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CNN 10

First Show Of The 2021 Fall Season; Tropical Storm Henri; Filming Movies In Space; Funny Fails Of Humanoid Robots. Aired 4-4:10a ET

Aired August 23, 2021 - 04:00:00   ET

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

CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome to a new show and a brand new season of CNN 10. We are your daily down the middle explanation of what`s happening

in the world, and I`m your host Carl Azuz. It is great to be starting a new season with you.

There is a lot that`s going on around the world from chaos in the Asian country of Afghanistan, to the ongoing and some new problems brought on by

the worldwide spread of COVID-19, to struggles in the Caribbean island nation of Haiti. It`s endured another devastating earthquake earlier this

month.

We`re planning to cover all these stories on our show this week, but we`re starting today with a look at the situation in the Northeastern United

States which was just hit by a relatively rare tropical storm. Its name is Henri. It formed near Bermuda exactly a week ago on August 16th.

On Saturday, Henri temporarily strengthened to hurricane status, which means its wind speeds were at least 74 miles per hour, but yesterday the

system weakened a bit as it approached land and it was downgraded to tropical storm status.

Still, Henri is a problem, a big one, for part of the U.S. that`s not used to seeing a lot of Atlantic hurricanes or tropical storms. The region of

New England, which includes the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island hasn`t seen a hurricane make landfall since 1991, and that`s

where Tropical Storm Henri washed in over the weekend.

It made landfall on Rhode Island Sunday afternoon. At the time, more than 50 million people were under some sort of storm related warning. For

example, because the threat of a storm surge, a rise in seawater levels pushed ashore by a tropical system, flooding was a threat to millions

especially in low lying areas.

Those in some coastal towns in Connecticut were ordered to leave their homes. More than 1,000 flights were cancelled in the region as Tropical

Storm Henri approached, and the National Guard was activated in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York and Rhode Island to help with the

rescue and recovery efforts following the storm.

Thousands of power restoration and clean-up crews were also put on standby in case electricity was lost and trees fell and blocked roads. Henri is the

eighth main storm in this Atlantic hurricane season which officially runs from June 1st through November 30th.

Though hurricanes can form at any time. Many forecasters expect this season to be above average in the number of named storms officials are predicting,

but so far this year is not keeping pace with 2020 season which set a record with 30 named storms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Andrew, Katrina, Harvey, Irma, they are some hurricane names most of us will never forget. Naming hurricanes has taken some trial

and error, and some of the roles are still changing. In the early days, military meteorologists used to name storms after their wives, girlfriends

but none of these names were made public but in 1950, everything changed.

The U.S. Weather Bureau started naming storms. They began using the World War II phonic alphabet. Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, but this created

confusion as well because every year, the storms were named the same. In 1953, the U.S. started using only female names, then in 1979 we started

alternating between men and women, and we recycle that list every six years.

In the Atlantic Basin, now we mostly use English, Spanish and French names. Storms are given short, distinctive names to help communication and avoid

confusion. You can`t request a storm to be named after you and there are no storm names that begin with Q, U, X, Y or Z. Frankly because there just

aren`t many names that start with those letters.

The naming process is handled by the United Nations World Meteorological Organization. A storm named will be retired if it`s too costly, deadly or

too inappropriate to be used again. In fact, from 1953 to 2020 there have been 93 storm names retired.

In 2005 and 2020, we actually used all of the names on the predetermined list and then started to use the Greek alphabet for the remainder of the

storms. Well now, that`s a thing of the past too. The World Meteorological Organization decided that the Greek alphabet was too confusing and even

more confusing when a Greek letter needed to be retired. So they have come up with a subsequent list that will be used in the future if all of the

storm names are used, and just like each individual name, each storm has its own personality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: 10 Second Trivia. In what decade did the U.S.- Soviet "space race" begin? 1940s`, 1950s`, 1960s`, or 1980s`. It was in the mid-1950s` that

both countries started developing artificial satellites effectively starting the "space race".

There`s a new "space race" of sorts taking place between organizations in the United States and Russia, but the type of "space race" is brand new.

We`re talking about two competing attempts to shoot a movie aboard the International Space Station. That has not been done before.

Previously special effects were used instead of shooting on location, but last year NASA said it was working with an American actor to shoot the

first movie aboard the ISS. We`re not sure exactly when and Russia is planning to send up a movie team of its own in October. The costs, as you

might expect, are sky high, but this is all part of a growing list of ideas on how to find new uses for the aging space station.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Space, the final frontier.

RACHEL CRANE, CNN SPACE CORRESPONDENT: In the past, movies and TV shows that were set in space relied heavily on green screens and visual effects.

But now, several productions are set to actually leave this planet and film in space. No green screens required. Even Tom Cruise is slated to film on

the International Space Station.

MIKE MASSIMINO, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: Now we can take the people with the filmmaking talent and show them how to live in space for a little while, so

that -- so that it hopefully we`ll get better movies out of it.

CRANE: Mike Massimino, a former NASA astronaut and mechanical engineer, is consulting on a new discovery production called "Who Wants To Be An

Astronaut?". It`s a reality television show in which the winner will travel to space, and live onboard the ISS for eight days.

MASSIMINO: It`s not a billionaire that is paid to go through this experience, which is now what -- what we`re seeing now happening. It`s

going to be someone who won this contest.

CRANE: But filming in space brings a whole host of problems. Massimino worked on the 3D IMAX documentary about fixing the Hubble back in 2009.

MASSIMINO: You can`t have a whole crew. Right? You`re not going to be able to, hey, let`s launch these 50 people to the space station.

CRANE: Those challenges also include regulatory and agency approvals, but another show called "Space Hero" has a plan for that.

DEBORAH SASS, CO-FOUNDER OF "SPACE HERO": We actually have signed letters of support with over 40 space agencies Rachael, in 40 different countries.

That`s never been done before by any media or space company. Even NASA doesn`t have that.

CRANE: The winner of the reality show gets a $55 million ticket to live on the ISS for 10 days. So we can expect the -- the winner of "Space Hero" to

be flying in 2023 to the International Space Station.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the space industry doesn`t delay things by a year, absolutely.

CRANE: Will all of these projects become reality? Perhaps someday in the near future, but it`s clear that space is becoming the realm of not just

governments but of companies too.

BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: As we go into space, we want to encourage entrepreneurs to do new things, and to utilize the -- the extraordinary

Zero G of space to so all kinds of science, as well as entertainment.

CRANE: And why do you think it`s now there are all these space projects, are sort of, being dreamed up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To look at the world, right, of course space is also a longing. It comes with positive feelings like hope and aspiration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AZUZ: Over the years, we`ve shown you a lot of instances of humanoid robots doing some pretty human-like things. Par corps is one of the new

accomplishments shown off by their developers, but there`s another side to this. Just like with real people, there are robot fails and they`re

hilarious. Sometimes they miss a step or appear to blow out something, and when it came to a, sort of vault move, they were only successful half the

time.

Just goes to show that no stunts are automatic. Sometimes they just can`t get themselves in gear, or they fail when focusing on form over

malfunction. We have to remember that all computers occasionally crash. They`re only humanoids after all.

I`m Carl Azuz. A new viewer recently asked why does he say those terrible puns at the end. It`s because at the conclusion of every show, we like to

have a little pun and games. Second show of the season starts tomorrow, we hope to see you then.

END