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Companies Explore New Flavors For Soda; Scientist Continue To Search For Ways To Weaken Hurricanes; A Look At Hot New Hi-Tech Gadgets

Aired November 27, 2004 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, I'm Daniel Sieberg. Today on NEXT@CNN, can scientists come up with a way to weaken hurricanes before they hit land? Researchers were making progress back in the '60s, but now the idea is back on the table.
Also, a desperate effort to save the world's bonaboats, gentle cousins of chimps now facing new dangers in their war-torn homeland.

And if you're tired of the same old cola, we'll tell you about some revolutionary new flavors for soda. Whether you'll want to try them is another story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like it.

SIEBERG: All that and more on NEXT.

This year's hurricane season is officially over on Wednesday. And it was one for the history books. What made this year so weird? And what does it tell us about hurricane prospects for the next few years? CNN meteorologist Chad Myers takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHAD MYERS, METEOROLOGIST (voice over): Without a doubt, wild, wicked weather defines the 2004 hurricane season. With 14 named storms and six major hurricanes, this has been one of the most intense and deadly seasons on record.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!

MYERS: But why was this year so extreme? Scientists found that several factors for the blame for creating the perfect storm season. They say warm Atlantic Ocean, low wind shear and irregular rainfall patterns combined with powerful currents steered a record number of storms toward land. Experts say that coastal residents should brace themselves. Stormy weather like this may be around for a while. They say the tropics are in' very active phase in this current storm cycle. A climatic condition characterized by more or less severe hurricane seasons. And this one packed a punch.

PHILLIP KUDZBACH, COLORADO STATE UNIVERCITY: It looks, in general, that probably the next 10 to 15 years most of them are probably going to be active years.

MYERS: Although experts admit, they don't have all the answers. Researchers at Colorado State University have worked for over two decades to fine-tune the science of storm forecasting. They compare historic storm data, sea surface temperatures and other records to current data. And try to predict how long a cycle will last and how busy a storm season will be.

They found that the 19 named storms that defined the '95 Atlantic hurricane season whipped through the warmest ocean temperatures on record. That hot event was the start of a very active phase in the current storm cycle. Marked by stronger, longer and more frequent storms than decades past.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The seasons have tended to be fairly active since 1995. The activity this year was somewhat even above that.

MYERS: Florida was the first state in over a century to be hit by four hurricanes in one season. Scientists say they've never seen so many storms hit the same place so fast in recorded history. They blame the high hurricane activity and irregular wind currents for sending so many storms to the state. And this storm season broke records. Ivan became the longest-lasting major hurricane in over a century. It stayed active for 22 days.

Hurricane Frances caused the largest evacuation in Florida history with over 3 million forced to flee. And with over 20 billion insured losses so far, 2004 stands to be the most expensive hurricane season in U.S. history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: So with all we know about hurricanes, shouldn't there be some way to weaken their punch before they hit us? Well, don't think scientists haven't tried. John Zarrella tells us about a 1960s program that looked for ways to fight hurricanes and why that goal is once again being taken seriously.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Max Mayfield has labeled it the "X Files."

MAX MAYFIELD, : (INAUDIBLE) connected to the nerve endings coming from the brain -- I don't understand this.

ZARRELLA: Each year Mayfield the National Hurricane Center director gets dozens of proposal proposals from well-meaning individuals who believe they have found a way to snuff out hurricanes. If only there was a silver bullet that would save lives, property and money. In the 1960s through the early '80s, the federal government went looking for it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there a way?

ZARRELLA: A project called Storm Fury was born to try and find a way to reduce the strength of hurricanes.

BOB SHEETS, FMR DIR NATIONAL HUIRRICANE CTR: Maybe you could reduce it 10 to 15 percent. That's what we thought.

ZARRELLA: Bob Sheets worked on the program for 15 years.

SHEETS: Now, people think 10 to 15 percent is not much, but that will have the damage. I mean, that's not a $20 billion storm, it's a $10 billion storm.

