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Missile Defense System Test Fails; A Look at Annual Gathering of World's Top Technology Innovators

Aired February 19, 2005 - 15:00 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.

DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST, NEXT@CNN: Hi, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, the government has spend $50 billion to build a missile defense system. The failure of the latest test of that system is testing the patience of critics.
Researchers investigate whether gender-bender fish from the Platonic River could have any connection to rising cancer rates in the same area.

And we'll take you to D.E.M.O., the annual gathering of the world's top technology innovators. Could one of these products be the next big thing. All that and more on NEXT.

There was another failed test of the national missile defense system this week, and that is when renewed questions about whether the program will ever be capable of defending the nation against a long- range missile attack. In our continuing "Security Watch" coverage senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The target missile launched flawlessly from Alaska, but the intercepted designed to shoot it down never got off the ground. $85 million for a test that produced no data on whether the complex technology to destroy a warhead in space is working any better.

Critics say the failure, the second in two months, shows that after sinking more than $50 billion over the last five years into missile defense, the U.S. is not even close to having a system that can protect against long-range nuclear missiles.

JOHN ISSAACS, COUNCIL FOR A LIVABLE WORLD: We've been trying for 40 to 50 years to perfect the system. We have new technology advances, we have new missiles, we have new sensor data, and we still can't get the system to work.

MCINTYRE: Overall, the program is batting 500, with five hits and five misses, but critics charge the early tests were too easy. The new head of the missile defense agency rejects that skepticism, insisting the latest failure was an anomaly, involving tried and true ground-launch technology, not an indication of serious problems.

LT. GEN. TREY OBERING, DIR. MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY: We have some rust we have to get out of the system sort of speak. We also understand we have some quality control issues on the ground side that we have to address, but again I would call these on the margins. These have nothing to do with the basic design, the basic performance of the system.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon argues whatever its limits, some missile defense is better than none, especially with North Korea claiming to have nuclear weapons and developing missiles which could reach parts of the United States.

OBERING: When everything else fails, we'll be the only thing between an incoming warhead and what could be mass destruction on the ground.

MCINTYRE: The U.S. now has six interceptor missiles at Ft. Greeley, Alaska, and two more in California that could be used in a pinch. And if an interceptor failed to launches during a real attack, officials say other missiles would automatically take over.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The recent failures have been in the area of standard rocket science, proven technology that Pentagon officials say is difficult but doable. While it may be disappointing for missile engineers and scientists, they insist they will solve the problems over time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, one problem, the transportation security administration is still trying to solve -- when and how to ban butane lighters from commercial aircraft. A ban was supposed to take effect this past Tuesday, but the TSA says the matter is still under review.

Another security measure is now being tested, a bomb-detection device that doesn't involve wands or pat downs, just little puffs of air. Kareen Wynter checked out the system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Flying the friendly skies has taken on a new meaning since September 11th, there are more federal air marshals on board, armed pilots in the cock pit and on the ground inside airport terminals, numerous high-tech screening devices. Now, take a look at another layer of security that detects plastic and other non-metallic explosive substances. It's called an explosive trace portal, and it is currently being tested at eight airports across the country.

JAMS FULLER, TSA CHIEF OF STAFF: While we're trying to find and eliminate is the opportunity for the shoe bomber incident where a bomb might be hidden.

WYNTER: Passengers simply step on to the machine, seconds later puffs of natural air shoot out. The air will disturb any material attached to the person's body and clothing. The air is then drawn back into the system and analyzed. An alarm signals additional screening. Transportation security administration officials say it's fast, sensitive and nonintrusive. FULLER: We think that will encourage more trust in the market.

WYNTER: Will it? We asked some travelers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's necessary. I would rather by frisked than blown up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Personally I'm worried about other threats.

WYNTER: Passengers still must pass through metal detectors but officials say this simple device should take some of the hassle out of the airport travel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Well moving on now Boeing this week unveiled the world's longest- flying plane, the 777 200 World Liner will be able to fly nonstop from London to Sydney. Boeing says the world liner can stay aloft 1500 nautical miles longer than any other commercial plane. The jets first flight is scheduled for early March. Boeing is hoping to steal some thunder from Airbus which last month introduced the world's largest passenger plane, the double-decker 8380.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up next after a break, robots learn to walk the easy way.

Also ahead, violent video games are in the crosshairs in the nation's capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: All right, this may look just like a pile of dirt to you and me, but to Steve Squyres the lead investigator for the Mars rovers it's pay dirt. Squyres says these rocks photographed by Spirit rover offer even more evidence there was once water on the surface of Mars.

While some earthbound robots made news this week in the journal of "Science." Researchers at three universities have come up with two- legged bots that walk without expending a lot of energy. The robots from Cornell and the Netherlands Delft University just need a small push to begin walking on round bottom feet. The robot from M.I.T. uses a little battery power to give itself a kick start. These passive dynamics robots may not be as flashy as Asimov, but researchers say that Asimov uses more than 10 times the energy as a human being, researchers say these new robots use as much energy say, as a student wandering into class, which sounds like me in my college days. It's hope that the passive-dynamic robotic research will lead to better prosthetic limbs.

It is six of the most pressure filled minutes in the world of technology. At the annual D.E.M.O. Conference which took place this week, companies must prove a new products wow factor on stage before an elite high-tech crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice over): The 15th year of show casing the next new thing, D.E.M.O. got off with a bang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I were to shoot one of my colleagues.

SIEBERG: MD used a stereo camera to capture and almost instantly create a 3-d model of this on-stage shoot out.

FRANK TETI, MOROBOTICS: First we can rotate the model and view it from any direction. We can also measure the length of objects within the scene such as the corpse.

SIEBERG: Most police still use tape measures, pads and pencils to reconstruct crime scenes.

TETI: Somebody came up with this device that instantly does the job.

SIEBERG: MDA also unveiled ice-cam, designed to take the dangerous, even deadly guess work out of deicing air craft.

TETI: The biggest challenge of all was to detect ice distinct from water. We managed to locate the ice signature.

SIEBERG: Investors flocked to the Arizona conference to see 70 companies dazzle with their demonstrations. Safety, security and other practical products took the spotlight. Not your usual array of new toys and business tools.

KEVIN RUSSET, GRSCIENCE LTD: We have the unique ability range to detect a range of different difficult explosives, including most plastic explosives.

SIEBERG: The crash of Pan Am 103 was blamed on plastic explosives hidden away in checked baggage. The company uses radio waves to detect the chemical structure of thousands of such dangerous materials. The most popular booth at the show used radio waves for a far less serious goal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mean I finally get a pair of jeans that actually fit.

SIEBERG: Lines were long to score a free pair of Levi's. Intellifit collects 200 body measurements no image or photo is saved.

ED ORIBBIN, INTELLFIT: Consumers love the convenience of finding what brands will fit them best and what size they are in various brands.

SIEBERG: So when the "check engine" light comes on in the dashboard, is the engine about to fall out or is the gas cap simply lose. ALICE COLLINS, AUTOXRAY: This gives you the trouble code and the definition of it. So you can take it to the mechanic, say fix this, I don't need my tires rotated, I don't need anything else fixed, I just need this sensor fixed.

SIEBERG: Gamers could soon find a brand-new sensation in the drivers seat. The addition of haptica (ph), the sense of touch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can feel surfaces, you can feel textures, you can feel dynamics and momentum.

SIEBERG: OK so it's hard to translate this concept to television, but some who tried it say --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tact aisle feedback was really amazing.

SIEBERG: If to much cramped touching of your cell phone or PDA keys has you down, try typing on nothing.

MARINO NEVES, VKB INC: It's infrared lights on a flat surface, and a sensor detects the movement of your finger, the interaction of your finger, and sends the information back to the host via blue tooth. With our technology, we are able to do this, and interpret that into digital data.

