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High-Tech Thinkers Meet at Demo 2002; Eye Ticket May Revolutionize Airline Security; What Is Next in Bovine Bedding?
Aired February 16, 2002 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, a tech conference where the elite meet and compete to show off the products they hope will be in your future.
Keeping an eye on air travel security, a new test for a device that identifies people by looking deep into their eyes.
And what's next in bovine bedding?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That cow was gone. I mean that's 1,500 pounds of fallen flesh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Modern mattresses that make for comfortable cows. All that and more just ahead on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody, and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm James Hattori this week from Metrion, a popular hangout for the young and the techno-savvy, in downtown San Francisco.
You'll probably find a fair number of these here. Remember, life before the PDA. Millions of people used personal digital assistants to organize their business and personal lives. We are even try to morph them into telephones now. So how do new products on the cutting edge get their start?
Well, our Ann Kellan went to Demo 2002, a gathering of high tech thinkers and investors in Phoenix, Arizona for a glimpse of the future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A virtual fireworks display kicked off Demo 2002. Sixty-five products chosen among hundreds, eyed by venture capitalists, journalists, and teckies alike, all looking for what's next, from 3D software to robots.
CHRIS SHIPLEY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, DEMO 2000: I think that what surprises me more than anything, in a time when we look at the economy and we say "things aren't going so well" is to see how much great technology is really happening here.
KELLAN: Like these $1,000 robot kits by Evolution Technologies.
BILL GROSS, EVOLUTION ROBOTICS, INC.: So, if I just pick up something like this and hold it in front of the robot, it looks at this image and identifies it.
KELLAN: Each kit is equipped with ten sensors so robots see, hear and can learn to avoid obstacles, even reason on its own. Gross wants developers to program robots for jobs, like delivering office mail, doing inventory, household bots that vacuum and clean, even tutor your children.
GROSS: Teach kids another language, read with children, play Scrabble with them, play Monopoly with them, and go over their homework with them, because this basically can recognize the things that you show it to.
KELLAN: Not everything at Demo is ready for prime time. Sprint had a heck of a time getting its E-assistant Sandy to listen. It's still a work in progress after all. Video software on the other hand is a real page turner.
GROSS: In the case where you actually subscribe to a magazine, we will automatically deliver the magazine right to your desktop.
KELLAN: A few publication will offer this online service this year. Keep the magazine on your hard drive. Keep hundreds if you want. Even highlight articles or excerpts, and e-mail them to friends.
If you're tired of pressing keys multiple times just to program a name and phone number into your cell phone, how about a key pad that has keys for both numbers and letters.
GROSS: The inventor, David Levy, actually measured 50 guys' thumbs in Boston on the way to define the ergonomic limit.
KELLAN: And this 3-D game by Linden (ph) Lab is still under construction, but may one day let anyone wander in and play with others in real time in this virtual world.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: We're planning more from Demo in next week's program. Now if you're more interested in high tech home construction than 3-D gaming, the show for you is going on across the country in Atlanta. Renay San Miguel takes a look at some of the innovations you may find in your next new house.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We're here at the International Home Builder Show in Atlanta, and it's time to talk the Best of Show, those products and services that have really caught the attention of our Tom Kraeutler, nationally syndicated radio host. Thanks again for being with us.
TOM KRAEUTLER, RADIO HOST: My pleasure.
SAN MIGUEL: We are talking here about literally the building blocks of your home.
KRAEUTLER: Right. This is an insulated concrete form technology. This is like a Lego block for elves.
SAN MIGUEL: OK.
KRAEUTLER: This one's made by a company called Arks (ph) and you see that these actually stack up one on top of another, and then they have these plastic webs, and with an ICF house, they put rebar, which is steel like this metal, in the webs. Then they pour the concrete and what happens is the concrete solidifies and the foam stays on it.
Now what happens with that is you have a hurricane proof house. This one's made by polysteel, and if you're in the house and there was a projectile that came and hit this, it would bounce off. If it was a wood framed wall, it would pierce it just like a needle.
