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.

Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[XorNand]

Bonus geek points for using an HP graphing calculator and string instead of GPS. 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).

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[Rakshasa Taisab]

Probably something about getting the kids out of the basement, even for just a couple days.

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[Tweekster]

maybe the crop was already in bad shape to begin with...not much to salvage etc. OR he is letting that field lay fallow (or grow a different crop but not harvest it) so he doesnt care if it is messed up a bit.

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.

[geekoid]

thats right, because if they could grow corn and sell it they could feed themselves... wait.

Why don't they sell/barter it locally?
They do not need to enter the American market.

Where do you think your overproduction goes?

[Colin Smith]

That's right, with the subsidies, the american produce is cheaper than they can produce in the developing and third world. Imagine that, you have a farmer with American wages to pay, capital investment in equipment, debts to the banks and with the subsidies it's still cheaper to ship the stuff half way round the world.

The farmers in the third world can't enter the American market, the American market is busy dumping the produce on their market.

 

Re:The crops are valueless.

[triffid_98]

I believe the issue is that if it's cheaper to buy corn from overseas than to produce it locally in your african desert region of choice, then there is no money to buy things that cannot be produced by the farmer and are needed for farming (e.g. fertilizer, seed, tools), therefore you have yet another african family of 12 to stare at in the latest Sally Struthers 'save the children' infomercial.

Of course, since no one is forcing said country to buy corn from overseas at the expense of their own people yo

Re:The crops are valueless.

[flink]

Of course, since no one is forcing said country to buy corn from overseas at the expense of their own people you can just as easily place the blame there.

Depending on whether the country in question has gone through "debt restructuring" via the IMF, then yes, someone may be forcing them to buy imported produce. Or they might be forced to cease offering subsidies to their own farmers and export their own produce.

Re:The crops are valueless.

[triffid_98]

I don't recall mentioning subsidies, merely buying the local farmers product at whatever 'market price' equates to. As for IMF restucturing, I'm unaware of any such requirement (on imported produce). Can you provide an example?

Depending on whether the country in question has gone through "debt restructuring" via the IMF, then yes, someone may be forcing them to buy imported produce. Or they might be forced to cease offering subsidies to their own farmers and export their own produce.

I wouldn't say valueless...

[Anonymous Coward]

That great big overhead shot finally gave me something to change my wallpaper to! Sorry Elisha Cuthbert.. you will be missed.

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.

[FSWKU]

*sigh*...Slashdot: From Tech Article to Political Wanking in 3 posts...

Re:The crops are valueless.

[hcob$]

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.

Sure, let's kill off the main source of income for a large portion of the midwest and south... Nothing like a nice boost to inflation, jobless/welfare claims, foreclosures, and everyone's grocery bill to make you feel all nice and cozy

Income

[Z34107]

Sure, let's kill off the main source of income for a large portion of the midwest and south... Nothing like a nice boost to inflation, jobless/welfare claims, foreclosures, and everyone's grocery bill to make you feel all nice and cozy in your insane and impossible world.

That "income" for the Midwest and South comes from every U.S. taxpayer. Why are we spending billions to encourage farmers to plant fields that would be more productive razed? That will just go to waste? That worsen the problem of low

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:WTF Are you talking about you fool?

[bellebouche]

I suspect an overabundance of sugar in your diet.

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

[Colin Smith]

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

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.

 

Re:WTF Are you talking about you fool?

[maxume]

Couldn't you get a cut of the profit if you only helped with the crops but stayed away from your grandpa's shit? He sounds like one cranky old dude.

Re:The crops are valueless.

[Colin Smith]

Sure, keep telling yourself that next time you see the pictures of famine and starvation in Africa. We're driving the 3rd world into famine and poverty so we don't have to pay over the odds occasionally on international market price of corn/oats/wheat/whatever.

If production goes down on a commodity, it's price/value increases and more people subsequently start producing it or customers switch to something else. High prices are temporary, they correct themselves.

There's a case for a base load of production t

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

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[vidarh]

The article says it was oats, and wikipedia lists a typical yield as 100 bushels an acre, and a quick Google search indicates a per bushel average price for oats around the $1.50 mark, so it seems like it's even lower. Considering the large unfilled parts of the symbol, even if all of the stomped on parts are unsalvageble the real lost revenue would be unlikely to be more than half that.

