Top of the Crops 2002 461
Steeltoe writes "For those deeply familiar with crop circles, 2, they are truly an amazing wonder of the world. Not only are they getting unnervingly complex and beautiful, but last year researchers found themselves dumbfounded by an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc, 2, 3! Clearly, there are not enough wonders in the world, but lack of wonder and excitement! If you like adventure, you cannot turn your back on this, 2! Check out the cool circles of 2002 at Crop Circle Connector and at Circlemakers 'Top of the Crops 2002', or even take a physical *gasp* tour during the high-peak season next summer and see for yourself!! Only imagination may tell what will pop up from the crops in 2003."
Crop Circles (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Crop Circles (Score:5, Interesting)
Of course you can. And they can, too. But there are a few more phenomina to it than just pressing down crops.
Nearly-perfect geometic shapes
small (measured in micron) iron spheres scattered throughout the crop circle
Slightly elevated radition / "cooked" effect to pushed-down corn
and, finally, odd performance from aircraft around crop circles
The last one its the one that threw me. On the "TV mentury" that documented a few graduate engineers faking a "genuine" crop circle, their helicopter suffered an loss of power over the darn thing. Odd--not the stuff of religious revelations, but odd.
Crop circles may be an as-yet undocumented natural phenomina, a higher-order of technology (Military or "UFO"), or just a really, really, REALLY clever prank. I don't know, I've never seen one.
But they are more than you can do with "just a 2x4 and a piece of rope."
Re:Crop Circles (Score:3, Interesting)
There's the faked 2x4 crop circles, and then there are others with much more curious evidence.
Unfortunately, rebuttals are lacking for the tougher evidence that supporters put forth (biological changes to the plants, higher radiation, a microwaved like effect, etc.)
Can anyone help me out with some rebuttals on these issues? I for one, still believe that they are all a hoax, but I'm looking for some good explanations to these somewhat scientific sounding evidences. Its one thing to be laugh and say "Ha, its just a bunch of pranksters." and another to ask "So, can anyone fake these evidence? Are they natural? Are these evidences a bunch of crap?"
Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes (Score:5, Informative)
Milk Hill 2001 (scroll down, it's the 3rd one) [temporarytemples.co.uk]
Possibly made by the same people but with only 3 arms in the spiral [earthfiles.com]
Perfect geometry? The spiral arms don't even have the same number of circles in each arm. The Milk Hill formation has 13 circles on five of six arms of the spiral; the other arm has only 12. The 3-arm spiral has two arms with 11 circles and one with 12.
Stand in awe if you like, but jeez, this is obvious BS that these things are anything like 'perfect'.
Re:Crop Circles (Score:2)
Supposedly the 'authentic' crop circles exist in a location of strange energy disturbances. Those, (assuming that's true, i've only heard it on the Art Bell show...) would be hard to recreate.
I am curious if anybody else has heard about the energy disturbances near some of the crop circles. Anybody have any decent information on it? Art Bell guests strike me as a bit.. uh.. passionate about their work.
Re:Crop Circles (Score:2)
Simple, if people find a crop circle, someone may start talking about the "strange energy distrubances" in the area, even when nobody has mentioned anything about the disturbance before.
Whatever "strange energy disturbances" means.
Re:Crop Circles (Score:4, Funny)
Who says they're even trying to communicate? Crop circles are just a means of confusing and distracting the human race as the aliens prepare to destroy us.
Re:Crop Circles (Score:5, Funny)
I agree, nothing like a good ole cattle mutilation to get yer point across.
Re:Crop Circles (Score:2)
Where are emoticons when you need 'em? (Score:2)
Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm planning a trip to see them for myself. Maybe I'll get wiser then
Uhm.... (Score:5, Funny)
Huh?
NEED BIGGER ONES (Score:2, Funny)
The current scale of crop circles no longer impresses me. Maybe one on the scale of hundreds of miles in the Sarah desert would. Or maybe on the Greenland icecap done in yellow snow.
Re:NEED BIGGER ONES (Score:5, Funny)
That'll take 10X the number of fratboys as it does now. Madness I tell you, MADNESS!
Sarah (Score:5, Funny)
Sarah, a stark beauty, hotter than you might believe, has always left a dry taste in my mouth due to her hostility toward men. Once fertile, now barren, she drifts aimlessly in the wind, never looking quite the same the next time you see her.
You, MonkeyBoyo, are a poet. But maybe I'm biased (see sig).
Still no crop circles of... (Score:4, Funny)
crop circle robots (Score:5, Interesting)
How cool would it be to drop off this contraption in the middle of a field, set some width/height parameters, and let it run free, just to see what you could come up with. Maybe even have it draw fractal patterns or somthing.
Re:crop circle robots (Score:5, Funny)
Like the MandelCrop Set?
Re:crop circle robots (Score:4, Funny)
Yeah, it's all fun and games until one gets loose at the old folk's home.