SAN MIGUEL: Our next Best of Show is the Drill Doctor. This has been here for a couple of years, but this is still a pretty innovative product. Tell us about that.
KRAEUTLER: Really it's like a pencil sharpener for your drill. What they do with this is basically, you take the drill bit, you slip it into this chuck, and then you put this right into the clamp here. This aligns it, the top of the Drill Doctor. Once it's aligned, you tighten it up, take it out, put your thing on, drop it in here. It takes about six or eight turns. And look at that, that is a factor perfect sharpened drill bit. This is about $100, $99.
SAN MIGUEL: To help us show off the latest in cooking technologies, we have with us Martin Yang, from the "Yang Can Cook" cooking show on PBS. Thanks for being with us today.
MARTIN YANG, YANG CAN COOK SHOW: Well, Yang can cook. You can melt the butter, but it's amazing technology.
SAN MIGUEL: Yes.
YANG: This is (UNINTELLIGIBLE). You have witnessed.
SAN MIGUEL: Yes.
YANG: The melting of butter.
SAN MIGUEL: But the paper plate is not burning. How long has this been melting over here?
YANG: I have been melting this chocolate for over two hours, and look at the consistency.
SAN MIGUEL: I have a $20 bill. YANG: And look at this $20 bill.
SAN MIGUEL: And you still have a flame going underneath?
YANG: Yes, I still have a flame going. This is why this is truly amazing, and the amazing thing is, see, isn't it amazing.
SAN MIGUEL: Bob Vila, thanks for being here today.
BOB VILA: Absolutely.
SAN MIGUEL: We are talking about the latest technologies that are going into home improvement tools. What do we have here? There's a laser somewhere on this, right?
VILA: Yes, well this is what we call a chopped side. It's a power miter box, so basically it's a very versatile tool that, especially framing a house, comes in very, very handy. And what they've done is they've created a 12-inch box here. That of course allows you to get bigger work through there, but the real innovative features are that it's got this built-in laser light that allows you to guide the blade exactly down to where you're going to make it cut. Watch it.
SAN MIGUEL: OK.
VILA: See the little red light there. So that there's less guesswork involved in making these cuts.
SAN MIGUEL: Our next Best of Show product involves the latest in recycling technology, some recycled plastic bags from a grocery store, some sawdust. You mix those together and you get bricks of these that can make a beautiful deck for your back yard. What is the name of the product that we're talking about here, Tom?
KRAEUTLER: This is called Press, and it's basically a recycled product, and it's used for decking. It's used for boardwalks, and it's an incredibly durable product. They just sort of take the recycled garbage bags, the plastic grocery sacks and you take the hard wood, mix it together with a resin, and you get a product you can use for a deck, that's virtually maintenance free.
SAN MIGUEL: Tom, we appreciate your time.
KRAEUTLER: My pleasure.
SAN MIGUEL: Tom Kraeutler, nationally syndicated radio host. I'm Renay San Miguel at the International Homebuilders Show in Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a new threat to elephants in Congo. Poachers are after them, but it's not for their ivory. And later in the show, eradiating letters may keep them safe from anthrax spores, but it's turning out to be pretty rough on the mail. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
President Bush this week unveiled his proposals for reducing air pollution linked to global warming. In a speech Thursday, Mr. Bush rolled out a program of tax incentives to encourage businesses to cut emissions.
It's his alternative to the Kyoto protocol on global warming. That treaty called on industrialized nations to sharply reduce their output of so-called greenhouse gases, believed to cause global warming.
The president rejected the treaty last year, saying it could cost Americans jobs, if new proposals call for a much more gradual drop in emissions and ask businesses to make the reductions voluntarily.
The next big environmental hot spots could lie beneath the ocean. A new study says some of the world's most diverse coral reefs face an uncertain future. The report by Conservation International identifies ten so-called coral hot spots, habitats rich with marine species, that are at great risk from threats like pollution and over fishing.
Their locations range from the Philippines to the Caribbean. They account for less than one percent of ocean areas, but 34 percent of all marine species live in a unique environment like coral.
