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CNN Saturday Morning News
Elizabeth Edwards Funeral Today; Pass Codes Should Be 12-Plus Characters For Best Security; The Hottest High-Tech Holiday Toys; Tax Cuts & Public Opinion; Midwest Snow Storms; Crackdown on Leaks; Student Protest Turn Violent; The Eyebrows Have It; Judge Delays Trial for BCS Championship; Rules of Basketball Sold for $4.3M
Aired December 11, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, everybody, from the CNN center this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING, December 11th. Hope you all are having a good start to your weekend. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you could be here.
Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former presidential candidate John Edwards being laid to rest today. Friends, family and strangers will be there. You know who else is expected to be there? Protesters. Why would Elizabeth Edwards be the target of hate on the day of her funeral? We'll explain who's expected to protest. It's actually a group you've heard of before.
Also this morning, we're going to have a digital detective in the house. Your Social Security number, your bank records, your e-mails, all the things you thought were private can be accessed online by strangers in a matter of minutes.
If that sounds extreme or alarmist, if you don't believe me, stick around, we're going to prove it. We're going to put this digital detective to the test, hand him a name and a log-in and see what he comes up within an hour.
Also, if you are in the Midwest, it is frigid, not just frigid cold, it's actually dangerous this morning. Some cities bracing for blizzard conditions. Cleveland right now expected to get lake-effect snow. A live picture of Cleveland as they are bracing right now.
Also not really bracing there in Central Park in New York. They're enjoying the skating rink, a frigid day in many parts of the country. But again, it is downright dangerous in other places.
That's where we want to begin right now with our Bonnie Schneider who's standing by. It's frigid, it's dangerous, and it's also going to be complicated when it comes to travel later in the day so you got a lot going on right now.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: Bonnie is going to be on it for us all morning this morning. Bonnie, we will check in with you plenty throughout. Thanks so much. Well, family and friends today they hoping to say their final respects, say good-bye, celebrate the life of Elizabeth Edwards today might find themselves facing protesters at her funeral. I'm going to turn now to CNN's Martin Savidge who is there for us in North Carolina where the funeral is going to be taking place.
Martin, good morning to you. These protests are expected today. The funeral's not for several more hours, until 1:00. But any signs of anything thus far this morning?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, nothing yet, T.J.
Good morning to you.
We're standing outside the United Methodist Church here in Raleigh. We're just a stone's throw away from the capitol here. This is the family church and this is of course going to be the place where so many gather to remember and as you point out, celebrate the life of Elizabeth Edwards.
As you would probably anticipate, it's going to be a very heavy political crowd that's going to be gathered in the congregation here. You can anticipate just about the entire North Carolina congressional delegation's going to be there. The governor's going to be there. Of course, the Kerry family's going to be there, also there are going to be Senator John Kerry, former running mate there and then Vikki (ph) Kennedy, who is the wife of Ted Kennedy, Senator Ted Kennedy and on and on and on. But it is a public service and it's really the general public. Many people who aren't connected to politics in any way, shape, or form, who looked upon Elizabeth Edwards as their hero for many reasons, but most especially her ability to handle the negatives that she had to endure in her life and handle them so well under the scrutiny of the public eye. She was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. It went into remission, came back in 2007 and then, of course, she passed away as a result of that cancer this week.
Throughout that process she was very open, she was very candid, she was very honest. And for people who have suffered cancer or are connected to people who have had cancer, it was that honesty that really drew them to her.
In fact, in 2007, when her husband was running for the second time for president of the United States, she went out on the campaign trail. She's one of his closest political advisers, but many in the crowd showed up to see her, to hear her story and to talk to her. And that's how much of an influence she had, which is why so many people will show up today.
And it's also not just the cancer, but also the infidelity that her husband put upon her. And then the loss of her son in 1996. All of these things she endured and handled so gracefully and so well. And that's what's going to be remembered. Not just today, but for a long time afterwards when it comes to Elizabeth Edwards -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Martin Savidge there for us and Martin, thank you. We're going to remind to our viewers that we will have live coverage of Elizabeth Edwards' funeral gets started around 1:00 Eastern time right here on CNN.
I want to take a look now at some other stories that are making headlines today. Swim suit designer found dead at a exclusive New York club, a hotel. Police say (INAUDIBLE) body was found fully close clothed inside a bathtub at the SoHo House. She had bruises on her neck, bite marks as well. Police have charged Nick Brooks with attempted murder. He's the son of Oscar-winning composer and director Joseph Brooks.