Nothing as far as the eye can see but blood, gore, and dentures. Will we ever learn?
Re:crop circle robots (Score:2, Funny)
Re:crop circle robots (Score:2)
No crop circles in (Score:4, Funny)
Adding fuel to the fire (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Adding fuel to the fire (Score:5, Funny)
Holy crap! I mean really, what? That much? For pictures of crop circles? Are they that popular? That's a lot. I mean, that's a lot.
How about reducing the size or number of your pictures?
Or perhaps get the aliens to beam the images directly to users' computers. That would save costs double-plus.
No! Beam the images directly into their minds! Yes, that's it. Information delivery on the cheap. "Beamed to your head, straight from aliens." - That's what the site should say.
"Think here to continue."
Re:Adding fuel to the fire (Score:2, Funny)
Wouldn't that render most users incompatible with the site?
Re:Adding fuel to the fire (Score:4, Funny)
Doc: Great Scott! The only thing powerful enough to take up that much bandwidth is a link from Slashdot!
Marty: A what?
Doc: A link from Slashdot! Unfortunately, you never know when or where it's ever gonna strike!
Marty: We do now.
No mystery... (Score:2, Informative)
Major League Baseball (Score:3, Funny)
I recently came across this press release [nasa.gov] on NASA's satellite monitoring of wheat fields, cunningly disguised as a project to aid agriculture (yeah right!). I fear for the poor crop-circle artists. Can even the stealthiest stalk-stomper evade the watchful satellite's malevolent eye?
Pranks (Score:4, Funny)
Nevermind, the public would still say it was alien crop circles made to prove that NASA faked the moon landings, as was written in the email I got proclaiming that I would get 14 million longer penises in Nigeria because of the government conspiracy to spy on us using the IR receivers for our television remotes.
As long as religion reigns, ignorance will be our biggest social problem.
Re:Pranks (Score:2, Insightful)
But is it really ignorance? Many "religious types" (and I consider belief in aliens a "religious" state of mind) want to believe so much, they are willing to either ignore repeately-proven facts, or they allow their imagination to fill in for their lack of facts (which is not necessarily due to ignorance).
Just think of the wild stories you could get if you took the news and filled in an adjective here, a verb there, and a noun elsewhere -- imagine MadLibs as the news. Now imagine if people actually believed it...
Re:Pranks (Score:2)
You gullible fool. Those of us who went to see "Signs" know full well what their up to! Oh sure, they can manage faster than light travel to get here, and navigate to this tiny spec of a planet we reside on, but unless they have crop circles in place they'll never be able to find Toledo to launch the invading force!
Our only hope is to make road atlases top secrect information. And you just sit there and laugh... Hah!
Keyhole Sats (Score:3, Interesting)
If you want to learn more about them, look up the "Keyhole Satallites" in google. You can take what is public knowledge and apply a dash of Moores Law to come up with some pretty scarry stats on the newest models. Although, I'd guess that the true power in the Keyhole birds lies in their ability to view in the infra red or ultra violette ranges. Or maybe even use lasers to pick up audio from space.
Re:Keyhole Sats (Score:3, Interesting)
Except I suppose for the dishes that recieve the signals... but surely that isn't much compared to the cost of putting up the thing in the first place.
It must be aliens! (Or slow crop year) (Score:4, Funny)
Re:It must be aliens! (Or slow crop year) (Score:2, Insightful)
Photos of hoaxers (Score:5, Insightful)
C'mon, I want photos of the circle perpetrators! I can't believe that in this era of cheap technology that someone hasn't camcorder'd yay-hoos stomping around in their field in the act of making crop circles. Or, after hearing their dog barking at 2 AM, driven down the road to inspect their fence and photographed idiot kids in the process of throwing their 2x4's into a pickup before racing off. Forget the ET's - Circulate enough photos of the real circle makers and this one will go quietly into the dark night of historical obscurity.
is it just me or am i really ignorant (Score:2, Insightful)
What kind of English is that?
Re:is it just me or am i really ignorant (Score:2)
Encoded CD (Score:5, Funny)
So did someone read off what was encoded on the disc with ET? I bet it reads something like this:
Microsoft End-User Licence Agreement
(1) This licence entitles you to limited-use rights to this crop circle
Re:Encoded CD (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=51
Re:Encoded CD (Score:2, Funny)
Encoding error (Score:3, Interesting)
My favorite bit:
Re:Encoded CD (Score:3, Funny)
No, that was misread (Score:4, Funny)
crYOgenically freeze yoUR body bEfore mArch second. we will amalgaMate OR destroy all nOn-frozeN life then.
Re:From the article (Score:2)
ASCII or EBCDIC?
My guess. . . (Score:4, Funny)
Someones not going to be happy.. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Someones not going to be happy.. (Score:2)
Uhhhh . . . . Contributions . . . ? From the
Yeah, they might get spammed with goat sex links, but if I were over there, I wouldn't be holding my breath. Poor bastards.