Conservation International says if these reefs are allowed to die, not only could species be lost, but in some areas, it could hurt fisheries that feed local residents. For more on coral hot spots, visit our Web site, CNN.com/next.
In Central Africa, some residents are turning to an unlikely source of nutrition, elephants. Civil war has wiped out the economy in the Republic of Congo. Now the population is turning to elephants for food and to make money. Gary Strieker explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In these markets in the Central African Republic, elephant's meat is popular and easy to find, almost all of it from elephants killed illegally by poachers in the neighboring democratic Republic of Congo.
There the Congolese civil war that has brought suffering and death to millions, has also wiped out many sectors of the economy that had survived decades of stagnation. Here in the far north, few people still sell coffee or cotton.
RON PONTIER, MISSIONARY PILOT: What little bit of cotton or coffee that the people had, the soldiers took with them, and there's been no incentive to try to grow anything for sale anymore, because they're just going to lose it if another wave of soldiers come through.
STRIEKER: But some find ways to exploit natural resources for cash. A major target now, elephants, hunted not so much for ivory tusks, but mainly for meat.
PONTIER: The elephants are really getting hammered. Elephant meat, once it's dried, smoked, it's relatively light.
STRIEKER: And by local standards, well worth the effort. The meat of one elephant selling for more than $200, more than the average Congolese earns in a year.
Porters carry the meat on bicycles and small boats to the Central African Republic, selling it for hard currency. Elephants are a protected species under international treaty, and this cross border trade is illegal.
But Central African authorities, not only allow it, but actually raise revenue by charging customs duties on it. Most elephants here are killed by gangs of poachers from Central Africa, but they're not recruiting more local people for the hunts.
Wildlife experts say the meat of two to three elephants is crossing this stretch of border every day, about 1,000 elephants a year, a rate of killing that could soon decimate all elephants in this region.
This local hunter says in the past he used to kill only three or four elephants a year, and it was never a problem. But now, outsiders from the north, he warns, after killing all their animals, are coming down here to finish off ours. Many of these people may feel the same way, but others are joining the slaughter.
(on camera): In this poverty-stricken land racked by civil war, with decent earnings from coffee and cotton crops now a distant memory, it's easy to understand why some people would turn to killing elephants and other protected wildlife as a way to survive.
(voice over): Without peace or a functioning economy in this part of Congo, elephants here seem fated to die in this civil war.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Elephants aren't the only wildlife victims of Congo's civil war. Mountain guerillas are also being hunted for food. Fewer than 650 of them are left in the world.
ANNOUNCER: If you seek but still can't find, on the Internet that is, you need what's coming up in our next segment. We'll also show you a whacky game that could increase your vocabulary, that and much more still ahead on NEXT AT CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: If you've ever needed to find something on the Internet but couldn't, and we've all been there, maybe it's because you just didn't have the right tools. Natalie Pawelski talks with Josh Quittner, Technology Editor for TIME Magazine to get the lowdown on high tech search engines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Josh, I'm in a bit of a search engine rut. I have one or two favorite search engines and I always go to them and I get the feeling there's more out there on the web that I'm missing. How do I find new ways to search?
JOSH QUITTNER, TIME MAGAZINE: There are tons of search engines. I think it turns out that his is obviously one of the things that people like to do the best. They like to search for stuff online, and no surprise, there are plenty of really smart programmers bringing plenty of really cool search engines online to help you.
One of my favorites, though, comes from my favorite search engine, Google. It got one that allows you to just search for images. So if you go to images.google.com, you can come up with pictures of the subject, instead of information on the subject.
So, for instance, if we wanted to find pictures of you, Natalie, type the name.
PAWELSKI: Hey, I'm not a fish.
QUITTNER: No, what it will do is, if it comes up with, there's probably a reference to your name on the page.
PAWELSKI: I see.
QUITTNER: So the technology isn't perfect, but it gets the gist of things.
Another one that I like quite a bit is called Vivisimo, which I don't know if you've ever had the experience. You look for something, you know, something fairly straightforward. Let's say bulldogs, OK.
