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NASA Striving to Get Rover to Mars; Unusual Summer Weather; China's Great Wall in Need of Restoration

Aired July 06, 2003 - 17:00   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.


SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome everyone to NEXT@CNN for this Sunday, July 6. I'm Sean Callebs at the CNN Center.
Among the stories we're covering on NEXT today, NASA has lofty ambitions for its Mars rover opportunity, if it can get off the ground. The deadline is getting close and that could mean a long delay for the mission.

Could it be a missed opportunity?

Also, many of the world's coral reefs are dying. We'll talk live with Jean-Michel Cousteau about a reef that's in good shape and what makes the difference.

And find out what you can do with pieces of a car if you just set them up just right.

Those stories and much more just ahead.

But first, a dead battery has once again forced NASA to scrub its launch of the second of two probes to Mars. The Mars rover Opportunity still sits on the launch pad after a combination of weather delays, technical glitches. It's kept it earthbound for nearly two weeks after the original departure date.

Joining us to talk more about the delayed launch and the exploration of Mars is David Eicher. He is the astronomy editor of -- the editor of "Astronomy" magazine.

David, thanks a lot for joining us. Sorry I'm having trouble getting that one out.

DAVID EICHER, "ASTRONOMY" MAGAZINE EDITOR: Thank you, Sean, no problem.

CALLEBS: Now what does it mean? This is not going well for NASA. I mean, it's not going smoothly. I know it's very complex. There's a lot at stake.

EICHER: That's exactly right, there's a lot at stake because this, as you said, is really the summer of Mars, both from a scientific standpoint, as far as cracking the mystery of Mars, and also for amateur astronomers, this is the biggest summer that we'll ever have for the rest of our lives. So there's huge at stake. And we certainly hope that things go off well tomorrow night and that opportunity does go. Because as you mentioned there would be a four-year delay if it does not.

CALLEBS: Yes, let's talk about that. I mean, we're making a big deal out of the fact that it has to lift off by July 15. But explain why. There's a lot of space to cover between here and Mars.

EICHER: There's a lot of space to cover and there's a lot of orbital mechanics in play. And right now, the reason why things are in such group shape for amateur astronomers is that Mars and Earth are very, very close, on the same side of sun.

Mars will be at opposition on August 27, and this is a great opportunity for NASA to minimize their fuel and use one of these Delta II rockets, which we hope will function properly and get the spacecraft off.

But it has to be done such that the amount of fuel that the Delta can take along will get within that window of when the two planets are close enough to each other.

CALLEBS: Now, you're obviously...

EICHER: And that means launching by July 15.

CALLEBS: Exactly. You're obviously very excited about this. But explain the significance. I mean, this could be very important.

EICHER: It's very important scientifically, the mission, because it updates what had been done in a rather crude way, by comparison now -- things move so quickly scientifically -- by Mars Pathfinder in 1997.

We now have larger rovers, we're going to much more interesting sites and we have a lot of science that can be done now looking at where the water was, very specifically, on the red planet.

We found in a shock in 1965, when the early mission from the United States, one of the Mars, that Mars was nothing at all like Earth. We know now that Mars was very warm and very wet in the past, and now it's very cold and very dry. So we want to understand why did this happen. This may even have implications for the future of Earth's atmosphere and surface, as well.

CALLEBS: A lot of nail biting has to be going on at NASA at this hour. If they don't make it by July 15, there's a good chance they're going to have to moth ball this thing, if not for a year and a half, then for good, because technology could leap ahead so far.

EICHER: That's true. I imagine that the mission would go four years from now. It would have to be a four-year delay if it doesn't go a week from now and we would see, of course, technology by then.

We're hoping there will be another Mars orbiter launched in 2005 and well on down the road, about 10 years from now, we hope that there will be a Mars sample return mission that will then get to the very issue, not only of water in these very exciting places -- where we see water was flowing all over the planet -- but really potentially answering the question about whether there may be microbial life or may have been microbial life on the red planet and somehow the planet died.

CALLEBS: Boy, that would be fascinating to everyone involved.

But do you think that perhaps people in the U.S. have become perhaps spoiled by the success that NASA has had over the years and we expect everything to go flawless?

EICHER: That's absolutely correct and we learned with the Apollo I fire, with Challenger and now this year so sadly with the Columbia tragedy that this is really, really a tough business.

These are such sophisticated, complicated machines, many of them the most complex things that ever have been created technologically. So we do get spoiled. We do need to remind ourselves that these are such cutting edge missions, and they're so ambitious, and they're so complex that there will be failures.

And we have had, it seems a Martian hex with failures -- with 1993 and 1999, with the missions then failing outright -- that we hope we're getting more bang for our buck coming up here.

CALLEBS: Now, let's talk Buck Rogers type stuff. Do you think that we are so far away from thinking about sending a manned exploration to Mars?

EICHER: I think we're very far away from that. I think we're as far away as we can be, for a number of years, of technological work and blank checks written by Congress.

I think that it would be so expensive to either launch a human crew from Earth or even possibly going back to the moon first and using that as a base from which to go to Mars, that we're talking many, many years. Because it would be so vastly expensive that so much money would have to be put into it and so much learned, probably, first before it could even be attempted.

So we've heard since the '50s, really, as you undoubtedly know, Sean, that we're on the cusp of going to Mars.

CALLEBS: Exactly.

EICHER: It's been a long time coming and it will be probably a long, long time to come yet.

CALLEBS: I'm sure I've got a lunchbox stashed away somewhere that has somebody walking and Mars, somewhere.

David, thanks a lot for coming in on this weekend. And you're right about one thing: success breeds success. NASA lives by public funding, so let's hope this gets off the ground and is a big success. Thanks very much. EICHER: Thank you, Sean.

CALLEBS: OK, if you think you've been dealing with weird weather you are not alone. Of course, a lot of people said the same thing the last year, the year before that, you get the picture.

So has this year really been different? CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano takes a look at the weather highs and lows so far this year and what may lie ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): A year ago, up and down the East Coast they were praying for rain, begging for an end to nearly four years of drought.

Be careful what you beg for. The eastern drought's been swept away by months of above-average rain, some of it causing scenes like this, near disaster at a Florida dam last month.

On the flip side, in the western U.S., from Montana to the Mexican border, the dry weather continues and with it water restrictions, crisis conditions on farms and ranches, and a continuing plague of wildfires. And grass hoppers.

In the American heartland, the big news was bad news: a bevy of tornadoes. May of 2003 saw a record 562 twisters nationwide. The first half of this year saw 53 tornado deaths. A year ago there were only 11 in the same period.

The World Meteorological Organization said average land temperatures were the warmest ever measured. The WMO said we're also on a record pace for establishing new high temperature records. They're being set faster than anytime since such record-keeping began in the late 1800s.

The U.N.'s weather agency stopped short of saying all of this is a result of human impact on the climate or the relatively mild spell of El Nino weather, which wrapped up this spring.

The most tragic weather events this year were in India. In May and June, a heat wave that sometimes topped 120 degrees was blamed for an estimated 1,400 deaths.

And one place where the weather is about normal right now? The research station at the South Pole, where it's mid winter and about 50 below zero.

Rob Marciano, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: We told you about it yesterday. A hackers contest that raised some eyebrows among security experts this week doesn't seem to have caused any major damage today.

The cyber vandalism was sparked by a cryptic and very well- publicized contest on a Web site called DefacersChallenge.com.

It called for contestants to attack and deface thousands of Web sites during a six-hour period today. About five attacks a minute are being reported by Internet security systems.

Security experts say a large number of attacks are being traced to Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Turkey.

Those monitoring the activities say it looks like though two main hacker groups are battling it out, accessing Web site, leaving their marks and moving on with no additional damage. The defacements are not showing patterns of political or propaganda messages, no big name sites have been hit -- yet.

OK, when we come back, a Brazilian town gets covered in foam. We'll explain this one.

And later in the show, if you like the world of "Star Wars" so much that you want to live in it, we have a video game for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: OK, we're going to take a look at some of the news headlines coming up.

Wildfires are burning out of control in the west today with one of the worst in the ponderosa pine forest in central Arizona near the town of Walker.

Another fire 250 miles to the south destroyed six cabins yesterday in an area where hundreds of homes have burned in recent weeks.

Fire officials are worried that the Walker fire could spread to the city of Prescott. That is a city of about 34,000 people.