IN ANCIENT GREECE (Score:3, Funny)
Apparently, according to Slashdot, these items still exist today. Whoah, blows the mind!
I guess I had better call the local newspaper and tell them to stop the fuckin presses.
Re:IN ANCIENT GREECE (Score:2)
bandwidth... (Score:5, Funny)
not for long buddy, not for long..
AOL (Score:5, Funny)
It's not another one of those free AOL CDs is it!?!
DeCSS, MPAA, and Lucus law suits. (Score:2, Funny)
Tell me that and I'll be interested in Crop Circles. Till then I'll stick with my latest copy of Aliens.(note this is a joke...)
Encoded message (Score:3, Informative)
as taken from this ranting article [swirlednews.com]
Re:Encoded message (Score:2)
Possible crackpot alert.. (Score:2, Insightful)
From http://www.paradigmshift.com/pecs.html a section from the crop circle website (the first link in the story):
Anomalous EM measurements - By doing a fluxgate magnetometer survey of several formations, Colin Andrews determined that the very center of these circles measured 40-50 nano Teslas. This is 10 times the radiation level of a normal field.
It looks like this was a cut-n-paste from http://www.infosourceresearch.com/tmatt/excerpt3.h tml
where they add:
"Inside the seven patterns, Andrews reported in a recent Sightings Online interview, the magnetic field registered up to 300% of the planet's normal field. "
Statements like these are hard to credit, since the earth's magnetic field is around 0.5 gauss which is 5x10^-5 Tesla (or 50 microTeslas). Magnetic fields don't qualify as "radiation" by any means either. There may be something interesting about crop circles, but the association with crackpots probably scares away real research.My Lawn!! (Score:2, Funny)
I need a bigger lawn!!!
My favorite... (Score:2)
nitrates (Score:5, Funny)
Wow. Bullshit works as a fertilizer. Who'd a thunk it?
an RFC (Score:2, Funny)
Hey, if it can be done with carrier pigeons... =]
The disc (Score:3, Interesting)
Seems like a hoax/joke, but if it it a joke they might have a funny recording imprinted for the disc-shape.
Press: RIAE Sues Cosmic Traveller (Score:4, Funny)
In a recent escalation of their war on Intergalactic piracy, the Recording Industry Association of Earth prevailed in a court case ordering the Legions of Freedo to reveal the time/space coordinates and quantum state of one of their users found to be using the planet Earth to encode illegally obtained mp3s for possible use in a Leenoox hovercraft.
"These heinous crimes will only abate upon the implementation of Digital Rights Management upon the entirety of the planet," hissed Qwe'blkk, the RIAE spokesthing. "All your mass quantities of consumables belong to us."
Re:Press: RIAE Sues Cosmic Traveller (Score:2, Funny)
This just in. The Legions of Freedo has retaliated against the RIAA by destroying earth. Millions of geeks were reported to rejoice just before being destroyed.
Get out that baloney detection kit (Score:5, Informative)
Idiot pranks (Score:3, Interesting)
(As a side note though, it's interesting that something like this is only devestating to cultures that rely on agriculture. Agriculture, while it's great for mass production of food, is a "place all your eggs in one basket" bet with nature. Horticulturists also have some of the same worries, but not as many. Pastoralists mostly gather their vegetables from nature. Hunter/gatherers have a very varied diet, and lots of mobility.)
Re:Idiot pranks (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Idiot pranks (Score:2)
Accomanying CD? (Score:2)
Let me guess: It was only readable on a Mac, right?
Always the tracks... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Always the tracks...not true at all (Score:4, Informative)
Why aliens do it... (Score:3, Funny)
A dangerous prank (Score:3, Informative)
Amazing number of closed minds... (Score:5, Insightful)
I am one of the biggest skeptics out there, but I always try to balance it with an open-minded analysis of all available facts. Looking at all the factors involved, it seems to me that calling every single crop circle instance a hoax with confidence is just impossible. Let's run down some factors here:
Numbers: First off, there's the sheer number of these things occurring all over the world. They often show up in areas where the locals have never heard of the crop circle phenomenon and don't care when they do. They show up in areas where everyone is so poor that no one has time for stupid practical jokes. They show up all over the world.
(This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)
Size: Some of these crop circles are huge. A pair of people may be able to flatten a circle 75 feet across in a few hours during the night, but even a team of people wouldn't be able to finish some of these things in one night.
(This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)
Precision: There is an amazing level of geometrical precision to many crop circles. They aren't all just flattened circles, they're quite often fairly complex geometrical patterns. And they're huge, layed out on flat ground with nothing high nearby to get up on and observe the progress of the pattern. I have a distinctly hard time believing that anyone could create a pattern that precisely in the dark. Even in the daytime, without precise surveying instruments and some way to measure and mark off every single arc of the pattern, it would be really difficult. Certainly more than a few hours work if it was just a pair of people.
