Xeriar said:
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.
This was my bad. I meant to say that these isotopes are so short-lived that they are not mormally found in nature, but not having slept in 24 hours can wreak havok on my literacy.
And my hearty advice to you would be to read the source, it's interesting stuff.
Which are genuine, which are hoaxes? What are the effects of various chemical sprays that could be used to assist in flattening?
If a chemical exists that can be used to do that to a plant, then nobody is using it to make crop circles, not even the hoaxers. Since none of the debunkers or investigating scientists have ever reported a substance like this showing up in the chemical analysis of crop circle plants. Besides, I think it's safe to say that if you thought it up just now, the experts that have been involved for years already did, and checked on it.
I'd like to know what these chemicals are that could do this kind of thing to a plant. Once you did have a chemical like that, good luck hauling enough of it into a field to make a gigantic agriglyph, and get away with it on foot. Hope you've been lifting your weights. I also doubt you'd have the time to apply the chemical precisely to the base of each stem, so as to bend them properly. Some of these circles appear in minutes, applying a substance to the plants that precisely would take weeks. In fact, I don't even think chemicals are a consideration. Also, crop circles have been around for hundreds of years, how long would such a chemical concotion have been available?
The genuine crop circles would be the ones that display the correct telltales, for instance;
The stalks are braided, not flattened. The stems are superheated to softness and bent at a specific angle so that they are permanently bent, but NOT broken. The very makeup of the plant itself is altered, as well as that of the seeds, but the plants not only survive this mutation, they thrive and are safe to consume. A real glyph is usually quite massive, fakes are dwarfed by the real thing. Background radiation within a circle is usually increased by a few orders of magnitude, and rare short-lived isotopes are found within. Failure of electronics within the circle is common. Alteration of the local magnetic field so that compasses don't work and aircraft instruments fail above the circle... The list goes on. Reproduce all of these things AND leave no trace that you were involved, and I'll gladly join the "must be a hoax" crowd.
A faked one shows the obvious work of human hands. Imperfect design, marks where poles were placed to plot out the design, footprints, crops that are simply mashed down instead of braided, crops that are broken instead of permanently bent, smaller glyphs, and usually give away a poor understanding of the geometry involved.
It's like being fooled into thinking a shoddy bootleg movie off the street corner is the real thing. The bootleg looks like crap, it's too easy to get, and anyone who knows a little bit about movies knows it's not the real thing. It's the same deal for people who know their crop circles, spotting a fake is not usually that hard. Mostly because fakers don't usually put the effort in to really fool anyone who knows what they are doing.
What's my stance on the situation? It's an interesting and beautiful phenomenon that, as of yet, is unexplained. It certainly isn't caused by wind, or mating animals as some have tried to say, and none of the self-proclaimed hoaxers can come close to making a crop circle that is even remotely comparable to an unexplained one.
It's easy to sit in your chair and say, "Nope, I don't think so.", and not read anything about it. But if you're that uninterested, why bother to even disagree?
It's an interesting read, no matter what your stance on the subject is, so go read it. I can't read it for everyone. Heck, except for some bits here and there that I've heard over the years without really trying, most of what I just wrote can be read off of that site, in a much more concise and knowledgable form. So save me some time, and give yourself an ounce of credit. Go look for yourself. I thought it was a fun read, even the geometry stuff, and I hate math!
Since I only started reading about this stuff last night, I can't say I'm even remotely passionate about it. What does annoy me, is when people keep saying, "Nuh Uh!", when they haven't even read the facts. Cripes people, of course none of it's going to make sense until you know a little about it. And I mean more about it than you'll learn on Unsolved Mysteries, The Enquirer, or a standard cheesy Unexplained Phenomenon show run by the network to fill an idle time slot. Reading is FUNdamental as they say.
The Crop Circular: Crop circles basics
