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Next@CNN
Special Year-End Edition
Aired December 28, 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 a special year-end edition of NEXT@CNN, meet some four-legged fighters in the war against terrorism. Their bite can be worse than their bark.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They also have to show us that if you pick up the equipment, they'll also bite (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: A dog life in boot camp.
Also a party where the action is in cyberspace and the computers don't look much like that beige box on your desk.
And Mr. Burkhardt goes to Washington to track down the congressman behind a bill that has angered countless e-mail users. All that and more on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody. I'm James Hattori, and welcome to a special year-end edition of NEXT@CNN. And welcome to my house. I wish. Actually, this is the historic Dansmire (ph) mansion in Oakland, California.
You know, as the old year winds down, we will be looking back at some favorite stories from 2002. We may not hit every important science and technology story of the year, but these are some of the ones that you and we wanted to see again.
Back in January when our program began, the horrors of September 11 were just a few months in the past, and airline security was a huge story, as it is still today. The new U.S. Transportation Security Agency was boosting the presence of plain-clothed sky marshals aboard U.S. airlines, and I went to Seattle, where a company demonstrated a way to train airborne marshals without leaving the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI (voice over): A jetliner levels off at 10,000 feet. Passengers settle in for the ride. With some 35,000 take-offs daily in the U.S., air travel is still pretty routine but not this flight.
This is a high-tech simulation of an airborne hijacking, and I am playing the role of an armed sky marshal, whose job is to protect the crew and passengers, and thwart the bad guys.
GREG HOOVER: This is as real as it gets without a doubt.
HATTORI: Greg Hoover is a former Los Angeles Police veteran, now Director of Training for Advanced Interactive Systems, a Seattle-based company which makes video simulators used by police departments and Federal agencies, including the border patrol.
The system uses real handguns modified to shoot a laser and bullets filled with compressed air to simulate recoil. Videotaped crime scenarios are projected onto two screens with various endings depending on how the trainee reacts. Laser sensors track the virtual bullets. There's even a shoot back cannon that fires nylon balls at the trainee.
It puts officers into virtual life-threatening situations they could one day face on the streets or in the sky.
HOOVER: They may end up going to a county morgue. You never know, and they understand that fully, and that's why this is so beneficial to them.
HATTORI (on camera): And potentially beneficial to the U.S. Government, as it expands the Air Marshal Program. Federal officials aren't disclosing details for security reasons, but they could hire as many as several thousand new officers.
Current training takes place in idle jetliners or mockups, but with that many recruits, virtual training is likely to play a major role.
TIM MAY, PRESIDENT, ADVANCED INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS: It allows you to vary the training, change scenarios, do a lot of things to keep these guys and women that will be acting as sky marshals, keep their training refreshed and up to date.
HATTORI: The sky marshal videos are just demonstrations for now, but the company has 200 other crime training scenarios already in use, allowing trainees to measure their response time, weapons skills, and judgment under incredible time pressure.
MAY: You got him in the bottom of the chin. This whole thing lasted 1.3 seconds. How quick is that?
HATTORI: So, how did I do as a sky marshal? Well, the first time, I did nothing and paid a price.
MAY: Did you see anything behind you?
HATTORI: No, I didn't look. I looked back once.
MAY: There was a guy that put a knife in your shoulder blade behind you.
HATTORI: The second time, I did get a shot off, killing the hijacker after she'd stabbed several passengers. MAY: And while you were watching her, a guy came up behind you and put a knife right between your shoulder blades.
HATTORI: The third time, at an airline counter, I winged a ticket agent in the leg, but managed to get the bad guy as he ran off. All in all, a realistic taste of the kind of life and death moment even police veterans hope never to face.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: A new emphasis on security seem to be a priority everywhere in 2002, and man's best friend became an even better friend. Dogs helped patrol airports and search for explosives. Ann Kellan went to a Texas Air Force base to get the story on some military recruits that wear real dog tags.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's one thing to train a dog to attack, another to order attack then change your mind. It's like grabbing a flying bullet once the gun's been shot.
These dogs work for the Department of Defense, DOD dogs. They have a rank, name and serial number tattoo.
These are police dogs, military police dogs, but they're police dogs.
KELLAN: Would-be handlers come from all branches of the military, to train at Lackland Air Force Base. When they arrive, they meet their new partners. Some are green, like they are.
Who's more difficult to train, the students?
STAFF SRGT. ANN SVITANEK: The students, yes ma'am. It's easier to get to a dog sometimes. Unlike the FAA dogs that are trained to just sniff for bombs and explosives, DOD dogs do a number of tasks. Some learn to sniff out explosives, while others get a nose for drugs. All learn to patrol and attack on command, and hunt for people hiding in buildings. The key is teamwork.
SVITANEK: You have to have a lot of patience to work with the dog and learn to understand the dog and have a rapport with the dog, and you and that dog need to be best friends and understand each other. They say it travels up and down the leash. If you're having a bad day, the dog's going to have a bad day. If the dog's having a bad day, you're going to have a bad day.
SR. MASTER SRGT. JIM KOHLRENKEN: And they'll sniff the person on the other side of the door and they'll either bark or scratch, give some type of indication to the handler that that's where the person is hiding.
KELLAN: The dogs also learn to sniff the air for suspects hiding outside.
KOHLRENKEN: A good dog is a dog that has the ability to smell, to decoy from a long distance.
KELLAN: Most of these four-legged recruits come from Europe, where dogs are bred more for work than for show. Considering that each dog costs $2,000 to $4,000, they get a thorough physical before they're purchased.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This dog would fail here, because he has a physical, a muscular skeletal problem that we don't want to invest in.
KELLAN: They undergo personality tests. They can't be gun-shy. They need to be sociable and agree to work for a meager wage.
SVITANEK: They don't ask for any reward, other than some praise with a ball or a nice pat on the head.
KELLAN: And they have to be able to bite to kill.
WILSON: They also have to show us, if we take off the equipment, they'll also bit actual flesh. If they won't, they can do everything out here perfect, and they still won't go to the field.
KELLAN: How do you test that?
WILSON: We have various methods. We may start out with a suit. We have hidden equipment that we use, or just generally threatening without equipment to see if the dog is actually attempting to, and if they don't do that, because a lot of dogs won't.
KELLAN: Dogs are trusted to think, even attack on their own.
WILSON: If the handler or the dog itself is in jeopardy and needs to protect himself or the handler, we train the dog that hey, instinct, you protect.
KELLAN: Dog handlers carry their jobs on their belts.
E-5 KARETTA ROBINSON: We have a canteen for the dog, have his muzzle in case you need to take him to the vet. This is a choke chain you put around his neck, along with his collar.
KELLAN: There's a brush and chain. What's the first one, the canteen?
ROBINSON: The canteen, the water for the dog.
KELLAN: Where's your canteen?
ROBINSON: I don't have one.
KELLAN: The course lasts about three months. After graduation, some will head to bases in the U.S., while others may go to war.
SVITANEK: I've been to the desert. I've seen it. I've compared my dog to machines. Nine times out of ten, that dog's going to beat any machine that walks the base. MAJOR DAWN HARRI: Human-animal bond is very strong between a handler and a dog. These animals go into all kind of situation with their handlers. It can be dangerous.
WILSON: We can always depend on them, always. You can always depend on a dog.
KELLAN: That's one reason why many handlers end up keeping their partners, even after they retire.
(on camera): Well, since our visit, the program has started breeding its own puppies at Lachland Air Force base. These 9-month- old Labrador retrievers named Alice, Ace and Austin (ph) are the first puppies to start the program. They are already being trained to stay calm around loud or confusing noises. Preparations for their careers in the ranks of the DOD dogs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: An hour is just not long enough for all the stories from 2002 that we'd like to show you. So we will just hit the high points, or cool pictures from some of them.
For instance, remember the finger-saving saw? It shuts off as soon as it touches a finger, represented by a hot dog in this demonstration. The secret is the electrical charge in the blade that responds to human or hot dog flesh and shuts down the saw in milliseconds. Then there was the recreation of King Tut's face at the Science Museum of London, England. Scientists started with an X-ray of his skull, then filled out the picture with data scanned from the faces of volunteers. They used digital technology to come up with a reconstruction of the boy pharaoh's face.
And how about the DVD player that lets you karaoke? Maybe it's not the most advanced technology of the year, but it got Ann Kellan and our computer tech expert Marc Saltzman rocking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLAN (singing): You ain't nothing but a hound dog.
MARC SALTZMAN, PERSONAL TECH GURU: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HATTORI: They need to take that act on the road.
