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Chinese Astronaut Calls Journey To Space, Best Day Of My Life; Cargo Presents Security Problems For Airports; Proliferation Of Web Cams Present Ethical Problems

Aired October 19, 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.

cy DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST: Hello and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm Daniel Sieberg from the CNN Center in Atlanta.
The top story in our beat this week is a space flight that made history. Now, China's first space traveler calls it the greatest day of his life. And Chinese leaders seem equally thrilled with this week's mission, which makes them the third nation to send humans into space, joining the U.S. and Russia. Jaime Florcruz has the story from Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Astronaut Yang Liwei flashing a victory sign after completing a space odyssey that took him around the Earth 14 times. Shortly after the landing, a phone call from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo.

PREMIER WEN JIABAO, CHINA (through translator): You just completed a great mission. The motherland and the people thank you.

FLORCRUZ: While in orbit, Yang Liwei found time to take pictures and talk to his family, telling them the Earth looks splendid. He later described how it felt.

YANG LIWEI, CHINESE ASTRONAUT (through translator): There is a sudden weightlessness, as if suddenly you're floating.

FLORCRUZ: But now that he's back on Earth, more heady (ph) experiences await the 38-year-old air force pilot, who was given a hero's welcome in Beijing. The new national hero is now the focus of media attention and adulation.

Space scientists are just as inspired by Yang Liewei's successful mission aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft.

XIE MINGBAO, MANAGER, SPACE PROGRAM (through translator): In one or two years' time, we will launch Shezhou-6.

FLORCRUZ: But that's just the beginning of China's long-term space goals.

MINGBAO (through translator): In a few years, we plan to solve the problem of space walks and make a breakthrough in the rendezvous and docking of spacecraft. FLORCRUZ: Officials say China is willing to cooperate with the U.S. and other countries in space exploration, but it's also equipped to go it alone with a more than $2 billion budget for its space program.

(on camera): And the money spent hardly enters the debate, even in a developing country like China. Rather, for the government, it's a way to foster patriotism and legitimize its rule. And for the people, it's a way to realize the collective dream, that finally, China can do it, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Clearly some celebrations taking place there in China. I believe the word taikonaut, the Chinese word for astronaut, is probably creeping its way into the vernacular here. And we're joined by CNN space correspondent, Miles O'Brien, to walk us through what happened.

Miles, how did this mission start off with exactly? Can we start off at that point?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Why don't we just give people some familiarity with the point of origin involved in this. It begins in the Gobi Desert, not too far from the Great Wall of China, as a matter of fact. A huge, secret facility there, a secret facility that Westerners don't get a chance to go to.

Let me just point out a couple of things for you. There is the launch pad right there. There's the vehicle assembly building. Very similar arrangement, coincidentally or not, to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

There's that vehicle assembly building I was telling you about, and then they send the rocket down a long road to the launch pad about three miles away, about the same distance as it is in Florida, the way that NASA does it. Is that a coincidence, who knows? Nevertheless, there are some things that don't require reinventing the wheel -- Daniel.

SIEBERG: And Yang Liwei, what do we know about him? A former fighting pilot, like I guess some other astronauts, about 38 years old.

O'BRIEN: What's interesting, we didn't know anything about him until just as the launch occurred and they knew he was safely in orbit. And suddenly the floodgates open up, the PR machine went into gear.

Thirty-eight years old, a fighter pilot with a heroic background. An 8-year-old son, devoted wife. The full communist propaganda machine is in force here. Truly, this is a newly minted Yuri Gagarin.

He will be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the remainder of his life. What will be very interesting to see, Daniel, is if they allow him to fly again. They never let Gagarin fly because they were concerned about losing a national hero. He ultimately died in a fighter jet crash. I suspect this was his one and only flight.

SIEBERG: Miles, what about the vehicle that was used at launch? What do we know about it?

O'BRIEN: Well, The rocket itself is Chinese designed and produced. It's called the Long March. This one happens to be the 2F. Take a look at the launch, which occurred at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) launch center. A beautiful day there.

As it rose, it was, to all accounts, a flawless launch. You see some things falling off there. I don't know if you noticed that there that fell off.

That's some insulation. We're told that's not a problem, some cork insulation. Doesn't have anything else to strike. So unlike the shuttle, it's not a big concern.

At the top of the rocket, though, is something that is as (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in origin to the Russian Soyuz design. It wouldn't be accurate or fair to the Chinese to call it a direct knock off, But they did, in fact, take and buy the Soyuz -- Russian Soyuz blueprints, which were originally built 36 years ago and modified it significantly for their uses.

Once again, why reinvent the wheel? The Chinese have shown they're very good at adapting technology.

SIEBERG: All right. We're seeing some clear pictures there of the launch. What about to someone here in North America? Could you see it while it was making its orbit?

O'BRIEN: Yes. As a matter of fact, some people did. First of all, let's show you quick graphic animation and show you what the mission looked like.

Fourteen orbits in all, it's 90 minutes to lap the Earth. And basically, what happened as it spun around the Earth, 42 degree inclination to the equator for you space wonks out there, the fact of the matter is, it passed over a good swathe of the populated parts of our planet, including North America. And one of our viewers took it upon himself to fly Oklahoma, and let's point it out here. There it is.

SIEBERG: Now what about when it came back to Earth? It seemed like a successful launch? Everything OK during the orbit?

O'BRIEN: Yes. I think post Columbia we're going to always be a lit more intense on re-entry than we have been in the past, but things apparently went well.

The de-orbit burn occurring over North America. There you see, it looks very much like the Russian Soyuz, slows down from that orbital speed of 17,500 miles an hour just enough to drop out of orbit, beginning its decent into inner Mongolia. Now, like the Soyuz, the Shenzhou-5 lands with the aid of parachutes and then at about five feet above the ground some retrorockets fire in order to cushion its landing.

SIEBERG: What about the International Space Station? How does that tie in with all of what China is up to?

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess you could say, in a sense, what this was the Chinese asking to be invited in that club potentially. As a matter of fact, this past week, we had an opportunity to speak with the current residents of the International Space Station: Astronaut Ed Liu, Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. We asked them about this moment in history?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to congratulate them. Personally, I think it's a great thing. The more people that go into space, the better off we all are. I would say to him (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which means welcome to space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: I'd be willing to bet that there is a good chance they will be invited to participate in that International Space Station. They'll find a way to bring them into that partnership somehow. So that will be an interesting development.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, Miles O'Brien, CNN space correspondent, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this.

Well, China is justifiably proud of its achievement in space travel, but it did have some help in the preparation department. Ryan Chilcote reports on the Russian connection.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chinese fighter pilots Wu Jee (ph) and Lee Jin Long (ph) training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Seen here in this rare video from six years ago, learning the art of smoke signals. Part of a Chinese-Russian deal to prepare the two to become cosmonauts.

ANDREI MAIBORODA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, STAR CITY (through translator): We planned out their classes which were broken into nine parts with everything from Russian language to studying transport module design to the Russian space station Mir, space walk training, and near zero gravity flight training.

CHILCOTE: The best education money can buy from one of the just two countries in the world that has been putting people into space for decades. The Russians now say their alumni were sometimes excessively inquisitive.

MAIBORODA (through translator): They got the information that we were obliged to give, according to the contract. Nothing more, despite the fact that they tried to learn as much as they could. I heard they even laid out their buildings at their cosmonaut training center the same way we have ours here.