Earlier in the week wildlife officials in Arizona carried out a rescue operation for a rare fish. They are worried that ash and sediment from all those wildfires will run into mountain streams and as soon as it rains, which could wipe out the Gila chubb. That is a fish that right now is being considered for the Endangered Species Act.

So 600 fish were captured on Tuesday and now hopefully home in safer waters.

Industrial dumping in a river near Sao Paulo, Brazil, is causing havoc in a village. A chemical foam kicked up by the river is clogging streets and clinging to buildings. Vapors from the foam are reportedly causing pretty some nasty respiratory problems.

Somebody has finally found a use for all those leftover, obsolete subway cars. Fifty old New York subway cars were dumped in the ocean off Cape May, New Jersey. The reason? To form an artificial reef.

Officials expect as many as 250 species of fish to use the reef as habitat and home.

More cars off the Jersey shore later this year. The reefs will be from six to 24 nautical miles offshore at depths of somewhere between 45 and 70 feet.

It is one of the best landmarks anywhere on Earth. But there are rough spots along the thousands of miles along the Great Wall of China.

Lisa Rose Weaver have more from Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what most visitors see of China's Great Wall, majestic vistas and a cultural symbol perfected for tourism.

But here, a view of what most of the wall is really like, unreconstructed, competing with nature, laid out like a stone ribbon over time. Passersby have left their mark on what sometimes is called the Wild Wall.

(on camera): Great Wall tourism has come at a price to the wall itself. Kouhoi Hyung (ph) was here, says the inscription on this piece of the wall.

And if all the stones had stayed up here, preserving China's national treasure might not have been so difficult. But over time, some of the wall ended up down there.

(voice-over): Decades ago, Tunchia Ku (ph) villagers regularly helped themselves to stones from this part of the wall to build homes. This villager can easily point out who was using Great Wall bricks back then, but he adds nobody takes them anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): People have paid much closer attention to protecting our historic heritage now that a policy has been set.

WEAVER: New, stricter restrictions for protecting underdeveloped portions of the wall are due to take effect in August and hikers won't be allowed to climb the wall, as they do now.

Meanwhile, villages like this are trying to cash in, struggling to launch a tourism industry. Roads have even been built to bring tourist dollars in.

Hung Tse-Tai (ph) doesn't think the rules are necessary at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I don't know why the regulations were made to protect the wall. And I don't see any problem if people go and visit it.

WEAVER: So far, there's been little economic benefit of being this close to the wild wall. But residents say developing the wall isn't the answer either, because then the reason people like to come here in the first place would be gone.

Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: What once was lost now is found and back on display.

Baghdad's famed antiquities museum, which was looted and ransacked during the war, reopened briefly on Thursday.

CNN's Jane Arraf was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now you first came here when this was very different, more than two months ago. Tell us what this room was like.

COL. MATTHEW BOGGANOS, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Sure. We first got here in the middle of April, and the staff had prepared for the worst. And in this particular room, they had put sandbags. They'd lined the floor with sandbags in the event that any of these items or statues were knocked down.

And to their credit, only one statue in this Assyrian room was, in fact damaged. It's a statue down at the far end of the hallway.

ARRAF: So how badly was the museum itself damaged and how bad was the looting?

BOGGANOS: The museum itself was -- was damaged, but you don't -- you did not see the kind of wanton destruction that we saw, for example, in the administrative offices to this museum, which resembled far more what we saw in the presidential palaces.

Rather, what we saw was certainly some destruction. Some of the display cases were destroyed. And some of the statues and freezes were damaged but nothing that was not capable of being restored.

ARRAF: Now, originally the word was 170,000 pieces were missing. Where are we now? How many pieces are still missing?

BOGGANOS: Fortunately, that number of 170,000 was an exaggeration.

What we have found now -- and I always stress that numbers simply cannot tell the whole story because the loss of any single piece is a tragedy.

But what we know now is in the public galleries themselves, there were originally 42 pieces that were stolen. We've recovered 10. So 32 remain missing.

In the storage rooms, however, where excavation site pieces were kept -- amulets, pendants, beads, statuettes and the like, unfortunately, there are approximately 10,000 pieces that are missing from those shelves and those areas. Of those, we've recovered about 2,000, slightly over 2,000.

ARRAF: And this is one of them, I understand, one of the pieces you've recovered.

BOGGANOS: This is -- we were thrilled when we recovered this. This was actually recovered pursuant to our amnesty or no questions asked policy. It's a statue of Shamanassar (ph), Ninth Century B.C., Assyrian king. When it was returned it was damaged, but as you can see has been restored in time for the opening.

ARRAF: And it came back in the trunk of a car.

BOGGANOS: Came back in the trunk of a car, yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Amazing.

Thursday's reopening was limited to special visitors only but the museum could open its doors to the general public later on this year.

And when we come back, do holiday weekends have to mean increased traffic deaths? We'll tell you about a new initiative to cut down on the carnage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: OK, just in case you have not had your fill of fireworks this weekend, or perhaps you even missed the Fourth of July celebrations, there's a nonstop fireworks display going on in space.

The Hubble space telescope provides the pictures and science correspondent Anne Kellan has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looks like a fireworks display in space.

Taken by Hubble, these latest color enhanced images shows stars in the throes of death. The streaks in this image is what's left of a star 15 times more massive than our sun and what could eventually be the beginning of new star formations.

Dredging up old ghosts, amateur astronomers call this dying star Little Ghost Nebula. Two- to five thousand light years away, it's about the size of our sun.

In its last gasp this star expands and comes what's called a red giant while its core shoots outs ultraviolet rays, hitting the blue gray areas and changing the chemical composition of the gases there before finally burning out.

Ants in space? This dying stars kind of looks like an ant, giving us yet another idea of what our sun might look like billions of years from now, when it runs out of gas. And this star, burned out as astronomers in China watched almost a thousand years ago on the Fourth of July.

A supernova, a violent explosion in space, another fireworks display, marking the beginning of the end of yet another star.

Anne Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Holiday weekends are prime time for cracking down on drunk driving.

The DOT estimates there will be 560 fatalities on U.S. roads this weekend with more than half of those crashes involving drivers impaired by alcohol.

CNN's Patty Davis takes a look at the latest campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you been drinking today, sir?

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a busy night at this sobriety checkpoint in Washington, D.C. Six arrests so far and it's still early.

LT. PATRICK BURKE, D.C. TRAFFIC COORDINATOR: That's not a real good sign to start. There's just too many impaired drivers on the road.

DAVIS: Busy here too at this daytime checkpoint in Mesa, Arizona.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you consumed any alcohol today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a drop.

DAVIS: The checkpoints, along with this television ad, are part of a new $11 million government campaign to stop drunk driving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You drink, you drive, you lose.

DAVIS: The ad, running during TV shows such as ESPN's "Sports Center," is focused on men aged 21-34. The federal government says they are the most likely to drive impaired.

After years of declines in alcohol-related traffic deaths, the numbers are now heading higher: 18,000 deaths last year, the highest in 10 years.

U.S. traffic safety officials say Americans have become complacent, thinking the problem has been solved.

OTIS COX, NHTSA: It has not been solved and there's a lot we can do. We all have a responsibility of changing the way we think and the way we act on the highways.

DAVIS: But some say there's a better way to motivate people not to drive drunk.

CLARENCE DITLOW, CENTER FOR AUTO SAFETY: Moving to 0.08 blood alcohol levels, which we don't have in every state, is far more effective than advertisement.

DAVIS: According to the government, alcohol related crashes kill one person every 33 minutes.

BILL PETERS, MESA, ARIZONA, POLICE: They are missiles driving down the road just waiting for a random target to hit.

DAVIS (on camera): Officials say even with all the resources dedicated to homeland security and fighting terrorism, drunk driving is an epidemic and requires no less aggressive action.

Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: OK. Ever feel like you are being watched? In some cases you may be things, thanks to radio frequency identification. Y

You may not mind it in your car, but what about in your clothes?

CNN's Erica Hill has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During World War II, it detected friend or foe aircraft. In Iraq it tracked casualties of war.

In fact, radio frequency identification, or RFID, is used on everything from your windshield -- no more waiting at the toll -- to tracking products, to livestock.

DAN MULLER, AUTOMATIC I.D. TRADE GROUP: If you look around you, bar code technology, radio frequency identification is already there. It can be a very positive technology that can help bring efficiencies and customer service applications that really weren't dreamed of 10, 15 years ago.