ZARRELLA: The plan -- seed the hurricane with silver iodine crystals. The crystals would force precipitation, making rain would release heat, force the eye wall to expand, and thus reduce the strength of the storm.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If only the force of the hurricane's winds could be reduced.

ZARRELLA: In 1969, the work seemed to pay off. A hurricane was seeded twice. Both times the eye wall changed and the winds were reduced. But the team could never prove, if the seeding had forced the change or if the change was part of the natural cycle hurricanes go through. When project Storm Fury ended, money for hurricane research was reduced to a trickle.

HUGH WILLOUGHBY, INTL HURRICAN RESEARCH CENTER: We were done cutting fat and skin. We're down to muscle and bone.

ZARRELL: Hugh Willoughby ran Noel's Hurricane Research division until a couple of years ago.

WILLOUGHBY: I've just been beating my head against the wall for five years, and thought I'd let somebody else take a charge at the wall.

ZARRELL: It has been frustrating for everyone involved in hurricane research and forecasting. After Storm Fury, Bob Sheets went on to run the National Hurricane Center.

SHEETS: We had some real battles at times over keeping enough funds to just keep the staff.

ZARRELL: Last year, for example, earthquake research got $100 million. According to the International Hurricane Research Center, hurricane studies received a quarter of that amount. Even though hurricanes annually take more lives and cause more damage. Now in the wake of this broodish season, Congress is moving to provide more funding for equipment upgrades and research. The most pressing need, experts say, is figuring out what makes hurricanes strengthen.

WILLOUGHBY: Rapid intensification. Just what happened in Charley. Will unquestionably will be a factor in the next hurricane catastrophe.

ZARRELL: Computer models that better predict where a hurricane will make landfall and how strong it will be would save taxpayers a minimum of $100 million per event. It is estimated that each mile of coastline evacuated costs $1 million.

SHEETS: If you can narrow that down and say Tampa you don't have to worry. It's going to go a little more to the right. You'd have saved markedly -- well, more than you'd ever spend on hurricane research in my lifetime, probably.

ZARRELLA: The bottom line, hurricane experts say, is that insufficient funding of hurricane research has been pennywise and pound foolish. And you'd better not count on Max Mayfield finding a silver bullet in his x files. Do you know what that is? What's that?

MAYFIELD: You don't have one of those?

ZARRELLA: I don't have one of those.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: For a lot more on hurricanes, check out a special edition of "Anderson Cooper 360, Hurricanes 2004" on Sunday night at 7:00 Eastern Time. There are also some hurricane stories on the CNN Web site. You can get there from our Web site that is at CNN.com/next.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When we come back, some new gadgets you might want to put on your holiday gift list. These small portable video players can store and play back 80 hours of your favorite movies and TV shows.

And later in the show, we'll tell you about a good cicada invasion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Well, it's time to add another a nymph to your rebretwar of CDs, DVDs, now I'm thinking about PVPs. With Marc Saltzman our residence gadget expert. Mark what is a PVP first of all?

MARC SALTZMAN, GADGET EXPERT: A PVP stands for a portable video player. As the name suggests, these are pocket-sized devices that not only play your digital music, or mp3s and other files, and your favorite digital photos from your camera, but they also play videos, that can mean feature films, home movies or TV broadcasts.

SIEBERG: And they really are small. You've got a few of them here. Why don't you start with this one by Creative.

SALTZMAN: All four of them have a 20-gigabyte hard drive and that is what stores your content and of course a 3.5 or 4-inch screen to see it.

This one is from Creative. It is called the Zen portable media center. What I like about this is that it's the first operating system that's really intuitive. It's a nice graphical user interface. Even if your VCR is blinking 12:00, you will know how to use this devise, and it actually runs the new Microsoft media center edition for the portable devices. You go to music, press play. Let's hear a little bit of Etta James. While you're listening to music, you can start a slide show. So what better way to show your aunt over the holidays, you know how the kids are doing. By starting a little slide show. There you go. As you can see, it goes from one photo to the other.