Also, Sarah Palin is defying a U.S. government warning to be part of a Christian relief mission. She's taking her family to Haiti. The former vice presidential candidate plans to visit a cholera clinic with Franklin Graham, son of famed evangelist Billy Graham. The government has advised Americans not to go there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ELIZABETH SMART, KIDNAPPING VICTIM: Today's a wonderful day and I'm so thrilled to be here, I'm so thrilled with the verdict. But not only that, I'm so thrilled to stand before the people of America today and give hope to other victims who have not spoken out about their crime -- about what's happened to them. I hope that not only is this an example that justice can be served in America, but that it is possible to move on after something terrible has happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Isn't that something to see her now, 23 years old, got to know her when she was 14 years old. And at that time, that man -- he took her from her home in the middle of the night, disappeared pretty much without a trace and then she showed up again after nine months.
Well, now, he has been convicted. David Brian Mitchell guilty of kidnapping her back in 2002. His defense team claimed he was insane. Prosecutors though say Mitchell is a predator and knew exactly what he was doing.
Well, two presidents tackling one tough topic, tax cuts. President Obama and former President Clinton surprise everybody when they walk into the White House briefing room and they weigh in on a controversy that's dividing Washington right now. Also -- yes, it's that time of year. Santa Claus is coming to town in about 14 or 15 days, I believe it is. Kids got their wish list, you have one too, we'll tell you one of the hottest tech toys out there. It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 10 minutes past the hour now.
Everybody in the holiday spirit now. The capital in that holiday spirit, as well. Tell me how your Christmas tree stacks up to this one. Well, there you see, the first family was helping out in lighting the national Christmas tree. That was a bit earlier this week. A gorgeous sight there in Washington, DC. It's the 88th annual national Christmas tree lighting ceremony. Dates back to 1923 and President Coolidge.
Meanwhile, the president today in his weekly address talking about unemployment insurance. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And it's going to make an enormous difference for people looking for work. For many of these families, emergency unemployment insurance is the last line of defense between hardship and catastrophe. And I'd point out if these folks stopped spending money, it would also hurt businesses, which will hurt hiring, which will damage our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Washington, though, still talking about what was an extraordinary, unexpected moment at the White House yesterday. President Obama called on former President Bill Clinton, called on for a little help in getting approval for his tax cut compromise deal with Republicans. But then he turned the podium over to the former president.
Now, this wasn't scripted, this wasn't anticipated. These two just kind of decided on their own they were going to walk into the White House briefing room. And they just surprised everybody.
Now, the former president took the podium. He's, of course, talking about that tax cut deal and the current president said, hey, I've got to go, Mr. Clinton, my wife is waiting on me. So he took off, left Mr. Clinton there to take questions for another 20 or 30 minutes.
But again, he did strongly defend the deal right now that's on the table. Take a listen to the former president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, 42CD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In my opinion, this is a good bill and I hope that my fellow Democrats will support it. I thank the Republican leaders for agreeing to include things that were important to the president. There's never a perfect bipartisan bill in the eyes of a partisan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now again, he stayed and took questions for 20 or 30 minutes after President Obama actually left the room. And of course, he's trying to help the president pitch the deal that he made with Republicans.
That deal has angered many Democrats right now because it does extend the Bush-era tax cuts for not just people making up to $250,000, but for everybody. We'll see if they can get that worked out.
At 13 minutes past the hour now, we're taking a look at the end of your privacy. Closer look at the digital print you leave behind everywhere you go. We're going to be talking live with the digital detective.
We're actually going to put this detective on the case. Going to hand him a member of our staff's name and log-in. That's all. Then, we're going to give him an hour to do what he does on the Internet and you might be shocked what he's able to come back with. Something we can all learn this morning. Stick around on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
Also, your Internet privacy, we're doing this, talking about this, going to be a push here at this network for the next week. And so this morning, we've got a quiz that's inspired by that Internet privacy.
And here we go, here's a question for you. A Georgia Tech study says eight-letter passwords are useless and easy to break. The new 12-letter super password is recommended. Our question is, how long does the study say it would take hackers to break a 12-letter password? Is it, A, 32 hours? Is it B, five years? Or is it C, more than 17,000 years?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, 16 minutes past the hour.
Before the break, we told you about a study from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech you may want to call it that says eight-letter passwords are too easy to break. Now 12-letter passwords are recommended.
But our question, how long does the study say it would take hackers to break a 12-letter password -- 32 hours, five years or 17,000 years. Well the answer certainly surprising to me, 17,000 years.
Scientists came up with that number assuming the hacker's graphic card can calculate 1 trillion password combinations a minute. At that rate, it would take 17,134 to break a 12-letter password. Georgia Tech researchers recommend these passwords be the new standard.
