The weird cropcircle phenomenon.

[Wyrmshadow]

You'd be surprised atjustwhat poeple are capable of doing. A large chunkof these are pranks but a few, a very small numberare still unexplained. It's harder and harderto distinguish between the two. I once that all uber-complex ones were "real" until I saw a special where a large one was made overnight.

 

[jpowers]

Look, if Thomas Kinkade can paint a light by a river and sell it as art, then some drunk university students are certainly capable of creating a simple fractal pattern in corn and selling it as 'mysterious.' It takes some organization, but let's not go overboard with the complexity analysis.

 

[Padma]

Crop Circles are almost pure hoax. They were started by a couple of blokes in Great Britain, and it mushroomed from there. Remember how they started small and simple? Every time these guys heard scientists come up with a plausible-sounding rationale for them, they would change them to make that theory obviously wrong. For instance, an early theory was intense wind vortexes - after all, they were always circular - never any straight lines. The next night, these guys made some circles with straight lines connecting them!

I remember seeing an interview with these guys - they couldn't believe how gullible everyone was, especially when they were so obvious about what they were doing - like the straight lines thing.

BTW, on that interview, they demonstrated their technique, with ropes and planks, and then the interviewer called some of the "experts", and had them look at it, without telling them how it was done. Virtually all of these experts proclaimed it as a valid, "unexplainable" crop circle - it met all their criteria, from the direction of the flattening of the grain, to the design, to the way the grain seed-heads were not crushed, etc. Many refused to believe that these farmers had done it, even after watching the video of them doing it!

 

[Rout]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead


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".

As mentioned above, they used planks and chains/ropes - staking the chain in the centre and walking (anti)clockwise flatteneing the wheat with their feet, or with wood. They demonstrated this, so the burden is lifted on sceptics

 

[Wyrmshadow]

But modern hoaxs dont explain the old Devil's Circlesin Medieval woodcuts and such. Plus I've also seen picture of "Sand Circles" on beaches with no foot prints.

 

[Rout]

Originally posted by Wyrmshadow
But modern hoaxs dont explain the old Devil's Circlesin Medieval woodcuts and such. Plus I've also seen picture of "Sand Circles" on beaches with no foot prints.

I imagine it would be easy to cover up tracks in sand, i havent seen any of those though, what are these devil's circlesin (circles in?) thingies?

 

[Wyrmshadow]

Sorry, my spacebar is acting up.
There's a woodcut that has a devil cutting crops in a circluar formation fromthe 1500-1600's. It's somewhat famous.
But for poeple that really want to beleive that crop circles are otherworldly in origin are greatly dissapointed at these hoaxes that have fooled us.

There was a video made in england a few years ago of a ball of light, middle of the day, flying around and forming these circles in someones wheat field. It was amazing to watch. But it had to be thrown out when after some investigating, the producers that got the video found out the guy worked or had achess to professional video editing equipment.

 

[phoenix_night]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead
This one sure isnt planks:

I don't see why not.

It's simple enough, the use of the planks. It's been widely demonstrated how exactly this is done. I don't see what is so complex about that particular example that should make me think otherwise. It's just a lot of circles. What's so incredible about that?

And in general, well others here have already addressed that.

 

[MrPresident]

These aliens are smart enough to construct a craft which can fly billions of light years through space. They are smart enough to locate our planet out of the many possible life-sustaining planets. They are smart enough to develop technology that can cope with our atmosphere, and especially entering that atmosphere. They are smart enough to land their craft in many different places without anyone getting any firm evidence. Yet they are not smart enough to cover their own tracks? Even a third rate criminal knows to do that.