Well, we will have more high points from 2002 as NEXT continues.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, here's the wind up and the pitch! Can a pitcher learn how to throw strikes in a lab?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: This year, while other parts of the economy faltered, the video game industry surged ahead. By the end of 2002, it will have passed the $10 billion mark, according to market information company MPD Fun World. One factor in that growth, video gaming is becoming more and more interactive. Daniel Sieberg went to a party that's a case in point.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Water-cooled desktop computers made of aluminum and Plexiglass with tweaked processors that run faster than a speeding bullet. The owners of these machines have converted traditional computers into a high- performance gamer's weapon of choice.
(on camera): Sure, you could play video games at home, alone, or over the Internet. Or you could come to a place like Netland, where gaming takes on a social environment, and a whole new level of competition.
(voice-over): These days, interactive gaming is more than hooking up players via the Internet. LAN parties like this one in Atlanta can consist of dozens of gamers playing together over a local area network, which uses servers to connect multiple computers in the same venue. These gaming parties first became popular in Korea, and now interest is growing in the U.S. as well.
DERRICK HOUSTON, NETLAND OWNER: Internet cafes have been around for a long time, but this is a little bit different. This is more socially -- more social interaction with gaming, playing against one another.
SIEBERG: The competitors are serious about the games they play and the tools they use. These tricked-out computers are known to insiders as "hot rods." An appropriate name since the atmosphere at these events is akin to a sporting event or a car show. The fastest machine with the best driver wins bragging rights and respect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? I'm getting confused!
SIEBERG: The games and graphics are futuristic as the machines they run through. "Counter Strike," currently perhaps the most popular LAN game in the world, is a shooter game that pits teams against one another on terrorist and anti-terror missions. Places like Netland also allow people to play online games like "Dark Age of Camelot," against other LAN party goers, as well as players from all over the world. Holiday LAN party gone global.
PETER CHUN, GAMER: Every single character in there is a person in front of a computer, just like we are. So if you see like 500 people gather somewhere, that's 500 people elsewhere in the world playing the same game as us.
SIEBERG: Many LAN party games are loaded with plenty of blood, death and destruction. A lot of people say these games promote violence and unhealthy levels of competition. No surprise, folks here disagree.
CONRAD GROSS, GAMER: This is like playing a sport. I mean, it's not physical, but it's playing a sport. You get to hang out with people and do teamwork. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) gaming is a social thing. With the Internet and with LAN parties, I mean, you can make tons of friends.
SIEBERG: And destroy tons of enemies. LAN parties have turned video gaming into an indoor version of a street basketball game. Show up, bring your best game, and let them see what you've got.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Speaking of games, back in the summer we found some baseball players who were turning to technology to help them improve their performance. Stepping up to bat with that story, our Renay San Miguel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sometimes a curve ball won't curve. A sinker won't sink. A fast ball loses a few miles per hour. When that happens to a pitcher, some of them come here, to the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama.
Brian West is a prospect with the Birmingham Bearers, the Chicago White Sox farm team. His pitching coach, former major leager Juan Nieves, brought him here to work with Glenn Fleisig and his team of assistants. Fleisig studies other sports, including golf, but it's his work with pitchers, like Cincinnati's Jose Rijo, that have him in demand.
We are going to put some reflective markers on your shoulders, knees, ankles and just film you going through your motion.
SAN MIGUEL: Nieves, who once through a no-hitter with the Milwaukee Brewers, is hoping West has the stamina and mechanics to make it to the big leagues.
JUAN NIEVES, PITCHING COACH: He has all the requirements that we are looking for to have a championship pitcher on the mound every five days.
BRIAN WEST, PITCHER: I'm hoping to get out and iron out a few flaws in my mechanics that I'm still working on. That this could show me, you know, what a regular video camera couldn't.
SAN MIGUEL: Reflective markers will help the computer create a digitized (UNINTELLIGIBLE) picture of Brian that allow Dr. Fleisig and his crew to thoroughly analyze his pitching motion. That and high- speed cameras that take 500 frames a second will let Fleisig determine if Brian is using all the force in his body the right way when he throws a curve or fast ball. Is he putting too much stress on his shoulder, his elbow? Can he get more power from his lower body? Should he adjust his motion?
GLENN FLEISIG, AMERICAN SPORTS MEDICINE INSTITUTE: Although a lot of pitchers who are successful look different, there are a lot of similarities. And when you measure them, there are some key aspects that all of the good pitchers do. There are really two reasons to do biomechanics. One is to improve performance, and one is to -- for injury prevention. The American Sports Medicine Institute is more focused on the injury side, trying to keep people healthy out on the field. But what we find out is if you make someone's pitching mechanics better, more efficient, they gain more velocity for less effort, and they're really getting two for the price of one.
SAN MIGUEL: Oakland A's pitching coach Rick Peterson has sent some of his younger pitchers, including 2002 All-Star Barry Zito to the institute, where their throwing motions have been mapped and analyzed.
BARRY ZITO, PITCHER: That helped me a great deal by letting me know that there are certain flaws in the delivery that you can't always see or feel when you're pitching at regular speed. You know, by slowing down the wind-up and looking at it from different angles.
SAN MIGUEL: The goal is to not only make good pitchers better, but to also extend their careers.
RICK PETERSON, PITCHING COACH: Z (ph) probably had the best comment of all. He said, this is unbelievable, this is prehab.
SAN MIGUEL (on camera): The American Sports Medicine Institute has been studying pitching for the last 12 years, but for the first time this year it is studying each style of pitch. How much stress a fast ball, a curve ball, a slider or a change-up can put on a pitcher's arm.
FLEISIG: One thing we look at and we measure how far back the arm is rotated when we measure the speed of it coming forward also.
SAN MIGUEL (voice-over): West marvels at how he has been reduced to a series of lines and dots on a computer screen.
WEST: Now, you know, in baseball, it's all about a numbers game now, you know, results, fast balls and strikes. And if you can perfect your mechanics, then the results of you throwing strikes in the play are going to be better, and in turn, get more hitters out. So this actually can turn out to be a very, very valuable experience.
SAN MIGUEL: West, who got hurt in high school, is hoping that better pitching mechanics can help him avoid further injury.
Fleisig is concerned that Little Leagers, who idolize high-heat hurlers like Roger Clemens or the big curve ball pitchers may try to emulate their heroes before they're ready.
FLEISIG: A boy shouldn't throw a curve ball until he can shave. It sounds unrelated, but what we're getting at is we really don't want you to throw a curve ball until your bone and your growth plates have started to seal up, and without looking at X-rays and really seeing -- the easiest way to tell if a young man is in puberty, he has some facial hair, then that's an early sign. So it sounds kind of silly, but there's some science to it that we tell boys not to throw curve balls until they can shave.
SAN MIGUEL: That advice and the data being collected at the institute could help younger pitchers go from wild-throwing rookies to major league all-stars.
(on camera): We shot that story in June. In November, Brian West got promoted. He is now on the White Sox Major League 40-man roster. It doesn't mean you will see him playing in Chicago on opening day, but the Sox have their eye on him for the future. And who knows, maybe the biomechanical analysis had something to do with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the year in space. Check out some of the high and low points.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: This hasn't been the greatest year on the space front. From a grounded shuttle fleet to a pop star whose hopes of becoming a space tourist were lanced. But there were plenty of good times too. Miles O'Brien has the lowdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were no giant leaps for mankind in space this year. In fact, NASA struggled to make small steps, as its fleet of shuttles showed its age and was grounded for several months with cracks in the fuel lines.
RON DITTIMORE, SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM DIRECTOR: It's got hundreds of thousands of parts. Its systems are very complex and they have to work in just the right way. We do a good job of checking out the hardware in between flights, but even then, sometimes that hardware is not going to act the way you want it to.
O'BRIEN: Not everything went the way Lance Bass wanted. After his producers strung the public and the Russian space agency along for months saying they were going to make this teenage heartthrob the next space tourist, they finally admitted they just didn't have the cash.
But not everything was a bust for 2002. In a series of difficult space walks, NASA successfully upgraded the 12-year-old Hubble space telescope with a camera 10 times more powerful. Hubble began its career as a myopic laughing stock, only to come back to rewrite the textbooks and allow astronomers to peer deeper into space than they ever had before.
ED WEILER, NASA SCIENCE ADMINISTRATOR: We knew we had redemption, from going to a national joke that the night-time TV hosts were using us, to we did it, we fixed it. And then the rest is history. We went from a national disgrace in some people's minds to a symbol of the great American comeback.
