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08/15/05
Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --
We've known for years that it's possible to use hydrogen to fuel cars, but will it ever be practical?
Dave Ouwerkerk>> But almost two-thirds of this planet is made up of hydrogen. The key is to make hydrogen. So if you lived in the Pacific Northwest, they could use hydroelectric power and water to make hydrogen. If you lived in Texas, natural gas and steam. There are many ways to do it.
Val Zavala>> And then, he puts couch potatoes to shame. We catch up with this senior exercise advocate as he turns one hundred.
It's all straight ahead on tonight's Life and Times.
Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
With additional support for Life and Times from The Ralph M. Parsons Foundation.
Val Zavala>> It's a fuel derived from the most abundant resource on the planet: water. The fuel is hydrogen and hydrogen-powered cars are much more efficient and cleaner than gasoline-powered cars. Little wonder President Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger are pushing it, and Irvine is the center for hydrogen fuel cell research. As Orange County reporter, Roger Cooper, tells us, scientists there are determined to overcome the final challenges.
Roger Cooper>> Rolling out of a garage in Lake Forest, California is a car that will never stop at a gasoline pump. Neither will this car or this Hummer, favored by California's governor, or this vehicle under development in Orange County for the United States Army. All run on hydrogen and can be spotted rolling around Southern California right now.
Dave Ouwerkerk>> We have operation on the electric motor right now in combination with the internal combustion engine that is running on hydrogen as the fuel rather than gasoline.
Roger Cooper>> Many believe the world is on the verge of a massive conversion to hydrogen vehicles that are pollution-free and not dependent on oil supply. And Orange County is a hotbed for hydrogen development these days. UC Irvine is home to the National Fuel Cell Research Center directed by Professor Scott Samuelsen.
Dr. Scott Samuelsen>> The energy companies and the automobile companies began to seriously look at the hydrogen future in the early 1990's and that exploration has been evolving at a very systematic kind of a rational pace. But in January 2003 in the State of the Union address, President Bush announced his vision of a hydrogen future.
President George Bush>> "Tonight I am proposing 1.2 billion dollars in research funding so that America can lead the world in developing clean hydrogen-powered automobiles. A simple chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen generates energy which can be used to power a car producing only water, not exhaust fumes."
Dr. Scott Samuelsen>> And that, all of a sudden, brought a credibility to the hydrogen era that accelerated the interests of industry and investment entities.
Roger Cooper>> Hydrogen has another big booster in Governor Schwarzenegger who drove up in a hydrogen-converted Hummer to dedicate the first hydrogen fueling station at LAX.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger>> "We will not just dream about the hydrogen highway. We will not just dream about the hydrogen fueling stations. We will not just dream about the hydrogen cars. We will build it."
Roger Cooper>> The governor has just convinced state lawmakers to begin funding his Hydrogen Highway Proposal to build up to one hundred hydrogen fueling stations in California by 2010.
Josh Mosse>> So now we're going to go to our hydrogen fueling station here at UC Irvine.
Roger Cooper>> What's different about tanking up at a hydrogen fueling station? Researcher Josh Mosse drove us cross campus in a hydrogen hybrid the Fuel Cell Center is evaluating.
[Film Clip]
Josh Mosse>> First, I need to ground the vehicle. This will prevent any spark from appearing. Then when it's ready, it tells me to make the connection. It goes on the receptacle, so I put it on there. There's a control system here that's controlling the rate at which hydrogen is being flowed into the vehicle, so right now I just wait. It's going to take about five minutes or so.
Roger Cooper>> Another major Orange County player in hydrogen vehicles is Quantum Technologies which helped GM convert that Hummer to run on hydrogen for the governor. At this facility on a side street in Irvine, Quantum has tackled one of the biggest problems with hydrogen vehicles, which is developing tanks that can safely carry high-pressure hydrogen around. If this tank were steel, it would weigh a ton. But this is plastic and it's light. Even so, it can still be made strong enough to hold hydrogen under high pressure. Using technology developed for aerospace tanks, Quantum spins bands of material around the plastic inner liner to weave a super-strong cocoon capable of holding hydrogen at five or even ten thousand pounds per square inch. Alan Niedzwiecki is President and CEO.