(This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)
Evidence on the ground: In the types of crop circles that aren't immediately identifiable as hoaxes (yes, there are hoaxes, and they are almost always easy to identify, go check out some of the links), there are strange phenomena that happen inside the circles. The stalks of plants are bent without being broken. Have you ever tried to bend the stalk of any plant like grass, wheat or corn to a 90-degree angle without breaking it? Personally, I don't know of any way to do it.
There's also evidence of odd things like stunted growth within the circle and things not growing there even months or years after the fact. I'd love to know how a two-by-four could do that.
(This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)
History: Crop circles didn't just start in the last couple of decades with a couple of 40-year old guys and a board. There are instances of them a long ways into the past. I'd be willing to bet that the "original" hoaxters who claimed to have done some of the circles had gotten the idea from something they heard or read about that had already happened. I think the hoax is the fact that they believed they'd started it all.
(This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)
Human nature: The nature of the human animal is pretty set, and always has been. There are a lot of things that just don't jive if you make a blanket statement that every circle is created by a single person or set of people. People crave attention and recognition. Do you know anyone who knows someone who actually made a crop circle? No? The larger the circle, the more people it would have taken to create it, and the more chance for some dumbass to get drunk and start bragging about he and his buddies getting together and making "that big crop circle on the south side of town".
Saying that human hands created every crop circle ever made would also mean that there are a lot of copycats in the world. A lot of people who just love the idea of crop circles and think nothing would be more fun than going out and making their own, and then never telling anyone about it for the rest of their lives. Why? I don't buy it.
I see several people posting about how "somebody should just catch those dumb kids in action and show it on video, and all this would go away". So you know a lot of groups of teens who are organized, motivated, knowledgeable in the correct use of things like surveying instruments and laser distance measuring devices, or even know how to run a tape measure with the necessary precision to create a beautiful mathematically complex geometrical pattern 200 feet across in the space of a few hours? The idea is just ludicrous. Ever think just for a minute that there might be another reason that no one has been able to "catch them at it"? I'll let you ponder that one.
(This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)
Taking all of these factors into account, I, the skeptic that I am, find it scientifically implausible to believe that crop circles are a purely human-derived phenomenon.
Ever think for a moment that there might just possibly be things out there that we don't understand yet? That science doesn't yet have the answer to everything? That everything can't just be explained away on a moment's notice without examining all the evidence? Extra-terrestrials don't even have to enter into it. There are things right here in our natural world that we just don't yet understand.
I think that the treatment of the poster is deplorable. Everyone seems to be just immediately writing him off as a kook (like the first post) and not even bothering to examine the history and wealth of physical evidence about this phenomenon. Yes, there are plenty of kooks out there, but they can't all be kooks. That's like classifying everyone on Slashdot a troll because some trolls happen to post here.
As I said in the beginning, I had expected a little more openmindedness and intelligent discussion on Slashdot (yeah, I know, silly me, but it does happen here). I hope that a few of you who thought you knew everything will just take a few minutes to read the articles, and think, and wonder about our endlessly amazing universe, like the poster of the article suggested.
Hey..there is one of you out there... (Score:3, Interesting)
Its simple folks. Lots of them are created by humans. No doubt. Lots of them cannot possibly be created by humans alone. They are too precise and carry too much meaning.
I have been studying crop circles for a while and have read lots of information.
Did you know that..
1.) Even though very very precise, the shapes are not perfect. For instance, if there is a shape of a circle, it will not be perfectly round. It will have measurements similar to what a perfect circle would look like if it were projected DOWN on the surface of the earth from about 200 miles up in the air. Sorry, I couldn't find a link for this information, it came out of my books. Don't ask me how they do the math to arrive at this conclusion, its way beyond me.
2.) The ground under the plants which have been flattened in the geometries contains traces of chemicals and compounds which indicate extreme heat. The ground right next to it, under stalks which have not been bent or flattened looks perfectly normal. Go Here [execonn.com] and here [cropcircleresearch.com].
3.) There was one or more formations in which a porcupine was found in the very center, flattened and dead. Its Quills were arranged in the same spiral pattern as the circle. Go Here [ee.net].
4.) in 2001, a formation appeared near a radio telescope. In 1974, Carl Sagan and some other folks transitted a message out into space. The formation appears to be a reply. go Go Here [cropcircleresearch.com] and here [yowusa.com].
5.) The formations themselves contain information in the order in which they are created and their location. Much study has been done on their relevance to each other by their physical location. No links to this that I am aware of.
There are tons and tons of little stories like that that individually don't mean much. However, taken together, paint a pretty different picture.
Its very sad that so many of you
Much of this information isn't on the Net. It is however, published in a number of books.
A very good one is by a fellow named Freddy Silva, its called "Secrets In The Fields". Its clear that he has an axe to grind, but you cannot discount the information in it.