CHILCOTE (on camera): When the Chinese students finished up their training there, instructors even joked with them a bit, saying that we hope at least one of you becomes China's Yuri Gagarin, the man you see memorialized here at Star City and throughout Russia as the first man in space.

(voice-over): Both Russian and Chinese sources believe that upon returning home the two help to build up China's training program and then prepared at least a dozen more taikonauts, the Chinese to word for cosmonauts, of their own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You can find out a lot more information on the Chinese space mission in a special report on the CNN.com Web site. You can get there by going to our Web site at cnn.com/next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, U.S. water consumption is increasing. And there's only so much water to go around. How can we handle our growing thirst?

And later in the show, a simulator that lets you try your hand at flying the Wright brothers' plane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A radar device on board an orbiting shuttle has helped scientists better understand the lay of the land on Earth and the depth of the ice at the tip of South America. Researchers say melting glaciers are contributing to rising sea levels. In the last century, they've risen about 12 inches worldwide. If the trend continues, flooding could wipe out valuable coastal real estate around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition and liftoff.

KELLAN: Using radar onboard this NASA shuttle mission, researchers at the jet propulsion lab surveyed the area in white called the Patagonia Ice Fields, 63 glaciers shared by Argentina and Chile. Scientists compared the size and thickness of these ice fields with older topographic maps of the same area.

Looking at just one of the glaciers, you can see how rapidly it has receded in 25 years. Researchers reporting in the journal "Science" found the South American glaciers are thinning faster than glaciers in Alaska. One reason, more of the Patagonia glaciers border water and are more prone to break apart than glaciers surrounded by land. What's beyond dispute, researchers say, is that the Earth is warming up. Sea levels are rising. What they cannot predict is whether this is a trend or part of Earth's natural cycle.

Anne Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: The United States is sending England a couple of ghosts. They're 1940s era oil tankers that are part of the so-called ghost fleet, moth ball chips that make up the Navy's reserve fleet. On Monday, tugs moved the tankers from their harbor in Virginia out to sea, where a larger tug will tow the ships to England for dismantling.

Environmentalists oppose the move. They're afraid the tankers could break up in rough weather and spill fuel and toxic chemicals. More than 70 years after promising to do so, California this week signed an historic agreement limiting its use of water from the Colorado River. The official signing ceremony was at the Hoover Dam, which is an appropriate location, because before the dam could be built, California had to promise to limit the amount of water it pulled from the Colorado River.

However, it's been exceeding that limit for the past several decades. The agreement allows the six other states using the river to protect their fair share.

You could call the Colorado River a poster child for water use problems in our country. Bill Tucker has more on the nation's water woes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Yorkers use 1.3 billion gallons of water a day. That's an enormous amount of water.

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's enough water to fill the Empire State Building four times over. New York City's addressing its distribution problem by building a third massive tunnel to deliver water from its upstate reservoirs to the city.

CHRISTOPHER WARD: All cities are struggling with water supply from a long-term perspective, as we've seen with climate change, water supplies in terms of drought, in terms of distribution. There's been a huge problem.

TUCKER: Alarmingly, the parts of the country showing the fastest population growth are in the West, and particularly the Southwest, where there are already critical shortages of water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Locally, or in certain regions of the country we are depleting our water supplies. There are areas of Texas, Kansas Arizona, New Mexico and southern California where, in fact, we're really mining the water that's available in the ground, in our nation's aquifers. TUCKER: In practical terms, that means for millions of people water conservation will no longer be an emergency measure but a way of life.

JACK HOFFBUHR, AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION: As we see more and more population, more and more development, clearly we're going to have to have water resources to serve these people and the future generations. So now is the time to begin with long-range planning that includes water conservation, that includes water reuse. And in the future, will include the use of a new technology to treat water that we're currently not using.

TUCKER: Thirty years ago, when the Clean Water Act was passed, only 30 percent of our water was safe for fishing or swimming. That amount has increased to 55 percent, and the source of pollutants has changed.

Ironically, it is no longer our power plants and factories which are the primary culprits, but runoff. As our population crowds our cities and paves over open land, water no longer seeps into the ground. It runs off our streets, through our storm drains, carrying our urban dirt with it. And from our suburbs and from our farmland, that runoff carries pollution in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and silt.

PAUL SCHWARTZ, CLEAN WATER ACTION: The spread of the population from our urban cores to our suburban and ex-urban, meaning sort of sprawled out communities and what used to be the farm fields, is threatening our rivers through what I like to call death by 1,000 cuts.

TUCKER (on camera): We should note that the Clean Water Act does not include drinking water standards. And for that reason, there are some who feel the act should be amended to include just such standards.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up: how state-of-the-art tools helped one band showcase its artistry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is, I guess, the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: The band REM got together more than 20 years ago. It was a time when concert technology pretty much meant plugging in an amp. Well, on the recent tour, we went backstage to see if they've adopted some of the latest audio advancements.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG (voice-over): Some bands use technology in an obvious way. Other times, well, have you to dig a little deeper. REM is a band known for its artistic slant, but a few cutting edge tools that we found behind the scenes might surprise you. Like with most concerts, before it begins, a team of technicians fine-tune the high tech backbone.

MICHAEL STIPE, REM: Now with a crew of six or eight people, you can now do a lot more than you could do with a crew of 20 people in the early '70s, late '70s.

SIEBERG (on camera): REM is almost a band of contradictions, with a low-tech design on stage, combined with some high-tech support from behind the scenes.

(voice-over): You may not see them during the show, but without their tricks of sight and sound, there wouldn't be a show. The lighting operator handles dozens of light cues, all preprogrammed with some flexibility.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We definitely have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) control and definitely manipulate things during the show that aren't programmed in.

SIEBERG: Other technologies ensure the band doesn't miss a beat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tablet over here, which is a wireless link to that transceiver over there, this is totally portable. It comes out of that dock. I can go anywhere in the room, listen to the P.A., and adjust it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is the -- I guess the future of live sound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter, who ironically is probably the least techie of all of the guys in the band, he's the least one who lives on email or checks out the Web, but he had the idea that, let's use the Web site to take requests. It's been a real interesting dynamic to use the inner activity, and it's been something that really made the shows better.

SIEBERG: A band that didn't have an official Web site until 1999, now says it can't live without wireless Internet access.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't have the wi-fi, we may as well shut down. You go back to a backstage area right now and you're going to see 15 or 20 mostly Macintosh computers sitting there on wi-fi working away, doing emails, checking out the latest stuff on the Web site or other Web sites.

SIEBERG: All part of a group with an extensive musical history, and the willingness, it seems, to entertain whatever the future holds.

STIPE: I love technology. I embrace it. And I like the way it's changing the world. And I hope that the good people are the ones who control the robots. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half-hour, a major gap in airline security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cargo is the Achilles heel of American civil aviation today.

ANNOUNCER: And an effort to close that gap.

And what happens when a mild-mannered TV anchor tries his hand at editing a gaming magazine?

Those stories and a lot more still ahead. First, a quick break and a check of the headlines at this hour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Tests begin this week on a new kind of defense against terrorist attacks. It puts some cargo containers through the same kind of scrutiny that's already used on passengers. Patty Davis has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Boston Logan International Airport, a huge X-ray machine peers inside a truckful of cargo before it's loaded onto passenger jets. It's part of a 30-day experiment, the first in the nation to screen air cargo and stop terrorist bombs.

