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NASA Finds Perfectly Rectangular Iceberg In Antarctica As If It Was Deliberately Cut NASA just shared a stunning image of a nearly perfect rectangular iceberg in Antarctica. The monolithic slab of ice, floating just off the Larsen C ice shelf appears quite unnatural given the 90-degree angles. NASA took the image as part of Operation IceBridge, a mission to image Earth's polar regions in order to understand how ice (thickness, location, accumulation, etc.) has been changing in recent years. While the iceberg is quite strange to look at, it is an entirely natural phenomenon. Most of us are used to seeing pictures of angular icebergs with just a small tip jutting out of the water. However, there is an entirely different type of iceberg called tabular icebergs. Tabular icebergs have steep, nearly vertical sides and a flat plateau top. Tabular icebergs typically break off of ice shelves, which are tabular bodies of thick ice. When there is a clean calve of the iceberg, the angles can be close to 90 degrees. In this case, the iceberg is likely not very old as wind, waves and sea spray will eventually winnow away the sharp edges of this iceberg and round it out, Kelly Brunt, a NASA scientist, told Live Science. As you may know, typically only 10 percent of an iceberg sits above the ocean surface when floating. However, it's unclear in this particular image whether the iceberg is fully floating or partially sitting on the ocean bottom. While this iceberg hasn't been measured, some tabular icebergs can be amazingly large. The world's largest recorded iceberg is Iceberg B-15, sitting at 183 miles long and 23 miles wide. The tabular iceberg, which was larger than the island of Jamaica, calved off the Ross Ice Shelf in 2000. To put the two icebergs locations into perspective, the map above highlights the location of the Larsen C Ice Shelf. Towards the bottom of the map, you will notice the Ross Ice Shelf, which produced the largest iceberg in history. Antarctic ice shelf diagram Ice shelves form where land meets the ocean. As ice flow from the continental land mass down to the ocean, it eventually spills out over the ocean, in some places floating and in other places partially supported by the ocean floor. The ice that sits over the ocean but is attached to the land is an ice shelf. A normal process for these ice shelves is calving, the breaking off of distal ice from the larger ice shelf. NASA intends to study this calving process through Operation IceBridge as a way of measuring melting due to global warming. As the planet warms, these ice shelves much more susceptible to calve off and melt as they float off into the ocean. This is a key variable in the continued sea level rise NASA has been measuring for decades.