HILL: But others feel that convenience may have a price.

CORY DOCTOROW, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: Here in California, we're seeing increasing use of RFID detectors, of easy pass detectors, not at toll booths but down on the freeway, so that authorities can figure out just who passes a certain point every day.

HILL: Earlier this year there was word Benetton may begin using RFID tags in its clothing.

The news prompted privacy fears and a boycott of the Italian clothing maker, and soon after a release from the company, stating it did not currently use the technology in garments and that while it is, quote, "analyzing RFID technology" it had yet began feasibility studies.

But other retailers are using RFID. Both Wal-mart and Gillette have signed on to help keep track of what's on their shelves.

Will technology one day keep track of you without your knowledge?

DOCTOROW: I think it's really important that people who buy devices that have these RFID tags in them be able to switch them off.

MULLER: With any technology, any innovation, there has to be responsible use of it. And we actively are looking at how we can answer those misconceptions and misunderstandings, as well as work with the end user community to make some guidelines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: The luxury retailer Prada is everything already using RFID tags in its clothing. Other companies are also considering using RFID tags for restocking and antitheft purposes.

Now if you want more information on radio frequency I.D. technology, simply visit www.RFID.org.

OK, still to come in our next half hour, the world's coral reefs are in trouble. We will get some specifics from oceanographer Jean- Michel Cousteau, who found disturbing evidence on a recent trip to Caribbean.

And later in the show, it is easy to create spectacular scenes with computer animation, but this is real. You'll want to see it and find out how it's done.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

CALLEBS: NEXT@CNN resumes right now.

Some of the Alerce trees in the Chilean coastal rain forest were growing there when the great pyramids of Egypt were built. But as Gary Strieker shows us, these ancient forests are now disappearing at an alarming rate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was once a forest, a forest of giant trees that were very old.

FRANCISCO SOLIS, COASTAL RANGE COALITION: These trees here, they are survivors. They have survived both the fires and the loggers. And they were not logged because they were too little. And this tree here, it is at least 1,000 years old. STRIEKER: In southern Chile's coastal mountains, some Alerce trees have lived for more than 3,000 years. After North America's Bristle Cone Pines, the second oldest living things on earth.

And like California's Redwoods, Alerce timber is highly valued.

SOLIS: When you scrape them, it gets this beautiful red color.

STRIEKER: Conservationists include this region among the world's most endangered ecosystems.

DAVID TECKLIN, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: This is one of the largest blocks of coastal temporal rainforests left in the world, and most of the species here occur nowhere else on earth.

SOLIS: They say almost all this is coastal rainforest is on private land, threatened by uncontrolled, illegal logging.

This local judge claims what he calls a criminal Mafia is making big profits, buying timber from poor people they encourage to cut the trees.

(on camera): Alerce are protected under Chilean and international law. But without serious enforcement of that protection by authorities here, these trees could soon disappear completely from Chile's coastal forests.

(voice-over): Even where no Alerce trees are found, large areas of the coastal forest have already been clear-cut, converted to plantations of pine and eucalyptus to produce wood chips for pulp and paper mills.

But there are signs now that the coastal rain forest could still be saved. Early this year, the government halted construction of a controversial highway project, a new road that would have cut through the middle of the forest, exposing it to even faster destruction. Officials now pledge to reroute the highway to avoid the forest.

EDUARDO ASTORGA, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS: We know the value of this forest. We know that this forest is unique. We are not blind.

STRIEKER: Many who opposed the highway project are now calling for tougher law enforcement to protect Alerce trees and for the creation of large protected reserves that will guarantee the survival of the coastal rain forest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: OK. Now making a rare stop in Atlanta after traveling all around the world bringing us some of the most compelling stories, Gary Strieker, thanks for joining us.

STRIEKER: Thanks.

CALLEBS: Let's talk about -- so much is at stake here. You talked about many of these trees dating back to prehistoric times. Have scientists determined what else could be at stake, what else could be lost?

STRIEKER: Well, what scientists do know about this area is that it has what they call a high degree of endemism which means you find many species of plants and animals there that you find nowhere else on the earth.

The tropical rainforests have gotten most of the attention of the world, but the temperate rainforests, like the one here in Chile, are also very important.

The North American temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest account for about half of all the temper rat rainforests in the world.

Chile has the second largest block of temperate rain forests. Only about half of it is left. And what remains, of course, scientists believe is very important because it's very unique. Animal species like small marsupials that live in trees, South America's largest woodpecker, the world's smallest deer and hundreds of species of plants and trees that are found there and nowhere else.

CALLEBS: Now we've seen it in Central America, South America, you build a road in and the ecology changes overnight. Is there any hope?

STRIEKER: Well, the conservationists and the scientists who have been trying to protect the coastal forests there have been very encouraged by the government's decision to stop building this coastal highway right through the forest.

They've decided to move it eastward, around the forest, and that's given them some feeling that maybe there's still a chance now that they can save it.

The problem is that most of this land, which is not -- the land that is not owned by native Indian tribes is owned by private land holders and one of them -- several of them are big timber companies and they plan to make their money by cutting the trees and planting the clear cuts with eucalyptus and pine for these wood chip mills.

CALLEBS: I guess -- is the government doing anything, we saw say in Alaska after Valdez, a lot of the money from that spill went to preserve the forest up there. Is the government doing anything to help preserve this forest?

STRIEKER: Chile has a very reputable system of parks and reserves outside of the coastal area. But the coastal area has been very isolated.

And because now, in the last 25 years, there's been a lot of focus on this wood chip industry and there's been money involved, export markets, a lot of it going to the United States, to Hong Kong and to -- and to Europe, the idea is now that perhaps that the government has made this decision, if the government has a better understanding, which it seems to now, of the environmental importance of this area, they may be able to raise some money, private conservation groups in Chile, with international organizations helping them out.

They're hoping to find the money to buy these land holdings, turn them into national parks and reserves and protect these areas before it's too late.

CALLEBS: Gary, great piece. And real quickly the one part we saw, the little shaving on the tree, just in case anyone calls, that causes no harm to those trees?

STRIEKER: No, in fact those trees have already been dead. That's another interesting thing, people go in and kill the trees, burn them, and then harvest them after they're dead because under the law you can harvest a dead Alerce tree but not a live one.

CALLEBS: Amazing. Gary Strieker, great piece. Thanks very much.

OK. When we come back, we'll show you how you can bust a move at the local canteen that with your favorite "Star Wars" characters. You'll want to stick around for this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: Welcome back.

He has been called an oceanaut, an explorer and for decades the Cousteau family has explored the mysteries of the deep around the world.

Jean-Michel Cousteau is here right now, joining us to talk about his latest quest to explore pristine coral reefs in the northwest portion of Hawaii.

Jean-Michel thank you very much for joining us. You look great; you look very laid back.

JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU, OCEANOGRAPHER: Well, thank you, Sean.

I just came out of a blessing ceremony, which is a sendoff for this great adventure which everybody can follow on our Web site, OceanFutures.org, and as well as National Geographic and "USA Today."

It's a very important expedition, 1,200 miles, as big as the Great Barrier Reef. We have to do a film which will be on PBS. And then we are also doing a lot of science.

So it's -- it's a unique opportunity to highlight a piece of the ocean which has not been as affected as the rest of the ocean worldwide, which is in a major crisis today.

And this is formidable. I wish my dad was here.

CALLEBS: Indeed, indeed, I'm sure a lot of people dearly do.

Tell us what you hope to accomplish. You talked about the science. How ecologically important do you believe this is? Because that's a region that has not garnered a great deal of exploration, a great deal of scientific research.

COUSTEAU: The -- the expanse, 1,200 miles, is so large that -- it's so isolated in the Pacific that there are endangered species such as the monk seals.

There are endemic species. There are 10 islands along the way and some of those endemic species are very rare and very much to be preserved.

And then underwater there are a lot of fish from one island of -- I should say from one coral reef, from one sea mount to another, which are either very little known or unknown.

And we're going to try to collect images which will highlight those treasures that need protection.

The United States government, after all the efforts that have been put out there by different departments of NOAA, would like to turn this region into the number 14 marine sanctuary of the United States which, if that happens, will be five times bigger than the other 13 marine sanctuaries together.

