth and that is a self- fulfilling kind of virtuous cycle, he said, is something that can come out of this. And that's what they're looking for.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: But it's kind of the opposite.
ROMANS: -- said to pull it back, right.
VELSHI: It's kind of the opposite of what a whole bunch of voters brought Republicans into office to do. They said, stop the government spending.
This is not the government spending but it's the Fed printing money, and throwing money into the economy.
ROMANS: You're absolutely right. Critics will say, some critics say it's not enough. Some critics say they shouldn't do it because it's going to lead to inflation down the road. Ben Bernanke in his op-ed disagrees and he said he does not think this is going to be some kind of hyperinflationary, super-inflationary move overall. He says it's the right thing to do right now for an economic recovery that is subpar.
They are trying to juice the economy here, to give it a kick start, to give it a little help. The economy, as you've pointed out many times, Ali, is recovering. It's going in the right direction, but too slowly. And they want to make sure that they -- that they add some fire on to that or some fuel on to the fire to get that trajectory -- to make sure that it doesn't slip back.
VELSHI: And this does not have to be cleared by anybody. The Federal Reserve does not have to put this before Congress.
ROMANS: No, it doesn't.
VELSHI: This doesn't have to be debated. This can't be repealed. This is the Fed making its own decisions.
ROMANS: That's right. And earlier this week, I heard of a fund manager who said, look, all this talk in the United States about the midterm elections, the people who can create a job quickest is the Federal Reserve -- whether they do the right thing and do it correctly in the economy, that's where the jobs are going to come from, not from a Democrat or a Republican.
VELSHI: OK. This was a recent discussion about it and one hour from now, I'm going to go head-to-head with Richard Quest and do a battle about that.
ROMANS: All right.
VELSHI: Christine, great to see you as always -- my good friend Christine Romans in New York. I go to spend more than a week in her company every day. But we do this every week, we do this every day on this show. If you want more of it, "YOUR $$$$$," Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.
Christine is also the author of a new book called "Smart is the New Rich," which is garnering lots of discussion because she's got some ideas in there about how you can get past complaining about this economy and actually figure out how to make your economy a little bit better.
OK. I'm going to bring you up to speed with some of the stories that we're covering here at CNN.
Retailers are reporting strong sales ahead of the holiday shopping season. Thompson Reuters reports same-store sales rose 1.6 percent in October. That is a measurement of the stores that have been open for more than a year. Discount stores, like Costco, surpassed expectations. Same store sales have been on the rise for 13 months in a row. That's a good sign.
Another delay for Space Shuttle Discovery. NASA scrubbed today's launch because of bad weather in central Florida. They'll give it another try tomorrow if the weather improves. This will be Discovery's final mission to the International Space Station.
Rapper Lil Wayne is out of jail. He left New York's Rikers' Island today after serving eight months on a gun possession charge. A welcome-home party is planned for the Grammy-winning artist in Miami this weekend if you happen to be around.
Coming up: something that you own that fits in the palm of your hand can save your life. You don't want to miss this. This could save your life. It's right here after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: OK. I don't need to make this any more complicated that it is. Your cell phone can save your life. It really can.
Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now with today's "Empowered Patient."
There are some things in your book and in the show that you did that are -- you know, I wouldn't really think about and that are somewhat sophisticated. And then there are those that are really simple.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is so easy.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: I did it myself and I'll show you in a minute how I did it myself.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: But, first, I want to tell you about a woman whose Twitter icon on her BlackBerry saved her.
VELSHI: No kidding.
COHEN: This was really incredible. This woman named Leigh Fazzina who is a spinning instructor and a triathlete and she was doing the bike portion of a triathlon in Connecticut when she hit. She was biking through a forest, hit a big root, spilled over her bike, rolled down a hill and ended up having to be rescued.
But here's how she got rescued. She tried -- she reached for her phone. She tried to get a call out. It wouldn't go out. The signal wasn't strong enough. But then he said, hey, what about Twitter?
That's what her bike wheel looked at after the accident.
So, she went on Twitter and she said, call the Farmington police --
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: So the data service required less of a service than the phone call did.
