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Top of the Crops 2002

Steeltoe writes "For those deeply familiar with crop circles, 2, they are truly an amazing wonder of the world. Not only are they getting unnervingly complex and beautiful, but last year researchers found themselves dumbfounded by an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc, 2, 3! Clearly, there are not enough wonders in the world, but lack of wonder and excitement! If you like adventure, you cannot turn your back on this, 2! Check out the cool circles of 2002 at Crop Circle Connector and at Circlemakers 'Top of the Crops 2002', or even take a physical *gasp* tour during the high-peak season next summer and see for yourself!! Only imagination may tell what will pop up from the crops in 2003."

445 comments

  1. Come on by rela · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Crop circles? Slow news day, guys?

    1. Re:Come on by Latent+IT · · Score: 1

      Guys claiming that they thought up a X-box like console in 1991.

      I'm sure that by that you mean, "Thought up a console", since that site could not have gone more out of it's way to stress that it wasn't anything like an X-box.

      Hey, maybe you can't be bothered to read the sites either?

    2. Re:Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      No, he said what he meant. That story was a hoax. $5 for 1 MB of RAM in 1991 my ass.

    3. Re:Come on by The+Bungi · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      Not only that, but the frist porst is +2,Funny

      *ducks*

    4. Re:Come on by rela · · Score: 1
      Unfortunately, Slashdot is slowly becoming the tabloid of the Internet world.

      Oh, yes, very much so. And yet I can't seem to stay away. This must be how real tabloids make money: You know it's BS, but it's mildly amusing BS and you're bored.

      Also, I read at -1 so I get the bonus of the occasional inventive troll.

    5. Re:Come on by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I guess they thought crop circles was more newsworthy than this story I submitted about the Pentagon offering administrator access to its computers to anyone who wants it.

    6. Re:Come on by nrlightfoot · · Score: 1

      Wow, that was easy to find. it took all of 5 minutes to find the site handing out the .mil adresses on google.

      --
      what sig?
    7. Re:Come on by The+Bungi · · Score: 0, Offtopic
      The offtopic nazis are at it again, trying to squash anything that even approaches criticism about the way this place is run.

      Fuck, bring it on.

    8. Re:Come on by rela · · Score: 1
      They can't lower the score further than -1. All you have to do to defeat crackhead moderators is read at -1.

      If other people don't, it's their loss, I say.

  2. Crop Circles by CyberBill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I wonder when people will realize you can make these things with a 2x4 and a piece of rope? I'm from Nebraska, we've got a lot of corn there... So, well, its just fun, ya know? -Bill

    --
    -Bill
    1. Re:Crop Circles by rela · · Score: 1
      That's just what I was thinking. And a picture of ET? I'm sure the submitter was joking around, but the people that think space-aliens are doing these confuse me greatly.

      If I were an alien, I'd look for a more direct means of communication, myself.

    2. Re:Crop Circles by Planesdragon · · Score: 5, Interesting
      I wonder when people will realize you can make these things with a 2x4 and a piece of rope? I'm from Nebraska, we've got a lot of corn there... So, well, its just fun, ya know? -Bill

      Of course you can. And they can, too. But there are a few more phenomina to it than just pressing down crops.

      Nearly-perfect geometic shapes

      small (measured in micron) iron spheres scattered throughout the crop circle

      Slightly elevated radition / "cooked" effect to pushed-down corn

      and, finally, odd performance from aircraft around crop circles

      The last one its the one that threw me. On the "TV mentury" that documented a few graduate engineers faking a "genuine" crop circle, their helicopter suffered an loss of power over the darn thing. Odd--not the stuff of religious revelations, but odd.

      Crop circles may be an as-yet undocumented natural phenomina, a higher-order of technology (Military or "UFO"), or just a really, really, REALLY clever prank. I don't know, I've never seen one.

      But they are more than you can do with "just a 2x4 and a piece of rope."

    3. Re:Crop Circles by commodoresloat · · Score: 3, Funny
      If I were an alien, I'd look for a more direct means of communication, myself.

      Who says they're even trying to communicate? Crop circles are just a means of confusing and distracting the human race as the aliens prepare to destroy us.

    4. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is such paranoid bullock, yeah aliens have nothing better to do then trash the crops of lesser species.

      >Nearly-perfect geometic shapes

      how on earth does this require some unknown phenominon? get a buddy to stand in the middle and mark it out by circling him at the end of a string. Just have two people stand still with said string between them for a strait line.

      >small (measured in micron) iron spheres
      >scattered throughout the crop circle

      just use a handy dandy meteor gun.

      >Slightly elevated radition / "cooked" effect to >pushed-down corn

      I guess we have never heard of a microwave have we.

      >and, finally, odd performance from aircraft
      >around crop circles

      See above. All of these "unevplained phenominon" were reproduced my some MIT kids (they maid a documentary out of it for craps sake.), grow up and move on. Of course I could just be one of THEM...cripes.

      -troy

    5. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You may never know how ridiculous your post is.

    6. Re:Crop Circles by l810c · · Score: 4, Funny
      If I were an alien, I'd look for a more direct means of communication, myself.

      I agree, nothing like a good ole cattle mutilation to get yer point across.

    7. Re:Crop Circles by Usquebaugh · · Score: 1

      Particulary downwind of an old nuclear test area.

    8. Re:Crop Circles by helix400 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      You've made an excellent point.

      There's the faked 2x4 crop circles, and then there are others with much more curious evidence.

      Unfortunately, rebuttals are lacking for the tougher evidence that supporters put forth (biological changes to the plants, higher radiation, a microwaved like effect, etc.)

      Can anyone help me out with some rebuttals on these issues? I for one, still believe that they are all a hoax, but I'm looking for some good explanations to these somewhat scientific sounding evidences. Its one thing to be laugh and say "Ha, its just a bunch of pranksters." and another to ask "So, can anyone fake these evidence? Are they natural? Are these evidences a bunch of crap?"

    9. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is this meant to be an explanation for cattle mutilation?

    10. Re:Crop Circles by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 1

      "I wonder when people will realize you can make these things with a 2x4 and a piece of rope?"

      Supposedly the 'authentic' crop circles exist in a location of strange energy disturbances. Those, (assuming that's true, i've only heard it on the Art Bell show...) would be hard to recreate.

      I am curious if anybody else has heard about the energy disturbances near some of the crop circles. Anybody have any decent information on it? Art Bell guests strike me as a bit.. uh.. passionate about their work.

    11. Re:Crop Circles by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      I am curious if anybody else has heard about the energy disturbances near some of the crop circles

      Simple, if people find a crop circle, someone may start talking about the "strange energy distrubances" in the area, even when nobody has mentioned anything about the disturbance before.

      Whatever "strange energy disturbances" means.

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    12. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      and, finally, odd performance from aircraft around crop circles

      The last one its the one that threw me. On the "TV mentury" that documented a few graduate engineers faking a "genuine" crop circle, their helicopter suffered an loss of power over the darn thing.


      Odd performance by one helicopter on one flight means absolutely nothing.

      Now, if you were to tell me that several aircraft had flown over several different crop circles, and that all of them had experienced loss of power over the crop circles and nowhere else, it might be worth investigating further. But that's not the case.

    13. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Which people need to realize this?

      When the original circle boom was at its height in the beginning of the 90's, two guys came out with a lot of media attention, and they claimed they had made most of the circles in Great Britain during the 80's, and they explained how they'd done it (2x4, ballcap, a length of rope).

      And also, the people who are running the Top of the Crops make crop circles themselves (for fun and for money), so they at least obviously know how they make them.

      The complicated shapes, geometry, and so on are apparently not at all hard to do, either. But the thing that sometimes seems to leave the circlemakers.org puzzled is the size of some formations, compared to the time they appear in.

    14. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, it could just be an organized group of bored NASA scientists with too much free time. No one said pranksters didn't have access to big toys.

      The idea that these crop circles are somehow beyond human ability to create is just plain silly. I don't care if they irradiated an entire field, that doesn't make it impossible. In fact, irradiating a small area with something higher than background radiation isn't all that difficult given the right hardware.

      Micron sized balls? They are called ball bearings and yes, they make them that small.

      Frankly, the only evidence I need is the fact that I've yet to see a UFO on TV with aliens coming out of it, because if they want me to know they are there... that's how they'd do it. Not with some silly cryptic pattern written in plants.

    15. Re:Crop Circles by jejones · · Score: 1

      How about this, from circlemakers.org, which calls into question the doctorate of one of the people often cited with respect to supposed "biophysical changes" in plants in crop circles?

    16. Re:Crop Circles by cheekyboy · · Score: 0

      your stupid post was NOT INSIGHTFULL, but completely utter crap, and perhaps funny..

      --
      Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
    17. Re:Crop Circles by sjwt · · Score: 1

      >>Nearly-perfect geometic shapes

      >how on earth does this require some unknown
      >phenominon? get a buddy to stand in the middle
      >and mark it out by circling him at the end of a
      >string. Just have two people stand still with
      >said string between them for a strait line.

      That is all nice,
      but how many have you been to?
      ever donw the exp. your self??

      The broken and mashed steams are nothing
      at all like the bent and twisted ones,
      a lot of the 'two mates with rope' ones
      have paths leading into and out of the
      circles, the geomerty is slightly off,
      the bending isnt even all round..

      All these thigns lead to a remarkable
      differnce in quality..

      many theroys exist other then two guys
      or aliens, no one relay knows about the
      good quility ones..

      http://www.paradigmshift.com/theories.html

      I wish i coudl rember the doco on tv about
      crop circles, thos guys who clamed to have
      done them at night in a few hours in the dark
      realy sucked when put under the spot light
      and given a full day to work..