If you look for bulldogs on the normal site, you're going to come up with 900,000 different references to bulldogs, and you don't really know how to begin. I mean, they're sort of listed 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. But it's not necessarily in the order that makes the most sense t you.
What Vivisimo does is it looks for commonality between the subjects and groups them together in folders.
PAWELSKI: Oh, that really helps. So like if you're interested in the Georgia dogs, Georgia Bulldogs.
QUITTNER: Right.
PAWELSKI: You're right there.
QUITTNER: There you go. So you go to Georgia Bulldogs.
PAWELSKI: I know there are some sites that allow you to search a lot of search engines at once, like Metacrawler or Dogpile.
QUITTNER: Right. These have been around for a few years and they, too, are getting better and better. The one we like now is called Ixquick, I-X-Q-U-I-C-K.com and what it does is it searches through a whopping 14 other search engines, including all the major ones.
PAWELSKI: Oh, that sounds great.
QUITTNER: Yes, it is and they're also compiled in a pretty easy to use way. The stars indicate a number of times people have clicked on this particular link, which gives you a really good sense of its popularity. People who are looking for corvettes like to go to this particular site. In this case, it's the National Corvette Museum, which makes sense.
I love this site. I mean everybody searches. People are searching all the time. The only thing more interesting than searching is finding out what other people are searching for.
And what (UNINTELLIGIBLE) does is it shows you the things the people are looking for on Google, and what's cool is they arrange it by the top ten daily queries, meaning these are the ones that people are now searching on versus the ones that people are not as much interested in, the ones that are declining with a bullet.
PAWELSKI: Josh, is there anything different about the way we're searching now as opposed to say a year ago or two years ago?
QUITTNER: Absolutely. We're searching better now. I think that the technology has gotten so good that people are getting hooked up with the things that they've looking for much faster and more efficiently than they were even a year ago.
PAWELSKI: Is that because of the user or because the equipment's better?
QUITTNER: I think it's mainly because the equipment's better. I think the technology has gotten better and better and better. At the same time, people are getting a little bit more sophisticated. But I really think that most of the credit goes to companies like Google, which have figured out how to do this stuff faster.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Some folks have figured out how to use Google for something other than finding information and turn the sometimes frustrating task of web searching into a sometimes frustrating game. Bruce Burkhardt goes Google-whacking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What does pedantic have to do with Triggerfish? The dictionary of course is full of words, thousands of them, ontologically, rutabaga. But the dictionary would seem to be the only place where such unrelated words could be found in the same spot.
What about these words? Photosynthetic and insouciance?
GARY STOCK, GOOGLEWHACKING.COM: Got one.
BURKHARDT: Serious?
STOCK: We got it. Exactly. Photosynthetic insouciance.
BURKHARDT: Why the celebration? We just found a Google-whack.
STOCK: But searching for that Google-whack is Google-whacking.
BURKHARDT: Gary Stock, coining the term Google-whack to describe a kind of game that in recent weeks has caught fire on the web. The objective is to enter two words into the Google search engine and come back with a single result. Not zero. Not two or 200, but one. Prosthetic and cappuccino.
Since Google has indexed over two billion pages on the Internet, and is updating all the time, finding a Google-whack is no small task.
STOCK: Six results. That's not bad really. The internet is too large to comprehend anymore, and I think that's what it reveals when you look for the words callipygian and urdicaria (ph) on the same page, and there are 600 results. It's bizarre.
BURKHARDT: No wonder like a guy like Gary is behind this Google- whack thing. He's kind of a walking Google-whack, a former code breaker for the government, and a jazz pianist, an owner of an Internet company in Kalamazoo, Michigan along with his wife, and a turtle protector. His 160-acre backyard serves as perfect habitat for the increasingly rare Eastern Box Turtle.
STOCK: Both of them had serious infestations of a blow fly, of a particular species of fly.
BURKHARDT: Diverse interest. It may have something to do with the interest in diverse words.
STOCK: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) prosciutto.
BURKHARDT: But in a way, that's what the Internet has done, put everything on the same page, while this Google-whacking thing may be dismissed as another workplace diversion competing with Solitaire and elf bowling.
