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New Technology Could Make Guns Safer; Senate Pass ANWR Drilling Bill 51-49; Pod Casting Allows Downloading Of Media
Aired March 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.
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: I'm Rudi Bakhtiar at the CNN Center here in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN begins in a moment, but first a check of the news right now.
An autopsy will be performed on the remains of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Authorities say they found her body not far from the home she shared with her father and grandparents. Convicted sex offender John Evander Couey allegedly has confessed to kidnapping and killing the child.
Members of Congress are working this hour on legislation they believe could save the life of Terri Schiavo. House majority leader Tom Delay will hold a news conference in just 15 minutes, and CNN will have that live for you. The Senate will also convene at 5:00 Eastern this afternoon to set the process in motion. The brain-damaged woman has been without her feeding tube for more than 24 hours now.
An explosion rocks an area near a British school in the Qatar capital of Doha. The blast damaged several cars and a theater where an audience had gathered to watch a play by Shakespeare. U.S. Central Command Headquarters is located in Doha as well.
I'm Rudi Bakhtiar at the CNN Center here in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN begins rights now.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN flying cameras and launchers that fire grenades around corners. We'll check out the military technology on display at a weapons show in Israel.
Also, it may look like radio and sound like radio, but this isn't broadcasting, it's pod casting. Find out what it can do for you.
And a seal that was close to death three months ago heads back to her ocean home in good health. All that and more on NEXT.
Could technology have prevented the death of a judge and three other people in Atlanta last week? Well, researchers have been trying for years to develop a gun that can only be fired by its owner. Deborah Feyerick reports on a promising new approach to that goal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This automatic being fired by officer Robert Ohalla is no ordinary gun. It's a smart gun, or at least a prototype of one. When it's perfected, this weapon will allow only Officer Ohalla to fire it, not a criminal, and certainly not a child.
DONALD SEBASTIAN, N.J. INSTITUTE OF TECH: It really makes the decision while you're pulling the trigger. There is no activation period here. While you grab the gun and you pull the trigger, that's when we make the identity read.
FEYERICK: Donald Sebastian head of Research and Development in New Jersey Institute of Technology, five years ago, state lawmakers asked him to find out if guns could be made safer and smarter.
MICHAEL RECCE: The first stage is usually something like this.
FEYERICK: Associated Professor Michael Recce was tapped to find out the answer. Although he didn't know a lot about guns, he did know a lot about human behavior.
RECCE: One of the things that I was struck by is how dynamic behavior, certain types of behavior are so repeatable, like the way you grab a pen or a golf club.
FEYERICK: The professor discovered the same was true of guns.
RECCE: Police officers and students, we had them grab a plastic gun and we look at where their hand went. And we saw that repeatedly their hands were always going to the same place.
FEYERICK: So the professor and his team of graduate students placed tiny sensors in the handgrip.
RECCE: As the person grabs the gun, their fingers will touch some of these ribs, some of these sensors and their pressure measurements were measured over time.
FEYERICK: Measured and used as a key to unlock and activate the gun in a tenth of a second. Not everyone's a fan of the new technology. Chris Cox lobbies for the National Rifle Association.
CHRIS COX, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSN: This high tech is high risk. It's unsafe, it's unproven and it's unreliable. And a less reliable gun is a dumber gun.
FEYERICK: In truth, the smart gun is at least two years from being ready. Inventors point out even ordinary guns misfire.
SEBASTIAN: The gun itself is not foolproof, the electronics will not be foolproof, but we can ensure we have taken the technology to the level required that it actually is better than the current reliability of a mechanical gun.
FEYERICK: In the future, a single gun could be programmed so that many shooters can use it. You're telling me you can actually input the hand sensors of 100 people and the gun would be able to be activated by 100 people, as long as they're authorized users.
BILL MARSHALL, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Sure. How many numbers can you put in your cell phone? It is the same principal because that same set of chipsets that would be the processors in your cell phones are what we're looking at here.
FEYERICK: Under New Jersey law, police officers would not have to use the new guns which would run about $50.00 higher than those now on the market. Paramus police chief Fred Corrubia says he's excited buy the smart guns potential.
CHIEF FRED CORRUBIA, PARAMUS N.J. POLICE: It would actually have to be used by the working officer. He would have to be able to shoot it left-handed right-handed, right handed and from various positions. Which might encounter in an actual street scene. I want to make sure that the gun never goes to the part that it fails for us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well like police, military planners and troops hope their weapons never fail them and give them the edge over their enemies.
Israel's defense and weapons industry showed off some of it's most advanced technology at a weapons show in Tel Aviv recently. John Vause has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Israel's newest and now not so secret weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most advanced (UNINTELLIGIBLE) protection system in the world.
