Tusks are elongated, continuously growing front teeth, usually but not always in pairs, that protrude well beyond the mouth of certain mammal species. They are most commonly canines, as with warthogs, pig, and walruses, or, in the case of elephants, elongated incisors. In most tusked species both the males and the females have tusks although the males' are larger. Tusks are generally curved, though the narwhal's sole tusk is straight and has a helical structure. In the elephant, the tusks were originally second incisors. Continuous growth is enabled by formative tissues in the apical openings of the roots of the teeth.
Tusks have a variety of uses depending on the animal. Social displays of dominance, particularly among males, are common, as is their use in defence against attackers. Elephants use their tusks as digging and boring tools. Walruses use their tusks to grip on ice and to haul out on ice. The presence of a tusk in only the male narwhals suggests that for these whales the tusk is a secondary sex characteristic.
Tusk is the name of the official live mascot for the University of Arkansas Razorbacks. The current live mascot is Tusk IV. All Tusks so far have been male (female swine do not have tusks) and from the same lineage.
Tusk travels to every home football game at Fayetteville or Little Rock, certain away football games such as the annual Southwest Classic game against Texas A&M in Dallas and some bowl games, occasional home basketball and baseball games, as well as other select events (such as pep rallies). Tusk is put into a spacious cardinal red holding pen which travels through the crowds, with the cheerleaders on the upper level, making him a crowd favorite. During the actual game, Tusk is moved into Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium where he can be seen by the entire crowd. Tusk has been trained to give kisses to people who are brave enough to do so.
Tusk occupies a 9,000-square-foot (840 m2) indoor facility and a 7,000-square-foot (650 m2) fenced outdoor area just outside Dardanelle, Arkansas. He uses the indoor facility to escape the heat and sun, and the outdoor facility provides him the opportunity to slop in several mud holes. One of the first things that Tusk does each day is to go straight to his mud hole for a mud bath. Since Razorbacks are extremely muscular and have very little body fat, the mud keeps him cooler throughout the day and protects him from the sun and insects. Before any official functions he must attend, Tusk is given a shampoo and wash to make sure he looks his best for the public.
Tusk is the twelfth album by the British/American rock band Fleetwood Mac. Released in 1979, it is considered experimental, primarily due to Lindsey Buckingham's sparser songwriting arrangements and the influence of punk rock and new wave on his production techniques. Bassist John McVie has commented that the album sounds like "the work of three solo artists" (Buckingham, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie), whilst Mick Fleetwood later proclaimed that it is his favourite and the best Fleetwood Mac studio album created by the group. Costing over $1 million to record (a fact widely noted in the 1979 press), it was the most expensive rock album made up to that point.
Tusk peaked at No. 4 in the U.S., spent over five months within the top 40, and was certified double platinum for shipping two million copies. It peaked at No. 1 in the UK and achieved a Platinum award for shipments in excess of 300,000 copies. The album gave the group two U.S. top-ten hit singles, with the Buckingham-penned title track (US #8/UK #6), and the Stevie Nicks composition "Sara" (U.S. #7/UK #37). Further releases from the album, "Not That Funny" (UK only single release), "Think About Me" and "Sisters of the Moon" were less successful; however, the latter two appear in their 'single versions' on the 2002 compilation The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. "Sara" was cut to 4½ minutes for both the single and the first CD release of the album, but the unedited version has since been restored on the 1988 Greatest Hits compilation and the 2004 reissue of Tusk as well as Fleetwood Mac's 2002 release of The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac. Original guitarist Peter Green also took part in the sessions for Tusk, but his playing on the Christine McVie track "Brown Eyes" is not credited on the album. However, on the alternate version (at 30 seconds longer) that was released on 25 Years – The Chain, Green's distinctive guitar playing can be recognized, especially at the end of the song.
Surge may refer to:
Glacial surges are short-lived events where a glacier can advance substantially, moving at velocities up to 100 times faster than normal. Surging glaciers cluster around a few areas. High concentrations of surging glaciers occur in Svalbard, the Canadian Arctic islands, Alaska and Iceland. In some glaciers, surges can occur in fairly regular cycles, with 15 to 100 or more surge events per year. In other glaciers, surging remains unpredictable. In some glaciers, however, the period of stagnation and build-up between two surges typically lasts 10 to 200 years and is called the quiescent phase. During this period the velocities of the glacier are significantly lower, and the glaciers can retreat substantially.
Glacier surges have been divided into two categories depending on the character of the surge event. Glaciers in Alaska exhibit surges with a sudden onset, extremely high (tens of meters/day)maximum flow rate and a sudden termination, often with a discharge of stored water. These are called Alaskan-type surges and it is suspected that these surges are hydrologically controlled.
The Transformers (トランスフォーマー, Toransufomā) is a line of toys produced by the Japanese company Takara (now known as Takara Tomy) and American toy company Hasbro. The Transformers toyline was created from toy molds mostly produced by Japanese company Takara in the toylines Diaclone and Microman. Other toy molds from other companies such as Bandai were used as well. In 1984, Hasbro bought the distribution rights to the molds and rebranded them as the Transformers for distribution in North America. Hasbro would go on to buy the entire toy line from Takara, giving them sole ownership of the Transformers toy-line, branding rights, and copyrights, while in exchange, Takara was given the rights to produce the toys and the rights to distribute them in the Japanese market. The premise behind the Transformers toyline is that an individual toy's parts can be shifted about to change it from a vehicle, a device, or an animal, to a robot action figure and back again. The taglines "More Than Meets The Eye" and "Robots In Disguise" reflect this ability.