Maybe there's more to it than that, a new way of surfing, putting on the blindfold, spinning around, and seeing where you wind up.
STOCK: Indicating again the ontological possibilities of sculpture. So it's somebody talking about art.
BURKHARDT: Who invented Google-whacking? Who invented fire? It was only when Gary gave it a name, just a few weeks ago, and sent an e-mail to some friends, that the idea got picked up in other web communities. Then Internet speed took over.
STOCK: Two weeks later, hundreds of people know about it. Two weeks after that, it's in all the major media. BURKHARDT: At googlewhacking.com, the web site Gary set up to take the pressure off his e-mail box, whackers are constantly posting their latest find, over 10,000 sent in so far.
STOCK: We may, in fact, have too much time on our hands.
BURKHARDT: Another possibility is to mix Google-whacking with old-fashioned ego surfing. Try Burkhardt, is my name, and great reporter.
STOCK: Did not match any documents.
BURKHARDT: Stupid game. Burkhardt, zero match.
STOCK: Zero results.
BURKHARDT: Must be some Google...
STOCK: Google's probably down, yes. That in fact could be it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: When NEXT returns, we'll look at the latest in home video reporting, DDD, and we'll show you a truck designed to fight terrorists, but sorry you can't buy this at your local dealership, all that and more coming up after a break and the latest headlines from the CNN New Room. We'll be back in a few.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back. When letters laced with anthrax began killing people last fall, eradiating the mail seemed like a great idea. Radiation would wipe out any anthrax spores, supporters said. But as Jeanne Meserve reports, it seems the treatment wipes out some other things as well.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A white pearl turns gray when subjected to a radiation like that now used on some U.S. mail. A blue sapphire after eradiation is orange.
GENE DEL POLITO, ASSOCIATION FOR POSTAL COMMERCE: Eradiation definitely is not the answer to our problems.
MESERVE: The bombardment of mail with electron beams was the gun after the anthrax attacks, on selected mail to Washington zip codes, which include Capitol Hill, the White House, federal agencies and a small number of homes.
It kills anthrax spores but it turns out that eradiation and the heat it generates does a lot more than that. At the National Archives, where they restore old documents like this original of the Monroe Doctrine, new publications are arriving prematurely aged.
ELIZA GILLIGAN, SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION: And it's very brittle and if we were to put the -- turn this, we'd probably see it break off.
(AUDIO GAP)
GILLIGAN: OK, maybe there is still data on this disk, but there's no way to get it out.
MESERVE: Journals arrived with pages fused together. CDs were warped. So the Smithsonian concerned about its collection, took action.
GILLIGAN: We decided that we would go around the Postal Service, and secure a postal post box in a non-government zip code.
MESERVE: A report by a manufacturer of eradiation equipment lists other potential problems. "It's likely many pharmaceuticals will show a reduction in their efficacy and/or stability, and eradiation will expose unprocessed photographic film."
And then there are the health complaints of people handling eradiated mail, one of them a member of Congress.
REP. BILLY TAUZIN (R), LOUISIANA: And whether it was a coincidence or not, I had an awful night. I mean awful headaches and really strange feelings.
DEBORAH WILLHITE, FORMER VP U.S. POSTAL SERVICE: You know, I put my head down in it. I've handled it with my hands.
MESERVE: Deborah Willhite says she has not gotten ill.
WILLHITE: So far, there's been no medical or scientific evidence found that eradiated mail contains anything toxic, that would make anyone feel sick.
MESERVE: The Postal Service says wider use of eradiation is still as planned, though no additional anthrax letters have been found.
DEL POLITO: The Postal Service has a very, very hard time saying "we overreacted, or it was not necessary" and that's really the dilemma that they're in.
MESERVE: Indeed, as evidence of problems has mounted, the timetable for deploying eradiation equipment has slipped, and some experts now believe it will never happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Some travelers flying into London will now clear immigration using their eyes, instead of their passports. A system using eye recognition to identify people is being tested at London's Heathrow Airport. As Juliet Bremner reports, it could shorten the waiting time for some frequent fliers.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JULIET BREMNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The machine promises to banish the frustrations of the possible few, quite literally in the blink of an eye. A few handpicked customers will now be able to check through immigration with no more than a smile and a wink.
