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Stealth Bomber Prepare for War With Iraq; Two San Francisco Men Want AOL to Stop Sending Free CD's; Sparrows Choose Mate by Song

Aired November 09, 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, stealth bombers, ready to be front and center as the United States prepares for possible war with Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can fly basically anywhere on the planet, as demonstrated in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: We'll show you the special measures that must be taken to base the bombers close to the action.

Why are these guys stringing together tens of thousands of CDs?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go back to AOL and attempt to give them back and say something like, "you've got mail."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: A quest to keep those Internet service CDs from ending up here.

And if you think songbirds are harmless and cute balls of feathers and fluff, you haven't seen the latest research.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they can, they'll kill each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: We'll tell you why sparrows will kill for a song. All that and more on NEXT.

ANN KELLAN, GUEST HOST: Hi, welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm Ann Kellan. James Hattori is on a well-deserved vacation. And we are at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History here in Atlanta.

We begin with another look at the technology that will come into play if the United States goes to war with Iraq. Chances are the stealth bomber will be in the first wave of attack. The planes are now based in Missouri, but as Jamie McIntyre tells us, the military is preparing to move the bombers closer to the action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once maligned as a $2 billion boondoggle that couldn't operate in the rain, the bat-winged B-2 Stealth Bomber is flying high these days having proven its mettle in two wars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can fly basically anywhere on the planet as demonstrated in Kosovo and Afghanistan and put munitions on target on time.

MCINTYRE: In fact, a year ago a B-2 set a combat aviation record, flying the longest non-stop bombing mission ever from Missouri to Afghanistan before eventually landing in Diego Garcia after more than 44 hours.

MCINTYRE (on camera): There are only 21 B-2 bombers in the Air Force inventory, all of them based here at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, but despite their small numbers, they pack an explosive punch, which makes them the weapon of choice for the opening days of an air campaign.

(voice-over): Each B-2 can deliver 16 satellite guided bombs to 16 separate targets. That's crucial to the U.S. strategy to deliver a demoralizing initial attack in any war against Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can go farther than most other aircraft and deliver a payload the size of -- the equivalent of a squadron of F-16s with fantastic precision and we can do it without anybody even knowing we're going there.

MCINTYRE: While its long range and heavy payload may give the B- 2 bragging rights, its combat effectiveness in a major war with Iraq depends on it being closer to the fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still look at the long range sortie as a valuable asset. The forward deploying allows us to turn a lot more sorties.

MCINTYRE: But the B-2 can't be based just anywhere. Its radar absorbing skin has to be restored in climate-controlled maintenance areas, so the U.S. is erecting special $2.5 million portable shelters in both Fairford (ph), England, and at the British base in Diego Garcia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The jet does have some maintenance requirements to keep it low observable, as we say, but we'll have all the elements in place, you know, anywhere we need to go around the world if we need to forward deploy.

MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say deployment of the B-2s to the region is not imminent, another signal that war with Iraq is still months away, and while the pilots at Whiteman are not spoiling for a fight, they are ready. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No professional airman wants to fight in a war but if the country calls upon you or you're tasked to do so, then no warrior wants to stay home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: The U.S. Army has announced a big technological advance. It has come up with a sandwich fit for the battlefield. More from Gail Huff of CNN affiliate WCVB.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GAIL HUFF, WCVB CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Army's new pocket sandwich may not look like a miracle, but consider the fact that it's made of real bread, real pepperoni, and its expiration date is June of 2007.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's huge. It's absolutely huge.

HUFF: For seven years, researchers here at Natic (ph) Labs have been trying to develop the technology that uses chemical and natural preservatives to lock moisture in place and stop bacteria and mold from growing. Well, finally they found a way to keep a sandwich fresh for up to five years.

GERALD DARSCH: Suspending time indefinitely. That product will be just as safe and wholesome three to five years from now as it was the day it was born.

HUFF: Soldiers, who are used to MREs consisting of freeze-dried meat and vegetables say this sandwich equals a meal in a five-star restaurant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good. It tastes like something you'd buy from Hickory Farms or something. It's very good.

HUFF: I tried them, barbecue chicken, bacon and cheese, and pepperoni.

(on camera): Oh, that's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't that good?

HUFF: I like that better.

(voice-over): I passed them around the Channel 5 newsroom and cafeteria without tasters knowing they were Army rations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all right.

HUFF (on camera): Would you buy it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

HUFF: No. Would you eat it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm eating it now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's interesting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it needs some sauce or something to dress it up.

HUFF (voice-over): No, it's not home cooking, but during combat it is perfect. No preparation, no refrigerator needed. You're no doubt looking at the sandwich of the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Kids eating lunch here at the Fernbank Museum don't have to worry about their sandwiches lasting three years, but there is a new report about the safety of seafood that might concern them, or at least their parents, anyway. Kim Moldehaal (ph) of CNN affiliate KRON has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM MOLDEHAAL (ph), KRON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For years, we have been told that fish is good for us, but now a new study in the journal "Environmental Health Perspective" says some fish may contain toxic levels of mercury. Dr. Jane Hightower, a physician at California Pacific Medical Center, studied blood mercury levels in her own patients who ate a lot of fish. She found many had concentrations of mercury exceeding the levels the FDA considers safe.

Those levels produced a wide variety of problems.

DR. JANE HIGHTOWER, SCIENTIST: The symptoms I was getting was a clustering of symptoms -- fatigue, headache, troubles thinking, muscle and joint pains, memory loss, hair loss.

MOLDEHAAL (ph): The biggest risks came from the biggest fish. Ocean-going fish such as sharks, swordfish, tuna, seabass and halibut. Dr. Hightower found that the more of these fish people ate, the higher the level of mercury in their blood.

HIGHTOWER: One child had almost 15 times higher the mercury level that is acceptable, in clearly toxic range.

MOLDEHAAL (ph): Another big problem is that there is little agreements on what a safe level of mercury even is. The FDA has set the legal limit on fish for mercury at one part per million, but that's twice as high as Canada's limit, and three times the limit in Japan. Even then the FDA inspects only a fraction of fish coming into this country, so many fish sold here may be over the limit, but are never tested.

Dr. Hightower says we need tougher regulations to make sure our fish supply is safe.

HIGHTOWER: We need a lot more testing, and we need the information to be available for people when they eat the fish.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Experts say people with high mercury levels can usually reduce those levels by not eating the suspect fish, and there are plenty of fish not contaminated with mercury, including trout, catfish and salmon. Salmon, however, is the focus of another controversy, as Lilian Kim reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LILIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's increasingly becoming the fish of choice. Touted as rich in nutrients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that our wild salmon has nothing that goes into it. It's pure.

KIM: But chances are, the salmon you eat isn't caught in the wild. It's most likely farmed. At this facility, one pen contains up to 40,000 salmon. They're bred in captivity and harvested about two- and-a-half years later, selling for less than one-third of wild salmon.

CONRAD MAHNKEN, NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE: It provides food, high quality food for people who haven't been able to afford salmon in the past.

KIM: Affordable perhaps. Nevertheless, the booming industry is facing growing criticism. Opponents say farm fish pollutes the environment, contains less than the beneficial omega three fatty acids and carries higher levels of toxins.

MOSNESS: A farmed fish spends its lifetime in a pen of its own feces. It's been treated with antibiotics and pesticides and chemicals in its lifetime.

KIM: Some of those chemicals can be found in their feed, a synthetic dye added to these fish meal pellets is what gives farm salmon their pink color. Without it, the flesh would appear pale gray. But government researchers say the farmed variety should cause no reason for alarm.

MAHNKEN: Scientific evidence today shows that they have not exceeded the limits, the acceptable limits for those toxins.

KIM: Allowing the farming industry to continue thriving for now, slowly decreasing the demand for those salmon caught in the wild.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: OK, if you want to tell the difference at the grocery store between farmed and wild salmon. Atlantic salmon is generally farm-raised, and Alaskan salmon is wild.