COHEN: I love it when you get technical. That's exactly what happened.
So, what happened was that six people -- six of her followers within minutes --
VELSHI: Brilliant.
COHEN: -- heard it -- I mean, read it rather, and called the Farmington police and they came and rescued her. It is. It's one of the many brilliant ideas.
VELSHI: OK. What should we do when -- if I want to think of my cell phone that something that could save me, do I need anything to do it? Do I get to get anything ready? Do I need to --
COHEN: Yes, there are a couple of things you can ready. You can put a Twitter icon on your cell phone, so that would help. And, of course, get an account and all of that good stuff.
And here's a couple of other things that you can do. First of all, put in an ICE contact into your phone. ICE stands for "in case of emergency."
VELSHI: I've heard this. I've heard law enforcement say or, you know, emergency workers say this really helps.
COHEN: Yes, they say that they look for it.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: So the name is -- other than somebody's name.
COHEN: Like Velshi Ali, it would be ICE.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: And there you put it and your wife's phone number, or whoever to call. Or what you can also do, there are various apps for BlackBerrys and Androids and iPhones where you can put your medical information. If you're allergic let's say to penicillin, they need to do that and you can put right it in there.
And then also, what you can do is you can do family tracking, so that anyone who's on your cell phone account, you can find them. So, if you're lying unconscious in a ditch, you can be found.
VELSHI: Right. I've heard people say, you know, for your mom or dad or wife, sometimes use those -- those names because you know what their name is, but if you put mom in there, and somebody's looking, they know that's your mom.
COHEN: Exactly.
VELSHI: What happens about phones that lock up? So, when a rescuer shows up, what if your phone locks?
COHEN: OK. Let me show you this. And let see if somebody if you can see this here. But, basically, on my iPhone, what I did was that I programmed it so that it has an in case of emergency member right at -- you're better at this than I am. VELSHI: No problem.
COHEN: It may be hard to see. Right under there is an in case of emergency number that's right on there. My cell phone is locked, but the in case of emergency number is right -- it pops up with a big red cross.
VELSHI: Because I've got mine set up as my phone number so that you can call me, because I'm worried it's going to get lost. But that might actually be smarter.
COHEN: Right. But if I'm unconscious, that doesn't matter.
(CROSSTALK)
VELSHI: This is great. Simple stuff that everybody can just do and it can help -- your cell phone save your life. This is great. Thank you so much, Elizabeth. So good to see you again.
COHEN: Thanks.
VELSHI: OK. Who do you think the post powerful person in the world is? A, Barack Obama; B, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook; C, Hu Jintao of China; or D, Oprah Winfrey? We'll show you what "Forbes" magazine thinks right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: -- or Oprah Winfrey? We'll show what "Forbes" magazine thinks, right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: "Forbes" magazine is out today with its list of the most powerful people in the world. And before the break, I asked you who you thought topped that list. I gave you four names that are -- I think a good bet. Barack Obama, the President of the United States; Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook; Hu Jintao, the premier of China; or Oprah Winfrey, who doesn't have a title because she doesn't need one.
The answer, which one of these is the most powerful person in the world? Hu Jintao, the president of China. Forbes picked him because he is the political leader of more people than anyone else on earth. China is now the world's second largest economy behind the United States, but it's got three times as many people. Some experts expect China to pass the U.S. and its economy in the next 25 years.
Let's take a quick look at the rest of the top ten. President Obama came in number two. He, by the way, was number one, last year. The king of Saudi Arabia, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, made a huge jump this year from number nine to number three. He is the ruler of the country with the world's largest proven oil reserves. Number four in the "Forbes: list of the most powerful people in the world, Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Pope Benedict the XVI is number five on the list. He's the head of the Roman Catholic Church, which is followed by more than a billion people.