VAUSE: It's not the tank, but the protection around it, called Trophy. A system of sensors and radars, which protects and tracks incoming missiles and rockets, automatically, barring counterinterference (ph). Precisely how it works, no one is saying, but after hundreds of successful tests, the Israelis are fitting Trophy to their tanks.
The emphasis of this high-tech weapon show in Tel Aviv is not more firepower but smarter weapons, and better, faster information for soldiers. Take an ordinary palm pilot, which receives live pictures from a drone high above. Israeli soldiers are already using it in the West Bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's opened our eyes, because we see all the time, with the camera, with the system, with the helicopter, with the maps on the field all the time, everything.
VAUSE: There's the firefly a camera fired from a standard 40- millimeter grenade launcher sending back live pictures in eight seconds with a range of about 600 yards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see real time intelligence for all the threats.
VAUSE: So this is what a soldier would see on his palm pilot. It just goes up in the air in. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you can see through the missile fired.
VAUSE: Guns that shoot around corners are already a year old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the new baby.
VAUSE: A forty-millimeter launcher, which fires grenades around corners. The sales pitch for many of these high tech weapons is instant intelligence, the ability for a soldier to know precisely where the enemy may be in real time; in valuable and urban come back. When a target may be hiding among the civilian population, because if you can find him, you can kill him.
ROBIN HUGHES, JANE'S DEFENSE WEEKLY: Currently the Brown Swiss Army isn't going to adopt most of this technology in future warfare.
VAUSE: Future warfare, which is already here in places, like Iraq, Gaza, and the West Bank, where conventional armies are facing unconventional threats.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just ahead, most western farmers and ranchers hate prairie dogs. You can probably guess how they feel about the idea of putting the rodents on the endangered species list.
And later in this show, scientists say a good laugh has some serious benefits.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Drilling in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge is a step closer to reality. By a close 51 to 49 votes the Senate Wednesday voted to open and to mark oil drilling. The vote rebuffed an attempt to remove the ANWR provision from next years budget. Environmentalist says drilling would endanger wildlife including Caribou herds and migratory birds. Opponents also say it would take years to actually get the oil out of the ground. The drilling supporters say sky rocketing oil prices make ANWR a vital part of this countries energy security. And that modern technology will protect the areas wildlife
Well, a new report says there is high potential for devastating tsunamis in the Caribbean based on historical data. The tsunamis could affect Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast along with most of the islands in the Caribbean. A report in the newspaper of the American Geophysical Union says movement along the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates has caused at least ten significant tsunamis since 1492. The most recent was in 1946, which killed 1,800 people. The report estimates that with today's increased populations, 35.5 million people are now at risk.
Glaziers in the Himalayas are melting rapidly, threatening to cause a water crisis for hundreds of millions of people that is according to the World Wildlife Fund. A new report by the environmental groups says at first the glacier melt will cause widespread flooding, and after a few decades river levels will decline causing water shortages for China, Nepal and India. One of the authors of the report says global warming is affecting areas like the Himalayas more severely than other places because of the high altitude.
All right you know prairie dogs get decidedly mixed reviews. Tourists from back east think they are cute and environmentalist say they are an important part of the eco system. Farmers and ranchers well they generally consider them vermin that need to be wiped out. Gary Strieker reports on the debate over the prairie dogs future.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They call them barking squirrels. When explorers Lewis and Clark first saw them 200 years ago, they liked them so much, they shipped a live one back to President Thomas Jefferson who described it as harmless and tame, but there's never been affection for prairie dogs among western farmers and ranchers who say the rodents destroy grassland and are bad for livestock.
CARL STOGSDILL, RANCHER: You can see this prairie dog town; see six or eight holes here. They chew up the ground pretty good and make these mounds. The way they multiply without being controlled, they can take over our whole ranch.
STRIEKER: With a different warning cry for every predator, the prairie dog's defense is to raise that alarm and scamper underground. Not very effective against human enemies.
RICHARD READING, DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FDN: Prairie dogs have been poisoned, plowed under, shot, and persecuted in just about every conceivable way by people for at least 120 years.
STRIEKER: The results, prairie dogs now occupy less than 10 percent of their historic habitat. Some say they should be protected under the endangered species act, especially because other wildlife depend on them for food, including the endangered black-footed ferret, which eats almost nothing but prairie dogs.
READING: Prairie dogs are the key to the prairie ecosystem without the prairie dogs we would lose a vast majority of the species that inhabit the prairie.
STRIEKER: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was actually considering adding prairie dogs to the endangered species list. But the idea is offensive to many western farmers and ranchers. It was a major political issue in South Dakota during the run-up to last November's election, and it may have cost former minority leader Tom Daschle his seat in the Senate, because voters thought he wasn't tough enough on prairie dogs.