Paul Vigay has a good site Here [cropcircleresearch.com]
I believe that something is going on here which needs further research.
Open up your minds folks. We ain't in the dark ages anymore.
Re:Amazing number of closed minds... (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes they can, actually. There was a show on TLC or Discovery channel that showed a time-lapse movie of a team of hoaxsters demonstrating how to make a large, complex circle. It only took them a few hours.
There is an amazing level of geometrical precision to many crop circles.
Nothing says the pranksters aren't allowed to make a plan beforehand.
Have you ever tried to bend the stalk of any plant like grass, wheat or corn to a 90-degree angle without breaking it? Personally, I don't know of any way to do it.
From May to August the grain is green and it's very easy to bend it without breaking it.
No? The larger the circle, the more people it would have taken to create it, and the more chance for some dumbass to get drunk and start bragging about he and his buddies getting together and making "that big crop circle on the south side of town".
Even the big ones only take a few people to make. And it doesn't matter if you brag about it. The True Believers will still believe no matter what. I think the fun is probably seeing how many people you can fool.
Ever think just for a minute that there might be another reason that no one has been able to "catch them at it"? I'll let you ponder that one.
Um, they have been "caught". Well, not really caught, since they voluntarily showed how it was done. Anyway, if it's really aliens making it, then why hasn't anyone been able to "catch them at it"? I'll let you ponder that one.
Ever think for a moment that there might just possibly be things out there that we don't understand yet? That science doesn't yet have the answer to everything?
Yes. But none of that applies to crop circles, which are easily explainable in terms of some wise guys with extra time, some ropes, and some boards; coupled with an infinite supply of human gullibility.
They may be a prank... (Score:3, Funny)
Greetings, people of Slashdot. (Score:5, Funny)
I am typing this post with a device that is installed in my brain. It's wireless, and can be transmitted on to your Web site with relative ease.
We're also very good at making sure the only people that ever see any really substantial evidence (in the rare event that one of us screws up and leaves some) are judged as insane.
Lastly, but not least, we are so very insanely advanced that we use... er, uhm... *cough* fields of wheat *cough* ...to erhm... communicate.
Two Interesting Facts About Crop Circles (Score:3, Interesting)
2. Crop circles occur only in countries with agricultural surpluses.
Not a hoax (Score:2, Troll)
Just like for every 100 guys who throw a plate into the air and take a picture, there is one who actually saw something unexplainable. Separating the signal from the noise, and realizing that there is in fact actual signal amongst the noise, is the first step towards understanding what it means to be a true skeptic and a rational, open-minded, thinker. Doubting for the sheer sake of doubt and assuming something to be false without any proof is ignorance and is a bastardization of what it means to be a skeptic and a scientist.
Which 1 out of 100? (Score:2)
The first crop circles, a couple of decades back were very simple. Were these authentic? If so, how come we never see crop circles like those anymore? Did the aliens get into a race to outdo each other with Mandelbrot sets? OTOH, if those first crop circles were among the 99% bogus, we have now a case of an authentic phenomenon that is copying a hoax(?!?!?!?). Could happen, but very curious.
crap-in-a-box (Score:5, Interesting)
Last year a german TV magazin (stern tv) decided to evaluate that. After finding out that it was possible, they... well, they became alien and just did it. A large field was picked, the "impressions" were made with such other-worldly gadgets as tree logs, rope and a bunch of carbon-based glucose operated water bags.
The result: crop circles indistinguishable from all the other ones that are worshipped all the time. All the german esoteric elite piled up at that field, people sold the t-shirts and posters, and everyone believed that the god-forsaken place of Schönwalde was location to extra-terrestrial visits.
http://www.fosar-bludorf.com/kornkreis/
Scroll down a bit to see a picture of the circle in question. Interestingly enough (and although the creation of the circle was filmed) the site which has the picture is part of the "believers" who are not going to abstain from their initial belief that it is the work of alien visitors. Notice any weird feelings when looking at it? Well, if it is hunger it might be for a reason, the pattern has been taken from a salami pizza, the weird thingy coming out of one of the outer circles is a deplaced pepperoni.
Well, the wackos running the site are currently bashing the TV magazine people for obstructing the truth and stuff like that. A bunch of the wackos have found magnetic anomalies ("up to 1000%"), dehydrated soil but no burned plant matter, silicium chipping ("broken off a spaceship") or measured modulated signals on obscure frequencies. Some people just WANT to believe...
I'm stunned (Score:2, Troll)
At the response in this forum. It seems to me that any good scientist closely examines the evidence presented before concluding anything, and also considers any possible explaination without bias or emotional influence. I hear people spouting off about a lack of science on /. lately yet I see little evidence of so-called scientific approach in response to this phenominon. If you've closely examined the evidence and reports first-hand and feel qualified to give an analysis, by all means go ahead and share, otherwise consider the quality and usefullness of your comments before crying "hoax".