This is interesting. The next one, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor. She's the chancellor of Germany, which makes her the most powerful woman on the list. Number seven on the "Forbes" list is David Cameron, the newly elected prime minister of the United Kingdom. He's the youngest prime minister in the last 198 years. The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke, is number eight on the list of the most powerful people in the world. He slipped, by the way, to number eight. He was number four last year. Maybe that's a sign that things are getting better. Sonia Gandhi the president of the congress party of India comes in at number nine. Bill Gates is number ten. He's held the number ten spot, by the way, for two years in a row. Here's some other notables on the list. The CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, comes in number 17. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, number 20. Mark Zuckerberg, who I showed you on the first screen, the founder of Facebook, he's number 40. Osama bin Laden was ranked number 57 on the list of the "Forbes" list of the most powerful people in the world. Check this out, Oprah Winfrey, this surprised me, way down at number 64. She was number 45 last year. You want to see the list yourself? Head over to my blog CNN.com/ali. I'll point you in the right direction.
We're doing some Globe Trekking straight ahead. We'll take you right to the heart of an elaborate bomb plot that's got Greece and its neighbors on edge. Ivan Watson is live from Athens, when I come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: All right. We heard about this earlier last week. There were more than a dozen letter and parcel bombs sent from Greece, sent from Athens, specifically, to targets in Greece and across Europe. This has caused Greek authorities a few tense days because they have been trying to figure out who these terrorist organizations are. They're trying to keep up with this fairly elaborate bomb plot.
And Ivan Watson has the latest on this for us.
Let's listen to what he's got.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Nerves in Athens are a bit jittery right now. The country is already facing a deep financial crisis and protests on a daily basis. And now it is dealing with a wave of unprecedented letter bombs. The 14th letter bomb was found on Thursday addressed to this building right here, the French Embassy. It was intercepted at a courier agency and detonated by a bomb squad.
Now we're standing in front of a Greek bank. The road has been roped off, as you can see, by Greek police as they are preparing to investigate a suspect package down this street at the entrance to the bank, roping off this area, of course, to try to protect the people here if there is a possible explosive. And we're hearing that the -- as you can see, we're being warned to move back away right now. We don't know if this is an explosive device. Greece right now, reeling from this problem. And they have had to shut down all postal -- air postal deliveries outside of the country for 48 hours as a result of this terrorist threat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: It's been another busy day for Greek police. Ivan Watson is standing by in Athens for us.
What do we got now? What are the newest developments in this, Ivan?
WATSON: Well, Ali, just about half an hour after we filmed that report there at that location outside the bank, the police carried out this controlled explosion.
Take a listen.
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WATSON: And what we had there in the end was just a suspicious package. It wasn't a bomb at all. But it shows how jittery things are, especially -- if you look over my shoulder, Ali, to this side, you've got the Greek parliament. And this drama that unfolded on the street is right here over my other shoulder, almost directly across the street from the national parliament.
That just gives you a sense of how serious the Greek authorities are taking this threat, even though amid these 14 letter bombs that have been found so far, only one person has been slightly injured thus far -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right, Ivan, we'll stay on top of this story. It continues to be a mystery. Ivan Watson continuing to follow this until they find out exactly where these bombs are coming from.
You've got to see this next one. The body of a car built using a three-dimensional printing method. I know, it sounds weird. We'll show you how it works coming up after the break.
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VELSHI: I went to a 3D movie last night. Love 3D. To me, it's realistic entertainment, but it's way more than that. Today's Big I, we're going to show you a car that's been designed using a 3D printing method. It's called the Urbee. This is it behind me. It doesn't make sense when you say that because what does printing have to do with designing a car? But, first of all, let me just tell you about this car.
It's an electric car. It's powered by both electric and gas motors. It gets 200 miles per gallon on the highway, 100 miles per gallon in the city. This was part of the Progressive Auto X Prize competition. You've heard me talk about the X prize here. This is being presented at SEMA Auto Show in Las Vegas this week. I want to introduce you to the guys behind it. They can explain to me, and to all of us together, what this 3D printing method. Jim Kor is the project leader of the Urbee Project in Las Vegas. They're not from Las Vegas, they're there for SEMA. Jeff Hanson is a development partner at Stratus, also part of the Urbee project.