Saw Donna at the Felt Forum (Madison Square Garden) on her Live & More tour with my sister & at the Forest Hills tennis stadium end of July 1979-- Hot Stuff & Bad Girls were # 1 & 3 on the Billboard chart-- with my sister, a 14 year old friend I took for her birthday who would be killed by a drunk driver 2 months later (I was 3 weeks shy of 17 at the time of the concert) and another friend who died of natural causes in his 30s. The make-up date in case of a rainout was during orientation week at Syracuse University, where I was going to start that fall. Thankfully it was sunny & dry, or I'd have had a hell of a fight with my parents about where I wanted to be. None of my friends knew I was already scheduled to come home the weekend after my friend was killed, because I had ABBA tickets with my sister. I have a vague recollection of seeing the Bee Gees at MSG, but I may be thinking of 1 of the 3 H&O concerts. I have vivid recollections of two other times, for non-musical reasons. I had tickets to see them at Jones Beach with my former roommate, who was a huge fan. She was in a terrible accident and was in the hospital recovering the night of the concert, so I went with a friend of hers and sat in the rain. They were great, though. A couple of years later I was in Detroit working and a radio station in NY was giving away tickets to a Bee Gees concert that was going to be in NJ, but tickets were only available as part of a contest. Everyone we knew tried and failed to win tickets for her to go. I finally called the station and explained why I wanted tickets and I got two. She picked me up at the airport and we went straight to the concert. (My work had ended at that point.) They were great again. Saw H&O with friends in Syracuse & at MSG, and alone in Florida when I was visiting my father. My whole neighborhood loved ELO & a lot of kids went to see them at MSG for their Out Of The Blue tour, but I was sick of ELO at the time & didn't go. Of course, everyone raved about them, and I felt left out. They toured again during my sophmore year in college, but didn't play Syracuse. I'd had my license suspended over the summer, but drove 50 miles to see them alone in Binghampton. It wasn't great. As for Aurora Greenway, I went to the discount ticket booth in Times Square with my mother, aunt, and sister to get tickets to a play, but mom & sis saw tickets available, & dragged me to see her. Of course, she was spectacular. *** interesting (sort of) observation in the NY Times review of Donna: Donna Summer was blessed by a fine New York summer evening for the first of her two sold‐out shows at the Forest Hills Tennis Stadium Friday night. And she made the most of the setting and the weather, with a solid, entertaining, vital show. Best of all, she suggested that her already demonstrated capacity for growth may not be exhausted yet, and that for all the pop pleasure she gives now, she may one day be able to become something deeper and more important. There are three forces contending for Miss Summer's artistic soul, to get cosmic about it. Sometimes it's tempting to think of those forces as two angels and a devil, but actually all three are capable of both good and bad. The three are disco, rock and middle of the road. For the most part, disco means her biggest hits (“I Feel Love,” “Last Dance”), full of energy and excitement in a vital, contemporary idiom. Rock means another, more traditional source of energy, drawing from rock‐and‐roll but also from rhythmand‐blues and gospel music (“Hot Stuff”). Middle of the road, on the other hand, usually means a sodden collapse into bathos, with wooden expositions of either tired hand‐me‐downs (“The Way We Were”) or her own schlock ballads. Not too long ago, Miss Summer wasn't doing much rock at all, and her ballads suffered from all the wrong kinds of formulaic, phony sentimentality. What was interesting about Friday's performance was the way in which she enlivened the uptempo numbers with a passion that, in vocal terms, she doesn't always quite attain on her records. More crucially, she sang much of the slower material with a heartfelt intensity that almost — not quite, yet, but almost — redeemed sentimentality into sentiment. It takes art to be a great ballad singer, and if Miss Summer isn't quite there yet, at least she suggests that the goal is in sight. The show had its glitzy moments, especially the opening 45 minutes by Brooklyn Dreams, a pop‐disco outfit with forced evocations of Dion and other early‐60's New York pop‐rock acts. The trio's singing wasn't very good, the songs were shallow and the general impression was superfluous. Miss Summer's act had its theatrics, too, with several costume changes, tacky set and the fabled miming with the microphone stand during “Love to Love You Baby” — an erotic image she professes now to dislike but which she did nothing on Friday to discourage. But the tackiness fit the concept of her recent “Bad Girls” album, and went hand in hand with the generally loose, exuberant, friendly mood Miss Summer projected. It was that mood more than anything else that lifted the evening out of the stiff self‐consciousness that seems to afflict so many black acts these days. The general pattern here is to attain one's early hits in dance music and then to scurry as fast as possible over to an artificial, Las Vegas‐oriented showbiz style. Miss Summer may yet fall into that trap, especially when her records stop ascending automatically to the No. spot. But what was heartening about her performance Friday was the hope it held out that perhaps she's bright and energetic and passionate enough both to enliven the old show tunes and modern ballads with the musicality they deserve, and to galvanize her act with the uptempo songs, both rock and disco, that she does now so wonderfully.

A lioness has killed the father of her three offspring, suffocating her mate by locking her jaws onto his neck at the Indianapolis Zoo in an attack not fully understood by zoo staff. The lions had been held together at the zoo for eight years, producing three cubs in 2015, and zookeepers had never before noticed any aggression between the two, the zoo said in a statement issued on Friday. The death devastated zookeepers and the cause may never be understood, the curator of the zoo said. "They build strong bonds with the animals so any loss affects us all greatly. For a lot of us, it's just like a family member," David Hagan, curator of the Indianapolis Zoo, said in an interview. Zoo staff were alerted by "an unusual amount of roaring" coming from the lion pen on Oct. 15 and arrived to find the 12-year-old female lion Zuri in a fight with the 10-year-old male lion Nyack, the zoo said in a statement. "She had Nyack by the neck. Keepers came up and saw what was occurring and made an attempt to separate the two. But she continued to hang onto Nyack by the neck until he stopped moving," Hagan said. A necropsy found that Nyack died of suffocation from injuries to the neck. The lioness had been on loan from the San Diego Zoo as part of the Species Survival Plan managed by Association of Zoos and Aquariums. The incident was under review but there were no plans to change how the lions would be managed, the zoo said. One of their offspring, a 3-year-old female named Sukari, was in the outdoor lion pen at the time, while the two male offspring were kept in a separate part of the exhibit. Zookeepers began separating the males earlier this year, corresponding the age they typically leave the pride, at 2 or 3, when they are considered young adults. The Indianapolis Zoo's adult male lion named Nyack The Indianapolis Zoo's lioness named Zuri.