While some of these circles are obviously faked, there is surely enough mystery here to generate legitimate discussion -- some of those circles are hundreds of feet across and contain patterns that seem to be not only beautiful but original. I can imagine some ./ readers are unable to comfortably walk 800 feet (the diameter of the last pattern I looked at) never mind produce a pattern of high complexity in the middle of night in a dark field with flawless geometry while leaving little trace of disturbance. I can imagine few organizations that would be able to pull this sort of stunt off -- certainly none that I have worked for! Whoever or whatever is doing this has my admiration.
Okay then. . . Into the breach again. . . (Score:5, Funny)
In any case. . . Crop circles. .
There are, to my knowledge, four entirely different parties making circles. I'll start from the lowest and work my way up.
1. Pranksters. There's quite a scene actually, of circle makers with an internal social protocol similar in ways to graffiti artists who spray paint buildings and boxcars. --Often, artists will leave their 'tag' on a crop glyph, or even tag other glyphs to claim ownership. In any case, it has been conclusively demonstrated that with a slat of wood, a length of twin, a tape measure, (and a policebox full of eager engineering students), one can construct very convincing circles of the most remarkable geometric complexity. --Some circle makers even leave weird objects at the centers, up to and including radioactive residues, etc. Humans are smart, and they are good at playing tricks, and many crop circle researchers are entirely willing to be fooled. A happy and kind of infernal madness.
2. Non-pranksters. Ooh, those pesky military dudes! (Or whoever. Blackops or somebody.) Always trying to obfuscate and mislead. The same types are responsible for replicating cattle mutilations in an effort to mislead and misdirect. (Getting more done before 6 A.M. and all. There's no life like it!) --Though probably not with $400 military slats of wood and $500 military tape measures; there has been a great deal of fast advancement recently in our realm by way of technology. Alien assisted, in some cases. --The crop glyph with the Alien head and the CD thingy was one of these. The garbled word, "BELIEvE" was just that; a garbled word. (Way to go, guys! Wishful thinking, the identity stamp of the greedy & the self-obsessed, will getcha every time. Bush drools for a reason kids, debauchery will do that to you. A rule of thumb: Bad-guys use coke.)
The psychology behind the alien head & CD glyph: To the susceptible: "Trust the 'good and friendly' greys." To the regular folks: "Crop Circles are scary and weird. Don't trust them."
3. The Scary Bad Aliens Themselves! Sometimes called 'fourth density' aliens, depending on what sources you look at. They inhabit the level of reality directly one step above ours, where time is a direction which can be navigated backwards and forth. They eat negative emotions when in their corner of reality, and absorb cow and (east-indian human child) plasma when in ours pulling the Men in Black thing. "The Vats are Real." They have set set us up to live in eternal misery, and when the big day comes, it's harvest feast time to the tune of 6 billion very unhappy humans clinging to bibles filled with wrong-headed messages which got garbled way back in the dark ages. Mmm. Yummy fear.
Anyway, there are supposedly not too many circles directly made by this bunch, but you can identify the ones which have been; The plants in such circles are microwaved and sort of fried and grow funny after the event.
And last but certainly not least. .
4. The good and all knowing entities. --From a another two levels up, called 'Sixth density' (Or 6th harmonic, or vibrational frequency, or whatever depending on your preferred source and level of service.) "We are you in the future. . !"
Proper circles made by this Yoda-like bunch are supposedly messages documenting the nature of reality in these end-of-times. --Not that I've been able to make head or tail of them. Math isn't my strong suit. (Though, weirdly, precious few are even making the attempt.) "Your media resists. Why?"
Oh yeah. How to tell a 'real' circle from a fake one, (aside from the perfectly bent stalks and no foot prints, versus the wake-of-carnage system preferred by the slat of wood and ball of string kids). .
"One thing to look for would be growth disruptions to the area. Real circles do not disrupt the creative principle."
A quick side-note to all those who are on guard here: The creepy Scientologists and Moonies, etc., I figure, were set up in order to obfuscate and sound a eerie and somewhat similar, (although selfish and thoroughly dispicable), message. --And to be generally creepy and culty and all that. Ignore those ass-wipes. Travolta and Cruise are royal dinks and should be considered as such. The real story is far less stupid, though still startling. Essentially. .
The world is going bye-bye within the next decade or so; global war, economic depression, rich New World Order jerks scrambling over the duped hoards as the ship goes down under the weight of hungry aliens, comet impacts, ice-ages, famine, cats & dogs living together; mass hysteria. (I believe Bill Murry may even be hosting.) Anyway, it's already underway, led by George, "See the Bad Nurse Make Disease" Bush. --Deny it if you will, but everybody can feel it on a gut level. All the little subconsciouses are chattering away. --And it's going to get much, much worse. So buckle up!)
