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Obama Signs Equal Pay Executive Orders; Hope Fades for Finding Malaysia Flight 370; Boston Marathon Victims Strong One Year Later; Electrical Stimulation Helps Paralysis Patients Move
Aired April 09, 2014 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, HOST: You`re halfway through the week, nine days into April and ten minutes away from being up to speed on current events. Welcome to CNN STUDENT NEWS.
First up, President Obama signed two executive orders yesterday concerning equal pay. Basically, the orders are intended to make it easier for people to find out how much money others are making so they can decide if they`re being paid fairly. The president says this will help women earn similar pay to men. But like all executive orders, they`re limited: they only apply to companies that do work for the U.S. government. Broader action would require Congress.
Laws requiring equal pay have been around since 1963. The Equal Pay Act prohibits businesses from paying people differently because of their gender. Still, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, American women working full-time today earn about 82 cents for every dollar men earn.
This can depend on the type of job. Full-time female lawyers, for instance, earn about 79 cents to every dollar male lawyers earn. But among pharmacists, the pay is about equal between women and men. Women are also more likely to work part-time and take time off to care for their families, so these things factor into the gap, as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time for the "Shoutout." What is measure in fathoms? If you think you know it, shout it out. Is it distance in space, nautical speed, audio frequency or water depth? You`ve got three seconds. Go.
(SFX: Clicks, bell ringing)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A fathom is a measurement of six feet, primarily used in measuring water depth. That`s your answer, and that`s your "Shoutout."
AZUZ: Optimism is fading for discovering what happened to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. It disappeared more than a month ago, and though several ships in the Indian Ocean, which is thousands of fathoms deep, might have detected a ping, a signal from an aircraft`s flight data recorder, nothing has been heard since the weekend. And officials aren`t even sure if what was detected was from the missing plane.
This would be a difficult search even if the ping were pinpointed.
ANGUS HOUSTON, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTRE: Now I stress, this is very deep water.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Very deep and very mysterious. Search vehicles may have to travel two and a half miles down to try and find aircraft wreckage. And much about the ocean floor is unknown.
CHRISTINE DENNISON, PRESIDENT, MAD DOG EXPEDITION: It is a mystery. It`s very -- we know it`s deep. It`s 4,500 meters.
CASAREZ: Christine Dennison is an ocean explorer. She says what adds to the mystery is the terrain.
DENNISON: You have valleys. You have gulleys. You have mountain ranges. It`s very much an area that will mimic what we have topside.
CASAREZ (on camera): This is what searchers are trying to find with acoustic events, or pings: the black box. In air, sound travels in a straight line. But it`s not like that in the sea. It can angle and bend up to 90 degrees.
(voice-over): That means you can`t be exactly sure where the sound is coming from.
PETER LEAVY, JOINT AGENCY COORDINATION CENTRE: Acoustic energy, sound through the water, is greatly affected by temperature, pressure and salinity.
CASAREZ: If Ocean Shield hears another ping and is able to fix the position, it will likely lower the autonomous underwater vehicle Bluefin-21 into the water and attempt to find wreckage on the sea floor. If wreckage is located, though, one aspect of the deep-sea conditions may work in investigators` favor: very low temperatures.
DENNISON: Cold water does preserve everything much, much better than shallower, warmer temperatures.
CASAREZ: The search for Flight MH-370 continues.
AZUZ: It`s World Wide Wednesday on the CNN STUDENT NEWS "Roll Call." It`s when we head to countries like Italy to recognize the students at Lycee Chateaubriand de Rome in the Italian capital. Thanks for watching.
Next, in the U.K., where we`re happy to be online at Lockley (ph) Heath Middle School. That`s in England, United Kingdom.
And across the Atlantic, good to see our Canadian viewers in Ajax, Ontario. They`re checking out CNN STUDENT NEWS from Alexander Graham Bell Public School.
Monday, April 21, less than two weeks from now, the city of Boston will host its annual marathon. Thirty-six thousand people are expected to run, a symbolic victory in itself a year after two terrorist bombings at the race`s finish line killed three people and injured more than 260.
One victim, a dance instructor who lost part of a leg, has been able to walk and dance again, leaning on the support of her city.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now, we welcome back the inspiring couple who embody the phrase "Boston Strong," Adrianne Haslet-Davis and United States Air Force Major Adam Davis.