To start with, it will be used by 2,000 business travelers who fly frequently into Heathrow, but if the five-month trial is successful, the airport hopes it will eventually be available for everyone.
(on camera): The idea behind this technology is that your eye prints are as individual as your fingerprints, and that having a picture of your iris taken will soon be as commonplace as getting a passport photo.
Within a matter of seconds, it's possible to get this machine to take a picture your eye. It will then be stored on a database that could be accessed by airports around the world.
(voice-over): While the technology promises to filer out intruders, it can't entirely replace the immigration checks currently carried out at passport control. Travelers wanting to use the new eye ticket will have to get security clearance before an image of their iris is taken and stored.
ALAN CRAIG, U.S. IMMIGRATION SERVICE: All of the tests we did in the soft trial before this proved positive, but we must still have that verification from an immigration service we find to make sure that the right person is applying, and that their identity is checked.
BREMNER: It won't, of course, erase the horrors of delayed flights or lost baggage, but the eye scanner should improve security and speed up the end of your journey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: An earlier version of the eye ticket system was tested at a Charlotte, North Carolina airport and the company says it had a 100 percent success rate.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up on NEXT, is this destruction the result of terrorism or merely illegal direct action? A former spokesman for environmental extremists takes the Fifth before Congress, but he did talk to us. That's ahead. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Kenneth Lay of Enron wasn't the only one to take the Fifth before Congress this week. A former spokesman for an environmental extremist group repeatedly refused to answer questions before a House subcommittee Tuesday. As Natalie Pawelski reports, the panel is looking at how to deal with eco-terrorism in today's security conscious world.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The United States' biggest ski resort, an Indiana subdivision, a biology lab at the University of Minnesota, a few of the targets considered torch worthy by radical environmentalists.
LESLIE JAMES PICKERING, FAITH LIBERATION FRONT SPOKESMAN: These aren't people who just love to go out and commit crimes. These are people who love the earth and who love the environment and who love the air that they breathe and the relationships that they have with people, and they're fighting to protect those.
PAWELSKI: The congressman whose district saw the most expensive act of eco-terrorism, $12 million in arson damage at Colorado's Vail Ski Resort, sees things differently.
REPRESENTATIVE SCOTT McINNIS (R) COLORADO: This is not a freedom of speech, and it's time that we take away the Robin Hood mystique. These people are criminals and they are terrorists.
PAWELSKI: On its web site, the best-known group accused of eco- terrorism, the Earth Liberation Front, or E.L.F, claims credit for $40 million in damages since 1997, ranging from Arson to the release of captive animals. The site also offers tips for setting fires. That's the kind of speech and actions that prompted hearings on Capitol Hill.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But do you share in the view that it's just a matter of time before someone is badly hurt or killed by the Earth Liberation Front?
CRAIG ROSEBRAUGH, FORMER E.L.F. SPOKESMAN: I will take the Fifth Amendment.
PAWELSKI: Dozens of times, former E.L.F spokesman Craig Roserun declined to speak.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you currently affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front?
ROSEBRAUGH: I'll take the Fifth Amendment.
PAWELSKI: But in an interview with CNN, he defended E.L.F.'s actions.
ROSEBRAUGH: The Earth Liberation Front is around to threaten commerce of those industries that are bent and focused on profiting off the massive destruction of the environment. But as far as a threat to national security, no, they pose no threat, and they have never posed any threat.
(on camera): At a time when terrorism has proven deadly on a grand scale, some question attaching the terrorism label to a movement that targets property not people's lives. Then again, these days destroying building for ideological reasons hardly seems a strategy likely to win widespread support.
(voice over): The FBI says the Earth Liberation Front, and a similar organization, the Animal Liberation Front, or A.L.F., are the most active domestic terrorism organizations in the country.
JAMES JARBOE, FBI: The number one priority in the domestic terrorism program, which I run, is A.L.F., E.L.F.
PAWELSKI: Mainstream environmental groups say they've always condemned eco-terrorism.