CALLEBS: Wow. We're looking at some amazing pictures. You're talking about a pristine area but that really is in sharp contrast to the portrait that the Pew Institute painted about our oceans. You spend a lot of time out there. Do you agree with that, the condition of some of our major fish in our oceans?

COUSTEAU: Yes, I completely agree. When I look at the backyard, my own backyard where I grew up in the Mediterranean Sea and all the places which I visited for the last 58 years as a SCUBA diver, I can tell you there's nowhere where it's getting better.

The ocean is in a major crisis. The fishing industry is going bankrupt. Not all of them but for the most part.

We want to make sure that they are protected. And we need to manage the ocean in a sustainable way, which means we need to make absolutely sure that we don't eliminate what sustains us.

And we have to look at it from an economical point of view, as well as from an environmental point of view. I think between the Pew report, between the report which will be released by the United States government commission, the ocean commission...

CALLEBS: Right.

COUSTEAU: ... which will come up with their report in September or October, we're going to find out that there's a general consensus that the oceans are in a major crisis. The life support system is affected and thus it's going to affect us.

And we know that already because we continue to use the ocean as a garbage can, as a universal sewer affecting the fishing industry, affecting the coastal habitats, which are the nurseries of the planet and marine life, and finally, the known point source pollution, which are constantly affecting the quality of the ocean.

CALLEBS: So much to talk with you about, we great appreciate you coming in and carrying on the noble explorations of your father. Thanks very much, Jean-Michel, and best of luck and we'll follow the progress you make on Searcher.

COUSTEAU: Thank you, Sean, and follow on a day to day, we'll report what we're doing.

CALLEBS: OK. Great, thanks very much.

OK, everyone, you can now make a jump to light speed with a Rodeon (ph) medic to pick up some power converters for your land speeders? Say what? Make any sense?

Resident Wookie Daniel Sieberg translates this to English for us with the latest online game, "Star Wars Galaxies."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away -- you know, actually, wait, it was just last week that Lucas Arts and Sony Online Entertainment released "Star Wars Galaxies," a much anticipated online game that allows you to go into this immersive world and create a character that's part of the "Star Wars" world.

So the idea behind the game is you start off by creating a character. It's much like many of the massively multiplayer online games out there. You go in and you create your character. You can choose from a number of different races, you can see what you'll be choosing from here.

Perhaps the most recognizable being a Wookie, which you can see. People may be familiar with Chewbacca from the films. You can change everything about your character from your eyes to your mouth, your chin, even the freckles on your face.

Then you can choose what you want to do with your character. I chose a brawler, but we're going to bring somebody here at the moment who did choose a Wookie. His name is Scott Thomas and he's our resident Wookie, or I should say resident gamer.

He's with CNN.com and he is in the game right now. May the force be with us because there have been some technical problems, some updates going along with the game.

But Scott, where are you right now in the game?

SCOTT THOMAS, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're right now on the planet of Tattoine, the planet of Jabba the Hutt, actually. And I have a hunting partner with me, my character, a Wookie, running around in the wilderness hunting down -- trying to gain experience to further myself in the game.

SIEBERG: OK, now that's a big part of the game, right? I mean, people might wonder what's the point, you're wandering around, are there some missions that you have to accomplish during the game?

THOMAS: Correct. You can do rebel or imperial missions to gain ranks. And which -- which faction you want to be with, be it the Jedi knights or the dark Jedi.

SIEBERG: You can't play, say, Luke Skywalker or Hans Solo...

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: ... but it does line up in the way that the game does, with the rebel forces and imperial forces.

THOMAS: Correct. The time frame is after the Death Star has been destroyed and this is where you jump into the story line.

SIEBERG: OK. And you mentioned that you're a Wookie. Now, you can also learn a bunch of different skills, right? And different weapons in the game?

THOMAS: Correct. You can learn different languages. You can -- There's hybrid professions such as cooking or architecture. It really gets very wide in the different things that you're able to do.

SIEBERG: And a big part of the game, Scott, a lot of online games, is the ability to chat and interact with all the other characters that are out there. Right? I mean, that's a big part of the game.

THOMAS: There's actual ways to search for people on your planet, and you're looking for a group to interact...

SIEBERG: Or to dance with, as we're seeing right here.

THOMAS: Yes, you can...

SIEBERG: Get your groove on in a little cantina there if you feel like it.

And so the end result, though, is you can play this game for countless hours, right. I mean, it's not like there's an end necessarily to the game?

THOMAS: No, you can further yourself. If you wanted to, say, be better than at a marksman than say hand to hand, you can start all over instead of creating a new character. So it's really a one character kind of game.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, Scott Thomas, I'll let you get back to the game and playing there.

And it does cost about $50. You can also get a collector's edition for $80. And we should point out that the Lucas Arts and Sony Online Entertainment have been a little low-key with this release, partly because Electronic Arts released "The Sims Online," you might remember, and they had disappointing subscription numbers. So they're really being a little bit cautious with this release. They're hoping to bring in, obviously, the hard-core "Star Wars" fans. They do say they've had a half a million subscription registered users so far. So a lot of people out there using their light saber.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: I think Mr. Sieberg's hooked.

Still ahead, there is more than one way to start your car. We'll find out how this Rube Goldberg style creation was completed. You will want to watch this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: OK, now, a treat for engineers, techies and anybody else who just likes to watch cool stuff.

It's an ad that's airing in Europe, so you won't see it during a commercial break in the United States.

The two-minute sequence is one -- one -- clean take and there was no trick photography, fancy computer editing used to produce it. You will want to look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Isn't it nice when things just work?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: All right, bravo, right?

OK. The ad was art directed and written by Matt Gooden and Ben Walker, joining us now from London. They are from the ad agency Weiden-Kennedy.

Guys, thanks a lot for joining us. You look at it like I've seen that one too many times.

What, it took more than 600 takes to get this right?

BEN WALKER, WEIDEN-KENNEDY: I don't think it actually took that many. I think if you looked over the five months that it took to test it, it possibly took that many takes overall, but on the actual shoot days we kind of did it quite quickly, to be honest.

MATT GOODEN, WEIDEN-KENNEDY: I think every day, on the first day, we only, like, slated each take at the end of the take so there's about 20 takes on each day. But a lot of those takes were aborted, like, halfway through. And even, like, the first cog would miss the next one right at the start so...

CALLEBS: It looks...

GOODEN: But if you added those up, then probably it could have been.

CALLEBS: Well, it looks almost mind numbing to go through this step by step. Here we see the tires rolling uphill. There was the muffler rolling.

Was there one thing that really just kept throwing you over and over?

WALKER: Yes. The -- you know the bit with the wind screen wiper turning around like a windmill. That only really happened perfectly once and it was a real pain to get that going again. It looks like a not very complicated bit.

CALLEBS: Are you kidding? It looks incredibly complicated to me.

What was it like for the crew? They must have had to just tiptoe around everywhere they were going.

GOODEN: No, not really. We had a dog on the set and everything, running around all over the place.

CALLEBS: Playing cricket, too, I'm sure while you were with this these guys. In the noble tradition of ad campaigns, right?

Now what's coming up next for you guys?

WALKER: We're working on the Honda Civic at the moment. So that's a big challenge.

GOODEN: Yes. I don't know if we can ever beat the last one, to tell the truth, but we're expected to.

WALKER: We'll try our best.

CALLEBS: Well, you guys are great. Matt Gooden, Ben Walker, thanks a lot for joining us from London. Best of luck. I wish we could see that spot here in the U.S. Now which one's waving good-bye.

WALKER: We'll try to get it going.

GOODEN: Get it on!

CALLEBS: I'll do my best guys. Easy. OK, thanks very much.

WALKER: OK.

CALLEBS: That's all the time we have for now but before we sneak away here's a peek of what's coming up next.

The digital divide and the national pastime: major league umpires balk at computers and cameras deployed to grade their performance. We'll hear from both sides or the rhubarb (ph).

That story and much more coming up next week. Hope you'll join us then. Coming up next, "CNN LIVE SUNDAY" with Kelli Arena. That's followed by "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," profiling Tommy Franks and Dick Cheney at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

And then at 8 p.m. "CNN PRESENTS: WAR STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINES."

CNN continues right after a quick break.

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





Weather; China's Great Wall in Need of Restoration>


Aired July 6, 2003 - 17:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome everyone to NEXT@CNN for this Sunday, July 6. I'm Sean Callebs at the CNN Center.
Among the stories we're covering on NEXT today, NASA has lofty ambitions for its Mars rover opportunity, if it can get off the ground. The deadline is getting close and that could mean a long delay for the mission.