JOE PARESI, L3 COMMUNICATIONS: It looks like a conventional carry-on unit. We'll look and see if there's anything there that's suspicious and allows them to further investigate.

DAVIS: A high-tech attempt to close what terrorism experts say is a gaping hole in aviation security. While passengers and their bags face tough scrutiny, most air cargo is never screened. Twenty- two percent is put into the belly of passenger planes.

NEIL LIVINGSTONE, TERRORISM EXPERT: Cargo is the Achilles heel of American civil aviation today. We have to do something about it and we have to do something about it soon.

DAVIS: The two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11th took off from Boston Logan. Since then, the airport has been aggressively shoring up security.

(on camera): The federal government is also working to find a cost-effective way to screen cargo and will soon launch its own test, using these luggage scanning explosive detection machines.

(voice-over): Two efforts, a common goal: stopping terrorists from using cargo to bring down another passenger jet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're not being watched. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University say the proliferation of Web cams has some serious undertones. So they decided to keep an eye on the people who are keeping an eye on us. And now you can, too, by way of an online database they've compiled. I had a chance recently to speak with the co-originator of the Camera Watch Project.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE NEWTON, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: We are trying to document the ways in which personal data is created on individuals. And we are speaking to the explosion of data, including all types of text fields, like Social Security numbers, and other behavioral type of things. This shows you video data.

SIEBERG (on camera): So we're seeing the Web site here, the Carnegie Mellon Web site, where you can go, choose a particular city and find out where all these different Web cams are located. What types of cameras are we talking about, first of all?

NEWTON: Most of these are Department of Transportation cameras. Some of them are cameras on university campuses. But these can be owned by individuals or the government or companies that have cameras outside of their buildings.

SIEBERG: And we've got a live feed right now of one that's actually in New York's Time's Square. So you can go online and see some of these people just going about their daily business, not aware that they're being watched. So tell me about some of the concerns that you and the other researchers there at Carnegie Mellon have, whether it's national security or privacy.

NEWTON: Right. Well, it's all of the above. The national security issue is simply that anyone, anywhere, at any time, can look at almost any corner of America and watch us, and with any motivation. So that's one concern.

The other is a privacy concern. How does it affect individuals' privacy. And also, freedom of association and freedom of speech. Are these cameras pointed at a political rally or maybe there's a meeting happening where a camera is at that you don't want to know -- you don't want others to know that you attended.

SIEBERG: Right. We're seeing one of the cameras here at George Washington University, where you can actually control the camera online, you can zoom in on somebody who is just walking along on the street and rather unsuspecting as well.

Now I know a lot of you research also deals with biometrics, the idea of facial recognition technology. And we've heard examples recently where that hasn't been working or where it's been taken away or not being used. Tell me why it's not ready for prime time yet, shall we say, in your opinion?

NEWTON: OK. There are lots of reasons. One reason is, there are lots of angles at which your face could be in relation to the camera. So if you're facing the camera front in a frontal pose, that's the easiest for face recognition algorithms to work on.

But there are other issues, too, like lighting. Something might be covering your face, or you might look different with age. There are lots of different issues to be solved to make that work.

SIEBERG: Do you think that it will be adopted in the future by various security agencies for that reason? Will it eventually be ready for that type of use?

NEWTON: I think that its day will come. But what I'm hoping is that the government will also think about policies for when it's appropriate for face recognition to be used and when it's not.

SIEBERG: Let's quickly, if we can, just go back to the camera watch database there. Will that be expanding or continuing? Can people go and say, find their own city if they go to that Web site eventually?

NEWTON: Definitely. They're continuously finding Web cams and loading them up there. There are about 1,000 right now, and there's an estimate of 10,000 Web cams on the Internet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You can check out the Camera Watch Project's Web site, and you can get there from our Web site at cnn.com/next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Up next: 30 years after the OPEC oil embargo brought long gas lines, have Americans really changed their gas guzzling ways?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Well, humankind may be closer to controlling things like wheelchairs and computers, using only thoughts. Researchers at Duke University implanted electrodes into the brains of two monkeys. The electrodes recorded brain signals produced as the monkeys manipulated a joystick, which in turn controlled a robotic arm.

The joystick was later unplugged, and eventually the monkeys stopped using. They apparently realized they could control the arm with just their thoughts. The Duke researchers say clinical trials with humans could be just a couple of years away.

Well, leaping ahead, scientists have found a frog that's been around since the time of the dinosaurs. It's three inches long, with short legs, a pointed snout, and a body that looks like a jelly doughnut, with the jelly on the outside. Incidentally, no reports of any peanut butter. Genetic analysis indicates it's like no other frog alive today.

Thirty years ago this weekend, OPEC hit the U.S. and Europe with an oil embargo. For many Americans, it was a wakeup call, a reminder that gas wouldn't always be cheap and abundant. So what's changed since then? Natalie Pawelski takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In October, 1973, the Arab oil embargo led to long lines and dry pumps at U.S. gas stations. And Americans learned just how much the nation relied on imported oil. Thirty years later, U.S. dependence on foreign oil is at an all-time high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It reaches a new high almost every year. In 1973, we were importing about 28 percent of our oil. This year, it's 55 percent. And our projections are that that will go to as high as 68 percent, 70 percent by 2025.

PAWELSKI: So far this year, the number one supplier of oil to the U.S. is not in the Middle East or even in OPEC. It's Canada, followed closely by Saudi Arabia. Rounding out the top five, Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria.

About 22 percent of America's imported oil comes from the Persian Gulf. The U.S. remains the world's biggest consumer of oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been true for a long time. We're about 25 percent of the world oil consumption, with the total world consuming about 80 million barrels a day. And we're at about 20.

PAWELSKI: As for where the oil goes, about one-third is used to heat homes and generate power. Two-thirds goes into transportation, and most of that is pumped into cars and trucks.

(on camera): Over the next couple of decades, the U.S. government projects the demand for oil will continue to grow, while domestic production continues to shrink. A growing gap between America's appetite for oil and its ability to produce the fuel on which the nation's economy runs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Still do come, imagine a single electronic gizmo that combines all of the features you could ever need. Dream on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot have everything with just one device.

ANNOUNCER: We'll hear with what some experts think about the search for the perfect gadget.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SIEBERG: Some PC users suffer from a case of Mac envy when Apple launched its iTunes music store. Well, now it's available for both platforms. Apple announced the launch of iTunes for Windows on Thursday.

The service charges 99 cents to download a song. The Mac version launched in April and was a big success. But some analysts say the PC version may be rougher going because the legal downloading market has become so crowded with competitors.

At the telecom world show in Geneva, Switzerland this week, they were dreaming of the perfect electronic device, one that offers you all of the functions you could possibly one in a single compact package. But as Diana Muriel reports, perfection means different things to different people.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can go into my email, I can take a look at all of my email, my familiar Outlook experience on my small phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's capable of doing videophones over the mobile network.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), can give you a map of the zone you're in.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are just some of the things people want from the perfect device. Email, contacts, calendars, cameras and good old-fashioned voice telephony come as standard. Right now, the industry is trying to figure out which combinations will sell.

Some of the players haven't got there yet. NEC is still waiting for operators to decide which functions they want on this phone, although real-time television access is already one of them.