CARL POPE, SIERRA CLUB: It's not your motivation that counts when it comes to violence. It's your means. Violence when used in this country is simply wrong and people shouldn't do it.
PAWELSKI: Leaders of some of the green groups say they're already facing a tough political environment in Washington, and a focus on eco-terrorism in the middle of a war on terrorism, is not likely to help.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Representative McInnis says his subcommittee will continue to examine eco-terrorism. He says if the former E.L.F. spokesman doesn't begin to cooperate, he could be charged with contempt of Congress.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the Army builds its dream truck, designed to be a nightmare for bad guys.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: If you've been spoiled by the quality of DVD movies and wish you could record your favorite TV shows and home movies onto DVDs, well good new. It looks as if VCRs are about to go the way of record players, and 8-tracks. Marsha Walton has more in this weeks' Technofile.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARSHA WALTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The future of home video recording is here. You can now record onto DVDs. Pioneer, Phillips and Panasonic all make DVD recorders.
We tested out models on either end of the rather short three- brand spectrum. The least expensive model is Panasonic's DMR-E20, list price $999. The spectrum tops out with Pioneer's DVR-7000, which costs $1,000 more. Both models can be found cheaper online.
We got excellent video and audio quality on both machines. Pioneer's had more features, including a fire wire port for seamless digital transfer of home videos, and a progressive scan output for higher quality video. Each unit has limited edit capabilities. But you're better off imitating Spielberg on a PC.
There are currently three different formats for recordable disks, and that's the biggest obstacles to mainstream success of stand alone DVD recorders.
Now try to follow all this. Panasonic uses re-recordable DVD as well as Write Once DVD-R. It works in more than 90 percent of DVD players, but is not re-recordable. Pioneer also uses DVDR, along with its in-house disk called DVD-RW. That's for read and write. It's re- recordable but many DVD players won't accept it. Look for a winner to emerge by 2003.
Recording was simple on both machines. Pioneer seemed to have quicker response times. Once you've recorded your favorite Pavarotti concerto, you have to finalize the disk, making it readable by other players. This takes anywhere from two to 20 minutes. Look for this step to be eliminated in future models.
Home video digital technology is growing faster than your children, but unlike your kids, these players will be replaced by year's end, for cheaper more feature rich models.
If you're looking to chuck your VCR for a DVD recorder, experts say you might want to wait a year. I'm Marsha Walton and that's Technofile.
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HATTORI: At the North American Auto Show last month, once truck on display looked like it was designed for a James Bond movie. But in fact, the designers work for Uncle Sam. Our Jeff Flock checked it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I'm here at the North American International Auto Show. You might wonder what in some sense was the most exciting vehicle we saw. Well, it wasn't built by Ford or Chrysler or GM or the rest, but in fact, built by the U.S. Army.
Take a look at this. It's something called Smart Truck. You know, the automakers often give something called a handout tape. That's some videotape of their vehicles in action. The U.S. Army didn't give just a handout tape. We got something on the order of a full length movie.
Let's take a look at a little bit of that. This is some of what this Smart Truck can do. In a scenario where a U.S. Embassy was under attack in some sense, this vehicle had the ability to pepper spray demonstrators outside the embassy. It has electrified door handles, in case somebody tried to break in, capable of fogging pursues, of laying down an oil slick. It has night vision capability. It has blinding lights.
In this movie, someone with a rocket launcher in a car is foiled by large road tacks that come out. You even have a grenade launcher in this. Dennis Wend directs this entire program and put this together. Is this all for real or is it a movie?
DENNIS WEND, NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE CENTER, U.S. ARMY: Not this is for real. Other than for the laser gun that you've seen in the movie, everything is operational here and working.
FLOCK: Show it to me.
WEND: If we look around, you can see, for instance, these little nozzles.
FLOCK: That's the pepper spray?
WEND: Of the pepper spray.
FLOCK: Got you.
WEND: What you see here is the night vision that pops up and gets out of the way if we need it or not, so that we can be inconspicuous.
FLOCK: What's this up here?