SIEBERG: Besides being a conversation starter in public places, the virtual keyboard could be destined for operating rooms or intensive care units where traditional keyboards could harbor plenty of germs. Sick of that static sheet music? Try practicing a musical instrument as part of a real orchestra.

DAVID EVANS: It uses a frequency recognition engine to judge the pitch and volume, and combines that with dynamic information from the recorded performance, so the green dots are notes played correctly. Triangles, which tell you whether or not a note is sharp or flat.

SIEBERG: Demo executive producer Chris Shipley selects from hundreds of promising technologies each year.

CHRIS SHIPLEY, DEMO EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: I'm really excited about the products this year, because they are so diverse. I wanted to find some products that had broader implications than just our ability to send e-mail faster or share photographs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have tiny cameras through the pinhole there.

SIEBERG: Implications like peace of mind for baby boomers. New home sensors help people monitor aging parents.

DAN BAUER, LUSORA: That's something you can put onto various household items such as a door or refrigerator. So, for example, if your mom didn't open the fridge by 10:00 in the morning, we would call you or send you a text message.

SIEBERG: And a system from I-Control lets users monitor people or places from the Web.

REZA RAJI, ICONTROL NETWORKS: There's a whole pallet of devices, a collection of devices and sensors you can buy a la carte to expand your system to fit your vacation home or business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Incidentally for more info on DEMO just check out our Web site that is at CNN.com/next.

Well DEMO is the cool side of tech. Now for not so cool side, a security breach, a data base company that collects personal information on millions of Americans. Choicepoint is sending letters to 145,000 people nationwide warning them that their information and therefore their identities may have been stolen. Apparently thieves signed up for Choicepoint accounts using previously stolen identities. They got info on consumers, including names, addresses, and ID numbers.

Choicepoint says at least 750 people have already been defrauded. The information Choicepoint collects is usually used by insurance companies and direct marketing services, and in pre-employment screenings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up, find out how to take your old VHS tapes into the digital age.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: After a string of bombings and attempted bombings in California over the past few months, authorities now have in custody a suspect in one of the incidents. The FBI believes the man is a member of an eco-terror group. Ted Rowlands reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He may not look dangerous, but the FBI thinks that 21-year-old Ryan Lewis is a terrorist. Lewis was arrested last week in northern California for allegedly planting unexploded bombs at a construction site.

KEITH SLOTTER, FBI AGENT: The bottom line this is terrorism, no matter how you look at it. It's not just Al Qaeda and international groups wanting to do this country harm. There's home-grown domestic terrorism and that's what this is.

ROWLANDS: Lewis is suspected of being a member of the environmental group Earth Liberation Front or ELF. The group is believed to be responsible for a string of attempted bombings near Sacramento over the past three months, including the discovery of a pipe bomb at a DMV office on Tuesday. The FBI is analyzing a letter signed ELF, which takes responsibility for the attacks saying they're a, quote, a statement against work and the horror of the cubical. The letter which also promises more attacks was sent to among others, Sam Stanton, a Sacramento newspaper report who has been tracking ELF for years. SAM STANTON, REPORTER, SACRAMENTO BEE: Nobody knows. The group itself doesn't have an hierarchy or an organization. It uses a Web site to announce its activities.

ROWLANDS: Other the years ELF has claimed responsibility for millions of dollars of property damage. Targets have included housing developments, construction sites, and car dealerships. Messages claiming responsibility are often left behind like this banner saying "if you build it, we will burn it." Which was found when the smoke cleared at a housing development fire in San Diego. The ELF mission is to stop development and save the environment. Members, as can be heard on this old training tape, are encouraged to act on an individual basis on behalf of the group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take initiative, form your own cell and do what needs to be done to protect all life on this planet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well in Alabama, a wrongful death lawsuit claims that one of the country's most popular series of video games led a teenager to kill two police officers. The suit seeks damages from the manufacturers of the "Grand Theft Auto" series and two stores that allegedly sold two of the games to Devin Thompson who was a minor at the time of the sale. The games involved police killings and other acts of violence and are rated m for mature audiences only.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK THOMPSON, ATTORNEY: We know that he played this game obsessively for day after day after day, hours each day, filling his head and his heart and his life up with a cop-killing game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: The game makers and distributors have not commented. At a court hearing, authorities quoted the alleged killer as saying when he was arrested, life is a video game, you've got to die sometime.

Well in Washington, D.C, as well as several states, officials are considering the proposals of banning the sales of violent video games to minors, but some people are not so sure that the government needs to be involved in what should be a parent's duty to monitor there kids. Lindsey Arent has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDSEY ARENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When Michelle Wilson's sons put the popular skate boarding video game Tony Hawk on their Christmas list, she didn't think twice, until she said she saw the profanity, hostage-taking and physical beatings in the video.

MICHELLE WILSON, PARENT: I went down and thought, that's not cool, that's not good I bought that?

ARENT: The Wilson's say they work hard to shield their kids from inappropriate content, but it is tough.

ANDREW WILSON, PARENT: We see an increase of violence, from the television to Internet, into the video.

ARENT: Dr. Michael Brody is the head of the television and media committee of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry. After studying the effects of TV violence on children, he sees a direct link between violent video games and aggressive juvenile behavior.

DR. MICHAEL BRODY, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST: The person watching the game becomes embedded in the context of the game. If you watch these first-person shooter games, for example, you are the one who's doing the shooting.

ARENT: Now D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and the city council want to fight back. Under a proposed measure, a store that sells games rated mature to kids 17 and younger could lose its business license or face a $10,000 fine. The video game industry says it's five tear rating system makes game content clear to parents.

DOUG LOWENSTEIN, ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSN: It's not up to any members of the City Council of the district of Columbia or anywhere else to tell me or any other parent I don't want you to have this. It's up to the parent to make those chooses.

ARENT: The ACLU says such restrictions violate free speech saying, video games just like books, movies, art and TV programs with violent content all enjoy the protection of the First Amendment.

For Jinhee Wilde censoring her sons video games isn't the answer.

JINHEE WILDE, PARENT: You cannot legislate and regulate everything. At some point, parents have to step in and do what they need to do. Legislators can't control what's happening inside of my home, either.

ARENT: But the D.C. measure may face an uphill battle. Efforts in three other states have been overturned in federal appeals courts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In our next half hour, now that much of the world is living under the Kyoto that can combat global warming what's different?

Also ahead, the possibly link between sick fish and sick people in the Washington, D.C. Area.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Environmentalists have been longing for it. Industrialists have been dreading it. But no matter how you feel about it, the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change is now in effect. Veronica de la Cruz has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Economics and the environment came to a head this week, as the long-awaited Kyoto Protocol went into force. The international agreement signed by 141 countries requires industrial nations to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by 2012, but many questioned whether enforcing the treaty will really clear the air.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: The Kyoto Protocol It will not work, when you consider that you are holding outside of the area of responsibility all the developing countries, like China and India, South Korea.

ELEEN CLAUSSEN, PRESIDENT PEW CENTER: The reality is we need to do so much more than Kyoto. The importance of Kyoto is that it's a first step, it's a statement of will.

DE LA CRUZ: But although there is a will, there are some important roadblocks in the way. Some nations chose simply not to be involved, and the U.S., the largest generator of greenhouse gases didn't sign the agreement. Only developed countries are bound to comply with the restrictions and beyond the risk of public embarrassment, nations face no real penalties if they fail to meet their goals to cut emissions from power plants, auto exhaust, and other pollutants. So what's the point?

CLAUSSEN: It's a start. Kyoto is a global framework, though the United States is still on the outside. What we need is another global agreement starting in 2012 that includes the United States and other countries that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.