      --
      You have 5 Moderator Points!
      Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
    18. Re:Crop Circles by geronimo87 · · Score: 1

      My all time favorite Art Bell moment:

      Linda Howe was a guest on his show, reporting on crop circles. She told Art of a new circle that included the number "420". They speculated about what the "aliens" were trying to communicate to us, what could 420 possibly mean? Then a listener called in to explain the meaning of 420. There was an embarrassed silence, then the subject was quickly changed.

      Man, I miss Art.

    19. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have to say it...

      All your crops belongs to us...

      (And cows etc. too.)

    20. Re:Crop Circles by Planesdragon · · Score: 1

      Odd performance by one helicopter on one flight means absolutely nothing.

      Of course it does. It means just as much as getting struck by lightning on the same day your girlfriend of five years dumps you.

      It doesn't PROVE any grand corellation, but it does, at the least, prove that odd coincidences happen.

      Nothing means nothing; everything means something. It's just that it takes a lot of something meanings to PROVE anything.

    21. Re:Crop Circles by Meowharishi · · Score: 0

      You, sir, are an insipid karma whore exposing the fascist corruption of Slashdot. Whereas I post intelligent counterpoint arguments to LINUX and OPEN SOURCE zealot faggots you post nothing but tripe and you get the good karma and I go to Slashdot hell. FUCK YOU!!!!!!!! yessir, thats what.

      --
      mje0w!!!1!
    22. Re:Crop Circles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And here I thought they were having too much fun with their anal probes to get anything done.

      Oh, wait, that's the editors of /., my bad.

    23. Re:Crop Circles by Headius · · Score: 1

      1. Nearly perfect geometric shapes

      There's a number of ways one can produce these shapes using a series of ropes and stakes. The fact that these images are perfect geometric shapes actually HELPS prove that they're manmade. Regardless of how complex they are, there are simple geometric principles one can use to produce them. Consider the alternative...if they were not perfect geometric shapes, i.e. shapes that could not be produced through some simple mathematical formulation, but still perfectly created, would they be less or more convincing?

      The pictures are even more obvious (including the ASCII-encoded "digital disc". If the intent is to communicate an image, there would be much better ways to do so. And ASCII encoding? In perfect English? Why not just write the damned letters? Encodinging it "digitally" makes it seem less obvious...people with little knowledge of ASCII or character codings go "ooh" and "ahh" and say it must be real. Gimme a break.

      2. iron spheres

      Please, I have a bucket of these in my garage. They're called various names, including "microspheres" and are used in various industries as a substrate, deburring mechanism, polishing medium, abrasive medium, etc. Under a microscope, they can be as small as a couple hundred microns. Try here.

      3. Radioactive, cooked plants

      Radioactive microspheres are often used for delivering radioactive isotopes for medical applications. Try here.

      As for the cooking, I'd have to see it for myself, but a quick torch at low temparature applied to a plant causes the sugars near the surface to quickly carmelize, and the plant to become pliable without severe damage to the core of the plant. The results afterwards, however, are a permanent change in the shape of the plant, and reduced growth (but the plant is not killed). In the presence of water, the plants can also be softened with less damage to the stem. Again, I don't know for sure :) Plants are pretty resilient things though.

      4. odd performance from aircraft

      Dunno about this one. I'd be interested in a double-blind study to confirm this is the case, and I haven't seen any definitive evidence saying this is true. Have someone fly over it without knowing it was there and report problems, and maybe we'll have a winner. If someone sees the circle or knows it's there BEFORE reporting problems, all bets are off. We are easily influence by things we want to believe. "There's a crop circle, I bet my instruments are going to go wacky....THEY ARE!!!"

  3. Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by Infonaut · · Score: 1
    Reading Steeltoe's entry made me wonder if he was serious, tongue-in-cheek, self-mocking, or some sort of crazy amalgam of all three. Maybe you have to been in the crop-circle "circle" to understand... .

    --
    Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    1. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by Chymaera · · Score: 1

      Glancing at a few of his comments and the google cache of his webpage(?), I'd say he's serious. Ah, well, stuff like this is good once in a while.

      "It's funny. Laugh."

    2. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by Steeltoe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I don't know who are making the circles, but I find it highly improbable that they are man-made with planks and strings. I find the topic very interesting, because it lacks a good explanation so far. The fanatical sceptics that immediately buys the plank-and-string theory, are as much believers as the other side IMHO.

      I'm planning a trip to see them for myself. Maybe I'll get wiser then :-)

    3. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by khuber · · Score: 1
      The fanatical sceptics that immediately buys the plank-and-string theory, are as much believers as the other side IMHO.

      Okay, possibly the humans who made this didn't use planks and strings.

      -Kevin

    4. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      My point is that you and many others here don't have the guts to go there and find out. You just want a comfortable answer, so you'll never discover anything new.. You'll become rooted into a belief-system where everything is dull and lifeless.

      I'm not like that. I stick my neck out and risk being "wrong", because to explore can be absolutely worth it. It's worth it, even if it "fails".

    5. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by Infonaut · · Score: 1
      I stick my neck out and risk being "wrong", because to explore can be absolutely worth it.

      Now that's a philosophy I can get behind. More power to you, Steeltoe. Seriously. Far too many people in this world are unwilling to take a chance for fear of looking foolish. Now I understand where you're coming from.

      Rock on!

      --
      Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
    6. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by khuber · · Score: 1
      Uh huh. Do you find reality to be dull and lifeless?

      -Kevin

    7. Re:Where are emoticons when you need 'em? by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Uh huh. Do you find reality to be dull and lifeless?

      If you mean a reality where we get born, go to school, go to work and then drop dead, then yes, that is dull and lifeless.

      I believe there is much more to life than what authorities tell us.

  4. Uhm.... by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 4, Funny
    Quote from the first link: For the thousands reported every year, the vast majority go completely undetected

    Huh?

    1. Re:Uhm.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In English: Though there are thousands of crop circles reported, many more than those thousands probably go undetected.

    2. Re:Uhm.... by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      RedBear's comment really sums it all up. Read that excellent summary here.

      Moderators: Go moderate those other blatantly ignorant posts. RedBears comment deserves to go to the top.

    3. Re:Uhm.... by jcsehak · · Score: 1

      Just like those tree-dwelling elephants.

      --

      c-hack.com |
    4. Re:Uhm.... by pos · · Score: 1

      I liked this one:

      By definition, hoaxes are forgeries, and forgeries require originals from which to copy. So what is this 'unknown force' that creates genuine crop circles? One answer may lie with sound.

      Oh I see... a hoax is a forgery; so there has to be an original. Awesome. I like your ability to redefine words. Can you teach me to do that too?

      hoax - n.
      1. An act intended to deceive or trick.
      2. Something that has been established or
      accepted by fraudulent means.


      I guess they are using a different dictionary.
      -pos

      --
      The truth is more important than the facts.
      -Frank Lloyd Wright
  5. Still no crop circles of... by dynoman7 · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...Bill the Cat, Jenna Jameson or Osama bin Laden. Wake me up if things change...

    --
    Blarf.
    1. Re:Still no crop circles of... by rela · · Score: 1
      ...Bill the Cat, Jenna Jameson or Osama bin Laden. Wake me up if things change...

      For some reason, when I first read that, I thought it said 'Eek the Cat'...

    2. Re:Still no crop circles of... by BilldaCat · · Score: 1

      :(

      --
      BilldaCat
  6. crop circle robots by calib0r · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Makes me wonder how long it will be before someone hacks together some control units, a lawn tractor, and a gps system and some randome patteren generator software and creates an autonomous crop circle generator.

    How cool would it be to drop off this contraption in the middle of a field, set some width/height parameters, and let it run free, just to see what you could come up with. Maybe even have it draw fractal patterns or somthing.

    --
    -===- "Those who would sacrifice freedom for security deserver neither" -===-
    1. Re:crop circle robots by Wavicle · · Score: 4, Funny

      Maybe even have it draw fractal patterns or somthing.

      Like the MandelCrop Set?

      --
      Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army.
      Edward Everett (1794 - 1865)
    2. Re:crop circle robots by servasius_jr · · Score: 3, Funny

      Makes me wonder how long it will be before someone hacks together some control units, a lawn tractor, and a gps system and some randome patteren generator software and creates an autonomous crop circle generator.

      Yeah, it's all fun and games until one gets loose at the old folk's home.

      Nothing as far as the eye can see but blood, gore, and dentures. Will we ever learn?

    3. Re:crop circle robots by Cybercifrado · · Score: 2, Funny

      What OS will they run? Turtle LOGO?

    4. Re:crop circle robots by kisielk · · Score: 1

      John Deere already includes GPS on some of their equipment. Check this out. Your idea may not be as far-fetched as you think.

    5. Re:crop circle robots by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe these robots could interpret PostScript for the sake of open standards!

    6. Re:crop circle robots by geekoid · · Score: 1

      yes, I'm sure the farmer would be thrilled.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    7. Re:crop circle robots by 5alligator · · Score: 1

      sorta like this?

    8. Re:crop circle robots by horcy · · Score: 1

      MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA

      --
      Check my site: http://pixel.pagina.nl
    9. Re:crop circle robots by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Like the MandelCrop Set?

      You mean this one? :-)

    10. Re:crop circle robots by Threni · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately such a contraption would be unlikely to produce a result as amusing as this one:

      http://www11.brinkster.com/code10v2/ufo/main/cro pc ircles/circle_man_made.html

      Seems our TV transmission are being appreciated outside our solar system after all!

    11. Re:crop circle robots by prichardson · · Score: 1

      and a gps system

      Sorry to burst you bubble, but GPS can legally only be acurate within something like 15 ft. It would work for really really big projects, but not for little ones. You wuld be better off programming te robots movements directly.