O'BRIEN: And in the fall, the shuttle fleet came back from its summer in repair, carrying over 25 tons of giant parts to the International Space Station circling the Earth 250 miles overhead. On the ground, NASA got a very down-to-earth new boss, Sean O'Keefe.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: What is embraced in the very mission objectives and charter and origins of NASA is that what we think is inherent in the American spirit to begin with. That capacity to explore, that willingness to take risks. That willingness to be entrepreneurial and start something where there had been no opportunity previously.
O'BRIEN: And while some don't want to give the $1 billion a year International Space Station that opportunity, the new administrator stands by the many scientific experiments astronauts conducted aboard the station in 2002, while continuing his lofty goal of maintaining a human presence in space forever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half hour, an update on the threats facing Africa's gorillas. 2002 has not been a good year for them.
Also, lead-footed kids in go carts and technology that puts on the brakes.
First, we'll take a break and get a quick news update from the CNN newsroom. Don't go away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HATTORI: Welcome back to this year-end edition of NEXT@CNN from the historic Dansmire (ph) mansion in Oakland, California. Built by coal and lumber baron Alexander Dansmire (ph) back in 1899. What an entrance, complete with a 20-feet Christmas tree.
You know, this past year saw an increasing threat to Africa's gorillas. Not only the lowland gorillas, which are popular targets of bush meat hunters, but now the mountain gorillas, which until recently lived relatively protected lives. CNN's Gary Strieker tracked that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was a time when traditional nature conservation was enforced in Ghana. When clans were symbolize by wild animals protected by rules and ancient taboos. Today, commercial hunters are wiping out much of the wildlife in Ghana's forests.
MOHAMED BAKARR, CONSERVATION INT'L: The hunting is really taking its toll on the wildlife population. And there's no question about it, that we're at the stage now where many of the species actually are going extinct in the country. STRIEKER: According to wildlife experts, the business of wild game, or bush meat, legal and illegal, is now a $350 million industry in Ghana. Thousands of hunters using traps, poisons, brush fires, and automatic weapons, still more employed in transporting bush meat and selling it in markets and restaurants.
Ghana lies in the heart of the upper Guinea Forest, stretching across nine countries in West Africa. There are scores of endangered mammal species in the forest, including monkeys and antelopes prized for bush meat. In many areas hunting has destroyed virtually all wildlife resulting in what conservationists call "empty forests" that are unnaturally quiet.
BAKARR: Oftentimes, when the forest is hunted out, that's the first thing that you notice. These animals simply don't make any calls. Either because they're not there or their populations have been so reduced, that only individuals are moving around so there's no one to call to.
STRIEKER: Recently, government authorities and private groups in Ghana adopted an action plan aimed at reducing bush meat consumption and finding economic alternatives for people working in the bush meat industry. Conservationists hope something can be done before all the nation's wildlife resources are destroyed.
In Central Africa, mountain gorillas have not been hunted for meat like their lowland cousins, but a new outbreak of poaching began in May, and since then, at least six gorillas have been shot and killed, alarming wildlife authorities and conservationists.
AMY VEDDER, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: We have not seen anything like this in the last 20 years.
STRIEKER: Gorilla researcher, Amy Vedder, has spent her life studying these rare apes. A conservation success story that could still be twisted to tragedy by poachers.
Mountain gorillas are found only in the high altitude forests of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this region, people do not eat gorillas, but poachers seem to have another reason for hunting them.
VEDDER: It appears that people are trying to capture a baby gorilla for sale somewhere. We assume this is for some sort of private menagerie or a private collection of exotic animals somewhere hidden away in the world.
STRIEKER: Park rangers in Uganda are reported to have captured some poachers, and they're being questioned to find out who hired them.
Meanwhile, some gorilla family groups are under 24-hour surveillance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a small town struggle with a legacy from its biggest employer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are those who think it's a danger, and the ones that think it's safe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Getting the lead out when NEXT returns.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Back in February, our environment correspondent, Natalie Pawelski, told us about the town of Herculaneum, Missouri, a town that grew up around a lead smelter and is now paying the price in environmental damage. Here's her report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four kids stuck inside on a rare warm day in January, because playing outside might be hazardous to their health. These are not children who are short on energy?
CAROL MILLER, RESIDENT: Oh, no and this is my life. Really, it is hard on them. They can't go to grandma's, you know. They can't go to any of the houses here in Herky because of the lead.
PAWELSKI: Herky is what the locals call Herculaneum, Missouri, where all the playgrounds are closed and signs warn kids not to play on the streets because of lead contamination.
MAYOR JOHN CHAMIS, HERCULANEUM, MISSOURI: We don't want the little children to play in the playground because they'll get this lead on their hands an on their body. Naturally little kids are going to put their hands in their mouth.
PAWELSKI: John Chamis is the first Mayor who didn't work at Herculaneum's biggest business, the Doe Run Lead Smelter. It has towered over the town for more than a century.
BILL STOTLER, RESIDENT: Well at one time, the company provided virtually everything. They built the homes around the plant. They put in the streets. They put in the sidewalks, and they virtually took care of everything that needed to be taken care of for the citizens and the community until they could take it over themselves. As I say, there's those that think it's an angel and the one's that think it's Satan.
PAWELSKI: The EPA says the Doe Run Lead Smelter has polluted earth, air, and water with lead, and the plant has agreed to clean up its act. In the meantime, the EPA is asking more than 90 families to move out of their homes, while their yard soil is replaced and their houses cleaned up. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys aren't going to clean any better than I clean. Why don't you take some of this money and do something about this problem?
PAWELSKI: But at a town meeting, it's clear there's not a lot of faith in that plan. Most townspeople we talked to figure the lead smelter should be forced to buy out people living closest to the plant, since those houses are now all but impossible to sell. Others question the limits of the cleanup plan.
BRUCE MORRISON, EPA: We only have so much resources that we can do this. We can't dig the whole town up instantaneously. So we've got to piece meal it and we've got to go for the highest risk areas first.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you say when they're cleaned up, don't go visit your neighbor next door, because we didn't do anything for them and that's still contaminated. If the contamination is everywhere, the cleanup has to be everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like to me that you are working for the lead smelter.
PAWELSKI (on camera): Plans to move families back into their homes after the lead has been removed don't sit well with some of the neighbors. "What good will it do" they ask "if the smelter continues to pollute? Won't their houses and yards just end up being contaminated all over again?"
Doe Run says that won't happen, that while its smelter still violates Federal air pollution standards for lead, the problem will soon be fixed.
In the meantime, the company cleans its truck routes each day to keep streets clear of any residue, and it's been paying to have contaminated top soil replaced and houses cleaned.
BARBARA SHEPPARD, DOE RUN COMPANY: There have been emissions in the past and what we are now doing is coming into compliance with the national ambient air standard, and so we are not wanting to get the soils and the houses cleaned up. We did not do anything wrong.
PAWELSKI (voice-over): Doe Run's Herculaneum Smelter is the biggest in the United States. How many trucks come in here every day from the mines?
DAN HENKE, DOE RUN COMPANY: It depends on what we're running. We typically bring in 30 to say 50 trucks, depending on how many days a week we ship.
PAWELSKI: One hundred seventy thousands tons of lead a year, mostly sold to companies making batteries.
SHEPPARD: When you look at any kind of industrial process, you are creating dust. You are creating emissions, and the question you have to ask is, what is safe? What are the safe levels? And that's what we're focused on is getting this plant in operation and at safe levels.
PAWELSKI: In the meantime, Carol Miller worries about elevated lead levels in her home and in her children's blood, and about learning disabilities and health problems she blames on lead.
MILLER: Everything that they say that lead can cause, we have it in our family.
PAWELSKI: The Miller's follow EPA advice, taking off their shoes so as not to track in contaminated dirt, keeping the windows closed, and taking care not to stir up any lead dust that's already in their home. And you don't have the ceiling fan on today either?
MILLER: No, because it would circulate the dust, the lead, and they told me not to clean it, don't touch it because if I just jar it, you know, it will fall.
PAWELSKI: The EPA has asked the millers to temporarily evacuate, so they are moving into a motel while their topsoil is replaced and their house scrubbed. But they'll come back to a street where some neighbors don't yet qualify for cleanup.
MILLER: I guess when we come back, we'll live in a little bubble and my kids won't, you know, step on that property, won't walk down this sidewalk.
PAWELSKI: The EPA says wholesale evacuations are not necessary, and the lead company agrees.
SHEPPARD: The risks are not that great to be not living here. We are remediating the soil source. We're changing the soils and we are cleaning the houses, and we're also doing the schools and the playgrounds. We're a responsible corporate operation, wanting to work with this community to make things right in Herculaneum.