Could it be a missed opportunity?

Also, many of the world's coral reefs are dying. We'll talk live with Jean-Michel Cousteau about a reef that's in good shape and what makes the difference.

And find out what you can do with pieces of a car if you just set them up just right.

Those stories and much more just ahead.

But first, a dead battery has once again forced NASA to scrub its launch of the second of two probes to Mars. The Mars rover Opportunity still sits on the launch pad after a combination of weather delays, technical glitches. It's kept it earthbound for nearly two weeks after the original departure date.

Joining us to talk more about the delayed launch and the exploration of Mars is David Eicher. He is the astronomy editor of -- the editor of "Astronomy" magazine.

David, thanks a lot for joining us. Sorry I'm having trouble getting that one out.

DAVID EICHER, "ASTRONOMY" MAGAZINE EDITOR: Thank you, Sean, no problem.

CALLEBS: Now what does it mean? This is not going well for NASA. I mean, it's not going smoothly. I know it's very complex. There's a lot at stake.

EICHER: That's exactly right, there's a lot at stake because this, as you said, is really the summer of Mars, both from a scientific standpoint, as far as cracking the mystery of Mars, and also for amateur astronomers, this is the biggest summer that we'll ever have for the rest of our lives. So there's huge at stake. And we certainly hope that things go off well tomorrow night and that opportunity does go. Because as you mentioned there would be a four-year delay if it does not.

CALLEBS: Yes, let's talk about that. I mean, we're making a big deal out of the fact that it has to lift off by July 15. But explain why. There's a lot of space to cover between here and Mars.

EICHER: There's a lot of space to cover and there's a lot of orbital mechanics in play. And right now, the reason why things are in such group shape for amateur astronomers is that Mars and Earth are very, very close, on the same side of sun.

Mars will be at opposition on August 27, and this is a great opportunity for NASA to minimize their fuel and use one of these Delta II rockets, which we hope will function properly and get the spacecraft off.

But it has to be done such that the amount of fuel that the Delta can take along will get within that window of when the two planets are close enough to each other.

CALLEBS: Now, you're obviously...

EICHER: And that means launching by July 15.

CALLEBS: Exactly. You're obviously very excited about this. But explain the significance. I mean, this could be very important.

EICHER: It's very important scientifically, the mission, because it updates what had been done in a rather crude way, by comparison now -- things move so quickly scientifically -- by Mars Pathfinder in 1997.

We now have larger rovers, we're going to much more interesting sites and we have a lot of science that can be done now looking at where the water was, very specifically, on the red planet.

We found in a shock in 1965, when the early mission from the United States, one of the Mars, that Mars was nothing at all like Earth. We know now that Mars was very warm and very wet in the past, and now it's very cold and very dry. So we want to understand why did this happen. This may even have implications for the future of Earth's atmosphere and surface, as well.

CALLEBS: A lot of nail biting has to be going on at NASA at this hour. If they don't make it by July 15, there's a good chance they're going to have to moth ball this thing, if not for a year and a half, then for good, because technology could leap ahead so far.

EICHER: That's true. I imagine that the mission would go four years from now. It would have to be a four-year delay if it doesn't go a week from now and we would see, of course, technology by then.

We're hoping there will be another Mars orbiter launched in 2005 and well on down the road, about 10 years from now, we hope that there will be a Mars sample return mission that will then get to the very issue, not only of water in these very exciting places -- where we see water was flowing all over the planet -- but really potentially answering the question about whether there may be microbial life or may have been microbial life on the red planet and somehow the planet died.

CALLEBS: Boy, that would be fascinating to everyone involved.

But do you think that perhaps people in the U.S. have become perhaps spoiled by the success that NASA has had over the years and we expect everything to go flawless?

EICHER: That's absolutely correct and we learned with the Apollo I fire, with Challenger and now this year so sadly with the Columbia tragedy that this is really, really a tough business.

These are such sophisticated, complicated machines, many of them the most complex things that ever have been created technologically. So we do get spoiled. We do need to remind ourselves that these are such cutting edge missions, and they're so ambitious, and they're so complex that there will be failures.

And we have had, it seems a Martian hex with failures -- with 1993 and 1999, with the missions then failing outright -- that we hope we're getting more bang for our buck coming up here.

CALLEBS: Now, let's talk Buck Rogers type stuff. Do you think that we are so far away from thinking about sending a manned exploration to Mars?

EICHER: I think we're very far away from that. I think we're as far away as we can be, for a number of years, of technological work and blank checks written by Congress.

I think that it would be so expensive to either launch a human crew from Earth or even possibly going back to the moon first and using that as a base from which to go to Mars, that we're talking many, many years. Because it would be so vastly expensive that so much money would have to be put into it and so much learned, probably, first before it could even be attempted.

So we've heard since the '50s, really, as you undoubtedly know, Sean, that we're on the cusp of going to Mars.

CALLEBS: Exactly.

EICHER: It's been a long time coming and it will be probably a long, long time to come yet.

CALLEBS: I'm sure I've got a lunchbox stashed away somewhere that has somebody walking and Mars, somewhere.

David, thanks a lot for coming in on this weekend. And you're right about one thing: success breeds success. NASA lives by public funding, so let's hope this gets off the ground and is a big success. Thanks very much. EICHER: Thank you, Sean.

CALLEBS: OK, if you think you've been dealing with weird weather you are not alone. Of course, a lot of people said the same thing the last year, the year before that, you get the picture.

So has this year really been different? CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano takes a look at the weather highs and lows so far this year and what may lie ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST (voice-over): A year ago, up and down the East Coast they were praying for rain, begging for an end to nearly four years of drought.

Be careful what you beg for. The eastern drought's been swept away by months of above-average rain, some of it causing scenes like this, near disaster at a Florida dam last month.

On the flip side, in the western U.S., from Montana to the Mexican border, the dry weather continues and with it water restrictions, crisis conditions on farms and ranches, and a continuing plague of wildfires. And grass hoppers.

In the American heartland, the big news was bad news: a bevy of tornadoes. May of 2003 saw a record 562 twisters nationwide. The first half of this year saw 53 tornado deaths. A year ago there were only 11 in the same period.

The World Meteorological Organization said average land temperatures were the warmest ever measured. The WMO said we're also on a record pace for establishing new high temperature records. They're being set faster than anytime since such record-keeping began in the late 1800s.

The U.N.'s weather agency stopped short of saying all of this is a result of human impact on the climate or the relatively mild spell of El Nino weather, which wrapped up this spring.

The most tragic weather events this year were in India. In May and June, a heat wave that sometimes topped 120 degrees was blamed for an estimated 1,400 deaths.

And one place where the weather is about normal right now? The research station at the South Pole, where it's mid winter and about 50 below zero.

Rob Marciano, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: We told you about it yesterday. A hackers contest that raised some eyebrows among security experts this week doesn't seem to have caused any major damage today.

The cyber vandalism was sparked by a cryptic and very well- publicized contest on a Web site called DefacersChallenge.com.

It called for contestants to attack and deface thousands of Web sites during a six-hour period today. About five attacks a minute are being reported by Internet security systems.

Security experts say a large number of attacks are being traced to Brazil, Argentina, Italy and Turkey.

Those monitoring the activities say it looks like though two main hacker groups are battling it out, accessing Web site, leaving their marks and moving on with no additional damage. The defacements are not showing patterns of political or propaganda messages, no big name sites have been hit -- yet.

OK, when we come back, a Brazilian town gets covered in foam. We'll explain this one.

And later in the show, if you like the world of "Star Wars" so much that you want to live in it, we have a video game for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: OK, we're going to take a look at some of the news headlines coming up.

Wildfires are burning out of control in the west today with one of the worst in the ponderosa pine forest in central Arizona near the town of Walker.

Another fire 250 miles to the south destroyed six cabins yesterday in an area where hundreds of homes have burned in recent weeks.

Fire officials are worried that the Walker fire could spread to the city of Prescott. That is a city of about 34,000 people.

Earlier in the week wildlife officials in Arizona carried out a rescue operation for a rare fish. They are worried that ash and sediment from all those wildfires will run into mountain streams and as soon as it rains, which could wipe out the Gila chubb. That is a fish that right now is being considered for the Endangered Species Act.