Have no fear though. When time is circular, (as I am assured it is), all ends are also beginnings. If you don't get smeared by a comet or shot in the head by a Nazi reincarnated as an Israeli, beam-weaponed by an invading alien giant, or just ass-fucked by an American zombie, then you're going to witness some really neat stuff when the Big Shift comes. So get your closets cleaned out, and your heads and your hearts in order. It's all about awareness, baby!
-Fantastic Lad --mod THAT!
Re:Okay then. . . Into the breach again. . . (Score:2)
Decoded? (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, seriously think about it. What are the possibilities.
1) It was an alien.
They'd be trying to convey a message.. So it should be easy to decrypt.
2) It was a hoax.
Someone wants bragging rights. They're not going to go through all the work of trashing that field (great work though), and not make the obviously intricate CD mean *something*.
Looking at http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/Crabwood/
But, do aliens know ASCII to Binary translation?
BTW, have another look at the pic. It's not rings, it's a spiral like a record.. The beginning and end are solid, and taper up and down from nothing. The bumps are too infrequent to even attempt to simulate an audio record.. That'd just make pops..
"MORE ON THE 'ET FACE & DISC' DECODING " (Score:2, Informative)
"For those not yet familiar with the decoding, the full message verbatim reads: "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge."
Re:"MORE ON THE 'ET FACE & DISC' DECODING " (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, shouldn't they be submitting a proposal to extend Unicode so future crop circles can use their character set?
Re:Decoded? (Score:5, Informative)
I would have been more entertained to read that it had (c) 2002, Sony Music Corporation.. Then they'd have the RIAA trying to shut down the site.
"Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES.
Much PAIN but still time.
EELRIJUE.
There is GOOD out there.
We OPpose DECEPTION.
COnduit CLOSING [bell sound]".
This answer was found at:
http://www.dcccs.org/the_alien_at_crabwood_farm_ho use.htm [dcccs.org]
http://home.clara.net/lucypringle/articles/crabwoo d.html [clara.net]
http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=381&cat egory=Environment [earthfiles.com]
(this one requires a registration. I haven't read it yet)
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=EELRIJUE&btnG=Google+Sea rch [google.com]
DejaNews shows 57 threads
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe =UTF-8&scoring=d&q=EELRIJUE&sa=N&tab=g w [google.com]
Google finds 66 sites.
Most of these sites scream hoax or conspiracy. One message said straight-up that there's no way anyone could decode it (yada, yada. They just didn't try hard enough. I do the impossible twice before lunch daily.{grin})
I'm still waiting for... (Score:2)
Christian perspective? (Score:2)
I do very much believe in God, and also in evil spiritual beings (Satan and demons). I'm pretty sure all of them would have the capability to do this.
First, I'll admit that I am not a scientist, haven't seen these, and am going by what I'm reading in the linked articles here. And I haven't read anywhere near everything linked.
BUT
First, about the cool geometric designs. I'm kind of reminded from this passage from Romans:
Now, about the encoded message on the disc, which some people missed from the explanation here [swirlednews.com].
First, does anyone know about the evidence surrounding this thing? Does it have the microwaved plants & such, that make it pretty clearly not a prankster?
If it were possible to write that one off as a prankster, I might be inclined to do so. After all, why would God use a retarded looking alien to get a message across? (Ok, so He'll probably slap me soon if it is indeed Him!
But the message (if you ignore a couple questionable bits and the inconsistent capitalization) is interesting, to say the least. The Bible talks about a time when a great deceiver will make a treaty with Israel, after which will come a time of Tribulation on the earth. Many signs [layhands.com] indicate that that time could happen relatively soon.
I think that message could be talking about the false gift of peace from this great deceiver
I think that any message like this that COULD be supernatural should be compared to the Bible to tell whether it is from God or Satan. And as far as I can tell, this lines up with what the Bible says. But I still can't get past that retarted looking alien.
I hope I don't come off as looking extremely gullible or stupid here. I don't know more about this than most of you. I'm just adding this to the list of possible responses, and also to see if any other Christians have opinions on the matter.
My explanation (Score:3, Insightful)
Here's what I think is likely. There's a group of secret, elite crop circl creators. They started off small and simple, but their techniques have improved tremendously and have extended their efforts across the world. Whatever mundane method it is that they use causes a lot of those wierd things mentioned in the article above. Perhaps they have some fascinating machinery to produce the effect, or some chemicals, or both. I can explain the nausea, etc, easily: people who encounter these things and cannot explain them will be mentally affected. They will feel confused, amazed, scared, whatever. This translates into physical chnages.
Consider also the other wierd magnetic effects, noises, radiation, etc. Whatever method is being used to create the circles leaves this residue - whether it be alien or human technology. Just because the devices used to create the circles is unknown does not mean it must be used by aliens. After all, America and Britain can't even prove for certain that Iraq has WMD. What happened to their amazing technology and uber spies? We need you Mr. Bond.
