WEBVTT - From the Vault: Tumbleweeds, Part 1 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:07.920 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My 0:00:08.000 --> 0:00:12.240 name is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:15.200 Time for an episode from the vault. Uh. This one 0:00:15.200 --> 0:00:19.200 originally aired January eleven two, and it's part one of 0:00:19.200 --> 0:00:23.440 our series on tumbleweeds. This was a fun series. I recall, 0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:25.919 there's a lot more to these plants than you might think. 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:32.040 All right, let's jump right in. Welcome to Stuff to 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:41.240 Blow Your Mind, a production of My Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:43.680 welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:48.159 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. Like many of you 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.320 out there, I've been familiar with with tumbleweeds for a while, 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:56.360 but almost almost exclusively as just this um sort of 0:00:56.440 --> 0:00:59.880 mundane symbol of the American West, right, you know, men, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:02.280 Mainly it's this type of thing you see popping up 0:01:02.280 --> 0:01:05.600 an old westerns or perhaps more to the point, old 0:01:05.680 --> 0:01:09.399 cartoons inspired by old Westerns. Anytime you need the audience 0:01:09.440 --> 0:01:12.720 to understand, this place is is desolate, this place is 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.800 in the American desert, or this place is a ghost town. 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.320 What do you do? You have the old tumbleweed roll by, Yeah, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.399 tumbleweed means nothing's going on. In fact, I think it's 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.400 even a common gift. Right. You can meme a tumbleweed 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.880 if you are to indicate this thread has died or 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:33.320 or you know, nobody's got anything to say. Yeah, there's 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.679 nobody in here. This is It comes to represent like 0:01:36.760 --> 0:01:40.399 not only desolation, but also uh, emptiness and tedium. You know, 0:01:40.440 --> 0:01:43.440 it's just in boredom. It's like this, this place is empty. 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:45.800 This place there's nothing going on. This is the domain 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:50.960 of tumbleweeds. And therefore it's easy to think, well, tumbleweeds 0:01:51.000 --> 0:01:54.880 themselves are boring tumbleweeds. Uh, there's nothing going on with 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:56.720 tumble weeds. There's It's not the kind of thing you 0:01:56.760 --> 0:01:59.760 could do a two part series on for a podcast. 0:02:00.160 --> 0:02:03.640 Oh but you would be wrong, yes, yes, uh and 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:07.320 uh and hopefully we will we will prove that in uh, 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.160 in this pair of episodes that we're gonna be doing. Um. 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:13.480 But but before just a couple of weeks ago, I 0:02:13.520 --> 0:02:15.880 was very much of the mind the tumbleweeds. They they 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.160 pop up in movies sometimes a lot of times they 0:02:18.160 --> 0:02:23.360 look fake. Um. Yeah, for we were actually looking at 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:26.480 some clips prior to recording these. You know, does this 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.519 look like a real tumbleweed or a fake tumbleweed. Um, 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:32.600 And I wasn't always in a good place to judge this. Well. 0:02:32.639 --> 0:02:35.040 I think one way in which movie tumbleweeds often fall 0:02:35.120 --> 0:02:39.359 short is in size, just the size shown, because the 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:42.840 tumbleweed in the movie it's always pretty much basketball sized. 0:02:42.919 --> 0:02:46.119 It's very round, or maybe you could say like turkey sized. 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:48.400 You know, it's like a good Thanksgiving turkey, but it's 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:52.080 made out of twigs. Now, obviously, tumbleweeds can vary in 0:02:52.160 --> 0:02:54.920 size and reality, and we'll we'll explain more about that 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.000 as we go on. But you know, a lot of 0:02:57.040 --> 0:02:59.280 real tumbleweeds I've seen, especially in some of the more 0:02:59.360 --> 0:03:02.840 dramatic uble weed footage where where humanity is really doing 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.480 battle with with tumbleweeds. Uh, they get big, you know, 0:03:06.560 --> 0:03:09.080 they're more in the like beach ball to bean bag 0:03:09.240 --> 0:03:13.519 chair range. Oh absolutely, yeah, you know, thinking about the 0:03:13.720 --> 0:03:15.440 cinematic ones. Yeah, a lot of the times when you 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.200 see a kind of essentially a fake looking kumble weed 0:03:18.240 --> 0:03:22.919 and obvious plant, a plant that is it self a plant, um, 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:26.440 it will be that beach ball or turkey sized, uh, 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:29.320 tumbleweed just big enough to where