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Election Day in America; Cloud Technology Connecting All Your Devices; Elon Musk Wants to Colonize Mars
Aired November 04, 2014 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: It`s Election Day in America. But why now and why all states at the same time? You`re about to find out today on CNN STUDENT
NEWS. I`M Carl Azuz.
U.S. general elections are held the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Congress made it that way in 1845. More Americans farmed back
then, and they had to travel somewhere to vote.
Earlier November was between the harvest and the worst winter weather. Different states used to have different voting dates.
But as new as begin the travel faster through telegraph technology, the government didn`t want results in early voting states to influence the
turnout and opinion in later voting states.
One Election Day nationwide solve that problem. So, flash-forward to the midterm elections of 2014, and the U.S. House of Representatives -all 435
seats are up for election. Republicans need at least 218 of them to stay in control of the House. Analysts expect them to get.
Democrats currently control the Senate where 36 seats are up for election. Of course, the Democrat will still control the White House, and it`s
possible that even after votes are counted tonight. We still won`t know the final makeup of the Senate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Political stars came out for the final Election Day push: for Republicans, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R) NEW JERSEY: When our Republican Party is at its best. We can walk and chew gum at the same time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For Democrats, Hillary Clinton hit three states for female Senate candidates.
HILLARY CLINTON: Who`s going to be there for you?
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Who cares about you? Who works for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bill Clinton went to Iowa.
BILL CLINTON: And I can tell you this, you need to vote for progress, not protest, you need to think about what you want for the next six years.
(APPLAUSE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still, Republican and Democratic sources say the GOP looks increasingly likely to seize the Senate majority. And Iowa where
James Taylor playing made it appear more peace rally than pep rally is a big reason why. Iowa is so critical to the balance of power that Senate
Majority Leader Harry Reid told Democratic volunteers in a conference call, that if they lose Iowa, it will be very hard for Democrats to keep control
of the Senate.
Here is why: Republicans need to flip six Senate seats to take control. West Virginia, Montana and South Dakota, which was briefly influx, are now
all almost sure to be GOP pickups.
Democrats are bracing for incumbent defeats in Arkansas and Colorado, early Colorado voting shows Republicans eight points ahead of Democratic balance,
according to the U.S. elections project.
Democrats also say losing Alaska is likely. That they have engaged in an unprecedented voter turnout operation, and polling is unreliable.
Democrats feel better about North Carolina and New Hampshire, but polls show both within the margin of error. And there are wild cards. The
Republican incumbent in Kansas could lose to its Independent who could caucus with either party.
Louisiana and Georgia are so close, they`ll likely go into December and January runoffs respectively.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this legit? Worldwide, there are more people with mobile phone than access to toilets?
This is true! A 2013 U.N. study found that 6 billion people have mobile phones, while 4.5 billion have access to toilets.
AZUZ: Mobile phone doesn`t necessarily means smartphone. According to Pew research, 90 percent of American adults have a mobile, fewer than 60
percent have a smartphone.
For those who do have what`s essentially a pocket-sized computer, a lot of the info you have on it is saved in the cloud.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAURIE SEGALL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know when you get a new phone and it automatically has your photos and all your contact on it. Well, that is
what we called for Cloud at work.
So, what exactly is the cloud? The cloud are suffering (ph) services that run the Internet (INAUDIBLE) computer. That means that information can be
transferred from device to device to device. It`s how Netflix knows that you are up to episode three of your favorite show even if you watched one
episode on your tablet and the other on your TV.
So, how exactly does it do that? Well, they are both reaching back to the same pool of data. Here to bring it to you, looks absolutely nothing like
a cloud.
It`s a massive collection of servers. Housing buildings the size of football fields. Now they are filled with thousands of computers with
miles of wires and cable that store things like the photos. The videos he watched, your likes on Facebook and your online shopping history.
These servers on the cloud enable all your devices to stay in sync and in turn make your life a little easier.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: But there are some downsides. If the cloud gets hot like Apple`s iCloud was recently, some private information stored on it could be shared
with the Internet. Company salaries or business strategies could be shared, and to access your information on the cloud, you have to be connected to it
through the Internet.
It`s not on your hard drive. It`s a cloud away.
Carl Azuz, present. It`s time for the CNN STUDENT NEWS roll call.
Ever been in Haverhill, Massachusetts? We hear they watch our show, they are at Haverhill High School, let`s go Hillies.
How about Albany, Louisiana? If you are ever near Albany High School, you`ve got to watch out for the Hornets. And in Savoonga, Alaska, which is
actually closer to Russia than the United States we are happy to see the Huskies of Hogarth Kingeekuk Senior Memorial School. Thank you for
watching.
Despite the failures of two different spacecraft last week, the companies behind them promising to move forward in space travel.
So is SpaceX, it`s scheduled to take supplies to the International Space Station next month. Is it possible it will take humans while beyond that
one day, say, to another planet? Founder Elon Musk says possible, yes, affordable? Maybe not.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mars. It has an atmosphere that is 95 percent carbon dioxide. An average temperature of negative 81 degrees
Fahrenheit, and a surface gravity that is 38 percent of what we experience on Earth. And according to billionaire Elon Musk it will someday be the
ultimate destination.
(on camera): There are some people who think this goal of getting to Mars is crazy, that it will never happen. Are they right?
ELON MUSK, SPACEX CEO: Well, they might turn out to be right. I think they are obviously wrong that it`s technically impossible. The only
question is one of economics, because we can definitely, and we sent like the robot to Mars, but if you say, look at the costs of that, that Hope
program it was like three or four billion dollars to send one radio- controlled car with some sensors to the surface of Mars.
CRANE: Right.
MUSK: But it`s pretty cool. You know, radio-controlled car, but I can yet do that on earth. It would cost like a thousand times less.
CRANE: So, it`s different to send the rover and then a person.
MUSK: Yeah, I mean you probably send like one person on a one way trip, like - if they would like. And then maybe try to resupply them every two
years or something. The thing is it`s certainly technically possible. The question is what it costs.
I feel quite confident that you get down to a point where the costs of moving to Mars is less than half a million dollars.
It is an enormous development of it. When we are talking very big rockets, launched a lot.
Let`s say that there is a million people needed to create a self-sustaining base on Mars. Well, OK, a hundred people per flight, that`s 10,000
flights. Mars and Earth only synchronize every two years. I can do a thousand flights every two years, something like that is probably what you
want to do.
CRANE: Right.
MUSK: So, imagine a thousand huge spaceships going to Mars every two years. It looks pretty cool.
On Earth we take advantage of this huge base of industry. We also have all these handy things on Earth that you don`t have on Mars like trees or crops
that just grow, like this is fishing (INAUDIBLE), like go put a hook in there and get a fish. And you have all these challenges of an alien
terrain and having to create the foundations of civilization. Humanity would essentially be the steward of life as we know it. We would be
bringing life to Mars.
And, you know, obviously, the other creatures on Earth, they can`t make spaceships, so- there is no way for them to get to Mars, but we can bring
them along, and -and extend life to planet that currently doesn`t have it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: In a way it was a destination wedding. The destination was Dallas Love Field. But the wedding took place at 32,000 feet between Tennessee
and Texas. The happy couple don`t work for the airline, but they fly a lot. They had so many rewards points they were able to get tickets for 30
family and friends, but the rest of the passengers just got a free wedding with their plane ticket. The peanuts were handed out by a four-year old
flower girl. It`s certainly the height of romance, a couple flying to love, walking on air with their heads in the clouds. And you know that in
a wedding on a plane, no one forgets the wings. I like that. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN STUDENT NEWS.
END