SIEBERG: Because it's got Microsoft's operating system, does that make it easier to transfer things back and forth?

SALTZMAN: Yes it does and it synchronizes with the windows media player ten which is free at windows.com. So it works quite well. There's some limitations on the files it plays, it plays wmb, windows media video, but it automatically converts them for you. Here's a movie clip. The quality is quite good. You may not want to watch a movie on a 3.5 inch screen, but when you're on a plane, and if your battery life is going to die on your laptop.

SIEBERG: Is the battery life OK with these? For the most part a movie at least?

SALTZMAN: Better than a laptop, not as good as mp3 players. At least five, six hours at the minimum. And you can connect them to a TV when you are at your hotel room.

SIEBERG: The Creative Zen retails for $500. It's bulky, but I like it.

SALTZMAN: This one a little smaller. Doesn't take quite such a big pocket.

That's true. They are going to get smaller as we go down the line. This is called the pocket video recorder, the AB400. What I like about this one is that you can connect it to your TV, your cable box or your satellite box. And actually use it like a VCR, like a scheduler, to record television content.

SIEBERG: OK. So this one you couldn't record.

SALTZMAN: That's right.

SIEBERG: This one you can.

SALTZMAN: Another shortcoming of the Creative models, you can't record directly onto the unit. If you have say a TV tuner on your PC you can drag and drop the files that way. This allows you to record directly on there. In fact, the three we're going to look at now also do. Here's the interface, not as attractive as the Creative Zen. Here's a video clip. I taped some CNN the other night. As you see, it looks just like TV. It's like having a little antenna. But it's on the hard drive.

SIEBERG: You record and play back later.

SALTZMAN: Good point. Say you want to bring in all your favorite episodes of "Law and Order" with you on the plane it's great for travel.

SIEBERG: And you could fit them on some. Some of these come pretty big.

SALTZMAN: Eighty hours, even all the four we are looking at are 20-gig hard drive, that is 80 hours of video. That is quite a bit. So the Arcos (ph) retails for $550 and it comes with a little stand that sinks with your TV as well. Now next we got the smallest one on the market from Apex. This is called the E2 Go and this is also the least expensive one at $400. It doesn't have quite the bells and whistles that the others do. But nevertheless, it still works well. You can connect your TV right to it, record directly onto the hard drive. It even comes with a cable where you can back up your old records and tapes on to the hard drive.

SIEBERG: Old-school meets new school.

SALTZMAN: That is right for those out there who may remember vinyl. So here's a video clip. This shows a movie trailer. Again, you can see the text is crummy looking. But it works fine. It's fast as well. Decent battery life. Removable battery as well, which is key. That one retails for $400.

And last but not least, this model from RCA came out late last year, the first on the market. It is a little slower than others. And also a little bit bulky. It's called the Lera AV Jukebox, audio/video jukebox, it retails for $450. But what I like about it is that it reads multiple formats, multiple music formats and picture formats and video. All kinds of megpeg 1 2, AVI, you name it.

So what we're actually doing is seeing it on the screen. All four of these come with cords to connect them to your TV. It's very easy to do it. Here we're seeing a slide show. Let's go to the main menu now just by pressing the menu button. Here's with you can navigate through all the other content you've got on here. Of course, it stores your pc files as well, all four if these, if you work between multiple computers. We choose video. We'll see a video clip.

SIEBERG: And getting the content on here, how is that done? Are you getting this off your computer?

SALTZMAN: This one is off the tv.

SIEBERG: Off the TV.

SALTZMAN: Connected to my cable box.

SIEBERG: There's Ellen right there.

SALTZMAN: All come with USB cords as well and connect to your TV. It's very intuitive. The industry predicts this will be a trend next year as prices continue to drop and the features continue to rise and more industry support.

SIEBERG: And more entertainment on the go.