it is amusing, but 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.640 not a threat. Uh, it'll just kind of be, you know, 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:37.480 lazily rolling by in the background. And uh, one film 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.760 that that I was looking at it was pretty interesting 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:42.839 because you can see both examples of this, and that's 0:03:42.880 --> 0:03:47.200 the film The Petrified Forest starring Leslie Howard, Betty Davis, 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:50.160 and Humphrey Bogart, which in and of itself is a 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:53.440 tremendous film. But some of it is is obviously on 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:55.560 more of a set or a sound stage, and other 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.960 bits of it are filmed outdoors. Uh, perhaps in actual 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:02.880 Arizona or at least somewhere in California that that you know, 0:04:02.960 --> 0:04:07.200 fit the bill. Yeah, yeah, And in the location shot, 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.200 in fact, there's an early location shot where you see 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:13.240 Leslie Howard's character walking down the street there and there's 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.240 a fair sized tumbleweed that that comes in at a 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:17.680 at a pretty swift pace. I don't know if they 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:20.800 filmed it in during an actual windstorm or they just 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:24.120 have some you know, some big fans going. But uh, 0:04:24.160 --> 0:04:26.240 there's a moment there where I when I was rewatching 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:28.120 and I'm like, oh, jeez, I hope this doesn't hit 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.920 Leslie Howard. That would uh you know that that that 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:33.640 wouldn't be very becoming of such a suave character. Well, 0:04:33.760 --> 0:04:36.560 isn't the beginning premise of the film that he has 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:39.640 traveled out west in order to maybe commit suicide. So 0:04:39.839 --> 0:04:43.320 is it possible that he wanted suicide by tumbleweed? I 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:46.200 don't know how romantic would that be. Uh? Yeah, I 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:48.800 think he says that he he's hoping to one day 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:52.400 see the Pacific Ocean and perhaps drowned in it. But 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:54.960 but I can't imagine saying I hoped one day too 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:58.360 to uh run across the six feet tumbleweed and be 0:04:58.640 --> 0:05:01.839 demolished by it. I hope one day to to be 0:05:01.920 --> 0:05:07.480 absorbed by a sea of thorns. Yeah. So yeah, to 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.000 to get back to the to the point here. Yeah, 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:14.320 these tumbleweeds can get rather large. And I never really 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:18.320 realized this before until this holiday season, this uh that 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:22.279 we've just gone through because this year or this previous 0:05:22.360 --> 0:05:25.520 year rather just after Christmas, my family we found ourselves 0:05:25.640 --> 0:05:30.960 um driving south from Phoenix to Tucson, Arizona, and then 0:05:31.080 --> 0:05:34.400 west towards Las Cruces before cutting up to Albuquerque and 0:05:34.400 --> 0:05:37.159 then Santa Fe and um, and we were doing this 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:39.320 because we originally are going to take a northern route 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:42.520 through Flagstaff, but winter weather forced us to pivot. So 0:05:42.800 --> 0:05:46.320 here we are, Uh, we're going on Interstate ten between 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.080 Tucson and Las Crucis. And what during my stretch of 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:53.600 the driving, we begin to enter this uh, this this 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:55.880 this uh you know that you know, we're in the desert, 0:05:55.960 --> 0:05:59.320 is you know, desolate. We get these advisories about possible 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:04.320 you know, wind possible, uh, dust storms and uh and 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:07.200 then I begin to see the first tumbleweeds. Uh. And 0:06:07.400 --> 0:06:09.160 you know, I've been going out west for a while now, 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.720 and I don't think I'd ever really seen a tumbleweed 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.680 in action. Maybe i'd maybe i'd seen one small like 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:19.280 turkey basketball size one. But this was the first time 0:06:19.320 --> 0:06:23.440 I started seeing some real bad boys, some real monsters 0:06:24.080 --> 0:06:26.920 rolling around. Uh. For first of all, at the you know, 0:06:26.920 --> 0:06:28.880 sort of the side of the road or sometimes like 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.279 stuck up against a fence. But then eventually, uh, they're 0:06:32.320 --> 0:06:35.960 they're crossing the road, they're being blown across the the highway. 