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CARL AZUZ: New records are often newsworthy topics,
but not all of them are the kind you want to set.
That's where we start today's show.
I'm Carl Azuz.
Welcome to "CNN 10."
Gasoline at nearly $5 per gallon.
That's what average prices are in Northern
California's Humboldt County.
Thankfully for Californians, it's
not quite that high everywhere.
The average price across the Golden State
is $4.68 per gallon.
But that is a record.
California, which has the largest population
of any American state, also has the highest
gas prices in the country.
A spokesman for the AAA Automobile Association
says, even though Californians are
used to paying more for gas, this is a leap for them.
Drivers of mid-sized sedans are paying over $21 more every time
they fill their tanks than they paid
last year when demand for gas and the cost of it
were far lower.
In addition to that demand, there
have been powerful rainstorms in Northern
California that have reduced the state's
ability to refine the fuel.
That's why it's setting record prices
there but not nationwide.
The US National average is $3.41 per gallon.
The increased cost of crude oil, which
is the biggest factor in the cost of gas,
continues to drive prices up.
And that is happening a week ahead of Thanksgiving
when the most popular form of travel
is by car, according to AAA.
So especially for drivers in California,
it's going to be a more expensive holiday.
Gas prices are just part of that picture.
We reported a couple of weeks ago
how groceries for next week's festivities
are expected to be the most expensive ever.
Ongoing problems with the supply chain
and abnormally high inflation, the rise
in prices of goods and services, these
are two of the big reasons why.
It's having a negative impact on consumer sentiment,
the way people feel about the US economy
in their own personal finances.
And to give you a sense of how all this is reverberating
across the United States, the city with the highest inflation
rate is thousands of miles away from the state
with the highest gas prices.
NADIA ROMERO: It's Atlanta that has the overall highest
inflation rate in the country.
The southern city has that inflation rate
due to big factors, like housing, gas prices, and
the cost of groceries as well.
Its inflation rate 7.9% compared to the national average
at 6.2%.
Census data shows that Georgia has
become one of the top places to move in recent years.
The demand for housing in the Atlanta metro area
is outpacing supply, resulting in higher
rents and home prices.
Now, beyond Atlanta, metro areas nationwide
are seeing spiking costs for basic items like gas, food,
and furniture, when compared to last year
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Economists have also linked the surge in pricing
to bottlenecks in the supply chain,
the result of a collision between pent up consumer demand
and a lack of resources.
Now, with all the rising costs whether it be gas prices,
groceries, housing, it's no surprise
that new data coming out of the University of Michigan
shows that consumer sentiment is out of 10-year low.
Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.
CARL AZUZ: 10 second trivia.
Cardboard, Gear, Valve, and Vive are all the names of, what?
Smartwatches, VR headsets, EV prototypes,
or cryptocurrencies?
These are all virtual reality headsets ranging
in price from $20 to $800.
New digital technology is changing the way
people perceive sports that have been
strictly analog for centuries.
This is being done with the aid of virtual reality.
Sights and sounds that are completely computer-generated
and augmented reality overlays of computer images on
actual physical environments.
It's not for everyone.
For one thing, there's something called cyber sickness,
which is like motion sickness.
Experts say that when you perceive movement
on a screen or a VR headset, but your body isn't actually
moving, the confusion this creates in the brain
can make you feel disoriented and sick.
Some health experts are also concerned
about the excessive amount of screen time
that many people already get.
Do electronic images need to be added
even at the gym, where many go to unplug in the first place?
For supporters of the new technology,
it can add excitement and opportunity
for a new type of workout.
But a membership at $200 per month
that Black Box VR costs several times that of other gyms.
KRISTIE LU STOUT: I'm at Ski Tech, an indoor Training
Center for winter sports in Hong Kong,
trying out this ski simulator.
Sensors track my motion.
Software recreate snow conditions.
And a panoramic screen transports me
to snowy mountains.
There's no snow in Hong Kong.