DE LA CRUZ: Although some are already looking ahead to new resolutions in 2012, the bitter international dispute over approving the current agreement could pail in comparison to the internal power plays sure to result from executing it. Experts say that turning environment dreams into tangible realities could cause bitter feuds between governments and industry. And some nations could soon be waking up to the real costs of compliance.

For example, Canada pledged that by 2012 it will emissions to six percent below its pollution levels in 1990, but that country's drive to reduce greenhouse gases could collide directly with the high energy demands required to sustain economic growth.

U.S. officials say that weighing the unknown environmental gains against almost certain economic costs was one factor for their decision not to join the treaty.

HAGEL: The United States senate would not ratify any climate change treaty that did economic harm to the United States or, two, does not include all countries of the world, including developing countries.

DE LA CRUZ: But climate change experts say the widespread droughts, storms and rising temperatures over the last half century were clear signs that something had to be done. CLAUSSEN: Virtually everyone in the world in government, and I say "virtually," because it's not 100 percent universal, have decided that global warming is a problem and we'll see significant effects if we don't take some steps to reduce the greenhouse emissions.

DE LA CRUZ: Despite deep divisions on both sides of the Kyoto argument, there is some common ground.

CLAUSSEN: I think the only way to get a meaningful reduction is to change the way we generate electricity and to change the way we transport ourselves, both in terms of engines and fuels.

HAGEL: We need more efficient uses of our energy, cleaner energy, renewable fuels, different kinds of energy potentials, and this is not just in transportation energy, but it's in all forms of energy.

DE LA CRUZ: Climate change experts say that ultimately the global success of Kyoto may be influenced largely by individual consumers choices. They say public demand for less polluting technologies may be what it takes to energize governments and motivate industries to embrace fresh energy alternatives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: For more on climate change issue and other stories in this week's show, just surf on over to our Web site, that's at cnn.com/next.

Well, in other environmental news, the marshlands of Iraq are poised for a comeback, but the region's road to recovery has some big obstacles along the way. This according to a new scientific report funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The document, based on initial assessments of the region showed that although fish, plants and other wildlife have returned to the marshes, water still remains a problem. About 30 percent of the marshlands have been reflooded, and test shows water quality in the Tigress and Euphrates rivers was better than expected. But dams, dikes, and other manmade structures still divert much of the water from the wetlands. Some areas are now too salty to support viable life.

Reports indicate that about 100,000 marsh Arabs have returned and are trying to re-claim their way of life. But, experts say it may take years for marsh habitat to fully provide the sources needed to sustain a growing population. Iraq's wetlands were initially depleted by Saddam Hussein in his mission to punish Marsh Arabs who opposed his regime. And scientists say it will take international funding and cooperation from neighboring nations, like Turkey and Iran, to help re-claim the marshes.

Stateside, something strange is happening in the waters of the Potomac River, north of Washington, D.C. Science in West Virginia are finding mutated fish. It's happening in an area where certain kinds of human cancers are on the rise. Gary Nuremberg reports on efforts to see if there's a connection.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see 'em right ahead of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. We'll get -- we'll catch up with them.

GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Biologists with the West Virginia division of Natural Resources sending electric current into the south branch of the Potomac River.

JIM HEDRICK, W.VA. DIV. OF NATURAL RESOURCES: Causes the fish to become stunned.

NUREMBERG: Much as scientists were stunned to find male fish, here, with an abnormality called "intersex."

VICKI BLAZER, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: Which is the presence of immature eggs in the testes, so we were very surprised when we found it and then when we found the very high incidence we were even more surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a nice (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

NUREMBERG: They're collecting fish to see how widespread this hormonal mutation has become.

HEDRICK: That obviously makes more of a concern when we have an issue like this on a river that's generally thought of as being really pristine.

NUREMBERG: Waiting on shores, a team of researchers at a riverbank laboratory who look for abnormality in the stunned fish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The liver is orange, like -- Is that normal?

NUREMBERG: It's not normal for male fish to develop eggs, but a university of Florida researcher says it's happening with increasing frequency.

LEWIS GUILETTE, UNIV. OF FLORIDA: We don't know the exact chemical, but it's pretty clear that some kind of pollutant is probably involved, and many of these pollutants actually act as estrogens, and we know that estrogen-dependent cancers are actually on the rise.

NUREMBERG: In Hardy County, West Virginia, where abnormal fish have been found, some cancers that can be estrogen-sensitive are occurring at rates higher than in the rest of the state. More than five times higher for gall bladder cancer, more than twice as high for liver cancer, nearly twice as high as esophageal cancer, uterine and ovarian cancer rates are higher, too.

GUILETTE: There is a need to be concerned, but not to freak out.

NUREMBERG: Initial test results of the water show presence of chemicals that can disrupt the hormonal system, according to a U.S. government official.

DR. ALLEN DUCATMAN, WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY: We don't know necessarily that it links to cancer. We don't have good evidence of that, at this time, but it is very appropriate to ask the question, might it?

GUILETTE: For generations we've used wildlife or animals as sentinels of our own health.

NUREMBERG: There are no hard answers yet, a worry for area parents.

BLAZER: You have to be concerned about what are these things doing to your children and your children's ability to reproduce and be normal.

NUREMBERG: And so the investigation is underway to determine what is making the fish sick and to determine if it is making people sick, too?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, imagine clearing ice from your car without a scraper. We'll show you that invasion and others from one of the nation's premiere auto shows going on in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: All right, time now to check our virtual mailbag. A couple weeks ago we ran a story about fake ads on the Internet. The report showed most of a phony spot touting the toughness of the Volkswagen Polo. Critics said it was in bad taste because it featured a suicide bomber. Well, Dale of Santa Monica, CA wrote: "Are you guys nuts? You showed that VW suicide bomber spot -- without showing the punchline! Of course it is bad taste -- if you don't show the punchline!"

Well Dale, and everyone else who thought the same thing, here is the punchline.

Another unauthorized ad in that story featured a cat supposedly getting decapitated by the sunroof on a Ford Sportka. We won't show that one again to avoid upsetting people like Sharon from Bunnell, Florida who wrote: "If the cat was actually killed for this commercial, it goes beyond poor taste." No worries, Sharon, Ford says the decapitation was not real.

When it comes to auto shows, Chicago's is among there of the pack. And this year's show is going on right now and it's not only full of the latest models and concept cars, but it also features a lot of technology designed to keep drivers and their passengers safer. More in this week's "Getting There" segment. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice-over): At the largest auto show in America, carmakers seem to have one thing on their mind:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety issue.

SIEBERG: Powerful compact microcomputers are smartening up your next car. Mercedes' "presafe" technology predicts and prepares for an accident before it even occurs.

ANDREW SHAFER, MERCEDES-BENZ: And my seat might be reclined too far back or I might be sitting too far forward. It will actually put the seat in an optimal position for a crash.

SIEBERG: GM is taking a similar approach to the same issue.

STEPHAN VITET, GM ENGINEER: If an occupant is sitting really forward, close to the instrument panel, the occupant will get a smaller airbag, and if seat is sitting rearward, or further away, the occupant may get a larger airbag.

SIEBERG: Manufacturers say smarter airbags will increase chances of walking away from an accident unscathed. But what about avoiding an accident altogether?

DAVID WAGNER, MERCURY META ONE CONCEPT CAR: From the lane departure warning system, we have a camera that's on the back of the rear view mirror facing forward, watching the white lines, the lane markings. When we see a vehicle inadvertently drift out of their lane, then we give the driver a warning, we vibrate the driver's site, in that case the right side -- just like they've been over the rumble strip.

SIEBERG: Honda's Acura link traffic monitoring system helps you avoid other people's accidents.

VOICE: Left lane blocked.

CHUCK SCHIFSKY, AMERICAN HONDA: There's data that's gathered from local and state sources, it's fed to XM, and fed to the car through the XM satellite system.