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:39.520 And it's quite alarming because again, some of these are 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:41.960 are huge. There we were we were commenting at the time, 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:45.159 perhaps overreacting that they look like they're the know, about 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:50.160 half the size of a Volkswagen. Did you hit one? Oh? Yes, yeah. 0:06:50.200 --> 0:06:55.800 Eventually let's started hitting them and they explode. Yeah, they 0:06:55.920 --> 0:06:59.640 kind of or it's kind of like, um, it's like frosted, 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:04.320 not frosted of what were they? Yeah, but not the 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:06.719 many ones, the big ones. Oh yeah, Okay, it's like 0:07:06.720 --> 0:07:09.720 a shredded wheat, like shredded many wheat. Of the shredded 0:07:09.720 --> 0:07:11.960 wheat hitting the front of your car, they just kind of, 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.240 uh yeah, crumple and implode and um, part of it 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:19.080 gets stuck under the vehicle. But it's alarming because they're 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:21.880 so big in volume at the size at the time. 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:23.440 I don't know why I thought of it this way, 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.080 but I was imagining it's like running into a ball 0:07:27.120 --> 0:07:32.080 of about five thousand tooth brushes and toothpicks, all loosely 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:36.760 taped together. Yeah. Yeah, and it's it's like that. And yeah, 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:39.560 you're seeing them slam into other vehicles in the the 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:43.520 opposing side of the highway. I'm watching them just slam 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:46.920 into the fronts of tractor trailer rigs and and it's 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:50.080 weird to watch them because on one hand, there there's 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:52.320 something about the tumble weed moving around that is kind 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:55.440 of comical. There's something absurd about it, and so I'm 0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:57.440 kind of freaking out about the driving of My wife 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.960 is just like cracking up laughing at these things in 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.520 the seat next to me, and um. And then the 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.280 other thing is the way that they're you know, they're 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:10.000 they're not perfect spheres. Uh, They're not perfectly round. They 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:13.120 have this kind of oblong shape to them, so they 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:17.680 kind of tumble and bounce, and especially with the you know, 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:20.440 the uncertainty of the wind and also the aerodynamics of 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.680 the high speed traffic, the way that they behave kind 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.480 of comes to to mimic that of an animal. You're 0:08:27.480 --> 0:08:29.240 trying to figure out what's it gonna do? Is it 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:31.280 gonna cross, is it not gonna cross? Is it gonna 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:34.400 halfway cross? And then change direction? And so all of 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.000 this adds up to this this anxiety I was feeling 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:39.720 about these tumbleweeds because I'm trying to to to figure 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:41.760 out what they're going to do and if I'm going 0:08:41.800 --> 0:08:43.360 to hit them, and then I have to make sure 0:08:43.360 --> 0:08:45.960 I'm not going to swerve and make the situation worse. Well, 0:08:45.960 --> 0:08:48.760 so with us talking like this, I immediately wonder if 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.760 it's like if it's like us also talking about trying 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:53.800 to drive in snow. I don't know if you've seen 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.160 the stuff on the internet where anybody who lives up 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:58.520 north makes fun of people from the south. You're like, 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:00.280 you know, there's like an inch of snow on the 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.040 ground and suddenly nobody can drive. Yeah. I imagine that 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:08.000 there are some some desert dwellers out there who are 0:09:08.000 --> 0:09:12.000 who are having a laugh at um at at how 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:13.880 we're talking about this here, And I mean they're probably 0:09:13.960 --> 0:09:16.280 used to it. Uh yeah, I just I don't think 0:09:16.280 --> 0:09:18.559 i'd ever been down there or and I wasn't in 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:20.680 the right place at the right time to encounter like 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:24.960 full blown literally full blown tumbleweed season. And I was 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.960 I was actually wondering, why are there no signs advising 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.680 tourists about this, Like they're warning us about what to 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:33.320 do during the dust storm, But how about it like 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:36.080 don't swerve, just go ahead and hit the tumbleweed, you know, 0:09:36.160 --> 0:09:40.520 some sort of a poster to that effect. Anyway, I afterwards, 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.280 I started looking around because I was curious, Well, you know, 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:45.200 does this ever get out of hand or is this 0:09:45.320 --> 0:09:47.960 just something where if you're if you live around at 0:09:48.000 --> 0:09:51.440 you're used to it. Well, uh, I did some research online. 