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, find out how one zoo ended up with way too many tigers. And what a study of sheep brains is telling scientists about human sexuality.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: A debate going on in Chile could determine the fate of elephants, whales and some less glamorous plants and animals. Representatives from 160 countries and dozens of independent groups are meeting this week and next in Santiago for the 12th Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species, CITES for short. Among the topics on the agenda, a proposal by some African nations to resume selling ivory from their stockpiles. Opponents say that would encourage illegal trade and endanger elephants.

Japan is pushing a bid to resume some whale hunting that CTIES has banned, and some officials are asking the conference to focus on less charismatic creatures that need protection.

Any animal shelter worker can tell you how hard it is to find homes for all the unwanted dogs and cats out there. They'd probably sympathize with the dilemma of a zoo in Malaysia that's trying to find good homes for eight tigers. Kurt Ashen (ph) has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KURT ASHEN (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here at Malaka (ph) zoo, next to the gentler creatures, lives a less contented inhabitant. This is one of eight Malayan tigers whose mood reflects their recent change of status, from free-roaming hunter to zoo captive. It is a move aimed at saving lives, both human and feline.

Tigers have been attacking humans and livestock recently in Malaysia, and the government has responded with a campaign of tiger hunting. So for now, the zoo provides a foster home for the cats, while the zoo director asks his counterparts around the world to adopt them.

MOHD NAWAYAI YASAK, ZOO DIRECTOR: In fact, I posted our offer to give (ph) these tigers on the Internet, and so far we have two positive responses.

ASHEN (ph): Zoo keepers agree, tigers are becoming a nuisance. But they say it's not completely their fault. Malaysia's rubber industry puts tree-tapping workers right in the tigers' paths, and developers are clearing large areas of the Malaysian jungle. That means tigers have less room to hunt and less meat to consume.

YASAK: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they will attack domestic -- I mean (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and in certain cases they will attack humans.

ASHEN (ph): Saving the tigers is taxing the zoo's resources. Most of them live in tiny cages to keep them from fighting each other, and they're adding hundreds of kilograms of fresh meat to the zoo's weekly food bill, but for now, zoo visitors have the chance to see first hand the latest captives in mankind's conquest of the jungle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: A study of homosexual sheep could shed new light on what makes some people homosexual. Researchers in Oregon found differences in brain structure between rams that mate with ewes and those that mate with other rams. Bruce Sessman from our affiliate KGW has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE SESSMAN, KGW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the OHSU campus, researchers compared the brains of male sheep.

CHARLES ROSELLI, OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIV.: Rams mimicking the behavior in that they choose a sexual partner and remain with that partner throughout life.

SESSMAN: This is one of the gay sheep they studied. Researchers tested nine male sheep that mate with males and eight male sheep that mate with females. Researchers say the gay sheep appear to have a different brain than the straight sheep.

ROSELLI: Simply, this research makes a connection between the size of a small portion of the brain located in the hypothalamus and an animal's sexual preference.

SESSMAN: Results of the study are welcome news in Oregon's gay community. Roey Thorpe is director of Basic Rights Oregon.

ROEY THORPE, BASIC RIGHTS OREGON: What the researchers are saying about the results of the study is that while there may be a number of factors that contribute to sexual orientation in every person, whether they are straight or gay, or every sheep whether they are straight or gay, that one of the factors may, in fact, be physiological.

SESSMAN: OHSU points out the study does not necessarily carry over to human behavior.

ROSELLI: This is further understanding the very basic structures in the brain that control sexual preference, and it is really the tip of the iceberg. We've got a lot more to understand.

SESSMAN: Still, researchers believe this study may help us understand humans and their sexuality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, the weird and wacky things you can find for auction online.

And later, high-flying photography for some serious fun.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: Now that two sniper suspects are in custody near Washington, D.C., residents are breathing earlier. But the hard work has just started for investigators building a case against the two men. Thelma Gutierrez takes us into the world of forensic science, how bits and pieces of obscure evidence can add up to justice served.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ballistics tests. Documents analysis. And fluorescent examination to detect what the eye cannot see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the range where we test fire our weapons.

GUTIERREZ: It is the science of crime solving. In the case of the D.C. sniper, a rifle has been forensically linked to 11 of the shootings. A casing was recovered, and so were bullets from the victims' bodies.

At the Orange County Sheriff's Department's crime lab, forensic scientists test firearms by shooting into a tank. Next, they retrieve the bullets and casing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we're going into the firearms laboratory for the comparison.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): So we want to know now if they match a particular gun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.

GUTIERREZ: That's what we're going to test for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we're going to do.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The fine markings inside a casing or on a bullet are unique to a particular weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All these additional horizontal line all agree from test to evidence showing that they were both fired from the same weapon.

GUTIERREZ: Another piece of evidence linked to one of the sniper suspects, a fingerprint found at a murder scene in Montgomery, Alabama.

MAGGIE BLACK, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: There are certain minutiae characteristics.

GUTIERREZ: According to Maggie Black, assistant director of the crime lab, a single print match is foolproof, because the smallest detail of a fingerprint on every single finger of every single human being is completely different.

BLACK: This is an actual fingerprint lift.

GUTIERREZ: The details are marked in red. The information is then entered into a criminal database to search for a match. BLACK: Searching the FBI's database. There's 40 million down there.

GUTIERREZ: Next, documents examination. In the sniper case, authorities have at least three documents to analyze. Forensic scientist Mike Raisick (ph) says a plain piece of paper may hold important clues.

This machine helps to lift indented impressions like this, left behind on a notepad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can make a transparency from it.

GUTIERREZ: Important evidence commonly left behind by criminals -- shoe prints. Investigators took what appeared to be an imprint of a footprint at the scene of one of the sniper shootings. It is all meticulous, tedious work to piece together a crime and ultimately catch and convict the criminals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: You can find a lot of hot deals on the Internet auction site Ebay. Apparently, at least in one case, sometimes too hot. Police in Olympia, Washington, have arrested a 49-year-old man accused of running a massive shoplifting ring and selling the merchandise on Ebay. Authorities say the suspect auctioned nearly 47,000 items on the site, ranging from electrical razors to snow shoes, and made some $300,000.

Well, there are things more unusual than stolen property on Ebay. How about a set of used dentures? Or a shark fetus? Or something like this? Jeanne Moos meets a guy with an eye for the bizarre on Ebay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Talk about an eyeful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But that is a real glass eye.

MOOS: From a belt buckle with an eye to eye caps embalmers use on the deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those will keep your eyelid closed forever.

MOOS: Who knew "e" in eBay stood for "eek." Bid on a dried preserved mouse with just a click of your mouse, or maybe you'd prefer a 1949 can of rattlesnake meat?

(on camera): With supreme sauce?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, that's for added flavor.

MOOS (voice-over): All found on eBay, the title of Marc Hartman's book. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a goat toenail bracelet. Who knew something like this existed, that people made bracelets from goat toenails?

MOOS: From goat toenails to some guy's big toenail, came off as a result of a sports injury, eBay closed the bidding on this item, and who would want this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a woman's photo of her colon from her colonoscopy.

MOOS: A guy named Mike even tried to auction off a wart from his finger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's kind a nice thing to know that of all this disgusting stuff on eBay, not all of it does sell.

MOOS: Marc started collecting weird items up for bid on e-bay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this is a hornet's nest.

MOOS: Simply like he likes off the wall stuff. This shark fetus was a gift from his fiancee, Liz. That's her, adjusting the duct tape tie acquired on eBay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really like it when Marc wears it.

MOOS: The two first bonded over discussion of a four-legged woman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so shocked that here is this girl who knows about the four-legged woman.

MOOS: For their six-month anniversary, Mark made Liz this snow dome. She photographed many of the items in the book.

(on camera): I've never shopped on e-bay. I had no idea they had stuff like this scrotum bags.

(voice-over): You heard right.

(on camera): Do you think it's real?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's real. Yes, the guy actually sells a bunch of these.

MOOS (voice-over): For a mere 30 bucks per scrotum, search eBay and you'll find everything from fake marijuana plants to used socks. No socks for Marc, but he did acquire a monkey carved out of a peach pit and a new jersey turnpike pennant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is anybody actually rooting for the turnpike?