Alan Niedzwiecki>> We developed an inner liner to contain the hydrogen and an outer shell to give it the strength for impact and to last twenty years in a vehicle under any circumstance or any condition that that vehicle may see.
Roger Cooper>> In this demonstration at the University of Miami, fuel was purposely leaked and ignited by an electric spark in both a car fueled with hydrogen and a car filled with gasoline. The lightweight hydrogen plumes upward and, in less than two minutes, the flame goes out with virtually no damage to the vehicle.
Dr. Scott Samuelsen>> So if you were to see videotape today of an automobile accident with a gasoline car and one with a hydrogen-fueled car, you'd say, boy, I'd much rather be in that hydrogen-fueled car.
Roger Cooper>> Quantum Technologies also has a contract from the South Coast Air Quality Management District paying to convert thirty-five Priuses into hydrogen electric hybrids that will be driven by five Southern California cities.
Alwin Lutz>> And with these vehicles, we can demonstrate to regular people like you and me that it is possible to drive the vehicle around in an internal combustion engine, regular gasoline engine, but it runs on hydrogen.
Alan Niedzwiecki>> And what they're doing is, they're trying to kick-start the hydrogen industry by putting some vehicles on the road.
Roger Cooper>> Hydrogen hybrids are one approach, but General Motors has taken hydrogen a step further. GM engineer, Dave Ouwerkerk, let me see and drive GM's Hydrogen3 which uses hydrogen to power a fuel cell with no combustion at all.
Dave Ouwerkerk>> The hydrogen comes up the hydrogen side where the hydrogen is injected into the stack.
Roger Cooper>> This is hydrogen to electricity to moving down the road.
Dave Ouwerkerk>> Exactly, without any combustion in the process.
Roger Cooper>> Quick. Where is the nearest hydrogen fueling station?
Dave Ouwerkerk>> Probably University of Irvine. I just happen to know they've got one. There's one up at LAX. There are some around, but few and far between at this point. That's one of the things that has to come to pass to make this a commercially viable technology.
Roger Cooper>> In an effort to increase the number of places to fuel, Quantum has just received a patent for this transportable hydrogen fueling station.
Phil Schnell>> What you can do is plug in a garden hose and electrical power to the system. This unit here actually generates the hydrogen.
Roger Cooper>> Despite all this activity in Orange County, a hydrogen car you can drive is not exactly right around the corner.
Alan Niedzwiecki>> And I can only, you know, say what I've heard from the automaker, our customers. The automakers believe that they can get the costs in line and make these vehicles cost competitive with today's vehicles by that 2010, maybe in 2012 through 2015.
Dr. Scott Samuelsen>> Well, it's probably after 2010, or about five more years.
Dave Ouwerkerk>> Well, we tell the engineers that we're doing this for our kids or our kid's kids. As the technology matures, it will probably go out to fleets first. It will take time before the average consumer will have a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle.
Roger Cooper>> Nevertheless, Professor Samuelsen is already putting his license plate where his mouth is. What's your license plate number?
Dr. Scott Samuelsen>> (Laughter) It's UZ LS GS, for "Use Less Gas".
Roger Cooper>> In Orange County, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times.
Kcet.org is the place to look for the very latest on Life and Times. You'll find previews of upcoming stories, transcripts and audio of past episodes and links to some of our most interesting features. Just go to kcet.org and click on "Life and Times".
Val Zavala>> You're driving along the freeway and you see a hazard, a mattress in the road or a dog running around. Do you call 911? It's not really an emergency. Well, now there's an alternative. It's #399 and it's designed to keep 911 clear for real emergencies. Sam Louie talked to the MTA about how it works.
Sam Louie>> Ken, thanks for joining us on Life and Times. I understand that, as of July 1, there is now a new service for drivers in Los Angeles County?
Ken Coleman>> Yes, there is, and I thank you for having me on Life and Times. This new service is called #399 and is essentially a non-emergency motorist aid service that people can use their cell phones to call for services that basically, if you're on the side of the freeway and you need a tow truck or something like that, to get assistance for.