Jeff, let's just talk about this. I'm having trouble understanding -- I sort of get it now after studying it. But what the relationship is between printing and 3D and the development of a car.
JEFF HANSON, DEVELOPMENT PARTNER, URBEE PROJECT: Sure. It's the process of taking electronic CAD file and outputting it into one of the Stratus' 3D printers and producing a 3D model.
VELSHI: OK. CAD file for my audience is the software that -- everybody who designs something in a physical world, uses. Architects use it, builders use it, designers use it.
HANSON: That's correct.
VELSHI: So -- you've got this design. And then what happens? It prints out -- what does the device do?
HANSON: Well, the device prints using a plastic media and it layers the material layer by layer and it grows the model until the model is complete.
VELSHI: So literally you're -- so the word printing is sort of a misnomer. This machine outputs a model of something that was designed.
HANSON: That's correct.
VELSHI: How -- how -- Jeff, just tell me a little bit more about the evolution of that process. I've seen -- I know it's used in other sorts of designing. But this is the first time it's been used in designing a car.
HANSON: That's correct. We see this as a revolutionary technology that will be growing into manufacturing in the future. It's the process of additive fabrication, building geometries layer by layer to complete the 3D model.
VELSHI: All right. This design of this car was important because it has led to a car that is very, very fuel efficient, a sort of the prototype of the car of the future.
Tell me a little bit about the Urbee.
JIM KOR, PROJECT LEADER, URBEE PROJECT: Sure. The Urbee started with designing the aerodynamics first, and then putting all the stuff inside the car. So we had to start with a body that was extremely aerodynamic. The first thing we did -- here's a picture of the car or the model of the car. The first thing we did, we sculptured this body in clay. And that was in the real world so we could kind of touch the shapes. Then we had it scanned and put it in the computer. And once we had the model in the computer, then we had a (INAUDIBLE) do the aerodynamics done on it, and make sure that the aerodynamics were correct.
Once we knew that, we turned it into about 10 different panels like the doors, the front fenders, and all of that. And then we made this model. This is a rapid prototype model coming from the computer files. This is the first time we seen it real. And this is quite normal.
VELSHI: So that is the model that is generated by that computer file, that CAD file that goes through that machine. Wow.
KOR: Yes.
HANSON: That's correct.
KOR: So this is the first time we see it in the physical world after --
VELSHI: That is the equivalent of me photo copying something.
KOR: That's right.
And then, the real innovation, if you will, or the new thing that's happening is we're going to make these panels now full scale. So they actually become the panels on the body. And we have a panel to show you.
VELSHI: We're going to show you this quarter panel on the inside here. Here's the full scale.
VELSHI: So this is -- so this is put out by this -- what you are referring to as a printer. This unit that -- that takes the software and then creates this thing. This is put out by a machine that does that.
HANSON: That's correct. That's correct. This was a 3D printed model.
VELSHI: That is absolutely incredible. What does this do --
It's the --
VELSHI: Sorry. Keep that up. Keep that up there, Jim. So you've got this -- it looks to me like the aerodynamics of this thing are pretty clear, without being an engineer myself. It looks like there's nothing to hold the -- to sort of confront the wind on this car.
KOR: Well, this is the most aerodynamic practical car that we're aware of. A coefficient of drag of 0.15.
VELSHI: And that's why it can achieve -- is that the reason why it can achieve 200 miles per hour on the highway and 100 miles in the city? Or is it a combination of that and what? KOR: It's primarily aerodynamics, but you also need to have very thin tires, a very low weight. You don't need any excess horsepower. Excess horsepower takes horsepower to carry it along with you.
VELSHI: Jeff, is this scalable? Can we see cars designed and panels for vehicles made using this sort of technology? Is it likely to even be cost effective in the future?
HANSON: Yes. This is scalable. We do small components to very, very large components in the airspace and automotive industries.
VELSHI: Wow. Excellent, guys. Thanks very much. This is just hard to wrap your head around, that a -- the device that you think of as a printer came out with a car and can actually build the components that go on to the body of that car.