MOOS: And there is the 10-inch JFK lawn gnome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this guy who was selling it, he actually has a garden gnome museum in Germany. This is one of my favorites too, the deer-proof paperweight.

MOOS: And we can't overlook the beer can man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you know it's a man, because when you lift him up...

MOOS: Some offerings are conceptual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is nothing, and nothing sold.

MOOS: For $1.03, and why settle for two head of cattle when you can buy a calf with two heads for a mere $20,000?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Nice bracelet, Jeanne. One thing you can't buy on Ebay is time, and we're out of time for this half-hour, but we'll be back after a break and a look at the latest headlines from the CNN newsroom.

ANNOUNCER: There is a lot more to come on NEXT@CNN.

One of the newest and most portable all-in-one handhelds. The latest on the upcoming shuttle mission, and the cutthroat world of birds on the mate. That and more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: My buddy and I welcome you back to NEXT@CNN, and we're at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The space shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for launch early next week on a mission with two main goals: The shuttle will bring a new girder for the International Space Station and replacements for the crew that has been living on the station since June. Miles O'Brien has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two long years they have been there, a few hundred miles above us, hurdling around the planet eight times faster than a speeding bullet. Collectively, they have logged more than 11,000 orbits. They are the 13 men and two women who have called the International Space Station home.

PEGGY WHITSON, NASA ASTRONAUT: It would be hard to be up here and not feel some changes.

O'BRIEN: This past week, I spoke with the fifth trio of station keepers -- Commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergey Treshchyov and the sole American, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.

WHITSON: I think seeing the Earth below and seeing the atmosphere is bound, how thin it is, it's going to affect you in how you feel about the planet and how we need to take care of it.

O'BRIEN: For the past five months, they have lived together in a giant tinker toy the size of an 1,800-square foot house, with few of the comforts of home.

Take the food, for example. Hermetically sealed and dehydrated.

WHITSON: After a couple of months, I was pretty bored with the food. There are still some things that are appealing to me, but for the most part, I go eat so that I can talk to Valery and Sergey. It's not because (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that much interesting that I want to eat.

O'BRIEN: Peggy Whitson's mouth may very well be watering at the thought of this sight, the space shuttle Endeavor pointed in her direction. The orbiter is carrying her relief, the sixth space station crew led by Ken Bowersox, a NASA astronaut and Navy captain.

KEN BOWERSOX, EXPEDITION SIX COMMANDER: I am not really sure what that's going to be like. I have been at sea for four months before with 5,000 other guys on an aircraft carrier, but I have never been with three guys in one spot for that long. And I have been told by other people who have been up there that actually is a bigger factor than they thought to be with the same people day after day after day.

O'BRIEN: The shuttle is also carrying a big piece of hardware, a 23,000-pound piece of the trust that will be the backbone of the orbiting science lab. The crews will install it using the station and shuttle robot arms and a pair of space-walking astronauts. One of them, John Herrington, will get an astounding ride at the end of a robot harm as he totes a piece of hardware from one side of the station to the other.

JOHN BENNETT HERRINGTON, MISSION SPECIALIST: Oh, that's going to be a blast. I didn't realize until I got into the virtuality lab how amazing this was going to be. As I get switched (ph) around, I am going to have a chance to see just some awesome sights.

O'BRIEN: Two years after it was first occupied, the station is an awesome sight. Two years from now, NASA and its international partners hope the outpost will be conducting some awesome science.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Suppose you want to take aerial photographs but can't afford to hire a plane. A conference going on this week near Monterey, California has a solution to that problem, and the conferees might just tell you to go fly a kite. Devon Sealey (ph) from our affiliate KSBW reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEVON SEALEY (ph), KSBW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A snapshot from the skies -- photos from a bird's eye perspective, that is uniquely what kite aerial photography can offer.

BROOKS LEFFLER, KITE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER: I'd like to say, do you think it will fill the gap between the top of the step ladder and the bottom of an airplane, is fair game for kite aerial photography. SEALEY (ph): And kite enthusiasts and amateur photographer Brooks Leffler should know. He organized this week's conference on aerial photography in Pacific Grove.

LEFFLER: There is a desperate need for people to talk to each other about how they do their craft.

We have people from 10 countries and 17 states, but they usually work by themselves, and there's a lot of reinvention of the wheel going on.

SEALEY (ph): The basic set-up, a camera suspended from a kite's string with a remote control that pans and tilts to frame the photo has a number of real-world applications. Alan Heaberlin uses kite photography in archaeological digs in Peru. He says it's cheaper than photographing the site from a plane and faster than surveying it from the ground.

ALAN HEABERLIN, ARCHAEOLOGIST: We can go out and survey a whole archaeological site. If the weather conditions are right, we can do it in one afternoon. When you scan them in, there is software that will actually draw contour maps and topographical maps.

SEALEY (ph): And it's those real-world applications that have transformed a child's hobby into a high-tech tool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Next on NEXT@CNN -- if you're tired of getting and throwing away CDs offering free time on the Internet, check out what these guys are doing with those discs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: As you probably know, America Online, one of CNN's sister companies, is the world's largest Internet provider, with 35 million subscribers. One reason may be all those software installation CDs the company sends out, you know, they come in the mail, they come in the magazines, they come incessantly. Well, as Rusty Dornin reports, two guys in suburban San Francisco say enough is enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You didn't ask for it, but you got it. Another one of those AOL CDs promising an eternity, or at least 1,000 hours on the Internet.

One night, Jim McKenna and John Lieberman got one with their rental video. Then...

JIM MCKENNA, CD ACTIVIST: When we got back to John's house, in the mailbox was another AOL CD, and we thought, you know, somebody has got to do something, so we sat down and got creative for I think it was a good seven minutes.

JOHN LIEBERMAN, CD ACTIVIST: Oh, at least.

MCKENNA: Yeah.

DORNIN: When those seven minutes were up, a plan and a Web site, NoMoreAolCDs.com. Contribute your CD's to a disc dumping drive like no other.

MCKENNA: Our quest is to obtain a million CD's. And a million just sounded like a nice number, and we will load up a fleet of trucks, and we're going to drive them across the country, and we're going to go back to AOL and attempt to give them back and say something like, "you've got mail," you know, please stop it.

DORNIN: We found out about the Web site from a waste management company newsletter. Manager Janet Schneider took us to the landfill.

JANET SCHNEIDER: Right there, the blue one? And it is America Online.

DORNIN: And talked about the trash they can do without.

SCHNEIDER: You're wasting a lot of natural resources, you're causing pollution and you're basically sending something that people don't want.

DORNIN (on camera): AOL is not the only company sending out free CDs and a lot of excess packaging. This one is from Earthlink and this is from AT&T, but AOL is certainly sending out the most.

(voice-over): How many? AOL, the company that owns CNN, wouldn't tell us. A company spokesman says consumers like to see the marketing program. For those who don't, they can send it back to the company for recycling.

Meantime, back in Lieberman's garage in California, 70,000 CDs so far, from as far away as Brazil and Africa. Lieberman and McKenna say they're having fun to make a point.

MCKENNA: We're not defaming AOL as a corporation or anybody that does business with them; we're asking them politely to stop. We're just doing it in a creative way.

DORNIN: A way to tell a corporation their mailbox is full.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, this digital camera looks simple, but it's packed with sophisticated features. Find out what it can do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: Back in January, we told you about an affordable all-in- one handheld device created by a California company called Danger. It wowed them at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Well, the gadget has just hit the market, and as Jen Rogers reports, it is still getting rave reviews. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEN ROGERS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Johnny Carson had Ed McMahon; Batman had Robin, and now, you too, can have your very own sidekick. A new wireless communicator created by Danger and brought to you by T Mobile (ph) brings all-in-one capabilities to the next level.

HANK NOTHHAFT, CEO, DANGER, INC.: The idea of taking your phone with you. Back in the mid-'80s that was a pretty amazing concept. Today you can carry it around in your shirt pocket. Well, what we have here is an equivalent of your, you know, a PC has become a communications device, and this is the equivalent of carrying around your PC desktop in your hip pocket.

