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CARL AZUZ: Thank you for taking 10 minutes for our show
this Friday.
I'm Carl Azuz, and it's always good to have you watching.
Some gloomy statistics related to drug overdoses
headlined today's program.
The US Centers for Disease Control says in 2021,
almost 108,000 Americans died of overdoses.
That's the most the nation has ever seen in a year.
And we've reported info like this several times
recently because new records keep being set.
The number of deaths increased for several different types
of drugs, from opioids like fentanyl,
to stimulants like methamphetamine and cocaine,
but 2/3 of the fatal overdoses were
from the synthetic painkiller fentanyl or drugs like it.
Critics of the Biden administration
say the government needs to take more action, spend more money,
and set aside more resources to deal with America's drug abuse.
But the Trump administration and the Obama administration
were also urged to do the same thing,
and despite years and billions of dollars committed
by the federal government to fight against illegal drug use,
the problem has only gotten worse.
OK, are there any silver linings to the CDC's report?
Overdose deaths from natural drugs or semisynthetic drugs,
like prescription medications, decreased a little last year
from their previous levels, and while 14,000 more deaths were
recorded in 2021 than there were in 2020,
it wasn't as big of an increase percentage-wise
as the one recorded between 2019 and 2020.
Government health officials have blamed
the COVID pandemic for playing a role in drug overdoses.
Experts say it'll take time, effort, and social changes
to make a meaningful dent in America's drug problem.
Next story.
Over the 2 and 1/2 months we've reported on the war in Ukraine,
officials estimate there have been tens of thousands
of troops killed or wounded and roughly 8,000 or more
civilians killed or wounded.
We've shown you pictures of extensive destruction
throughout the Eastern European country.
[siren blares]
What can be done to preserve the thousand-year-old religious and
cultural heritage of this land?
- Over the first 38 days of Russia's war on Ukraine,
nearly 200 cultural sites have been potentially damaged.
Memorials and places of worship have been impacted the most.
To try and preserve Ukraine's heritage and cultural sites,
an app has been developed.
It lets people save landmarks, at least digitally, in a place
safe from missile attacks.
SOREN LA COUR JENSEN: Backup Ukraine
is an app which has been developed quite quickly, just
as the war in Ukraine started.
You can actually take your mobile phone.
It just has to be a new model.
And with the app, you can just take photos.
You have to take a series of photos.
For instance, if it's a statue or a fountain or something
like that, you'll need to take photos all around
to get all the details.
You can also film it as a movie, and then
the software of the app will generate
a three-dimensional model of what
you are documenting, what you are filming and photographing.
And in that way, we have a very detailed
three-dimensional model of this statue or fountain or building,
and you can actually use that, then,
if they are being damaged or destroyed
to rebuild or to repair from this documentation.
It's very democratic.
It actually gives the resource, the tools
to the whole population of Ukraine.
People can decide for themselves what
they think is heritage to them.
YURI ARTIUKH: During this war, we've seen how
fast things could be destroyed.
This is just one of my favorite places in Kiev to be,
and this town has been here since
the 1500th-year anniversary of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine.
And I just-- just love this place.
That's why I decided to scan it, to preserve
it for the eternity.
SOREN LA COUR JENSEN: If the common heritage
is disappearing, then you have less of a basis
to develop your community on.
And they're actually attacking and damaging
the memory of the country and also the identity of Ukraine.
Set aside the people, which, of course, are the most
important to protect and to help,
then the culture and the heritage is what defines
Ukraine.
CARL AZUZ: 10-second trivia.
Chaturanga is believed to be an early version of chess,
originating in what place?
Persia, China, India, or Egypt?
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The game, thought to be a precursor to chess,
likely dates back to sixth-century India.
A historic chess match concluded this week in 1997.
It pitted Grandmaster Garry Kasparov,
who'd been world champion since 1985,
against Deep Blue, a computer built by IBM to show
off artificial intelligence.
The 1997 event was a rematch.
Kasparov had played and defeated Deep Blue a year earlier.
The computer had won a game but lost the overall match.
But then programmers upgraded Deep Blue,
and when the two opponents faced off for the second time,
the machine ultimately won.
For Throwback Friday, we're bringing you an original CNN
report from 1997 when one of the games in that match
ended in a draw.
- And now he has accepted the draw.
And a magnificent display by Deep Blue.
[applause]
I don't-- he can't believe it.
- Stay tuned for cnn.com.
- IBM's chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue
outmaneuvered the world's highest-ranked human player,
Garry Kasparov, into accepting a third consecutive draw.
The outcome stunned the experts.
MIKE VALVO: And this computer has
widened the dimension of what's going on in these games.
It's increased the possibility-- this
is going to change the game.
They're going to show new ways of playing
these complex endgames.
CYNTHIA TORNQUIST: Spectators greeted
the 34-year-old Russian with a lengthy standing ovation.
[applause]
GARRY KASPAROV: There are many, many discoveries in this match,
and one of them, that sometimes computer
plays very human moves.
We have to praise the machine for understanding very,
very deeply positional factors.
I think it's outstanding scientific achievement.
CYNTHIA TORNQUIST: The draw came after 49 moves
and just over 4 hours of often intense
play that kept many spectators on the edges of their seats.
For some, watching chess might be tantamount to watching paint
dry or golf on television.
However, it's actually been very entertaining.
When crucial moves are made, the mood is highly dramatic.
- And look at Gary.
That jacket opened up a little bit there.
[laughter]
We're waiting.
We're watching now, because when Gary takes it off,
then he's in trouble.
CYNTHIA TORNQUIST: While the computer played
some baffling, unconventional moves at the start of the game,
it was the computer's endgame that astonished even those
who have helped to program it.
JOEL BENJAMIN: I think that Deep Blue played a very good game.
It played very aggressively and without the usual fear
that a human player has for playing Garry Kasparov.
GARRY KASPAROV: Tomorrow I will have to face
another difficult challenge.
Probably the only good thing is not to resign in advance.
[laughter]
CYNTHIA TORNQUIST: The sixth and final game of the match
is scheduled for Sunday afternoon.
Cynthia Tornquist, CNN, New York.
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CARL AZUZ: Walter Orthman is a hundred years old.
He's been working at the same place since he was 15.
It's a textile business in Brazil.
And because of that, Orthman holds the Guinness World
Record for the longest time spent
working for the same company.
He says his position in sales has been a great job he
wouldn't have found anywhere else,
and that's why he never considered leaving it.
He likes the commitment.
He says he's happy and lives well.
And Orthman, who recently broke his own record
for company longevity, has no plans to retire.
So there's no doubt he's a company man.
He's in good company.
He's in the company of record holders.
He's judged by the company he keeps.
He's a businessman who's all business, minding his business
and the business of making business history.
We say, give that centenarian salesman a raise by a C-note.
I'm Carl Azuz, and Fridays are awesome.
Mobridge Public Middle School gets today's shout-out.
It is in Mobridge, South Dakota.
The one way to request a mention is to leave a comment on each
day's show at youtube.com/cnn.
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