      Also, just to nitpick, you said global positioning system system :)

      --
      Help I'm a rock.
    12. Re:crop circle robots by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      That cropcircle were being used in one of the articles I linked to in the story (3 - three) as an example of a bad mad-made circle vs the more technically advanced alien face.

      Not a very good choice IMHO..

    13. Re:crop circle robots by Bishop · · Score: 1

      Differential GPS can easily do 1m accuracy. And short term accuracy is even better.

    14. Re:crop circle robots by spleck · · Score: 1

      Could you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these crop circle robots...

      Maybe someone would even start using them to reap their crops...

  7. No crop circles in by altaic · · Score: 4, Funny

    Columbia, South America. Know why? 'Cause not even aliens will mess up their special "crop." Or maybe it's cause the dumbass drunks plodding around fields wearing snowshoes all get shot for damaging the crop and being mistaken for theives.

  8. Adding fuel to the fire by senobium · · Score: 5, Funny
    Last Month July 2002 The Crop Circle Connector used over 232.42GB of Bandwidth (our highest bandwidth since 1995 for one calendar month). Since last year we have halved our Bandwidth costs, but this will still cost us around £400 to pay for July. Many people visit the web site to see the latest crop circles without contributing towards the web site with Memberships. We are asking people now to join us and maintain the best crop circle web with the best pictures on the Internet. Please do not let us down or yourselves and start joining today or sending us a donation.
    ...well, if the aliens don't make these guys disappear, /. certainly will!
    1. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by MortimerK · · Score: 4, Funny
      TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO POINT FOUR TWO GIGABYTES OF DATA?!

      Holy crap! I mean really, what? That much? For pictures of crop circles? Are they that popular? That's a lot. I mean, that's a lot.

      How about reducing the size or number of your pictures?

      Or perhaps get the aliens to beam the images directly to users' computers. That would save costs double-plus.

      No! Beam the images directly into their minds! Yes, that's it. Information delivery on the cheap. "Beamed to your head, straight from aliens." - That's what the site should say.

      "Think here to continue."

    2. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Behold. The power of conspiracy nuts.

    3. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by BeneathTheVeil · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Think here to continue."

      Wouldn't that render most users incompatible with the site?

    4. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "232.42GB of Bandwidth"

      Their images are all ~500KB .bmp's!!!

      Maybe the aliens forgot to tell them about jpg and png!!!

    5. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by cisco_s · · Score: 1

      And now that they've been slashdotted, they're screwed.

    6. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by Spunk · · Score: 3, Funny

      TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO POINT FOUR TWO GIGABYTES OF DATA?!

      Doc: Great Scott! The only thing powerful enough to take up that much bandwidth is a link from Slashdot!

      Marty: A what?

      Doc: A link from Slashdot! Unfortunately, you never know when or where it's ever gonna strike!

      Marty: We do now.

    7. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by jcsehak · · Score: 1

      .27 gigs is crop circle pictures. The rest is alien pr0n.

      --

      c-hack.com |
    8. Re:Adding fuel to the fire by scrytch · · Score: 1

      No kidding. If there's that many hard core enthusiasts, I have one word: gnutella. The connector site need only use magnet or ed2k urls then. Very cheap. What would be slick is if someone could hack on protozilla to fetch those automatically.

      --
      I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
  9. hahaha... by BlackTriangle · · Score: 0

    I love all of those really fancy crop circles. Hey, wasn't there a movie out this summer? And don't movie marketers often do "subversive" things to get word of mouth going? And let me guess, all the stylist crop circles stopped after the movie came out? Is there a DVD coming out soon? Better check out a farm near you!

  10. No mystery... by LinuxPunk · · Score: 2, Informative

    there's no mystery at all behind crop circles. I remember seeing a tv show about them a few years back, and they're just made with wooden boards, string, and a bit of geometry. They even showed a group of people making one.. impressive what can be done with this method in a few hours, but certainly not a mystery as to how or who/what makes them.

    1. Re:No mystery... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Been there done that myself, with 2 friends while drunk, using only our jackets to flatten the plants.

      Had this small town abuzz. within 2 days 'experts' flew in to inspect the unique geometrical designs, and declared it "impossible" that this was the work of pranksters.

      It's amazing how much respect someone labelling themselves as an 'expert' gets by stating what we did was impossible through made-up logic. Had me laughing!

    2. Re:No mystery... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same kind of pretendy answer those 'experts' threw out. heh. denial is funny.

      loser.

    3. Re:No mystery... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Kill your television.

    4. Re:No mystery... by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      I'd suggest you do your research on it, maybe even read the links, before you post. It's one think to have a healthy sceptisism, another is to have only faith in your doubts. New discoveries requires faith. If everybody thought like you, we'd be stuck in the iron age.

    5. Re:No mystery... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh no you didn't girlfriend!

    6. Re:No mystery... by SiChemist · · Score: 1



      I'd suggest you do your research on it, maybe even read the links, before you post. It's one think to have a healthy sceptisism, another is to have only faith in your doubts. New discoveries requires faith. If everybody thought like you, we'd be stuck in the iron age.

      New discoveries are hampered by faith. Faith prevented Galileo's discoveries from being accepted by the world. New discoveries are made by intelligent, rational beings investigating the world around them with a reliance only on discreet data. Not by "believing in" something unproven-- that is what you are asking for. I followed several of the links, and I did not see any credible reports of phenomena that can't be easily explained as part of a hoax. I salute the slashdotters that listen to the sweet voice of reason instead of wistful wishing.

    7. Re:No mystery... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The problem with that is that there are so many produced. Supernatural or extraterestrial explanations seem like over kill, but it seems unfair to say that there is "certainly not a mystery".

    8. Re:No mystery... by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      New discoveries are hampered by faith.

      On the contrary. Faith in those time were knowledge. The religious church as grand authority could smash down on scientific research in those days.

      The same is happening today, but with reversed roles: The church of science, logic and its blind followers are hampering the progress of humanity and spirituality by smashing down on everything "out of the ordinary".

      I'm not asking you to believe in something which doesn't exist. Belief is weak, because it asks you to "know" something you don't really know. I'm just asking for an open mind, a mind that doesn't say: "yes, yes, no, no" to everything you read, limiting your view on the subject.

      Don't you find it fascinating that there are thousands of cropcirlces made every year, in many different parts of the world? That cropcircles may inhibit cropgrowth, so that you can see the marks from previous year in the new crop of this year? MUST every explanation include human beings? If so, then there is no problem: By double-thinking, you can trick your brain into believing that.. Just like a believer.

      You my friend, is a believer of logic. You're not so different from religious people as you think you are.

  11. thank God for mozilla by joseph+schmo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    so i could increase the font size to the point that i could actually click on those 1-character long links, 2, 3!

    1. Re:thank God for mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow.. yeah... IE can't increase font size. Good for you, frickin' mozilla users.

    2. Re:thank God for mozilla by joseph+schmo · · Score: 0, Troll

      ok the point i was trying to make was about the 1-character long links. use IE until the 'frickin' cows come home, if you want :p

    3. Re:thank God for mozilla by Natalie's+Hot+Grits · · Score: 1

      Actually...

      In IE, on windows XP patched latest updates, default font size at 1024x768 32 bit colors on a 17" monitor, the font size isnt even close to being too small to use.

      In linux using mozilla, with default fonts, 1024x768, 17" monitor, the links are about 6 pixels high.

      Yea, thank god for mozilla. If you weren't using it in the first place, you wouldnt have that problem.

      On the other hand, IE can also resize font sizes. click "View" -> "Text Size" -> and select what size you want.

      I am not a microsoft troll, and I dont much like IE, but you sir just want to start crap about mozilla (on the other hand, maybe you are just annoyed about 1 letter links, but im afraid that has nothing at all to do with mozilla vs. IE. sorry)

      --
      Two infinite things: your stupidity and mine. But I'm not sure about the latter. If my sig offends you, I'm sorry.
    4. Re:thank God for mozilla by joseph+schmo · · Score: 0, Troll

      >> but you sir just want to start crap about mozilla

      dear madam,

      get your head out of your ass and read my follow-up reply, whereby i clarified exactly what i wanted to start crap about.

      as i do not use ie, i did not realize it also had this amazing font-sizing feature.

      i now bow down to your humble infinite wisdom and acknowledge your pompousness as superior to mine.

      good day.

    5. Re:thank God for mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm sorry to hear clicking the mouse is a difficult task for you. Definately insightful.

    6. Re:thank God for mozilla by Chokma · · Score: 1

      Mozilla is great... until it crashes at the attempt to load
      http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/2002.html

      how strange. Maybe the Aliens out there are enemies of Free Software. Or are they specifically after me, beaming random bits of destruction into my computer's RAM? Or maybe they change my perceptions capabilities so I perceive Mozilla as failing.

      SYS: Mandrake 9.0 / Mozilla 1.2.1

    7. Re:thank God for mozilla by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

      For some reason distros don't tend to tell X the size of the monitor. X doesn't know that you have a 17" monitor, and so has no idea how big to make the fonts.

      All you need to do is tell it. Measure the height and width of the viewable area on your screen in mm, and under the 'Section "Display"' in XF86Config-4, add "DisplaySize x y" with x and y being the width and height in mm.
      While you are at it, make sure you have 'Option "DPMS"' in there for power saving.

    8. Re:thank God for mozilla by Ivan+Raikov · · Score: 1

      Mozilla is great... until it crashes at the attempt to load http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/2002.html

      Works fine for me in Mozilla 1.1 and Mandrake 9.0. I have some of the JavaScript features disabled, so maybe that's why it works.

    9. Re:thank God for mozilla by Chokma · · Score: 1

      Disabled everything in JavaScript except cookies. => crash (both Phoenix & Mozilla). Have looked at the HTML-Source - whoever wrote this is sure able to believe in cropcircles...

