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Hi, I`m Carl Azuz.
Hope your week is off to a good start.
First up today on CNN STUDENT NEWS, tragedy at sea. Last week, hundreds of people boarded
a boat from Libya headed to Europe. It sent out an SOS on Saturday night and as a rescue
ship approached, the migrants moved toward it, crowding one side of their own boat, causing
it to capsize in frigid waters.
Italian Coast Guard officials say they`ve recovered some survivors, but hundreds of
people are feared dead.
This years, there`s been a series of disasters like this. Thousands of migrants h been rescued.
Hundreds have died in dangerous Mediterranean crossings on unsafe ships.
Some are looking for a better life in Europe. Some are running from violence and instability
in countries like Libya. Some are being trafficked as slaves.
European leaders are holding emergency meetings and increasing the number of patrol ships
to address the problem.
For millions of Americans, the middle of April is a time of remembrance, reflection and recovery.
Last week marked the anniversaries of the Boston Marathon bombings and a shooting at
Virginia Tech University. April 19th, 1993 was when the FBI led an assault using tear
gas on an armed religious cult in Waco, Texas. It`s not clear exactly how a fire broke out
in the compound where the cult was gathered, but dozens of people died.
On April 19th, 1995, a massive bombing occurred at Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in the
Oklahoma capital. The Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum stands as a monument,
with 168 stone and glass chairs representing each victim.
And on April 20th, 1999, there was a shooting attack at Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado. The Columbine Memorial, opened in 2007, pays tribute to the students and teacher
who were killed.
April 20th is also the anniversary of a historic environmental disaster.
That massive oil slick now covering some 600 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico and it
could start reaching the United States coast within hours.
Authorities knew it would take years to clean it all up. Back in April of 2010, the U.S.
Coast Guard had estimated that 210,000 gallons of oil a day were flooding out of the broken
well into the Gulf of Mexico. The final U.S. government report on the spill put the blame
on the BP Oil Company, The Halliburton Oil Field Services Company and The Transocean
Offshore Drilling Company.
BP finally stopped the spill by putting an oil containment cap on the leaking well and
permanently sealing it off in early August of 2010, more than two months after the deadly
explosion.
You probably won`t see its effects on Gulf Coast vacation beaches, but it`s still washing
up in other places.
Barataria Bay, Louisiana, the marshes and the shores of these small islands were once
covered in oil.
Today, from our boat, we spot two dozen workers wearing face masks, shoveling, working on
a stretch of beach. We pull up to take a look.
How you doing?
Doing good.
How are you?
Drew Griffin with CNN.
Nice to meet you, sir.
This is Philippe Cousteau.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
How is it going?
We have to have you stay away from the hazardous material at the moment, because it is a clean
up site.
The hazardous material turned out to be BP`s oil, a 90 foot long, 30,000 pound tar mat.
We had a small tar ball tested and it matched the oil from the spill.
The fact is, five years later, there is still oil -- oil in big enough clumps that it needs
to be dug up by a crew like this, digging down 30 inches, trying to take it and remove
it.
The pockets of tar mats that still exist are in areas that are known to us, but which were
deemed by the federal government to be better to leave alone there and let them be naturally
exposed to er -- through erosion and then for us to clean them. So as they appear, we
are finding them and removing them. But none of them poses a threat to human or aquatic
life.
And is this going to go on for years and years?
However long it goes on, the company is committed to cleaning up that which is exposed and that
which is Macondo oil.
Time for the Shoutout.
American scientist William James is known for his research into what subject?
If you think you know it, shout it out.
Is it emotion, speech, reflex or biology?
You`ve got three seconds.
Go.
The philosopher and psychologist William James is known for his theories surrounding emotion.
That`s your answer and that`s your Shoutout.
We`ve talked before how Internet companies like Google and social media sites like Facebook
use the sites you visit and the subjects you like to help advertisers reach you. It`s called
data mining.
One thing that`s new, technology that allows some computers to track your emotions while
you`re online. One thing that`s not new, the privacy concerns.
This technology wants to know what you feel
At Affectiva, we develop emotionally intelligent computers. So we use technology that can track
your facial expressions and we map that into a number of emotional states. Essentially
what the computer is doing is tracking your main feature points, like your eyes, your
mouth, your eyebrows.
So your technology, how can it know what I`m feeling?
What is it looking for?
We`ve amassed the world`s largest emotion data repository, about seven billion emotion
data points. We`ve collected videos from over 75 countries of people responding to digital
content and we use that to train the computer to detect all sorts of different expressions,
from enjoyment to confusion, concentration.
One of the things that`s scary about this type of technology is you think, wow, will
a computer maybe be reading my emotions without me knowing?
Do you think that`s possible for this technology one day?
Technologically, it`s possible, but we have crafted all our user experiences to date so
that we get this opt in beforehand.
What are some ways that you`re already implementing this technology?
So one of our main focuses at the moment is in the advertising and media space. We work
with movie studios to develop and test their movie trailers. Also, we work with about 1,400
brands and advertisers who use our data because they want to understand the emotional connection
you have with a brand. And we help them optimize their advertising.
The site CNNStudentNews.com, the page, each day`s transcript. The school`s on today`s
Roll, Osborn Middle School in the capital of Arizona.
That`s Phoenix, where The Fire Hawks are watching in The Grand Canyon State.
Gillette is a city in Northeast Wyoming. It`s where we heard from Campbell County High School.
Their mascot is The Camels.
And in The Bluegrass State, we`ve got some Wildcats online in Louisville. Hello to Farnsley
Middle School in Kentucky.
Except for maybe considering whether to order the calamari, most of us don`t think much
about squid. But scientists are finding uses for their proteins that could shape the future
gadgets we buy, future technology in medicine and the future of camouflage.
Could one of nature`s masters of camouflage help disguise soldiers in combat?
Findings from a recent research study from a team of scientists at the University of
California Irvine say they`ve been able to isolate a key protein in squid skin, which
could one day help solids disguise themselves at night, during combat, and effectively make
them invisible from infrared detection.
The unique light reflecting protein is called reflectin. Reflectin has enabled squid and
other Cephalopods such as octopus and cuttlefish to blend into their environments for millions
of years. Researchers say reflectin is super versatile and with the right mechanical or
chemical stimulus can virtually be turned into any color.
Inspired, researchers found a way to produce reflectin in the lab and create invisibility
stickers. These stickers are essentially tape coated with films of protein.
The lab technology is still a ways away from being used on the battlefield.
Still, don`t expect them to squid while they`re ahead. Once researchers sushi potential, the
cephalapodsibilities are endless.
We`ve got to squiddadle, but come back Tuesday for more deep sea in CNN STUDENT NEWS.