More Internet privacy, big concern for you, for me, for everybody out there and that includes both you personal and business users. So we decided to conduct a little experiment this morning. We're going to see how much of your personal information you're exposing once you log on.
Joining us to help with this project, so-called digital detective. We have started calling him that this morning. He's the director of SecureWorks Threat Intelligence Service here with us this morning. We appreciate you being here, Detective Don Jackson if we can call you that. Tell us here, super password, is that the way to go?
DON JACKSON, SECUREWORKS THREAT INTELLIGENCE SERVICE: That is the way to go. Actually 12 is really the new recommended minimum, 14, 15, 16 is better if it's something you can remember.
HOLMES: Will four letters make that much of a difference? I'm trying to think of all my passwords and they're probably around eight or nine letters, but now we're talking about three or four letters can make that big of a difference?
JACKSON: That's right. Every letter counts. For every letter that you add, it increases the space and it's going to take a lot longer to crack those extra letters.
HOLMES: I'm curious about it, because every time you create a new password somewhere, you'll type in a couple things, It has a little bar next to it. OK, that one's weak, that one's weaker, that one's a little better, stronger. Should you always put in symbols and numbers? Does that help, as well?
JACKSON: If you can. Yes, just make it as complex as possible. Complex passwords are better than simple ones. So use punctuation, use the symbols, use anything the website will let you use.
HOLMES: What do you refer to, what does it mean when you here digital fingerprint? What is that?
JACKSON: Well your digital fingerprint is kind of like what your machine looks like on the Internet. So when you visit websites, you and your machine have a certain profile. And that profile can uniquely identify you amongst millions and millions of Internet users.
HOLMES: How good does one have to be? We hear about hackers and we assume they do this for a while, dedicate so much time to this and are super smart kind of a thing. But do you have to be that sophisticated of a hacker if you have very little information about somebody? If you have enough, can you do something with it?
JACKSON: Any website you visit is going to be able to tell who you are amongst a million, three million people, 13 million people. So they already have some knowledge about who you are. Based on that, they're going to key that into a huge data base of information that's already been collected about you. You don't have to be very smart at all. All you need is the key.
HOLMES: That's scary. This is what we're going to do this morning and how we're going to do this. You feel pretty confident. I don't think you've seen this. You don't know the name we're giving you and you don't the log-ins, the user names. So with this information, you think you'll be able to do what?
JACKSON: I'm going to use what I can dig up on this person. I'm going to use his digital fingerprint. I'm going to see if I can find it first based on that information. This is information that websites already have. And then I'm going to look up all of the available Internet records to see what all is out there, what he likes, what he likes to do, where he's gone, what he's bought.
HOLMES: That's scary given who this guy is on our staff. This is one of our staff members who volunteered to give this information. We won't actually be giving the name out to everybody and showing too many details that people can use. But we're curious to know what you're going to be to come up with. We're going to talk to you in an hour. That's your assignment. You do your thing. Don, our digital detective, curious to see what you come up with.
JACKSON: I think it's going to be surprising.
HOLMES: Thank you so much. We'll check in with you again in just a little bit. Again, he's going to be back next hour with the results of his search.
Plus, we are going to be talking to him about some tips, how to protect your own identity.
Also, next hour, if you sometimes get the feeling that's somebody's watching you, good chance you are right. Josh Levs having that for us, also an extended look at what could be the end of privacy in our 9:00 Eastern hour. Stick around for all of that.
But our digital detective is on the job right now. Again he is just now getting the name and profile right now if you will -- or the user name, some of the log-ins for one of our members of our staff here. We'll see what he's able to come up with in an hour. We're going to stick around for the results.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Minneapolis was the first shot you saw there. This is a picture of New York. They're already out. They love popping out there on that skating rink. It's just that time of year. New York is lovely around this time of year. Cold goes with New York this time of year. You need that to have a good Christmas there.
But good morning to you all. Welcome back, 24 minutes past the hour now on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
A lot of people going to be out there Christmas shopping today, tomorrow, the next day and the next day, every day pretty much until Christmas day. A lot of people have electronics on their lists. A lot of kids want a lot of those electronics -- laptops, tablets, Netbooks, whatever you want to call them, lot of stuff out there.
Our digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong always helping us out with this stuff. Mario, good to see you my friend. Good morning to you.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: T.J. happy holidays.
HOLMES: Happy holidays to you, as well. Is there -- can we say there's one or two hot tech gifts this year?
ARMSTRONG: Oh, gosh. one or two hot ones.
HOLMES: Too many, huh?