    10. Re:thank God for mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Works fine for me too. Loads almost instantaneously, although Java is really putting a strain on my machine.
      Mozilla build 2003010404 (which is not a very stable period as we approach a code freeze)

    11. Re:thank God for mozilla by SiChemist · · Score: 1



      I'm using Mozilla 1.2.1 XFT under RH 8.0 and the page rendered fine for me. Maybe it's the voodoo doll I keep on top of the monitor :-)

    12. Re:thank God for mozilla by Chokma · · Score: 0

      It was Shockwave-Flash. Somehow.
      rm'ed the flashlibs and the page loads ok.

      BTW, I searched for a way to remove the annoying plugin-question when the flashlibs are not found by mozilla. My solution: rename the null-plugin to [*.]bak. At the next run, mozilla informs you that this lib is missing and no further plugins will be downloaded. :)

      At last! Now I can browse the page about the disturbing Crap Circles!

    13. Re:thank God for mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got showed up and so now you act like a jackass. What a fucking moron.

    14. Re:thank God for mozilla by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm using Netscape 6 on Windows and I can read and click the links fine. And I know for certain that I can in Internet Explorer. Oh but Linux is open sourced and special and free. But at least us Window's users who don't care about source code or if it's hip to use the operating system or not can read and click the links :)

    15. Re:thank God for mozilla by joseph+schmo · · Score: 1

      yea she really showed me up, you anonymous dickhead.

  12. In soviety yeah yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    CROP CIRCLES MAKE ALIENS!

    Or crop circles make 2x4 with string :( Pick whichever one suits you

    Sorry, I had to do it

    1. Re:In soviety yeah yeah by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Sorry, I had to do it

      No. You didn't.

  13. Major League Baseball by Forgotten · · Score: 3, Funny

    I recently came across this press release on NASA's satellite monitoring of wheat fields, cunningly disguised as a project to aid agriculture (yeah right!). I fear for the poor crop-circle artists. Can even the stealthiest stalk-stomper evade the watchful satellite's malevolent eye?

  14. Pranks by Natchswing · · Score: 4, Funny
    If only the satellite pictures with high enough resolution to see the kids making these things would be released to the public.

    Nevermind, the public would still say it was alien crop circles made to prove that NASA faked the moon landings, as was written in the email I got proclaiming that I would get 14 million longer penises in Nigeria because of the government conspiracy to spy on us using the IR receivers for our television remotes.

    As long as religion reigns, ignorance will be our biggest social problem.

    1. Re:Pranks by doorbot.com · · Score: 2, Insightful

      As long as religion reigns, ignorance will be our biggest social problem.

      But is it really ignorance? Many "religious types" (and I consider belief in aliens a "religious" state of mind) want to believe so much, they are willing to either ignore repeately-proven facts, or they allow their imagination to fill in for their lack of facts (which is not necessarily due to ignorance).

      Just think of the wild stories you could get if you took the news and filled in an adjective here, a verb there, and a noun elsewhere -- imagine MadLibs as the news. Now imagine if people actually believed it...

    2. Re:Pranks by Metrol · · Score: 1

      ...the public would still say it was alien crop circles made to prove that NASA faked the moon landings

      You gullible fool. Those of us who went to see "Signs" know full well what their up to! Oh sure, they can manage faster than light travel to get here, and navigate to this tiny spec of a planet we reside on, but unless they have crop circles in place they'll never be able to find Toledo to launch the invading force!

      Our only hope is to make road atlases top secrect information. And you just sit there and laugh... Hah!

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    3. Re:Pranks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      As long as religion reigns, ignorance will be our biggest social problem.


      Trust me, it's no better in seculiar countries. Earth-rays et al.
  15. It must be aliens! (Or slow crop year) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    'cause i have a hard time seeing enough drunken frat boys to do the job in one night getting those lines straight.

    1. Re:It must be aliens! (Or slow crop year) by kendric · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Generally, we got drunk after making the crop circles. (speaking from experience, oh the joys of a small rural town)

  16. IN COMMUNIST NORTH KOREA by wackybrit · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Crop circles love US long time!

  17. Photos of hoaxers by Scot+Seese · · Score: 4, Insightful


    C'mon, I want photos of the circle perpetrators! I can't believe that in this era of cheap technology that someone hasn't camcorder'd yay-hoos stomping around in their field in the act of making crop circles. Or, after hearing their dog barking at 2 AM, driven down the road to inspect their fence and photographed idiot kids in the process of throwing their 2x4's into a pickup before racing off. Forget the ET's - Circulate enough photos of the real circle makers and this one will go quietly into the dark night of historical obscurity.

    --
    THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
    1. Re:Photos of hoaxers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You are in a clear minority. Such pictures, even videotapes taken by the crop circle makers themselves, have thus far failed to interest many crop circle fanatics (although the enormous preponderance of evidence has swayed a few), nor have they apparently made much difference in the cult-like popularity of crop circles. People still seem to widely believe these works of art are made by whirlwinds, space aliens, upside-down flying helicopters, space vortices, and other nonsense. Oh well.

      Perhaps part of the reason is that pictures of people walking around in a field at night just aren't very interesting. Well, Ok, maybe spy camera photos of drunk Brits running around in wheat fields at night really do interest some people -- to each their own!

      If it weren't enough that the hoaxers themselves have admitted to making the crop circles, and have invited researchers along with them while circles were made, it still stands that there is no crop circle effect that cannot be explained more easily by mundane processes.

      Oh yes, lost crop circle making tools have even been found in fields (albeit rarely...who'd be dumb enough to drop their 2x4 and not find it again?).

      Jeesh! It's amazing that:
      a) this stuff makes it on to Slashdot, and
      b) that people still believe it's some sort of otherworldly phenomenon...

      Ok, I'm off to find some better journalism on FOX.

    2. Re:Photos of hoaxers by GMontag451 · · Score: 1

      Why would the farmers who own the fields want to release photos of the creators? Then they couldn't make up all the money lost in destroyed crops through tourism. You should look at the photos in the story, one of them shows a $2 entry fee sign.

    3. Re:Photos of hoaxers by ryepup · · Score: 1

      Simple answer: $$$
      By ignoring the human artists of these things, people can sell books, memberships to websites, admission to see the circle, go on speaking tours, etc. I've seen documentaries on TLC that have a time-lapse of 4 Australians (maybe new zealanders) making a crop circle. I wouldn't be surprised if there were groups that contacts farmers with a business proposition, they make the circle, he charges people to see it, they sell photos to the media, and people come and drop their jaws to see some awesome unearthly power. Everyone wins, even the poor saps who pay for the whole mess. They get a taste of mystery in an increasingly less mysterious world.

    4. Re:Photos of hoaxers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And you don't think some farmer can't make alot of money, much less be all over the news after videotaping or photographing a complex crop circle being made?

    5. Re:Photos of hoaxers by GMontag451 · · Score: 1

      No. No one wants to hear about crop circles being faked. Crop circles being real is much more exciting.

  18. is it just me or am i really ignorant by atari2600 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Clearly, there are not enough wonders in the world, but lack of wonder and excitement

    What kind of English is that?

    1. Re:is it just me or am i really ignorant by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 1

      No, it's not English, it must be Engrish

      BTM

      --
      That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
    2. Re:is it just me or am i really ignorant by geekoid · · Score: 1

      Its a new kind :slashenglish

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  19. Encoded CD by darkov · · Score: 5, Funny

    an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc

    So did someone read off what was encoded on the disc with ET? I bet it reads something like this:


    Microsoft End-User Licence Agreement

    (1) This licence entitles you to limited-use rights to this crop circle ...

    1. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge."

      http://www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=512

    2. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      " ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc"

      In a related reuters article today- Hillary Rosen of the RIAA has has sued the ET under the DMCA for publicly showing an encoded CD-disc. Said Rosen "Every year the music publishers are losing billions of dollars because of file sharing over the Internet. The fact that even interstellar beings are stealing music means even more of studio executives hard-earned money is literally dissapearing into space!"

      The RIAA intends to lobby house and senate commities to create a mandantory encryption scheme for wheat and corn fields.

    3. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      We'll know the aliens among us by their inability to use consistent capitalisation?

    4. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Warez and script kiddies!!!!

    5. Re:Encoded CD by -1bynextweek · · Score: 2, Funny

      You realise this means the aliens have been trying for years to communicate with us through Slashdot... ...but have been stopped by the lameness filters.

    6. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
      Backing up the 'request' idea is the fact that following the 0110 segment, the data strip itself continues for one complete revolution, which seems to be inviting us to use it ourselves for a reply. We would have been able to impress about eighteen letters into this unused strip, saying something like "Wow. Message received."

      There is a very good reason data cannot be recorded on that strip.

      That's where you go around the edge with a black felt marker.

    7. Re:Encoded CD by stuffman64 · · Score: 1

      I find it quite funny that the aliens use 8-bit ASCII just like we do. You would think that they would just write the message out or something.

      What would have made this hoax better would be to devise a non-commonly used system (perhaps 5-bits for A-Z and a few punctuations or something, and then use huffman encoding to reduce the size of the message) and have some "computer expert" (who is of course, involved in the hoax) come out and say he decoded the message and show how it was done. Then I just might believe it.

      (Note- I do completely believe in extraterrestrial lifeforms, but I don't think they stop by too often, if at all).

      --
      --- At my sig, unleash hell.
    8. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm surprised hardly anyone read the *other* article (not the first one, but the next one mentioned), which gives a very interesting proposal: Crop circles are made by some sort of sound wave.