RICK POPELY, AUTO WRITER, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: It warns you of a construction zone ahead, or there's been an accident or a heavy traffic and maybe before you get there and end up in a traffic jam from which you can't escape, you can take a different route. Useful piece of information.

SIEBERG: A new gadget for drivers in colder climates is "Hot Spot" from Microheat. GARY PILIBOSIAN, CEO, MICROHEAT, INC: It heats the washer fluid to de-ice your windshield. It's a smart unit, so pressing the one button on the vehicle, it automatically dispenses the correct amount of fluid at the proper temperature and the proper time interval.

SIEBERG: Checking out hot products in vehicles, today's driver, and tomorrow's as well, couldn't wait to hit the road.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, our gadget guru, Marc Saltzman, tells us how to turn dusty old VHS tapes into shiny new DVDs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: These days it may seem like the only reason you have a VCR is to watch those old tapes, those old home movies that you just can't seem to bring yourself to throw them away. But what if you want to streamline that and bring it into the new age? Well, joining us in the new age is Marc Saltzman. And we're going to take about taking video cassettes and transferring them over to your computer and to DVDs.

MARC SALTZMAN, CONSUMER TECH EXPERT: That's right. Huge trend, both video tapes and old camcorder footage onto your PC or onto a DVD directly. It's very popular trend. It's inexpensive and relatively easy to do even if you're not technically savvy.

SIEBERG: OK.

SALTZMAN: Let's look at a couple products that allow this. The first one is from a company called ADS Tech, this is called the DVD Express, it's $90. You simply connect your old camcorder or VCR to the input jacks, here, the familiar red and white for left and right stereo, and yellow for a video. There's also the optional s-video. You connect this to your PC via a USB cord that comes with it, and you click "record," and you're archiving it on the PC.

SIEBERG: OK, and the one from ETR looks very similar. I imagine it does a similar thing?

SALTZMAN: It's very similar. It's $100, but you also get TV, as you can see there's a coaxial cable input jack, here. So you can record content on your computer like a TVR, like a TiVo, but it also has the analog to digital conversion cords outlets here, so you can connect your cords to it, back up that footage on the PC, as well. Same concept.

And we also -- the third product is from Dazzle. A lot of people know this brand, it's from Pinnacle and it's called the Digital Video Creator 90. This is also $90, and as you can see, you simply take the cords from your camcorder or VCR into it. It doesn't even require a power outlet, by the way, plugs directly into your USB port of your PC, once you installed the software, if you press "play" on the camcorder, if you've hooked it up correctly, you'll start seeing that footage in a little window.

SIEBERG: OK.

SALTZMAN: Now, here we go. Then you're ready to do the editing that we talked about, such as dragging and dropping the clips into a timeline...

SIEBERG: Adding and subtracting things like that...

SALTZMAN: Right. Title screens. Even if you have a microphone on your PC, you can add arrogation. And when you're done, you're ready to burn your DVD, or you can post it to a Web site or something like that.

SIEBERG: And again you can use your camcorder if that's what you've still got, or you can use your VCR.

SALTZMAN: That's right.

SIEBERG: If you're just going to put the original.

SALTZMAN: You may have a lot of old episodes of "Three's Company" on VHS that you want to back up and...

SIEBERG: Don't give me away, Marc. Now, what if you don't want to use the computer or if you're intimidated by that whole idea? Are there other options, as well?

SALTZMAN: Yeah, there are and I've got two with me today. One -- both don't require a PC at all. One is optional. That one is the Sony DVDirect. For about $300, it's a stand-alone DVD burner, can write to a disk at 16 times, which is really fast, and multiple formats. You can connect it to a PC, if you're comfortable to do so, for some enhanced functionality, but as a stand-alone DVD burner, it'll do the trick, it has the same input jacks, there.

And Panasonic has a product for your TV, this is a DVD burner and a VHS in one. It's called the DMR-E75V. You put the videotape in one side, your blank disk in the other, press "dub" and you've made an instant backup. But, you -- of course no editing functionality, there.

SIEBERG: Right, OK, good point. So the end result, thought, is that maybe one day you can take all of this, and I have about 20 times of this and...

SALTZMAN: Put them in the closet and All of that goes on to one of these.

SIEBERG: Forget about it.

SALTZMAN: That's it. All that goes onto one of these, and that's it. You're done. SIEBERG: Amazing. Thanks Marc.

SALTZMAN: Thanks Daniel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Don't go away, because still to come: A breed in need of a facelift takes on the Westminster Dog Show.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Ever wonder if lobsters hurt as they're being boiled? Well, a University of Oslo says it's unlikely. The report says that lobsters and other invertebrates like crabs, snails, and worms, probably don't feel discomfort, even though lobsters do appear to struggle when dunked in boiling water. Lobster biologists in, where else, Maine, have long argued that's because of the creature's automatic escape mechanism, not because it feels pain.

If you watched Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show earlier this week, you may have noticed a new wrinkle, actually a lot of wrinkles, belonging to a breed that's new at the dog show this year. Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All the Botox in the world couldn't cure Bellagio. If you're a sucker for wrinkles...

(UNINTELLIGIBLE)

MOOS: The new breed at Westminster will leave you drooling.

(on camera): Yeah, that is some man-sized drool.

(voice-over): Let it fly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gotta have a drool rag. It's like American Express, you can never leave home without it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hippopotamus, right?

MOOS: Hippo, no. Neo, yes, short for...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neapolitan Mastiff, his name is Bellagio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh wow, Bellagio.

MOOS: The girls are swooning over half-brothers Bellagio and Sirius.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SINGING): Let's get Sirius. Woo! MOOS: Two of only three Neapolitan Mastiffs competing for the first time ever at Westminster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to make him flap his cheeks.

MOOS (on camera): Whoa.

(voice-over): In the time of the Roman emperors, a dog like this was used as...

HARRY BOOKER, BELLAGIO'S OWNER: A canine gladiator.

MOOS: Bellagio's handler, Harry Booker, says they fought lions and tigers at the coliseum. The loose, wrinkly skin makes it hard for an opponent to grab.

JIM DEPPEN, SIRUS' OWNER: He can literally turn in the skin. I can't -- I can't literally restrain this dog.

MOOS (on camera): Do you like those wrinkles?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I just said I'll look like this in 30 years.

MOOS: Twenty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, you're a sweetheart, aren't you?

MOOS (voice-over): And though they were bred to be guard dogs, they're gentle when trained from puppy-hood. This is Sirius's son, seriously irresistible. Bellagio's so well-trained, we had to use a treat to entice him to jump up on me.

(on camera): I can't (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(voice-over): Maybe you've seen the breed before, in "Harry Potter."

(on camera): Is this what happens all the time, when you bring them out?

DEPPEN: Constantly, the barrage of people.

MOOS (voice-over): Amid the acclaim, what's a little slobber on the suit? "Best of breed" went to Bellagio despite comments like, "hey, mister, someone let the air out of your dog." Maybe slimmer show dogs can slip by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He can't get through, he's so big. We got to go around.

MOOS (on camera): Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the biggest dog in the show!

MOOS (voice-over): at least he got the biggest laugh. Maybe those are just laugh lines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Yeah, even an iron couldn't help out those wrinkles.

Well, that's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week:

When grizzly in Yellowstone emerge from winter hibernation, they could face the prospects of being removed from the endangered species list. We'll tell you why some say that's bad news for the bears.

That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's hear from you. You can send us an e-mail at NEXT@CNN.com. And don't forget to check out our Web site, that's at cnn.com/next.

Thanks so much for joining us, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.

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

Aired February 19, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST, NEXT@CNN: Hi, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, the government has spend $50 billion to build a missile defense system. The failure of the latest test of that system is testing the patience of critics.
Researchers investigate whether gender-bender fish from the Platonic River could have any connection to rising cancer rates in the same area.

