Firefox Crop Circles Prove Intelligent Alien Life

This past weekend, the OSU Linux Users Group descended on a field in Oregon to create a 45,000+ square foot crop circle of Firefox. The photos and write-up are worth checking out.

Comments

Nice to see...

[Alioth]

Nice to see at least someone wearing a kilt.

Also, as for the naysayers, I suspect the farmer gave permission because:
- that many people milling around the farm would have been noticed
- taking off a light plane AND a Robinson R22 helo off the farm would certainly get noticed by the farmer.

The crops are valueless.

[Colin Smith]

"Though I'm not quite sure why the farmers would give permission for parts of their crop to be destroyed (even if he/she's an OSS advocate)."

Because of the subsidies the crops have been overproduced into worthlessness. In the case of corn it fetches something around $2 per bushel on the open market, but $3 per bushel to grow the stuff. You the taxpayer, well, essentially burn money to keep farmers buzzing around on their big tonka toys feeling productive.

Oh and in the process, devastating the economies and agricultural markets of third world countries causing widespread famine and poverty.

Re:The crops are valueless.

[vidarh]

You miss the point. By exporting heavily subsidized food the industrialised countries are not only depriving third world countries of farming revenue from export, but as a result also upsetting their trade balance and making it hard for third world farmers to compete even in their own markets. One of the results is that a lot of third world farming have changed from focusing on foodcrops to crops that are higher income because the industrialised countries aren't subsidising them or aren't growing them, such as coffee, tobacco etc.

A significant effect of this is that many third world countries are far more vulnerable to things like drought than they used to be, as their own foodcrops are small to start with, and droughts now for many countries both devastate their revenues - affecting their ability to pay for food imports - and reduce the yields of their already too small food crops. Whereas with mainly food crops, drought would mean reduced exports and revenue, but still leave them with significant food reserves.

There are certainly examples of mismanagement too, such as Zimbabwe, but corruption is rarely a major factor in affecting the levels of food production.

Re:The crops are valueless.

[gkhan1]

Actually it does. Large scale agriculture, the kind that turns the 3rd world to the 1st world is 100% reliant on trade. If they cannot sell it, they cannot grow very much of it. Ergo, make no money and they cannot develop to the point where they can survive a drought. Ergo, they starve. By so heavily subsidizing 1st world agriculture (like the US and the EU does), they are indeed devastating many economies that could become quite fruitful. And for what? Making sure that 2% of the population will vote for them? This is not a "Well, it's not like we are making the situation worse" scenario, this is a "My neighbours house is on fire, but I don't want to spend a little money for water from my hose" kind of a situation.

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[RingDev]

I didn't look to close, but it was either grass hay or weat. ~43,000 square feet = 1 acre. 1 acre = what, like 60 bushels of wheat? A bushel of wheat is probably under $4. Even if the crop was completely unsalvagable, which is unlikely, the farmer is out $240 gross proffit. After associated costs per acre (seed, fuel, time, etc...) the farmer is probably turning $40 per acre if he's lucky.

Not exactly a huge loss, or anti-green movement.

-Rick

Enthusiastic users

[sunny256]

Really awesome stunt. Would any MSIE users do something like this to show their enthusiasm for the product? Probably not. This stunt is somewhat the same principle as when geeks on Linux meetings bring their penguins with them in all shapes and sizes. I mean, you don't see MS Windows users arrive with big amounts of glass...

August 11th 2006. Corn futures... $2.42 per bushel

[Colin Smith]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&si d=aIUBO99o5fTw&refer=home

On the open market. What part of the word "subsidies" don't you understand? The "profit" you're getting a cut of is welfare. It's handed to you still warm from the taxpayers wallet.