Space Oats?

[Kelson]

The article says it was oats

Space... oats? Space wheat? Corn? Space corn?

I'm just beginning to think that space oats isn't the answer [imdb.com].

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[RingDev]

Sorry about the mis-calc on bushels of wheat, I googled for average bushels of wheat per acre and most of the responses I saw were saying 38 to 60.

I skipped out on the FFA, but I grew up throwing bails. I wasn't interested in the farming aspect, I just had chores to do. My wife on the other hand, she is an agronomist, so I'll ask her to correct me later tonight ;)

-Rick

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[RingDev]

It looks like I accepted you explaination too early. Further investigation dug up this article: http://www.nass.usda.gov/wi/crops/smallgra.pdf [usda.gov] Which states that the US average bushels per acre for oats is 63.1

-Rick

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[gordonel]

It was an 80 acre field - we only stomped down a very small portion of it (perhaps half an acre). They'll be harvesting the whole thing in a week or two.

Real geeks...

[raehl]

Real geeks would have used string and a slide rule.

Wiat, real OLD geeks would have used string and a slide rule.

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[Sporkinum]

Hewlett-Packard Company: Us Calculator Repair Center
1000 NE Circle Blvd
Corvallis, OR 97330
[phone]

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[LiquidCoooled]

A field of dos would be quite fertile, however you might have some trouble growing lotus flowers on it.

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[Richard Steiner]

A clever boy, but those lotuses'll grow quite nicely if you spread sheets of them on the ground.

Or is it sheet-loads? :-)

Re:Bonus geek points for not using GPS

[bcat24]

I think a field DOS would run you about 640K.

auto generated crop circle...

[aapold]

Not implying that this is, but... how hard would it be to make a web gadget that would auto-generate an image of a crop circle based on a simple 2-color bitmap.... (image only, don't want something that hacks into automated tractors)...

Re:auto generated crop circle...

[Senzei]

(image only, don't want something that hacks into automated tractors)...

Aww, well take all the fun out of it why don't ya? As for your question, probably not very hard to get something working, much more difficult to make it look convincing. You could pretty easily make something that looks decent provided the crops in the picture are roughly consistent in color though.

Re:auto generated crop circle...

[Tx]

Check this worth1000 contest [worth1000.com], a few entries are oustanding. Mid-to-high level Photoshoppery, but not outstandingly hard stuff.

Re:auto generated crop circle...

[novus ordo]

How about programming a robot using GPS to do the same? Would be a hell of a project.

Re:auto generated crop circle...

[geekoid]

(image only, don't want something that hacks into automated tractors)...

I don't know, if you craeteed a machinf that made the crop circles automatically, then farmers maigh be able to sell there fields to advertisers

At least these make sense.

[Humming Frog]

It makes sense that geeks would be the ones making crop circles. Aliens surely have better things to do.

Re:At least these make sense.

[Kelson]

Aliens surely have better things to do.

If nothing else, the upkeep on their cloaking devices has got to keep them busy.

Re:At least these make sense.

[smittyoneeach]

What do you mean? The aliens were in an adjacent field, doing work that Americans are too lazy/cool to do.

yeah...

[commodoresloat]

Aliens surely have better things to do.

Yeah.

Like mutilating cattle!

The Aliens use open source?

[FortKnox]

Maybe that's how Jeff Goldblum uploaded the virus to the mothership [imdb.com]...

Oregonian Entertainment

[NoData]

I guess that's how you amuse yourself when you live in Idaho's Portugal [youtube.com].

This proves what life?

[27,000]

It proves a collection of browser zealots have plenty of free time and not much else to do with it. I mean, cool advertising, but some extraterrestrial's gotta be laughing at us.

Re:This proves what life?

[Tweekster]

Wait, you think they will start laughing at us FOR this?

please, Planet Earth is the Alabama of the universe.

Re:This proves what life?

[Aadain2001]

They have free time because it's Summer. There are no classes at Oregon State University right now (at least, not many), which is where this group is based (go Beavers!).

Re:This proves what life?

[MoOsEb0y]

Oh come on! You can take such exciting classes as HHS 231 and HST 203 during the summer! That's WAY better than say.. an internship at a mega tech firm.

Re:This proves what life?