This product won't be ready for market for at least another year. One that's already out there, Nokia's Ngage, mobile phone with a gaming system. Now, everybody's trying to get a slice of the action.

Microsoft has just launched the smart phone in conjunction with Motorola and Orange (ph), allowing customers to use mobiles to download emails and synchronize data on the handset with their PC in the office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every operator wants to build a new business on data. And these devices are all about enabling that business. So that's why we're in the phone business now.

MURIEL: Data-driven business is what's made NTT DoCoMo's iMode such a success.

KEIJI TAICHIKAWA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NTT DOCOMO (through translator): iMode is especially powerful for users to access Web sites. Eighty-five percent of total access is to Web sites. Just 15 percent is for the transmission of emails. When the era of 3G arrives, with faster transmission speeds, then Web access will become easier for customers.

MURIEL: But do we really want all of these gadgets and gizmos? Industry watchers warn putting too many of them into one device means quality and ease of use could suffer. Maybe the perfect device just doesn't exist.

JACOPO BARGELLINI, ACTIVA: I think it's the same thing as to having the perfect person. You cannot have it. So you can have one which is handsome, which is sympathetic, but maybe not so skilled or something else. So the problem is, you cannot have everything with just one device. I don't think it will be the future.

MURIEL (on camera): But nothing could be less perfect than having to drag this, and this, and this around in order to stay on top of things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up: Miles flies the Wright brothers' plane. Well, sort of.

And Daniel spends a day playing video games. Nice work, if you can get.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: You know, some of the stories we cover on CNN require the reporters and anchors to put themselves in some dangerous situations. The next couple of pieces, however, are not those stories.

Take Miles O'Brien. He got up early one morning, cutting his coffee time, just to try out a simulator that let's you feel like you're flying the Wright brothers' plane. Find out whether he made it back safely.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: OK. So this is it. This is the Wright flyer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome aboard. Step back in time.

O'BRIEN: It's really straightforward, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: And what kind of -- what did they use?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, now you're going get me. This kind of wood. O'BRIEN: Spruce wood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what we have here is there's basically just an area for to you lock down on your feet...

O'BRIEN: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then the hip cradle, and the elevator control.

O'BRIEN: And basically, the hips are controlling what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were three things that it was actually doing. One, they had the wing warping. So the wings would actually warp and change their angle, and this would start the turn. And it would also move the rudder in the back.

And this was a huge invention, because it really countered the yaw that the wing turning did. And these guys were so innovative, that they were -- I mean, after this first flight, it took five or six years for the rest of the world to catch up to what these folks had invented.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I don't think the rest of the world fully appreciated what they accomplished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. And then at the front there's the conard (ph). So this adjusts the angle of the tack on the aircraft. So when you pull back, you can see in the simulator that it's actually articulating the same way as your arm movement. So quite a bit of leeway. And then on the other side, your right hand controls the throttle.

O'BRIEN: So it's just basically on...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And off, yes. They had a roaring 12 horsepower engine, and there was really no throttle control. Really, all it did was open up the fuel valve and dumped raw fuel into the engine, and off you went. It was 12 horsepower turning two propellers with bicycle chains.

O'BRIEN: We're still on the very hardest setting, OK? Just for the record here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice liftoff. Beautiful. Whoa! Oh, not into the barn. Oh!

O'BRIEN: It's getting ugly now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Miles, actually I'm pretty impressed, because you've shown a lot better skill at this than even the best pilots in the world that have been sitting on this thing. So I think you've been secreting practicing at home or something.

O'BRIEN: Here, just take the credit card, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, here we go.

O'BRIEN: Very sensitive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a thing -- when Orville and Wilbur went to France to show off their invention, they had a lot of non- believers over there and they blew them away, because the planes they had seen flying basically could barely fly in a straight line. And here's Orville and Wilbur flying figure eights and perfect turns, just like you. There we go.

O'BRIEN: The very hardest setting. Early aerobatics.

As you kind of baked all of this stuff into your simulator, are you in a way amazed they ever got off the ground?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Completely, through the difficulty and also just the -- that sensation of, you're lying down, you're prone. You feel kind of exposed when you're flying even in this simulation experience, that you're head is out there in the front and the wind coming at you. And you have all the ground coming at you. So you do get a sense of what Orville and Wilbur were really trying to do there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: And Miles isn't the only one knocking himself out to bring you the news. Recently, I got a chance to live out every gamer's dream and become the editor-in-chief of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" for a day. They crazily let me help them out with the January issue. And you can think of it as trying to merge the TV and the print world together.

Of course, there were some fun and games involved, but some of them came at my expense by way of a hazing process. I survived, barely. Here's a quick recap of my trip to San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: "Electronic Gaming Monthly," you've seen it on the newsstands and you probably think that all of the editors do there is play video games. Well, maybe that is all they do, but they have to, because that's part of their job.

And I'm joined right now by Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief. So Hsu, tell me, is it true? Is it all you guys do, play games?

DAN HSU, "ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY": Yes, absolutely. Actually, we don't play as many games as we'd like to, because during the day we have editing to do, layouts, photography, a lot of other stuff that goes into making a magazine that runs every month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much, Stephan (ph).

HSU: So this is Stefan (ph). He's our associate art director. He's the one that makes the pages look good. He kind of separates them a little bit, so they're not right next to each other.

SIEBERG: Make sure you separate them so they're not right next to each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

HSU: You're learning.

Jennifer is really the person who runs things around here. Without her, this place would be like in flames. She makes all the assignments, she makes sure things get done around here. And so we have actually a really important job for you to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here you go.

SIEBERG: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the keys.

HSU: You're a beginner, so we'll have you do some of the -- we'll make you go through a little hazing process.

SIEBERG: Your attention, please. Anyone who kills me will be fired. Whew! This editor-in-chief stuff turns out to be work after all.

HSU: OK. So what did you think about Daniel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. Did you see how (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

HSU: I have an idea. Let's send him on an assignment.

You've been doing a great job. So we have an outside assignment for to you report on. Why6 don't you go visit this place and see what's going on over there.

SIEBERG: Thanks very much.

HSU: Let me take that from you.

SIEBERG: OK. All right.

HSU: Have fun. We'll see you in a little bit.

SIEBERG: I really appreciate it.

HSU: All right.

SIEBERG: Hey, guys? Hsu? Anybody?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Incidentally, I did manage to escape from Alcatraz, which is a story in itself. Our thanks to the editors of "Electronic Gaming Monthly," who helped us include a little levy in our show.

That's all the time we have for now. Here's a quick preview of what's coming up next week. We'll look at some futuristic gadgets that someday may help you negotiate unfamiliar cities or even tell you about the people you meet. And you don't have to carry the devices around. You wear them.

That's coming up on NEXT@CNN. Until then, we'd like to hear from you. You can send us an email at next@cnn.com.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. For all of us here, I'm Daniel Sieiberg. See you next time.

END

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Life; Cargo Presents Security Problems For Airports; Proliferation Of Web Cams Present Ethical Problems>

Aired October 19, 2003 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
cy DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST: Hello and welcome to NEXT@CNN. I'm Daniel Sieberg from the CNN Center in Atlanta.
The top story in our beat this week is a space flight that made history. Now, China's first space traveler calls it the greatest day of his life. And Chinese leaders seem equally thrilled with this week's mission, which makes them the third nation to send humans into space, joining the U.S. and Russia. Jaime Florcruz has the story from Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAIME FLORCRUZ, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Astronaut Yang Liwei flashing a victory sign after completing a space odyssey that took him around the Earth 14 times. Shortly after the landing, a phone call from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabo.