 

[Grille]

IMHO it's quite interesting that the different fans (experts or researchers...whatever term) of this phenomenon often try to differentiate between 'fake' and 'real' crop circles. [Here, I'm referring to physically down-forced grain spears, not manipulated picture stuff. Of course, I do not doubt that there's very likely 'fake' and 'real' pictures.]
I think there's simply no difference between 'fake' and 'real' crop circles since I'm convinced they're created by some sort of human artist. So it's just circles. But obviously, the circle fans are just blindfolded by high quality artwork. And seemingly, as Padma stated, the avarage quality has increased faster over the years than they could adjust their fake/real classification. Now the 'real' ones do cause some headaches for them, so they start some measuring campaigns. Amongst other things, they detected a "higher" level of radioactivity on the circle area. However, the relation level of "higher" isn't mentioned. I *could* imagine that slighly some more Radon (radioactive gas) would emerge from the ground, possibly caused by an actually higher rate of evapotranspiration over the circle area. That would be a pretty much normal process. [I better stop now before I unintentionally become a total crop circle junkie myself...]

Anyways, I am quite fascinated by this artwork. The artists like to stay anonymous for what reason ever, just as... ...maybe there's not enough walls in the countryside to put a graffiti on.

From this source, you can pick up some funky links, possibly even stuff in your native language (just click on "Links" on the left side of the page). There's a lot of pictures and (more or less weird) info found.
Some parts of the world, such as South America, seem to be circle-free. Maybe a jungle-pranking technique is just about to be invented...


All my pribble-prabble here aside, I hope there's still some space left for alien imaginations (if you have such).

 

[Wyrmshadow]

Sometimes poeple latch ontosuch things. They want to beleive in something and that blinds them. I used to believe, now I'm highly sceptical of everything new I see because of previous evidence.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

For ages, Ive been ready to believe that the whole thing is a hoax, but I have yet to hear a proper explanation as to how the pranksters create such complex designs in such a short period of time, with such crude tools. As implausible as I find the idea that aliens come here and make the symbols, I also find it implausible that people can make these things so easily, and also without ever being caught in the act. I saw a show not long ago that had a team of students see if they could make a relatively easy pattern in one night. If I recall correctly they failed. The complexity of some of these symbols, in my opinion, precludes the possibility that these are being made by regular folks with tools they have around the house. Forget about physically making them for the moment. What about the mathematical complexity evident in some of the designs. Not just anybody could come up with them.

 

[phoenix_night]

It has been said repeatedly how it is done. The example you gave was not at all complex.

It has been shown how it is done.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Originally posted by phoenix_night
It has been said repeatedly how it is done. The example you gave was not at all complex.

It has been shown how it is done.

Try making that design with a piece of rope and two planks of wood, and show me the results and tell me how long it takes you.

 

[Grille]

Originally posted by Wyrmshadow
Sometimes poeple latch ontosuch things. They want to beleive in something and that blinds them. I used to believe, now I'm highly sceptical of everything new I see because of previous evidence.

While I'm not short on fantastic theories about key failures from outta space (so it's the space key - coincidence?), it is not always a bad thing to be a bit sceptical of something new, I think.


@Dumb pothead: The complex design just makes me like that artwork.

 

[phoenix_night]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead
Try making that design with a piece of rope and two planks of wood, and show me the results and tell me how long it takes you.

It has already been explained how it is done in this thread (in some detail).

It has also been demonstrated exactly how it's done. Showing the method used, and the time it takes. And I still fail to see what's so complex about the design you showed. Lots of circles!

 

[jpowers]

Originally posted by Dumb pothead


Try making that design with a piece of rope and two planks of wood, and show me the results and tell me how long it takes you.

That would be hard, but try again with 8 pieces of rope and 16 planks of wood, and you're cooking with gas! Seriously, the UK hoaxers built some very complex designs in a 20-minute TV spot just to show how easy it is. The most complex part of their late-night soirees was not getting shot at by a confused farmer.

 

[Bozo Erectus]

Come on, most people couldnt even draw some of these designs on a piece of paper, even if they were looking at one and copying it! At night with planks and rope? Please, thats not believable either. Because one whacky explanation is dismissed doesnt mean that we have to rush to embrace another. I dont think its aliens, I dont think its messages from another dimension or magnetic fields in the earth. I suspect that there are organised groups making these things for some unfathomable reason. I dont claim to know how or why. I'll continue to keep an open mind about the how and why.

 

[phoenix_night]

But the people who did it were on television showing exactly how they did it!!!

What more proof can you possibly want?!

 

[Bamspeedy]

How to make crop circles yourself