After considering all the evidence, the Fish and Wildlife Service has decided the two most common species of prairie dogs are not likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Clearing the way for shooting and mass poisoning of prairie dogs in South Dakota and elsewhere. That makes sense to many landowners.
STOGSDILL: We get along with them, but when the prairie dog towns spread out too far, we have to control them, and we poison them and keep them down to a minimum if we can.
STRIEKER: But people who care about prairie dogs warn these decisions could take these animals to the brink of extinction.
READING: They're following a classic extinction pattern, whereby populations first decline, then become more fragmented, then each of those fragments start to blank out and eventually then the species goes extinct.
STRIEKER: Without federal protection for prairie dogs it's now mainly up to states and local governments to decide how they're managed. All the states where prairie dogs are found have their own conservation plans to protect grasslands and the wildlife that depend on them, but in most states prairie dogs still face an uncertain future, widely regarded as an agricultural pest.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we come back, it's not enough for new cell phones to work well and have lots of features. They also have to look good.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: By now you've seen those ubiquitous white headphones, but iPods and other portable devices are not just music to the ears, you can now download talk shows. Pod casting offers quirky personal shows that you would listen whenever you want. Radio stations are even jumping into the fray. But for good or bad, just about anybody can be a pod caster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to great radio where enthusiasts for wine gets personal.
SIEBERG (voice over): Grape Radio has a mic and a mixing board, all the telltale signs of a radio station, except for one minor detail: Grape Radio is not actually on the radio.
MICHAEL GEOGHEGAN, EXEC. PROC. GRAPE RADIO: The magic of the fact that once somebody puts a show up, it's automatically downloaded to your computer. I just really found it compelling.
SIEBERG: Meet Brian, Lee, and Jay, wine enthusiasts turned talk show hosts, not just in the studio, but also on the road.
The show is recorded, then uploaded to the Internet and becomes a pod-cast, an audio filed playable on any iPod or portable music device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is just like a song, it is no different.
SIEBERG: They said they had 50 listeners for their first pod- cast in January, and five weeks later the host say their twelfth show was downloaded 3,000 times. Web sites like Podcast Alley lists scores of different shows. Some produced with nothing more than a computer and microphone, favorite DVDs, geek talk about gadgets, college sports, even podcasts about pod casting, and a racy talk show from a couple named Dawn and Drew in Wisconsin. It is ranked...
(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to take you back to our coverage of "Next@CNN."
"Next@CNN" begins right now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Genetically modified rice loaded with pollen allergens designed to help your body develop a natural resistance.
"Eat this rice at least three to four months before the hay fever season starts," he says. "I would recommend a pack a day. That will induce immunization and ease the allergy symptoms."
He insists the rice tastes just the same as ordinary rice, and is also developing a wheat-based allergy therapy for the Western pallet.
It's not sayonara to sneezes just yet, both plants are still being tested and won't be ready for at least several more years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST: Shifting gears now. Sigmund Freud supposedly asked, "What do women want?" Now Volvo is asking, "What do women want to drive?" They've put together an all-female design team and the results seem to appeal to male drivers, too. Jim Bolden has the story in this week's "Getting There" segment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM BOLDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If this is your idea of the closest women get involved with the launch of a new car, Volvo has other ideas. An all-female project team designed its latest concept car. The Ford-owned luxury brand says women, now, influence 80 percent of auto purchases, so they must be listened to.
(on camera): What do you think women are looking for that they're not getting now?
ANNA ROSE, VOLVO: Convenience. And that's actually something that both genders look for, but the women, to a higher extent then men, in a car we naturally sit and reach at the same time.
BOLDEN (voice-over): Seat adjusters are nothing new, but this car that has pedals that move closer for a shorter driver. And there's a rest bar for high heels. Storage is also a big need, so there's room for a laptop and portfolio behind the seat to store papers. There's even a split headrest for a ponytail.
LENA EKELLING, VOLVO: It's not by women for women, it's by women for everybody, and, I mean, we did not mean to exclude men. It was a way of including women.
BOLDEN: And forget about looking at the engine, says Volvo. Tomorrow's cars won't need us to tinker, so there's no hood and no spare tire. The car will just e-mail the service station when it needs work.
ROSEN: And we can't see any drawbacks, apart from if you want to show your neighbor the pretty engine...
BOLDEN (on camera): Some people do. Men especially like to look underneath.
ROSEN: Yeah they do. Yeah, and we think that the money we spend, today, making the engine bay area look pretty could be better spent.
BOLDEN (voice-over): Another feature from Volvo will be exchangeable upholstery to fit your mood or match your clothes.