SALTZMAN: There you go.

SIEBERG: Marc thanks for joining us.

SALTZMAN: Thanks Daniel.

All right from the next big thing to the last big thing. Well, make that several big things ago. The biggest home electronics chain in Britain is about to stop selling VCRs. Remember those? Jim Bolden takes a look back to the days when VCRs were hot new technology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOLDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The death of the video recorder begins here. Britain's biggest electric retailer Dixon's will soon stop selling VCRs. By Christmas, record able DVD's will take the shelf space away from VCR's digital replacing analog.

HAMISH THOMPSON, DIXONS: DVD players are now outstripping VCR sales by about 40 to 1. And to us that suggests there's something fairly significant going on in the market.

BOLDEN: This is where it all began, Philips introduced the first VCR in the mid-1970s. This model would cost you about $5,000 in today's money. And each 45-minute tape would cost you about $100. Before Philips VCR or Sony's beta max or JVCs dominant VHS, people had to watch TV shows when they aired or miss them. But recording shows became the rage of the 1980s. In 1990 alone, 200 million VCRs were sold. But like the eight-track and the LP new technology took over. VHS videos are quickly becoming nothing more than second-hand collector items. But even that won't last.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of these tapes are already maybe 20, 25 years old. And magnetic tape only has a short lifespan compared to, you know, digital formats. So people are buying stuff that really probably will only last another ten, maybe 15 years.

BOLDEN: So you can soon forget learning how to set your VCR. But don't forget DVD players have competition, too the so-called digital video recorders or DVRs, and also blue ray discs which have ten times the space of today's DVDs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just ahead, a terrorist attack between the U.S. and Canada, it could cost economic havoc. But it's more difficult to keep it secure than other bridges. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Trucks from outside the United States normally have to clear customs before they get into the country. But that's not the case on one major bridge. Jeanne Meserve explains the quirky security situation on the Ambassador Bridge and why it's harder to fix than you might think.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORREPSONDENT (voice over): A herd of tractor trailers thunders across the Ambassador Bridge, more than 12,000 every day, and none are inspected until after they cross.

THOMAS MCMAHON, AMBASSADOR BRIDGE: We compare it to having your luggage inspected after you get off the airplane.

MESERVE: The Ambassador Bridge is about as critical a piece of infrastructure as exists anywhere. This one bridge spanning the U.S./Canadian border between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario carries one-fourth of the trade between the two countries. It was constructed to last and has for 75 years. Bringing it down would be difficult. But just making it impassable could be economically devastating. The auto industry relies on the bridge to transport parts just in time for use on the production line. And even the heightened security after 9/11 had a profound effect.

MARGARET IRWIN, AMERICAN TRUCKING ASSOCIATION: Post-September 11th, the economy was almost shut down at the northern border. I know some of the big five auto manufacturers had to shut down lines, cost them millions of dollars because trucks couldn't make it over the bridges.

MESERVE: Given the economic stakes and the limited options for rerouting truck traffic, there is widespread agreement that the bridge would be more secure if customs inspections were reversed. The U.S. would check out trucks on the Canadian side before they crossed the bridge, and vice versa. The idea of swapping the customs stations around has been discussed since 9/11. But more than three years later, nothing has been done. There has been and continues to be a lot of talk between U.S. and Canadian officials.

ROY CULLEN, PARLIMENTARY SECY TO THE DEP RM: It does not -- you know, all straight-ahead stuff. There's some complex issues there.

MERSERVE: U.S. customs officers have greater power to search, inspect and arrest in their Canadian counterparts, and the Americans carry guns. If they were to operate on Canadian soil, they would have to adhere to Canadian law, potentially weakening their authority. Officials of the U.S. and Canada say they are in serious negotiations about synchronizing laws or even swapping small pieces of territory on either side of the bridge.