I consider this the most likely scenario. If aliens, then why do they never visit us? I know that many claim that they do through channeling or mediums, but this is easily dispelled - these methods have been used for the last 4-5000 years for communicating with spirits, the dead (supposedly) and much more. Whatever it is that they communicate with, it is a liar and uses the same method for different deceptions. The answer is not aliens. We are supposed to be amazed by the amazing technology of these supposed aliens, yet they must resort to crop circles? No, I don't think the answer is there.
The answer seems to lie in the fact that the crop circles are changing and evolving. If it were aliens that knew so much, their methods would be rather stagnant if the crop circles are a common method for them to achieve whatever it is they are trying to. Changing crop circles over time seems to me only explainable by forces or labor that is learning it's art, changing its methods and improving. Sounds like a human influence to me.
Of course, I don't pretend to know the answers. These are just my musings on the topic. These circles impress and make me curious as much as the next person. I don't deny the possible existence of aliens, but I think it is very very unlikely, and even if there are, none of what we've seen so far appears to originate from outside our planet. Lets consider the possibilities, keep an open mind and see what we can learn.
Brit tech students rule! (Score:5, Interesting)
My jaw dropped when I saw the alien face and disc. Remarkable! Very clever technology must have been employed in order to pull this off with such precision. The execution is flawless! I'm very impressed.
Certainly this is no ordinary rope-and-plank job, One wonders if the thing was perhaps a clandestine practical execution of a tech student's exam project?
The site of the artwork may be close enough for the DGPS beacon at the Bristol Channel to have helped the punters get the edges of the rectangle aligned so precisely, but presumably a laser sighting device similar to the ones used by land surveyors could have been sufficiently accurate.
Once the rectangle corners had been defined and the circle perimeter traced, it may have been fairly trivial for two operators, or teams, to traverse the sides of the rectangle in parallel with the Device running a straight line from side to side and flattening the crop row with variable force (or width) according a predetermined bitmap courtesy of photoshop and some clever artistry. I'd love to see the original bitmap and compare with the finished formation.
You can see a thin groove at the center of each scanline in the closeup ground photos, which seems to be a wheel track. The device design is unknown, so we don't know if it had 1,2 or even 4 wheels. A rope could have been its suspension from above, though you'd think that would have caused variations in pattern density with the rope at the edges being more taut.
It would need to be somewhat heavy in order to flatten the crop and have enough mechanical force to gradually engage and disengage the crop flattening part of the mechanism during the course of each row. Perhaps the device was guided on twin taut ropes from either side of the formation, or perhaps guided optically by lasers.
From the closeup pictures the pattern looks like it was applied in one direction alone, so perhaps returning the cart to the other side was a waste cycle instead of using bidirectional 'printing'.
Interestingly, the wheel groove of the spiral is between the spiral pattern bands, as opposed to centered in the middle, so a different machine may have been used here, perhaps operating concurrently with the alien portrait scanline 'printer'.
The question remains how the row alignment came to be so spot on both in terms of row spacing and 'horizontal hold' from row to row : The vertical details are quite precisely in sync from row to row, so the tech and methodology used is indisputably excellent.
I hope eventually the artists and hoaxers come forth and reimburse the farmer for his losses, and reveal their clever technology. I think that would make for an interesting read.
Photoshop (Score:3, Funny)
Tux Crop circle image (Score:2, Funny)
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/1155650 [deviantart.com]
Re:Come on (Score:2)
I'm sure that by that you mean, "Thought up a console", since that site could not have gone more out of it's way to stress that it wasn't anything like an X-box.
Hey, maybe you can't be bothered to read the sites either?
Re:Have they ever caught anyone in the act? (Score:2)
Re:what the hell?!? (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd love to know how you did that seeing as the source picture is a JPG (hint: JPGs don't have layers, furthermore once you collapse a photoship image there is no way to tell it ever had layers).
Also, did they photoshop every frame of the video of the same crop-picture?
[disclaimer: I still think it was done by hoaxers]
Re:Amazing wonder? Uh, no. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:thank God for mozilla (Score:2)
In IE, on windows XP patched latest updates, default font size at 1024x768 32 bit colors on a 17" monitor, the font size isnt even close to being too small to use.
In linux using mozilla, with default fonts, 1024x768, 17" monitor, the links are about 6 pixels high.
Yea, thank god for mozilla. If you weren't using it in the first place, you wouldnt have that problem.
On the other hand, IE can also resize font sizes. click "View" -> "Text Size" -> and select what size you want.
I am not a microsoft troll, and I dont much like IE, but you sir just want to start crap about mozilla (on the other hand, maybe you are just annoyed about 1 letter links, but im afraid that has nothing at all to do with mozilla vs. IE. sorry)
Re:naysayers... try reading some of the articles (Score:2, Insightful)
ps: this is sarcasm.