ROSEN: The exchange upholstery actually ranks higher among the men then among women (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BOLDEN (on camera): Exchangeable upholstery?
ROSEN: Yes.
BOLDEN: Men want that?
ROSEN: Yes, they do that. And they want the easy clean paint. That is a No. 1.
BOLDEN (voice-over): And if you're wondering why female drivers want goldwing doors, well, Volvo admits they just look cool.
BOLDEN (on camera): And Volvo's not afraid to say if you meet the expectations of women, you'll more than exceed the expectations of men.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Still to come, guess who discovered a previously unknown species of shrimp. Would you believe the Idaho National Guard?
And a harbor seal bounces back after a near-death experience.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: A new species of animal has been identified in Idaho. The first surprise is that it's a shrimp, freshwater, obviously, and very large for a shrimp. What may be more surprising is who found it. Mike Vogel from our affiliate KTVB reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIKE VOGEL, KTVB REPORTER: Normally it's the sound of tanks, howitzers, and explosions that take center stage at the orchard training range. But, Tuesday it was biologists that were front and center with the historic announcement.
DANA QUINNEY, BIOLOGIST: This one is really, really, really different from all the other species in the world.
VOGEL: It is this shrimp that's creating all of the excitement. A three-inch-long giant fairy shrimp, also known as the genus branchinecta, discovered at the Idaho National Guard training range south of Boise. The fairy shrimp is a predator that captures and kills smaller shrimp. It was discovered in a dry lakebed that only fills up in during high water years. It was found by Dana Quinney, a biologist that works for the National Guard, and her assistant, in 1996. But it took this long for other scientists to confirm it is indeed a new species, but it's nothing like the kind of find in a store.
QUINNEY: These are kind of a different type of shrimp than what you eat. Those kind have great big muscles, because they move by jet propulsion, so they need to scoot out of the way, these things have a lot of little legs, and they just don't have much meat on them at all.
VOGEL: While the shrimp was discovered on the training range, it is in an area that hasn't been used for military training in 15 years, and they don't anticipate to use it anytime soon.
GARY BURTON, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE: It gives us an idea of ecosystem management, and for us it's real exciting, because it shows and demonstrates that the Guard is -- takes seriously their environmental stewardship requirements, they're on top of things, and we're looking forward to a continued partnership with them.
VOGEL: While it's scientists and biologists that are the most excited, military officials also say it's one example of their good environmental stewardship. This may be one of the first time a species has been discovered and authored by the military.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Incidentally, a paper on the new shrimp is supposed to be published soon in the "Journal of Crustacean Biology".
All right, turning to saltwater critters, a young harbor seal is back in the Atlantic, this week, after months of rehabilitation at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Scott Broom of our affiliate WMAR has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SCOTT BROOM, WMAR REPORTER: Beside the icy Atlantic Ocean, a big crowd huddled against a bitter wind to watch Sand Dollar, the seal, get a police escort to the beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All I know is I'm excited to see the seal. I've never seen one up close and...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is pretty much the ultimate perk of this type of job is to actually see something go back into the wild.
BROOM: Sand Dollar is a yearling female harbor seal, back on the sand now, after being rescued from Virginia Beach this December, emaciated and nearly blinded by an eye injury. Now, ready to go, but first this satellite tracking device will be attached.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time she comes up, it will send transmission up to a satellite and then be down-linked to our computers in Baltimore.
BROOM: They put it on with glue that will come off in a few months.
(on camera): There's a lot of emotion wrapped up in this. People clearly love this seal, but the scientists here have no false illusions, it's dangerous out there, and this seal might not make it.
(voice-over): When the time came, Sand Dollar did not exactly sprint to the water. She even stopped for a quick look back. The kids took pictures, the seal took to the water, and the rescuers said don't worry about the cold, worry about the environment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's gill nets, there's getting hit by boats. We see animals like this that get shot in the face with buckshot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think seals are just one of the cutest animals on the earth.
BROOM: Sand Dollar, last seen swimming strong.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: You can track Sand Dollar's travels on the aquarium's Web site. That's, at least, as long as the seal's transmitter stays attach. You can get there from our Web site, that's at cnn.com/next, where you can also find information on some of the other story on our show.
That's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week:
The battle over on-line file swapping will soon come before the Supreme Court. We'll have a preview of the arguments on both sides.
That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's hear from you. You can send us an e-mail anytime, at NEXT@CNN.com. 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 March 19, 2005 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: I'm Rudi Bakhtiar at the CNN Center here in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN begins in a moment, but first a check of the news right now.
An autopsy will be performed on the remains of nine-year-old Jessica Lunsford. Authorities say they found her body not far from the home she shared with her father and grandparents. Convicted sex offender John Evander Couey allegedly has confessed to kidnapping and killing the child.