[Aadain2001]

Or sitting in your apartment for days on end working on your MS research, which involves running countless computer simulations and writting your thesis.... *cough*

Bonus for getting permission from the farmer.

[Frumious Wombat]

Otherwise, I'd have to suggest the perpetrators be sentenced to muck-out a feedlot or two.

"Use Open-Source on My FARM!?! That's what did more damage to my oats than a hailstorm followed by locusts last year!"

Standards support

[Kelson]

Safari, which integrates much better with its host OS, has superior support for standards, and is in general much more asthetically aware (as is its core development team).

Granted that Safari integrates better with its host OS and is more aesthetic... what makes you think it has better standards support than Firefox? Not Acid2, I hope.

Acid2, by its own admission, is not a compliance test, and passing it does not indicate a particular level of standards compliance. What Acid2 tests is a set of relative

Just what Firefox needs

[ZachPruckowski]

This makes the local news (and maybe gets picked up somewhere), and a few pissed off IE6 users might hear "Firefox, firefox, firefox" a few more times. And that might be all it takes for a few hundred more converts.

"Knowing" the Earth

[BrianMarshall]

Is it just me, or does the Firefox logo look like a fox knowing the Earth. In the Biblical sense, I mean.

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.

Re:Nice to see...

[pennyher0]

The farmer DID give permission. It says so right in the write up. She seemed really excited to have us and was sad that her husband was out of the state and might not see it before the circle goes away.

Re:Nice to see...

[geekoid]

Putting some pleets in a piece of cotton does not a kilt make.

It's a skirt. Which is fine, buy it is not a kilt.

So much fun!

[pennyher0]

This was probably the most fun I ever had in my life. And now it's on slashdot! It can't get any better!

I challenge others to come up with other ways to creatively promote the stuff they love. Try and beat this! muahahaha. :)

TAKE BACK THE [insert your geek-dom here].

Re:So much fun!

[Ponga]

Hey, which one are you in the photos? Also, there was a GIRL present? A REAL one??
Thanks,
--Ponga

P.S. - Nice work!!

Re:So much fun!

[pennyher0]

me and gordonel!

*does the girl geek dance*

the girl geek dance?

[commodoresloat]

I think most of us here are only familiar with girls dancing when there is a pole involved.

Re:So much fun!

[the phantom]

Is that a Super Decathalon that I see?

Re:So much fun!

[ptbarnett]

Is that a Super Decathalon that I see?

It's a Super Cub. See this picture:

http://lug.oregonstate.edu/gallery/firefox-crop-ci rcle/dscn1024 [oregonstate.edu]

Someone else brought a Robinson R22, too:

http://lug.oregonstate.edu/gallery/firefox-crop-ci rcle/mg_5513 [oregonstate.edu]

Re:So much fun!

[DavidD_CA]

Be careful what you wish for.

Someone advocate might just make a crop circle representation for goatse.cx

Re:So much fun!

[MyLongNickName]

I challenge others to come up with other ways to creatively promote the stuff they love. Try and beat this! muahahaha. :)

I'm boring. I bought the browser [opera.com] I prefer...

Re:So much fun!

[MtViewGuy]

That was an interesting project but if you start getting inquiries from the government or one Linda Moulton Howe (who has a major interest in crop circles and regularly reports on them for the Coast to Coast AM radio show), run for it! :-)

In related news ...

[eck011219]

... one Washington farmer reported a complete loss after IE enthusiasts recreated a blue screen of death across his soybean field.

Re:In related news ...

[Kelson]

one Washington farmer reported a complete loss after IE enthusiasts recreated a blue screen of death across his soybean field.

Sure, anyone can flood a field with water!

trigger happy photographer

[binarybum]

man, talk about beating the magic out something - that's a hell of a lot of pictures.

    but I guess sometimes it's just really hard to decide between posting this shot [oregonstate.edu] or this one [oregonstate.edu] on your website.

Re:trigger happy photographer

[LunaticTippy]

This is the tragedy of digital imagry. When you had to burn film to take photos, and burn paper to make a print there was less temptation to serve up thousands of repetitive pictures.

Now, with cell-cameras everywhere and no cost with taking or posting an image expect things to get worse and worse.