Great to talk to you both. Jim Kor is the project leader of the Urbee Project. Jeff Hanson is the development partner at Stratus, also part of the Urbee Project. You can go to my site, @, CNN.com/ali. I posted the links to their web site and the video of that car on my blog.
Now we've got an update on yesterday's Big I. The iPhone and iPad application that allows you to view flash video. Skyfire is the name of the web-browsing software. It was set up for five hours yesterday and it sold out. You can't really sell out online. The company realized that the software was so popular that they were in danger of running out of bandwidth to keep the software running properly so they pulled Skyfire from the App Store -- the Apple App Store -- and it promised to make it available again once they increase their capacity. In five hours, the application became the top grossing application in Apple's App Store, the third most downloaded paid application.
OK, politics. Republicans riding high after Tuesday's historic election. Now one of their top leaders is turning the focus to the presidential election of 2012. What he told a conservative group today, I'll tell you after the break.
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VELSHI: Two days after this year's historic midterm election, time now to see what hot stories are crossing our political ticker. You thought he had shut that thing down by now? Absolutely not.
Our senior Congressional correspondent Dana Bash, oh, my God, she is back at Capitol Hill. Anything but business as usual, though.
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, not at all. Look, the politics is going to continue and we saw that -- heard that loud and clear with Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader. He gave a pretty big speech, a pretty uncompromising speech at the Conservative Heritage Foundation earlier this morning. He did say that Republicans shouldn't be gloating. He said the American people didn't fall in love with Republicans, they fell out of love with Democrats. But he did defend, vigorously defend, Ali, the statement that he made a couple of weeks ago that he wants -- his political goal is for the president to be a one-term president. He said that's the only way that Republicans can achieve their goals of repealing health care and cutting spending. Very interesting speech.
Second on the ticker, an interview that Republican Congressman Michele Bachmann did on "AC360" last night. Really, really interesting. She made the case that the president is planning to spend way too much money to go overseas to India. That is a trip he plans to take rather soon. She said it's an example of massive overspending that we've seen, not only in the last two years, but in the last four. Now she is somebody we're watching big time here because she is a Tea Party favorite who is throwing her hat in the ring to be part of the Republican leadership in the House.
Last on the ticker, we have a decision in the governor's race in Oregon. Score one for the Democrat. John Kitzhaber, he defeated Republican Chris Dudley. And, Ali, you know him. He's a former NBA basketball star. He has lost that bid. It was very, very close. Lost that bid to be the next governor of Oregon.
VELSHI: And it's going to be remarkably busy. Boy, if the last Congress was interesting, this will one's going to be even more interesting. I think Americans and markets -- everybody is waiting to see, Dana, whether this gridlock by having parties represent -- controlling either chamber is good or bad for the economy.
Are they talking about that on Capitol Hill? Has anybody brought that up?
BASH: Oh, yes. It's all anybody is talking about and it's just fascinating because Republicans and Democrats say, sure, we want to get along, sure, we want to compromise. When you get down to the next layer, meaning how do you do that, you don't see any real evidence that they're going to compromise on the big things: spending, taxes, and health care.
VELSHI: Right. They're pretty ideologically opposed and as we saw in those polls, so is the nation.
Dana, good to see you. Thanks very much. And we'll be talking more about this.
BASH: Thank you, Ali.
VELSHI: Your next CNN political update is just an hour away.
A daughter accused of killing five people in a crash on Easter Day. Her mother is accused of helping her cover it up. Today, both were sentenced. I'll give you the story on the other side.
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VELSHI: In today's Crime and Consequence, the Atlanta woman accused of killing five people in a car crash last Easter is sentenced to 50 years in prison. I don't know if you heard about this story.
Amy Michael was convicted of causing a chain reaction crash and then running from the scene. She was also accused of trying to cover up the crash. Amy and her mother, Sheila Michael, paid someone to fix the car she was driving after she caused the crash. Today in court, the two women apologized to the families.
Amy Michael got 10 years for each of five counts of vehicular homicide. She'll have to serve 36 years in prison and then the other 14 on probation. Amy's mother, Sheila, was sentenced to eight years in prison for her part in covering up the crash.