Members of Congress are working this hour on legislation they believe could save the life of Terri Schiavo. House majority leader Tom Delay will hold a news conference in just 15 minutes, and CNN will have that live for you. The Senate will also convene at 5:00 Eastern this afternoon to set the process in motion. The brain-damaged woman has been without her feeding tube for more than 24 hours now.
An explosion rocks an area near a British school in the Qatar capital of Doha. The blast damaged several cars and a theater where an audience had gathered to watch a play by Shakespeare. U.S. Central Command Headquarters is located in Doha as well.
I'm Rudi Bakhtiar at the CNN Center here in Atlanta. NEXT@CNN begins rights now.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR, NEXT@CNN: Hi, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN flying cameras and launchers that fire grenades around corners. We'll check out the military technology on display at a weapons show in Israel.
Also, it may look like radio and sound like radio, but this isn't broadcasting, it's pod casting. Find out what it can do for you.
And a seal that was close to death three months ago heads back to her ocean home in good health. All that and more on NEXT.
Could technology have prevented the death of a judge and three other people in Atlanta last week? Well, researchers have been trying for years to develop a gun that can only be fired by its owner. Deborah Feyerick reports on a promising new approach to that goal.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This automatic being fired by officer Robert Ohalla is no ordinary gun. It's a smart gun, or at least a prototype of one. When it's perfected, this weapon will allow only Officer Ohalla to fire it, not a criminal, and certainly not a child.
DONALD SEBASTIAN, N.J. INSTITUTE OF TECH: It really makes the decision while you're pulling the trigger. There is no activation period here. While you grab the gun and you pull the trigger, that's when we make the identity read.
FEYERICK: Donald Sebastian head of Research and Development in New Jersey Institute of Technology, five years ago, state lawmakers asked him to find out if guns could be made safer and smarter.
MICHAEL RECCE: The first stage is usually something like this.
FEYERICK: Associated Professor Michael Recce was tapped to find out the answer. Although he didn't know a lot about guns, he did know a lot about human behavior.
RECCE: One of the things that I was struck by is how dynamic behavior, certain types of behavior are so repeatable, like the way you grab a pen or a golf club.
FEYERICK: The professor discovered the same was true of guns.
RECCE: Police officers and students, we had them grab a plastic gun and we look at where their hand went. And we saw that repeatedly their hands were always going to the same place.
FEYERICK: So the professor and his team of graduate students placed tiny sensors in the handgrip.
RECCE: As the person grabs the gun, their fingers will touch some of these ribs, some of these sensors and their pressure measurements were measured over time.
FEYERICK: Measured and used as a key to unlock and activate the gun in a tenth of a second. Not everyone's a fan of the new technology. Chris Cox lobbies for the National Rifle Association.
CHRIS COX, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSN: This high tech is high risk. It's unsafe, it's unproven and it's unreliable. And a less reliable gun is a dumber gun.
FEYERICK: In truth, the smart gun is at least two years from being ready. Inventors point out even ordinary guns misfire.
SEBASTIAN: The gun itself is not foolproof, the electronics will not be foolproof, but we can ensure we have taken the technology to the level required that it actually is better than the current reliability of a mechanical gun.
FEYERICK: In the future, a single gun could be programmed so that many shooters can use it. You're telling me you can actually input the hand sensors of 100 people and the gun would be able to be activated by 100 people, as long as they're authorized users.
BILL MARSHALL, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Sure. How many numbers can you put in your cell phone? It is the same principal because that same set of chipsets that would be the processors in your cell phones are what we're looking at here.
FEYERICK: Under New Jersey law, police officers would not have to use the new guns which would run about $50.00 higher than those now on the market. Paramus police chief Fred Corrubia says he's excited buy the smart guns potential.
CHIEF FRED CORRUBIA, PARAMUS N.J. POLICE: It would actually have to be used by the working officer. He would have to be able to shoot it left-handed right-handed, right handed and from various positions. Which might encounter in an actual street scene. I want to make sure that the gun never goes to the part that it fails for us.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIEBERG: Well like police, military planners and troops hope their weapons never fail them and give them the edge over their enemies.
Israel's defense and weapons industry showed off some of it's most advanced technology at a weapons show in Tel Aviv recently. John Vause has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Israel's newest and now not so secret weapon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most advanced (UNINTELLIGIBLE) protection system in the world.
VAUSE: It's not the tank, but the protection around it, called Trophy. A system of sensors and radars, which protects and tracks incoming missiles and rockets, automatically, barring counterinterference (ph). Precisely how it works, no one is saying, but after hundreds of successful tests, the Israelis are fitting Trophy to their tanks.