But thanks to virtual reality, I can hit the slopes
and fine tune my skiing technique.
And for some entrepreneurs, virtual and augmented realities
define the next generation of fitness and sports.
San Francisco's Market Street, home of streetcars and tweets.
And now, a virtual reality gym.
At Black Box VR, opened in 2019, your body
transforms into a controller.
And real world exercises are flashy attacks
in a virtual battleground.
- All right.
I feel like I'm blowing up some bad guy.
PRESTON LEWIS: Black Box VR is the world's
first resistance-based virtual reality gym.
KRISTIE LU STOUT: Now, walk me through the Black VR
experience.
You go to a Black Box VR center, you walk into a private booth,
you put on the VR headset, and then what happens?
PRESTON LEWIS: So you go in like you said.
You put the headset on.
And you are immersed in this vast, this
epic futuristic sporting arena.
And the crowd's cheering for you.
And they're chanting for you.
We actually have what we call a dynamic resistance
machine that is mapped to the virtual reality space.
You start to do chest press, shoulder
press, back row, all these different compound fitness
movements.
And as you're doing those movements,
you're actually shooting a fire beam or an ice shard
and creating these epic attacks against your opponent.
KRISTIE LU STOUT: For Preston Lewis,
co-founder of Black Box VR, fitness is all fun and games.
He says, that the gamification aspects of the experience
are designed to make people addicted to their workouts.
- I feel like, I'm holding it.
Like, I don't want to like come back
because I want to keep it as--
- I do it all the time.
KRISTIE LU STOUT: Let's talk more about VR
because you've said that virtual reality is
a great way to trick people into committing
to a fitness routine.
What do you mean by that?
PRESTON LEWIS: Absolutely.
Yeah, and most people have a super hard time sticking
to their fitness routine.
With virtual reality, it's the exact opposite.
Video games have been created by some of the world's
best behavioral psychologists.
And they just have it down.
They have those perfect little timing,
the perfect little dopamine drips of an achievement
or a reward.
- It's really hard to stop moving
once the game gets going.
So the mix of technology, the game
itself, everything intertwined, keeping you moving.
And it's keeping you from getting distracted
from the workout itself.
KRISTIE LU STOUT: At Black Box, members work out
in their own private room where there's a resistance machine
that pairs with a VR headset.
Lewis says that for users working
out in the world of Black Box, 30 minutes feel like 10.
When you're working out in the game,
do you feel the passage of time?
PRESTON LEWIS: You know, and that's
one of the great things about virtual reality
as well is time dilation.
When you're on a treadmill, you're
sitting there, your time walking or you running and jogging.
And you look at, you're like, OK,
it's been a half hour for sure.
And then you look at the clock, and it's been like, 5 seconds,
you know?
So it's the opposite with VR.
- I'm very tech forward.
And I think applying virtual reality, gamifying workouts,
super awesome concept.
Ready Player One type stuff.
So I really wanted to try it out.
- So what's your guys' experience with VR in general?
KRISTIE LU STOUT: Black Box is currently
only available in gyms across the US.
But Lewis says, the company is hoping
to expand internationally.
CARL AZUZ: For 10 out of 10, we're getting pumped up.
These balloons were recently tested
ahead of next week's Thanksgiving parade
in New York City.
Hundreds of volunteers took part to make
sure the bags hold air to see how they
handle if the wind kicks up.
And it's a testing ground for the handlers
themselves as managing these things
does take some technique.
Several new balloons from Ronald McDonald
and Baby Yoda to Pikachu are set to be part of the fun.
Well, that ties up another edition of our show.
We're tethered to that 10-minute limit.
Really, can't rope in any more time than that.
And plus, an extra minute of puns
would be kind of balloon-ey, if you get my drift.
But before we float away, we would like to give some airtime
to Ludington High School.
It is located in Ludington, Michigan.
Thank you for subscribing and leaving a comment
on our YouTube channel.
I'm Carl Azuz, and I'm going up, up and away with CNN.
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