CNN10 2024-09-12 CNN 10 Tracking Hurricane Francine; Why Officials in China are Concerned Furbabies are Replacing Human Babies; The Science Behind Why Makeup Videos Are Just So Bingeable. Aired 4-4:10a ET Aired September 12, 2024 - 04:00 ET THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Well, hello there. I'm Coy Wire. This is CNN 10 and it's Thursday, September 12th. Happy Friday, Eve. Random thought for you. Why is it that we park on a driveway, but drive on a parkway? And when we send something by ship, it's called cargo, but by car it's called shipment? Weird. We've got another action packed 10 minutes for you today. The best darn viewers in news. Let's get to it. We start out today on the Gulf coast of the U.S. where Francine officially became a hurricane and sped up as it gathered power over warm Gulf waters. Hurricane Francine made landfall last night in Louisiana. While hurricane Francine isn't forecast to reach major hurricane status or get any stronger than a Category 2, it is still expected to pack a punch. Storm surge along the coast could reach 10 feet in the worst hit areas and damaging winds could approach 100 miles per hour near the eye. Officials and residents have been preparing for the storms impact for days. Evacuation orders expanded across the Louisiana coast because of the storm surge threat, including parts of the greater New Orleans area outside of the levy protection system. Schools and public offices in the region are closed. Hurricane Francine is expected to unload a whole lot of rain on parts of the Gulf coast, especially over the areas of Louisiana and Mississippi where the storm is forecast to travel. Rainfall rates could reach up to a whopping four inches per hour and some places could see a foot of rain. That has officials preparing for flash flooding. The good news is the storm is expected to move through the Gulf coast pretty quickly. If you have pets at home it's probably not a stretch to say that your fur baby feels like a four-legged member of your family, but in China officials there feel like some are taking the whole fur baby concept to a whole new level because large numbers of folks are choosing pets over having children. Pets are even on track to outnumber kids in some cities in China in several years. China's population has been declining for years and some are pointing to pets as the problem. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MARC STEWART, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Married for seven years, Hansen and his wife Momo may resemble China's family of the future. (On camera): Do you have any children? HANSEN, BEIJING RESIDENT: No, not yet. STEWART: Are you planning on having children? HANSEN: Not right now, not in this period of time. STEWART: The only parenting they're doing revolves around their six dogs. MOMO, BEIJING RESIDENT (through translator): Yes, they're all part of our family. We're one big family. HANSEN: It's like our children. Yes, it's like our daughters, our sons. STEWART (voice-over): A reflection of the independent-minded younger generation in China where having children is no longer a priority. HANSEN: Different generations value things differently. STEWART: According to a recent study by Goldman Sachs, the number of pets in urban China is expected to surpass the number of children ages zero to four by the end of the year. By 2030, there could be nearly twice as many pets in urban China than young children. Business opportunity for this doggy daycare owner who has also chosen not to have kids. TAO, OWNER OF DOG DAY-CARE SPACE: I feel like people start to be more like this is what I want or this is what I like for my life rather than like oh this is what the society taught me to do or this is what my parents want me to do. HANSEN: Officials reported a record low birth rate last year as the population decreased for the second year in a row. A sharp dip partly due to COVID lockdowns. While analysts expect a rebound this year, it is still a blow to the world's second largest economy. Once so worried about overpopulation, it limited most urban couples to a single child. At a women's conference last year, China's strongman leader Xi Jinping lectured delegates to foster a new type of marriage and childbearing culture. (On camera): This newfound pet popularity comes at a time when the Chinese government is offering things like financial incentives and time off from work all with the goal of promoting parenthood. (Voice-over): Yet for many young Chinese, none of this seems to matter. MOMO (through translator): I don't think my choice for not having a kid would make much of a difference for China. HANSEN: The country's leadership very much begs to differ as they doggedly try to boost China's birth rate and its economic strength. (END VIDEOTAPE) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A bag of Cheetos with world-changing implications? It sounds a little cheesy but officials are saying this little bit litter had a whole lot of environmental effects. It started with a National Parks post about an open bag of Cheetos found dropped inside New Mexico's famous Carlsbad Caverns where only water is allowed and for good reason. The post said aside from the risk of attracting animals, the snacks softened by the cave's humidity formed a perfect environment to quickly spread mold and fungi via curious critters like insects. Rangers reportedly spent 20 minutes removing resulting molds and debris from inside the cavern to mitigate the effects. I mean, I know Cheetos claim to be dangerously cheesy but who knew? All kidding aside, rangers say the spilled snack may seem trivial but quote, "to life in the cave, it can be world-changing." (END VIDEO CLIP) WIRE: Ten-second trivia on a day we're recognizing National Literacy Month. A sentence which contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet is called a what? Lexigram, pangram, ideogram, logogram. Put your hands up if you said pangram. Also called a hollow alphabetic sentence, uses every letter of a given alphabet at least once. It's no secret social media influencers are raking in clicks and cash with their content and makeup videos are some of the most popular out there. Even when the creators talk about something completely different while they apply their look. While there's some surprising science behind why it's so hard to scroll past these videos and psychologists say there are two powers at work keeping some people glued to their screens. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please don't tell me you've never had this before because I know you 100% did. DR. HEATHER DAVIS, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY, VIRGINIA TEACH (voice-over): You've probably seen them. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I developed a chronic illness I expected that it would be hard to say no. DAVIS: Videos of people putting on makeup while talking about something completely unrelated. But have you ever stopped and wondered why we can't stop watching? Well psychologists tell us there's more happening in these videos than you realize and it's all explained by cognitive science. It not only creates that sort of authentic connection piece but also gives somebody something to look at, something to observe while they're listening to your story. (On camera): There are two intriguing psychological powers working to keep you watching these videos. The first cognitive load theory explains why it can sometimes help to be distracted when taking in information. Your working memory can only hold so much new information. So when you see a common task like someone applying makeup while being told something serious. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get ready with me while I talk about things I would avoid saying if my friend developed a chronic illness. DAVIS: The familiarity of these motions reduces the strain of processing all that information. A second power keeping you engaged is your brain's proven love of authenticity. Our brains are drawn to it. (On camera): We tend to trust people who are likable and people become likable when we know them. (Voice-over): And creators can aim to monetize this trust. ANNIE BUTOVA, SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCER: It's really difficult to monetize straight away and people don't know you. They don't trust you. They're not going to buy from you. I try to mix and match because sometimes I'd be making coffee and then sometimes I'd be putting makeup on. It makes you seem like a real human being. DAVIS: There's a but here. It can be hard for our brains to distinguish between genuine advice and messaging that can be misleading, harmful, or messaging that's just meant to sell us something. Not all content is deceptive though and knowing the science behind them makes them all the more interesting. (END VIDEOTAPE) WIRE: Today's story getting a 10 out of 10. Who let the dogs out? Check out this pool party for pooches. The Desert Breeze Community Center in Las Vegas held its annual pup swim over the weekend and what a paw-ty it was. It's a tradition held by Clark County Parks & Rec every year before the pools close for the fall. No such thing as a rough day here. A doggone great time for the pups and a howlarious sight for their owners who get to watch. All right superstars, it's shout out time for a couple of schools right here in the ATL Atlanta, Georgia. The Rams at Howard Middle School with a big old high five to Mr. Joubert and Joubert believe it, we see you too Colbin. And Mr. Weersbub (ph ) and all our friends at Lovett School with much love for Callum. What's up buddy? We've almost made it to the best day of the week. Let's finish strong. I'll see you right back here tomorrow, Friday on CNN 10. END