The weird cropcircle phenomenon.

[Grille]

Sometimes strange circles in grain fields just appear *somehow*.

These showed up quite frequently in UK in Germany, especially in the past 30 years. I've got no idea if they also turn(ed) up in other parts of the world.

I don't know if you all know of the strange cropcircle phenomenon, so here's a shot of such a cropcircle thingie:

Sometimes, the down-forced spears just form a circle, sometimes there's even an artwork of different symbols in a field.
In both cases, there's very often with quite an exact boundary between the down-forced spears and the rest of the still standing grain spears.

Until now, there hasn't been a theory which explains this phenomenon to the full extent. As well as a bunch of different freaks with really *astonishing* "energy theories" and what not, some UFO specialists have certain claims... Some people -like me- just think these circles are created by humans.
The cicles seem to always appear over night. And there have indeed been some human artists who stated that they made some. They also explained their techniques, using some kind of plank as a tool. OTOH, every time some human artist was caught in the act, the circle/artwork was of really poor quality.

So what do you think? Maybe you've even seen such a circle yourself (or even created??).
Have some British and German artists a weird affection, jumping around in the grain fields during night-time?

Is it a sign of an upcoming invasion from the red planet?

Can we catch Perfection spamming in the rhy?

 

[Perfection]

Yeah, it all me and my minions, it's used for communication. That one there is saying "I like beer cheese soup"

 

[Pontiuth Pilate]

Teenage pranksters.

Or illumini initiates!

 

[Bozo Erectus]

The crop circle thing is hard to explain. I dont know what the heck it is but I know its not teenagers with planks and rope in the dark. Alot of them are remarkably complex, works of art. Some say they have something to do with localised magnetic fields. Supposedly the ancients were able to detect these fields so they built religious structures over them. Other people say that its Gaiea, or aliens from another planet. I dont know, except that its not kids with planks and rope in the dark

 

[CivCube]

A mathematician has been able to glean several new axioms from them.

 

[Esckey]

I think some of them are made by people with planks, just the ones that aren't complicated such as that picture.

The bigger ones, the more complex ones, I ain't got no clue.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by Esckey
I think some of them are made by people with planks, just the ones that aren't complicated such as that picture.

The bigger ones, the more complex ones, I ain't got no clue.

This one sure isnt planks:

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I have read that at least some were pranks, pulled off by 'sophisticated' adults and the like; to make fun of reporters and gullible people...

 

[Hygro]

Crop circles were orriginally said to be created from wind patterns.

So the circles started appearing in areas where that couldn't happen.

Then they would say it was from balloons (dont ask me)

So then they were talking about people with planks, so then it would appear in crops that were much too hard for planks to do such a good job.

Breaking cornstalks with planks, so says one farmer, sounds like gunshots so that makes it easy to catch people in the act.


Many crop circles show the crops interwoven, and perfectly bent, and not broken, which is way beyond people's abilities to finish in one night, or even a few nights.

Civcube mentioned the math thing.

Chemical test on the circled crops will sometimes show that their chemical compositions have changed.

I would vouch aliens.

Good luck with yer plank

 

[col]

I was slightly involved in the crop circle stuff in the 80s. One of my students was very heavily into it - editing his own magazine and doing lots of research. He was only 17 but his name was quite well known in the field. He went to one conference and was told by a group of Americans to go and see - himself - as one of the leading British experts.

Anyway, I showed him how to fake the photographs digitally. It was a relatively new art at that time and we could create all kinds of pretty patterns - by hand and mathematically.

I later saw several of the pix we had faked appearing in print as the real thing!

 

[WickedSmurf]

Intresting thread, I hope it lives on...

I think most of the pics of these circles are fake, but there must be some real ones.

I for one do think it is aliens that cause them.
I am not very well-read when it comes to this so I hope some other posters will supply intresting facts that will fuel my beliefs on the alien-theory.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

For those of you who're gunning for the aliens, let me ask you this - why would aliens choose to confuse us with patterns made in vegetation, when they have obviously more superior forms of tech available, shld they choose to communicate with us or something?

Maybe they've a sense of humor...

 

[Hawkster]

I remember a few years ago crop circles (and other shapes) were big news - they seemed to be appearing in vast numbers. Then it was found (and in some cases admitted) they were fakes or pranks and since then they are hardly, if ever, reported about - do they still happen? I certainly don't remember a news report about one for quite some time.

Persoanlly I am in the all pranks / fakes camp - aliens naw - why travel zillions of miles in sophisticated technological devices just to make fancy patterns in crops then go away again ?

 

[Stapel]

Originally posted by Grille

The circles seem to always appear over night. And there have indeed been some human artists who stated that they made some. They also explained their techniques, using some kind of plank as a tool.

That explains all, doesn't it?

OTOH, every time some human artist was caught in the act, the circle/artwork was of really poor quality.

Because they weren't finished yet.

Come on everybody! The only thing that is really amazing is the amount of people that seems to be obsessed by magic, aliens and other ludicrous nonsense.

For more complex 'circles' there are good explinations too: other techniques (furtilizer, poison) or what Col described.

 

[Xen]

@Hawkster- yes they do, i remeber just the other day reading about a farmer POed over having a crop circle because it was messing up his entie seaons harvest...

as for the reason- guys with planks, if there were feilds as such around where I live, I'd be tempted to go do one- more then likelly or the character "cartman" from the show southpark smileing, with his middle index finger raised...

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by XIII
For those of you who're gunning for the aliens, let me ask you this - why would aliens choose to confuse us with patterns made in vegetation, when they have obviously more superior forms of tech available, shld they choose to communicate with us or something?

Maybe they've a sense of humor...

Thats what I say. Bearing in mind that travelling to other solar systems is an an enormous endeavor (its like an ant embarking on a journey to cross the Sahara) even for an advanced species, why would they come all this way just to bend corn into interesting patterns? Its like if we find intelligent life on Europa. Would we burn smiley faces into the ice above and run back to Earth giggling? Makes no sense! But it doesnt make sense that ALL of them are fakes either.

 

[zippy]

Has anyone corrolated European Grain surpluses with the rash of crop circle reports? If a farmer is going to destroy his crops on the order of the EU, he may as well get a few bob from a gullible/unscrupulous photographer as well.

Anyway, who reports that these are done overnight? The same farmer/reporter who got the pranksters in to do the job in the first place?

Either that or it is the Zetans on Planet X causing the pole shift. Didn't you notice the Earth stopped spinning back in March, no May, no wait June, erm ....

 

[Rout]

Farmers did it, even the original set that started the whole phenomenon, some farmers owned up and said it was a (very clever) hoax, and even demonstrated on tv how its done. The local area was very grateful for the influx of tourists!
Why did they do it? The aliens made them o' course

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by Rout
Farmers did it, even the original set that started the whole phenomenon, some farmers owned up and said it was a (very clever) hoax, and even demonstrated on tv how its done. The local area was very grateful for the influx of tourists!
Why did they do it? The aliens made them o' course

Its easy to say the farmers did it. Why theyd do it is obvious, what Im more interested in is HOW they made them. The burden of proof is just as heavy on the sceptics as it is on the "true believers".

 

[polymath]

I used to believe in aliens until I realised that given all the chaff on the subject, one could never hope to distinguish the wheat. I like that metaphor, given the topic

I say it is both humans and photo fakery of the type col suggested.