PAWELSKI: But among the people of this small town, there's a lot of doubt about whether things will ever be right again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Some things have changed since we first aired that story. Doe Run has made offers to buy the houses of 17 families with the sickest children and eight buybacks are complete. The company says it will make offers on 160 homes closest to the plant in 2004 and will continue to clean inside the homes and replace the yard soils of several others. Doe Run says new procedures and equipment at the plant have reduced lead emissions, but some residents who want to leave town told us they are frustrated by the long wait and don't believe lead levels are being monitored effectively. Although the main streets in Herculaneum were repaved, trucks loaded with lead still run through town on their way to and from the plant.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a hefty tax on e-mail? Can this be real? Bruce Burkhardt goes in search of the truth that's out there somewhere. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Time for a few more high points from the year. Miles O'Brien did a profile on Patty Wagstaff, the first woman pilot to win the U.S. National Aerobatics Title. And he got a memorable ride.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: This is kind of boring for you, isn't it?
PATTY WAGSTAFF, PILOT: Well, we're not going to do it for long. We're not going to do it for long, Miles. Here we go.
O'BRIEN: Show me what you've got. Oh, my God! Oh!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HATTORI: Some of you got a kick out of Rusty Dornin's story on two guys in California who are collecting millions of those ubiquitous AOL start-up software disks, so they can dump them on AOL's door step. AOL Time Warner, of course, is the parent company of CNN.
And Bruce Burkhardt got his kicks doing a story on a camera that can shoot 12,000 frames per second, so it can capture exactly the millisecond of action that a filmmaker wants. That's Bruce, suffering a little for his art.
This past year, Kristie Lu Stout has kept us up to date on the tech happenings in Hong Kong. One of our favorite stories involved 10-year-olds in high-speed racing machines. That might sound like a pretty scary combination, but Kristie told us about a secret weapon that keeps young speed demons under control.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may not have a license to drive, but these kids definitely have the need for speed.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It's fast and it's really cool when you do turns.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: You can go fast and you can ram people.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It doesn't even matter. I just want to be able to track and race.
STOUT: Thankfully these road warriors are off the highway and in the Hong Kong's Karting Mall, where tires squeal and engines roar, the sound of today's high-speed go carts.
PETER THOMPSON, CHAIRMAN, KARTING MALL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) very sophisticated. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not indoor but outdoor these carts give us speeds of up to 130 miles an hour.
STOUT: Before the engines rev, the pit crew outfits each driver with a racing suit, helmet and driving instructions. A clear sign that safety is paramount.
(on camera): There are thrills but no spills here at the Karting Mall. In fact, each car is equipped with a seatbelt, an extra-wide body to prevent roll over, even the emergency off switch. But perhaps the most impressive safety feature is something I can't show you.
(voice-over): It's off the track: A radio operating control system that links each cart to the race controller.
(on camera): I see you're looking at the times, and Thomas (ph) is just going a little bit too fast. What can you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Thomas (ph) is driving outside his capabilities, we have a radio link to the cart with a device here in the control center.
STOUT: That device right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This device right here. This is a radio speed controller. We have a receiver on the cart, and if we press go it means they're on full power.
STOUT: Used in control of the car, all by wireless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can -- yes, all by wireless.
STOUT (voice-over): So even when Thomas (ph) spins out of control, his wheels can roll to a gentle stop.
And how does that mix with the speed demons?
(on camera): These guys can actually slow your cart down if you go out of control. Doesn't that bother you?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: No.
STOUT: No?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah, it does.
STOUT: It bothers you? Why does it bother you?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, I like going fast.
STOUT (voice-over): Some kids want just one simple thrill: Putting the pedal to the metal without being pulled over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Cominbg up, lions (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We'll be right back with some whacky animal pictures.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: OK. Time for one more round of favorite moments from the past year's shows. This time we have got an extravaganza of animal pictures for you. One viewer asked for a rerun of the flying snakes, and we're happy to oblige. The Asian paradise tree snake glides from tree to tree. No wings or rotors to help. It turns out the snakes suck in their stomachs to make themselves as flat as possible, then wiggle to generate lift.
Take a look at some cool video from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, where researchers wanted to study what role a lion's mane plays in relations with other lions. They set out dummy male lions and videotaped the real lion's reactions. Females preferred the dummies with darker manes, nine out of 10 times, while males were intimidated by dark maned dummies, preferring to challenge those with lighter locks. Makes sense when you learn that lions with high levels of testosterone have dark manes.
Fake animals seem to be a recurring theme in 2002. One researcher used a robotic female bowerbird to study the male bird's courtship behavior. They found that the female birds like guys who are intense, but not too intense, and who have nice nests.
Another study, another fake bird. This one getting beat up by a rival in a study of how female sparrows choose mates. Answer: The best singers get the girls. When a female bird hears her favorite song, her tail goes up, meaning she's ready to mate. This one was apparently so ready she fell off her perch.
Finally, our stories about the puffins of Iceland. Yes, the birds are very cute, but what made it memorable for us was environment correspondent Natalie Pawelski eating a puffin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAWELSKI: It tastes like chicken. No, it doesn't taste like chicken.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HATTORI: Guess you can't report on what you don't know.
Finally, we can't say good-bye to 2002 without a story from our Bruce Burkhardt. One of his shining moments this year, maybe his whole life, was a trip to Washington, D.C. to track down an insidious plot to tax e-mail.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a morning like any other morning. First thing, open up the e-mail. And there it was. An e-mail that, as it turned out, would change my life for the next day or two. It was a warning that under proposed legislation, U.S. House Bill 602P, a five cent surcharge would be collected on every e-mail sent.
The letter warns that this could cost the average user $180 a year, money that would go directly to the U.S. Postal Service for a service they do not even provide. And behind it all, a Congressman by the name of Tony Schnell. (on camera): You know, as a reporter, I know I'm not supposed to have an opinion, but this thing really fries my eggs. I'm going to give this Congressman Tony Schnell on the phone and see what gives. Yes, could I have Congressman Tony Schnell, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have any Congressman with that name, sir.
BURKHARDT: Thank you very much. Yes, yes. I know how Washington works. I guess I have no choice but to track this thing down myself.
(voice-over): Congressman Schnell on the double. No luck finding Congressman Schnell, but I did find the chairman of the Internet Subcommittee Congressman Fred Upton.
How can Congress even think of imposing a tax on e-mail.
REP FRED UPTON (R), MICHIGAN: Well, we're not going to do that.
BURKHARDT: Really? What about Congressman Schnell?
UPTON: There's no Schnell here now, that's for sure.
BURKHARDT: No Schnell? Well, also turns out no five cent tax, no House bill 602P. House bills aren't even numbered that way. It's all a hoax one of the Internet's longest surviving hoaxes, first appearing in 1999, and then resurfacing from time to time ever since. But hoax or not, it became a campaign issue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to ask you how you stand on Federal Bill 602P?
BURKHARDT: During this debate between New York Senatorial candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rick Lazio, both took courageous stands.
SEN HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NY: I wouldn't vote for that bill.
RICK LAZIO, CANDIDATE: This is an example of the government's greedy hand.
BURKHARDT: Well, actually, it's more an example of what Mark Twain once said. A lie can travel halfway around the world, while the truth is putting on its shoes.
UPTON: And you can just see the power of the Internet, because so many people believe that it's true. And I have even heard from my own family members about this, saying Fred, what is the deal?
BURKHARDT: To try and stem the tide of angry letters, Upton sponsored a bill that wasn't a hoax. A bill that said no to any Internet taxes. Never mind that such taxes have never been proposed in the first place.
UPTON: I mean, nobody stood up to oppose what we we're doing.
BURKHARDT: It is a classic case study. Not in how a bill becomes a law, but how a hoax becomes a bill. And for politicians always on the lookout for a crowd-pleasing position, that may not be a bad thing.
UPTON: I'm delighted to be against it.
BURKHARDT: Even though there's no "it" to be against.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Well, our time is up for now, but before we go, a bit of news about us. Our program is going on hiatus for a bit, but stay tuned, it will be back within a few weeks with a new look, a live format and greater, in-depth coverage of Earth, space and cyber space.
Watch our Web site for updates, cnn.com/next. Hope you'll tune in.
I have enjoyed being a part of NEXT. Hope you enjoyed it, too, and for all of us at CNN on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. Take care, everybody.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired December 28, 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 a special year-end edition of NEXT@CNN, meet some four-legged fighters in the war against terrorism. Their bite can be worse than their bark.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They also have to show us that if you pick up the equipment, they'll also bite (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: A dog life in boot camp.
Also a party where the action is in cyberspace and the computers don't look much like that beige box on your desk.
