Antarctic Whaling Banned in Japan; Zuckerberg`s Planning to Provide Internet in Rural And Hard-to-Access Areas To Boost Quality of Life; Renewable Energy Possibly Preventing Hurricanes; Scientific Project for Government to Save Money on Printer Ink
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: The college student created a Lego version of herself to send out as a resume. It`s not an April Fools` joke, it`s coming today on CNN STUDENT NEWS. First up, though, we are taking you to the Korean Peninsula. North and South Korea haven`t been involved in open conflict since 1953 when an armistice ended the fighting in the Korean War. But yesterday, they were exchanging fire, not on the land, but at sea. The North sent a fax yesterday warning its southern neighbor that it would be doing life fire exercises meaning military exercises with actual weapons. This is the first time in recent years that North Korea has had these kinds of drills, and South Korea called it a hostile threat. It said some North Korean shells landed in South Korean waters. So, it responded by firing back again into the sea and sending fighter jets to patrol the area. North Korea often provokes its neighbors by firing rockets and missiles into the ocean around the Korean Peninsula. The United Nations is telling Japan to stop a yearly whale hunt. Since 2005 there`s been a Japanese program that`s captured hundreds of whales off the coast of Antarctica. Commercial whaling is illegal, but there`s a loophole in the law that allows whaling for scientific research. And Japan says its Antarctic program is for science. The International Court of Justice says that program is now banned. That there`s been more killing than scientific discovery. The ruling will not prevent Japan from hunting whales in other places, and smaller scale whaling by individuals is often allowed. But some Japanese say they are being unfairly singled out. Their whaling in general is Japanese tradition and that it should be respected as long as the whales are in endangered.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this legit? An estimated 65 percent of the world`s population has access to the Internet. Not legit. The CIA estimates there are just over 2 billion Internet users worldwide, or about 30 percent of the global population.</s>AZUZ: And more than half of those with Internet access use Facebook. More than a billion people. Last year, Facebook`s founder controversially called Internet access a human right. And while that`s debatable, Facebook`s hoping to get people connected in places where they are not, increasing both the number of people on line and potentially the number of people on Facebook.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagining for the first time in history humanity firing on whole cylinders.</s>RALITSA VASSILEVA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Facebook`s taking to the skies, in an effort to bring the Internet to the world. Turning its attention to unmanned aircraft or drones and satellites to reach the roughly 5 billion who can`t get the Internet. CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained the vision to CNN`s Chris Cuomo last August.</s>MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO FACEBOOK: Here, we use things like Facebook to share news and catch up with our friends, but there - they are going to use it to decide what kind of government they want, get access to health care for the first time ever, connect with family hundreds of miles away that they haven`t seen in decades. Getting access to the Internet is a really big deal.</s>VASSILEVA: Internet.org is Facebook`s effort to bring together the world`s biggest tech companies, to find a way to reach people with no access to the Internet. But first, Facebook has to figure out how to use this technology to reach those people, many of whom live in underdeveloped places in Asia and Africa. Zuckerberg says the company has hired experts from NASA and U.K. based a center, the developer of the longest lying solo power drones to help. Facebook`s Ciel Maquire (ph) says satellites are constantly on the move, so you have to figure out a way to capture the information, from which one of them while they are passing over specific place. Solo powered unmanned aircraft can offer solution in less populated areas.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we are looking at a new type of plane architecture that flies at roughly 20,000 meters, 20 kilometers, because that`s a point where the winds are the lowest, it`s above commercial airlines, it`s even above the weather. And actually can stay in the air for a month at a time. And these planes are solar powered and they sit there and they just circle around and they have the ability to just broadcast Internet down, but significantly closer than a satellite does.</s>VASSILEVA: Facebook says its motives are altruistic. Internet for all. But others point out that universal online access also opens up a world of new potential Facebook customers. Ralitza Vassileva, CNN.</s>AZUZ: Forget Internet. Today`s Roll Call mascots are going old school as in medieval legend old school. We`ll start with some dragons. Welcome to Gretna High School. Glad you`re watching in Gretna, Nebraska. Next, we have the Lancers. Good to see you at Longfellow Middle School in Falls Church, Virginia. And how about the black nights? They are up in Syracuse, New York, on the roll at Henninger High School. Certain wind turbines are like giant three bladed fans. When the winds spins their blades then can generate renewal clean energy. They do make noise, which bothers some people and they are known to kill birds at wind farms. The U.S. is building several wind farms off shore. Scientists think they can survive weaker hurricanes. A Stanford professor says they could actually weaken hurricanes, though the number of turbines that that would take may not be feasible.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hurricane season won`t begin in the Atlantic basin until June 1st. But the South Pacific storm season is in full swing. At any point in time, in fact, it is the season for hurricanes, typhoons, or cyclones somewhere in the world. With winds up to an astounding 190 miles per hour, fierce storms can dump more than 2.4 trillion gallons of rain in a day. At this point the world really has nothing to defend against nature`s fury. But a Stanford study says there may be something that could stand in a hurricane`s way. Quite literally. It`s not some brand new technology or hypothetical machine I`m talking about. It`s wind turbines. According to the study, large numbers of wind turbines could slow down the outer winds of the hurricane, decrease wave heights, and cause it to dissipate faster. The authors say 78,000 300-foot turbines off the coast of New Orleans could have reduced Hurricane Katrina`s wind speeds by as much as 98 miles per hour by the time they reached land and decreased storm surge by an incredible 79 percent. Considering the billions of dollars of destruction a single storm can cause, a solution that provides renewable energy, pays for itself, and saves lives.</s>AZUZ: April is financial literacy month. And if you are planning on pursuing higher education, we are planning a glossary of terms to help you understand what to expect, especially as a lot of you are in the application process right now. Today`s term "cost of attendance" or CoA. It`s not just tuition, it`s the actual amount you`ll be paying each year at college once you add in living expenses, books, transportation and other stuff that comes up. So while in-state tuition at a public school in Georgia, for example, is around $10,000 per year, once you throw in your dorm room, a seven day meal plan, books and other expenses, your CoA jumps up to $22,000 a year. So, it`s important to look and plan beyond tuition if you`re planning to go to college away from home. It started as a science fair project, 14-year old Suvir Mirchandani found that printer ink costs more per ounce than Chanel number five perfume. So, he focused on ways to use less of the ink.</s>SUVIR MIRCHANDANI, TEEN SCIENCE FAIR WINNER: My research led me to conclude that the government could save almost $234 million, simply by switching to that one font. And that`s because the font is thinner, it`s lighter, it`s just simply uses less ink - just simply looking at it, you won`t be able to tell that it actually saves 30 percent of ink cost, so those are my conclusions.</s>ZAKARIA: So, for state and federal governments using the times new Roman font on printouts, Suvir says the switch to the lighter Garamond fund would use less ink, saving a total of $400 million a year. But Garamond`s a smaller font. So, some critics say it`d be less legible at the same size. And they say the government pays for ink differently, so the switch might not save that much, though it could save us a few bucks at home. It`s not a great job, market for recent college graduates. How can they make themselves and their resumes really stand out? Here`s one idea. Leah Bowman, a junior at Northwestern University built herself in Legos. She used some computer programs, including Lego`s free digital designer software for the resume, and she raided her dad`s Lego collection to actually build herself brick by brick. The resume alone may not land her a dream job just yet, but to get an employer`s attention this idea`s a blockbuster, even if they see other colorful resumes, how are they going to Lego off this one? It`s instructive and good self-marketing, it builds on her creativity and talent, it leaves the competition at pieces. This block party is over. We`ll put another show together for you on Wednesday. I`m Carl Azuz. END