ROGERS: The eye-copying but consumer-friendly design and wireless data capabilities including Web browsing and e-mail are highlights for many consumers.

(on camera): The device's phone skills and digital camera seem to be the soft spot. The technology is functional but not quite at the level you might find in the standalone model. Still, those bells and whistles helped set the Sidekick apart, especially on the bottom line.

JOE BRITT, CTO, DANGER, INC.: We started out knowing that this thing was going to be primarily a consumer product. It was important to us that we'd be able to hit, you know, around the $200 price point, because that's a sweet spot for consumer buyers. Most people can't afford to buy a $500, $600, $700 product. It is essentially a communication toy.

ROGERS (voice-over): Even those who can afford to pay more are typing away on their Sidekicks -- Eminem, Shaquille O'Neal and Missy Elliot are all said to be fans. The monthly fee -- $39.99 -- includes all the date capabilities you want, 200 weekday phone minutes and 1,000 weekend minutes. The prices are pegged for a young audience, but the Sidekick is attracting more than Gen X-ers.

SKIP WESTON: We anticipated a younger crowd, 18 to 25. It has been wide range from 18 to 25 to 40-year-olds. It's a device that's really taken the market by surprise.

ROGERS: A surprise that is expected to continue through the holidays. "Entertainment Weekly" named the Sidekick the number one gift this season. The next high-profile stop, MTV. Look for the Sidekick in JZ's (ph) new video.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: If you're looking for a digital camera, here is an option for you. Our friends at CNET rate all kinds of electronic products, and they have given their editor's choice rating to a camera with a lot of features at a relatively low price. The Minulte Demage F100 (ph). Now, before he left on vacation, James Hattori got the scoop from Janice Chen, editor-in-chief of CNET reviews and "Computer Shopper" magazine for this week's "Technofile."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Minulte's (ph) new camera. And what's the big deal about this?

JANICE CHEN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CNET REVIEWS: Well, this camera is a four megapixel camera and it's a super-lightweight camera. It is only eight ounces with the battery. It's pretty small, pretty compact, considering all the features that are in it. It may look like a point and shoot camera, but it actually has, even though it does have extensive automatic features, it also lets you set a lot of manual settings.

HATTORI: Shopping around, even two or three megapixels used to be $400 or $500. Now, at this price point, four megapixels for about $600 or even $400 on the street, is that a good deal?

CHEN: That is actually a really, really good price for cameras. And this camera takes excellent quality pictures. We found the image quality to be top notch, and we also found the performance of it where it doesn't have a significant lag time between shots and it's convenient if you're doing a lot of motion, a lot of action, and it's also convenient if you have somebody who really isn't great at taking pictures.

HATTORI: Uses standard storage medium?

CHEN: Yeah, it uses the SP (ph) card, but you can upgrade it to, you know, and add other memory cards to it. It takes video and audio. So you can record video and audio to that card as well.

And...

HATTORI: But again, that's low-end kind of audio and video, right?

CHEN: Right, but it does record little clips if you want, and good enough for e-mailing somebody over the Internet or something.

HATTORI: These cameras are becoming a lot more sophisticated. Are they including a lot more features for playing with the image, of manipulating it?

CHEN: Absolutely. They, you know, camera makers are adding more and more image editing, what we used to think of as image editing, that you could only do in like Photoshop or something, adding features like changing the color, changing the brightness of the photo right in the camera.

HATTORI: Now, again, this is so many features, does it become a point where it's hard to operate or figure out?

CHEN: That's one of the things we liked best about this camera, is that it has all the automatic features, so it is very easy to figure out for somebody who doesn't even know how to use a camera, but you can also use a lot of manual features. You can turn off the automatic features and make a lot of adjustments.

HATTORI: So all these cameras have digital zooms too, which are different, and sometimes use figure like, you know, 50 or 60 or 101 zooms, but those really are different from an optical zoom, aren't they?

CHEN: Yeah, absolutely. So it has a 3x zoom so you can use the camera to get closer images.

HATTORI: What about digital zoom?

CHEN: We actually don't really recommend using digital zoom, because if you use digital zoom, you're just really degrading the image, you're blowing up the image and you don't actually get better image quality. Your image quality gets worse. That's why 3x optical zoom on this camera is actually a great feature.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: You can get more information on the Minulte Demage (ph) and other stories in our program on our Web site, cnn.com/next.

ANNOUNCER: When we come back, we'll tell you what gets female sparrows in the mood for love. And it's not necessarily the macho male that gets a chick.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: Maybe you remember when mom or dad told you about the birds and the bees. What they probably didn't tell you is how birds battle for mates. For sparrows, the fights are intense enough to make feathers fly. But the real secret to success is the song.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE NOWICKI, BEHAVIORAL NEUROBIOLOGIST: Well, here's a fight if you want to see one.

KELLAN (voice-over): It's dog-eat-dog when it comes to male sparrows romancing a mate. It's kind of like the TV show "The Bachelor," only with birds, the female plays the bachelor, choosing one among many. And it's kind of like the show "Star Search" because the strongest male singer with the best song wins.

NOWICKI: It's like picking Caruso over me in singing some aria, except even more subtle.

KELLAN: And competition is fierce. If a male sparrow ventures onto another male's turf, doesn't matter it's just a dummy set up by researchers, he wants it out of there.

NOWICKI: We think of birds as being these wonderful, lovely, little happy creatures out there, but those guys are very serious, and they will fight to the death. If they can, they'll kill each other.

KELLAN: And these guys have to sing their hearts out. NOWICKI: And what is surprising is how well you've got to sing and how discerning the females are.

KELLAN: Duke University's Steve Nowicki and his team have figured out some of their top 10 hits.

This one perks the female's interest.

This one wouldn't rustle a female feather.

NOWICKI: It's a little X-rated.

KELLAN: This female doesn't even have to see the male, just hear a good song, her tail goes up. She's ready to mate, never mind that she already has a mate.

(on camera): You know, they're a little fickle, the females.

NOWICKI: Oh, it -- it...

KELLAN: They don't go to the one with the...

NOWICKI: It is Peyton Place.

KELLAN: ... good song.

NAWICKI: So these sparrows are what we could call socially monogamous.

(voice-over): For most songbirds, the term socially monogamous means the female picks just one male to help her raise the young, but he's probably not the only father of these offspring.

And male bird songs are not only composed for romance, but for violence too.

NAWICKI: When a male sings, he's got two audiences. He's got other males, and to them, what the song is saying is keep out. This is my space. This is my territory.

KELLAN: Female sparrows don't tend to sing, they just listen. And researchers aren't sure why females put so much stock in the male's song. Maybe a good singer has a bigger brain.

And maybe to belt out a tune like Caruso, a bird has to be healthy. In other bird species, it's the presence a male bestows that attracts females. Male bowerbirds, for example, tantalize the female with trinkets and a fancy bachelor pad, while others, like the male peacock, put on a colorful display to woo a mate. With song sparrows, looks don't seem to matter.

And male birds, like babies, have to learn their songs from grownups. If they don't, they won't sing right. They won't get the girl and will likely get hammered by the competition.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KELLAN: Makes you look at birds in a whole new light. After all, some people say they are related to dinosaurs.

Time for us to fly the coup. Here's what is coming up next week.

Clothing worn by people in dangerous jobs gets a makeover, using technology to provide more protection.

And DVD players that do more than just play movies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): You ain't nothing but a hound dog.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): Hound dog...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLAN: If you want karaoke at home, this is just the ticket.

Who was that woman? That's coming up on NEXT.

Until then, let's hear from you. You can e-mail us at next@cnn.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week, and thanks to the folks with the Fernbank Museum of National History in Atlanta. For James Hattori, I am Ann Kellan. See you next time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Francisco Men Want AOL to Stop Sending Free CD's; Sparrows Choose Mate by Song>


Aired November 9, 2002 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Today on NEXT@CNN, stealth bombers, ready to be front and center as the United States prepares for possible war with Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can fly basically anywhere on the planet, as demonstrated in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: We'll show you the special measures that must be taken to base the bombers close to the action.