But supporters of reverse inspections point to the tunnel where the French and British currently practice reverse inspections, and to some Canadian airports where U.S. customs already preclears passengers, and they suggest if there was truly political will, a way already would have been found.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Coming up in our next half hour, the commission in charge of forming election technology reports on the good, the bad and the ugly sides of voting machines.

And as you recover this weekend from your Thanksgiving feast, we'll tell you about some new flavors of soda that will turn your head or your stomach.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: Welcome back to NEXT@CNN. You know, since November 2, we've heard reports of thousands of lost electronic votes, malfunctions equipment, and old-fashioned fraud. A commission set up to address voting problems held a public hearing this week to discuss what went well and what still needs improvement.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG (voice-over): Several groups, including the GAO and the Election Assistance Commission are still dissecting the voting problems of November 2, 2004. There was nothing quite like those Florida hanging chads in 2000, but U.S. elections still have a ways to go before the public's confidence level goes up.

DEFOREST SOARIES, JR., ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMM.: We didn't have machine malfunctions that would suggest some kind of conspiracy, but we also know that there is a growing concern about the inner workings of electronic voting devices that are literally indiscernible.

SIEBERG: Congress created the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission as part of the help America Vote Act of 2002. That measure was designed to help eliminate old and unreliable technologies like those infamous punch cards. Part of that means keeping tabs on new technologies, like stopping hackers from compromising machines and compromising votes the old-fashioned way, with fraud. Commission member Paul Degregorio saw that in Wilmington, Delaware.

PAUL DEGREGORIO, ELECTION ASSISTANCE COMM.: But they showed us a stack of fraudulent voter registrations that they had turned over to the law enforcement officials. And they were concerned about groups that are paying people to register people to vote.

SIEBERG: The commission got an earful from confused and angry voters on Election Day. More than 700 calls placed to their hotline, complaints about long lines, lost registrations, and provisional ballots. And while the public and the media might be fixated on high- tech mischief, some of the commission's concerns involve better training for the humans who have to run the elections and the machines. The EAC is also supposed to establish standards for state and local governments, and participate in voter education projects. Overall, they admit there's a lot of work still to be done.

SOARIES: The good news is that more Americans voted this time in history. The bad news is that we still don't live up to the expectations that democracy demands.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Among the commission's goals, to establish testing and certification for all types of voting systems. There are, of course, standards now, but the process is quite convoluted and very secretive. New technical guidelines are being developed by NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The idea being that the standards should be based on sound technology and not on partisan politics.

All right. Well, just when I think some video games have gone as low as they can go in tastelessness, along comes something worse. This week, a Scottish company came out with a game that invites players to recreate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 41 years ago. Nazamina Sheari (PH) from Britain's ITV News has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NAZAMINA SHEARI, ITV NEWS: The final moments of President John F. Kennedy's life. For years experts have argued over whether he was killed by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald. Now the Scottish makers of a new video game say they can disprove all the conspiracy theories.

(GUNSHOTS)

SHEARI: For five pounds, players can recreate the moment. Points are only rewarded if the three shots accurately match the official version of events. The game's outraged the Kennedy family who called it "despicable." Senator Ted Kennedy wouldn't comment to reporters, but said the memory of both his brothers is still very much with him.

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: A day doesn't go past where I don't think about my brothers. They're an inspiration for a -- for me. They have been for their family.

SHEARI: The producers have defended the video game and say it encourages youngsters to take an interest in history.

KIRK EWING, VIDEO GAME PRODUCER: This is an opportunity for us to re-ignite passion in history and give people an opportunity to see a unique insight into the assassination.

ANNOUNCER: And the first unconfirmed reports say the president was hit in the head.