      Everybody on slashdot seems to be convinced aliens aren't doing it (which does seem a mighty odd way for aliens to talk to us) and so it must be a bunch of drunk frat boys with planks of wood. But why believe what the media tells you? In the case of crop circles, the media (surprisingly) is not going with the UFO-crazed fanatics but instead with the "oh, we know everything" elitist skeptic population, who dismisses every crop circle, no matter how complex or unusual, as the creation of planks of wood. While this explanation may satisfy the average member of the populace, it doesn't account for much of the evidence gathered at crop circles, assuming the second article isn't outright lying about the kinds of things found at crop circles. Slashdot could benefit from more users who research things independently.

      Supposing it is some extremely complex sound machine, the only questioning remaining is: Who would have the money to do this, and *why*? Is there a project to build the next Ultimate Weapon, and it is being tested on crop fields? Seems a strange way to do this. Or maybe there is some prankster somewhere with a *lot* of money to blow and a great deal of scientific expertise.

      But, of course, since I didn't endorse the drunk fat boy theory, I'm gonna get (-500, Dumbass). Oh well.

    9. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Some people believe the message includes hidden messages inside it, thus the non-uniform capitalisation. I don't know what to believe, but I don't believe all these circles to be made by invisible hoaxers at night (people are staying up all night to watch cropcircles form...)

    10. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or, the being who encoded the message messed up the 'v' in BELIEVE, and was going for general zippy the pinhead style capitalisation overall. Whatever, we know that whoever it was felt it appropriate to use ASCII, which pretty much limits the possibilities to terrestrial humans (and relatively few of those).

    11. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      which pretty much limits the possibilities to terrestrial humans (and relatively few of those).

      WHY do you think that? Don't you think the ETs could have enough brains to use the ASCII encoding scheme?

    12. Re:Encoded CD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, I get it. This is a message from the direct marketers association. They want to promote good spam over the random spam that fills our mailboxes with FALSE gifts & BROKEN PROMISES.

    13. Re:Encoded CD by Skevos+Mavros · · Score: 1

      Why write it in English encoded as ASCII? Why not just in English? Why on a CDROM?

      Isn't it screamingly obvious that a geek scanned an image, converted it into directions for him/her and his/her mates, and they spent an evening in a field making a pattern for their own amusement?

      No-one has yet to come up with an even semi-plausible argument as to why aliens would make crop circles, especially of the more elaborate kind. English encoded into ASCII portrayed as dots on a CD in a crop circle? Come on! There are much better ways to communicate with us.

      While you're pondering that, paste this:

      01000011 01110010 01101111 01110000 00100000 01100011 01101001 01110010 01100011 01101100 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100100 01100101 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110011 01101111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01111001 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01101100 01100001 01110101 01100111 01101000 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101101 01100001 01101110 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100010 01100101 01101100 01101001 01100101 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 00100001 00100000 00100000 01001000 01100001 01101000 01100001 01101000 01100001 01101000 01100001 00100001

      Into this web page:

      http://www.sitinthecorner.com/binary/binary.php

    14. Re:Encoded CD by Bugmaster · · Score: 1
      Hillarious ! Mod parent up. I love their closing remarks:
      If you're planking away on some dark night in the fields lads, and you begin to feel hot under the collar, it will be the microwaves. Get out of the field quickly, or fry with your boots on.
      I honestly can't tell if they are being sarcastic, or if they really do expect the aliens to start zapping people with the microwaves. Oh my god... and the tin foil hats ! They would only make it worse ! Darn these aliens...
      --
      >|<*:=
    15. Re:Encoded CD by kaphka · · Score: 2, Funny
      "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge."
      That's terribly dissappointing. I was really hoping it would be the DeCSS source. That would have made my day.
      --

      MSK

    16. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Why write it in English encoded as ASCII? Why not just in English? Why on a CDROM?

      To make us wonder. What difference would it make to THEM wether it is in "plain english" or in ASCII? We don't know their agenda.

      Btw, you are the one believing here, by ruling out possibilities without a sound scientific foundation. I'm NOT saying aliens did this (because I admit I don't know). It seems a very difficult thing to do for people.
      .

    17. Re:Encoded CD by Skevos+Mavros · · Score: 1
      You said:

      - To make us wonder.

      Their goal is to make us wonder? By making crop circles that could easily be created by any dedicated band of clever people with spare time?

      Why don't they do something more wonderous, like float the Empure State building fifty feet off the ground? Oh wait, I know, they don't do something like that because they want to make us wonder... :-)

      - What difference
      - would it make to THEM wether it is
      - in "plain english" or in ASCII? We
      - don't know their agenda.

      There is no "they". Until there is ANY semi-compelling evidence that extraterristrials or other non-human forces are at work, the rational opinion must be that humans did it. Add to this the many examples of people coming clean and showing how they did these things and you have compelling reasons to believe it was humans. Boring, but most likely.

      I'm open to the idea that aliens do it, about as open as I am to the possibility that I'll be hit by a meteor in the next ten minutes.

      - Btw, you are the one believing here,

      You seem to be (deliberately?) confusing belief with disbelief. If you're unsure of the difference then it would explain your comment.

      - by ruling out possibilities without
      - a sound scientific foundation.

      I rule nothing out, I merely posses close-to-no belief that aliens did it because of the total lack of evidence that they might have, plus the copious evidence of humans making other crop circles. What is your "scientific foundation" for thinking that it is even plausible?

      - I'm
      - NOT saying aliens did this (because
      - I admit I don't know).

      But which do you think is the most likely explanation? Seriously. For example, I happen to think that it's very likely that extraterristrial life exists out there (for reasons not mentioned here), but the possibility that they make Earthly crop circles is vanishingly small, on a par with the possibility before that I would be hit by a meteor, and we all know meteors exist. Hey, that was nearly ten minutes ago! I'm still here! :-)

      - It seems a
      - very difficult thing to do for people.

      Not at all. Use your imagination. And google. :-)

    18. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      There is no point discussing this with you. Obviously you know how aliens *should* act and not act..

      That is being closed-minded. An open mind doesn't know. Unless you don't know, you're not open to new ideas.

    19. Re:Encoded CD by Skevos+Mavros · · Score: 1

      Please reread my previous post. You've misinterpreted it.

      You said:

      > There is no point discussing this
      > with you.

      This is quite possibly true, though probably not for the reasons you think.

      > Obviously you know how
      > aliens *should* act and not act..

      Nope. Never said I did either. So how you reach this "obvious" conclusion is beyond me.

      It's all about the difference between possibilities (ultimately, anything is possible) and probabilities (looking for evidence, weighing up the evidence, deciding what is the most likely answer, but keeping an open eye and open mind for new evidence that might suggest another answer).

      > That is being closed-minded.

      It's likely that one of us is indeed being close-minded. :-) After all, can't I use your logic and claim that you are being dismissive of the probability that humans did it?

      > An
      > open mind doesn't know.

      Simply untrue. You're describing an undecided mind, not an open one. Or are you suggesting that to have an opinion on a topic, even an opinion tempered by being open to seeing contrary evidence or argument, is to automatically close one's mind?

      I don't know about you, but I can have an opinion on a topic, even a strong opinion, and still have an open mind on it. As is often the case when discussing the opinions of others, I think you reveal more about yourself than about me when you say this.

      > Unless
      > you don't know, you're not open
      > to new ideas.

      Again, not true. Or to put it another way - what compelling evidence do you have that only those who don't know the answer to a question are the only ones with an open mind on that question?

      Open mind does not mean empty mind... :-)

    20. Re:Encoded CD by xv4n · · Score: 1


      The message was encoden in ASCII?... riiiiiggtthhh... LEARN TO ENCODE IN UTF-8 you alien loosers!

    21. Re:Encoded CD by Dread_ed · · Score: 1

      Actual translation:

      All your crops are belong to us.

      --
      When the only tool you have is a claw hammer every problem starts to look like the back of someone's skull.
    22. Re:Encoded CD by QuackQuack · · Score: 1

      It's a bonus DVD for the movie signs with deleted scenes and an alternate ending where they aliens aren't defeated.

      --
      By reading this sig, you agree to the terms of my sig license.
    23. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      It's all about the difference between possibilities (ultimately, anything is possible) and probabilities (looking for evidence, weighing up the evidence, deciding what is the most likely answer, but keeping an open eye and open mind for new evidence that might suggest another answer).

      Your possibilities limits your view. You understand that I see. It makes you dismiss things, without even doing some proper research into it.

      It's likely that one of us is indeed being close-minded. :-) After all, can't I use your logic and claim that you are being dismissive of the probability that humans did it?

      Why should I? Enough people are claiming humans did it with a plank and some strings, and enough material is out there to debunk all this. I've read it, and am impressed enough to post this story to /.. Let me repeat: I don't know who did it. If it's human, I'm Very impressed (based on what I've read about cropcirlces). Now YOU show me some evidence, besides throwing in some weak dismissive arguments. But please read the links with an open mind first :-)

      Open mind does not mean empty mind... :-)

      I'd say excactly the opposite is true :-) If you manage to get an empty mind, it'll be the most open mind in existance. An empty mind can be filled, while a full mind will reject.

      I'm not saying you're wrong, but that the basis of your arguments are based on a negative attitude towards anything non/super-physical. It's obvious you haven't researched the subject.

      You obviously don't see the miracle that is life here on earth. Maybe you think you are a robot, a complex machine? I believe (and sense) we are much more than that, so maybe that's really the difference between our opinions too.