And Mr. Burkhardt goes to Washington to track down the congressman behind a bill that has angered countless e-mail users. All that and more on NEXT.
JAMES HATTORI, HOST: Hi, everybody. I'm James Hattori, and welcome to a special year-end edition of NEXT@CNN. And welcome to my house. I wish. Actually, this is the historic Dansmire (ph) mansion in Oakland, California.
You know, as the old year winds down, we will be looking back at some favorite stories from 2002. We may not hit every important science and technology story of the year, but these are some of the ones that you and we wanted to see again.
Back in January when our program began, the horrors of September 11 were just a few months in the past, and airline security was a huge story, as it is still today. The new U.S. Transportation Security Agency was boosting the presence of plain-clothed sky marshals aboard U.S. airlines, and I went to Seattle, where a company demonstrated a way to train airborne marshals without leaving the ground.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI (voice over): A jetliner levels off at 10,000 feet. Passengers settle in for the ride. With some 35,000 take-offs daily in the U.S., air travel is still pretty routine but not this flight.
This is a high-tech simulation of an airborne hijacking, and I am playing the role of an armed sky marshal, whose job is to protect the crew and passengers, and thwart the bad guys.
GREG HOOVER: This is as real as it gets without a doubt.
HATTORI: Greg Hoover is a former Los Angeles Police veteran, now Director of Training for Advanced Interactive Systems, a Seattle-based company which makes video simulators used by police departments and Federal agencies, including the border patrol.
The system uses real handguns modified to shoot a laser and bullets filled with compressed air to simulate recoil. Videotaped crime scenarios are projected onto two screens with various endings depending on how the trainee reacts. Laser sensors track the virtual bullets. There's even a shoot back cannon that fires nylon balls at the trainee.
It puts officers into virtual life-threatening situations they could one day face on the streets or in the sky.
HOOVER: They may end up going to a county morgue. You never know, and they understand that fully, and that's why this is so beneficial to them.
HATTORI (on camera): And potentially beneficial to the U.S. Government, as it expands the Air Marshal Program. Federal officials aren't disclosing details for security reasons, but they could hire as many as several thousand new officers.
Current training takes place in idle jetliners or mockups, but with that many recruits, virtual training is likely to play a major role.
TIM MAY, PRESIDENT, ADVANCED INTERACTIVE SYSTEMS: It allows you to vary the training, change scenarios, do a lot of things to keep these guys and women that will be acting as sky marshals, keep their training refreshed and up to date.
HATTORI: The sky marshal videos are just demonstrations for now, but the company has 200 other crime training scenarios already in use, allowing trainees to measure their response time, weapons skills, and judgment under incredible time pressure.
MAY: You got him in the bottom of the chin. This whole thing lasted 1.3 seconds. How quick is that?
HATTORI: So, how did I do as a sky marshal? Well, the first time, I did nothing and paid a price.
MAY: Did you see anything behind you?
HATTORI: No, I didn't look. I looked back once.
MAY: There was a guy that put a knife in your shoulder blade behind you.
HATTORI: The second time, I did get a shot off, killing the hijacker after she'd stabbed several passengers. MAY: And while you were watching her, a guy came up behind you and put a knife right between your shoulder blades.
HATTORI: The third time, at an airline counter, I winged a ticket agent in the leg, but managed to get the bad guy as he ran off. All in all, a realistic taste of the kind of life and death moment even police veterans hope never to face.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: A new emphasis on security seem to be a priority everywhere in 2002, and man's best friend became an even better friend. Dogs helped patrol airports and search for explosives. Ann Kellan went to a Texas Air Force base to get the story on some military recruits that wear real dog tags.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's one thing to train a dog to attack, another to order attack then change your mind. It's like grabbing a flying bullet once the gun's been shot.
These dogs work for the Department of Defense, DOD dogs. They have a rank, name and serial number tattoo.
These are police dogs, military police dogs, but they're police dogs.
KELLAN: Would-be handlers come from all branches of the military, to train at Lackland Air Force Base. When they arrive, they meet their new partners. Some are green, like they are.
Who's more difficult to train, the students?
STAFF SRGT. ANN SVITANEK: The students, yes ma'am. It's easier to get to a dog sometimes. Unlike the FAA dogs that are trained to just sniff for bombs and explosives, DOD dogs do a number of tasks. Some learn to sniff out explosives, while others get a nose for drugs. All learn to patrol and attack on command, and hunt for people hiding in buildings. The key is teamwork.
SVITANEK: You have to have a lot of patience to work with the dog and learn to understand the dog and have a rapport with the dog, and you and that dog need to be best friends and understand each other. They say it travels up and down the leash. If you're having a bad day, the dog's going to have a bad day. If the dog's having a bad day, you're going to have a bad day.
SR. MASTER SRGT. JIM KOHLRENKEN: And they'll sniff the person on the other side of the door and they'll either bark or scratch, give some type of indication to the handler that that's where the person is hiding.
KELLAN: The dogs also learn to sniff the air for suspects hiding outside.
KOHLRENKEN: A good dog is a dog that has the ability to smell, to decoy from a long distance.
KELLAN: Most of these four-legged recruits come from Europe, where dogs are bred more for work than for show. Considering that each dog costs $2,000 to $4,000, they get a thorough physical before they're purchased.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This dog would fail here, because he has a physical, a muscular skeletal problem that we don't want to invest in.
KELLAN: They undergo personality tests. They can't be gun-shy. They need to be sociable and agree to work for a meager wage.
SVITANEK: They don't ask for any reward, other than some praise with a ball or a nice pat on the head.
KELLAN: And they have to be able to bite to kill.
WILSON: They also have to show us, if we take off the equipment, they'll also bit actual flesh. If they won't, they can do everything out here perfect, and they still won't go to the field.
KELLAN: How do you test that?
WILSON: We have various methods. We may start out with a suit. We have hidden equipment that we use, or just generally threatening without equipment to see if the dog is actually attempting to, and if they don't do that, because a lot of dogs won't.
KELLAN: Dogs are trusted to think, even attack on their own.
WILSON: If the handler or the dog itself is in jeopardy and needs to protect himself or the handler, we train the dog that hey, instinct, you protect.
KELLAN: Dog handlers carry their jobs on their belts.
E-5 KARETTA ROBINSON: We have a canteen for the dog, have his muzzle in case you need to take him to the vet. This is a choke chain you put around his neck, along with his collar.
KELLAN: There's a brush and chain. What's the first one, the canteen?
ROBINSON: The canteen, the water for the dog.
KELLAN: Where's your canteen?
ROBINSON: I don't have one.
KELLAN: The course lasts about three months. After graduation, some will head to bases in the U.S., while others may go to war.
SVITANEK: I've been to the desert. I've seen it. I've compared my dog to machines. Nine times out of ten, that dog's going to beat any machine that walks the base. MAJOR DAWN HARRI: Human-animal bond is very strong between a handler and a dog. These animals go into all kind of situation with their handlers. It can be dangerous.
WILSON: We can always depend on them, always. You can always depend on a dog.
KELLAN: That's one reason why many handlers end up keeping their partners, even after they retire.
(on camera): Well, since our visit, the program has started breeding its own puppies at Lachland Air Force base. These 9-month- old Labrador retrievers named Alice, Ace and Austin (ph) are the first puppies to start the program. They are already being trained to stay calm around loud or confusing noises. Preparations for their careers in the ranks of the DOD dogs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: An hour is just not long enough for all the stories from 2002 that we'd like to show you. So we will just hit the high points, or cool pictures from some of them.
For instance, remember the finger-saving saw? It shuts off as soon as it touches a finger, represented by a hot dog in this demonstration. The secret is the electrical charge in the blade that responds to human or hot dog flesh and shuts down the saw in milliseconds. Then there was the recreation of King Tut's face at the Science Museum of London, England. Scientists started with an X-ray of his skull, then filled out the picture with data scanned from the faces of volunteers. They used digital technology to come up with a reconstruction of the boy pharaoh's face.
And how about the DVD player that lets you karaoke? Maybe it's not the most advanced technology of the year, but it got Ann Kellan and our computer tech expert Marc Saltzman rocking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLAN (singing): You ain't nothing but a hound dog.
MARC SALTZMAN, PERSONAL TECH GURU: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HATTORI: They need to take that act on the road.
Well, we will have more high points from 2002 as NEXT continues.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, here's the wind up and the pitch! Can a pitcher learn how to throw strikes in a lab?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: This year, while other parts of the economy faltered, the video game industry surged ahead. By the end of 2002, it will have passed the $10 billion mark, according to market information company MPD Fun World. One factor in that growth, video gaming is becoming more and more interactive. Daniel Sieberg went to a party that's a case in point.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Water-cooled desktop computers made of aluminum and Plexiglass with tweaked processors that run faster than a speeding bullet. The owners of these machines have converted traditional computers into a high- performance gamer's weapon of choice.