Why are these guys stringing together tens of thousands of CDs?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to go back to AOL and attempt to give them back and say something like, "you've got mail."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: A quest to keep those Internet service CDs from ending up here.

And if you think songbirds are harmless and cute balls of feathers and fluff, you haven't seen the latest research.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If they can, they'll kill each other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: We'll tell you why sparrows will kill for a song. All that and more on NEXT.

ANN KELLAN, GUEST HOST: Hi, welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm Ann Kellan. James Hattori is on a well-deserved vacation. And we are at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History here in Atlanta.

We begin with another look at the technology that will come into play if the United States goes to war with Iraq. Chances are the stealth bomber will be in the first wave of attack. The planes are now based in Missouri, but as Jamie McIntyre tells us, the military is preparing to move the bombers closer to the action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN SENIOR PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Once maligned as a $2 billion boondoggle that couldn't operate in the rain, the bat-winged B-2 Stealth Bomber is flying high these days having proven its mettle in two wars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can fly basically anywhere on the planet as demonstrated in Kosovo and Afghanistan and put munitions on target on time.

MCINTYRE: In fact, a year ago a B-2 set a combat aviation record, flying the longest non-stop bombing mission ever from Missouri to Afghanistan before eventually landing in Diego Garcia after more than 44 hours.

MCINTYRE (on camera): There are only 21 B-2 bombers in the Air Force inventory, all of them based here at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, but despite their small numbers, they pack an explosive punch, which makes them the weapon of choice for the opening days of an air campaign.

(voice-over): Each B-2 can deliver 16 satellite guided bombs to 16 separate targets. That's crucial to the U.S. strategy to deliver a demoralizing initial attack in any war against Iraq.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can go farther than most other aircraft and deliver a payload the size of -- the equivalent of a squadron of F-16s with fantastic precision and we can do it without anybody even knowing we're going there.

MCINTYRE: While its long range and heavy payload may give the B- 2 bragging rights, its combat effectiveness in a major war with Iraq depends on it being closer to the fight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We still look at the long range sortie as a valuable asset. The forward deploying allows us to turn a lot more sorties.

MCINTYRE: But the B-2 can't be based just anywhere. Its radar absorbing skin has to be restored in climate-controlled maintenance areas, so the U.S. is erecting special $2.5 million portable shelters in both Fairford (ph), England, and at the British base in Diego Garcia.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The jet does have some maintenance requirements to keep it low observable, as we say, but we'll have all the elements in place, you know, anywhere we need to go around the world if we need to forward deploy.

MCINTYRE: Pentagon sources say deployment of the B-2s to the region is not imminent, another signal that war with Iraq is still months away, and while the pilots at Whiteman are not spoiling for a fight, they are ready. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No professional airman wants to fight in a war but if the country calls upon you or you're tasked to do so, then no warrior wants to stay home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: The U.S. Army has announced a big technological advance. It has come up with a sandwich fit for the battlefield. More from Gail Huff of CNN affiliate WCVB.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GAIL HUFF, WCVB CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Army's new pocket sandwich may not look like a miracle, but consider the fact that it's made of real bread, real pepperoni, and its expiration date is June of 2007.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, it's huge. It's absolutely huge.

HUFF: For seven years, researchers here at Natic (ph) Labs have been trying to develop the technology that uses chemical and natural preservatives to lock moisture in place and stop bacteria and mold from growing. Well, finally they found a way to keep a sandwich fresh for up to five years.

GERALD DARSCH: Suspending time indefinitely. That product will be just as safe and wholesome three to five years from now as it was the day it was born.

HUFF: Soldiers, who are used to MREs consisting of freeze-dried meat and vegetables say this sandwich equals a meal in a five-star restaurant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's good. It tastes like something you'd buy from Hickory Farms or something. It's very good.

HUFF: I tried them, barbecue chicken, bacon and cheese, and pepperoni.

(on camera): Oh, that's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Isn't that good?

HUFF: I like that better.

(voice-over): I passed them around the Channel 5 newsroom and cafeteria without tasters knowing they were Army rations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's all right.

HUFF (on camera): Would you buy it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

HUFF: No. Would you eat it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm eating it now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's interesting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, it needs some sauce or something to dress it up.

HUFF (voice-over): No, it's not home cooking, but during combat it is perfect. No preparation, no refrigerator needed. You're no doubt looking at the sandwich of the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Kids eating lunch here at the Fernbank Museum don't have to worry about their sandwiches lasting three years, but there is a new report about the safety of seafood that might concern them, or at least their parents, anyway. Kim Moldehaal (ph) of CNN affiliate KRON has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM MOLDEHAAL (ph), KRON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For years, we have been told that fish is good for us, but now a new study in the journal "Environmental Health Perspective" says some fish may contain toxic levels of mercury. Dr. Jane Hightower, a physician at California Pacific Medical Center, studied blood mercury levels in her own patients who ate a lot of fish. She found many had concentrations of mercury exceeding the levels the FDA considers safe.

Those levels produced a wide variety of problems.

DR. JANE HIGHTOWER, SCIENTIST: The symptoms I was getting was a clustering of symptoms -- fatigue, headache, troubles thinking, muscle and joint pains, memory loss, hair loss.

MOLDEHAAL (ph): The biggest risks came from the biggest fish. Ocean-going fish such as sharks, swordfish, tuna, seabass and halibut. Dr. Hightower found that the more of these fish people ate, the higher the level of mercury in their blood.

HIGHTOWER: One child had almost 15 times higher the mercury level that is acceptable, in clearly toxic range.

MOLDEHAAL (ph): Another big problem is that there is little agreements on what a safe level of mercury even is. The FDA has set the legal limit on fish for mercury at one part per million, but that's twice as high as Canada's limit, and three times the limit in Japan. Even then the FDA inspects only a fraction of fish coming into this country, so many fish sold here may be over the limit, but are never tested.

Dr. Hightower says we need tougher regulations to make sure our fish supply is safe.

HIGHTOWER: We need a lot more testing, and we need the information to be available for people when they eat the fish.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Experts say people with high mercury levels can usually reduce those levels by not eating the suspect fish, and there are plenty of fish not contaminated with mercury, including trout, catfish and salmon. Salmon, however, is the focus of another controversy, as Lilian Kim reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LILIAN KIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's increasingly becoming the fish of choice. Touted as rich in nutrients.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know that our wild salmon has nothing that goes into it. It's pure.

KIM: But chances are, the salmon you eat isn't caught in the wild. It's most likely farmed. At this facility, one pen contains up to 40,000 salmon. They're bred in captivity and harvested about two- and-a-half years later, selling for less than one-third of wild salmon.

CONRAD MAHNKEN, NATIONAL MARINE FISHERIES SERVICE: It provides food, high quality food for people who haven't been able to afford salmon in the past.

KIM: Affordable perhaps. Nevertheless, the booming industry is facing growing criticism. Opponents say farm fish pollutes the environment, contains less than the beneficial omega three fatty acids and carries higher levels of toxins.

MOSNESS: A farmed fish spends its lifetime in a pen of its own feces. It's been treated with antibiotics and pesticides and chemicals in its lifetime.

KIM: Some of those chemicals can be found in their feed, a synthetic dye added to these fish meal pellets is what gives farm salmon their pink color. Without it, the flesh would appear pale gray. But government researchers say the farmed variety should cause no reason for alarm.

MAHNKEN: Scientific evidence today shows that they have not exceeded the limits, the acceptable limits for those toxins.

KIM: Allowing the farming industry to continue thriving for now, slowly decreasing the demand for those salmon caught in the wild.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: OK, if you want to tell the difference at the grocery store between farmed and wild salmon. Atlantic salmon is generally farm-raised, and Alaskan salmon is wild.

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, find out how one zoo ended up with way too many tigers. And what a study of sheep brains is telling scientists about human sexuality.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: A debate going on in Chile could determine the fate of elephants, whales and some less glamorous plants and animals. Representatives from 160 countries and dozens of independent groups are meeting this week and next in Santiago for the 12th Convention on International Trade and Endangered Species, CITES for short. Among the topics on the agenda, a proposal by some African nations to resume selling ivory from their stockpiles. Opponents say that would encourage illegal trade and endanger elephants.