    24. Re:Encoded CD by majestyk2000 · · Score: 1

      Try this one on for size:

      01000011 00100111 01101101 01101111 01101110 00101110 00100000 00100000 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01110100 01110100 01100001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01110101 01101110 01101001 01110110 01100101 01110010 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110101 01101110 01100100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110101 01110011 00101100 00100000 01101111 01110010 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100111 01101111 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100100 00100000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100010 01100001 01101110 01100001 01101100 01101001 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101110

    25. Re:Encoded CD by Skevos+Mavros · · Score: 1

      Ah what the heck! :-)

      01001001 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01101110 01110011 01100101 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00101110 00100000 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 00101000 01101110 01101111 01101110 00101101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01100101 01101110 00101001 00100000 01110000 01100001 01110010 01110100 01110011 00100000 01110111 01101111 01101110 01100100 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110011 00101110

    26. Re:Encoded CD by Skevos+Mavros · · Score: 1

      Dang, I think I'm being trolled again. You're doing it gently and politely, I'll grant, but I think you're trolling all the same. That makes the second time recently for me. Oh well. You said:

      Your possibilities limits your view. You understand that I see. It makes you dismiss things, without even doing some proper research into it.

      You assume too much. You assume I haven't done the research (not true). I've looked everywhere - and I can find no compelling (or even semi-compelling) evidence that these things are non-human in origin.

      Have you found any? Care to share? It's not up to others to find evidence for an unconvincing case.

      Also, you missed the bit about keeping an open mind, even when one has a firm position/opnion. Clearly you find it difficult to believe that one can both have an opinion on topic X and an open mind on topic X. You've certainly shown that the reverse is true - one can have no opinion on a topic and a closed mind on it!! :-)

      Enough people are claiming humans did it with a plank and some strings, and enough material is out there to debunk all this.

      Clearly, some of these works of art involve more than planks of wood and string, hence my reference to smart people. But I think you know this already - you were just defeating a straw man there (attacking a position I did not take).

      I've read it, and am impressed enough to post this story to /.. Let me repeat: I don't know who did it.

      And let me repeat my question - which do you REALLY think is more likely? C'mon - say it! You really think it's 50-50? I don't know who did it either, but I have an opinion on the most likely explanation - do you?

      If it's human, I'm Very impressed (based on what I've read about cropcirlces). Now YOU show me some evidence, besides throwing in some weak dismissive arguments. But please read the links with an open mind first :-)

      See above. Those making the claim need to back it up. I make no claim, I merely search (in vain) for compelling evidence that it is non-human.

      Open mind does not mean empty mind... :-)

      I'd say excactly the opposite is true :-) If you manage to get an empty mind, it'll be the most open mind in existance.

      No, it will just be empty. Unable to form any opinion because it will not have the experience and skills to seperate the likely from the unlikely... oh wait...

      ;-)

      An empty mind can be filled, while a full mind will reject.

      Nonsense! :-) On so many levels!

      I'm not saying you're wrong,

      Actually you are, and that's OK! Stand firm! Express an opinion! You clearly think it's likely that I'm wrong!

      but that the basis of your arguments are based on a negative attitude towards anything non/super-physical.

      Close! I have a negative attitude to anything non-existent. And I take a very, VERY broad interpretation of what existence means. But if it's invisible, unmeasurable, unpredictable, with no form or substance, and no effect on the world whatsoever (all in the broadest sense), then it doesn't exist.

      Just because no-one can see the invisible fairies at the bottom of the garden, doesn't mean that they aren't GREEN invisible fairies! ;-)

      It's obvious you haven't researched the subject.

      And your evidence for that assertion? Let me guess - I disagree with you, so I mustn't have done the research!

      You obviously don't see the miracle that is life here on earth.

      Sure I do, that's why I don't need to make stuff up.

      Maybe you think you are a robot, a complex machine? I believe (and sense) we are much more than that,

      Tangent? I feel like I stepped into the middle of a different conversation.

      so maybe that's really the difference between our opinions too.

      Hey - anything's possible! ;-)

    27. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Dang, I think I'm being trolled again. You're doing it gently and politely, I'll grant, but I think you're trolling all the same. That makes the second time recently for me.

      I'm terribly sorry for inconveniencing you with an impression that I am trolling, however, I stand by my opinion and let you have yours. *giggle* ;-)

      Have you found any? Care to share? It's not up to others to find evidence for an unconvincing case.

      I'll let RedBear speak for me, as he does it much more elegantly than me. A reply to his post is also worth an extra glance. These are not evidence per se, but they are very compelling reasons to investigate further. It's better to read books about the subject than what's on the net (so much crap).

      There are tons more of these little facts: It's happening all over the world in varying degrees. Crop circles have been reported in mostly barley and wheat. But, they also appear in corn, oats, oilseed rape (canola), grass, ricefields, trees, sand, and even snow. When investigators come early to an authentic ring, there are no footprints or traces of the creators, even on a rainy day with muddy ground. Many rings are made in canola, which you cannot step into without turning completely yellow, and breaking the fragile crop leaving trails into the crops. The earliest known formation was in 1647 in England (see the picture of the devil bending the crop), so it's not new of date. The microscopic structure of the plants themselves seem to have changed, which cannot be explained by conventional methods. Claims have been made that the cropgrowth are boosted (also researched). This means that many times you can see cropcircles of last year, in the new crop this year, as faint shadows because of longer crops. The genuine cropcircles also exhibits more complexity, whirls within the circles, especially in the middle. They are much more complex when you get a closer look at them.

      All in all, there's alot of interesting stuff. Perhaps it's all made up of kooks and hoaxers as you seem to suggest, but I'm not that paranoid to believe such a grand conspiracy. There's too much work involved, both in design, planning and

      Also, you missed the bit about keeping an open mind, even when one has a firm position/opnion. Clearly you find it difficult to believe that one can both have an opinion on topic X and an open mind on topic X. You've certainly shown that the reverse is true - one can have no opinion on a topic and a closed mind on it!! :-)

      But I do have an opinion, and it is not convinced that humans are doing this. You are the one who cannot for the life of you accept the possibility of ETs or anything extraordinary. But it's typical to attack others for your own lacks..

      Clearly, some of these works of art involve more than planks of wood and string, hence my reference to smart people. But I think you know this already - you were just defeating a straw man there (attacking a position I did not take).

      Why would anybody with all the knowledge behind circles spend their time sweating in the long dark hours, without even being detected? What is the motive?

      And let me repeat my question - which do you REALLY think is more likely? C'mon - say it! You really think it's 50-50? I don't know who did it either, but I have an opinion on the most likely explanation - do you?

      50-50 of WHAT?? Crop circles are interesting, even with humans making them. When you really study them, they're impressive.

      Actually you are, and that's OK! Stand firm! Express an opinion! You clearly think it's likely that I'm wrong!

      How can you be wrong, when you offer no hypothesis and motive? You're just dismissing the whole thing as 'uninteresting', and that's your right..

      Close! I have a negative attitude to anything non-existent. And I take a very, VERY broad interpretation of what existence means. But if it's invisible, unmeasurable, unpredictable, with no form or substance, and no effect on the world whatsoever (all in the broadest sense), then it doesn't exist.

      Then in 1800, atoms and molecules didn't exist for you. They could not be measured or understood at the time, so they didn't exist, except for the "nutcracks" and "kooks" that persisted in researching what building blocks the world is made of.

      Times certainly doesn't change much..

      And your evidence for that assertion? Let me guess - I disagree with you, so I mustn't have done the research!

      Seems so to me. The only other explanation is that you're AFRAID to find out that something fantastic really exists.

      Sure I do, that's why I don't need to make stuff up.

      They're not made up, you can visit crop circles yourself.

      Tangent? I feel like I stepped into the middle of a different conversation.

      Hint: It's to do with your dismissal attitude.

      Hey - anything's possible! ;-)

      If only more people actually believed that, they would be open to new discoveries.

      Instead, a witchhunt is clearly taking place. Ok, some of the kooks clearly "deserves it". However, that doesn't justify a crucifiction IMHO.

    28. Re:Encoded CD by Skevos+Mavros · · Score: 1

      Gah, you got me. I've been trolled. So I'm not going to give a detailed quote-reply as I now believe you're just having fun. Well done!

      Why do I think you're trolling? Well:

      Most of your points were (again) attacking positions I don't hold and didn't state - there were enough straw men ripped apart in your post to make your own crop circles!

      Also, the claims you make, like the links you provided, are just lists of assertions with little or nothing to back them up (here's a quickie - I've walked through a field of canola and I didn't turn completely yellow, even if I had turned yellow - so what? You'd have to catch me to know I was in your field) It's these kinds of small false claims that are typical of this sort of psuedo-research.

      Some of the sites you provide contradict each other, surely you noticed that? (one claims the circles lead to better growth in the crop, another has pictures of stunted growth from a crop circle field - I'm betting there's no effect).

      Lastly, you make the old LAME comparison to unproved theories of the past (atoms) coming true, as if the claims of the crop circle enthusiasts will one day be proven. Yeesh - even when we didn't have the technology to test for atoms, they were a testable hypothesis based on sound reasoning and a lack of better alternative explanations. If you don't get the difference with crop circles, then you don't get science.

      The topper was when you said, in regard to humans making the circles, that "I'm not that paranoid to believe such a grand conspiracy". Uh huh. Got it. Strange human conspiracy with no apparent motive = unlikey. Strange alien conspiracy with no apparent motive = likely. Yeah. Right. And who said anything about conspiracies?

      You're either trolling or distressingly deluded. Based on the well-written style of your post, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you're just having some fun with me. You got me!

      Then again, mental disturbance is not always a barrier to well-written prose... :-)

    29. Re:Encoded CD by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Haha. Got you! :-)

      Now take the blue pill. I'm not wasting any more time..

  20. My guess. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Curse words written by pre-pubescent extraterestrial hooligans to express rebellion and pent up sexual frustration.