Re:trigger happy photographer

[Ponga]

I agree with you generally, but this is not always a bad thing. It's only bad when EVERY SINGLE PHOTO taken gets posted or printed or whatever. Photographers nowadays need to become editors/critics as well, weed out the wheat from the chaff. So what if you take 1000 photos? Just be sure to only post the 100 best and discard the rest! (which this guy obviously did not do.)
--Ponga

Re:trigger happy photographer

[LunaticTippy]

There are a few downsides to taking 1000 photos. You're using up/wearing out batteries unnecessarilly. I've seen sickening piles of batteries on the ground after a photo-heavy event. The worst drawback is the countless people who don't even watch the event, they watch their camera. Taking countless photos, just like all the other photos all the other cameras are taking. I've seen people hiking around in the mountains, never looking away from their camera. People at a concert, same deal. I really don'

Re:trigger happy photographer

[lahvak]

When I was a kid, my dad gave me my first camera for my birthday, and as a part of the present, he arranged a friend of his, who was a professional photographer, to give me lessons. One of the first things this guy told me was that in general you shoot about two or thre rolls of film in order to have one or two great pictures.

So you are right, the problem is not that too many pictures gat taken, the problem is that the photographer does not bother to go through them and select the good ones. Instead, they

Re:trigger happy photographer

[radish]

Indeed. I'm a photographer and take thousands of shots (gotta love digital). But editing is key. Like the other day I was at a 4 hour shoot with 6 models and took maybe 1500 shots - I have that currently down to around 30 "keepers" and I'll trim further yet. The only ones I want anyone else to see are the truly awesome ones, and they're rare.

Re:trigger happy photographer

[arodland]

The point is this. Suppose you're taking a picture of something that's not not staying static; take three on burst, and it's less likely that they'll all be marred by a shake or a passing shadow or a bird, or... who knows what. If you're taking a picture of something that's going to stay around a while, take 5 or 10 or 20 shots, whatever you've got time for, because your intuition about exposure could be wrong, it might look better from three inches to the left, or your memory card could get eaten by a grue

In other news...

[steveo777]

The multiple T1 internet connection that keeps students and faculty plugged in to the net was lost for over four hours, says an OSU student. Apparently after half an hour without it caused mass hysteria. People fled to the "out of doors" in droves, and hospitals are reporting epidemic level cases of sunburn. Back to you Burnie...

Best arial shots here

[Ponga]

If you dont want to bother looking through all the pics (lots!) - here are the best arial shots: http://lug.oregonstate.edu/gallery/firefox-crop-ci rcle?page=12 [oregonstate.edu]

Missing component

[Zildy]

Isn't the tail in the logo supposed to be on fire?

Re:Missing component

[cp.tar]

What, you wanted them to set the whole field on fire?

These young ones, such destructive personalities...

Re:Yes, it is...

[geekoid]

Man, you are an ass.

OMG!

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at the size of that thing! It's almost as big as Firefox' memory footprint!

Google Satellite Image

[oskard]

"Maybe the google earth cameras picked it up! "

Hope they will soon!

The location of the crop circle is somewhere in the vicinity of here [google.com]

Re:Google Satellite Image

[emsearcy]

er, no. Try 45.124N by 123.113W [google.com]. Not that you can see it (yet).

Re:Google Satellite Image

[Kelson]

"Maybe the google earth cameras picked it up! "

Wait, Google has their own satellites now?

Re:Google Satellite Image

[hankwang]

Google does not own a network of satellites. They bought the imagery, which has been taken over the course of several years.

Of course, you might be lucky enough that new images are taken right in this 2-week window, but don't bet on it.

Re:Google Satellite Image

[binarybum]

Google does not own a network of satellites

    Oh man, I think it's hilarious that you believe that. Sure... Google doesn't own a network of satellites, and they're not watching you right now either, and they're not building lasers on the moon either... Hey, whatever lets you sleep at night dude.

Re:Google Satellite Image

[Kelson]

and they're not building lasers on the moon either

I'd always wondered what they needed that moon base [google.com] for!

Vulcan captain: "Prepare for landing+First Contact

[D4C5CE]

...by uninstalling IE they've shown to everyone in orbit that finally this world is ready."

(See Star Trek VIII [imdb.com] for details...)

Raise your hand!...

[JustASlashDotGuy]

Will all virgins please raise their hands... http://lug.oregonstate.edu/gallery/firefox-crop-ci rcle/img_5374_1 [oregonstate.edu]

Re:Raise your hand!...