PREMIER WEN JIABAO, CHINA (through translator): You just completed a great mission. The motherland and the people thank you.

FLORCRUZ: While in orbit, Yang Liwei found time to take pictures and talk to his family, telling them the Earth looks splendid. He later described how it felt.

YANG LIWEI, CHINESE ASTRONAUT (through translator): There is a sudden weightlessness, as if suddenly you're floating.

FLORCRUZ: But now that he's back on Earth, more heady (ph) experiences await the 38-year-old air force pilot, who was given a hero's welcome in Beijing. The new national hero is now the focus of media attention and adulation.

Space scientists are just as inspired by Yang Liewei's successful mission aboard the Shenzhou-5 spacecraft.

XIE MINGBAO, MANAGER, SPACE PROGRAM (through translator): In one or two years' time, we will launch Shezhou-6.

FLORCRUZ: But that's just the beginning of China's long-term space goals.

MINGBAO (through translator): In a few years, we plan to solve the problem of space walks and make a breakthrough in the rendezvous and docking of spacecraft. FLORCRUZ: Officials say China is willing to cooperate with the U.S. and other countries in space exploration, but it's also equipped to go it alone with a more than $2 billion budget for its space program.

(on camera): And the money spent hardly enters the debate, even in a developing country like China. Rather, for the government, it's a way to foster patriotism and legitimize its rule. And for the people, it's a way to realize the collective dream, that finally, China can do it, too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Clearly some celebrations taking place there in China. I believe the word taikonaut, the Chinese word for astronaut, is probably creeping its way into the vernacular here. And we're joined by CNN space correspondent, Miles O'Brien, to walk us through what happened.

Miles, how did this mission start off with exactly? Can we start off at that point?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Why don't we just give people some familiarity with the point of origin involved in this. It begins in the Gobi Desert, not too far from the Great Wall of China, as a matter of fact. A huge, secret facility there, a secret facility that Westerners don't get a chance to go to.

Let me just point out a couple of things for you. There is the launch pad right there. There's the vehicle assembly building. Very similar arrangement, coincidentally or not, to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

There's that vehicle assembly building I was telling you about, and then they send the rocket down a long road to the launch pad about three miles away, about the same distance as it is in Florida, the way that NASA does it. Is that a coincidence, who knows? Nevertheless, there are some things that don't require reinventing the wheel -- Daniel.

SIEBERG: And Yang Liwei, what do we know about him? A former fighting pilot, like I guess some other astronauts, about 38 years old.

O'BRIEN: What's interesting, we didn't know anything about him until just as the launch occurred and they knew he was safely in orbit. And suddenly the floodgates open up, the PR machine went into gear.

Thirty-eight years old, a fighter pilot with a heroic background. An 8-year-old son, devoted wife. The full communist propaganda machine is in force here. Truly, this is a newly minted Yuri Gagarin.

He will be (UNINTELLIGIBLE) for the remainder of his life. What will be very interesting to see, Daniel, is if they allow him to fly again. They never let Gagarin fly because they were concerned about losing a national hero. He ultimately died in a fighter jet crash. I suspect this was his one and only flight.

SIEBERG: Miles, what about the vehicle that was used at launch? What do we know about it?

O'BRIEN: Well, The rocket itself is Chinese designed and produced. It's called the Long March. This one happens to be the 2F. Take a look at the launch, which occurred at the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) launch center. A beautiful day there.

As it rose, it was, to all accounts, a flawless launch. You see some things falling off there. I don't know if you noticed that there that fell off.

That's some insulation. We're told that's not a problem, some cork insulation. Doesn't have anything else to strike. So unlike the shuttle, it's not a big concern.

At the top of the rocket, though, is something that is as (UNINTELLIGIBLE) in origin to the Russian Soyuz design. It wouldn't be accurate or fair to the Chinese to call it a direct knock off, But they did, in fact, take and buy the Soyuz -- Russian Soyuz blueprints, which were originally built 36 years ago and modified it significantly for their uses.

Once again, why reinvent the wheel? The Chinese have shown they're very good at adapting technology.

SIEBERG: All right. We're seeing some clear pictures there of the launch. What about to someone here in North America? Could you see it while it was making its orbit?

O'BRIEN: Yes. As a matter of fact, some people did. First of all, let's show you quick graphic animation and show you what the mission looked like.

Fourteen orbits in all, it's 90 minutes to lap the Earth. And basically, what happened as it spun around the Earth, 42 degree inclination to the equator for you space wonks out there, the fact of the matter is, it passed over a good swathe of the populated parts of our planet, including North America. And one of our viewers took it upon himself to fly Oklahoma, and let's point it out here. There it is.

SIEBERG: Now what about when it came back to Earth? It seemed like a successful launch? Everything OK during the orbit?

O'BRIEN: Yes. I think post Columbia we're going to always be a lit more intense on re-entry than we have been in the past, but things apparently went well.

The de-orbit burn occurring over North America. There you see, it looks very much like the Russian Soyuz, slows down from that orbital speed of 17,500 miles an hour just enough to drop out of orbit, beginning its decent into inner Mongolia. Now, like the Soyuz, the Shenzhou-5 lands with the aid of parachutes and then at about five feet above the ground some retrorockets fire in order to cushion its landing.

SIEBERG: What about the International Space Station? How does that tie in with all of what China is up to?

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess you could say, in a sense, what this was the Chinese asking to be invited in that club potentially. As a matter of fact, this past week, we had an opportunity to speak with the current residents of the International Space Station: Astronaut Ed Liu, Cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko. We asked them about this moment in history?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to congratulate them. Personally, I think it's a great thing. The more people that go into space, the better off we all are. I would say to him (UNINTELLIGIBLE), which means welcome to space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'BRIEN: I'd be willing to bet that there is a good chance they will be invited to participate in that International Space Station. They'll find a way to bring them into that partnership somehow. So that will be an interesting development.

SIEBERG: All right. Well, Miles O'Brien, CNN space correspondent, thanks so much for joining us to talk about this.

Well, China is justifiably proud of its achievement in space travel, but it did have some help in the preparation department. Ryan Chilcote reports on the Russian connection.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chinese fighter pilots Wu Jee (ph) and Lee Jin Long (ph) training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. Seen here in this rare video from six years ago, learning the art of smoke signals. Part of a Chinese-Russian deal to prepare the two to become cosmonauts.

ANDREI MAIBORODA, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, STAR CITY (through translator): We planned out their classes which were broken into nine parts with everything from Russian language to studying transport module design to the Russian space station Mir, space walk training, and near zero gravity flight training.

CHILCOTE: The best education money can buy from one of the just two countries in the world that has been putting people into space for decades. The Russians now say their alumni were sometimes excessively inquisitive.

MAIBORODA (through translator): They got the information that we were obliged to give, according to the contract. Nothing more, despite the fact that they tried to learn as much as they could. I heard they even laid out their buildings at their cosmonaut training center the same way we have ours here.

CHILCOTE (on camera): When the Chinese students finished up their training there, instructors even joked with them a bit, saying that we hope at least one of you becomes China's Yuri Gagarin, the man you see memorialized here at Star City and throughout Russia as the first man in space.