Also, I saw Warren Beatty's sister live at the Palace Theater in NY. Does that count? But can you still fit into your Rosemary Clooney and Michael Feinstein t-shirts?

Ben Dover is one of my favorite names for a gay porn bottom. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0sWspe4wPCY/SriQtnHzkJI/AAAAAAAAAAU/DkX6XH0zk2Y/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/bendover.jpeg

These are all the concerts I can remember seeing: Hall & Oates thrice, Rick Springfield, Donna Summer, & the Bee Gees twice each (might've seen Los Hermanos Gibb a third time; not sure), ABBA & ELO once apiece. Still have my ABBA & ELO t-shirts, but can't fit into them.

Matthew Dippel, a Michigan photographer, was in Yosemite National Park in California when he directed his friend, Josh Van Gorden, to hike over to the famous viewpoint Taft Point to pose for a photo. But instead of seeing Van Gorden emerge on the cliff, Dippel spotted two other tiny figures in the distance: one standing and one kneeling. Dippel quickly realized that he was witnessing a marriage proposal. I had my settings all ready to go — due to waiting for Josh — so I just snapped away and managed to get a beautiful photo,” Dippel told Yahoo Lifestyle. But he when he ran over to try to deliver the photo, he was unable to identify the lovebirds. “There were maybe 12 other photographers there along with three to four brides and grooms taking photos at the point, so it’s not an uncommon thing to see,” he said. He sprang into action. “I had my settings all ready to go — due to waiting for Josh — so I just snapped away and managed to get a beautiful photo,” Dippel told Yahoo Lifestyle. But he when he ran over to try to deliver the photo, he was unable to identify the lovebirds. “There were maybe 12 other photographers there along with three to four brides and grooms taking photos at the point, so it’s not an uncommon thing to see,” he said. Determined to locate the couple, Dippel did what any reasonable person would do: He posted his best shot to Twitter. In the photo, the sun’s rays are bathing the hikers as they’re perched about 7,500 feet up. He asked his followers, “Twitter help, idk who these two are but I hope this finds them. I took this at Taft Point at Yosemite National Park, on October 6th, 2018.” The post has since gone viral, with more than 153,000 retweets, more than twice that number in likes, and 1,100 comments — and none have helped Dippel identify the couple, unfortunately. He confirmed to Yahoo Lifestyle that he still had not found the darling duo as of Monday despite a few false alarms. In fact, the photo has garnered such a reaction from commenters on Twitter that he has asked people to just privately message him — but only with serious leads. I don’t photograph weddings though, believe it or not,” he said. “I mainly do concerts, portraits, and landscapes.”

A fire and rescue squad in California is trying to find the owner of a tortoise that was discovered by paramedics Thursday taking a slow-and-steady stroll in El Cajon. Heartland Fire & Rescue took to Facebook about the quest for the unidentified owner, telling followers that the “rather interesting patient” was found “slowly” walking on the sidewalk. “Unable to outrun the paramedics and possibly suffering from a little ‘shell shock,’” the tortoise was brought to the city’s animal shelter, where it’ll be cared for until someone comes to pick it up, the fire & rescue squad wrote. “All in a day’s work!” the Facebook post said, offering photos of the stray animal. One showed it securely fastened to a gurney. In another, it’s seen posing near a firetruck. As of Friday, the tortoise remained at the shelter, where it was “being well taken care of” and officials were investigating tips suggesting the animal came “from a yard on Emerald,” the Facebook post said.