(on camera): Sure, you could play video games at home, alone, or over the Internet. Or you could come to a place like Netland, where gaming takes on a social environment, and a whole new level of competition.
(voice-over): These days, interactive gaming is more than hooking up players via the Internet. LAN parties like this one in Atlanta can consist of dozens of gamers playing together over a local area network, which uses servers to connect multiple computers in the same venue. These gaming parties first became popular in Korea, and now interest is growing in the U.S. as well.
DERRICK HOUSTON, NETLAND OWNER: Internet cafes have been around for a long time, but this is a little bit different. This is more socially -- more social interaction with gaming, playing against one another.
SIEBERG: The competitors are serious about the games they play and the tools they use. These tricked-out computers are known to insiders as "hot rods." An appropriate name since the atmosphere at these events is akin to a sporting event or a car show. The fastest machine with the best driver wins bragging rights and respect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What? I'm getting confused!
SIEBERG: The games and graphics are futuristic as the machines they run through. "Counter Strike," currently perhaps the most popular LAN game in the world, is a shooter game that pits teams against one another on terrorist and anti-terror missions. Places like Netland also allow people to play online games like "Dark Age of Camelot," against other LAN party goers, as well as players from all over the world. Holiday LAN party gone global.
PETER CHUN, GAMER: Every single character in there is a person in front of a computer, just like we are. So if you see like 500 people gather somewhere, that's 500 people elsewhere in the world playing the same game as us.
SIEBERG: Many LAN party games are loaded with plenty of blood, death and destruction. A lot of people say these games promote violence and unhealthy levels of competition. No surprise, folks here disagree.
CONRAD GROSS, GAMER: This is like playing a sport. I mean, it's not physical, but it's playing a sport. You get to hang out with people and do teamwork. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) gaming is a social thing. With the Internet and with LAN parties, I mean, you can make tons of friends.
SIEBERG: And destroy tons of enemies. LAN parties have turned video gaming into an indoor version of a street basketball game. Show up, bring your best game, and let them see what you've got.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Speaking of games, back in the summer we found some baseball players who were turning to technology to help them improve their performance. Stepping up to bat with that story, our Renay San Miguel.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sometimes a curve ball won't curve. A sinker won't sink. A fast ball loses a few miles per hour. When that happens to a pitcher, some of them come here, to the American Sports Medicine Institute in Birmingham, Alabama.
Brian West is a prospect with the Birmingham Bearers, the Chicago White Sox farm team. His pitching coach, former major leager Juan Nieves, brought him here to work with Glenn Fleisig and his team of assistants. Fleisig studies other sports, including golf, but it's his work with pitchers, like Cincinnati's Jose Rijo, that have him in demand.
We are going to put some reflective markers on your shoulders, knees, ankles and just film you going through your motion.
SAN MIGUEL: Nieves, who once through a no-hitter with the Milwaukee Brewers, is hoping West has the stamina and mechanics to make it to the big leagues.
JUAN NIEVES, PITCHING COACH: He has all the requirements that we are looking for to have a championship pitcher on the mound every five days.
BRIAN WEST, PITCHER: I'm hoping to get out and iron out a few flaws in my mechanics that I'm still working on. That this could show me, you know, what a regular video camera couldn't.
SAN MIGUEL: Reflective markers will help the computer create a digitized (UNINTELLIGIBLE) picture of Brian that allow Dr. Fleisig and his crew to thoroughly analyze his pitching motion. That and high- speed cameras that take 500 frames a second will let Fleisig determine if Brian is using all the force in his body the right way when he throws a curve or fast ball. Is he putting too much stress on his shoulder, his elbow? Can he get more power from his lower body? Should he adjust his motion?
GLENN FLEISIG, AMERICAN SPORTS MEDICINE INSTITUTE: Although a lot of pitchers who are successful look different, there are a lot of similarities. And when you measure them, there are some key aspects that all of the good pitchers do. There are really two reasons to do biomechanics. One is to improve performance, and one is to -- for injury prevention. The American Sports Medicine Institute is more focused on the injury side, trying to keep people healthy out on the field. But what we find out is if you make someone's pitching mechanics better, more efficient, they gain more velocity for less effort, and they're really getting two for the price of one.
SAN MIGUEL: Oakland A's pitching coach Rick Peterson has sent some of his younger pitchers, including 2002 All-Star Barry Zito to the institute, where their throwing motions have been mapped and analyzed.
BARRY ZITO, PITCHER: That helped me a great deal by letting me know that there are certain flaws in the delivery that you can't always see or feel when you're pitching at regular speed. You know, by slowing down the wind-up and looking at it from different angles.
SAN MIGUEL: The goal is to not only make good pitchers better, but to also extend their careers.
RICK PETERSON, PITCHING COACH: Z (ph) probably had the best comment of all. He said, this is unbelievable, this is prehab.
SAN MIGUEL (on camera): The American Sports Medicine Institute has been studying pitching for the last 12 years, but for the first time this year it is studying each style of pitch. How much stress a fast ball, a curve ball, a slider or a change-up can put on a pitcher's arm.
FLEISIG: One thing we look at and we measure how far back the arm is rotated when we measure the speed of it coming forward also.
SAN MIGUEL (voice-over): West marvels at how he has been reduced to a series of lines and dots on a computer screen.
WEST: Now, you know, in baseball, it's all about a numbers game now, you know, results, fast balls and strikes. And if you can perfect your mechanics, then the results of you throwing strikes in the play are going to be better, and in turn, get more hitters out. So this actually can turn out to be a very, very valuable experience.
SAN MIGUEL: West, who got hurt in high school, is hoping that better pitching mechanics can help him avoid further injury.
Fleisig is concerned that Little Leagers, who idolize high-heat hurlers like Roger Clemens or the big curve ball pitchers may try to emulate their heroes before they're ready.
FLEISIG: A boy shouldn't throw a curve ball until he can shave. It sounds unrelated, but what we're getting at is we really don't want you to throw a curve ball until your bone and your growth plates have started to seal up, and without looking at X-rays and really seeing -- the easiest way to tell if a young man is in puberty, he has some facial hair, then that's an early sign. So it sounds kind of silly, but there's some science to it that we tell boys not to throw curve balls until they can shave.
SAN MIGUEL: That advice and the data being collected at the institute could help younger pitchers go from wild-throwing rookies to major league all-stars.
(on camera): We shot that story in June. In November, Brian West got promoted. He is now on the White Sox Major League 40-man roster. It doesn't mean you will see him playing in Chicago on opening day, but the Sox have their eye on him for the future. And who knows, maybe the biomechanical analysis had something to do with it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, the year in space. Check out some of the high and low points.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: This hasn't been the greatest year on the space front. From a grounded shuttle fleet to a pop star whose hopes of becoming a space tourist were lanced. But there were plenty of good times too. Miles O'Brien has the lowdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There were no giant leaps for mankind in space this year. In fact, NASA struggled to make small steps, as its fleet of shuttles showed its age and was grounded for several months with cracks in the fuel lines.
RON DITTIMORE, SPACE SHUTTLE PROGRAM DIRECTOR: It's got hundreds of thousands of parts. Its systems are very complex and they have to work in just the right way. We do a good job of checking out the hardware in between flights, but even then, sometimes that hardware is not going to act the way you want it to.
O'BRIEN: Not everything went the way Lance Bass wanted. After his producers strung the public and the Russian space agency along for months saying they were going to make this teenage heartthrob the next space tourist, they finally admitted they just didn't have the cash.
But not everything was a bust for 2002. In a series of difficult space walks, NASA successfully upgraded the 12-year-old Hubble space telescope with a camera 10 times more powerful. Hubble began its career as a myopic laughing stock, only to come back to rewrite the textbooks and allow astronomers to peer deeper into space than they ever had before.
ED WEILER, NASA SCIENCE ADMINISTRATOR: We knew we had redemption, from going to a national joke that the night-time TV hosts were using us, to we did it, we fixed it. And then the rest is history. We went from a national disgrace in some people's minds to a symbol of the great American comeback.
O'BRIEN: And in the fall, the shuttle fleet came back from its summer in repair, carrying over 25 tons of giant parts to the International Space Station circling the Earth 250 miles overhead. On the ground, NASA got a very down-to-earth new boss, Sean O'Keefe.