And we'll take you to D.E.M.O., the annual gathering of the world's top technology innovators. Could one of these products be the next big thing. All that and more on NEXT.

There was another failed test of the national missile defense system this week, and that is when renewed questions about whether the program will ever be capable of defending the nation against a long- range missile attack. In our continuing "Security Watch" coverage senior Pentagon correspondent Jamie McIntyre reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE MCINTYRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The target missile launched flawlessly from Alaska, but the intercepted designed to shoot it down never got off the ground. $85 million for a test that produced no data on whether the complex technology to destroy a warhead in space is working any better.

Critics say the failure, the second in two months, shows that after sinking more than $50 billion over the last five years into missile defense, the U.S. is not even close to having a system that can protect against long-range nuclear missiles.

JOHN ISSAACS, COUNCIL FOR A LIVABLE WORLD: We've been trying for 40 to 50 years to perfect the system. We have new technology advances, we have new missiles, we have new sensor data, and we still can't get the system to work.

MCINTYRE: Overall, the program is batting 500, with five hits and five misses, but critics charge the early tests were too easy. The new head of the missile defense agency rejects that skepticism, insisting the latest failure was an anomaly, involving tried and true ground-launch technology, not an indication of serious problems.

LT. GEN. TREY OBERING, DIR. MISSILE DEFENSE AGENCY: We have some rust we have to get out of the system sort of speak. We also understand we have some quality control issues on the ground side that we have to address, but again I would call these on the margins. These have nothing to do with the basic design, the basic performance of the system.

MCINTYRE: The Pentagon argues whatever its limits, some missile defense is better than none, especially with North Korea claiming to have nuclear weapons and developing missiles which could reach parts of the United States.

OBERING: When everything else fails, we'll be the only thing between an incoming warhead and what could be mass destruction on the ground.

MCINTYRE: The U.S. now has six interceptor missiles at Ft. Greeley, Alaska, and two more in California that could be used in a pinch. And if an interceptor failed to launches during a real attack, officials say other missiles would automatically take over.

MCINTYRE (on camera): The recent failures have been in the area of standard rocket science, proven technology that Pentagon officials say is difficult but doable. While it may be disappointing for missile engineers and scientists, they insist they will solve the problems over time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, one problem, the transportation security administration is still trying to solve -- when and how to ban butane lighters from commercial aircraft. A ban was supposed to take effect this past Tuesday, but the TSA says the matter is still under review.

Another security measure is now being tested, a bomb-detection device that doesn't involve wands or pat downs, just little puffs of air. Kareen Wynter checked out the system.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Flying the friendly skies has taken on a new meaning since September 11th, there are more federal air marshals on board, armed pilots in the cock pit and on the ground inside airport terminals, numerous high-tech screening devices. Now, take a look at another layer of security that detects plastic and other non-metallic explosive substances. It's called an explosive trace portal, and it is currently being tested at eight airports across the country.

JAMS FULLER, TSA CHIEF OF STAFF: While we're trying to find and eliminate is the opportunity for the shoe bomber incident where a bomb might be hidden.

WYNTER: Passengers simply step on to the machine, seconds later puffs of natural air shoot out. The air will disturb any material attached to the person's body and clothing. The air is then drawn back into the system and analyzed. An alarm signals additional screening. Transportation security administration officials say it's fast, sensitive and nonintrusive. FULLER: We think that will encourage more trust in the market.

WYNTER: Will it? We asked some travelers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's necessary. I would rather by frisked than blown up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Personally I'm worried about other threats.

WYNTER: Passengers still must pass through metal detectors but officials say this simple device should take some of the hassle out of the airport travel.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

Well moving on now Boeing this week unveiled the world's longest- flying plane, the 777 200 World Liner will be able to fly nonstop from London to Sydney. Boeing says the world liner can stay aloft 1500 nautical miles longer than any other commercial plane. The jets first flight is scheduled for early March. Boeing is hoping to steal some thunder from Airbus which last month introduced the world's largest passenger plane, the double-decker 8380.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up next after a break, robots learn to walk the easy way.

Also ahead, violent video games are in the crosshairs in the nation's capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: All right, this may look just like a pile of dirt to you and me, but to Steve Squyres the lead investigator for the Mars rovers it's pay dirt. Squyres says these rocks photographed by Spirit rover offer even more evidence there was once water on the surface of Mars.

While some earthbound robots made news this week in the journal of "Science." Researchers at three universities have come up with two- legged bots that walk without expending a lot of energy. The robots from Cornell and the Netherlands Delft University just need a small push to begin walking on round bottom feet. The robot from M.I.T. uses a little battery power to give itself a kick start. These passive dynamics robots may not be as flashy as Asimov, but researchers say that Asimov uses more than 10 times the energy as a human being, researchers say these new robots use as much energy say, as a student wandering into class, which sounds like me in my college days. It's hope that the passive-dynamic robotic research will lead to better prosthetic limbs.

It is six of the most pressure filled minutes in the world of technology. At the annual D.E.M.O. Conference which took place this week, companies must prove a new products wow factor on stage before an elite high-tech crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice over): The 15th year of show casing the next new thing, D.E.M.O. got off with a bang.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If I were to shoot one of my colleagues.

SIEBERG: MD used a stereo camera to capture and almost instantly create a 3-d model of this on-stage shoot out.

FRANK TETI, MOROBOTICS: First we can rotate the model and view it from any direction. We can also measure the length of objects within the scene such as the corpse.

SIEBERG: Most police still use tape measures, pads and pencils to reconstruct crime scenes.

TETI: Somebody came up with this device that instantly does the job.

SIEBERG: MDA also unveiled ice-cam, designed to take the dangerous, even deadly guess work out of deicing air craft.

TETI: The biggest challenge of all was to detect ice distinct from water. We managed to locate the ice signature.

SIEBERG: Investors flocked to the Arizona conference to see 70 companies dazzle with their demonstrations. Safety, security and other practical products took the spotlight. Not your usual array of new toys and business tools.

KEVIN RUSSET, GRSCIENCE LTD: We have the unique ability range to detect a range of different difficult explosives, including most plastic explosives.

SIEBERG: The crash of Pan Am 103 was blamed on plastic explosives hidden away in checked baggage. The company uses radio waves to detect the chemical structure of thousands of such dangerous materials. The most popular booth at the show used radio waves for a far less serious goal.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You mean I finally get a pair of jeans that actually fit.

SIEBERG: Lines were long to score a free pair of Levi's. Intellifit collects 200 body measurements no image or photo is saved.

ED ORIBBIN, INTELLFIT: Consumers love the convenience of finding what brands will fit them best and what size they are in various brands.

SIEBERG: So when the "check engine" light comes on in the dashboard, is the engine about to fall out or is the gas cap simply lose. ALICE COLLINS, AUTOXRAY: This gives you the trouble code and the definition of it. So you can take it to the mechanic, say fix this, I don't need my tires rotated, I don't need anything else fixed, I just need this sensor fixed.

SIEBERG: Gamers could soon find a brand-new sensation in the drivers seat. The addition of haptica (ph), the sense of touch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can feel surfaces, you can feel textures, you can feel dynamics and momentum.

SIEBERG: OK so it's hard to translate this concept to television, but some who tried it say --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tact aisle feedback was really amazing.

SIEBERG: If to much cramped touching of your cell phone or PDA keys has you down, try typing on nothing.

MARINO NEVES, VKB INC: It's infrared lights on a flat surface, and a sensor detects the movement of your finger, the interaction of your finger, and sends the information back to the host via blue tooth. With our technology, we are able to do this, and interpret that into digital data.

SIEBERG: Besides being a conversation starter in public places, the virtual keyboard could be destined for operating rooms or intensive care units where traditional keyboards could harbor plenty of germs. Sick of that static sheet music? Try practicing a musical instrument as part of a real orchestra.