And if you have a giant penis, then you need... Inflatable, 10-foot-long colon swiped in Kansas! This 10-foot-long, inflatable colon, used to instruct about the dangers of colon cancer, has been swiped from the University of Kansas Cancer Center. Call Internal Affairs! Better yet, call a gastroenterologist! A 10-foot-long, inflatable colon, used to instruct about the dangers of colon cancer, has been swiped from the University of Kansas Cancer Center. The 150-pound teaching aid was stolen Friday from a pickup truck in Brookside, Kan. The Cancer Coalition sends the inflatable colon all around America for people to learn about cancer in an intriguing way. The surprisingly lifelike balloon organ illustrates the perils of nasty polyps that can become cancerous lesions if left untreated. The larger-than-life creation has a value of about $4,000. While the theft itself is disturbing enough, one doctor says the real shame is that it denies people frank discussions about a cancer that gets scant attention. “Colorectal cancer screening is the most powerful weapon we have against colorectal cancer,” said University of Kansas Cancer Center surgical oncologist Josh Ashcraft in a statement on Friday. “Colon cancer is a tough subject for many to talk about and the giant, 150-pound, 10-foot-long inflatable colon is a great conversation starter.” Nearly 100,000 new cases of colon cancer will be confirmed in 2018 and about 43,000 first-time diagnoses of rectal cancer will be diagnosed. More alarming, about 50,000 Americans are expected to succumb to colorectal cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

The Beastie Boys have kept a giant penis in storage for 30 years When the Beastie Boys first hit it big in 1987, they were seen as “Animal House” frat dudes, thanks to the video for first single “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party),” which became an MTV staple. The clip depicted the guys — Brooklyn native MCA (Adam Yauch) and Manhattanites Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz) and Mike D (Mike Diamond) — as house-trashing, pie-throwing, oversexed pyromaniacs. Beastie Boys Book” (Spiegel & Grau), out Oct. 30, the Beasties were mocking the very thing they hated: “Sloppy drunk dude trying to creep on young women was repugnant to punks [like us].” But the joke was on them. “Unfortunately, when you’re a straight guy in your late teens/early twenties, you can easily fall into the stereotype’s own trappings,” Horovitz writes. “[We] became what we hated.” In the decades since, the band has apologized repeatedly for their lyrics and behavior from those days, and a fair amount of the book — which is also a love letter to MCA, who died from cancer in 2012 — is devoted to those regrets. Here’s a roundup of some of the Beastie Boys’ wildest, worst early history. They fired their drummer — for being a girl From 1981-84, the Beastie Boys featured a Beastie Girl: Kate Schellenbach played drums for the group as they transitioned from punk to hip-hop. “We kicked Kate out of the band because she didn’t fit into our new tough-rapper-guy identity,” Horovitz laments in the book. “Maybe Kate would’ve eventually quit the band because we were starting to act like a bunch of f–kin’ creeps, but it was just s–ty the way it happened. And I am so sorry about it.” In the book, Schellenbach blames the split on producer Rick Rubin, saying he gave the band an ultimatum of working with him or her. “Part of me was jealous of their success,” she admits, although she knew she wouldn’t have been happy if she had stayed. “What would I be doing when they were rapping about f–king a girl with a Wiffle-ball bat?” All was eventually forgiven, and the Beasties’ own record label, Grand Royal, released music by Schellenbach’s band Luscious Jackson in the early 1990s. They almost called their first album something awful Although Horovitz and Diamond never explain how they landed on the title of their debut 1986 album, “Licensed to Ill,” they’re grateful they changed it. “The original title to this record was ‘Don’t Be a F–got.’ It was Rick Rubin’s idea,” Horovitz reveals in the book. “It was meant to be a joke about jock frat dudes but homophobia’s not funny and we are truly sorry.” They’re still spending money on a giant penis “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)” was chosen as a single by the band’s label, Def Jam, in February 1987, even though the Beasties considered it a throwaway. It was immediately picked up by MTV and became a hit, but the band quickly soured on the track and the dumb-jock stereotype it represented — so much so, they never played it live after their 1987 tour. But one remnant lingers: A giant hydraulic penis that would pop up on stage when the trio played the song. (According to Rolling Stone, it stood 20 feet tall). “Seemed funny at the time … [but] you gotta really think before you say or do some dumb s–t,” Horovitz writes of the decision to have the prop created. “Think about the people you care about most. Will they be embarrassed for you, and of you? Yes . . . And you’ll end up paying thirty years’ worth of storage locker fees in New Jersey for a 5-foot-by-5-foot dick in a box.” I thought this might be more inaccurate reporting by Rolling Stone, but it was pointed out to me that this may be the measurement when flaccid. :D:) They inspired car theft In the “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (to Party)” video, Mike D sported a Volkswagen medallion on a thick gold chain. This allegedly led fans across the US and UK to steal the logos right off the grills of VWs. Eventually the carmaker found a way to capitalize on the trend, creating an ad with a photo of a Rabbit missing its hood ornament and the line “Designer labels always get ripped off.” The company cheekily nodded to the band — “Many [owners] have been heard to out-swear a Beastie Boy (the results of finding their badges have gone missing)” — and offered a free medallion to anyone who asked. They used to hunt rats in Chinatown During the mid-80s, Mike D and MCA shared an apartment at 59 Chrystie St. — which was rat-infested because employees of sweatshops on the same floor would leave bags of trash in the hallway. The landlord suggested the guys take care of the problem by killing one of the vermin and leaving it out to scare off the others. Some people might go to the hardware store and buy a trap. The Beasties had other ideas. “We … bought these pellet guns, some CO2 cartridges and a gang of pellets,” Diamond writes. “Late that night, we rolled in a bit buzzed. We grabbed our loaded pistols … and started kicking the huge garbage bags. Sure enough, rats came streaming out of them. Somehow, we actually nailed a couple, then left them, dead, in the hallway for a few days.” It worked. As Diamond writes, “Now we were free to go about inviting girls back to our place.”

