CNN Student News 2012-06-06

(CNN Student News) -- June 6, 2012

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

***

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GROUP: (Inaudible) CNN Student News. Whoo!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARL AZUZ, HOST, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Thanks to Ms. Rogers` (ph) class for spelling out today`s introduction. I`m Carl Azuz. As we get going with 10 minutes of global headlines, we`re going to start things off today in Pakistan.

That is where a senior Al Qaeda leader was killed this week according to U.S. officials. Abu Yahya al-Libi was second in command in the Al Qaeda terrorist organization. He was captured back in 2002, but escaped three years later.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): On Monday, al-Libi was killed in a CIA drone strike in Pakistan. White House spokesman Jay Carney called al-Libi`s death a serious blow to Al Qaeda. Another U.S. official said, quote, "No one even comes close in terms of replacing the expertise Al Qaeda has just lost."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Wisconsin is one of 19 U.S. states that allows for an election to recall the governor, essentially to remove him from office. Only two governors have ever been recalled in the U.S., North Dakota Governor Lynn Frazier in 1921 and California Governor Gray Davis in 2003. Yesterday was the first time that a Wisconsin governor had ever faced a recall vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Here you can see Republican Governor Scott Walker casting his ballot. The push for this recall election came from Governor Walker`s critics. They`re angry about some of the ways he`s tried to fix Wisconsin`s budget problems. Walker`s supporters have called him a hero for those same actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: The results of the recall election came in after we produced this show on Tuesday evening, and you can check them out in the "Spotlight" section on our home page.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): From Wisconsin, we`re going to hop across the pond to London for the end of a celebration honoring the Queen of the United Kingdom. This flyover at the Queen`s home, Buckingham Palace, marked the end of four days of festivities. The country`s been celebrating Queen Elizabeth`s 60 years on the throne.

Other members of the royal family joined her for the final event of the Diamond Jubilee. The Queen offered thanks in a rare television appearance. She said, quote, "It has touched me deeply to see so many thousands of families, neighbors and friends celebrating together in such a happy atmosphere."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Well, if you want to put your forecasting fortitude to the test, you can go outside and guess the temperature. If there`s any wind, you could take a crack at how fast you think it`s going. It might sound kind of easy, but it gets a lot harder to accurately assess the weather when you`re in the middle of a hurricane. John Zarrella explains why some researchers in Gainesville, Florida, think it`s important to try.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There I am in North Carolina, battling the wind and water last year during Hurricane Irene.

(Inaudible) you can feel the wind and the rain.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Looks pretty bad, doesn`t it? The problem is, sometimes our perceptions of a storm`s strength are different from reality, and that can lead to injuries and death.

LESLIE CHAPMAN-HENDERSON, FLASH: What we`re actually doing here is we`re creating a little bit of constructive unease, and that unease is the thing that`s going to propel people to do something differently.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): The University of Florida and the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes have teamed up to try and understand how people perceive wind, rain and water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you ready?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You`re sure?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don`t want to call this off?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. It`s your funeral.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Standing on a wooden platform, university student volunteers are strapped into harnesses on top of a wooden platform. Then the giant turbines are turned on. They are blasted with six different wind speeds, up to 100-plus miles per hour. Sometimes they`re hit with wind and water. The participates hand-signal their wind guesstimates to a researcher.

CORINNE NOVELL, UNIVERSITY STUDENT VOLUNTEER: I think I -- the highest I estimated was like 85 miles per hour.

ZARRELLA: Right. You know how fast that really was?

NOVELL: How fast is it?

ZARRELLA: Sixty.

(LAUGHTER)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Researchers are finding most people pretty accurate at the lower wind speeds, but like Corinne, most overestimate the higher speeds.

GREG WEBSTER, PROF. OF PSYCHOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA: So it`s simply -- and part of matter of humans just not really having experience for these types of winds.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Researchers say what`s clear so far is that people with prior tropical storm or hurricane experience are better estimators of wind speed. The problem is, most people have never been through one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this legit? You can see the sun`s ultraviolet rays.

Not true. These rays aren`t visible to the human eye, but they can have a major impact on the human body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Ultraviolet rays are what can give you a suntan and a sunburn, for that matter. They`re also a big factor in the science of aging, like wrinkles. Scientists believe that some types of ultraviolet rays can lead to skin cancer. Now we`re not able to see these rays, but you can see their effects.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Take for example, this image. It was published in a medical journal recently. The man is 69 years old. He`s been a truck driver for the last 28 years. And during that time, he says he was exposed to UV rays on the left of his face through the window of his vehicle. I want you to notice how much more wrinkled his skin is on that side than on the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Couple of stories now. You won`t soon forget. The first is about a fifth grader named Matt Woodrum. He has cerebral palsy, a disorder that can affect someone`s muscles and nervous system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): But he didn`t let that keep him from his school`s 400-meter race. When Matt got tired, his phys. ed. teacher asked if he was going to stop. He said no way and then -- this is really cool -- other students started joining in to run with him and to cheer him on. Matt finished the race to cheers and celebration, but his teacher said for Matt this kind of thing just isn`t unusual.

JOHN BLAINE, TEACHER: He`s an inspiration. Every activity he gets involved in, it`s the same experience. So it`s a blast. And he`s very inspirational to the whole school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): Another inspiring story, this boy was born deaf. The video is made when he got cochlear implants, allowing him to hear. Watch what happened the first time he heard his mother`s voice.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Cooper.

Hi, Cooper.

AZUZ (voice-over): Fantastic. This was a year ago. His mother says Cooper can now count to five and say his ABCs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Cooper.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today`s Shoutout goes out to Mr. Sorenson`s law and economics classes at Palm Beach Lakes High School in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Which of these words means to sell? You know what to do. Is it enclose, dispense, parcel or vend? You`ve got three seconds, go.

Vend means to sell, like a vending machine. That`s your answer, and that`s your Shoutout.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Our next report today is about a unique vending machine that offers a wide variety of products, but it`s not selling any of them. In fact, it doesn`t take money at all. To get something out of the machine, you might need to put something in. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LINA FENEQUITO, CREATOR AND DESIGNER: I think there`s something really timeless about trading and swapping that resonates with people. My name is Lina Fenequito, and I created the Swap-O-Matic. It`s a vending machine that allows people to swap and trade rather than buy.

The vending machine satisfies our desires for instant gratification, but it co-opts it and it reappropriates it to something that is a more sustainable method of acquisition.

I create the Swap-O-Matic while I was at Parsons School of Design, and I wanted to address issues of overconsumption and I wanted a solution that was both playful and fun, yet at the same time was non-confrontational.

The primary inspiration for the Swap-O-Matic originated with my parents. My mom had taught us growing up to never waste anything. They can either get something from the machine, give something to the machine, or swap.

The Swap-O-Matic doesn`t assign value to any item. It is based on the assumption that value is directly related to need. So if you need something, it`s valuable to you. If you don`t need it, there`s no value.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Before we go, they say cats always land on their feet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ (voice-over): This one doesn`t want to put it to the test. Luckily, it figured out a different way to get down. Payback for all those times it drove its owner up the wall. What`s awesome here is the cat just stopped halfway down and looked at the camera, like you`re getting this, right? I`m just making sure.

Some people might think this kind of trick is amazing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Others would consider a cat walking down a wall "rappelling." Maybe the owner taught the kitty how to do it. It was like their little pet project. And the first time the cat showed off its wall-crawling talent, the owner was just floored. That`s all the time we have for "meow" for CNN Student News. I`m Carl Azuz.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

END