DAVID EVANS: It uses a frequency recognition engine to judge the pitch and volume, and combines that with dynamic information from the recorded performance, so the green dots are notes played correctly. Triangles, which tell you whether or not a note is sharp or flat.

SIEBERG: Demo executive producer Chris Shipley selects from hundreds of promising technologies each year.

CHRIS SHIPLEY, DEMO EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: I'm really excited about the products this year, because they are so diverse. I wanted to find some products that had broader implications than just our ability to send e-mail faster or share photographs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have tiny cameras through the pinhole there.

SIEBERG: Implications like peace of mind for baby boomers. New home sensors help people monitor aging parents.

DAN BAUER, LUSORA: That's something you can put onto various household items such as a door or refrigerator. So, for example, if your mom didn't open the fridge by 10:00 in the morning, we would call you or send you a text message.

SIEBERG: And a system from I-Control lets users monitor people or places from the Web.

REZA RAJI, ICONTROL NETWORKS: There's a whole pallet of devices, a collection of devices and sensors you can buy a la carte to expand your system to fit your vacation home or business.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Incidentally for more info on DEMO just check out our Web site that is at CNN.com/next.

Well DEMO is the cool side of tech. Now for not so cool side, a security breach, a data base company that collects personal information on millions of Americans. Choicepoint is sending letters to 145,000 people nationwide warning them that their information and therefore their identities may have been stolen. Apparently thieves signed up for Choicepoint accounts using previously stolen identities. They got info on consumers, including names, addresses, and ID numbers.

Choicepoint says at least 750 people have already been defrauded. The information Choicepoint collects is usually used by insurance companies and direct marketing services, and in pre-employment screenings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up, find out how to take your old VHS tapes into the digital age.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: After a string of bombings and attempted bombings in California over the past few months, authorities now have in custody a suspect in one of the incidents. The FBI believes the man is a member of an eco-terror group. Ted Rowlands reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): He may not look dangerous, but the FBI thinks that 21-year-old Ryan Lewis is a terrorist. Lewis was arrested last week in northern California for allegedly planting unexploded bombs at a construction site.

KEITH SLOTTER, FBI AGENT: The bottom line this is terrorism, no matter how you look at it. It's not just Al Qaeda and international groups wanting to do this country harm. There's home-grown domestic terrorism and that's what this is.

ROWLANDS: Lewis is suspected of being a member of the environmental group Earth Liberation Front or ELF. The group is believed to be responsible for a string of attempted bombings near Sacramento over the past three months, including the discovery of a pipe bomb at a DMV office on Tuesday. The FBI is analyzing a letter signed ELF, which takes responsibility for the attacks saying they're a, quote, a statement against work and the horror of the cubical. The letter which also promises more attacks was sent to among others, Sam Stanton, a Sacramento newspaper report who has been tracking ELF for years. SAM STANTON, REPORTER, SACRAMENTO BEE: Nobody knows. The group itself doesn't have an hierarchy or an organization. It uses a Web site to announce its activities.

ROWLANDS: Other the years ELF has claimed responsibility for millions of dollars of property damage. Targets have included housing developments, construction sites, and car dealerships. Messages claiming responsibility are often left behind like this banner saying "if you build it, we will burn it." Which was found when the smoke cleared at a housing development fire in San Diego. The ELF mission is to stop development and save the environment. Members, as can be heard on this old training tape, are encouraged to act on an individual basis on behalf of the group.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take initiative, form your own cell and do what needs to be done to protect all life on this planet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well in Alabama, a wrongful death lawsuit claims that one of the country's most popular series of video games led a teenager to kill two police officers. The suit seeks damages from the manufacturers of the "Grand Theft Auto" series and two stores that allegedly sold two of the games to Devin Thompson who was a minor at the time of the sale. The games involved police killings and other acts of violence and are rated m for mature audiences only.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK THOMPSON, ATTORNEY: We know that he played this game obsessively for day after day after day, hours each day, filling his head and his heart and his life up with a cop-killing game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: The game makers and distributors have not commented. At a court hearing, authorities quoted the alleged killer as saying when he was arrested, life is a video game, you've got to die sometime.

Well in Washington, D.C, as well as several states, officials are considering the proposals of banning the sales of violent video games to minors, but some people are not so sure that the government needs to be involved in what should be a parent's duty to monitor there kids. Lindsey Arent has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDSEY ARENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When Michelle Wilson's sons put the popular skate boarding video game Tony Hawk on their Christmas list, she didn't think twice, until she said she saw the profanity, hostage-taking and physical beatings in the video.

MICHELLE WILSON, PARENT: I went down and thought, that's not cool, that's not good I bought that?

ARENT: The Wilson's say they work hard to shield their kids from inappropriate content, but it is tough.

ANDREW WILSON, PARENT: We see an increase of violence, from the television to Internet, into the video.

ARENT: Dr. Michael Brody is the head of the television and media committee of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry. After studying the effects of TV violence on children, he sees a direct link between violent video games and aggressive juvenile behavior.

DR. MICHAEL BRODY, CHILD PSYCHIATRIST: The person watching the game becomes embedded in the context of the game. If you watch these first-person shooter games, for example, you are the one who's doing the shooting.

ARENT: Now D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and the city council want to fight back. Under a proposed measure, a store that sells games rated mature to kids 17 and younger could lose its business license or face a $10,000 fine. The video game industry says it's five tear rating system makes game content clear to parents.

DOUG LOWENSTEIN, ENTERTAINMENT SOFTWARE ASSN: It's not up to any members of the City Council of the district of Columbia or anywhere else to tell me or any other parent I don't want you to have this. It's up to the parent to make those chooses.

ARENT: The ACLU says such restrictions violate free speech saying, video games just like books, movies, art and TV programs with violent content all enjoy the protection of the First Amendment.

For Jinhee Wilde censoring her sons video games isn't the answer.

JINHEE WILDE, PARENT: You cannot legislate and regulate everything. At some point, parents have to step in and do what they need to do. Legislators can't control what's happening inside of my home, either.

ARENT: But the D.C. measure may face an uphill battle. Efforts in three other states have been overturned in federal appeals courts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In our next half hour, now that much of the world is living under the Kyoto that can combat global warming what's different?

Also ahead, the possibly link between sick fish and sick people in the Washington, D.C. Area.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. Environmentalists have been longing for it. Industrialists have been dreading it. But no matter how you feel about it, the Kyoto Protocol to combat climate change is now in effect. Veronica de la Cruz has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) VERONICA DE LA CRUZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Economics and the environment came to a head this week, as the long-awaited Kyoto Protocol went into force. The international agreement signed by 141 countries requires industrial nations to cut their emissions of greenhouse gases by 2012, but many questioned whether enforcing the treaty will really clear the air.

SEN. CHUCK HAGEL (R), NEBRASKA: The Kyoto Protocol It will not work, when you consider that you are holding outside of the area of responsibility all the developing countries, like China and India, South Korea.

ELEEN CLAUSSEN, PRESIDENT PEW CENTER: The reality is we need to do so much more than Kyoto. The importance of Kyoto is that it's a first step, it's a statement of will.

DE LA CRUZ: But although there is a will, there are some important roadblocks in the way. Some nations chose simply not to be involved, and the U.S., the largest generator of greenhouse gases didn't sign the agreement. Only developed countries are bound to comply with the restrictions and beyond the risk of public embarrassment, nations face no real penalties if they fail to meet their goals to cut emissions from power plants, auto exhaust, and other pollutants. So what's the point?

CLAUSSEN: It's a start. Kyoto is a global framework, though the United States is still on the outside. What we need is another global agreement starting in 2012 that includes the United States and other countries that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.