Sam Louie>> So what is #399 for? What type of calls?
Ken Coleman>> Basically, the non-emergency services, roadside services. And the reasons why we came up with this is to try and give the motorists out there an option other than 911 to call in these particular situations where it's not an emergency. What people used to use the call boxes for, it's the same basic type of services that those used to provide. You can provide through this #399 program and it will provide you with assistance for a flat tire. If you need some gas, they give you a gallon of gas. If you need to be towed off the freeway, it will tow you to a designated drop-off point.
We can also connect you with your Auto Club if you happen to be an AAA member or a member of another roadside assistance program, Allstate, Verizon, what have you, and you just don't seem to remember your number and you just need that service. We can connect you with that. If you happen to see something on the freeway that you want to report for a maintenance issue, graffiti on a sign, maybe a sprinkler that's broken and it's shooting straight up and you want to report that in, so that way the information gets back to CalTrans so that they can respond to it. We'll be able to handle those types of problems too.
Sam Louie>> Why was this system developed in the first place?
Ken Coleman>> The system was developed in recognition of the fact that -- to go back to when the call box system was first introduced, it provided a benefit to the motorists and there was really no options for them at that time. Cell phones probably really weren't a big deal. Since the early 1990's, we've been noticing that there has been a steady decrease in the usage and volume of call box calls while, at the same time, there's been a rising increase in the use of 911 calls through the cell phones.
We took a look at that and said what's going on here and we came to the realization in working a little bit with the CHP and trying to figure out what's going on that users really don’t have the opportunity to dial anything other than 911. If they don't want to get out of their car and use a call box because of the situation and, understandably so -- I've got a cell phone and, if I didn't have to get out of the car, I wouldn't either -- you know, what am I going to dial? What do I do?
Sam Louie>> Were you noticing with the 911 dispatch centers that they were getting a lot of calls and that the call center was getting overwhelmed?
Ken Coleman>> We did notice that there was a large growth in 911 calls. Just to give you an example, back probably in the early 1990's, there probably were ten to twenty thousand calls a month. Nowadays -- and mind you, this is just on the cell side which is CHP -- they're probably getting over two hundred thousand calls a month. That's a tremendous growth of calls that they need to handle and a lot of them could be, you know, your prototypical example of the person that calls from Burger King saying that, you know, I didn't get the sandwich I ordered and this is an emergency. Well, it's really not the emergency that you're supposed to use 911 for, and I believe that's been televised everywhere. That's the thing we're trying to avoid.
Sam Louie>> And why specifically #399?
Ken Coleman>> 399 translates to FWY, which is really short for "freeway", which is really the target market we're looking at. We're really looking at trying to serve the freeway motorists which is where the call boxes are, so #399 became one of those numbers. The other thing we did ensure is that number had to be available through all the carriers. So it had to be available through Sprint, Verizon, Nextel, T-Mobile, Cingular and what used to be the old AT&T which is now part of Cingular.
And we also looked at the potential that it had to be available statewide just in case the program grew. Hopefully, as other counties are able to come onboard, you also don't have to worry about if I'm in Los Angeles County, I have to use this number. If I'm in Orange County, I have to use this number. It will potentially be the same number throughout all the states.
Sam Louie>> At this point with so many people using their cell phones to dial 911, how much of an overload is that on the 911 system? I heard there is a longer wait than normal.
Ken Coleman>> As far as I am aware, there is approximately anywhere from about a minute wait time on average. I do know that CHP does their best to try and alleviate that by answering the calls as much as possible, but it really depends upon the volume of calls that come in. You know, that is a prevalent issue and, hopefully by introducing this number, we'll siphon off some of the calls and they'll be able to answer those 911 calls a little bit quicker and alleviate some of the wait time.
Sam Louie>> And are there certain calls that people should not be dialing #399 for?
Ken Coleman>> Exactly. Again, those are the ones that are real emergencies. Anything that you really need a law enforcement response for, anything that you need a fire response, a medical response, or if there is something that either you're involved in or you're reporting something that's actually blocking a freeway lane. Those still really need to go to the CHP via 911.