SHEARI: It remains to be seen if its customers really want to learn about history or are more interested in the violent nature of the game.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Well, a watchdog group, this week, issued its report on video games. And gave some A's, but a lot of F's. The National Institute on Media and the Family asked the industry to increase efforts to keep games with the most violence and sexual content away from children. An industry spokesman says the games already come with ratings and if kids are playing them, it's because retailers or parents ignore the ratings. Senator Joe Lieberman told the group, a small percentage of the games are the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR JOE LIEBERMAN (D), CONNECTICUT: Over the years, the proportion of the games produced every year that are hyperviolent or hypersexual has diminished. So there are a lot of good games out there -- a lot of good video games rated appropriately that parents can buy for their kids during the holidays coming up. But the bad games are worse than ever. They're worse than ever both because of how real they seem, but also they are obviously pushing the envelope every year further and further. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SIEBERG: A trade group for stores who sell games says it's working on a new tougher enforcement policy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: When we come back, we'll meet a woman whose mission is to save a species of apes called bonobos. And we'll find out why that's such a challenge.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: You can already make friends, shop, and operate far- away cameras on the web. But using the internet to shoot animals? Well, a Texas-based website already offers subscribers the chance to remotely fire a rifle at a target. Its operators want to add a feature that lets people fire real bullets into animals on their ranch. Texas officials are trying to figure out if it's illegal. Mainstream hunting groups say it's appalling and is not hunting. For the moment, at least, the website has stopped promoting the online hunting idea.

In the Congo, hunting and war are bringing good-natured apes called bonobos closer to extinction. Jeff Koinange reports on a woman who's made it her mission to save them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are survivors of a dying specious. Kicongo (PH) and Kisengani (PH) and Kasongo (PH) are bonobos, a member of the ape family found only in the dense forests of the Congo. They are orphans. Their parents killed for meat amid a brutal human civil war that's cost not only millions of human lives, but also countless bonobos.

Until they are 8 years old, the young require almost constant parental attention. They survive in the sanctuary only because their closest relatives are taking care of them. Traumatized by their experiences in the bush, these young bonobos are initially wary of our camera equipment.

It doesn't take long for them to adjust.

(on camera): Very much like chimps and gorillas, the bonobos are said to be extremely intelligent.

(voice-over): In fact, scientists say their genes are very similar to humans. Claudine Andre has made it her mission to be stepmother to the bonobos. She first arrived in the Congo more than 40 years ago from Belgium. This mother of five now grown children says she's passionate about saving the next generation of bonobos.

CLAUDINE ANDRE, SANCTUARY DES BONOBOS: Deep in my heart I know we already lost the battle. This makes me sad, but I think we have to try. If we don't try, who will try?

KOINANGE: She tries by making regular trips to the meat market, and with the help of Congolese officials, she confiscates chained bonobos about to be sold alongside other exotic meats.

ANDRE: But bush meat, it's very popular. It's a job now all over central Africa. And strangely, this meat is very expensive for the people. But it's a new phenomenon.

KOINANGE: Andre has plowed her savings into buying this modest farm as a sanctuary. From sympathetic donors she gets some help to cover the $100,000 a year operational costs. She says she's managed to save 38 bonobos so far, but she warns there may not be too many more still alive in the bush.

ANDRE: Perhaps we will have some good surprise. But I don't know. I'm not sure.

KOINANGE (on camera): Not optimistic.

ANDRE: No. I'm very afraid for this species.

KOINANGE (voice-over): Studying bonobo behavior she says may provide important clues to why humans can be so violent and why these great apes are not.

ANDRE: We have two things very important. You have no propriety of territory. And you have no propriety -- sexual propriety. So it's two important reasons to have no conflict in a group.

KOINANGE: Andre says her next steps are to try to breed the species and eventually release some back into the wild. But that will all depend on the safety and security of a country that's known little but human violence for nearly four decades.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: Bonobos are known for their peaceful nature, much less aggressive than say, chimpanzees, but check out some animals not at peace with each other. They've been parading around downtown Tucson like this an effort by their owner to make a statement for peace. That's "Booger," the dog, "Kitty," the cat, and the mice are named, imaginatively enough, "Mousey One" and "Mousey Two." Kind of a modern urban version of the lion lying down with the lamb.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Coming up: Is military messing with your garage door opener? It's not a wacky conspiracy theory. It's reality for some people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIEBERG: NASA took an important step this week toward returning the shuttle fleet to space. The agency moved a huge section of a solid rocket booster into the vehicle assembly building at Kennedy Space Center on Monday. Technicians have been stacking the booster on the platform that will be used to launch the shuttle. Officials say it's an important milestone because it represents the beginning of assembly for Discovery's flight planned for May or June.