DE LA CRUZ: Although some are already looking ahead to new resolutions in 2012, the bitter international dispute over approving the current agreement could pail in comparison to the internal power plays sure to result from executing it. Experts say that turning environment dreams into tangible realities could cause bitter feuds between governments and industry. And some nations could soon be waking up to the real costs of compliance.

For example, Canada pledged that by 2012 it will emissions to six percent below its pollution levels in 1990, but that country's drive to reduce greenhouse gases could collide directly with the high energy demands required to sustain economic growth.

U.S. officials say that weighing the unknown environmental gains against almost certain economic costs was one factor for their decision not to join the treaty.

HAGEL: The United States senate would not ratify any climate change treaty that did economic harm to the United States or, two, does not include all countries of the world, including developing countries.

DE LA CRUZ: But climate change experts say the widespread droughts, storms and rising temperatures over the last half century were clear signs that something had to be done. CLAUSSEN: Virtually everyone in the world in government, and I say "virtually," because it's not 100 percent universal, have decided that global warming is a problem and we'll see significant effects if we don't take some steps to reduce the greenhouse emissions.

DE LA CRUZ: Despite deep divisions on both sides of the Kyoto argument, there is some common ground.

CLAUSSEN: I think the only way to get a meaningful reduction is to change the way we generate electricity and to change the way we transport ourselves, both in terms of engines and fuels.

HAGEL: We need more efficient uses of our energy, cleaner energy, renewable fuels, different kinds of energy potentials, and this is not just in transportation energy, but it's in all forms of energy.

DE LA CRUZ: Climate change experts say that ultimately the global success of Kyoto may be influenced largely by individual consumers choices. They say public demand for less polluting technologies may be what it takes to energize governments and motivate industries to embrace fresh energy alternatives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: For more on climate change issue and other stories in this week's show, just surf on over to our Web site, that's at cnn.com/next.

Well, in other environmental news, the marshlands of Iraq are poised for a comeback, but the region's road to recovery has some big obstacles along the way. This according to a new scientific report funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The document, based on initial assessments of the region showed that although fish, plants and other wildlife have returned to the marshes, water still remains a problem. About 30 percent of the marshlands have been reflooded, and test shows water quality in the Tigress and Euphrates rivers was better than expected. But dams, dikes, and other manmade structures still divert much of the water from the wetlands. Some areas are now too salty to support viable life.

Reports indicate that about 100,000 marsh Arabs have returned and are trying to re-claim their way of life. But, experts say it may take years for marsh habitat to fully provide the sources needed to sustain a growing population. Iraq's wetlands were initially depleted by Saddam Hussein in his mission to punish Marsh Arabs who opposed his regime. And scientists say it will take international funding and cooperation from neighboring nations, like Turkey and Iran, to help re-claim the marshes.

Stateside, something strange is happening in the waters of the Potomac River, north of Washington, D.C. Science in West Virginia are finding mutated fish. It's happening in an area where certain kinds of human cancers are on the rise. Gary Nuremberg reports on efforts to see if there's a connection.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I see 'em right ahead of us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. We'll get -- we'll catch up with them.

GARY NUREMBERG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Biologists with the West Virginia division of Natural Resources sending electric current into the south branch of the Potomac River.

JIM HEDRICK, W.VA. DIV. OF NATURAL RESOURCES: Causes the fish to become stunned.

NUREMBERG: Much as scientists were stunned to find male fish, here, with an abnormality called "intersex."

VICKI BLAZER, U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY: Which is the presence of immature eggs in the testes, so we were very surprised when we found it and then when we found the very high incidence we were even more surprised.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a nice (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

NUREMBERG: They're collecting fish to see how widespread this hormonal mutation has become.

HEDRICK: That obviously makes more of a concern when we have an issue like this on a river that's generally thought of as being really pristine.

NUREMBERG: Waiting on shores, a team of researchers at a riverbank laboratory who look for abnormality in the stunned fish.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The liver is orange, like -- Is that normal?

NUREMBERG: It's not normal for male fish to develop eggs, but a university of Florida researcher says it's happening with increasing frequency.

LEWIS GUILETTE, UNIV. OF FLORIDA: We don't know the exact chemical, but it's pretty clear that some kind of pollutant is probably involved, and many of these pollutants actually act as estrogens, and we know that estrogen-dependent cancers are actually on the rise.

NUREMBERG: In Hardy County, West Virginia, where abnormal fish have been found, some cancers that can be estrogen-sensitive are occurring at rates higher than in the rest of the state. More than five times higher for gall bladder cancer, more than twice as high for liver cancer, nearly twice as high as esophageal cancer, uterine and ovarian cancer rates are higher, too.

GUILETTE: There is a need to be concerned, but not to freak out.

NUREMBERG: Initial test results of the water show presence of chemicals that can disrupt the hormonal system, according to a U.S. government official.

DR. ALLEN DUCATMAN, WEST VIRGINIA UNIVERSITY: We don't know necessarily that it links to cancer. We don't have good evidence of that, at this time, but it is very appropriate to ask the question, might it?

GUILETTE: For generations we've used wildlife or animals as sentinels of our own health.

NUREMBERG: There are no hard answers yet, a worry for area parents.

BLAZER: You have to be concerned about what are these things doing to your children and your children's ability to reproduce and be normal.

NUREMBERG: And so the investigation is underway to determine what is making the fish sick and to determine if it is making people sick, too?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Just ahead, imagine clearing ice from your car without a scraper. We'll show you that invasion and others from one of the nation's premiere auto shows going on in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: All right, time now to check our virtual mailbag. A couple weeks ago we ran a story about fake ads on the Internet. The report showed most of a phony spot touting the toughness of the Volkswagen Polo. Critics said it was in bad taste because it featured a suicide bomber. Well, Dale of Santa Monica, CA wrote: "Are you guys nuts? You showed that VW suicide bomber spot -- without showing the punchline! Of course it is bad taste -- if you don't show the punchline!"

Well Dale, and everyone else who thought the same thing, here is the punchline.

Another unauthorized ad in that story featured a cat supposedly getting decapitated by the sunroof on a Ford Sportka. We won't show that one again to avoid upsetting people like Sharon from Bunnell, Florida who wrote: "If the cat was actually killed for this commercial, it goes beyond poor taste." No worries, Sharon, Ford says the decapitation was not real.

When it comes to auto shows, Chicago's is among there of the pack. And this year's show is going on right now and it's not only full of the latest models and concept cars, but it also features a lot of technology designed to keep drivers and their passengers safer. More in this week's "Getting There" segment. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice-over): At the largest auto show in America, carmakers seem to have one thing on their mind:

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Safety issue.

SIEBERG: Powerful compact microcomputers are smartening up your next car. Mercedes' "presafe" technology predicts and prepares for an accident before it even occurs.

ANDREW SHAFER, MERCEDES-BENZ: And my seat might be reclined too far back or I might be sitting too far forward. It will actually put the seat in an optimal position for a crash.

SIEBERG: GM is taking a similar approach to the same issue.

STEPHAN VITET, GM ENGINEER: If an occupant is sitting really forward, close to the instrument panel, the occupant will get a smaller airbag, and if seat is sitting rearward, or further away, the occupant may get a larger airbag.

SIEBERG: Manufacturers say smarter airbags will increase chances of walking away from an accident unscathed. But what about avoiding an accident altogether?

DAVID WAGNER, MERCURY META ONE CONCEPT CAR: From the lane departure warning system, we have a camera that's on the back of the rear view mirror facing forward, watching the white lines, the lane markings. When we see a vehicle inadvertently drift out of their lane, then we give the driver a warning, we vibrate the driver's site, in that case the right side -- just like they've been over the rumble strip.

SIEBERG: Honda's Acura link traffic monitoring system helps you avoid other people's accidents.

VOICE: Left lane blocked.