The emphasis of this high-tech weapon show in Tel Aviv is not more firepower but smarter weapons, and better, faster information for soldiers. Take an ordinary palm pilot, which receives live pictures from a drone high above. Israeli soldiers are already using it in the West Bank.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's opened our eyes, because we see all the time, with the camera, with the system, with the helicopter, with the maps on the field all the time, everything.
VAUSE: There's the firefly a camera fired from a standard 40- millimeter grenade launcher sending back live pictures in eight seconds with a range of about 600 yards.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We see real time intelligence for all the threats.
VAUSE: So this is what a soldier would see on his palm pilot. It just goes up in the air in. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you can see through the missile fired.
VAUSE: Guns that shoot around corners are already a year old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the new baby.
VAUSE: A forty-millimeter launcher, which fires grenades around corners. The sales pitch for many of these high tech weapons is instant intelligence, the ability for a soldier to know precisely where the enemy may be in real time; in valuable and urban come back. When a target may be hiding among the civilian population, because if you can find him, you can kill him.
ROBIN HUGHES, JANE'S DEFENSE WEEKLY: Currently the Brown Swiss Army isn't going to adopt most of this technology in future warfare.
VAUSE: Future warfare, which is already here in places, like Iraq, Gaza, and the West Bank, where conventional armies are facing unconventional threats.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just ahead, most western farmers and ranchers hate prairie dogs. You can probably guess how they feel about the idea of putting the rodents on the endangered species list.
And later in this show, scientists say a good laugh has some serious benefits.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SIEBERG: Drilling in Alaska's Artic National Wildlife Refuge is a step closer to reality. By a close 51 to 49 votes the Senate Wednesday voted to open and to mark oil drilling. The vote rebuffed an attempt to remove the ANWR provision from next years budget. Environmentalist says drilling would endanger wildlife including Caribou herds and migratory birds. Opponents also say it would take years to actually get the oil out of the ground. The drilling supporters say sky rocketing oil prices make ANWR a vital part of this countries energy security. And that modern technology will protect the areas wildlife
Well, a new report says there is high potential for devastating tsunamis in the Caribbean based on historical data. The tsunamis could affect Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast along with most of the islands in the Caribbean. A report in the newspaper of the American Geophysical Union says movement along the North American and Caribbean tectonic plates has caused at least ten significant tsunamis since 1492. The most recent was in 1946, which killed 1,800 people. The report estimates that with today's increased populations, 35.5 million people are now at risk.
Glaziers in the Himalayas are melting rapidly, threatening to cause a water crisis for hundreds of millions of people that is according to the World Wildlife Fund. A new report by the environmental groups says at first the glacier melt will cause widespread flooding, and after a few decades river levels will decline causing water shortages for China, Nepal and India. One of the authors of the report says global warming is affecting areas like the Himalayas more severely than other places because of the high altitude.
All right you know prairie dogs get decidedly mixed reviews. Tourists from back east think they are cute and environmentalist say they are an important part of the eco system. Farmers and ranchers well they generally consider them vermin that need to be wiped out. Gary Strieker reports on the debate over the prairie dogs future.
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GARY STRIEKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): They call them barking squirrels. When explorers Lewis and Clark first saw them 200 years ago, they liked them so much, they shipped a live one back to President Thomas Jefferson who described it as harmless and tame, but there's never been affection for prairie dogs among western farmers and ranchers who say the rodents destroy grassland and are bad for livestock.
CARL STOGSDILL, RANCHER: You can see this prairie dog town; see six or eight holes here. They chew up the ground pretty good and make these mounds. The way they multiply without being controlled, they can take over our whole ranch.
STRIEKER: With a different warning cry for every predator, the prairie dog's defense is to raise that alarm and scamper underground. Not very effective against human enemies.
RICHARD READING, DENVER ZOOLOGICAL FDN: Prairie dogs have been poisoned, plowed under, shot, and persecuted in just about every conceivable way by people for at least 120 years.
STRIEKER: The results, prairie dogs now occupy less than 10 percent of their historic habitat. Some say they should be protected under the endangered species act, especially because other wildlife depend on them for food, including the endangered black-footed ferret, which eats almost nothing but prairie dogs.
READING: Prairie dogs are the key to the prairie ecosystem without the prairie dogs we would lose a vast majority of the species that inhabit the prairie.
STRIEKER: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was actually considering adding prairie dogs to the endangered species list. But the idea is offensive to many western farmers and ranchers. It was a major political issue in South Dakota during the run-up to last November's election, and it may have cost former minority leader Tom Daschle his seat in the Senate, because voters thought he wasn't tough enough on prairie dogs.