So 600 fish were captured on Tuesday and now hopefully home in safer waters.

Industrial dumping in a river near Sao Paulo, Brazil, is causing havoc in a village. A chemical foam kicked up by the river is clogging streets and clinging to buildings. Vapors from the foam are reportedly causing pretty some nasty respiratory problems.

Somebody has finally found a use for all those leftover, obsolete subway cars. Fifty old New York subway cars were dumped in the ocean off Cape May, New Jersey. The reason? To form an artificial reef.

Officials expect as many as 250 species of fish to use the reef as habitat and home.

More cars off the Jersey shore later this year. The reefs will be from six to 24 nautical miles offshore at depths of somewhere between 45 and 70 feet.

It is one of the best landmarks anywhere on Earth. But there are rough spots along the thousands of miles along the Great Wall of China.

Lisa Rose Weaver have more from Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA ROSE WEAVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what most visitors see of China's Great Wall, majestic vistas and a cultural symbol perfected for tourism.

But here, a view of what most of the wall is really like, unreconstructed, competing with nature, laid out like a stone ribbon over time. Passersby have left their mark on what sometimes is called the Wild Wall.

(on camera): Great Wall tourism has come at a price to the wall itself. Kouhoi Hyung (ph) was here, says the inscription on this piece of the wall.

And if all the stones had stayed up here, preserving China's national treasure might not have been so difficult. But over time, some of the wall ended up down there.

(voice-over): Decades ago, Tunchia Ku (ph) villagers regularly helped themselves to stones from this part of the wall to build homes. This villager can easily point out who was using Great Wall bricks back then, but he adds nobody takes them anymore.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): People have paid much closer attention to protecting our historic heritage now that a policy has been set.

WEAVER: New, stricter restrictions for protecting underdeveloped portions of the wall are due to take effect in August and hikers won't be allowed to climb the wall, as they do now.

Meanwhile, villages like this are trying to cash in, struggling to launch a tourism industry. Roads have even been built to bring tourist dollars in.

Hung Tse-Tai (ph) doesn't think the rules are necessary at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I don't know why the regulations were made to protect the wall. And I don't see any problem if people go and visit it.

WEAVER: So far, there's been little economic benefit of being this close to the wild wall. But residents say developing the wall isn't the answer either, because then the reason people like to come here in the first place would be gone.

Lisa Rose Weaver, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: What once was lost now is found and back on display.

Baghdad's famed antiquities museum, which was looted and ransacked during the war, reopened briefly on Thursday.

CNN's Jane Arraf was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JANE ARRAF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now you first came here when this was very different, more than two months ago. Tell us what this room was like.

COL. MATTHEW BOGGANOS, U.S. MARINE CORPS: Sure. We first got here in the middle of April, and the staff had prepared for the worst. And in this particular room, they had put sandbags. They'd lined the floor with sandbags in the event that any of these items or statues were knocked down.

And to their credit, only one statue in this Assyrian room was, in fact damaged. It's a statue down at the far end of the hallway.

ARRAF: So how badly was the museum itself damaged and how bad was the looting?

BOGGANOS: The museum itself was -- was damaged, but you don't -- you did not see the kind of wanton destruction that we saw, for example, in the administrative offices to this museum, which resembled far more what we saw in the presidential palaces.

Rather, what we saw was certainly some destruction. Some of the display cases were destroyed. And some of the statues and freezes were damaged but nothing that was not capable of being restored.

ARRAF: Now, originally the word was 170,000 pieces were missing. Where are we now? How many pieces are still missing?

BOGGANOS: Fortunately, that number of 170,000 was an exaggeration.

What we have found now -- and I always stress that numbers simply cannot tell the whole story because the loss of any single piece is a tragedy.

But what we know now is in the public galleries themselves, there were originally 42 pieces that were stolen. We've recovered 10. So 32 remain missing.

In the storage rooms, however, where excavation site pieces were kept -- amulets, pendants, beads, statuettes and the like, unfortunately, there are approximately 10,000 pieces that are missing from those shelves and those areas. Of those, we've recovered about 2,000, slightly over 2,000.

ARRAF: And this is one of them, I understand, one of the pieces you've recovered.

BOGGANOS: This is -- we were thrilled when we recovered this. This was actually recovered pursuant to our amnesty or no questions asked policy. It's a statue of Shamanassar (ph), Ninth Century B.C., Assyrian king. When it was returned it was damaged, but as you can see has been restored in time for the opening.

ARRAF: And it came back in the trunk of a car.

BOGGANOS: Came back in the trunk of a car, yes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Amazing.

Thursday's reopening was limited to special visitors only but the museum could open its doors to the general public later on this year.

And when we come back, do holiday weekends have to mean increased traffic deaths? We'll tell you about a new initiative to cut down on the carnage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: OK, just in case you have not had your fill of fireworks this weekend, or perhaps you even missed the Fourth of July celebrations, there's a nonstop fireworks display going on in space.

The Hubble space telescope provides the pictures and science correspondent Anne Kellan has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Looks like a fireworks display in space.

Taken by Hubble, these latest color enhanced images shows stars in the throes of death. The streaks in this image is what's left of a star 15 times more massive than our sun and what could eventually be the beginning of new star formations.

Dredging up old ghosts, amateur astronomers call this dying star Little Ghost Nebula. Two- to five thousand light years away, it's about the size of our sun.

In its last gasp this star expands and comes what's called a red giant while its core shoots outs ultraviolet rays, hitting the blue gray areas and changing the chemical composition of the gases there before finally burning out.

Ants in space? This dying stars kind of looks like an ant, giving us yet another idea of what our sun might look like billions of years from now, when it runs out of gas. And this star, burned out as astronomers in China watched almost a thousand years ago on the Fourth of July.

A supernova, a violent explosion in space, another fireworks display, marking the beginning of the end of yet another star.

Anne Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: Holiday weekends are prime time for cracking down on drunk driving.

The DOT estimates there will be 560 fatalities on U.S. roads this weekend with more than half of those crashes involving drivers impaired by alcohol.

CNN's Patty Davis takes a look at the latest campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you been drinking today, sir?

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a busy night at this sobriety checkpoint in Washington, D.C. Six arrests so far and it's still early.

LT. PATRICK BURKE, D.C. TRAFFIC COORDINATOR: That's not a real good sign to start. There's just too many impaired drivers on the road.

DAVIS: Busy here too at this daytime checkpoint in Mesa, Arizona.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have you consumed any alcohol today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not a drop.

DAVIS: The checkpoints, along with this television ad, are part of a new $11 million government campaign to stop drunk driving.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You drink, you drive, you lose.

DAVIS: The ad, running during TV shows such as ESPN's "Sports Center," is focused on men aged 21-34. The federal government says they are the most likely to drive impaired.

After years of declines in alcohol-related traffic deaths, the numbers are now heading higher: 18,000 deaths last year, the highest in 10 years.

U.S. traffic safety officials say Americans have become complacent, thinking the problem has been solved.

OTIS COX, NHTSA: It has not been solved and there's a lot we can do. We all have a responsibility of changing the way we think and the way we act on the highways.

DAVIS: But some say there's a better way to motivate people not to drive drunk.

CLARENCE DITLOW, CENTER FOR AUTO SAFETY: Moving to 0.08 blood alcohol levels, which we don't have in every state, is far more effective than advertisement.

DAVIS: According to the government, alcohol related crashes kill one person every 33 minutes.

BILL PETERS, MESA, ARIZONA, POLICE: They are missiles driving down the road just waiting for a random target to hit.

DAVIS (on camera): Officials say even with all the resources dedicated to homeland security and fighting terrorism, drunk driving is an epidemic and requires no less aggressive action.

Patty Davis, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: OK. Ever feel like you are being watched? In some cases you may be things, thanks to radio frequency identification. Y

You may not mind it in your car, but what about in your clothes?

CNN's Erica Hill has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During World War II, it detected friend or foe aircraft. In Iraq it tracked casualties of war.

In fact, radio frequency identification, or RFID, is used on everything from your windshield -- no more waiting at the toll -- to tracking products, to livestock.

DAN MULLER, AUTOMATIC I.D. TRADE GROUP: If you look around you, bar code technology, radio frequency identification is already there. It can be a very positive technology that can help bring efficiencies and customer service applications that really weren't dreamed of 10, 15 years ago.