0:09:51.480 --> 0:09:55.040 I started running across news stories with headlines featuring things 0:09:55.080 --> 0:10:00.320 like tumbleweed nightmares from as recently as last month, in 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:05.200 which winds basically blocked certain New Mexico roads with tumbleweeds, 0:10:05.360 --> 0:10:10.600 or a NBC headline quote thirty foot tumbleweed pile up traps, cars, 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:14.520 semi trucks on Washington Highway or another one. This this 0:10:14.559 --> 0:10:18.200 was quite impressive. Tumbleweeds bear a New Mexico town. And 0:10:18.240 --> 0:10:21.000 if you start looking up footage or images of some 0:10:21.040 --> 0:10:23.920 of this um it's it's not as much of an 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:26.439 exaggeration as as you think, like you're looking at a 0:10:26.559 --> 0:10:31.680 two story like suburban homes and the tumble weeds, which 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:33.880 again you're talking about tumbleweeds that can reach, you know, 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:37.800 sometimes like six feet in diameter. They're piling up, They're 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.679 reaching the second floor of the house. Yeah, piled up 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:44.960 like heavy snow drifts, except probably even more difficult to 0:10:45.080 --> 0:10:47.800 deal with than snow, right because snow, I mean you 0:10:47.840 --> 0:10:50.880 can at least shovel out of the way. I don't 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:53.480 know if I could say easily, but to some degree easily. 0:10:54.040 --> 0:10:58.520 Tumbleweeds are notoriously difficult to handle and deal with. I 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:02.560 think because of their size and their shape and the composition, 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:04.960 like the thorny nous of them, it's difficult to just 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.840 grab them because they're usually thorny and and in some 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.920 way repel your flesh and uh. It's also difficult to 0:11:12.920 --> 0:11:14.600 to sort of scoop them out of the way because 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.719 they tend to break. Yeah. With snow, like, one of 0:11:17.760 --> 0:11:19.440 the great things about snow is that even if you 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.920 don't shovel it um, usually what's gonna happen is it's 0:11:22.920 --> 0:11:25.640 gonna melt. Right, the sun is gonna come out, temperatures 0:11:25.640 --> 0:11:28.120 are gonna rise, that snow is gonna melt. The tumbleweed 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:30.520 is not going to melt. The tumbleweeds a mask against 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:33.240 the side of your house might not distribute on their own, 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.800 and they might catch on fire, might catch on fire, Yeah, 0:11:36.800 --> 0:11:42.720 because they're basically they're dried out, lifeless, brittle um vegetation. 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.840 So they're they're they're a fire hazard. They're a legitimate 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.560 fire hazard clumped up against the side of your house, 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:50.560 so you've got to get rid of them. Or if 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:52.360 they're not again, if they're not against the side of 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.120 your house, then they're perhaps blocking the road. Uh. They 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.040 can also cause other issues, you know, they build up 0:11:57.040 --> 0:12:02.240 against fences. They can interfere with with drainage systems. M 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:04.680 because again, a lot of the environments we're talking about 0:12:04.720 --> 0:12:07.840 here are very dry most of the year, but then 0:12:08.040 --> 0:12:10.720 there will be a deluge and during that time you 0:12:10.760 --> 0:12:13.760 need to have sufficient drainage systems in place. You don't 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:18.839 need those drainage systems and canals, etcetera clogged with old tumbleweeds. 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:24.080 They can also interfere with irrigation systems. They can they 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.840 can cause a huge mess, and they do cause traffic accidents. Um, 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:32.040 I'm read. I was reading about one in Jadito Wash 0:12:32.360 --> 0:12:36.319 that was apparently so impressive that the Arizona Daily Press 0:12:36.400 --> 0:12:40.200 did a ten year anniversary story about the incident, and 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:44.079 I included a photo from the story in our notes here, Joe, 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:46.640 it does look quite impressive. You ever, like comb a 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.720 shedding dog and end up with all these clumps of 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:51.839 hair that you need to get rid of at the end. 