Japan is pushing a bid to resume some whale hunting that CTIES has banned, and some officials are asking the conference to focus on less charismatic creatures that need protection.

Any animal shelter worker can tell you how hard it is to find homes for all the unwanted dogs and cats out there. They'd probably sympathize with the dilemma of a zoo in Malaysia that's trying to find good homes for eight tigers. Kurt Ashen (ph) has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KURT ASHEN (ph), CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Here at Malaka (ph) zoo, next to the gentler creatures, lives a less contented inhabitant. This is one of eight Malayan tigers whose mood reflects their recent change of status, from free-roaming hunter to zoo captive. It is a move aimed at saving lives, both human and feline.

Tigers have been attacking humans and livestock recently in Malaysia, and the government has responded with a campaign of tiger hunting. So for now, the zoo provides a foster home for the cats, while the zoo director asks his counterparts around the world to adopt them.

MOHD NAWAYAI YASAK, ZOO DIRECTOR: In fact, I posted our offer to give (ph) these tigers on the Internet, and so far we have two positive responses.

ASHEN (ph): Zoo keepers agree, tigers are becoming a nuisance. But they say it's not completely their fault. Malaysia's rubber industry puts tree-tapping workers right in the tigers' paths, and developers are clearing large areas of the Malaysian jungle. That means tigers have less room to hunt and less meat to consume.

YASAK: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) they will attack domestic -- I mean (UNINTELLIGIBLE), and in certain cases they will attack humans.

ASHEN (ph): Saving the tigers is taxing the zoo's resources. Most of them live in tiny cages to keep them from fighting each other, and they're adding hundreds of kilograms of fresh meat to the zoo's weekly food bill, but for now, zoo visitors have the chance to see first hand the latest captives in mankind's conquest of the jungle.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: A study of homosexual sheep could shed new light on what makes some people homosexual. Researchers in Oregon found differences in brain structure between rams that mate with ewes and those that mate with other rams. Bruce Sessman from our affiliate KGW has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE SESSMAN, KGW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the OHSU campus, researchers compared the brains of male sheep.

CHARLES ROSELLI, OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIV.: Rams mimicking the behavior in that they choose a sexual partner and remain with that partner throughout life.

SESSMAN: This is one of the gay sheep they studied. Researchers tested nine male sheep that mate with males and eight male sheep that mate with females. Researchers say the gay sheep appear to have a different brain than the straight sheep.

ROSELLI: Simply, this research makes a connection between the size of a small portion of the brain located in the hypothalamus and an animal's sexual preference.

SESSMAN: Results of the study are welcome news in Oregon's gay community. Roey Thorpe is director of Basic Rights Oregon.

ROEY THORPE, BASIC RIGHTS OREGON: What the researchers are saying about the results of the study is that while there may be a number of factors that contribute to sexual orientation in every person, whether they are straight or gay, or every sheep whether they are straight or gay, that one of the factors may, in fact, be physiological.

SESSMAN: OHSU points out the study does not necessarily carry over to human behavior.

ROSELLI: This is further understanding the very basic structures in the brain that control sexual preference, and it is really the tip of the iceberg. We've got a lot more to understand.

SESSMAN: Still, researchers believe this study may help us understand humans and their sexuality.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, the weird and wacky things you can find for auction online.

And later, high-flying photography for some serious fun.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: Now that two sniper suspects are in custody near Washington, D.C., residents are breathing earlier. But the hard work has just started for investigators building a case against the two men. Thelma Gutierrez takes us into the world of forensic science, how bits and pieces of obscure evidence can add up to justice served.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ballistics tests. Documents analysis. And fluorescent examination to detect what the eye cannot see.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the range where we test fire our weapons.

GUTIERREZ: It is the science of crime solving. In the case of the D.C. sniper, a rifle has been forensically linked to 11 of the shootings. A casing was recovered, and so were bullets from the victims' bodies.

At the Orange County Sheriff's Department's crime lab, forensic scientists test firearms by shooting into a tank. Next, they retrieve the bullets and casing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now we're going into the firearms laboratory for the comparison.

GUTIERREZ (on camera): So we want to know now if they match a particular gun?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's correct.

GUTIERREZ: That's what we're going to test for.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we're going to do.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): The fine markings inside a casing or on a bullet are unique to a particular weapon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All these additional horizontal line all agree from test to evidence showing that they were both fired from the same weapon.

GUTIERREZ: Another piece of evidence linked to one of the sniper suspects, a fingerprint found at a murder scene in Montgomery, Alabama.

MAGGIE BLACK, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: There are certain minutiae characteristics.

GUTIERREZ: According to Maggie Black, assistant director of the crime lab, a single print match is foolproof, because the smallest detail of a fingerprint on every single finger of every single human being is completely different.

BLACK: This is an actual fingerprint lift.

GUTIERREZ: The details are marked in red. The information is then entered into a criminal database to search for a match. BLACK: Searching the FBI's database. There's 40 million down there.

GUTIERREZ: Next, documents examination. In the sniper case, authorities have at least three documents to analyze. Forensic scientist Mike Raisick (ph) says a plain piece of paper may hold important clues.

This machine helps to lift indented impressions like this, left behind on a notepad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can make a transparency from it.

GUTIERREZ: Important evidence commonly left behind by criminals -- shoe prints. Investigators took what appeared to be an imprint of a footprint at the scene of one of the sniper shootings. It is all meticulous, tedious work to piece together a crime and ultimately catch and convict the criminals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: You can find a lot of hot deals on the Internet auction site Ebay. Apparently, at least in one case, sometimes too hot. Police in Olympia, Washington, have arrested a 49-year-old man accused of running a massive shoplifting ring and selling the merchandise on Ebay. Authorities say the suspect auctioned nearly 47,000 items on the site, ranging from electrical razors to snow shoes, and made some $300,000.

Well, there are things more unusual than stolen property on Ebay. How about a set of used dentures? Or a shark fetus? Or something like this? Jeanne Moos meets a guy with an eye for the bizarre on Ebay.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Talk about an eyeful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But that is a real glass eye.

MOOS: From a belt buckle with an eye to eye caps embalmers use on the deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those will keep your eyelid closed forever.

MOOS: Who knew "e" in eBay stood for "eek." Bid on a dried preserved mouse with just a click of your mouse, or maybe you'd prefer a 1949 can of rattlesnake meat?

(on camera): With supreme sauce?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right, that's for added flavor.

MOOS (voice-over): All found on eBay, the title of Marc Hartman's book. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a goat toenail bracelet. Who knew something like this existed, that people made bracelets from goat toenails?

MOOS: From goat toenails to some guy's big toenail, came off as a result of a sports injury, eBay closed the bidding on this item, and who would want this?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a woman's photo of her colon from her colonoscopy.

MOOS: A guy named Mike even tried to auction off a wart from his finger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's kind a nice thing to know that of all this disgusting stuff on eBay, not all of it does sell.

MOOS: Marc started collecting weird items up for bid on e-bay.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, this is a hornet's nest.

MOOS: Simply like he likes off the wall stuff. This shark fetus was a gift from his fiancee, Liz. That's her, adjusting the duct tape tie acquired on eBay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really like it when Marc wears it.

MOOS: The two first bonded over discussion of a four-legged woman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was so shocked that here is this girl who knows about the four-legged woman.

MOOS: For their six-month anniversary, Mark made Liz this snow dome. She photographed many of the items in the book.

(on camera): I've never shopped on e-bay. I had no idea they had stuff like this scrotum bags.

(voice-over): You heard right.

(on camera): Do you think it's real?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's real. Yes, the guy actually sells a bunch of these.

MOOS (voice-over): For a mere 30 bucks per scrotum, search eBay and you'll find everything from fake marijuana plants to used socks. No socks for Marc, but he did acquire a monkey carved out of a peach pit and a new jersey turnpike pennant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is anybody actually rooting for the turnpike?