The drag racer killed in a horrific fiery crash early Sunday in Queens documented his final hours on social media. Engines rev and tires squeal as souped-up cars race through the streets of Sunnyside on Jesus Montenegro-Posada’s Instagram Story, documenting his last night of racing. The 35-year-old speed demon lost control of his Honda Civic on a rain-slicked Review Avenue, struck a tension wire supporting a telephone pole, twisted in mid-air, and got wedged between the phone pole and a light stand in the horrific 1 a.m. crash, witnesses said. Montenegro-Posada, described by friends and fellow drivers as an avid racer and car tuner, was killed instantly in the gory wreck, that left the street strewn with car parts, bloody clothes, and shattered glass. His Instagram page includes nearly exclusively shots of auto parts and cars in various stages of detailing.

Not sure. I just happen to remember that one got the most for me. I know I had another with 15ish, but I'd have to search manually for it.

https://www.gocomics.com/marmaduke/2018/10/22

I logged in tonight and had 3108 likes, as well as 3108 messages. Then I had to spoil it with a new post (and then this one on top of it). My greatest hit so far has been my response to Avalon's (original) query, Was Alexander the Great Gay?: 17 likes. https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/was-alexander-the-great-gay.129435/#post-1380124

I've had no use for him since he ripped off the tenants in his uncle's building.

I keep seeing promos for the new season on TruTV whilst a-watchin' COMEDY KNOCKOUT. Adam Ruins Everything is an American educational comedy television series starring Adam Conover that debuted on September 29, 2015, with a 12-episode season on truTV. On January 7, 2016, it was announced that the show had been picked up for 14 additional episodes of season 1 to air starting on August 23, 2016. The series aims to debunk misconceptions that pervade U.S. society. On December 7, 2016, truTV announced the renewal of Adam Ruins Everything for a 16-episode second season, which premiered on July 11, 2017. An additional miniseries of six animated episodes premiered on March 20, 2018. On May 9, 2018, TruTV announced the show had been renewed for a third season, set to premiere in the fall of 2018.

I must... I must... I must increase my bust! I remember an episode of Laverne & Shirley in which Shirley was mortified when Laverne and her date walked in on Shirley doing her exercises: I must... I must... I must increase my bust! I know... I know... I know that they will grow! Hurrah... Hurrah... my aim's a bigger bra! https://www.companyofmen.org/threads/i-love-a-good-pun.130043/