    1. Re:My guess. . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or Teasers bored of making meep-meep noises.

  21. Someones not going to be happy.. by h0tblack · · Score: 2, Informative
    From cropcircleconnector.com:
    NEWS FLASH : Last Month July 2002 The Crop Circle ConnectorÊ used over 232.42GB of Bandwidth (our highest bandwidth since 1995 for one calendar month). Since last year we have halved our Bandwidth costs, but this will still cost us around £400 to pay for July. Many people visit the web site to see the latest crop circles without contributing towards the web site with Memberships. We are asking people now to join us and maintain the best crop circle web with the best pictures on the Internet. Please do not let us down or yourselves and start joining today or sending us a donation.
    Then again, maybe the no-doubt huge bandwidth bill they will receieve after being linked to from /. will be slightly offset by the contributions it (may) also bring(s)..
  22. NEED BIGGER ONES by MonkeyBoyo · · Score: 2, Funny

    For the thousands reported every year, the vast majority go completely undetected
    The current scale of crop circles no longer impresses me. Maybe one on the scale of hundreds of miles in the Sarah desert would. Or maybe on the Greenland icecap done in yellow snow.

    1. Re:NEED BIGGER ONES by BrainInAJar · · Score: 4, Funny

      "Or maybe on the Greenland icecap done in yellow snow."

      That'll take 10X the number of fratboys as it does now. Madness I tell you, MADNESS!

    2. Re:NEED BIGGER ONES by SoSueMe · · Score: 1

      Maybe one on the scale of hundreds of miles in the Sarah desert would. Or maybe on the Greenland icecap done in yellow snow.

      Or maybe The Nazca Lines?
      There are others referrenced as well.

  23. IN ANCIENT GREECE by SuperMario666 · · Score: 3, Funny

    There were wooden planks, ropes, and even geometry.

    Apparently, according to Slashdot, these items still exist today. Whoah, blows the mind!

    I guess I had better call the local newspaper and tell them to stop the fuckin presses.

    1. Re:IN ANCIENT GREECE by Bald+Wookie · · Score: 1

      So the ancient greeks are riding around in time machines and flattening the crops of the future? Man, and I thought aliens were far fetched...

    2. Re:IN ANCIENT GREECE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh, and you think the aliens didn't have planks, ropes and geometry even before that? Smarty pants.

    3. Re:IN ANCIENT GREECE by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      We still have ropes? I thought we were using electronic measuring devices, such as This.. Sure as hell, you can't own a rope any more, that's a terrorist device! :)

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  24. bandwidth... by CySurflex · · Score: 4, Funny
    Last Month July 2002 The Crop Circle Connector used over 232.42GB of Bandwidth (our highest bandwidth since 1995 for one calendar month).

    not for long buddy, not for long..

    1. Re:bandwidth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Keep hitting Reload, folks. Let's bankrupt these morons off the net.

    2. Re:bandwidth... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It might actually be fun to give them the worst we have, just for kicks. Set your proxies to "Direct connection to the internet" and "Engange!" I say!

  25. AOL by yamcha666 · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's not another one of those free AOL CDs is it!?!

    1. Re:AOL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes it is. The message was decoded and says:

      Beware the bearers of SLOW internet & their BROKEN SOFTWARE. Much SPAM but still disk space. BELIEVE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge

  26. DeCSS, MPAA, and Lucus law suits. by Crasoum · · Score: 2, Funny

    So when do you think Aliens will break the DeCSS code of the E.T. DVD then have George Lucas and the MPAA fial a lawsuit in intergalactic court for illegal copies......

    Tell me that and I'll be interested in Crop Circles. Till then I'll stick with my latest copy of Aliens.(note this is a joke...)

  27. I want to believe by inviagrated_amnesiac · · Score: 1

    that they are the work of mutant gophers who have discovered art!

  28. Encoded message by sanermind · · Score: 2, Informative
    is in ascii, english; it says
    Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge


    as taken from this ranting article
    --

    ---
    the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
    1. Re:Encoded message by Metrol · · Score: 1

      If too much time on your hands were a criminal offense... 'nuff said.

      --
      The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
    2. Re:Encoded message by stinky+wizzleteats · · Score: 1

      That was the best they could do? I suppose the "all your base" thing hasn't made its way to the English countryside yet.

    3. Re:Encoded message by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, no kidding about the ranting. The author of that article totally lost credibility in my eyes when they attacked a cryptanalyst who supplied a translation. The author believes the last byte was a 6 (ASCII acknowledge), whereas the cryptanalyst read it as a 7 (ASCII bell).

      After explaining that, the author suggests that this was "a deliberate deception". And then, my very favorite part:

      while Richard Brain [the cryptanalyst] has involved the use of Hexadecimal notation, it is really quite unnecessary. All that is required is to be able to use decimal and binary notation and switch between the two. Could it be that all this was an attempt to obfuscate the event and make it appear to be too complicated for lay researchers to decode?
      Or maybe it was just that it's a ZILLION TIMES EASIER to switch between binary and hexadecimal in your head? Why is it so hard for the author to understand that a cryptanalyst would naturally be familiar with and use "advanced" math concepts like hexadecimal? Sheesh! (I would say "Furrfu!", but then somebody might accuse me of "deliberately" trying to "obfuscate" things.)
  29. From the article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's in binary:

    "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge."

    1. Re:From the article by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

      "It's in binary:"

      ASCII or EBCDIC?

  30. Possible crackpot alert.. by topologist · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From http://www.paradigmshift.com/pecs.html a section from the crop circle website (the first link in the story):

    Anomalous EM measurements - By doing a fluxgate magnetometer survey of several formations, Colin Andrews determined that the very center of these circles measured 40-50 nano Teslas. This is 10 times the radiation level of a normal field.

    It looks like this was a cut-n-paste from http://www.infosourceresearch.com/tmatt/excerpt3.h tml where they add:

    "Inside the seven patterns, Andrews reported in a recent Sightings Online interview, the magnetic field registered up to 300% of the planet's normal field. "

    Statements like these are hard to credit, since the earth's magnetic field is around 0.5 gauss which is 5x10^-5 Tesla (or 50 microTeslas). Magnetic fields don't qualify as "radiation" by any means either. There may be something interesting about crop circles, but the association with crackpots probably scares away real research.
    1. Re:Possible crackpot alert.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A fluxgate magnetometer? You gotta be kidding me. Is there really a device with that name? If so, I want to know if you get a Polonium P-35 Space Modulator with that, or whatever it was the little space guy on the cartoons had.

  31. Have they ever caught anyone in the act? by XplosiveX · · Score: 1

    I don't understand this phenomenon. Are human beings responsible for this or are they acts of animals or extra terestrial's. Serious replies Only!

    1. Re:Have they ever caught anyone in the act? by outsider007 · · Score: 1

      They're made by disney-paid migrant farmworkers as a marketing tool to boost dvd sales of 'signs'.

      --
      If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
  32. Amazing wonder? Uh, no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    they are truly an amazing wonder of the world.

    No, they're either desperate scams by farmers about to go out of business or declare bankrupcy, scam artists hoping to sell books("LOOK! ALIENS! Oh, by the way, I have a book all about crop circles, $20!) or pranks by local bored (high school, college) students. It is -well- established that they're made by someone with a wooden plank, a helper, and a rope between them. The motives may differ, but the source is always the same- humans. They're also very easy to make without anyone noticing- you can't see very far into a field, so you could do it in the middle of the day.

    Ever notice these crip circles just tend to gravitate towards farmers who aren't doing well financially, NEVER appear anywhere else(like random fields, forests, mall parking lots, etc..) and those farmers usually just happen to charge admission or sell stuff?

    Besides, they'd have to be some pretty goddamn stupid aliens to a)have nothing better to do or b)think it's a real way of "communication"

  33. Only imagination by inerte · · Score: 1

    """
    Only imagination may tell what will pop up from the crops in 2003.
    """

    Ni.

  34. The disc that alien's got by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hey, is that a Fisher-Price record player disc? Hehe. Actually, it'd be interesting to hear what it would play considering the outside to be low pitch and the inside high pitch (or whatever the old playback scheme was).

  35. Aliens arrested under DMCA by Sayten241 · · Score: 1

    Since the aliens obviously reverse-engineered our CD technology in order to send us this message, they are in direct violation of the DMCA.

  36. unsubscribe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    unsubscribe

    1. Re:unsubscribe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Bible mercilessly places to the untamed navel. I mangle grey trees near the wierd yellow cellar. Sometimes, trees keep behind yellow moons, unless they're red. Never grasp wanly.

  37. Tux Crop circle image by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    Found this tux crop cirle image on deviantart.com

    http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/1155650

  38. what the hell?!? by natron+2.0 · · Score: 0, Troll

    I do not doubt the existance of crop circles, but when I saw the ET/Disc picture I could not stop laughing. It is an obvious hoax. I don't mean a rope and 2x4 hoax either. It is a blatent Photoshoped photo. it wasn't even done that good. I saved the pic to my HD then used photoshop to check it out and sure enough it has multiple layers. I guess not only is it a slow nes day for /., but also for the circle hunters. Next time they should just stick with the tried and true circle format. Or who knows we may just see the /. logo in the crops...

    1. Re:what the hell?!? by terrabit · · Score: 1

      I didn't know that GIFs could have layers. Your photoshop skillz amaze me.

    2. Re:what the hell?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What are you talking about, "multiple layers". You can't preserve layers in a JPG file.

    3. Re:what the hell?!? by michaeli · · Score: 1

      "What the hell?!?" yourself.

      Now, maybe it's just me, but how on earth can a JPG have multiple layers?? (a la PSD-format you claim it does)

      I think there is a greater chance your claim is, "an obvious hoax."

      --


      "this is a really good piece of cantoloupe."
    4. Re:what the hell?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He does have a slight point, if you take a pic that has been layered you can use certain filters and it will reveal the layers, it can be done on the gimp as well, altough I have not tried it with these pics yet, they look real to me.

