Hello, sunshine.
Welcome to the show.
I'm Coy Wire.
This is CNN 10, your 10 minutes of news where I tell you the what, letting you decide what to think.
Rise up.
It is Friday.
Happy Friday to you.
Let's get you your news.
We begin today in Alaska, where one of the most significant airlifts in the state's history has successfully moved hundreds of people from coastal villages which have been ravaged by high surf and strong winds.
More than 1000 people have been displaced, and by remnants of Typhoon Halong last weekend, which brought hurricane-force winds topping 100 miles per hour.
Meteorologists are now wondering if a decrease in weather balloons due to a lack of staffing at some National Weather Service offices after the government shutdown could have affected their forecasts.
Our Allison Chinchar explains.
Looking at some of these numbers 93, 81 100 mile per hour wind gusts that were reported along several communities in western Alaska, and even a few communities that reported roughly six feet of water inundation.
Now, when a lot of folks make these weather forecasts, they get the data from weather balloons.
All of these blue dots you see here indicate a weather service location that has two daily weather balloon launches every single day.
And that is standard practice for all National Weather Service locations across the country until earlier this year.
That's when we started to see the transition to more of these yellow dots indicating only one weather balloon launch per day, or even, in some cases, the red dots indicating no weather balloon launches anymore on any given day.
Now, we also have this one lone orange dot here.
This means that location normally would have had a weather balloon launch but due to communications and technical issues, the data was just never received by the Weather Service location as it normally would.
The concern here is we use that data for these forecasts and it is vital.
Basically, those weather balloons measure all of the weather in the upper atmosphere.
You're talking winds, temperature, humidity, all of those things that are vital to making forecasts.
It's kind of like baking a cake without flour.
Flour is one of the basic ingredients needed to make a cake.
Well, weather balloon data is one of the basic ingredients needed to make forecasts.
And unfortunately, the better the output, the better the forecast.
But if we don't have the input because we don't have the data, the question becomes how good is the actual forecast?
Pop quiz, hot shot.
What snack was co-created by a North Dakota State University football player?
Cheetos, Cheez-It, Pretzel Bites, or Uncrustables?
If you said Uncrustables, that's the joint, that's the jam.
Len Kretschman won three Division II national titles as a receiver for the Bison.
He and friend David Geske's business and patent were acquired by Smuckers in 1998 for a reported 1 million dollars.
Next up, a battle of peanut butter and jellies.
Smucker's is suing Trader Joe's over its PB&J.
Smucker's says the grocery chain's crustless peanut butter and jam sandwiches are too similar to their Uncrustables.
In a lawsuit filed earlier this week, Smucker's says both the design of Trader Joe's PBJs and packaging violate its trademarks.
Smucker's is seeking restitution or payment for their financial losses.
And get this.
The company wants a judge to require Trader Joe's to deliver all current PBJs to Smucker's headquarters to be destroyed.
What do you think?
Packaging?
Trader Joe's?
Smucker's?
How about shape?
Let's see.
Hmm?
And?
Hmm?
How about taste?
Hmm.
This could take a minute.
I hope this all works out amicably.
They both are delicious.
I'm going to need a minute.
The international photography competition that showcases nature's weird, wacky and wonderful moments just announced its winners.
London's Natural History Museum highlights a huge range of photos in its Wildlife Photographer Awards.
From the absurd, like this pic of an orphaned anteater, to the more startling, like this shot of a room full of rattlesnakes.
The judges chose this photograph of a rare hyena in an abandoned mining town in Namibia as the best image out of more than 60000 submissions.
Another standout though, was this captivating image of an orb weaver spider in its web, shot by 10-year-old Jamie Smart from Wales, who won the 10 and under category.
Here she is explaining how she pulled it off.
And I always check the weather forecast to make sure it's going to be a good morning.
And I found that...
It was a really cold night and we got up early and the garden was just full of water droplets.
So we went out to look for bugs.
Then I spotted this little funnel on the top of a dead dock leaf stem.
And I didn't even see the spider at first.
I just saw this funnel covered in dew droplets.
But when I looked closer I spotted a teeny, tiny little spider tucked up trying to keep warm because it'd been such a cold night.
I thought it made a really cute image, so I tried to capture it.
I had a little bit of a struggle though, trying to get the light to penetrate into the funnel so you could actually see the spider.
So I was changing my angles and my settings. to be able to have the light to get in.
So you could see the spider, and I did manage to capture this image.
In sports news.
The Milwaukee Brewers are facing the LA Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and the Brewers have an in-game tradition that changed the game.
Five sausage mascots, yes, racing around the warning track, and the fans love it.
When they started back in 1993, nobody was doing such a thing, but now more than half of MLB teams have some kind of mascot race.
During the sixth inning of every home game, a bratwurst, an Italian, a Polish, a chorizo and a good old-fashioned hot dog turned on the Jets and CNN's Don Riddell was able to track down the man who came up with the idea and won the very first race.
You know, there was already this cartoon of the sausages running across the skyline of Milwaukee and it ended up at the back door of what was then County Stadium.
And I think everyone that went to a game that saw that Thought it would be really cool if they ran in.
And I just happened to go with the kid that worked for me, whose father was a vice president of the Brewers.
And he sat with us and I just talked him into it.
I mean, he was pretty reluctant at first.
It was the end of the season and he didn't call me back till the next March telling me that OK, it's a good idea.
And then now think about it.
He's like, OK, I guess it's a good idea.
And now what it is.
Can you remember the reaction when he came through the gate?
Oh, my God.
You know I'm in a tube of foam rubber and you'd think the noise would be have been just completely muted.
But the place went crazy.
It was a race to home plate, but we were to race right through the center of the field.
And like I said, the players didn't know this was going to happen, nor did the umpire.
And he was quite unhappy about it.
He thought it diminished the seriousness of the sport. which, you know, I guess it did.
This was a first.
Nobody was doing this right.
And now I think maybe more than half the teams do some kind of mascot race.
Arguably, you've had an impact on the way the game now looks in the United States.
How do you feel about that?
I mean, I really do think it changed the tone of baseball in a lot of ways.
If you need a feel-good story or an escape, or just want to be able to tell your friends you've read a tantalizing tale about sausages, see Don's article at CNNcom slash sport.
Today's story getting a 10 out of 10.
Don't mean to be cheesy, but it's a slice of ingenuity that'll float your boat and lift a pizza your heart.
Floodwaters made roads in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey impossible to drive.
But this pizza delivery driver decided no pie would be left behind.
When his car reached a foot of water he got out with a little pepperoni in his step, but then was offered a kayak by a neighbor.
It was just a pie.
It was just a plain pie.
It was easy to carry.
I had put it on my lap and started rowing.
You got to do it.
That's the world we live in now.
You got to problem solve as quick as you can, as efficient as you can.
Paddling his way to the customer, the pizza was delivered.
It was dry, delicious, and unfloat gettable.
That's what I'm talking about.
All right.
Our Friday shout out of the day is going to some of our homeschoolers out there, all the way from Tucson Arizona.
The Stratton family and our Sonoran Desert homeschool friends sent me this I look pretty darn good with a beard, I must say.
You complete me.
All right, play that Friday music, Nadir.
Shine bright.
Make someone smile.
You never know when or how, but you may be the spark of joy someone needs.
Make it a fantastic weekend, everyone.
I'm Coy Wire, and we are CNN 10.