HILL: But others feel that convenience may have a price.

CORY DOCTOROW, ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION: Here in California, we're seeing increasing use of RFID detectors, of easy pass detectors, not at toll booths but down on the freeway, so that authorities can figure out just who passes a certain point every day.

HILL: Earlier this year there was word Benetton may begin using RFID tags in its clothing.

The news prompted privacy fears and a boycott of the Italian clothing maker, and soon after a release from the company, stating it did not currently use the technology in garments and that while it is, quote, "analyzing RFID technology" it had yet began feasibility studies.

But other retailers are using RFID. Both Wal-mart and Gillette have signed on to help keep track of what's on their shelves.

Will technology one day keep track of you without your knowledge?

DOCTOROW: I think it's really important that people who buy devices that have these RFID tags in them be able to switch them off.

MULLER: With any technology, any innovation, there has to be responsible use of it. And we actively are looking at how we can answer those misconceptions and misunderstandings, as well as work with the end user community to make some guidelines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: The luxury retailer Prada is everything already using RFID tags in its clothing. Other companies are also considering using RFID tags for restocking and antitheft purposes.

Now if you want more information on radio frequency I.D. technology, simply visit www.RFID.org.

OK, still to come in our next half hour, the world's coral reefs are in trouble. We will get some specifics from oceanographer Jean- Michel Cousteau, who found disturbing evidence on a recent trip to Caribbean.

And later in the show, it is easy to create spectacular scenes with computer animation, but this is real. You'll want to see it and find out how it's done.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

CALLEBS: NEXT@CNN resumes right now.

Some of the Alerce trees in the Chilean coastal rain forest were growing there when the great pyramids of Egypt were built. But as Gary Strieker shows us, these ancient forests are now disappearing at an alarming rate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was once a forest, a forest of giant trees that were very old.

FRANCISCO SOLIS, COASTAL RANGE COALITION: These trees here, they are survivors. They have survived both the fires and the loggers. And they were not logged because they were too little. And this tree here, it is at least 1,000 years old. STRIEKER: In southern Chile's coastal mountains, some Alerce trees have lived for more than 3,000 years. After North America's Bristle Cone Pines, the second oldest living things on earth.

And like California's Redwoods, Alerce timber is highly valued.

SOLIS: When you scrape them, it gets this beautiful red color.

STRIEKER: Conservationists include this region among the world's most endangered ecosystems.

DAVID TECKLIN, WORLD WILDLIFE FUND: This is one of the largest blocks of coastal temporal rainforests left in the world, and most of the species here occur nowhere else on earth.

SOLIS: They say almost all this is coastal rainforest is on private land, threatened by uncontrolled, illegal logging.

This local judge claims what he calls a criminal Mafia is making big profits, buying timber from poor people they encourage to cut the trees.

(on camera): Alerce are protected under Chilean and international law. But without serious enforcement of that protection by authorities here, these trees could soon disappear completely from Chile's coastal forests.

(voice-over): Even where no Alerce trees are found, large areas of the coastal forest have already been clear-cut, converted to plantations of pine and eucalyptus to produce wood chips for pulp and paper mills.

But there are signs now that the coastal rain forest could still be saved. Early this year, the government halted construction of a controversial highway project, a new road that would have cut through the middle of the forest, exposing it to even faster destruction. Officials now pledge to reroute the highway to avoid the forest.

EDUARDO ASTORGA, MINISTRY OF PUBLIC WORKS: We know the value of this forest. We know that this forest is unique. We are not blind.

STRIEKER: Many who opposed the highway project are now calling for tougher law enforcement to protect Alerce trees and for the creation of large protected reserves that will guarantee the survival of the coastal rain forest.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: OK. Now making a rare stop in Atlanta after traveling all around the world bringing us some of the most compelling stories, Gary Strieker, thanks for joining us.

STRIEKER: Thanks.

CALLEBS: Let's talk about -- so much is at stake here. You talked about many of these trees dating back to prehistoric times. Have scientists determined what else could be at stake, what else could be lost?

STRIEKER: Well, what scientists do know about this area is that it has what they call a high degree of endemism which means you find many species of plants and animals there that you find nowhere else on the earth.

The tropical rainforests have gotten most of the attention of the world, but the temperate rainforests, like the one here in Chile, are also very important.

The North American temperate rainforest in the Pacific Northwest account for about half of all the temper rat rainforests in the world.

Chile has the second largest block of temperate rain forests. Only about half of it is left. And what remains, of course, scientists believe is very important because it's very unique. Animal species like small marsupials that live in trees, South America's largest woodpecker, the world's smallest deer and hundreds of species of plants and trees that are found there and nowhere else.

CALLEBS: Now we've seen it in Central America, South America, you build a road in and the ecology changes overnight. Is there any hope?

STRIEKER: Well, the conservationists and the scientists who have been trying to protect the coastal forests there have been very encouraged by the government's decision to stop building this coastal highway right through the forest.

They've decided to move it eastward, around the forest, and that's given them some feeling that maybe there's still a chance now that they can save it.

The problem is that most of this land, which is not -- the land that is not owned by native Indian tribes is owned by private land holders and one of them -- several of them are big timber companies and they plan to make their money by cutting the trees and planting the clear cuts with eucalyptus and pine for these wood chip mills.

CALLEBS: I guess -- is the government doing anything, we saw say in Alaska after Valdez, a lot of the money from that spill went to preserve the forest up there. Is the government doing anything to help preserve this forest?

STRIEKER: Chile has a very reputable system of parks and reserves outside of the coastal area. But the coastal area has been very isolated.

And because now, in the last 25 years, there's been a lot of focus on this wood chip industry and there's been money involved, export markets, a lot of it going to the United States, to Hong Kong and to -- and to Europe, the idea is now that perhaps that the government has made this decision, if the government has a better understanding, which it seems to now, of the environmental importance of this area, they may be able to raise some money, private conservation groups in Chile, with international organizations helping them out.

They're hoping to find the money to buy these land holdings, turn them into national parks and reserves and protect these areas before it's too late.

CALLEBS: Gary, great piece. And real quickly the one part we saw, the little shaving on the tree, just in case anyone calls, that causes no harm to those trees?

STRIEKER: No, in fact those trees have already been dead. That's another interesting thing, people go in and kill the trees, burn them, and then harvest them after they're dead because under the law you can harvest a dead Alerce tree but not a live one.

CALLEBS: Amazing. Gary Strieker, great piece. Thanks very much.

OK. When we come back, we'll show you how you can bust a move at the local canteen that with your favorite "Star Wars" characters. You'll want to stick around for this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: Welcome back.

He has been called an oceanaut, an explorer and for decades the Cousteau family has explored the mysteries of the deep around the world.

Jean-Michel Cousteau is here right now, joining us to talk about his latest quest to explore pristine coral reefs in the northwest portion of Hawaii.

Jean-Michel thank you very much for joining us. You look great; you look very laid back.

JEAN-MICHEL COUSTEAU, OCEANOGRAPHER: Well, thank you, Sean.

I just came out of a blessing ceremony, which is a sendoff for this great adventure which everybody can follow on our Web site, OceanFutures.org, and as well as National Geographic and "USA Today."

It's a very important expedition, 1,200 miles, as big as the Great Barrier Reef. We have to do a film which will be on PBS. And then we are also doing a lot of science.

So it's -- it's a unique opportunity to highlight a piece of the ocean which has not been as affected as the rest of the ocean worldwide, which is in a major crisis today.

And this is formidable. I wish my dad was here.

CALLEBS: Indeed, indeed, I'm sure a lot of people dearly do.

Tell us what you hope to accomplish. You talked about the science. How ecologically important do you believe this is? Because that's a region that has not garnered a great deal of exploration, a great deal of scientific research.

COUSTEAU: The -- the expanse, 1,200 miles, is so large that -- it's so isolated in the Pacific that there are endangered species such as the monk seals.

There are endemic species. There are 10 islands along the way and some of those endemic species are very rare and very much to be preserved.

And then underwater there are a lot of fish from one island of -- I should say from one coral reef, from one sea mount to another, which are either very little known or unknown.

And we're going to try to collect images which will highlight those treasures that need protection.

The United States government, after all the efforts that have been put out there by different departments of NOAA, would like to turn this region into the number 14 marine sanctuary of the United States which, if that happens, will be five times bigger than the other 13 marine sanctuaries together.