WEND: This is a representation of the laser gun with the percussion grenades that come out of that launcher. Right here is a camera. We're basically now seeing the cameras that are giving us all four around, so now we can know who's around us, who's behind us.
FLOCK: I've got to ask you how close is this to being reality, because you're telling me that this prototype is reality already.
WEND: All these pieces, if needed to be, can be put together. Now is that happening? Without going into any kind of classified material as such, I will just tell you that we will be looking at how we can protect the homeland in this War on Terrorism.
FLOCK: In some sense, the most excitement at the auto show, not by any of the U.S. or automakers for overseas, but by the U.S. Army and this vehicle back here.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Now imagine if you could order some of those features on your next car. You could punish tailgaters on the freeway by ejecting a few of those tacks, and if that doesn't work, well there is the grenade launcher.
ANNOUNCER: Still ahead, the latest in lounge furniture for the cow who has everything. We'll be right back.
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HATTORI: Finally this week, the next big thing for cows. We all know the more contented they are, the more milk they give, so naturally, farmers go to great lengths to keep the herds happy, and what could better bring a smile to a pair of bovine lips than a new waterbed. The story from, who else, Jeanne Moos.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Farmers who find their cows tossing and turning can now turn to the latest in bovine bedding. DEAN THRONDSEN, RELATIVE PRODUCTS: What this is, is a waterbed for cows.
MOOS: For cows?
KEVIN BURNHAM, FARMHAND : Heck, I haven't even got one.
MOOS: But over 100 cows have, here at Woodhill Farm in Hampton, Connecticut.
AL CAHILL, CO-OWNER, WOODHILL FARM: Ten gallons of water and ten gallons of windshield washer fluid like you add to your car.
MOOS: You're kidding?
CAHILL: Right, so it won't -
MOOS: Freeze. The marriage was cold, but the waterbed wasn't in the film "The Ice Storm." Cows have to be careful, merely lying down.
THRONDSEN: When that cow gets down, I mean it's 1,500 pounds of falling flesh.
MOOS: They're always getting scrapes and sores. Waterbeds are supposed to prevent that.
THRONDSEN: She's landing on a pillow of water.
MOOS: And farmers know that the more comfortable the cow, the more milk she'll produce, so you see ads in farm publications for rubber padding like the DuraBed and the Pasture Mat, but the waterbed is the latest. It originated in England.
CAHILL: We add some sawdust on top. It makes it attractive to them, and you know, it's like a linen on a mattress.
MOOS: Half of Al Cahill's herd still reclines on old-fashioned sand, but sand is expensive to replenish and hard to maintain. So farmers are starting to roll out the waterbeds and fill them up at a cost of about $200 a stall. How do they know the cows like them?
JAMES BREWSTER, GENERAL MANAGER, WOODHILL FARM: Because they'll lay on them.
BURNHAM: They're a lot cleaner. I'm sure they like to be cleaner, you know what I mean?
MOOS: Yes, sure. We're told if there aren't enough waterbeds to go around -
THRONDSEN: The cows will line up behind the waterbed and wait for one to get up.
MOOS: Al himself has slept on a waterbed for years.
CAHILL: I've enjoyed my waterbed. I knew they would. MOOS: No chance the cows will mutilate their waterbeds like "Edward Scissorhands" did. Cow waterbeds are tough.
THRONDSEN: You won't break it. If the cows don't break it, they won't, you won't.
MOOS: Of course, not every cow has the hots for waterbeds, or beds of any kind.
THRONDSEN: We have a non-compliant soul here who refuses to use any stall.
MOOS: But cows who have a beef with their bedding may fall for waterbeds.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: A Martha Stewart duvet and Bessie will be all set. Well, that will do it for this week. Here's what's coming up next time.
One of the most spectacular cave systems in the United States, home to rare underwater creatures, is this anyplace for wastewater from a sewage treatment plant? And, a device that jams all the cell phones in an area. The peace and quiet is great, but is it a good idea?
That and more coming up on NEXT. Until then, let us hear from you. Our e-mail address is next@cnn.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week. For all of us on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. See you next time.
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