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.800 But then now imagine that, but it's twenty ft high. Yeah, 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:59.440 it's like like Clifford the Big Red Dog Marmaduke sized 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.560 uh pile of of of shavings here now, like you 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.040 were saying, Yeah, it's difficult to clean all this stuff up. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:07.000 What do you have to do? You have to get 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.920 a work crew out there. They've got to to gather 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.120 these materials up. You've got to put them into vehicles, uh, 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:16.440 and and take them somewhere, take them away, and they're 0:13:16.440 --> 0:13:20.840 mostly air, so you end up like really filling up 0:13:21.000 --> 0:13:24.560 a vehicle. But then you know the weight volume isn't there, 0:13:24.640 --> 0:13:27.480 so uh, you know, you start doing the math on 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:30.480 on you know, the cost of labor, the cost of materials, 0:13:30.520 --> 0:13:34.360 the cost of transportation, and and the cost end up 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.120 really skyrocketing for the various counties and towns and cities 0:13:38.360 --> 0:13:40.280 that have to engage in this kind of cleanup effort. 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.720 One of the articles we were both reading for this 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.800 episode is a PBS article about tumbleweeds by an author 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:51.920 named Gabriella Kiros, but citing information from somebody named Ariel 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.760 of Vario, a deputy agricultural commissioner at the county's Weed 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:02.400 Abatement Division in Lancaster, calif Borno. Ciros writes, quote in 0:14:02.440 --> 0:14:05.560 the cities of Palmdale and Lancaster, tumbleweeds are such a 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.400 big problem that Los Angeles county spends a hundred thousand 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:13.280 to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars yearly mowing and 0:14:13.360 --> 0:14:16.160 chipping dried out Russian thistle. That's a name of one 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:21.360 specific dominant species of tumbleweed in vacant lots and abandoned 0:14:21.400 --> 0:14:25.320 agricultural fields before they can tumble away. So this is 0:14:25.360 --> 0:14:28.920 above a hundred thousand dollars a year of a problem 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:33.080 for one county, I mean big county. But uh, every year, 0:14:33.600 --> 0:14:36.080 it's enough to make you wonder. Um, you know, there's 0:14:36.120 --> 0:14:39.040 got to be a better way, right, It's got to 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.160 be some sort of technological improvement, uh, that that we 0:14:42.200 --> 0:14:45.280 could make that would uh, that would improve this situation. 0:14:45.880 --> 0:14:50.480 Uh and uh And indeed I found evidence of a 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:54.920 of a really promising and and frightening looking project that 0:14:55.080 --> 0:14:58.960 I'm not sure ever really quite got off the ground. 0:14:59.440 --> 0:15:03.120 But I to read verbatim from this n l A 0:15:03.160 --> 0:15:06.280 Times article by Eddie Pell's go for it all right, 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:09.000 There we go Los Cruces, New Mexico. It looks like 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:12.320 a contraption straight out of a Stephen King novel, huge 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.200 metal spoke, squirreling away, shredding everything in its path. But 0:15:16.280 --> 0:15:20.560 the invention from New Mexico State University's Advanced Manufacturing Center 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:24.200 is out only to mow down the bane of the West, 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:27.640 the ever present tumbleweed. So you shared video of this 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:32.080 mangler with me, and it does look like a beast. Yeah. 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:35.080 I found this this archived video that was put out 0:15:35.120 --> 0:15:37.720 I think by the by a New Mexico State University 0:15:38.200 --> 0:15:41.240 UM or perhaps the State Highway Department. I forget which, 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:43.240 but it was it was all about this this promising 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:47.720 new project, and it included footage of the prototype for 0:15:47.800 --> 0:15:51.320 this that the invention we're talking about is the tumbleweed crumbler. 