CHUCK SCHIFSKY, AMERICAN HONDA: There's data that's gathered from local and state sources, it's fed to XM, and fed to the car through the XM satellite system.

RICK POPELY, AUTO WRITER, CHICAGO TRIBUNE: It warns you of a construction zone ahead, or there's been an accident or a heavy traffic and maybe before you get there and end up in a traffic jam from which you can't escape, you can take a different route. Useful piece of information.

SIEBERG: A new gadget for drivers in colder climates is "Hot Spot" from Microheat. GARY PILIBOSIAN, CEO, MICROHEAT, INC: It heats the washer fluid to de-ice your windshield. It's a smart unit, so pressing the one button on the vehicle, it automatically dispenses the correct amount of fluid at the proper temperature and the proper time interval.

SIEBERG: Checking out hot products in vehicles, today's driver, and tomorrow's as well, couldn't wait to hit the road.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up, our gadget guru, Marc Saltzman, tells us how to turn dusty old VHS tapes into shiny new DVDs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: These days it may seem like the only reason you have a VCR is to watch those old tapes, those old home movies that you just can't seem to bring yourself to throw them away. But what if you want to streamline that and bring it into the new age? Well, joining us in the new age is Marc Saltzman. And we're going to take about taking video cassettes and transferring them over to your computer and to DVDs.

MARC SALTZMAN, CONSUMER TECH EXPERT: That's right. Huge trend, both video tapes and old camcorder footage onto your PC or onto a DVD directly. It's very popular trend. It's inexpensive and relatively easy to do even if you're not technically savvy.

SIEBERG: OK.

SALTZMAN: Let's look at a couple products that allow this. The first one is from a company called ADS Tech, this is called the DVD Express, it's $90. You simply connect your old camcorder or VCR to the input jacks, here, the familiar red and white for left and right stereo, and yellow for a video. There's also the optional s-video. You connect this to your PC via a USB cord that comes with it, and you click "record," and you're archiving it on the PC.

SIEBERG: OK, and the one from ETR looks very similar. I imagine it does a similar thing?

SALTZMAN: It's very similar. It's $100, but you also get TV, as you can see there's a coaxial cable input jack, here. So you can record content on your computer like a TVR, like a TiVo, but it also has the analog to digital conversion cords outlets here, so you can connect your cords to it, back up that footage on the PC, as well. Same concept.

And we also -- the third product is from Dazzle. A lot of people know this brand, it's from Pinnacle and it's called the Digital Video Creator 90. This is also $90, and as you can see, you simply take the cords from your camcorder or VCR into it. It doesn't even require a power outlet, by the way, plugs directly into your USB port of your PC, once you installed the software, if you press "play" on the camcorder, if you've hooked it up correctly, you'll start seeing that footage in a little window.

SIEBERG: OK.

SALTZMAN: Now, here we go. Then you're ready to do the editing that we talked about, such as dragging and dropping the clips into a timeline...

SIEBERG: Adding and subtracting things like that...

SALTZMAN: Right. Title screens. Even if you have a microphone on your PC, you can add arrogation. And when you're done, you're ready to burn your DVD, or you can post it to a Web site or something like that.

SIEBERG: And again you can use your camcorder if that's what you've still got, or you can use your VCR.

SALTZMAN: That's right.

SIEBERG: If you're just going to put the original.

SALTZMAN: You may have a lot of old episodes of "Three's Company" on VHS that you want to back up and...

SIEBERG: Don't give me away, Marc. Now, what if you don't want to use the computer or if you're intimidated by that whole idea? Are there other options, as well?

SALTZMAN: Yeah, there are and I've got two with me today. One -- both don't require a PC at all. One is optional. That one is the Sony DVDirect. For about $300, it's a stand-alone DVD burner, can write to a disk at 16 times, which is really fast, and multiple formats. You can connect it to a PC, if you're comfortable to do so, for some enhanced functionality, but as a stand-alone DVD burner, it'll do the trick, it has the same input jacks, there.

And Panasonic has a product for your TV, this is a DVD burner and a VHS in one. It's called the DMR-E75V. You put the videotape in one side, your blank disk in the other, press "dub" and you've made an instant backup. But, you -- of course no editing functionality, there.

SIEBERG: Right, OK, good point. So the end result, thought, is that maybe one day you can take all of this, and I have about 20 times of this and...

SALTZMAN: Put them in the closet and All of that goes on to one of these.

SIEBERG: Forget about it.

SALTZMAN: That's it. All that goes onto one of these, and that's it. You're done. SIEBERG: Amazing. Thanks Marc.

SALTZMAN: Thanks Daniel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Don't go away, because still to come: A breed in need of a facelift takes on the Westminster Dog Show.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Ever wonder if lobsters hurt as they're being boiled? Well, a University of Oslo says it's unlikely. The report says that lobsters and other invertebrates like crabs, snails, and worms, probably don't feel discomfort, even though lobsters do appear to struggle when dunked in boiling water. Lobster biologists in, where else, Maine, have long argued that's because of the creature's automatic escape mechanism, not because it feels pain.

If you watched Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show earlier this week, you may have noticed a new wrinkle, actually a lot of wrinkles, belonging to a breed that's new at the dog show this year. Jeanne Moos has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All the Botox in the world couldn't cure Bellagio. If you're a sucker for wrinkles...

(UNINTELLIGIBLE)

MOOS: The new breed at Westminster will leave you drooling.

(on camera): Yeah, that is some man-sized drool.

(voice-over): Let it fly.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Gotta have a drool rag. It's like American Express, you can never leave home without it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hippopotamus, right?

MOOS: Hippo, no. Neo, yes, short for...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neapolitan Mastiff, his name is Bellagio.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh wow, Bellagio.

MOOS: The girls are swooning over half-brothers Bellagio and Sirius.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SINGING): Let's get Sirius. Woo! MOOS: Two of only three Neapolitan Mastiffs competing for the first time ever at Westminster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got to make him flap his cheeks.

MOOS (on camera): Whoa.

(voice-over): In the time of the Roman emperors, a dog like this was used as...

HARRY BOOKER, BELLAGIO'S OWNER: A canine gladiator.

MOOS: Bellagio's handler, Harry Booker, says they fought lions and tigers at the coliseum. The loose, wrinkly skin makes it hard for an opponent to grab.

JIM DEPPEN, SIRUS' OWNER: He can literally turn in the skin. I can't -- I can't literally restrain this dog.

MOOS (on camera): Do you like those wrinkles?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I just said I'll look like this in 30 years.

MOOS: Twenty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, you're a sweetheart, aren't you?

MOOS (voice-over): And though they were bred to be guard dogs, they're gentle when trained from puppy-hood. This is Sirius's son, seriously irresistible. Bellagio's so well-trained, we had to use a treat to entice him to jump up on me.

(on camera): I can't (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

(voice-over): Maybe you've seen the breed before, in "Harry Potter."

(on camera): Is this what happens all the time, when you bring them out?

DEPPEN: Constantly, the barrage of people.

MOOS (voice-over): Amid the acclaim, what's a little slobber on the suit? "Best of breed" went to Bellagio despite comments like, "hey, mister, someone let the air out of your dog." Maybe slimmer show dogs can slip by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He can't get through, he's so big. We got to go around.

MOOS (on camera): Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the biggest dog in the show!

MOOS (voice-over): at least he got the biggest laugh. Maybe those are just laugh lines.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Yeah, even an iron couldn't help out those wrinkles.

Well, that's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week:

When grizzly in Yellowstone emerge from winter hibernation, they could face the prospects of being removed from the endangered species list. We'll tell you why some say that's bad news for the bears.

That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's hear from you. You can send us an e-mail at NEXT@CNN.com. And don't forget to check out our Web site, that's at cnn.com/next.

Thanks so much for joining us, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.

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