After considering all the evidence, the Fish and Wildlife Service has decided the two most common species of prairie dogs are not likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future. Clearing the way for shooting and mass poisoning of prairie dogs in South Dakota and elsewhere. That makes sense to many landowners.
STOGSDILL: We get along with them, but when the prairie dog towns spread out too far, we have to control them, and we poison them and keep them down to a minimum if we can.
STRIEKER: But people who care about prairie dogs warn these decisions could take these animals to the brink of extinction.
READING: They're following a classic extinction pattern, whereby populations first decline, then become more fragmented, then each of those fragments start to blank out and eventually then the species goes extinct.
STRIEKER: Without federal protection for prairie dogs it's now mainly up to states and local governments to decide how they're managed. All the states where prairie dogs are found have their own conservation plans to protect grasslands and the wildlife that depend on them, but in most states prairie dogs still face an uncertain future, widely regarded as an agricultural pest.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we come back, it's not enough for new cell phones to work well and have lots of features. They also have to look good.
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SIEBERG: By now you've seen those ubiquitous white headphones, but iPods and other portable devices are not just music to the ears, you can now download talk shows. Pod casting offers quirky personal shows that you would listen whenever you want. Radio stations are even jumping into the fray. But for good or bad, just about anybody can be a pod caster.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to great radio where enthusiasts for wine gets personal.
SIEBERG (voice over): Grape Radio has a mic and a mixing board, all the telltale signs of a radio station, except for one minor detail: Grape Radio is not actually on the radio.
MICHAEL GEOGHEGAN, EXEC. PROC. GRAPE RADIO: The magic of the fact that once somebody puts a show up, it's automatically downloaded to your computer. I just really found it compelling.
SIEBERG: Meet Brian, Lee, and Jay, wine enthusiasts turned talk show hosts, not just in the studio, but also on the road.
The show is recorded, then uploaded to the Internet and becomes a pod-cast, an audio filed playable on any iPod or portable music device.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is just like a song, it is no different.
SIEBERG: They said they had 50 listeners for their first pod- cast in January, and five weeks later the host say their twelfth show was downloaded 3,000 times. Web sites like Podcast Alley lists scores of different shows. Some produced with nothing more than a computer and microphone, favorite DVDs, geek talk about gadgets, college sports, even podcasts about pod casting, and a racy talk show from a couple named Dawn and Drew in Wisconsin. It is ranked...
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RUDI BAKHTIAR, CNN ANCHOR: And now we're going to take you back to our coverage of "Next@CNN."
"Next@CNN" begins right now.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Genetically modified rice loaded with pollen allergens designed to help your body develop a natural resistance.
"Eat this rice at least three to four months before the hay fever season starts," he says. "I would recommend a pack a day. That will induce immunization and ease the allergy symptoms."
He insists the rice tastes just the same as ordinary rice, and is also developing a wheat-based allergy therapy for the Western pallet.
It's not sayonara to sneezes just yet, both plants are still being tested and won't be ready for at least several more years.
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DANIEL SIEBERG, HOST: Shifting gears now. Sigmund Freud supposedly asked, "What do women want?" Now Volvo is asking, "What do women want to drive?" They've put together an all-female design team and the results seem to appeal to male drivers, too. Jim Bolden has the story in this week's "Getting There" segment.
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JIM BOLDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If this is your idea of the closest women get involved with the launch of a new car, Volvo has other ideas. An all-female project team designed its latest concept car. The Ford-owned luxury brand says women, now, influence 80 percent of auto purchases, so they must be listened to.
(on camera): What do you think women are looking for that they're not getting now?
ANNA ROSE, VOLVO: Convenience. And that's actually something that both genders look for, but the women, to a higher extent then men, in a car we naturally sit and reach at the same time.
BOLDEN (voice-over): Seat adjusters are nothing new, but this car that has pedals that move closer for a shorter driver. And there's a rest bar for high heels. Storage is also a big need, so there's room for a laptop and portfolio behind the seat to store papers. There's even a split headrest for a ponytail.
LENA EKELLING, VOLVO: It's not by women for women, it's by women for everybody, and, I mean, we did not mean to exclude men. It was a way of including women.
BOLDEN: And forget about looking at the engine, says Volvo. Tomorrow's cars won't need us to tinker, so there's no hood and no spare tire. The car will just e-mail the service station when it needs work.
ROSEN: And we can't see any drawbacks, apart from if you want to show your neighbor the pretty engine...
BOLDEN (on camera): Some people do. Men especially like to look underneath.
ROSEN: Yeah they do. Yeah, and we think that the money we spend, today, making the engine bay area look pretty could be better spent.
BOLDEN (voice-over): Another feature from Volvo will be exchangeable upholstery to fit your mood or match your clothes.