(voice-over): Both Russian and Chinese sources believe that upon returning home the two help to build up China's training program and then prepared at least a dozen more taikonauts, the Chinese to word for cosmonauts, of their own.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You can find out a lot more information on the Chinese space mission in a special report on the CNN.com Web site. You can get there by going to our Web site at cnn.com/next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, U.S. water consumption is increasing. And there's only so much water to go around. How can we handle our growing thirst?

And later in the show, a simulator that lets you try your hand at flying the Wright brothers' plane.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANN KELLAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A radar device on board an orbiting shuttle has helped scientists better understand the lay of the land on Earth and the depth of the ice at the tip of South America. Researchers say melting glaciers are contributing to rising sea levels. In the last century, they've risen about 12 inches worldwide. If the trend continues, flooding could wipe out valuable coastal real estate around the world.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ignition and liftoff.

KELLAN: Using radar onboard this NASA shuttle mission, researchers at the jet propulsion lab surveyed the area in white called the Patagonia Ice Fields, 63 glaciers shared by Argentina and Chile. Scientists compared the size and thickness of these ice fields with older topographic maps of the same area.

Looking at just one of the glaciers, you can see how rapidly it has receded in 25 years. Researchers reporting in the journal "Science" found the South American glaciers are thinning faster than glaciers in Alaska. One reason, more of the Patagonia glaciers border water and are more prone to break apart than glaciers surrounded by land. What's beyond dispute, researchers say, is that the Earth is warming up. Sea levels are rising. What they cannot predict is whether this is a trend or part of Earth's natural cycle.

Anne Kellan, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: The United States is sending England a couple of ghosts. They're 1940s era oil tankers that are part of the so-called ghost fleet, moth ball chips that make up the Navy's reserve fleet. On Monday, tugs moved the tankers from their harbor in Virginia out to sea, where a larger tug will tow the ships to England for dismantling.

Environmentalists oppose the move. They're afraid the tankers could break up in rough weather and spill fuel and toxic chemicals. More than 70 years after promising to do so, California this week signed an historic agreement limiting its use of water from the Colorado River. The official signing ceremony was at the Hoover Dam, which is an appropriate location, because before the dam could be built, California had to promise to limit the amount of water it pulled from the Colorado River.

However, it's been exceeding that limit for the past several decades. The agreement allows the six other states using the river to protect their fair share.

You could call the Colorado River a poster child for water use problems in our country. Bill Tucker has more on the nation's water woes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New Yorkers use 1.3 billion gallons of water a day. That's an enormous amount of water.

BILL TUCKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's enough water to fill the Empire State Building four times over. New York City's addressing its distribution problem by building a third massive tunnel to deliver water from its upstate reservoirs to the city.

CHRISTOPHER WARD: All cities are struggling with water supply from a long-term perspective, as we've seen with climate change, water supplies in terms of drought, in terms of distribution. There's been a huge problem.

TUCKER: Alarmingly, the parts of the country showing the fastest population growth are in the West, and particularly the Southwest, where there are already critical shortages of water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Locally, or in certain regions of the country we are depleting our water supplies. There are areas of Texas, Kansas Arizona, New Mexico and southern California where, in fact, we're really mining the water that's available in the ground, in our nation's aquifers. TUCKER: In practical terms, that means for millions of people water conservation will no longer be an emergency measure but a way of life.

JACK HOFFBUHR, AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION: As we see more and more population, more and more development, clearly we're going to have to have water resources to serve these people and the future generations. So now is the time to begin with long-range planning that includes water conservation, that includes water reuse. And in the future, will include the use of a new technology to treat water that we're currently not using.

TUCKER: Thirty years ago, when the Clean Water Act was passed, only 30 percent of our water was safe for fishing or swimming. That amount has increased to 55 percent, and the source of pollutants has changed.

Ironically, it is no longer our power plants and factories which are the primary culprits, but runoff. As our population crowds our cities and paves over open land, water no longer seeps into the ground. It runs off our streets, through our storm drains, carrying our urban dirt with it. And from our suburbs and from our farmland, that runoff carries pollution in the form of fertilizers, pesticides and silt.

PAUL SCHWARTZ, CLEAN WATER ACTION: The spread of the population from our urban cores to our suburban and ex-urban, meaning sort of sprawled out communities and what used to be the farm fields, is threatening our rivers through what I like to call death by 1,000 cuts.

TUCKER (on camera): We should note that the Clean Water Act does not include drinking water standards. And for that reason, there are some who feel the act should be amended to include just such standards.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up: how state-of-the-art tools helped one band showcase its artistry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is, I guess, the future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: The band REM got together more than 20 years ago. It was a time when concert technology pretty much meant plugging in an amp. Well, on the recent tour, we went backstage to see if they've adopted some of the latest audio advancements.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SIEBERG (voice-over): Some bands use technology in an obvious way. Other times, well, have you to dig a little deeper. REM is a band known for its artistic slant, but a few cutting edge tools that we found behind the scenes might surprise you. Like with most concerts, before it begins, a team of technicians fine-tune the high tech backbone.

MICHAEL STIPE, REM: Now with a crew of six or eight people, you can now do a lot more than you could do with a crew of 20 people in the early '70s, late '70s.

SIEBERG (on camera): REM is almost a band of contradictions, with a low-tech design on stage, combined with some high-tech support from behind the scenes.

(voice-over): You may not see them during the show, but without their tricks of sight and sound, there wouldn't be a show. The lighting operator handles dozens of light cues, all preprogrammed with some flexibility.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We definitely have (UNINTELLIGIBLE) control and definitely manipulate things during the show that aren't programmed in.

SIEBERG: Other technologies ensure the band doesn't miss a beat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tablet over here, which is a wireless link to that transceiver over there, this is totally portable. It comes out of that dock. I can go anywhere in the room, listen to the P.A., and adjust it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It really is the -- I guess the future of live sound.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter, who ironically is probably the least techie of all of the guys in the band, he's the least one who lives on email or checks out the Web, but he had the idea that, let's use the Web site to take requests. It's been a real interesting dynamic to use the inner activity, and it's been something that really made the shows better.

SIEBERG: A band that didn't have an official Web site until 1999, now says it can't live without wireless Internet access.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If we don't have the wi-fi, we may as well shut down. You go back to a backstage area right now and you're going to see 15 or 20 mostly Macintosh computers sitting there on wi-fi working away, doing emails, checking out the latest stuff on the Web site or other Web sites.

SIEBERG: All part of a group with an extensive musical history, and the willingness, it seems, to entertain whatever the future holds.

STIPE: I love technology. I embrace it. And I like the way it's changing the world. And I hope that the good people are the ones who control the robots. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up in our next half-hour, a major gap in airline security.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cargo is the Achilles heel of American civil aviation today.

ANNOUNCER: And an effort to close that gap.

And what happens when a mild-mannered TV anchor tries his hand at editing a gaming magazine?

Those stories and a lot more still ahead. First, a quick break and a check of the headlines at this hour.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Tests begin this week on a new kind of defense against terrorist attacks. It puts some cargo containers through the same kind of scrutiny that's already used on passengers. Patty Davis has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At Boston Logan International Airport, a huge X-ray machine peers inside a truckful of cargo before it's loaded onto passenger jets. It's part of a 30-day experiment, the first in the nation to screen air cargo and stop terrorist bombs.