ARMSTRONG: For kids, for kids. Absolutely, anything gaming is going to be very, very hot. The Microsoft Kinect is selling phenomenally well. This is a video game that uses your whole body as a controller and then the Sony Playstation Move has new controllers. That's big.
But I think if there's one that's maybe off the beaten path a bit, is this one called the AR Drone. And this is kind of a quadra (ph) helicopter that flies around via your iPad or iPhone or iPod. Touch is how you control it and it has two built-in cameras in the unit. One front-facing and one below the unit so you can actually see on your iPhone what the actual helicopter is seeing as it flies around.
HOLMES: I remember when this came out. There were a lot of concerns that people were going to be spying on their neighbors with those things. I'm curious, how expensive is a gift like that?
ARMSTRONG: That gift there is about $299. That's a little bit on the higher end for gifts.
HOLMES: It does work, though?
ARMSTRONG: It absolutely works as promised. I've been testing it for quite some time and these bumpers actually come off. So this can be flown in the house with these bumpers, but it could come off and just have this one unit be the only piece of the helicopter that flies around. And then they even have games where you can play against each other if you have more than one of these.
HOLMES: I see they wouldn't let you fly it around the newsroom there and it's probably for the best. Now kids, we talk about tech gifts and tech toys oftentimes just as that, it's entertainment. But sometimes they blend in a little education, sometimes with this entertainment. Any of those going to be hot?
ARMSTRONG: Yes, and I look for that big time, T.J. because I'm not just big about consumption for consumption sake. I want kids to be able and parents to be able to find toys and products that can help them learn.
Quickly I'll run this down, Leapster Explorer is a device, probably best for ages four to about nine. And these are games where kids are used to playing with characters that they know like "Toy Story," or Dora the Explorer or "Star Wars." and they learn everything like phonics, some math, science and geography throughout this. So it's kept my eight-year old son very captive. The Leapster Explorer is one.
Another one, I like anything where it can have kids build. So I like this one called Struxx. I'm going to show you an image of what Struxx robots can actually look like when they're built. And they basically come in all of these -- the parts come in tons and tons of bags like this. And you have to spend time to put it together. So I think this is really great for those future engineers.
And then lastly, there's one that's off the beaten path that people don't know about. I'm a big "Star Wars" fan. But this is a book and it's a "Star Wars" book in a chamber. You push this button. It's called the Jedi Path. It opens up, makes "Star Wars" noises and then reveals an actual Jedi path book on the inside. This book is full of "Star Wars" history, information and great notes and pieces for any "Star Wars" fan, but it's a great reading book that can engage kids to read in a really cool way.
HOLMES: I wouldn't mind, I'm a big "Star Wars" fans myself. Are cell phones over with? Every kid seems like they have a cell phone now.
ARMSTRONG: Kids love cell phones. I think the hottest ones right now are probably the Windows phone 7 for kids. They love that particular device. Cell phones are going to be great gifts and look for cell phone accessories as great stocking stuffers.
HOLMES: You talk about reading there for a second with a book, an actual book. It seems like fewer and fewer people are using actual books these days. What about the e-readers? Are kids more prone to use those than the actual hard book?
ARMSTRONG: You do find that kids love these interactive e- readers. I brought two different ones with me here today to show you.
Now they come in color. This is one by Pan Digital. And this one's right under $125. So they've come down in price significantly, T.J. and you're right, these e-readers whether it's the Sony e-reader or Pan Digitals, they can do music now. They can play mp3 files. They can browse the Internet. So they can do a lot more than just read books.
But the really good thing is, if your kid really does enjoy reading, don't shut these out because you think they're electronic devices and not good. They can carry multiple books, multiple magazines, things that they wouldn't be able to carry with them all on the go with these devices.
HOLMES: It is amazing what they're able to do. They blend so many things together I swear. That is outstanding. Good stuff this morning, stuff that people can actually use and I know a lot of this is on peoples' minds as they're heading out today to the mall.
So great stuff, good to see you as always, Mario. And to our viewers, join us every Saturday at this time. That's our digital lifestyle expert, Mario Armstrong gives you the latest scoop on all the latest technology, 28 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we're taking a look at some of the stories making headlines.
The nation is going to be saying good-bye to Elizabeth Edwards today. She, of course, is the estranged wife of John Edwards, the former senator and Democratic presidential candidate. She died on Tuesday after a fight against breast cancer.
Also, the nationwide search for a kidnapped Virginia girl has ended in San Francisco. Acting on a tip, police found 12-year-old Brittany May Smith unharmed in the company of her mother's boyfriend, Jeffrey Scott Easley. Brittany disappeared Monday the same day her mother's body was found in her home in Salem, Virginia.