MOOS: And there is the 10-inch JFK lawn gnome.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And this guy who was selling it, he actually has a garden gnome museum in Germany. This is one of my favorites too, the deer-proof paperweight.

MOOS: And we can't overlook the beer can man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you know it's a man, because when you lift him up...

MOOS: Some offerings are conceptual.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is nothing, and nothing sold.

MOOS: For $1.03, and why settle for two head of cattle when you can buy a calf with two heads for a mere $20,000?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Nice bracelet, Jeanne. One thing you can't buy on Ebay is time, and we're out of time for this half-hour, but we'll be back after a break and a look at the latest headlines from the CNN newsroom.

ANNOUNCER: There is a lot more to come on NEXT@CNN.

One of the newest and most portable all-in-one handhelds. The latest on the upcoming shuttle mission, and the cutthroat world of birds on the mate. That and more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: My buddy and I welcome you back to NEXT@CNN, and we're at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. The space shuttle Endeavor is scheduled for launch early next week on a mission with two main goals: The shuttle will bring a new girder for the International Space Station and replacements for the crew that has been living on the station since June. Miles O'Brien has a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For two long years they have been there, a few hundred miles above us, hurdling around the planet eight times faster than a speeding bullet. Collectively, they have logged more than 11,000 orbits. They are the 13 men and two women who have called the International Space Station home.

PEGGY WHITSON, NASA ASTRONAUT: It would be hard to be up here and not feel some changes.

O'BRIEN: This past week, I spoke with the fifth trio of station keepers -- Commander Valery Korzun, flight engineer Sergey Treshchyov and the sole American, NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson.

WHITSON: I think seeing the Earth below and seeing the atmosphere is bound, how thin it is, it's going to affect you in how you feel about the planet and how we need to take care of it.

O'BRIEN: For the past five months, they have lived together in a giant tinker toy the size of an 1,800-square foot house, with few of the comforts of home.

Take the food, for example. Hermetically sealed and dehydrated.

WHITSON: After a couple of months, I was pretty bored with the food. There are still some things that are appealing to me, but for the most part, I go eat so that I can talk to Valery and Sergey. It's not because (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that much interesting that I want to eat.

O'BRIEN: Peggy Whitson's mouth may very well be watering at the thought of this sight, the space shuttle Endeavor pointed in her direction. The orbiter is carrying her relief, the sixth space station crew led by Ken Bowersox, a NASA astronaut and Navy captain.

KEN BOWERSOX, EXPEDITION SIX COMMANDER: I am not really sure what that's going to be like. I have been at sea for four months before with 5,000 other guys on an aircraft carrier, but I have never been with three guys in one spot for that long. And I have been told by other people who have been up there that actually is a bigger factor than they thought to be with the same people day after day after day.

O'BRIEN: The shuttle is also carrying a big piece of hardware, a 23,000-pound piece of the trust that will be the backbone of the orbiting science lab. The crews will install it using the station and shuttle robot arms and a pair of space-walking astronauts. One of them, John Herrington, will get an astounding ride at the end of a robot harm as he totes a piece of hardware from one side of the station to the other.

JOHN BENNETT HERRINGTON, MISSION SPECIALIST: Oh, that's going to be a blast. I didn't realize until I got into the virtuality lab how amazing this was going to be. As I get switched (ph) around, I am going to have a chance to see just some awesome sights.

O'BRIEN: Two years after it was first occupied, the station is an awesome sight. Two years from now, NASA and its international partners hope the outpost will be conducting some awesome science.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: Suppose you want to take aerial photographs but can't afford to hire a plane. A conference going on this week near Monterey, California has a solution to that problem, and the conferees might just tell you to go fly a kite. Devon Sealey (ph) from our affiliate KSBW reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEVON SEALEY (ph), KSBW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A snapshot from the skies -- photos from a bird's eye perspective, that is uniquely what kite aerial photography can offer.

BROOKS LEFFLER, KITE AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHER: I'd like to say, do you think it will fill the gap between the top of the step ladder and the bottom of an airplane, is fair game for kite aerial photography. SEALEY (ph): And kite enthusiasts and amateur photographer Brooks Leffler should know. He organized this week's conference on aerial photography in Pacific Grove.

LEFFLER: There is a desperate need for people to talk to each other about how they do their craft.

We have people from 10 countries and 17 states, but they usually work by themselves, and there's a lot of reinvention of the wheel going on.

SEALEY (ph): The basic set-up, a camera suspended from a kite's string with a remote control that pans and tilts to frame the photo has a number of real-world applications. Alan Heaberlin uses kite photography in archaeological digs in Peru. He says it's cheaper than photographing the site from a plane and faster than surveying it from the ground.

ALAN HEABERLIN, ARCHAEOLOGIST: We can go out and survey a whole archaeological site. If the weather conditions are right, we can do it in one afternoon. When you scan them in, there is software that will actually draw contour maps and topographical maps.

SEALEY (ph): And it's those real-world applications that have transformed a child's hobby into a high-tech tool.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Next on NEXT@CNN -- if you're tired of getting and throwing away CDs offering free time on the Internet, check out what these guys are doing with those discs.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: As you probably know, America Online, one of CNN's sister companies, is the world's largest Internet provider, with 35 million subscribers. One reason may be all those software installation CDs the company sends out, you know, they come in the mail, they come in the magazines, they come incessantly. Well, as Rusty Dornin reports, two guys in suburban San Francisco say enough is enough.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You didn't ask for it, but you got it. Another one of those AOL CDs promising an eternity, or at least 1,000 hours on the Internet.

One night, Jim McKenna and John Lieberman got one with their rental video. Then...

JIM MCKENNA, CD ACTIVIST: When we got back to John's house, in the mailbox was another AOL CD, and we thought, you know, somebody has got to do something, so we sat down and got creative for I think it was a good seven minutes.

JOHN LIEBERMAN, CD ACTIVIST: Oh, at least.

MCKENNA: Yeah.

DORNIN: When those seven minutes were up, a plan and a Web site, NoMoreAolCDs.com. Contribute your CD's to a disc dumping drive like no other.

MCKENNA: Our quest is to obtain a million CD's. And a million just sounded like a nice number, and we will load up a fleet of trucks, and we're going to drive them across the country, and we're going to go back to AOL and attempt to give them back and say something like, "you've got mail," you know, please stop it.

DORNIN: We found out about the Web site from a waste management company newsletter. Manager Janet Schneider took us to the landfill.

JANET SCHNEIDER: Right there, the blue one? And it is America Online.

DORNIN: And talked about the trash they can do without.

SCHNEIDER: You're wasting a lot of natural resources, you're causing pollution and you're basically sending something that people don't want.

DORNIN (on camera): AOL is not the only company sending out free CDs and a lot of excess packaging. This one is from Earthlink and this is from AT&T, but AOL is certainly sending out the most.

(voice-over): How many? AOL, the company that owns CNN, wouldn't tell us. A company spokesman says consumers like to see the marketing program. For those who don't, they can send it back to the company for recycling.

Meantime, back in Lieberman's garage in California, 70,000 CDs so far, from as far away as Brazil and Africa. Lieberman and McKenna say they're having fun to make a point.

MCKENNA: We're not defaming AOL as a corporation or anybody that does business with them; we're asking them politely to stop. We're just doing it in a creative way.

DORNIN: A way to tell a corporation their mailbox is full.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, this digital camera looks simple, but it's packed with sophisticated features. Find out what it can do.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: Back in January, we told you about an affordable all-in- one handheld device created by a California company called Danger. It wowed them at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Well, the gadget has just hit the market, and as Jen Rogers reports, it is still getting rave reviews. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEN ROGERS, CNN FINANCIAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Johnny Carson had Ed McMahon; Batman had Robin, and now, you too, can have your very own sidekick. A new wireless communicator created by Danger and brought to you by T Mobile (ph) brings all-in-one capabilities to the next level.

HANK NOTHHAFT, CEO, DANGER, INC.: The idea of taking your phone with you. Back in the mid-'80s that was a pretty amazing concept. Today you can carry it around in your shirt pocket. Well, what we have here is an equivalent of your, you know, a PC has become a communications device, and this is the equivalent of carrying around your PC desktop in your hip pocket.