Sam Louie>> Well, there is 911, there is 411, the city has 311 and the county services have a 211 number. Now with this #399, do you think people are just going to be confused with all the different numbers out there?
Ken Coleman>> Hopefully not. I have a great deal of confidence in the residents of Los Angeles County to remember the real needs for these numbers and what we're doing with them because they are marketed differently to the different people in the different segments. We have a lot of different area codes out there and, if the county residents know how to deal with those area codes, I don't feel that there's much they wouldn't be able to understand about the distinctions between these numbers and when to use them and how to use them.
Sam Louie>> Great. Ken, thank you very much for joining us on Life and Times and I hope this helps relieve some of the burden from 911.
Ken Coleman>> So do I, and thanks for having me.
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Val Zavala>> And now for this Life and Times story update. We've reported several times on the controversy around the famous Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard in what is now Koreatown. Its celebrity-filled past and the grandeur of The Cocoanut Grove have long faded, but it remains the site of the tragic assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Now this land is owned by the LAUSD and a much-needed school for more than four thousand students will be built here.
But conservationists like Ken Bernstein have fought to preserve the historic hotel, especially the areas pertaining to the RFK assassination. Now the Los Angeles Conservancy is offering a compromise. They're proposing that the district sell just the hotel to a nonprofit housing group. The group will preserve the history and create 165 affordable apartments and a community center.
Ken Bernstein>> This in fact is probably the broadest based coalition ever assembled in Los Angeles in support of preservation of an important site.
Val Zavala>> Bernstein says selling the hotel would relieve the school district of spending bond money on preservation or asbestos problems and there would still be eighteen acres left for the campus. In the meantime, the LAUSD has appointed an advisory committee to look at ways to memorialize RFK.
Frank Acevedo>> We've advocated for a commission on history and preservation to restore and remember the memories that occurred here and teach them to the children.
Val Zavala>> As for the Conservancy's proposal, so far they've gotten no response from school chief, Roy Romer, or the LAUSD.
Val Zavala>> Two years ago, we introduced you to a self-styled exercise guru named Jack Roth. He was ninety-eight at the time and he had produced an exercise video for seniors. Well, now he has turned one hundred and we thought we'd go back to revisit Jack to see if his formula for healthy living is paying off.
[Film Clip]
Val Zavala>> This was Jack Roth at age ninety-eight. He's an avid believer in exercise, so much so that he and an actor friend produced a video to show the elderly that exercise could be simple.
[Film Clip]
Jack Roth>> I did this quite a while ago. I was only ninety-two then.
Val Zavala>> You were a young thing.
Jack Roth>> Six years ago.
Val Zavala>> Now you're ninety-eight. Meet Jack today. This July, he joined five thousand other Californians who are one hundred or older. He's slowed down some and uses a walker with wheels, but one thing hasn't changed.
Jack Roth>> I exercise. The body was made to move. In the primitive stage, our ancestors moved all the time. They never stopped except when they slept. All these joints. There's three joints in there, here and here. There's fifteen joints in there and here, the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder, the hip, the knee, the ankle. All these joints have to move. If they don't, they hurt.
Val Zavala>> And how did this obsession with exercise begin?
Jack Roth>> I was hurrying along Riverside Drive one day. I turned a corner and fell. I went down in a heap and broke this right leg. I was stricken. So in the hospital, I began yelling at them, how am I going to get back to work? The therapy there consisted of giving me a couple of tools to show me how to put my socks on with them. So I began exercising in bed.
[Film Clip]
Val Zavala>> There's another development in Jack's life. He's been diagnosed with cancer. In fact, when we interviewed him, he had just gotten back from his radiation treatment. Was it frightening when you got the news about the cancer? You seem to be handling it.
Jack Roth>> It wasn't really. I thought it would be. It wasn't. You know, there's so much around. You're only human. It would take a gigantic ego for a person to assume silently inside them that I ain't going to get nothing. You know, that's kind of ridiculous.
Val Zavala>> Something is going to get all of us at one point or another.
Jack Roth>> Oh, yeah. We're only human.