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.640 It was developed via a forty contract at the time 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.240 to New Mexico State University from the State Highway Department 0:15:57.320 --> 0:15:59.960 develop a better way of collecting and shredding the time 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:04.520 buble weeds. And the prototype was essentially a pair of rotating, 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.880 like inwardly rotating metal spokes hooked at the front of 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.480 a snow plow truck. Um. Yeah, so it's like drum 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:14.840 barrels imagine that are sort of rolling inward as if 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.800 you know, to roll things into the gap between them, 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:21.080 which is pretty small, and that it's got spikes sticking 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:25.440 out of the drums. Uh. And There's a really excellent 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:27.600 part of the video where a guy is standing right 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.040 in front of it while it's running, kind of feeding 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:33.080 tumbleweeds into it, and we were thinking, like, oh, is 0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:34.680 he going to reach in there to try to clear 0:16:34.720 --> 0:16:37.120 out a jam by hand? Yeah, it's gonna be like 0:16:37.120 --> 0:16:39.840 one of those that like shake hands with dangerous safety videos. 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:42.440 It just looks very unsafe and and I don't, I 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:46.560 don't know. I may the guitar twine comes in. Johnny 0:16:46.600 --> 0:16:51.080 thought he could save time because the I mean it's terrifying, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.920 but it also looks really effective. They show it, uh 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:58.080 like running into mounds of tumbleweeds. These uh, these wheels 0:16:58.080 --> 0:17:01.200 with the with the spikes on them, they grind up 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:06.280 these these tumbleweeds and then the ground up remnants are 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:08.680 like sucked up and shot into the back of the 0:17:08.920 --> 0:17:13.480 snowplow truck. So, uh, you know, this seems like it 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:14.920 seems like it would it would have been a great 0:17:14.920 --> 0:17:17.200 fix because first of all, you have the snowplow trucks 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:20.240 anyway that are being used during you know, parts of 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.000 the year to to deal with keeping the roads clear, 0:17:23.280 --> 0:17:26.960 and then snowplow trucks without this kind of spike contraction 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.040 are apparently sometimes used to clear the roads of tumbleweeds anyway, 0:17:31.240 --> 0:17:33.359 though of course they're just mostly pushing them out of 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:35.440 the way and not really you know, not collecting them. 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:37.560 So it seems like this would have been a cool 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.760 way to to deal with the problem. But so are 0:17:40.800 --> 0:17:44.440 these machines day rigur Now, No, I don't think they are. 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:46.960 That's the thing, you know, you you see, uh, you 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:48.720 see an article like this, and you see I see 0:17:48.720 --> 0:17:51.400 footage like this, and again this was ninety six and 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:53.719 as far as I can tell this this ended up 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:57.440 not really going too much more beyond the prototype phase 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.520 in the video they're talking about they're going on to 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:02.720 another as a development. And I don't know. Maybe I 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.280 couldn't find an answer as to why exactly they didn't 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.200 go with this. Maybe it just came down to something 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.640 as mundane as uh, you know, the money or politics, uh, 0:18:11.760 --> 0:18:14.280 cost effective or something. Maybe it just wasn't cost effective. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.199 I don't know, maybe it was too dangerous. I have 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.119 no no way of knowing, and I wasn't able to 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.560 find out. But this seems to be a trend with 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.520 a lot of issues related to the problem of tumble weeds, 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.119 particularly in the United States. I kept running across UH 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:36.080 promising sounding scientific solutions UH from years past, solutions that 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:39.240 in many cases may still be in development, but but 0:18:39.240 --> 0:18:41.560 but have not reached that point where someone is out 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:44.320 there saying, yes, this is the thing we're actually doing 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:47.639 tumble weeds, watch out because we're coming. Though some of 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:51.560 these solutions do get more sci fi than the mangler. Yes, yes, 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.680 thank all, Right, well, I guess