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	• NEWS >> ATW Script October 30th, 2003 Yearly Script Program Index -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- OPEN/WELCOME Hi and welcome to Assignment: The World for the week of October 30th 2003. I’m Elissa Marra. In our top story this week… Anti-American violence in Iraq reaches new and deadly levels. #1— IRAQ ATTACK Iraq’s capitol, Baghdad, continues to be the focus of those who wish to hurt Americans and to punish those Iraqis who choose to work with Americans. Car bombs were set off near 3 police stations. At a fourth, Iraqi officers were able to stop the suicide bomber before he could detonate his weapon. Those attacks came after a bomber struck at the Baghdad International Red Cross building where at least ten people were killed All of those came on Monday, the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The blast at the red Cross blew down a 40 foot section of the front wall of the 3 story building. It caused massive damage inside and to buildings and cars nearby. It also came a day after a rocket attack on the Al Rasheed Hotel, a base for American military and coalition officials. US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was in the building at the time but escaped without injury. An American colonel was not as lucky. He was killed by the rocket barrage while 18 other people were injured. detonate (v) to explode or cause to explode suddenly and violently. ATW FACT The first electronic computer called ENIAC was 80 feet long, weighed 30 tons and had 19-thousand tubes. 57 years later, a simple laptop computer can store a million times more information and is 50-thousand times faster than ENIAC. Source: Univ. of PA School of Engineering INTRO REST OF THE NEWS In the rest of the news this week… -Nature flares-up in California… -And beneath the earth in China… -and in a solar storm from outer space. #2— CALIFORNIA FIRES Drought, dead trees, and high winds are the potent combination behind 10 major fires burning out of control in southern California. More than a dozen people are dead, more than 1-thousand homes have been destroyed and 400-thousand acres have been charred. Though more than 8-thousand firefighters were hard at work, California Governor Gray Davis said more help would be needed. Arson may be the cause of at least one of the fires. Police are seeking two men who they say may have deliberately set a blaze near San Bernadino to cover another crime. The largest fire was raging out of control in San Diego County. It caused at least 9 deaths and burned 100-thousand acres. It also forced the Monday Night Football game between San Diego and Miami to move to Phoenix. Arson (n) The crime of maliciously setting a fire for some improper purpose #3— CHINA EARTHQUAKE Cold weather has compounded the problems following a pair of earthquakes in a northwestern province of China. At least 9 people were killed and more than 143-thousand were affected when the earthquakes rumbled on Sunday. Despite temperatures that dropped to five degrees below zero Celsius, many of the residents of Gansu Province chose to sleep outside. Early estimates of the damage were set at more than 35 million American dollars. Chinese officials are trying to speed the arrival of more than 1-thousand cotton padded cold weather tents to the area affected. Other emergency aid and personnel are also on the way.Celsius(adj) temperature scale with freezing point of 0, boiling at 100. #4— SOLAR STORM Despite fears of major disruptions, a giant storm that began on the sun has had little effect here on Earth. Scientists say a “coronal mass ejection” is a mass of solar gas that hurtles away from the sun at 2-million miles per hour. Storms of this nature happen on the average of once every 11 years. Previous storms have caused blackouts and other headaches. But this storm has only interfered with communications aboard some airlines and with radio contact with teams on Mount Everest. One other effect over the next week or so may be the appearance of the so called auroras or northern lights. Average (n) a typical or usual level POP QUIZ #1 In our story about the fires in California, where did we tell you the largest fires were located? Was it… Los Angeles San Diego San Bernandino And the correct answer is number two…while there are ten fires out of control, the largest in southern California is near San Diego. OLD CLUE #1— CONCORDE LAST FLIGHT And now it’s time for the answers to our clues in the news… Our first clue was a location. Take off to the latitude and longitude that we provided and you would land in London. That’s where the final flight of the supersonic jet, the Concorde touched down Friday. Celebrities were among the 100 passengers who took off from New York City, rose to 11 miles above the Earth and traveled across the Atlantic at 13-hundred miles an hour. The Concorde is being grounded for financial reasons. It never made back the billions of dollars invested in It when the first one took off in 1976. OLD CLUE #2—RETURN OF SOYUZ Fill in the blanks of our second clue and you got Return of Soyuz. American astronaut Edward Lu and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchencko came back to Earth Tuesday after spending 6 months aboard the International Space Station. The space station has been operated differently in the wake of the break up earlier this year of the space shuttle Columbia. NASA says it may take until September of 2004 before another shuttle goes into service. Until then, the space station will be operated by crews of one Russian and one American. European astronauts, including Pedro Duque who returned with Lu and Malenchenko, will be occasional visitors. OLD CLUE #3—WORLD SERIES And finally, you may have noticed an extra “r” in our scrambled letter clue last week. Drop that letter and unscramble our third clue and you have World Series. The 100th championship of Major League Baseball ended Saturday night with a 2 to nothing win by the Florida Marlins over the New York Yankees. Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett won the game and was voted the Series’ most valuable player. The Yankees have been to the World Series more than any other team, winning a record 26 times. The Marlins, a much younger franchise, has won the World Series twice in the last six seasons. THIS WEEK IN WORLD HISTORY This week in world history… on November 1st, 1993, the Maastricht Treaty comes into effect and with it, the European Union is born. Originally 12 nations, now comprised of 15, the E-U will add another 10 members in 2004. FEATURE Want to see how people celebrated Halloween in the 1800's? Wyatt Doremus checks it out! (Wyatt) “The Genesee Country Village and Museum in Rochester, New York is a full scale replica of a 19th century American village. The perfect place to host ‘American Halloween’ a traditional look at one of our countrys most popular holidays.” (Michelle Worden) “And what we try to do is take some of the older customs and bring them a little bit to life in our historic village. So we have lots of activities that are routed in Halloween history.” (Actor) “And when he went to bed at night way up stairs his mommy heard him hollar and his daddy heard him ball…” (Michelle) “Well the one big thing we have is an 1890’s picture show, using a magic lantern and this is how people entertained themselves in the Victorian Era and it’s a lot of fun and its Halloween folklore.” (Actor) “Meeeowww!! Step, step, step…” (Michelle) “We have story telling in a couple different places, we have stories of the supernatural which are very much routed in 19th century folklore.” (Wyatt) “Kids also had an opportunity to ‘trick or treat’ at historic buildings all around the village. ‘Trick or treating’ probably dates back to the early ‘All Souls Day Parade’ in England where poor citizens would go door to door begging for pastries; in return the beggers would pray for the families dead relatives.” (Michelle) “And we also have a 19th century play party and that really is something that was done at harvest time in the 19th century. Folks would gather for work parties to get the work done and then they just started to have a lot of fun with it, they would have a fiddler, they would get together and dance and it sort of transformed itself into a halloween tradition with masqurading to the parties and so on, and later on of course that’s what we did in the 20th century too.” (Wyatt) “For ‘Assignment: The World’ I’m Wyatt Doremus.” ISN’T IT COOL MUMMY GOES HOME It was the homecoming of an ancient king. At three thousand years old, it’s a beautifully preserved relic. The mummy, believed to be Rameses the first who ruled Egypt from 1292to 1290 B.C., was returned to Cairo 150 years after being taken from Egypt. Experts relied on historical, archaeological and scientific evidence to identify it. The mummy will be on display next year at Egypt’s Luxor Museum. ISSUE Most of us came to work or school this week with an extra hour of sleep as Daylight Saving Time came to an end. Benjamin Franklin was the first to propose such an idea but it wasn’t until World War One that the US adopted the notion of moving clocks ahead one hour in the spring and back again in the fall. The idea then and now is that it saves power. Less electricity is used while there’s more evening daylight. Not everyone agrees. Farmers continue to argue that it plays havoc with their animals and schedules. Critics say the energy savings so critical during times of war are minimal now. A Canadian study done in 1991 indicated a rise of 8 per cent in school bus accidents the Monday after “spring ahead”. Arizona, Hawaii and much of Indiana refuse to go off Standard Time. So, what do you think… “Should we continue to use Daylight Saving Time?” Discuss this issue with your classmates after the show and then write to us with your opinions. MAILBAG We received over five hundred responses to our issue question … “Should dress codes allow religious exceptions?” The majority of you, seventy eight percent, say yes they should allow religious exceptions. Sixteen percent say no, they should not. Six percent are undecided. Many of you are afraid that if they make religious exceptions it will only lead to other issues. Cameron J. of Waynesboro, Virginia writes, “… people would complain about other rules. If the students want to have their own dress styles… they should go to a religious school.” Arja W. of New Berlin, Wisconsin writes, “Any group could come up with a dress code that is extremely dangerous.” The majority of you, however, feel religious freedom is too important. Ross K. of Commack, New York writes, “It states in the… constitution that everyone has religious freedom, which means you can practice your religion in any way you need to…including dressing a certain way.” Mia B. of Fargo, North Dakota adds, “Kids should be able to wear anything as long as nobody gets hurt. Showing loyalty to your religion is more important.” Angela K. of Marathon, Wisconsin agrees and writes, “The bottom line is that a dress code is used so students respect themselves. Religious beliefs should be accepted.” Finally Nikole S. of Keene, New Hampshire writes, “If she was wearing something inappropriate that would be different. I think she should be able to represent her religion.” MAILBAG CLOSE We look forward to receiving your responses to our two latest issue questions… “Is the Presidential political season too long?” and “Should we continue to use Daylight Savings Time?” If you would like to receive an Assignment: The World Press card, please enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope. You may write to us here at Assignment: The World, Post Office Box three-zero-zero-twenty-one, Rochester, New York… one-4-6-zero-3… or you may contact us at the A-T-W website at http://atwonline.org./ We also read e-mail at atw@wxxi.org. POP QUIZ #2 In our story about the Concorde, how fast did we tell you the supersonic jet traveled across the Atlantic? Was it… 300 miles per hour 1300 miles per hour 3000 miles per hour And the correct answer is number two. The Concorde rose to a height of 11 miles above the Earth and traveled at more than 1300 miles per hour. NEW CLUES And now it’s time for next week’s clues in the news… Our first clue a location… 0 Degrees, 19 minutes north latitude 32 degrees, 25 minutes east longitude Our second clue is is a fill in the blanks, 2 words… U__IC__F D__Y And finally, our third clue is a scrambled letter…three words: EWN KYOR HATNORMA These are clues to stories we think will happen in the coming week. You can find the answers on radio and television newscasts and in newspapers and newsmagazines. We’ll reveal the answers on next week’s show. Good luck! GOOD-BYE And that’s it for this week’s show. From all of us here at Assignment: The World, I’m Elissa Marra. We’ll see you again next week. © 2003 WXXI-TV/ Assignment: The World. All Rights Reserved.