SEAN O'KEEFE, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: What is embraced in the very mission objectives and charter and origins of NASA is that what we think is inherent in the American spirit to begin with. That capacity to explore, that willingness to take risks. That willingness to be entrepreneurial and start something where there had been no opportunity previously.
O'BRIEN: And while some don't want to give the $1 billion a year International Space Station that opportunity, the new administrator stands by the many scientific experiments astronauts conducted aboard the station in 2002, while continuing his lofty goal of maintaining a human presence in space forever.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half hour, an update on the threats facing Africa's gorillas. 2002 has not been a good year for them.
Also, lead-footed kids in go carts and technology that puts on the brakes.
First, we'll take a break and get a quick news update from the CNN newsroom. Don't go away.
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HATTORI: Welcome back to this year-end edition of NEXT@CNN from the historic Dansmire (ph) mansion in Oakland, California. Built by coal and lumber baron Alexander Dansmire (ph) back in 1899. What an entrance, complete with a 20-feet Christmas tree.
You know, this past year saw an increasing threat to Africa's gorillas. Not only the lowland gorillas, which are popular targets of bush meat hunters, but now the mountain gorillas, which until recently lived relatively protected lives. CNN's Gary Strieker tracked that story.
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GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There was a time when traditional nature conservation was enforced in Ghana. When clans were symbolize by wild animals protected by rules and ancient taboos. Today, commercial hunters are wiping out much of the wildlife in Ghana's forests.
MOHAMED BAKARR, CONSERVATION INT'L: The hunting is really taking its toll on the wildlife population. And there's no question about it, that we're at the stage now where many of the species actually are going extinct in the country. STRIEKER: According to wildlife experts, the business of wild game, or bush meat, legal and illegal, is now a $350 million industry in Ghana. Thousands of hunters using traps, poisons, brush fires, and automatic weapons, still more employed in transporting bush meat and selling it in markets and restaurants.
Ghana lies in the heart of the upper Guinea Forest, stretching across nine countries in West Africa. There are scores of endangered mammal species in the forest, including monkeys and antelopes prized for bush meat. In many areas hunting has destroyed virtually all wildlife resulting in what conservationists call "empty forests" that are unnaturally quiet.
BAKARR: Oftentimes, when the forest is hunted out, that's the first thing that you notice. These animals simply don't make any calls. Either because they're not there or their populations have been so reduced, that only individuals are moving around so there's no one to call to.
STRIEKER: Recently, government authorities and private groups in Ghana adopted an action plan aimed at reducing bush meat consumption and finding economic alternatives for people working in the bush meat industry. Conservationists hope something can be done before all the nation's wildlife resources are destroyed.
In Central Africa, mountain gorillas have not been hunted for meat like their lowland cousins, but a new outbreak of poaching began in May, and since then, at least six gorillas have been shot and killed, alarming wildlife authorities and conservationists.
AMY VEDDER, WILDLIFE CONSERVATION SOCIETY: We have not seen anything like this in the last 20 years.
STRIEKER: Gorilla researcher, Amy Vedder, has spent her life studying these rare apes. A conservation success story that could still be twisted to tragedy by poachers.
Mountain gorillas are found only in the high altitude forests of Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In this region, people do not eat gorillas, but poachers seem to have another reason for hunting them.
VEDDER: It appears that people are trying to capture a baby gorilla for sale somewhere. We assume this is for some sort of private menagerie or a private collection of exotic animals somewhere hidden away in the world.
STRIEKER: Park rangers in Uganda are reported to have captured some poachers, and they're being questioned to find out who hired them.
Meanwhile, some gorilla family groups are under 24-hour surveillance.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a small town struggle with a legacy from its biggest employer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are those who think it's a danger, and the ones that think it's safe.
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ANNOUNCER: Getting the lead out when NEXT returns.
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HATTORI: Back in February, our environment correspondent, Natalie Pawelski, told us about the town of Herculaneum, Missouri, a town that grew up around a lead smelter and is now paying the price in environmental damage. Here's her report.
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NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Four kids stuck inside on a rare warm day in January, because playing outside might be hazardous to their health. These are not children who are short on energy?
CAROL MILLER, RESIDENT: Oh, no and this is my life. Really, it is hard on them. They can't go to grandma's, you know. They can't go to any of the houses here in Herky because of the lead.
PAWELSKI: Herky is what the locals call Herculaneum, Missouri, where all the playgrounds are closed and signs warn kids not to play on the streets because of lead contamination.
MAYOR JOHN CHAMIS, HERCULANEUM, MISSOURI: We don't want the little children to play in the playground because they'll get this lead on their hands an on their body. Naturally little kids are going to put their hands in their mouth.
PAWELSKI: John Chamis is the first Mayor who didn't work at Herculaneum's biggest business, the Doe Run Lead Smelter. It has towered over the town for more than a century.
BILL STOTLER, RESIDENT: Well at one time, the company provided virtually everything. They built the homes around the plant. They put in the streets. They put in the sidewalks, and they virtually took care of everything that needed to be taken care of for the citizens and the community until they could take it over themselves. As I say, there's those that think it's an angel and the one's that think it's Satan.
PAWELSKI: The EPA says the Doe Run Lead Smelter has polluted earth, air, and water with lead, and the plant has agreed to clean up its act. In the meantime, the EPA is asking more than 90 families to move out of their homes, while their yard soil is replaced and their houses cleaned up. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You guys aren't going to clean any better than I clean. Why don't you take some of this money and do something about this problem?
PAWELSKI: But at a town meeting, it's clear there's not a lot of faith in that plan. Most townspeople we talked to figure the lead smelter should be forced to buy out people living closest to the plant, since those houses are now all but impossible to sell. Others question the limits of the cleanup plan.
BRUCE MORRISON, EPA: We only have so much resources that we can do this. We can't dig the whole town up instantaneously. So we've got to piece meal it and we've got to go for the highest risk areas first.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you say when they're cleaned up, don't go visit your neighbor next door, because we didn't do anything for them and that's still contaminated. If the contamination is everywhere, the cleanup has to be everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It seems like to me that you are working for the lead smelter.
PAWELSKI (on camera): Plans to move families back into their homes after the lead has been removed don't sit well with some of the neighbors. "What good will it do" they ask "if the smelter continues to pollute? Won't their houses and yards just end up being contaminated all over again?"
Doe Run says that won't happen, that while its smelter still violates Federal air pollution standards for lead, the problem will soon be fixed.
In the meantime, the company cleans its truck routes each day to keep streets clear of any residue, and it's been paying to have contaminated top soil replaced and houses cleaned.
BARBARA SHEPPARD, DOE RUN COMPANY: There have been emissions in the past and what we are now doing is coming into compliance with the national ambient air standard, and so we are not wanting to get the soils and the houses cleaned up. We did not do anything wrong.
PAWELSKI (voice-over): Doe Run's Herculaneum Smelter is the biggest in the United States. How many trucks come in here every day from the mines?
DAN HENKE, DOE RUN COMPANY: It depends on what we're running. We typically bring in 30 to say 50 trucks, depending on how many days a week we ship.
PAWELSKI: One hundred seventy thousands tons of lead a year, mostly sold to companies making batteries.
SHEPPARD: When you look at any kind of industrial process, you are creating dust. You are creating emissions, and the question you have to ask is, what is safe? What are the safe levels? And that's what we're focused on is getting this plant in operation and at safe levels.
PAWELSKI: In the meantime, Carol Miller worries about elevated lead levels in her home and in her children's blood, and about learning disabilities and health problems she blames on lead.
MILLER: Everything that they say that lead can cause, we have it in our family.
PAWELSKI: The Miller's follow EPA advice, taking off their shoes so as not to track in contaminated dirt, keeping the windows closed, and taking care not to stir up any lead dust that's already in their home. And you don't have the ceiling fan on today either?
MILLER: No, because it would circulate the dust, the lead, and they told me not to clean it, don't touch it because if I just jar it, you know, it will fall.
PAWELSKI: The EPA has asked the millers to temporarily evacuate, so they are moving into a motel while their topsoil is replaced and their house scrubbed. But they'll come back to a street where some neighbors don't yet qualify for cleanup.
MILLER: I guess when we come back, we'll live in a little bubble and my kids won't, you know, step on that property, won't walk down this sidewalk.
PAWELSKI: The EPA says wholesale evacuations are not necessary, and the lead company agrees.
SHEPPARD: The risks are not that great to be not living here. We are remediating the soil source. We're changing the soils and we are cleaning the houses, and we're also doing the schools and the playgrounds. We're a responsible corporate operation, wanting to work with this community to make things right in Herculaneum.