it's worth explaining it 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:03.760 this point. What are tumbleweeds? Uh? And I think the 0:19:03.800 --> 0:19:06.840 most important point to say the beginning is that technically 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:12.560 tumbleweed is not a single species of plant. Tumbleweed is 0:19:12.600 --> 0:19:17.359 a common morphological feature of a number of different species 0:19:17.400 --> 0:19:20.720 of plants spread out across different families. Though in the 0:19:20.760 --> 0:19:24.720 American context, there is one single species in the in 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:29.000 the amaranth family that tumbleweed most often refers to, but 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:30.960 it's by no means the only one, and we'll talk 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.680 more about that species in particular later. But the broader 0:19:34.760 --> 0:19:37.879 category of features of a tumbleweed is this. So a 0:19:37.920 --> 0:19:43.320 tumbleweed is the above ground structure of a plant which 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:47.640 at maturity dries up and snaps away from the roots. 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:52.159 Structure and then is blown around by the wind, scattering 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.560 seeds as it goes. Yeah, it's sometimes referred to as 0:19:55.560 --> 0:19:59.840 a detachable diaspore. Yeah. And and a diaspore is basically 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:05.000 any seed and other structure that helps the seed spread. 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.919 So die spore could include like say, a little parachute 0:20:07.960 --> 0:20:10.960 like thing that catches the wind, or it could include 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:13.359 like a fruit to that you know that an animal 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:15.879 would eat. It's the thing around the seed that helps 0:20:15.920 --> 0:20:18.719 the seed get where it's going. Yeah, but in this 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:21.600 case it's pretty much the entire above ground part of 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:26.240 the plant. Uh. And So there are variations between different species, 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.840 but in most cases you can picture, for a tumbleweed, 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:34.160 a bush like plant that becomes very brittle and dry 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:37.800 and has a big tangle of different stem segments, and 0:20:37.880 --> 0:20:41.200 eventually it breaks off at the roots at roughly the 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:43.640 place where the stem meets the ground, and then it 0:20:43.800 --> 0:20:47.080 rolls around on the planes, driven driven on the wind, 0:20:47.359 --> 0:20:50.879 like a giant inflatable ball. Now you might think, Okay, 0:20:50.960 --> 0:20:54.239 most plants don't break off at the place where they 0:20:54.280 --> 0:20:57.200 meet the ground and then get their bodies blown around, 0:20:57.240 --> 0:20:59.840 dead and dry by the wind, So why do tumble 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:03.600 needs do that? Well, Actually, the answer is similar to 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.080 the answer to the question why are fruits delicious? Uh. 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:10.320 The the answer is it's for seed dispersal, meaning the 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:14.160 transportation of seeds and thus the next generation of plants 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:17.840 away from the parent and UH. A lot of plant 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:21.800 species actually spend a great effort at seed dispersal, and 0:21:21.880 --> 0:21:25.800 there are a host of different strategies available. So, for example, 0:21:25.840 --> 0:21:29.439 there is animal dispersal. So you can think of the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.439 seeds of edible fruits. The fruit is tasty and dense 0:21:33.480 --> 0:21:36.320 and calories, so animals want to eat it. The animal 0:21:36.560 --> 0:21:39.280 will be attracted to the fruit, they'll nom nom, they'll 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:42.119 swallow it, and then they will travel elsewhere on their 0:21:42.160 --> 0:21:45.240 their wings or their legs, and then they will defecate 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:48.880 and deposit the seeds in a new home. But that's 0:21:48.920 --> 0:21:51.200 not the only method of animal dispersal. There are also 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:54.320 the burrs that cling to the fur of mammals that 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:57.720 that brush up against the parent plant. Uh. You know, 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:00.399 I don't know if if you've got pets that burr 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.000 magnets like my dog is. But you know, sometimes Charlie 0:22:04.000 --> 0:22:06.080 will will get into some bushes and then when he 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:08.439 when he comes out, it's a problem. He has probably 0:22:08.480 --> 0:22:12.040 like you know, a thousand of these things stuck to him, 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:14.320 and and there are a bunch more that there. For example, 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.240 there is a whole class of of diaspores that are 0:22:18.320 --> 0:22:21.679 spread specifically by ants that you know that they have 0:22:21.840 --> 0:22:25.800