ROSEN: The exchange upholstery actually ranks higher among the men then among women (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
BOLDEN (on camera): Exchangeable upholstery?
ROSEN: Yes.
BOLDEN: Men want that?
ROSEN: Yes, they do that. And they want the easy clean paint. That is a No. 1.
BOLDEN (voice-over): And if you're wondering why female drivers want goldwing doors, well, Volvo admits they just look cool.
BOLDEN (on camera): And Volvo's not afraid to say if you meet the expectations of women, you'll more than exceed the expectations of men.
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ANNOUNCER: Still to come, guess who discovered a previously unknown species of shrimp. Would you believe the Idaho National Guard?
And a harbor seal bounces back after a near-death experience.
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SIEBERG: A new species of animal has been identified in Idaho. The first surprise is that it's a shrimp, freshwater, obviously, and very large for a shrimp. What may be more surprising is who found it. Mike Vogel from our affiliate KTVB reports.
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MIKE VOGEL, KTVB REPORTER: Normally it's the sound of tanks, howitzers, and explosions that take center stage at the orchard training range. But, Tuesday it was biologists that were front and center with the historic announcement.
DANA QUINNEY, BIOLOGIST: This one is really, really, really different from all the other species in the world.
VOGEL: It is this shrimp that's creating all of the excitement. A three-inch-long giant fairy shrimp, also known as the genus branchinecta, discovered at the Idaho National Guard training range south of Boise. The fairy shrimp is a predator that captures and kills smaller shrimp. It was discovered in a dry lakebed that only fills up in during high water years. It was found by Dana Quinney, a biologist that works for the National Guard, and her assistant, in 1996. But it took this long for other scientists to confirm it is indeed a new species, but it's nothing like the kind of find in a store.
QUINNEY: These are kind of a different type of shrimp than what you eat. Those kind have great big muscles, because they move by jet propulsion, so they need to scoot out of the way, these things have a lot of little legs, and they just don't have much meat on them at all.
VOGEL: While the shrimp was discovered on the training range, it is in an area that hasn't been used for military training in 15 years, and they don't anticipate to use it anytime soon.
GARY BURTON, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE: It gives us an idea of ecosystem management, and for us it's real exciting, because it shows and demonstrates that the Guard is -- takes seriously their environmental stewardship requirements, they're on top of things, and we're looking forward to a continued partnership with them.
VOGEL: While it's scientists and biologists that are the most excited, military officials also say it's one example of their good environmental stewardship. This may be one of the first time a species has been discovered and authored by the military.
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SIEBERG: Incidentally, a paper on the new shrimp is supposed to be published soon in the "Journal of Crustacean Biology".
All right, turning to saltwater critters, a young harbor seal is back in the Atlantic, this week, after months of rehabilitation at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Scott Broom of our affiliate WMAR has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SCOTT BROOM, WMAR REPORTER: Beside the icy Atlantic Ocean, a big crowd huddled against a bitter wind to watch Sand Dollar, the seal, get a police escort to the beach.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All I know is I'm excited to see the seal. I've never seen one up close and...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is pretty much the ultimate perk of this type of job is to actually see something go back into the wild.
BROOM: Sand Dollar is a yearling female harbor seal, back on the sand now, after being rescued from Virginia Beach this December, emaciated and nearly blinded by an eye injury. Now, ready to go, but first this satellite tracking device will be attached.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every time she comes up, it will send transmission up to a satellite and then be down-linked to our computers in Baltimore.
BROOM: They put it on with glue that will come off in a few months.
(on camera): There's a lot of emotion wrapped up in this. People clearly love this seal, but the scientists here have no false illusions, it's dangerous out there, and this seal might not make it.
(voice-over): When the time came, Sand Dollar did not exactly sprint to the water. She even stopped for a quick look back. The kids took pictures, the seal took to the water, and the rescuers said don't worry about the cold, worry about the environment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's gill nets, there's getting hit by boats. We see animals like this that get shot in the face with buckshot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think seals are just one of the cutest animals on the earth.
BROOM: Sand Dollar, last seen swimming strong.
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SIEBERG: You can track Sand Dollar's travels on the aquarium's Web site. That's, at least, as long as the seal's transmitter stays attach. You can get there from our Web site, that's at cnn.com/next, where you can also find information on some of the other story on our show.
That's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week:
The battle over on-line file swapping will soon come before the Supreme Court. We'll have a preview of the arguments on both sides.
That's coming up on NEXT. Until then, let's hear from you. You can send us an e-mail anytime, at NEXT@CNN.com. Thanks so much for joining us, for all of us, I'm Daniel Sieberg, we'll see you next time.
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