PAWELSKI: But among the people of this small town, there's a lot of doubt about whether things will ever be right again.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Some things have changed since we first aired that story. Doe Run has made offers to buy the houses of 17 families with the sickest children and eight buybacks are complete. The company says it will make offers on 160 homes closest to the plant in 2004 and will continue to clean inside the homes and replace the yard soils of several others. Doe Run says new procedures and equipment at the plant have reduced lead emissions, but some residents who want to leave town told us they are frustrated by the long wait and don't believe lead levels are being monitored effectively. Although the main streets in Herculaneum were repaved, trucks loaded with lead still run through town on their way to and from the plant.
ANNOUNCER: Coming up, a hefty tax on e-mail? Can this be real? Bruce Burkhardt goes in search of the truth that's out there somewhere. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HATTORI: Time for a few more high points from the year. Miles O'Brien did a profile on Patty Wagstaff, the first woman pilot to win the U.S. National Aerobatics Title. And he got a memorable ride.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'BRIEN: This is kind of boring for you, isn't it?
PATTY WAGSTAFF, PILOT: Well, we're not going to do it for long. We're not going to do it for long, Miles. Here we go.
O'BRIEN: Show me what you've got. Oh, my God! Oh!
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HATTORI: Some of you got a kick out of Rusty Dornin's story on two guys in California who are collecting millions of those ubiquitous AOL start-up software disks, so they can dump them on AOL's door step. AOL Time Warner, of course, is the parent company of CNN.
And Bruce Burkhardt got his kicks doing a story on a camera that can shoot 12,000 frames per second, so it can capture exactly the millisecond of action that a filmmaker wants. That's Bruce, suffering a little for his art.
This past year, Kristie Lu Stout has kept us up to date on the tech happenings in Hong Kong. One of our favorite stories involved 10-year-olds in high-speed racing machines. That might sound like a pretty scary combination, but Kristie told us about a secret weapon that keeps young speed demons under control.
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KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They may not have a license to drive, but these kids definitely have the need for speed.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It's fast and it's really cool when you do turns.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: You can go fast and you can ram people.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: It doesn't even matter. I just want to be able to track and race.
STOUT: Thankfully these road warriors are off the highway and in the Hong Kong's Karting Mall, where tires squeal and engines roar, the sound of today's high-speed go carts.
PETER THOMPSON, CHAIRMAN, KARTING MALL: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) very sophisticated. (UNINTELLIGIBLE) not indoor but outdoor these carts give us speeds of up to 130 miles an hour.
STOUT: Before the engines rev, the pit crew outfits each driver with a racing suit, helmet and driving instructions. A clear sign that safety is paramount.
(on camera): There are thrills but no spills here at the Karting Mall. In fact, each car is equipped with a seatbelt, an extra-wide body to prevent roll over, even the emergency off switch. But perhaps the most impressive safety feature is something I can't show you.
(voice-over): It's off the track: A radio operating control system that links each cart to the race controller.
(on camera): I see you're looking at the times, and Thomas (ph) is just going a little bit too fast. What can you do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Thomas (ph) is driving outside his capabilities, we have a radio link to the cart with a device here in the control center.
STOUT: That device right there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This device right here. This is a radio speed controller. We have a receiver on the cart, and if we press go it means they're on full power.
STOUT: Used in control of the car, all by wireless.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can -- yes, all by wireless.
STOUT (voice-over): So even when Thomas (ph) spins out of control, his wheels can roll to a gentle stop.
And how does that mix with the speed demons?
(on camera): These guys can actually slow your cart down if you go out of control. Doesn't that bother you?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: No.
STOUT: No?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Yeah, it does.
STOUT: It bothers you? Why does it bother you?
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: Well, I like going fast.
STOUT (voice-over): Some kids want just one simple thrill: Putting the pedal to the metal without being pulled over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Cominbg up, lions (UNINTELLIGIBLE). We'll be right back with some whacky animal pictures.
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HATTORI: OK. Time for one more round of favorite moments from the past year's shows. This time we have got an extravaganza of animal pictures for you. One viewer asked for a rerun of the flying snakes, and we're happy to oblige. The Asian paradise tree snake glides from tree to tree. No wings or rotors to help. It turns out the snakes suck in their stomachs to make themselves as flat as possible, then wiggle to generate lift.
Take a look at some cool video from Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, where researchers wanted to study what role a lion's mane plays in relations with other lions. They set out dummy male lions and videotaped the real lion's reactions. Females preferred the dummies with darker manes, nine out of 10 times, while males were intimidated by dark maned dummies, preferring to challenge those with lighter locks. Makes sense when you learn that lions with high levels of testosterone have dark manes.
Fake animals seem to be a recurring theme in 2002. One researcher used a robotic female bowerbird to study the male bird's courtship behavior. They found that the female birds like guys who are intense, but not too intense, and who have nice nests.
Another study, another fake bird. This one getting beat up by a rival in a study of how female sparrows choose mates. Answer: The best singers get the girls. When a female bird hears her favorite song, her tail goes up, meaning she's ready to mate. This one was apparently so ready she fell off her perch.
Finally, our stories about the puffins of Iceland. Yes, the birds are very cute, but what made it memorable for us was environment correspondent Natalie Pawelski eating a puffin.
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PAWELSKI: It tastes like chicken. No, it doesn't taste like chicken.
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HATTORI: Guess you can't report on what you don't know.
Finally, we can't say good-bye to 2002 without a story from our Bruce Burkhardt. One of his shining moments this year, maybe his whole life, was a trip to Washington, D.C. to track down an insidious plot to tax e-mail.
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BRUCE BURKHARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a morning like any other morning. First thing, open up the e-mail. And there it was. An e-mail that, as it turned out, would change my life for the next day or two. It was a warning that under proposed legislation, U.S. House Bill 602P, a five cent surcharge would be collected on every e-mail sent.
The letter warns that this could cost the average user $180 a year, money that would go directly to the U.S. Postal Service for a service they do not even provide. And behind it all, a Congressman by the name of Tony Schnell. (on camera): You know, as a reporter, I know I'm not supposed to have an opinion, but this thing really fries my eggs. I'm going to give this Congressman Tony Schnell on the phone and see what gives. Yes, could I have Congressman Tony Schnell, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't have any Congressman with that name, sir.
BURKHARDT: Thank you very much. Yes, yes. I know how Washington works. I guess I have no choice but to track this thing down myself.
(voice-over): Congressman Schnell on the double. No luck finding Congressman Schnell, but I did find the chairman of the Internet Subcommittee Congressman Fred Upton.
How can Congress even think of imposing a tax on e-mail.
REP FRED UPTON (R), MICHIGAN: Well, we're not going to do that.
BURKHARDT: Really? What about Congressman Schnell?
UPTON: There's no Schnell here now, that's for sure.
BURKHARDT: No Schnell? Well, also turns out no five cent tax, no House bill 602P. House bills aren't even numbered that way. It's all a hoax one of the Internet's longest surviving hoaxes, first appearing in 1999, and then resurfacing from time to time ever since. But hoax or not, it became a campaign issue.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to ask you how you stand on Federal Bill 602P?
BURKHARDT: During this debate between New York Senatorial candidates, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rick Lazio, both took courageous stands.
SEN HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NY: I wouldn't vote for that bill.
RICK LAZIO, CANDIDATE: This is an example of the government's greedy hand.
BURKHARDT: Well, actually, it's more an example of what Mark Twain once said. A lie can travel halfway around the world, while the truth is putting on its shoes.
UPTON: And you can just see the power of the Internet, because so many people believe that it's true. And I have even heard from my own family members about this, saying Fred, what is the deal?
BURKHARDT: To try and stem the tide of angry letters, Upton sponsored a bill that wasn't a hoax. A bill that said no to any Internet taxes. Never mind that such taxes have never been proposed in the first place.
UPTON: I mean, nobody stood up to oppose what we we're doing.
BURKHARDT: It is a classic case study. Not in how a bill becomes a law, but how a hoax becomes a bill. And for politicians always on the lookout for a crowd-pleasing position, that may not be a bad thing.
UPTON: I'm delighted to be against it.
BURKHARDT: Even though there's no "it" to be against.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HATTORI: Well, our time is up for now, but before we go, a bit of news about us. Our program is going on hiatus for a bit, but stay tuned, it will be back within a few weeks with a new look, a live format and greater, in-depth coverage of Earth, space and cyber space.
Watch our Web site for updates, cnn.com/next. Hope you'll tune in.
I have enjoyed being a part of NEXT. Hope you enjoyed it, too, and for all of us at CNN on the sci-tech beat, I'm James Hattori. Take care, everybody.
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