Also the WikiLeaks scandal has the Pentagon ramping up computer security procedures. The newly created cyber command issued the directive graphically restructuring -- restricting I should say, the use of portable devices which can be used for downloading secret files. It also set up a buddy system that requires two people to get clearance on sensitive materials, to quote, "reduce the insider threat".
Well, 20 days and counting until the Bush tax cuts expire. In his weekly address, President Obama explains why he's backing tax breaks for high-income earners in the proposed tax deal now on the table.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I believed instead that the best way to help the economy and working families was to keep middle class tax rates low. And cut taxes for working parents, college students, and small businesses. And I believe that with millions of people looking for jobs it would be a terrible mistake to end unemployment insurance. Not only for people who are out of work but for our entire economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, it seems many Americans may agree with the President.
Here now, CNN's deputy political director Paul Steinhauser.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey good morning, T.J.
The battle resumes Monday here in Washington over President Barack Obama's deal with Congressional Republicans to extend those Bush-era tax cuts. In the past few days, we've seen a lot of pushback on Capitol Hill against the plan by members of the President's own party as well as by some conservatives.
So what do Americans think? Two new polls out in the past few days give us a clue. A survey by Gallup indicates that two-thirds of the public supports the part of the plan that extends those tax cuts for all Americans for two years. And an equal amount gives a thumbs- up to the part of the proposal that extends jobless benefits for another year for the long-term unemployed. But six out of 10 questioned in a Bloomberg National Poll favor eliminating tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans. Other recent polls from other organizations indicate the same thing. Remember, if there's no agreement here in Washington, the current tax cut rates disappear at the end of the year -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right.
We want to turn now to weather. We've been telling you this could get quite interesting today and could get dangerous quite frankly with some of this weather we're seeing -- Bonnie.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right, T.J., because the wind chill factor will drop below zero, and not just a few degrees below zero. But I'm anticipating some of these places across the Midwest to get down to negative 10, negative 20 degrees. That is so dangerous to be outside. And that will occur as early as tomorrow night.
Take a look at this graphic. We have blizzard warnings. That means blowing and drifting snow, wind gusts as high as 45 miles per hour across Iowa, almost the entire state is under blizzard warnings. Now, a lot of this will begin later this afternoon. So you may be waking up and thinking, oh, it looks OK out there.
Well, do your errands early. Because really the situation will deteriorate by this afternoon and for cities like Chicago, it's actually nice outside right now. But later on tonight, freezing rain, sleet, it will get treacherous, and then we're expecting blowing and drifting snow and bitter wind chills there as well.
The big picture shows low pressure across much of the northern plains. It's going to pull down that colder air and make for some big changes. Already this morning, we're tracking the blast of Arctic air coming in early next week.
So here's what we're looking at. Temperatures for highs will be in the teens. But the wind chill factor will drop down to negative 14 degrees, for example, in Chicago; negative two in places like Cleveland, and even far to the south, we're looking at some cold numbers.
Outside right now, the temperatures across much of the Midwest have been cold, but as the system pulls down to the south and then eventually to the northeast, it will pull colder air in behind it. How cold? Well, even cities like Miami, Florida, will be affected.
Let's go right outside to Miami this morning. We had a very cold week, was leading the newscast all over Florida for the past few days, how cold it's been. Temperatures today will be really nice in the upper 70s, a little closer to the way it's supposed to be in December.
All I can say Floridians is don't get used to it. Your low temperature by Tuesday morning will be 42 degrees in Miami, Florida. That's how cold it's going to get. And you know if it's cold down there, T.J., it's going to be cold across much of the country, as well. Plus, we're also looking at more lake effect snow from this same storm system. One thing that's positive to report, so far of the 3,000 planes in the air right now, no delays.
HOLMES: All right, but that could change, as you said, Bonnie. And when we get into the afternoon, we could see things really shake up, right?
SCHNEIDER: Absolutely, especially for the Great Lakes, yes.
HOLMES: All right, Bonnie we appreciate you as always, thanks so much. We'll check in with her plenty throughout the morning.
Well, it's 36 minutes past the hour. Take a look at this. Students in London furious over a planned tuition hike. Even members of the royal family became targets of protesters. We'll explain this.
Also, the military taking on WikiLeaks. More about the new cyber command to protect the government from potential leaks.