ROGERS: The eye-copying but consumer-friendly design and wireless data capabilities including Web browsing and e-mail are highlights for many consumers.

(on camera): The device's phone skills and digital camera seem to be the soft spot. The technology is functional but not quite at the level you might find in the standalone model. Still, those bells and whistles helped set the Sidekick apart, especially on the bottom line.

JOE BRITT, CTO, DANGER, INC.: We started out knowing that this thing was going to be primarily a consumer product. It was important to us that we'd be able to hit, you know, around the $200 price point, because that's a sweet spot for consumer buyers. Most people can't afford to buy a $500, $600, $700 product. It is essentially a communication toy.

ROGERS (voice-over): Even those who can afford to pay more are typing away on their Sidekicks -- Eminem, Shaquille O'Neal and Missy Elliot are all said to be fans. The monthly fee -- $39.99 -- includes all the date capabilities you want, 200 weekday phone minutes and 1,000 weekend minutes. The prices are pegged for a young audience, but the Sidekick is attracting more than Gen X-ers.

SKIP WESTON: We anticipated a younger crowd, 18 to 25. It has been wide range from 18 to 25 to 40-year-olds. It's a device that's really taken the market by surprise.

ROGERS: A surprise that is expected to continue through the holidays. "Entertainment Weekly" named the Sidekick the number one gift this season. The next high-profile stop, MTV. Look for the Sidekick in JZ's (ph) new video.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: If you're looking for a digital camera, here is an option for you. Our friends at CNET rate all kinds of electronic products, and they have given their editor's choice rating to a camera with a lot of features at a relatively low price. The Minulte Demage F100 (ph). Now, before he left on vacation, James Hattori got the scoop from Janice Chen, editor-in-chief of CNET reviews and "Computer Shopper" magazine for this week's "Technofile."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMES HATTORI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is Minulte's (ph) new camera. And what's the big deal about this?

JANICE CHEN, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, CNET REVIEWS: Well, this camera is a four megapixel camera and it's a super-lightweight camera. It is only eight ounces with the battery. It's pretty small, pretty compact, considering all the features that are in it. It may look like a point and shoot camera, but it actually has, even though it does have extensive automatic features, it also lets you set a lot of manual settings.

HATTORI: Shopping around, even two or three megapixels used to be $400 or $500. Now, at this price point, four megapixels for about $600 or even $400 on the street, is that a good deal?

CHEN: That is actually a really, really good price for cameras. And this camera takes excellent quality pictures. We found the image quality to be top notch, and we also found the performance of it where it doesn't have a significant lag time between shots and it's convenient if you're doing a lot of motion, a lot of action, and it's also convenient if you have somebody who really isn't great at taking pictures.

HATTORI: Uses standard storage medium?

CHEN: Yeah, it uses the SP (ph) card, but you can upgrade it to, you know, and add other memory cards to it. It takes video and audio. So you can record video and audio to that card as well.

And...

HATTORI: But again, that's low-end kind of audio and video, right?

CHEN: Right, but it does record little clips if you want, and good enough for e-mailing somebody over the Internet or something.

HATTORI: These cameras are becoming a lot more sophisticated. Are they including a lot more features for playing with the image, of manipulating it?

CHEN: Absolutely. They, you know, camera makers are adding more and more image editing, what we used to think of as image editing, that you could only do in like Photoshop or something, adding features like changing the color, changing the brightness of the photo right in the camera.

HATTORI: Now, again, this is so many features, does it become a point where it's hard to operate or figure out?

CHEN: That's one of the things we liked best about this camera, is that it has all the automatic features, so it is very easy to figure out for somebody who doesn't even know how to use a camera, but you can also use a lot of manual features. You can turn off the automatic features and make a lot of adjustments.

HATTORI: So all these cameras have digital zooms too, which are different, and sometimes use figure like, you know, 50 or 60 or 101 zooms, but those really are different from an optical zoom, aren't they?

CHEN: Yeah, absolutely. So it has a 3x zoom so you can use the camera to get closer images.

HATTORI: What about digital zoom?

CHEN: We actually don't really recommend using digital zoom, because if you use digital zoom, you're just really degrading the image, you're blowing up the image and you don't actually get better image quality. Your image quality gets worse. That's why 3x optical zoom on this camera is actually a great feature.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KELLAN: You can get more information on the Minulte Demage (ph) and other stories in our program on our Web site, cnn.com/next.

ANNOUNCER: When we come back, we'll tell you what gets female sparrows in the mood for love. And it's not necessarily the macho male that gets a chick.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KELLAN: Maybe you remember when mom or dad told you about the birds and the bees. What they probably didn't tell you is how birds battle for mates. For sparrows, the fights are intense enough to make feathers fly. But the real secret to success is the song.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE NOWICKI, BEHAVIORAL NEUROBIOLOGIST: Well, here's a fight if you want to see one.

KELLAN (voice-over): It's dog-eat-dog when it comes to male sparrows romancing a mate. It's kind of like the TV show "The Bachelor," only with birds, the female plays the bachelor, choosing one among many. And it's kind of like the show "Star Search" because the strongest male singer with the best song wins.

NOWICKI: It's like picking Caruso over me in singing some aria, except even more subtle.

KELLAN: And competition is fierce. If a male sparrow ventures onto another male's turf, doesn't matter it's just a dummy set up by researchers, he wants it out of there.

NOWICKI: We think of birds as being these wonderful, lovely, little happy creatures out there, but those guys are very serious, and they will fight to the death. If they can, they'll kill each other.

KELLAN: And these guys have to sing their hearts out. NOWICKI: And what is surprising is how well you've got to sing and how discerning the females are.

KELLAN: Duke University's Steve Nowicki and his team have figured out some of their top 10 hits.

This one perks the female's interest.

This one wouldn't rustle a female feather.

NOWICKI: It's a little X-rated.

KELLAN: This female doesn't even have to see the male, just hear a good song, her tail goes up. She's ready to mate, never mind that she already has a mate.

(on camera): You know, they're a little fickle, the females.

NOWICKI: Oh, it -- it...

KELLAN: They don't go to the one with the...

NOWICKI: It is Peyton Place.

KELLAN: ... good song.

NAWICKI: So these sparrows are what we could call socially monogamous.

(voice-over): For most songbirds, the term socially monogamous means the female picks just one male to help her raise the young, but he's probably not the only father of these offspring.

And male bird songs are not only composed for romance, but for violence too.

NAWICKI: When a male sings, he's got two audiences. He's got other males, and to them, what the song is saying is keep out. This is my space. This is my territory.

KELLAN: Female sparrows don't tend to sing, they just listen. And researchers aren't sure why females put so much stock in the male's song. Maybe a good singer has a bigger brain.

And maybe to belt out a tune like Caruso, a bird has to be healthy. In other bird species, it's the presence a male bestows that attracts females. Male bowerbirds, for example, tantalize the female with trinkets and a fancy bachelor pad, while others, like the male peacock, put on a colorful display to woo a mate. With song sparrows, looks don't seem to matter.

And male birds, like babies, have to learn their songs from grownups. If they don't, they won't sing right. They won't get the girl and will likely get hammered by the competition.

(END VIDEOTAPE) KELLAN: Makes you look at birds in a whole new light. After all, some people say they are related to dinosaurs.

Time for us to fly the coup. Here's what is coming up next week.

Clothing worn by people in dangerous jobs gets a makeover, using technology to provide more protection.

And DVD players that do more than just play movies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): You ain't nothing but a hound dog.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): Hound dog...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLAN: If you want karaoke at home, this is just the ticket.

Who was that woman? That's coming up on NEXT.

Until then, let's hear from you. You can e-mail us at next@cnn.com. Thanks so much for joining us this week, and thanks to the folks with the Fernbank Museum of National History in Atlanta. For James Hattori, I am Ann Kellan. See you next time.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com





Francisco Men Want AOL to Stop Sending Free CD's; Sparrows Choose Mate by Song>