Elsewhere, the Air Force used smart bombs in a training exercise on Tuesday. The "USS Schenectady" which had been in mothballs at Pearl Harbor was sunk by B-52 bombers using bombs guided by GPS devices and lasers. The ship sank in just over an hour, similar bombs were used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Well, here's some military technology you may find less impressive. The Pentagon is updating a system that's been around 30 years and that may have some unintended consequences for your garage door opener. Julie Vallese explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JULIE VALLESE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's simple, but it works. Garage door technology has been nearly flawless for the past 25 years. But the Defense Department's land mobile radio program is being modified as a post-9/11 security measure and it shares the same frequency.

LINTON WELLS, II, DEFENSE DEPT. CHIEF INFO. OFFICER: This has, for example, a large Homeland Security component to it. We can work better with first responders from the local communities. We can work better in martial and federal responses.

VALLESE: The industry says homeowner security may be at risk.

MARK KARASER, SAFE & SECURE ACCESS COALITION: If latchkey kids coming home from school can no longer get into their home because the keypad on the outside of the garage door is being interfered with by the Pentagon system, we believe that poses a real safety risk.

VALLESE: Problems have surfaced in Florida and Pennsylvania.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I couldn't get in and I worked and worked and worked with it.

VALLESE: The system also has been deployed in Washington, D.C., and New York with no reported problems.

(on camera): Garage door openers use an unlicensed frequency which means there's one condition for use. If the government chooses to use that frequency at any time for any reason, it can, without prior notification.

(voice-over): The FCC, the military, and the industry are trying to figure out what to do about it. For now, there are two solutions. The homeowner can purchase a kit to change their frequency, or the industry can change the frequency for new garage door openers.

In the meantime, will doors start opening and closing? No. Could door openers stop working? Maybe. More likely, though, you might just have to be a little closer for the door to open.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIEBERG: All right. This next story may be more of a skirmish than a full-on war at this point, but the first rounds of the next browser battle have been launched. And the question now is how will it reshape the online landscape? Let's take a short trip back in time, shall we?

Remember Netscape? Part of our parent company Time Warner, Netscape used to dominate the browser market in the early days of the web, then along came Microsoft. Years passed, we had some controversial bundling of software from Microsoft. Buy the late 1990s internet explorer had reduced Netscape to a few dedicates users. It is still around, though.

All right, fast forward to today and the fox and Microsoft henhouse. Firefox is a new browser from a nonprofit offshoot of Netscape call Mozilla. It promises to be faster, easier and safer than IE. After all, most spy ware, adware, and viruses target Microsoft applications, so firebox says it's protected from many of those pesky problems. Oh, and by the way, Firefox is also free. Is Microsoft taking notice? You bet. Are they worried? Well, they're not exactly pulling out all the stops, but it's been a long time since the company started firing shots in the browser market. Microsoft is obviously a huge target, too. And some people just want an alternative. At this point, the question isn't so much will Microsoft win, but how will this completion force some changes in how we surf the web? Some experts say that Microsoft got complacent after IE dominated the scene and it's time another company came along to get things fired up and that may be Firefox.

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ANNOUNCER: When we come back, remember those noisy, squishy cicadas that swarmed across various parts of the country last spring? We'll tell you who benefited from their invasion.

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SIEBERG: Airplanes have long been one of the toughest places to stay connected with the outside world. But the barriers are breaking down, from the airphone to satellite television. And now wireless internet access.