But before we head to a break, we told you earlier about a Georgia Tech study that says eight-letter passwords are useless and easy to break. The new 12-letter super password is recommended. And our question, how should your 12-letter password be structured? With numbers? With numbers and letters? Or should it be a sentence? That answer for you after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now, before the break, we asked you, what should you use? And how should you set up that 12-letter password? How should it be structured? In numbers, in numbers and letters, or a sentence? Well, the answer is actually, "c", use a sentence. According to scientists, a sentence is simply easier to remember. Use a symbol, couple of examples up there for you. One of my personal favorites, "I love my wife." I hope that that will score me a lunch or dinner or something when I get home.
Well, the U.S. military taking action to try to stop new leaks. This comes after WikiLeaks began publishing thousands of classified documents taken from the Pentagon's secret network.
Josh Levs is here with the details for us. Good morning again Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning again to you, T.J.
Obviously the government has been condemning the leaks. The Pentagon has already condemned the leaks and as we've heard Private First Class Bradley Manning has said what he did was he downloaded hundreds of thousands of files from the Defense Department's computer network and then put them on to -- as we've been hearing, a CD marked Lady Gaga. And that that's how they got out. So we have a report on CNN.com now from "Wired" magazine that the military is now telling troops to stop using CDs, DVD, thumb drives, pretty much any kind of removable media on the computer network.
Here's the quote. The report says that "Cyber Control Order" directs troops to quote, "immediately cease use of removable media on all systems, servers, and standalone machines".
And this report comes amid growing fears of what some are referring to as a possible cyber war. Hackers out there infiltrating more and more sites, particularly of businesses, actually -- of people who speak out against these kinds of leaks. In recent days, the Web sites of Visa and MasterCard were hacked apparently by a group of hackers calling themselves "Anonymous" after those corporations stopped processing donations to WikiLeaks.
The former chief officer, security officer from MySpace spoke to us about these concerns in the NEWSROOM.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HEMU NIGAM, FOUNDER, SSP BLUE: Visa and MasterCard you would expect to have pretty strong defenses. And the fact that these folks have been able to take them down is really a wake-up call. And it's in essence, it's a red alert situation for any company who decides or any individual or any Web site or any government agency who says we're going to turn your back on the crusade that you are doing. We don't agree with you, and if you say that, you have to worry whether or not your Web site will be attacked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Private groups now are taking a lot of steps. It's important to note, Internet security experts are telling CNN, they do not think that there's a cyber-war going on. But clearly security concerns are out there.
I got a lot more information for you posted at Facebook and Twitter at my pages JoshLevsCNN. And you can weigh in on the whole idea of what kinds of security concerns are out there now.
T.J., as people try to protect their privacy, obviously everyone is watching out for those computer networks.
HOLMES: All right, Josh, thank you.
LEVS: Yes.
HOLMES: Well, students in London have had it with the planned tuition hike. Take a look at what they did about it.
You can see it, but you can't quite hear it. Thousands of students were in the streets, young people this week. And what you're seeing in this picture here, that -- in that car, the -- the future king of England and his wife Camilla. They came under fire, if you will, from a lot of these protesters who were screaming at their car, throwing things at their car.
This was part of really a week of protests. Loud and angry protests at times turned violent. But the students are protesting because of a proposed tuition hike that could find many of them paying three times what they're paying now.
The Prince, Prince Charles and Camilla did get out of there without being harmed. Though, 12 police officers, at least, were wounded in some of these protests.
We all know and we all say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Do you think a unibrow is beautiful? Well, coming up, we're going to tell you one country that covets the unibrow. Nadia Bilchik coming up with this one for us.
It's 42 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: And a quarter to the top of the hour here now. Let's take a trip across country. We're going to check some stories that are making news across this nation.
First stop is Dallas, Texas where the "Dallas Morning News" reporting that a jury found the arrest that you're seeing here involved excessive force. My goodness, the video shows former trooper Arturo Perez throwing a woman face first into a concrete highway divider. It happened on Dallas' North Texas tollway in 2009. The woman suffered a deep gash on her chin. The officer was convicted of misdemeanor assault.
Next stop is at New Haven, Connecticut where all he wanted for Christmas was the 100 pounds of marijuana. A man is under arrest for these Christmas gifts: 100 pounds of weed stuffed in to presents and delivered to his home. An informant tipped police off about this special delivery. They also seized about $23,000 in cash.
Also, a camel topples over a bunch of people attending this rehearsal. Check this out here. The camel was part of a live performance put together at the First Baptist Church of West Palm Beach. It takes them a second to topple over, but apparently some folks are under there. Everybody was OK. We're told this is just the rehearsal here. So maybe they got it right for the actual performance. But, yes, he's all right. I think he still has the part in the play.
Let me bring in Nadia Bilchik here now. Nadia you bring us some of the most interesting stuff. We never know what's coming with you. And last time I talked to you this morning, you teased me and said we're going to be talking about eyebrows.