ADRIANNE HASTLET-DAVIS, BOMBING SURVIVOR: One, two, three. Play ball!
ADAM DAVIS, BOMBING SURVIVOR: Play ball!
HASTLET-DAVIS: Since the marathon, I`ve had a huge outpouring of support from Boston and beyond.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Adrianne Haslet-Davis.
HASTLET-DAVIS: We got to go through the tunnel at the season opener at Gillette Stadium for the Pats. I was invited to wave the flag at the Bruins play-off game. It was a "Boston Strong" flag.
DAVIS: The city lifted us up, and the city almost bent over backward to do whatever they could for us. And then just also other sense of community. I mean, it -- we`ve met some great people after this who have been -- just opened their hearts to us.
HASTLET-DAVIS: Red Sox, woo!
Just being able to be in that Red Sox parade, it feels like we won the World Series. I feel like we, as a city, won it. It wasn`t just the guys on the field. It felt like all of us were on the field when they won. And I think that can only happen in Boston.
DAVIS: It just really hit home with Boston, to say yes, we`ve got the attacks that happened to us, but we`re not going to let that define us. It`s going to be our recovery that`s going to be the defining moment.
HASTLET-DAVIS: "Boston Strong" means just how a group of people can come together and fight back with kindness and generosity and outpouring of support. And what you`ll get from that, what I`ve received from that, is pretty -- pretty incredible.
AZUZ: Another thing that helped Adrianne Haslet-Davis, a customized bionic leg developed at MIT. It`s one example of medical research helping someone recover.
Another involves electrical stimulation, a potential breakthrough for people who have been paralyzed. It has its limits: It won`t help people walk again, at least not yet. But it does allow for voluntary movement, where previously, there was none.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dustin Shillcox is paralyzed from the chest down.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, try to move your leg.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He can`t move even a tiny bit.
DUSTIN SHILLCOX, PARALYSIS PATIENT: No.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But doctors implanted this device, sending electrical stimulation to his spine. And when Dustin turns it on,
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There you go.
SHILLCOX: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my gosh.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He can move on demand.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, right leg back.
SHILLCOX: And then forward.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s amazing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When the stimulator`s turned off, Dustin can`t even sit up, because his torso muscles don`t work. But turn it on, and Dustin can sit up without any support at all.
SHILLCOX: The first time I turned it on, it was exciting and emotional for me at the same. Emotional because I was told that I`d never be able to walk or move my legs again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dustin is one of four patients in a new study published Tuesday. Despite their gains, none can walk on their own. The device works by activating one leg at a time.
It`s not the first time electrical stimulation has helped paralyzed patients. But experts say this technique may become an important tool in the toolbox.
SUSAN HARKEMA, NEUROSCIENTIST, UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE: I think that what`s incredibly exciting is that we`ve opened up a realm of possibilities of what we can do now with people who are paralyzed. And we`ve just scratched the surface.
AZUZ: Even if you don`t tend to put things off, it`s hard to avoid the temptation of procrastination. A new study out of the University of Colorado, Boulder, says the tendency to procrastinate may be in our genes, part of it, anyway.
Researchers found that habitual procrastinators, people who do this all the time, can to some extent blame their parents. But that only accounts for about half the reason for procrastination. The other half could involve stress, an overbooked schedule, or slacker friends.
The study also found that those who procrastinate tend to be more impulsive, possibly prone to sudden, sometimes rash decisions.
Ways to avoid procrastinating: break down big projects into smaller ones. Set aside time on paper for everything you have to do. And reward yourself for finishing tasks on time.
We would have told you about all this earlier in the show, but we put it off.
Before we go, some pretty fancy camerawork, though we`re not exactly sure how to describe it. A German photojournalist took six GoPro cameras. He attached them to his bike in such a way that they would give a 370- degree view. Then he took a ride through a park. The result is what looks like a miniature world scrolling all around him. The video from all six cameras, all stitched together, makes the view complete.
He had to experiment with the idea before making it work, and he had no sphere of failing. It`s a pretty well-rounded concept. It makes a world of difference for people who play around with video. You know, they all share a certain camera-derie.
We hope you enjoy the view, though we`re bike-ginning to run out of time.
We`re CNN STUDENT NEWS, and we`ll see you around.
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