The believers say that many, if not most, of the world's crop circles are indeed hoaxed. But that there are a certain number of them that could not have been, because of specific attributes.
The skeptics say that all crop circles, without exception, are man-made. Hoaxers with boards on ropes walk around, flattening plants, to create the designs.
The believers point out that, first of all, in an "authentic" crop circle, the plants are not broken towards the bottom the way that they are when boards are used to flatten crops. They are bent and fused over, with blown-out "nodes" that show exactly the same characteristics as if heated by microwave radiation.
The skeptics are a bit challenged to come up with a reply on this, but in 2002 a group from MIT (1) flattened a design and (2) microwaved the area afterwards to produce some "blown nodes." Skeptics see this as a complete response to the "nodes" challenge. The MIT group's results fell woefully short, in the opposing view: their sprayed iron filings appeared in an unsatisfactory pattern, the nodes were not elongated, the team had to use night-vision headsets, portable microwave emitters, and other equipment out of the reach of hoaxers, etc.
The believers respond by pointing out that such plants are killed in the process, while in an "authentic" circle, the plants continue to grow, even those specifically flattened.
Believers also point out that there are many surprising phenomena associated with "authentic" circles, such as:
1. A magnetic profile mimics the actual design of the crop circle. 2. Traces of metallic, magnetic material are found in the soil, and sometimes implanted in the plant cells. 3. The swirl symmetry is smooth and there are usually few rotations of the spirals in the flattening (implying huge 'boards' used to flatten the plants). 4. Often the floor of the circle features an interweaving of the plants. 5. The circles are extremely large and complex, considering that they have to be created in a night.Skeptics don't generally dispute the above points. They set about trying to demonstrate how humans might have produced the microwaved nodes and metallic deposits. The above five points are not essentially controversial, in terms of whether they occur or not. .............. As you might have surmised by now, I personally don't find it plausible that college students with boards are going out and producing the best of these circles in four hours of darkness, and then spraying the soil with magnetic shavings. Many of these circles would require huge teams of "flatteners" working with cranes and lights and so forth, and this would disturb the neighbors who are typically located fairly proximate to the circles. Also, for a group of college students :- ) to produce spiral circles, they need to plot a number of points around the circumference and then survey the area. Early on, it required only 3- or 4-point geometry to produce the simple circles, but since then the stakes have been raised. Some of the circles require 30-point geometry to design (!), and many are larger than football fields. Many of the designs show a smoothness of symmetry, and complexity of geometry, that can't be done in a few hours with surveying equipment and/or compass tethers. . === So, Who Gets the Blame? === If you're satisified by the idea that amateur hoaxers were able to produce 100% of these circles, you have no cognitive dissonance here. ........... Personally, I (jemanji) do not believe that intelligent life exists in the Milky Way outside of earth. This is not because I'm biased against the idea of aliens. It is because I find Fermi's Paradox completely convincing. However, if there were one UFO argument that I would find credible, it would be the crop-circle argument. Reports of dancing lights, 8 meters above the ground, creating these circles, could feasibly be attributed to civilizations a million years more advanced than ours. In Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End," he put forth the idea that when aliens do decide to integrate into our societies, they will do so very carefully, in slow stages, "warning" us first, so as to give us the chance to get used to them. Carl Sagan's "Contact" echoes this theme. Again, this doesn't do it for me, because Enrico Fermi proved convincingly that if intelligent life were extant in the Milky Way, it would have colonized the galaxy long, long ago. .................... I would not totally rule out the notion of spiritual beings intervening in our society, but do not believe that they would use electromagnetism to create circles. :- ) .................... The idea that high-technology governmental devices create these is farfetched -- but for me, it's less farfetched than any of the alternatives. When you have ruled out the impossible, Mr. Spock, then whatever is left -- however improbable -- must be true. Well, maybe not. ................... For me, crop circles represent an entertaining cognitive dissonance: they can't be happening, and yet they are. For me, crop circles are the number-one example of cognitive dissonance on the planet. I have no idea how they occur. They're impossible. Cheers, jemanji ................ image: http://www.futurehi.net/images/cropcircle.jpg
