Starship Asterisk*

Ann wrote:There is something about snowmen that tugs at your heartstrings. You want to protect them. You want to take care of them. You want to shield them from danger.

Chris Peterson wrote:
(I guess it's my Danish blood that keeps me generally looking at the sunny side of things...
even when it isn't sunny.)

neufer wrote:You make Hamlet look like Victor Borge, Chris.

bystander wrote:
Wouldn't that be a strawman?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man wrote:
<<A straw man is a component of an argument and is an informal fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man"), and refuting it, without ever having actually refuted the original position. The origins of the term are unclear. The usage of the term in rhetoric suggests a human figure made of straw which is easily knocked down or destroyed, such as a military training dummy, scarecrow, or effigy. One common (folk) etymology is that it refers to men who stood outside courthouses with a straw in their shoe in order to indicate their willingness to be a false witness.

The straw man fallacy occurs in the following pattern of argument:

• Orin has position X.
  
  Bystander disregards certain key points of X and instead presents the superficially similar position Y.
  Thus, Y is a resulting distorted version of X and can be set up in several ways, including:
  
  • Presenting a misrepresentation of the opponent's (tumble weed man) position.
    
    Quoting an opponent's words out of context.
    
    Presenting someone who defends a position poorly as the defender, then refuting that person's arguments.
    
    Inventing a fictitious persona with actions or beliefs which are then criticized.
    
    Oversimplifying an opponent's argument, then attacking this oversimplified version.
  Bystander attacks position Y, concluding that X is false/incorrect/flawed.

bystander wrote:Wouldn't that be a strawman?

bystander wrote:Well, I'm not from Nebraska and tumble weed man just doesn't have the same ring to it as strawman!

Chris Peterson wrote:That was directed at Orin, who posted the picture.

• Sorry, but it was a reply to my post. Please forgive the confusion.

But somebody from Oklahoma should be even more familiar with straw and tumbleweeds.

• Oh, I do know the difference.

Personally, I kind of like the sound of "tumbleweed man". There's a country song in there somewhere...

• http://www.myspace.com/elizabethcarpent ... n-74190669

bystander wrote:Wouldn't that be a strawman?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbleweed wrote:
<<A tumbleweed is the above-ground part of a plant that, once mature and dry, disengages from the root and tumbles away in the wind. Usually, the tumbleweed is the entire plant apart from the roots, but in a few species it is a flower cluster. The tumbleweed habit is most common in steppe and desert climates. The tumbleweed is a diaspore, aiding in dispersal of propagules (seeds or spores). It does this by scattering the propagules either as it tumbles, or after it has come to rest in a wet location. In the latter case, the tumbleweed opens mechanically as it absorbs water; apart from its propagules, the tumbleweed is dead.

Although thought to be native to Eurasia, several annual species of Salsola (family Amaranthaceae) that form tumbleweeds have become so common in North America that they are a common symbol in Western movies, where they are typically symbolic of desolation in frontier areas. The tumbleweed's association with the Western film has led to a highly symbolic meaning in visual media. It has come to represent locations that are desolate, dry, and often humorless, with few or no occupants. A common use is when characters encounter a long abandoned or dismal-looking place: a tumbleweed will be seen rolling past, often accompanied by the sound of a dry, hollow wind. This is sometimes used in locations where tumbleweeds are not expected, for comedic effect. Tumbleweeds can also be shown to punctuate a bad joke or a character otherwise making an absurd declaration, with the plant rolling past in the background and the wind effect emphasizing the awkward silence (similar to the sound of crickets).

Salsola tragus (Russian thistle) is an annual plant that breaks off at the stem base, forming a tumbleweed that disperses its seeds as it rolls on top of the ground. It seems to have been imported into South Dakota from Russia in 1870 or 1874 in shipments of flaxseed. It has become a noxious weed that has spread throughout North America to inhabit suitable habitats which include areas with disturbed soils like roadsides, cultivated fields and eroded slopes, and in natural habitats that have sparse vegetation like coastal and riparian sands, semi-deserts and deserts. Though it is a noxious weed, Salsola tragus is useful on arid rangelands as forage for livestock.

Tumbleweeds have a significant effect on wind soil erosion in open regions, particularly on dry-land agricultural operations where the outside application of additional moisture is impossible. One study showed that a single Russian Thistle can remove up to 44 gallons of water from the soil while competing with a wheat crop. The amount of water removed from fallow land more subject to erosion would be even higher. In addition to the moisture consumed by the plant, significant damage to the protective soil crust is caused by the tumbleweeds' motion. The damage to the soil surface then provides exposure for subsequent wind damage and topsoil loss.>>

http://www.tgdaily.com/space-features/63577-inside-a-martian-tumbleweed-rover wrote:

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Click to play embedded YouTube video.

Inside a Martian tumbleweed rover
Posted on May 23, 2012 - 12:16 by Trent Nouveau

<<Scientists have determined that a wind-driven "tumbleweed" Mars rover would be more than capable of effectively navigating rocky Martian terrain. "There is quite a bit of interest within NASA to pursue the tumbleweed rover design, but one of the questions regarding the concept is how it might perform on the rocky surface of Mars," explained Dr. Andre Mazzoleni of North Carolina State University. "And we set out to address that question."



Indeed, Mazzoleni and Dr. Alexander Hartl, an adjunct professor of MAE at NC State, developed a computer model to determine how varying the diameter and mass of a tumbleweed rover would affect its speed and ability to avoid getting stuck in Martian rock fields. Rock fields are common on the surface of Mars, which averages one rock per square meter. "We found that, in general, the larger the diameter, and the lower the overall weight, the better the rover performs," Mazzoleni confirmed. "We also found that a tumbleweed rover would need to have a diameter of at least six meters in order to achieve an acceptable level of performance - meaning the rover could move through rock fields without getting stuck."

Using the model, the researchers also discovered tumbleweed rovers are more likely to bounce than roll across the surface - due to the spacing of the rocks and the size of the rovers. "Computer simulations are crucial for designing Mars rovers because the only place where you find Martian conditions is on Mars," says Mazzoleni. "Earth-based testing alone cannot establish whether a particular design will work on Mars." 

 To be sure, Mars has approximately three-eighths of Earth's gravity - with an atmospheric density on the surface that is only duplicated around 100,000 feet above the Earth's surface.

Tumbleweed rovers are attractive because they can cover much larger distances, and handle rougher terrain, than the rovers that have already been sent to Mars – such as Spirit and Opportunity. 

While tumbleweed rovers would lack the precise controls of wheeled rovers, they wouldn't be dependent on a power supply for mobility - being literally blown across the Martian landscape by the wind.>>