JOSHUA MACHT, TIME.COM: What we're seeing now are pilot programs in using Wi-Fi (UNINTELLIGIBLE) have certainly been out in from, they've partnered with connections at Boeing to offer a high-speed connection from any laptop on the airplane to the web. They're using Wi-Fi antennas inside the planes, and then they're mounting them so they can communicate with satellites. And you're getting much, much faster speed, and a constant connection that's broadband, which is really a huge leap forward.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They look like big bugs.

FEMI OKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Cicadas, big bugs with a huge impact on their environment when they emerge, every 17 years.

LOUIE YANG, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-DAVIS: We know that these cicadas are part of a greater forest ecosystem and fed upon by a whole host of animals, you know, from birds to snakes to lizards to fish. Those dead cicada carcasses are continuing to fertilize these northern American forests.

OKE: In general science, researcher Louie Yang describes a periodic bounty of nutrients that billions of these insects provide, like they did this past spring across 15 states. The extra nourishment means faster growing trees, bigger seeds for some wildflowers, and as critters go...

YANG: These are charming and mellow insects. They don't move quickly, they don't sting or bite. For the most part, they're very easy to handle and to touch, to observe, and it's an opportunity, I think, for a lot of people to see ecology happening in their yards.

OKE: See it and hear it. Males make sounds to attract females during the few short weeks they have to mate and lay eggs in trees.

YANG: When you get thousands or millions or billions of them together in one spot, it's a fantastic deafening chorus.

OKE: I'm Femi Oke, and that's "Cool Science."

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SIEBERG: So did you have a delicious turkey dinner on Thursday? Are you ready to relive it in zero-calorie liquid form? Jeanne Moos reports on new soda flavors that are probably not worrying anyone at Coke and Pepsi.

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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you're not up to whipping up turkey and mashed, maybe you'd prefer to just chug it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, god.

MOOS (on camera): Is it good?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't like it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, god! MOOS: You want more, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mashed potato soda.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mashed potato soda.

MOOS (voice-over): The actual taste is almost worse than what you're probably imagining.

(on camera): Oh. And the aftertaste.

(voice-over): Think of it as a five-course meal in a box. Zero calories, zero carbs. Skip the green bean casserole and replace it with carbonated green bean casserole soda.

PETER VAN STOLK, PRESIDENT JONES SODA CO.: We added fried onions.

MOOS: When we tested the sodas without telling folks what they were, about half had some inkling.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This tastes like -- what is that vegetable I don't like?

MOOS: A small but respected soda company, Jones Soda, makes the holiday pack. Last year they came up with their first thanksgiving flavor.

(on camera): And your thoughts, man?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That was the worst one. What was that?

MOOS: Turkey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh-ho.

MOOS (voice-over): Turkey and gravy was the brainchild of the company's president.

VAN STOLK: I phoned the office and they're, like, "dude, you're crazy. You're on drugs."

MOOS: This thanksgiving, Jones took it a step further.

VAN STOLK: We wanted to bring out the side dishes.

MOOS: And don't forget dessert: Fruitcake. But it was mashed potato soda that had folks spitting. You don't have to speak Italian to understand these tourists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING ITALIAN)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE:

MOOS (on camera): What do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sugary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coconut and pee? I don't know.

MOOS (voice-over): Jones sort of does this for fun and free publicity, part of the proceeds go to charity. Speaking of which, this guy's sign says "need money for beers, drugs, and..." you can finish it yourself. He nailed the mashed potato and butter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (BLEEP) butter. You've ought to got to kill that butter one. That's kind of -- kind of gross.

MOOS: The $16 five-pack comes with utensils, a straw and a toothpick. And much as we hate to bash the mashed...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, that's the stuff I had with the colonoscopy.

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SIEBERG: You know, I'm probably going to stick with the leftovers. All right, that's all the time we have for now, but here's what's coming up next week.

Snoops and identity thieves are on the loose and online. Your privacy, your wallet, your workplace, even your identity may be up for grabs if you're not careful.

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

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

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