JOE PARESI, L3 COMMUNICATIONS: It looks like a conventional carry-on unit. We'll look and see if there's anything there that's suspicious and allows them to further investigate.

DAVIS: A high-tech attempt to close what terrorism experts say is a gaping hole in aviation security. While passengers and their bags face tough scrutiny, most air cargo is never screened. Twenty- two percent is put into the belly of passenger planes.

NEIL LIVINGSTONE, TERRORISM EXPERT: Cargo is the Achilles heel of American civil aviation today. We have to do something about it and we have to do something about it soon.

DAVIS: The two planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11th took off from Boston Logan. Since then, the airport has been aggressively shoring up security.

(on camera): The federal government is also working to find a cost-effective way to screen cargo and will soon launch its own test, using these luggage scanning explosive detection machines.

(voice-over): Two efforts, a common goal: stopping terrorists from using cargo to bring down another passenger jet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're not being watched. Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University say the proliferation of Web cams has some serious undertones. So they decided to keep an eye on the people who are keeping an eye on us. And now you can, too, by way of an online database they've compiled. I had a chance recently to speak with the co-originator of the Camera Watch Project.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE NEWTON, CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY: We are trying to document the ways in which personal data is created on individuals. And we are speaking to the explosion of data, including all types of text fields, like Social Security numbers, and other behavioral type of things. This shows you video data.

SIEBERG (on camera): So we're seeing the Web site here, the Carnegie Mellon Web site, where you can go, choose a particular city and find out where all these different Web cams are located. What types of cameras are we talking about, first of all?

NEWTON: Most of these are Department of Transportation cameras. Some of them are cameras on university campuses. But these can be owned by individuals or the government or companies that have cameras outside of their buildings.

SIEBERG: And we've got a live feed right now of one that's actually in New York's Time's Square. So you can go online and see some of these people just going about their daily business, not aware that they're being watched. So tell me about some of the concerns that you and the other researchers there at Carnegie Mellon have, whether it's national security or privacy.

NEWTON: Right. Well, it's all of the above. The national security issue is simply that anyone, anywhere, at any time, can look at almost any corner of America and watch us, and with any motivation. So that's one concern.

The other is a privacy concern. How does it affect individuals' privacy. And also, freedom of association and freedom of speech. Are these cameras pointed at a political rally or maybe there's a meeting happening where a camera is at that you don't want to know -- you don't want others to know that you attended.

SIEBERG: Right. We're seeing one of the cameras here at George Washington University, where you can actually control the camera online, you can zoom in on somebody who is just walking along on the street and rather unsuspecting as well.

Now I know a lot of you research also deals with biometrics, the idea of facial recognition technology. And we've heard examples recently where that hasn't been working or where it's been taken away or not being used. Tell me why it's not ready for prime time yet, shall we say, in your opinion?

NEWTON: OK. There are lots of reasons. One reason is, there are lots of angles at which your face could be in relation to the camera. So if you're facing the camera front in a frontal pose, that's the easiest for face recognition algorithms to work on.

But there are other issues, too, like lighting. Something might be covering your face, or you might look different with age. There are lots of different issues to be solved to make that work.

SIEBERG: Do you think that it will be adopted in the future by various security agencies for that reason? Will it eventually be ready for that type of use?

NEWTON: I think that its day will come. But what I'm hoping is that the government will also think about policies for when it's appropriate for face recognition to be used and when it's not.

SIEBERG: Let's quickly, if we can, just go back to the camera watch database there. Will that be expanding or continuing? Can people go and say, find their own city if they go to that Web site eventually?

NEWTON: Definitely. They're continuously finding Web cams and loading them up there. There are about 1,000 right now, and there's an estimate of 10,000 Web cams on the Internet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: You can check out the Camera Watch Project's Web site, and you can get there from our Web site at cnn.com/next.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Up next: 30 years after the OPEC oil embargo brought long gas lines, have Americans really changed their gas guzzling ways?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Well, humankind may be closer to controlling things like wheelchairs and computers, using only thoughts. Researchers at Duke University implanted electrodes into the brains of two monkeys. The electrodes recorded brain signals produced as the monkeys manipulated a joystick, which in turn controlled a robotic arm.

The joystick was later unplugged, and eventually the monkeys stopped using. They apparently realized they could control the arm with just their thoughts. The Duke researchers say clinical trials with humans could be just a couple of years away.

Well, leaping ahead, scientists have found a frog that's been around since the time of the dinosaurs. It's three inches long, with short legs, a pointed snout, and a body that looks like a jelly doughnut, with the jelly on the outside. Incidentally, no reports of any peanut butter. Genetic analysis indicates it's like no other frog alive today.

Thirty years ago this weekend, OPEC hit the U.S. and Europe with an oil embargo. For many Americans, it was a wakeup call, a reminder that gas wouldn't always be cheap and abundant. So what's changed since then? Natalie Pawelski takes a look.

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NATALIE PAWELSKI, CNN ENVIRONMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In October, 1973, the Arab oil embargo led to long lines and dry pumps at U.S. gas stations. And Americans learned just how much the nation relied on imported oil. Thirty years later, U.S. dependence on foreign oil is at an all-time high.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It reaches a new high almost every year. In 1973, we were importing about 28 percent of our oil. This year, it's 55 percent. And our projections are that that will go to as high as 68 percent, 70 percent by 2025.

PAWELSKI: So far this year, the number one supplier of oil to the U.S. is not in the Middle East or even in OPEC. It's Canada, followed closely by Saudi Arabia. Rounding out the top five, Mexico, Venezuela and Nigeria.

About 22 percent of America's imported oil comes from the Persian Gulf. The U.S. remains the world's biggest consumer of oil.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's been true for a long time. We're about 25 percent of the world oil consumption, with the total world consuming about 80 million barrels a day. And we're at about 20.

PAWELSKI: As for where the oil goes, about one-third is used to heat homes and generate power. Two-thirds goes into transportation, and most of that is pumped into cars and trucks.

(on camera): Over the next couple of decades, the U.S. government projects the demand for oil will continue to grow, while domestic production continues to shrink. A growing gap between America's appetite for oil and its ability to produce the fuel on which the nation's economy runs.

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ANNOUNCER: Still do come, imagine a single electronic gizmo that combines all of the features you could ever need. Dream on.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You cannot have everything with just one device.

ANNOUNCER: We'll hear with what some experts think about the search for the perfect gadget.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) SIEBERG: Some PC users suffer from a case of Mac envy when Apple launched its iTunes music store. Well, now it's available for both platforms. Apple announced the launch of iTunes for Windows on Thursday.

The service charges 99 cents to download a song. The Mac version launched in April and was a big success. But some analysts say the PC version may be rougher going because the legal downloading market has become so crowded with competitors.

At the telecom world show in Geneva, Switzerland this week, they were dreaming of the perfect electronic device, one that offers you all of the functions you could possibly one in a single compact package. But as Diana Muriel reports, perfection means different things to different people.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can go into my email, I can take a look at all of my email, my familiar Outlook experience on my small phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's capable of doing videophones over the mobile network.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As you can see, (UNINTELLIGIBLE), can give you a map of the zone you're in.

DIANA MURIEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are just some of the things people want from the perfect device. Email, contacts, calendars, cameras and good old-fashioned voice telephony come as standard. Right now, the industry is trying to figure out which combinations will sell.