[zobier]

That's you in the Linux T-shirt, isn't it?

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...

Re:Enthusiastic users

[Kelson]

True. Microsoft may be able to claim some stubborn users, but it seems to have lost much of its ability to inspire enthusiasm. They used to have it, but it's been nearly a decade since the days in which the IE team deposited a giant blue "e" [sfgate.com] on Netscape's front lawn to celebrate the release of IE4. And those were the developers!

Firefox, Opera, Apple, Linux, various BSDs all manage to inspire enthusiasm, and that enthusiasm results in loyalty. That combo gives you thousands of potential advocates, which

Re:Enthusiastic users

[RealGrouchy]

I mean, you don't see MS Windows users arrive with big amounts of glass...

Well, no. They bring paperclips.

- RG>

It's a small world...

[Ben Jackson]

I was in the pattern at McMinville yesterday and a blue & white supercub departed to the east. They said where they were going a few times but I couldn't understand the word until today -- "Amity"! I should have followed them!

Crop Circle Wallpaper

[JeepFanatic]

For anyone too lazy to do it themselves, I've made 1600x1200 and 1280x1024 [digitalaura.net] wallpaper files of the cropcircle image.

pfuh - would have a meaning if it had added:

[freaker_TuC]

would be better if it had added: " get firefox now "

convert those aliens in space to some good Earth technology...
It'll make us invincible for them too since its memory footprint will be too big for their computer ;)

Cool experiment. Aside from brand loyalty. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

This does little to suggest that genuine crop circles were made by a teams of prankster engineering students.

To create an authentic circle, the makers would have to. . .

1. Create the circle entirely at night without any lighting systems. (In none of the several thousand circles formed have pranksters been observed.)

2. Leave no impressions on the earth at all. (No foot prints or ladder or pole impressions on powder-dry or moist earth.)

3. Create a much more complex formation.

4. Make sure the flattened grains fall in mathematically precise overlapping weaves. (In authentic circles, the multi-layered pattern of the weave is one of the mystifying features.)

5. No plant stalks may be damaged during the process. (Real circles do not interrupt the life-process of the plants; In such formations, the plants eventfully spring back up entirely undamaged.)

6. Bend the stalks, never break them.

7. Create the formation in under 20 minutes. (Probably circles are formed instantaneously, but the only observed time lapse has been by a pilot and photographer flying over an a field without a circle only to see one twenty minutes later on a return flight path).

8. Witness unnumbered black helicopters coming to check things out.

9. Create the phenomenon of seeds from inside a formation growing in a peculiar manner as compared to control seed samples.

Do all of this, and the firefox logo would indeed be special.

-FL

Re:Oblig. M. Night Shyamlam

[bernywork]

I think you mean "M. Night Shyamalan"

Re:This is just way cool....

[kfg]

Great pics, especialy the good looking lil geek babe in pic #77. Bonus!

At the moment; viewed 98 times

Close up of tape measure; 73 times

Out of focus closeup of oats; 68 times

Geek guy; 47 times

Well, there you have it guys, you're less interesting than an out of focus picture of oats.

KFG

Re:This is just way cool....

[pennyher0]

Actually, that's my OLD BLOG. Don't GO THERE.

I'm at pennyhero.net now. my blogspot one is going bye bye.

Re:Error in title

[B3ryllium]

Despite depicting crop circles as a sign of a coming invasion, they actually had almost nothing to do with the usage of the word "Signs" as the title of the film.

Swing Away, Merrill.

Re:I've been in tighter packed corn fields....

[geekoid]

they didn't walk along the rows. They didn't look fat in the pictures that I saw.

Why would a rancher know about corn field? wouldn't that be a farmers job?

Re:I've been in tighter packed corn fields....

[gordonel]

This isn't corn. These were oats. Dry as sin oats, growing densely together. It was impossible to step anywhere without knocking some down, because they're so closely packed together, and were already just about falling down under their own weight. It was a choice between making a bunch of trails which would have been seen from the air as an ugly, less dense area, or making one trail.

Re:I've been in tighter packed corn fields....

[rts008]

As a former rancher, you should then know the difference between wheatfields (RTFA, or look at the pics with all of the heads formed on the wheat) and cornfields.

Ahh...I get it! I guess that is one of the reasons you're a FORMER rancher.