CALLEBS: Wow. We're looking at some amazing pictures. You're talking about a pristine area but that really is in sharp contrast to the portrait that the Pew Institute painted about our oceans. You spend a lot of time out there. Do you agree with that, the condition of some of our major fish in our oceans?

COUSTEAU: Yes, I completely agree. When I look at the backyard, my own backyard where I grew up in the Mediterranean Sea and all the places which I visited for the last 58 years as a SCUBA diver, I can tell you there's nowhere where it's getting better.

The ocean is in a major crisis. The fishing industry is going bankrupt. Not all of them but for the most part.

We want to make sure that they are protected. And we need to manage the ocean in a sustainable way, which means we need to make absolutely sure that we don't eliminate what sustains us.

And we have to look at it from an economical point of view, as well as from an environmental point of view. I think between the Pew report, between the report which will be released by the United States government commission, the ocean commission...

CALLEBS: Right.

COUSTEAU: ... which will come up with their report in September or October, we're going to find out that there's a general consensus that the oceans are in a major crisis. The life support system is affected and thus it's going to affect us.

And we know that already because we continue to use the ocean as a garbage can, as a universal sewer affecting the fishing industry, affecting the coastal habitats, which are the nurseries of the planet and marine life, and finally, the known point source pollution, which are constantly affecting the quality of the ocean.

CALLEBS: So much to talk with you about, we great appreciate you coming in and carrying on the noble explorations of your father. Thanks very much, Jean-Michel, and best of luck and we'll follow the progress you make on Searcher.

COUSTEAU: Thank you, Sean, and follow on a day to day, we'll report what we're doing.

CALLEBS: OK. Great, thanks very much.

OK, everyone, you can now make a jump to light speed with a Rodeon (ph) medic to pick up some power converters for your land speeders? Say what? Make any sense?

Resident Wookie Daniel Sieberg translates this to English for us with the latest online game, "Star Wars Galaxies."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away -- you know, actually, wait, it was just last week that Lucas Arts and Sony Online Entertainment released "Star Wars Galaxies," a much anticipated online game that allows you to go into this immersive world and create a character that's part of the "Star Wars" world.

So the idea behind the game is you start off by creating a character. It's much like many of the massively multiplayer online games out there. You go in and you create your character. You can choose from a number of different races, you can see what you'll be choosing from here.

Perhaps the most recognizable being a Wookie, which you can see. People may be familiar with Chewbacca from the films. You can change everything about your character from your eyes to your mouth, your chin, even the freckles on your face.

Then you can choose what you want to do with your character. I chose a brawler, but we're going to bring somebody here at the moment who did choose a Wookie. His name is Scott Thomas and he's our resident Wookie, or I should say resident gamer.

He's with CNN.com and he is in the game right now. May the force be with us because there have been some technical problems, some updates going along with the game.

But Scott, where are you right now in the game?

SCOTT THOMAS, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're right now on the planet of Tattoine, the planet of Jabba the Hutt, actually. And I have a hunting partner with me, my character, a Wookie, running around in the wilderness hunting down -- trying to gain experience to further myself in the game.

SIEBERG: OK, now that's a big part of the game, right? I mean, people might wonder what's the point, you're wandering around, are there some missions that you have to accomplish during the game?

THOMAS: Correct. You can do rebel or imperial missions to gain ranks. And which -- which faction you want to be with, be it the Jedi knights or the dark Jedi.

SIEBERG: You can't play, say, Luke Skywalker or Hans Solo...

THOMAS: Correct.

SIEBERG: ... but it does line up in the way that the game does, with the rebel forces and imperial forces.

THOMAS: Correct. The time frame is after the Death Star has been destroyed and this is where you jump into the story line.

SIEBERG: OK. And you mentioned that you're a Wookie. Now, you can also learn a bunch of different skills, right? And different weapons in the game?

THOMAS: Correct. You can learn different languages. You can -- There's hybrid professions such as cooking or architecture. It really gets very wide in the different things that you're able to do.

SIEBERG: And a big part of the game, Scott, a lot of online games, is the ability to chat and interact with all the other characters that are out there. Right? I mean, that's a big part of the game.

THOMAS: There's actual ways to search for people on your planet, and you're looking for a group to interact...

SIEBERG: Or to dance with, as we're seeing right here.

THOMAS: Yes, you can...

SIEBERG: Get your groove on in a little cantina there if you feel like it.

And so the end result, though, is you can play this game for countless hours, right. I mean, it's not like there's an end necessarily to the game?

THOMAS: No, you can further yourself. If you wanted to, say, be better than at a marksman than say hand to hand, you can start all over instead of creating a new character. So it's really a one character kind of game.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, Scott Thomas, I'll let you get back to the game and playing there.

And it does cost about $50. You can also get a collector's edition for $80. And we should point out that the Lucas Arts and Sony Online Entertainment have been a little low-key with this release, partly because Electronic Arts released "The Sims Online," you might remember, and they had disappointing subscription numbers. So they're really being a little bit cautious with this release. They're hoping to bring in, obviously, the hard-core "Star Wars" fans. They do say they've had a half a million subscription registered users so far. So a lot of people out there using their light saber.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLEBS: I think Mr. Sieberg's hooked.

Still ahead, there is more than one way to start your car. We'll find out how this Rube Goldberg style creation was completed. You will want to watch this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CALLEBS: OK, now, a treat for engineers, techies and anybody else who just likes to watch cool stuff.

It's an ad that's airing in Europe, so you won't see it during a commercial break in the United States.

The two-minute sequence is one -- one -- clean take and there was no trick photography, fancy computer editing used to produce it. You will want to look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: Isn't it nice when things just work?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: All right, bravo, right?

OK. The ad was art directed and written by Matt Gooden and Ben Walker, joining us now from London. They are from the ad agency Weiden-Kennedy.

Guys, thanks a lot for joining us. You look at it like I've seen that one too many times.

What, it took more than 600 takes to get this right?

BEN WALKER, WEIDEN-KENNEDY: I don't think it actually took that many. I think if you looked over the five months that it took to test it, it possibly took that many takes overall, but on the actual shoot days we kind of did it quite quickly, to be honest.

MATT GOODEN, WEIDEN-KENNEDY: I think every day, on the first day, we only, like, slated each take at the end of the take so there's about 20 takes on each day. But a lot of those takes were aborted, like, halfway through. And even, like, the first cog would miss the next one right at the start so...

CALLEBS: It looks...

GOODEN: But if you added those up, then probably it could have been.

CALLEBS: Well, it looks almost mind numbing to go through this step by step. Here we see the tires rolling uphill. There was the muffler rolling.

Was there one thing that really just kept throwing you over and over?

WALKER: Yes. The -- you know the bit with the wind screen wiper turning around like a windmill. That only really happened perfectly once and it was a real pain to get that going again. It looks like a not very complicated bit.

CALLEBS: Are you kidding? It looks incredibly complicated to me.

What was it like for the crew? They must have had to just tiptoe around everywhere they were going.

GOODEN: No, not really. We had a dog on the set and everything, running around all over the place.

CALLEBS: Playing cricket, too, I'm sure while you were with this these guys. In the noble tradition of ad campaigns, right?

Now what's coming up next for you guys?

WALKER: We're working on the Honda Civic at the moment. So that's a big challenge.

GOODEN: Yes. I don't know if we can ever beat the last one, to tell the truth, but we're expected to.

WALKER: We'll try our best.

CALLEBS: Well, you guys are great. Matt Gooden, Ben Walker, thanks a lot for joining us from London. Best of luck. I wish we could see that spot here in the U.S. Now which one's waving good-bye.

WALKER: We'll try to get it going.

GOODEN: Get it on!

CALLEBS: I'll do my best guys. Easy. OK, thanks very much.

WALKER: OK.

CALLEBS: That's all the time we have for now but before we sneak away here's a peek of what's coming up next.

The digital divide and the national pastime: major league umpires balk at computers and cameras deployed to grade their performance. We'll hear from both sides or the rhubarb (ph).

That story and much more coming up next week. Hope you'll join us then. Coming up next, "CNN LIVE SUNDAY" with Kelli Arena. That's followed by "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS," profiling Tommy Franks and Dick Cheney at 7 p.m. Eastern time.

And then at 8 p.m. "CNN PRESENTS: WAR STORIES FROM THE FRONT LINES."

CNN continues right after a quick break.

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