What a crop circle!

[Hand of Evil]

Citation, please, on the cash reward. I know of several people who would be able to create a crop circle for money. Heck, if the reward is good enough I'll do it.

As for monitoring fields, the people who do this are sneaky. A farmer sitting on his back porch isn't going to be able to see it happen.

My bad, it is a reward for hoaxers, I still think I read something about a reward for those that can make them. Don't get me wrong, more than likely they are man-made, it is just that after all this time nothing, it is like Big Foot, you would just like to know.

...bit of the story...

Further, as long-time crop circle researcher English architect Michael Glickman frequently pointed out in an excellent article in a local paper (Wiltshire Gazette, July 27 2000), despite a £ 10, 000 ($ 15,000) reward offered by the National Farmers Union, and nightly surveillance of the most-visited fields each summer, many of which are adjacent to villages and well-traveled highways, not a single hoaxer has ever been accosted in a field at night and no half-finished circles have been found as evidence that their perpetrators were interrupted in the act. So, despite a few, strident, unproven claims from pranksters, the circles’ ultimate origins still remain as mysterious as the hauntingly beautiful formations.

 

[Impeesa]

Actually, the crops are undamaged, just bent downward, IIRC.

In a 'true' crop circle, yes. See, that's the kicker with the reward for recreating one - it's easy to spot a man-made hoax, because everything is all trampled down. Even if someone had enough time to kill to carefully bend each stalk over without breaking it (like they would be in a 'real' crop circle), there would still be footprints like crazy. These are not found in a 'real' crop circle.

--Impeesa--

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

Well, there is another aspect of the legit crop circles that these hoaxers who try to take all the credit can't reproduce;

Radioactivity

 

[Draxus the Tainted]

Just wait a few months for the movie "Signs" with Mel Gibson...It's gonna explain it all for us!!!

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

More than just residual radiation, there are a number of things that are different about genuine (unexplained) crop circles that the hoaxes can't replicate. Namely, the way the stalks are permanently bent, but not broken, the brading of the stalks, the reduction of ground water within the circle. The list goes on.

A genuine crop circle cannot be duplicated artificially, and anyone who knows the first thing about crop circles could spot a fake if they were allowed to inspect it first hand.

I found the site I linked to in my last post tonight on Google, but since then I've read a few pages of it. It's interesting stuff, and I highly recommend their beginners section to anyone who wants to learn about the phenomenon rather than sit on their lofty perch and cry, "fake".

I've never devoted much time to learning about or reading up on crop circles, I just hate it when people say, "Oh it's just a hoax.", about something without ever bothering to look into it. I'm pretty cynical about stuff, but even I think it's a dim person who writes things off without taking a better look.

Having said that, the one in that particular picture could be a fake. I wonder how the experts are weighing in on this one.

 

[Avatar]

A couple quick things:

1. Obviously crop circles CAN be created by people. They did it for the movie Signs which everyone is talking about.

2. Regardless of who made it or how, that crop circle is just cool! I mean look at it! It's beautiful.

 

[Krug]

A couple quick things:

2. Regardless of who made it or how, that crop circle is just cool! I mean look at it! It's beautiful.

Yes, the aliens decided that the Rose design was in fashion this year..

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

A couple quick things:

1. Obviously crop circles CAN be created by people. They did it for the movie Signs which everyone is talking about.

Mmm, no. Did they make a crop circle that contained radioactive isotopes that don't normally appear in nature? Were the stems bent but not broken? Were the plants braided as in genuine circles or just flattened like in the hoaxes? Did the movie's crop circle cause magnetic anomolies?
Then it wasn't a crop circle.

There's a big difference between a genuine crop circle, and what looks like a crop circle. Do the reading, it's fascinating stuff.

 

[Xeriar]

Mmm, no. Did they make a crop circle that contained radioactive isotopes that don't normally appear in nature? Were the stems bent but not broken? Were the plants braided as in genuine circles or just flattened like in the hoaxes? Did the movie's crop circle cause magnetic anomolies?
Then it wasn't a crop circle.

Not normally found in nature?

I would have heard of that. There are not many isotopes that can't be found normally on Earth that last long enough to matter.

I'm sorry, but I have to question the validity of your source, here.

There's a big difference between a genuine crop circle, and what looks like a crop circle. Do the reading, it's fascinating stuff.

Which are genuine, which are hoaxes? What are the effects of various chemical sprays that could be used to assist in flattening?

 

[Gwarthkam]

Originally posted by Vaxalon

Occam's Razor.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Please don't misquote Brother Ockham, his "razor" would sound something like:

"Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate"
"Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora"

That Ockham would seek "extraordinary proof" in order to validify an extraordinary claim does not go well with my understanding of his views.

I don't think Ockham would like the term "extraordinary proof", but it's nice of you to mention him