Some of the players haven't got there yet. NEC is still waiting for operators to decide which functions they want on this phone, although real-time television access is already one of them.

This product won't be ready for market for at least another year. One that's already out there, Nokia's Ngage, mobile phone with a gaming system. Now, everybody's trying to get a slice of the action.

Microsoft has just launched the smart phone in conjunction with Motorola and Orange (ph), allowing customers to use mobiles to download emails and synchronize data on the handset with their PC in the office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every operator wants to build a new business on data. And these devices are all about enabling that business. So that's why we're in the phone business now.

MURIEL: Data-driven business is what's made NTT DoCoMo's iMode such a success.

KEIJI TAICHIKAWA, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NTT DOCOMO (through translator): iMode is especially powerful for users to access Web sites. Eighty-five percent of total access is to Web sites. Just 15 percent is for the transmission of emails. When the era of 3G arrives, with faster transmission speeds, then Web access will become easier for customers.

MURIEL: But do we really want all of these gadgets and gizmos? Industry watchers warn putting too many of them into one device means quality and ease of use could suffer. Maybe the perfect device just doesn't exist.

JACOPO BARGELLINI, ACTIVA: I think it's the same thing as to having the perfect person. You cannot have it. So you can have one which is handsome, which is sympathetic, but maybe not so skilled or something else. So the problem is, you cannot have everything with just one device. I don't think it will be the future.

MURIEL (on camera): But nothing could be less perfect than having to drag this, and this, and this around in order to stay on top of things.

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ANNOUNCER: Coming up: Miles flies the Wright brothers' plane. Well, sort of.

And Daniel spends a day playing video games. Nice work, if you can get.

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SIEBERG: You know, some of the stories we cover on CNN require the reporters and anchors to put themselves in some dangerous situations. The next couple of pieces, however, are not those stories.

Take Miles O'Brien. He got up early one morning, cutting his coffee time, just to try out a simulator that let's you feel like you're flying the Wright brothers' plane. Find out whether he made it back safely.

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O'BRIEN: OK. So this is it. This is the Wright flyer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome aboard. Step back in time.

O'BRIEN: It's really straightforward, isn't it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

O'BRIEN: And what kind of -- what did they use?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, now you're going get me. This kind of wood. O'BRIEN: Spruce wood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what we have here is there's basically just an area for to you lock down on your feet...

O'BRIEN: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... then the hip cradle, and the elevator control.

O'BRIEN: And basically, the hips are controlling what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There were three things that it was actually doing. One, they had the wing warping. So the wings would actually warp and change their angle, and this would start the turn. And it would also move the rudder in the back.

And this was a huge invention, because it really countered the yaw that the wing turning did. And these guys were so innovative, that they were -- I mean, after this first flight, it took five or six years for the rest of the world to catch up to what these folks had invented.

O'BRIEN: Yes, I don't think the rest of the world fully appreciated what they accomplished.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly. And then at the front there's the conard (ph). So this adjusts the angle of the tack on the aircraft. So when you pull back, you can see in the simulator that it's actually articulating the same way as your arm movement. So quite a bit of leeway. And then on the other side, your right hand controls the throttle.

O'BRIEN: So it's just basically on...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And off, yes. They had a roaring 12 horsepower engine, and there was really no throttle control. Really, all it did was open up the fuel valve and dumped raw fuel into the engine, and off you went. It was 12 horsepower turning two propellers with bicycle chains.

O'BRIEN: We're still on the very hardest setting, OK? Just for the record here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice liftoff. Beautiful. Whoa! Oh, not into the barn. Oh!

O'BRIEN: It's getting ugly now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Miles, actually I'm pretty impressed, because you've shown a lot better skill at this than even the best pilots in the world that have been sitting on this thing. So I think you've been secreting practicing at home or something.

O'BRIEN: Here, just take the credit card, OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, here we go.

O'BRIEN: Very sensitive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This was a thing -- when Orville and Wilbur went to France to show off their invention, they had a lot of non- believers over there and they blew them away, because the planes they had seen flying basically could barely fly in a straight line. And here's Orville and Wilbur flying figure eights and perfect turns, just like you. There we go.

O'BRIEN: The very hardest setting. Early aerobatics.

As you kind of baked all of this stuff into your simulator, are you in a way amazed they ever got off the ground?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Completely, through the difficulty and also just the -- that sensation of, you're lying down, you're prone. You feel kind of exposed when you're flying even in this simulation experience, that you're head is out there in the front and the wind coming at you. And you have all the ground coming at you. So you do get a sense of what Orville and Wilbur were really trying to do there.

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SIEBERG: And Miles isn't the only one knocking himself out to bring you the news. Recently, I got a chance to live out every gamer's dream and become the editor-in-chief of "Electronic Gaming Monthly" for a day. They crazily let me help them out with the January issue. And you can think of it as trying to merge the TV and the print world together.

Of course, there were some fun and games involved, but some of them came at my expense by way of a hazing process. I survived, barely. Here's a quick recap of my trip to San Francisco.

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SIEBERG: "Electronic Gaming Monthly," you've seen it on the newsstands and you probably think that all of the editors do there is play video games. Well, maybe that is all they do, but they have to, because that's part of their job.

And I'm joined right now by Dan Hsu, editor-in-chief. So Hsu, tell me, is it true? Is it all you guys do, play games?

DAN HSU, "ELECTRONIC GAMING MONTHLY": Yes, absolutely. Actually, we don't play as many games as we'd like to, because during the day we have editing to do, layouts, photography, a lot of other stuff that goes into making a magazine that runs every month.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you very much, Stephan (ph).

HSU: So this is Stefan (ph). He's our associate art director. He's the one that makes the pages look good. He kind of separates them a little bit, so they're not right next to each other.

SIEBERG: Make sure you separate them so they're not right next to each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

HSU: You're learning.

Jennifer is really the person who runs things around here. Without her, this place would be like in flames. She makes all the assignments, she makes sure things get done around here. And so we have actually a really important job for you to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here you go.

SIEBERG: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And the keys.

HSU: You're a beginner, so we'll have you do some of the -- we'll make you go through a little hazing process.

SIEBERG: Your attention, please. Anyone who kills me will be fired. Whew! This editor-in-chief stuff turns out to be work after all.

HSU: OK. So what did you think about Daniel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know. Did you see how (UNINTELLIGIBLE)?

HSU: I have an idea. Let's send him on an assignment.

You've been doing a great job. So we have an outside assignment for to you report on. Why6 don't you go visit this place and see what's going on over there.

SIEBERG: Thanks very much.

HSU: Let me take that from you.

SIEBERG: OK. All right.

HSU: Have fun. We'll see you in a little bit.

SIEBERG: I really appreciate it.

HSU: All right.

SIEBERG: Hey, guys? Hsu? Anybody?

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SIEBERG: Incidentally, I did manage to escape from Alcatraz, which is a story in itself. Our thanks to the editors of "Electronic Gaming Monthly," who helped us include a little levy in our show.

That's all the time we have for now. Here's a quick preview of what's coming up next week. We'll look at some futuristic gadgets that someday may help you negotiate unfamiliar cities or even tell you about the people you meet. And you don't have to carry the devices around. You wear them.

That's coming up on NEXT@CNN. Until then, we'd like to hear from you. You can send us an email at next@cnn.com.

Thanks so much for joining us this week. For all of us here, I'm Daniel Sieiberg. See you next time.

END

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