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: Yes, because --
HOLMES: OK. But you didn't tell me it was going to be like this -- the unibrow? BILCHIK: Well, the unibrow, you know they say the eyes are the window to the soul, so the eyebrows are the frame. And you know us women, we pluck, we wax, we thread to have eyebrows. But in Tajikistan, in Central Asia, there's no plucking and no waxing and no threading because the unibrow, yes, the extended brow across the face is considered a thing of great beauty.
So much so, T.J., because it's seen as virginity, it is seen as something youthful. Because think about it, the older you get, the thinner your eyebrows get; so thick, bushy eyebrows are equated with youth. And if you don't have a unibrow, they will take a plant called usma (ph) you can buy for about 6 cents for a bunch of usma, they will grind the leaves and make a paste and paint on the unibrow.
HOLMES: They will paint it on?
BILCHIK: They will paint it on.
HOLMES: Now, what do they think about the folks who do not have the unibrow? Or are they --
BILCHIK: They don't think they're as sexy.
HOLMES: Really?
BILCHIK: Yes. A unibrow is sexy.
Now, let's look at Americans who have a unibrow, sexy or not. We have George W. Bush, famous people who had unibrows. Look at him as a young man.
HOLMES: Is that an actual unibrow?
BILCHIK: He did. He had a unibrow.
HOLMES: I think that's a shadow or something.
BILCHIK: And then there's Frida Kahlo the famous Mexican artist who not only had a unibrow, she also had a mustache because she said this is natural for me, and I am expressing myself. Very famous unibrow Frida Kahlo's. And then we have Matthew McConaughey.
HOLMES: What?
BILCHIK: And that did not stop him. If you look closely, yes a unibrow --
HOLMES: That is not a unibrow. That is not a unibrow.
BILCHIK: That is defined as a unibrow. And of course, Brooke Shields had very thick, bushy eyebrows. Beautiful eyebrows, as did the former Leonid Brezhnev, former Soviet Union leader. And my famous Russian quote was, the reason -- this is what Robin Williams quipped -- he said the reason people in Russia loved Brooke Shields so much is that she reminded them of Leonid Brezhnev. HOLMES: OK. Bush -- a big, bushy and thick eye brows, that's one thing. But she didn't have a natural unibrow, they were just thick.
BILCHIK: They were just thick. But it's fascinating to see different cultures. You know, we did a story, you and I, where we say that very fat women in Uru in Mauritania were much more sexy than skinny women. Well, in Tajikistan, you want a unibrow. So I thought it'd be interesting to see what do Nadia and T.J. look like with unibrows.
HOLMES: That would be good.
BILCHIK: And would it enhance our looks?
HOLMES: That's exactly a good look -- that is a good look for you, Nadia. It's not exactly working for me.
BILCHIK: And there are two products in America that can give you a unibrow. They are called eyebrow extenders. There's one called Talika (ph) an eyebrow extender.
HOLMES: Here in the U.S.?
BILCHIK: Here in the U.S. and Modelco (ph) gives you more brows.
HOLMES: Wow.
BILCHIK: And because of the whole "Twilight" series, you know, thicker, bushier brows are definitely in.
HOLMES: Wow. Very thick, not a unibrow necessarily but Matthew McConaughey, though, you say he used to. Was that the after picture we were looking at?
BILCHIK: No, we're looking at the before. You know with all the make-up he's had over the years, who knows.
HOLMES: He was the sexiest man alive a couple of times, I believe.
BILCHIK: You see? You never know what a unibrow can do.
HOLMES: They worked for him.
Nadia, great stuff this morning, thank you.
There he is again. I don't know, Matthew. I don't know if he'd appreciate us saying that's a unibrow. I'm getting close to that picture there.
BILCHIK: And it's just always fascinating how different cultures perceive beauty differently.
HOLMES: Beauty -- you're absolutely right. And certainly here in this country we have our own ideas sometimes of what beauty is or should be.
BILCHIK: And now I'm looking at your brows, you do have very good brows. And they are long and they shape your face very well.
HOLMES: Thank you very much.
BILCHIK: The frame to the window to the soul.
HOLMES: The frame. Well, on that note, don't take any more close-up shots. Now, you've got me thinking about my eyebrows. No, I kid you.
Coming up, it's about nine minutes to the top of the hour here now.
We're going to be talking about the rules of basketball. There are a lot more rules now. But back in the day, there were only 13, and they were written down on one document that's 119 years old. And it was just auctioned off.
We'll tell you who bought it, what they're going to do with it, and how much they paid for it. That's coming up.