Val Zavala>> Jack considers himself fortunate to be a centenarian, having lived through the most dynamic decades of human history. Who's the first president you remember?
Jack Roth>> The first what?
Val Zavala>> President.
Jack Roth>> President? I guess President Taft.
Val Zavala>> You remember President Taft?
Jack Roth>> Barely, yeah. I saw him in a parade once.
Val Zavala>> Big guy, right?
Jack Roth>> Oh, yeah, big and fat, pear-shaped.
Val Zavala>> And what does he think the most influential invention of the twentieth century is?
Jack Roth>> The computer. That's the most profound change of all.
Val Zavala>> Really? Of all the changes you've seen?
Jack Roth>> Oh, yeah. That's going to bring, I think, certain kinds of illiteracy.
Val Zavala>> How so?
Jack Roth>> There will be many people highly versed on the computer and helpless at other things.
Val Zavala>> Like what?
Jack Roth>> A dictionary.
Val Zavala>> So they can look things up on the Web, but they can't find a word in a dictionary?
Jack Roth>> Well, they go, oh, there it is. But the dictionary, they plow through it. That's close to my heart. I used to give away dictionaries to high schools here, the adult school. All the people that work, many of them from foreign countries, I felt like a big philanthropist for once (laughter).
Val Zavala>> Whether it be dictionaries or exercise equipment, Jack believes in keeping things simple. This is as complicated as his equipment gets.
Jack Roth>> With the chair, lean forward like this. Any of these things that put the strain on the muscles, that's the shoulder muscles, keep doing it as long as you can. Now in addition to doing the exercises, because it gets boring, if you want to amuse yourself, sing. Everybody can sing. Singing has nothing to do with talent or ability or knowledge. Everybody knows at least one song.
Val Zavala>> Now Jack's father was a piano player for silent movies. One of his favorite songs is "The Perils of Pauline".
[Film Clip]
Val Zavala>> (Laughter) Excellent. Jack is now facing the perils of age, but he has taken life's changes in stride. Now what was one of the worst things you've seen?
Jack Roth>> Well, the Depression. The banks closed. Nobody had any money. The company I worked for, we owed the men in the factory maybe twenty-five or thirty dollars a week. All we could give them was ten percent of that. $2.50 or $3.00.
Val Zavala>> Two years ago when I first met Jack, I asked him how he wanted to spend his one hundredth birthday.
Jack Roth>> I want to go to Gilroy.
Val Zavala>> Gilroy, in northern California?
Jack Roth>> Gilroy, California. Because last night on Channel Eight, KCET, we saw Huell Howser spend two days at Gilroy talking up the garlic and everything else. One of the things he showed was Gilroy City Hall which was built in 1905. That's the year I was born.
Val Zavala>> 1905, the Gilroy City Hall was built, okay.
Jack Roth>> So in the year 2005, we'll both be a hundred years. I want to go to Gilroy to celebrate that.
Val Zavala>> I remember. We were walking right through that gate and you said you wanted to be up in Gilroy for your hundredth birthday because the City Hall --
Jack Roth>> -- I love garlic. I eat garlic all the time.
Val Zavala>> Maybe that's why you've lived so long.
Jack Roth>> It could be.
Val Zavala>> America has more people over one hundred than ever before, sixty thousand. Jack has every intention of striding into 2006 and crossing the one hundred one mark. At the same time, he knows we all have to go sometime. What do you personally believe happens after death?
Jack Roth>> Well, I'm Roman Catholic, so we have a full system there. As to what happens to us, I don't know. It's not given to us to know before we get there.
Val Zavala>> Jack thinks heaven is different things to different people and, if I had to venture a guess, heaven for Jack just wouldn't be heaven without an exer-cycle. And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
Val Zavala>> Next time on Life and Times --
Problem gamblers have been around as long as there has been gambling. Shouldn't the industry do something to help them?
>> We have people that are being introduced to gambling for the first time because it's so accessible, and these people have families, they have children. Whatever damage they do, it's not only going to affect themselves, but it's probably going to tear apart their families.
Val Zavala>> That's next time on Life and Times.
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