h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Alright, so we admit that people have made some crop circles... in fact, made *lots* of crop circles...

But it's far too crazy to think they made *all* the crop circles... so it *has* to be UFOs, vortices, plasma discharges, magic energy... right?



I, for one, am sceptical.

Nice entry though, lotsa detail...

As Terry Pratchett said in "Maurice", the aliens have told us they made the crop circles, but there are still some people who insist they are done by mischievous pranksters with rollers.

'The crop circle phenomenon is a truly magical event'.

Pah. I've yet to see a 'truly magical event' explained as such to my, or anyone else's, satisfaction. People can believe what they want to, just don't ask us grown-ups to do so.

Maurice?

Wassthat?

cant somone tell the aliens that there are easier ways to communicate with us..........

cause if this there way of talking, we wint hearing much

cant somone tell the aliens that there are easier ways to communicate with us..........

cause if this there way of talking, we ain´t hearing much

i saw one once

it said 'le tis for england'

pretty damn patriotic aliens if you ask me

(hey! it was when he was good!)

If it can be explained to your satisfaction, it ain't truly magical, is it? The ability of bats to fly at night used to be 'truly magical', till we figured out how they did it.

Actually, I'm kind of amused by 'agriglyphs'. Does anyone really talk bout agriglyphs, or do they stick to the more common, if technically inaccurate, 'crop circles'?

One quite good explaination for the original, simple circles shouldn't be discounted.

The theory is that fungal growth spreads outwards at ground level, in the same way that "faery rings" of mushrooms are formed. The mycelial bed holds in moisture from the morning dew like a thin layer of felt, which promotes rotting in the stems of the crop. After some days, the stems have rotted to the point that the crop can no longer support itself, and only the denseness of the packing keeps it upright, until...

A slight gust of wind starts the whole circle of rotting stems to twist, spiraling around the centre point and falling down like a row of wobbly dominoes...

This theory covers the few documented occasions where a circle suddenly appears in a field with no tracks leading to it, in an unfeasably short time.

As for the complex, fractal designs, I put those down to pissed students...!

Oh, come on, Mr. Prior-Palmer-Green, you know exactly what I mean. Which is that the event is explained *as* 'truly magical', in that there is a force called 'magic' which exists and creates such patterns in cornfields. Personally, I think the whole phenomenon is a complete and utter load of b*****ks. Why the hell magical, alien or other paranormal forces, if they existed, couldn't set about solving some *real* problems for a change is beyond me. In essence, magic begins where our power to explain ends, and in some people that's a lot sooner than in others.

Have you ever been in a crop circle, Felonious? It is a 'magical' experience, in just the same way as hearing some profoundly moving piece of music, or waatching a special film, or whatever else touches you on an emotional level.

Some of the people who say 'Of course, they're all made by pranksters' might want to think how these perfect, intricate patterns can be made at night, without using lights and without leaving guide marks on the ground and, when its raining, without leaving muddy bootprints over the corn you've flattened. And you'll have to get everything right first time as, once you've flattened the corn, you can't get it to stand up again... To me, believing that a few jokers, whether inebriated or not, are responsible for all the circles we've seen is a lot more far-fetched than believing they are produced by some force we don't yet understand.

You mean... you can't understand how they could do it, so you think it must be some force we don't yet understand?

Spooky...

I'm sorry, I didn't understand that...

That's a good question 26199. (May I call you 26?) I would say that as a member of the species I think I know human beings fairly well; what they are capable of and, in this case, what is impossible.

I personally don't have a problem with the concept that there are some things in the universe that are as yet not understood by us. Do you really believe that mankind has discovered everything there is to discover? That sort of scientific arrogance was best expressed by a famous physicist (Lord Kelvin??) who, circa 1900, suggested that all patent offices might as well be closed down, as 'there is nothing left to invent'!

Regarding crop circles I would like to pass the burden of proof over to the doubters. Prove to me that every circle is man-made! You might like to start with the Julia Set, which apparently appeared in broad daylight a few yards from Stonehenge, one of the busient tourist sites in England. Or the huge formation that appeared last year at Milk Hill. Or the fact that many admitted 'fakers' have apparently reported being disturbed on several occaisons by the 'real' circlemakers...

The Julia Set?



There's some strange force out there, and it's doing higher mathematics!... hmm. Well, not exactly *higher*... but it can do complex number multiplication, test for boundary conditions, and plot the results!...

Sorry, but I find it very hard to get at all concerned about the matter...

Humans are capable of an awful lot... in fact, examples of human ingenuity regularly turn up that amaze and astound the rest of us. In addition, examples of human mischief are virtually unbounded...

Hmm, this is a rather interesting article on the Juila Set crop circles:

http://www.circlemakers.org/la.html

In summary - yes, they were man made.

In fact, the rest of that site is well worth a visit... I hadn't appreciated the sheer amount of work that goes into these things!... very impressive...

The whole point of the circle makers doing the Julia set was to show that anything is possible, no matter how complex. They picked the Julia set because it looks good, couldn't appear by any natural means and would be a tongue-in-cheek joke to all the scientific world. I'm laughing anyway! I believe they also did cartoon characters as well, something which natural forces are unlikely to do.

Why cast the burden of proof on the doubters? We know who made the circles, we know how they made the circles, we have their admissions, we have films of them doing it. Why bother to itemise every single circle and "prove" that it was done by humans? Isn't it obvious?

"Why bother to itemise every single circle and "prove" that it was done by humans? Isn't it obvious?"

Referring back to my post #9, no...

To cast the burden of proof upon the doubters is an ass-backwards way of doing things. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and the claim that crop circles are produced by paranormal forces simply doesn't stand up. Before you take me to task again about the way I interpret the word 'magical', it's worth noting that the original article dealt with exactly that term in exactly the context I disagree with.

And no, I have never stood in a crop circle. But I imagine it's quite akin to me standing in the fairy ring I have growing on my back lawn and which I have tried to eradicate: I feel nothing spiritual, rather a sense of 'well, here we go again'. Rather like I did when I read the article in PR in the first place.