Stick around.
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HOLMES: That is Lady Gaga, but you already knew that. She's singing "The Fame", the album that was the third most downloaded album on iTunes this year. Eminem had the number one most downloaded on iTunes; "Recovery" the album. Kesha's "Animal" was at number two. The most downloaded single on iTunes for 2010 was "Hey Soul Sister" -- kind of surprising there -- but "Hey Soul Sister, good song, by Train.
All right. We've got Joe Carter joining once again from HLN sports. And this is -- it's funny and it's such a testament to how much football means to the south. We've got several things we're going to talk about. But, OK, explain this.
A guy actually gets a court date moved because he wants to go to the BCS championship game, I got that right?
JOE CARTER, HLN SPORTS ANCHOR: He's a Birmingham lawyer and a lifelong Auburn fan and he put in a request to have his civil trial moved to start after the January 10th BCS championship game because he's bringing his wife and his three daughters.
Now, when he submitted this motion to the judge, he put in a nice very well plea as well as some photos of his daughters in Auburn cheerleader outfits taken seven years ago to show, you know, how long they've been cheering for the Auburn Tigers. And he also said this is a once in a lifetime opportunity given the fact that the last time Auburn won a national championship was 1957.
So the judge, who is an Auburn fan, granted his request. And get this, the lawyers on the opposing team, also Auburn fans, were actually rooting for this lawyer to get the trial postponed.
HOLMES: OK. So he made no bones about it. I thought maybe he had an excuse to get it delayed and then he was actually going to go to the game. He was upfront about it?
CARTER: Right up front. He said this is the state of Alabama. We know how important college football is. We will serve justice, but football first.
HOLMES: OK. What was he doing though as he was on trial? You said a civil trial --
CARTER: A civil trial.
HOLMES: I hope it wasn't too serious. Maybe it was OK to do a delay. But that's amazing.
CARTER: Isn't it?
HOLMES: Football means a lot in the South.
All right. Let's go back to this, this other story.
Basketball, a lot more rules. We probably need some additional rules given some of the plays we see. But originally there were only 13 rules of basketball.
CARTER: You know, basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith in 1981 (SIC), he was a P.E. Instructor.
HOLMES: 18 --
CARTER: Excuse me, 18 -- that would have been really --
HOLMES: Yes, a new game.
CARTER: 1891 -- he was a P.E. Instructor and he created this game so that kids at the YMCA could have something to do indoors while it was cold inside. And he originally wrote down 13 rules on these two documents here that were just sold at an auction for $4.3 million. They thought it would sell for about $2 million going into it. So it surpassed any other sports memorabilia item that's ever been sold, the highest auction item.
And of those rules -- very interesting --
HOLMES: You'll love this.
CARTER: No dribbling.
HOLMES: Yes, no dribbling.
CARTER: No pushing, no striking other players, they used a soccer ball. They shot it into a peach basket. There were 18 players on the court at one time, now there's only ten. So you think about how the game has evolved. Now you've got players making hundreds of millions of dollars, organizations making billions. I mean it's just unbelievable how things have changed over the last 119 years.
HOLMES: And what did you say? No dribbling, no contact with other players? Did I have that right?
CARTER: How about President Obama? He gets an elbow in the lip the other day from playing a pick-up basketball game. That rule wouldn't have --
HOLMES: And tell us again, the guy who bought it -- I didn't realize when you talked to me last hour, but we do know who bought it and what he's going to do with it.
CARTER: Yes, his name is David Booth, He's actually a Kansas University alum. And he says he plans on housing it at the University of Kansas once they have a place for it and they can preserve it. But he's a billionaire, made his money in mutual funds and he says it's money well spent.
HOLMES: All right. Do me a favor, 15 seconds. Martina Navratilova, tennis legend hospitalized. Explain that one.
CARTER: She was climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro for charity, she got 4,500 feet up, had to turn back because she had fluid in her lungs, wasn't able to complete it, but she did raise $130,000 for her charity.
HOLMES: OK. Hope she's going to be OK.
CARTER: She is going to be OK. She'll recover.
HOLMES: She's going to be all right.
All right. Joe, we appreciate you as always. Thanks so much, buddy.
CARTER: You bet.
HOLMES: We're getting close to the top of the hour. Some out there say it's the end of your privacy. We are going to tell you how you can protect yourself online. Protect that identity.
Also, if you sometimes get the feeling that somebody is watching you, there's a good chance they are. We're going to show you how cameras are just about everywhere. An extended look at what can be the end of privacy. That is coming your way at the top of the hour.
Stick around.
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