    5. Re:what the hell?!? by edo-01 · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I saved the pic to my HD then used photoshop to check it out and sure enough it has multiple layers

      I'd love to know how you did that seeing as the source picture is a JPG (hint: JPGs don't have layers, furthermore once you collapse a photoship image there is no way to tell it ever had layers).

      Also, did they photoshop every frame of the video of the same crop-picture?

      [disclaimer: I still think it was done by hoaxers]

    6. Re:what the hell?!? by MO! · · Score: 1

      And the link to, or at least the name(s) of, these amazing filters is where????

      --
      I AM, therefore I THINK!
    7. Re:what the hell?!? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If it means anything to you, there are multiple aerial shots of this crop circle from different angles and ground confirmation from several people at the site.

    8. Re:what the hell?!? by 5alligator · · Score: 1

      must use quantum encoding / decoding :-)

  39. Occams Razor at it's finest by Dark+Bard · · Score: 1

    Hard to believe so much effort is wasted on crop circles. The thing that is less known are the "obvious fakes". The elaborate designs that include things like coats of arms and such that are just as elaborate as the abstract designs but don't get the press because they are in fact obvious fakes. These types of shapes are traceable for thousands years in the British Isles. It's hardly surprising that it's the hot bed of such activities. Things like the chalk cuttings have been a part of Britian since before the Romans found it. One that shocked everyone was the computer chip and face shape. Startling until you see a wider shot and find they are a hundred yards from a radio telescope. Space aliens or bored astronomers? The biggest slow down in recent years was during a ban on movement in the farmlands due to Mad Cow Disease. A farmer was called and asked by an unknown caller if the ban had been lifted. The farmer informed the caller it had. A crop circle miraculously appeared the next day in his field. Aren't there enough amazing things in the world without having to invent more?

    1. Re:Occams Razor at it's finest by styrotech · · Score: 1

      The biggest slow down in recent years was during a ban on movement in the farmlands due to Mad Cow Disease. A farmer was called and asked by an unknown caller if the ban had been lifted. The farmer informed the caller it had. A crop circle miraculously appeared the next day in his field.

      Aha!!! That makes perfect sense now! The cows are in on it! First the Chicago Fire, now this!?!

      The aliens are infiltrating diary farms and subverting bovine intelligence against us!

    2. Re:Occams Razor at it's finest by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Anyone who watches Invader Zim (the real deal about alien invasion) will be able to confirm that Crop Circles are of Bovine Origins.

  40. My Lawn!! by Larry*boy.3 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Hmm....Mowing crop formations into my lawn just doesn't have the same effect.

    I need a bigger lawn!!!

  41. My favorite... by antdude · · Score: 1

    here that fits my favorite insects. :)

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  42. Re:Someones not going to be happy.. by servasius_jr · · Score: 1

    Then again, maybe the no-doubt huge bandwidth bill they will receieve after being linked to from /. will be slightly offset by the contributions it (may) also bring(s)..

    Uhhhh . . . . Contributions . . . ? From the /. crowd?

    Yeah, they might get spammed with goat sex links, but if I were over there, I wouldn't be holding my breath. Poor bastards.

  43. Top guesses what the CD message is... by ReduntantTroll · · Score: 1

    5) "I downloaded this off Kazaa!" 4) "Dude, can I borrow this CD?" 3) "All your cropcircles are belong to us" 2) "Copyright, Evil Alien Masters, INC" 1) "Look, Ma, I'm on SLASHDOT!"

  44. Re:Absolutely nobody gives a shit so let's all die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OH SHIT THAT WAS FUNNY

  45. nitrates by Seehund · · Score: 4, Funny
    • Reported increase in crop yield - Some farmers and researchers have independently reported greater yield in the years following the appearance of formations in their fields. ...


    Wow. Bullshit works as a fertilizer. Who'd a thunk it?
    --
    Help savingAmigaOS and a free PowerPC market
    1. Re:nitrates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IANAF, but it would seem that it would be difficult to harvest much useful grain from a field that had been squashed flat with a plank over half of it's area.

      So duh, the next growing season, they get a full harvest from that field. It must have been the aliens!

      1 - Flatten crop...
      2 - ???
      3 - Profit!

    2. Re:nitrates by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it is true! If your crops are NOT trampled by a bunch of idiots, you can harvest more of them!

  46. You're a simpleton by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0


    War is stupid. Brilliant. Look, champ, as long as there are humans with differing opinions, there's a chance for war, be it between neighborhoods or nations.

    Go back to your espressos and maintaining your e/n site now, okay? Hope you don't catch the sniffles from the next protest. Make sure you bundle up now!

    1. Re:You're a simpleton by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1) What's an e/n site?

      2) It's hard to find a good expresso in Iraq.

      3) Differing opinions aren't the problem, the problem is self control, the inability to accept others opinions, and a lack of respect for others (other countries in this case).

      Like my mum said, If you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything.

    2. Re:You're a simpleton by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Props to your mum.

  47. Re:War is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Marquis de Lafayette who came here to fight in our Revolution said, "The welfare of America is closely bound up with the welfare of mankind." Today, however, I suspect he would reverse that to say that the welfare of mankind is bound up with the welfare of America.

    In a recent column about Europe, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times, wrote of "the new anti-Americanism, a blend of jealousy and resentment of America's overwhelming economic and military power." One German editor calls it the "Axis of Envy." The bottom line, said Friedman, is that "Many Europeans today fear, or detest, America more than they fear Saddam."

    For some time now, whenever we have read or heard a news story about Europe, it is usually about its refusal, nation by nation, to cooperate with the United States, to berate the United States, and to cling to some very outdated and unrealistic notions. We used to think the Europeans were our allies, but they are really more like our spiteful, poor relations.

    The resentment Europeans feel reflects the fact that America is the future and Europe is the past.

    This is brought into sharp focus in a brilliant analysis, "Old and In the Way", by Karl Zinsmeister. It appears in the December edition of The American Enterprise (www.TAEmag.com). He is the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine and has the happy facility of taking very complicated subjects and clarifying them. The magazine is published by the American Enterprise Institute and is devoted to politics, business, and culture.

    "If Europeans want to ban the death penalty," writes Zinsmeister, "that's fine with Americans; but don't ask us to follow the same dictate. If Europeans think selling military technology to North Korea and Iran, and helping Libya and Iraq with their oil industries is a good idea, expect not a shred of support from the US. If Europeans believe their determination to send billions of dollars to Yasser Arafat is likely to speed peace in the Middle East, we won't stop them."

    This is, of course, precisely what the Europeans have been doing in the face of every indication that the nations with whom they are doing business want an Islamic Europe or, in the case of North Korea, have demonstrated once again that no Communist nation can be trusted.

    Zinsmeister points out that the elites who run Europe have an exaggerated belief in the power of diplomacy. This is odd considering the last century's history in which European diplomacy failed to deter two World Wars. If war is simply a different form of diplomacy (we've tried talking to Saddam) then we are soon to apply it to the one man who has given the United Nations the opportunity to prove beyond any doubt its utter impotence and irrelevance. The UN is the world's epicenter of blather.

    A number of key factors have consigned Europe to stagnation and most of them reflect its love affair with Socialism. Its embrace of statism was undeterred by the long years of the Cold War when the then-Soviet Russia threatened to impose Communism on the whole of Europe. It had seized or was ceded Eastern Europe after World War II and it took nearly fifty years for the Poles to cast them out. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, its captive states rapidly breathed free air again, but then decided to create its own Soviet in the form of the European Union, thinking that was the way to compete with the United States.

    The EU is a bunch of bureaucratic elites and Europeans have little or no say in their dictates. Socialists to the core, they think they will be able to compete with the US if they just pass a few more thousand rules, regulations, and, of course, trade restrictions.

    The Europeans, however, cannot compete with Americans and Zinsmeister tells us why. "The locomotive of Europe is the German economy, which has been in a serious mess for more than a decade. Germany's annual growth rate over the past ten years has been a limp 1.4 percent." The answer is just too obvious. "The German labor market has become one of the most inflexible and uncompetitive in the world, which is why unemployment has been stuck at 9-10 percent for years, even amid a global economic boom." Ours, by contrast, is about five percent. If we stop importing high tech and other workers, unemployed Americans with comparable skills will be able to get back to work.

    To state it plainly, Europeans don't work as hard or as long as Americans. We are far more productive. Unlike America's immigrants who assimilate, Europe's immigrant population tends to end up on welfare. The European Union estimates that it will take fifty million immigrants over the next few years just to maintain a big enough working population to fund the programs for those who are retired or soon will be. Most of those immigrants will come from North Africa and the Middle East. Since Europeans are not reproducing, the native born Germans, Italians, French and others are becoming nations of old people with too few to replace them. If this continues, Europe is a generation away from becoming an Islamic continent.

  48. Re:bunch o artfags by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You have my condolences on the recent tragic loss of Jam Master Jay. Our thoughts are with you. We appreciate just how tricky it can be to rock a rhyme which is exactly on time.

  49. Learn to read by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Bill

    Eek

    See how these words are different?

  50. Most users viewing the site will have Tin Foil by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Tin Foil hats are prominent in users viewing the site.
    Assuming that the aliens can telepathically transmit to their audience is like assuming everyone uses IE, and coding the hTML so that it only works in IE

    For everyone else there's:
    http://tinfoilhat.shmoo.com/

  51. Re:War is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh please. Come and talk to me when your country has a few millenia more history behind it.

    I've seen that argument before, and aside from not being European, there is no jealousy or spite, there is simply the disire for peace to just get on with the business of living, rather than the silly power games the US loves so much.

    America is like a teenager, lots of potential, but misguided, self-rightious, and delusional of her own abilities and importance.

    As for the comment about Europeans fearing the US - it makes perfect sense! Any sane person should fear a rogue state that launches into war anytime there are financial gains to me made, without the support or approval of it's allies and peers.

    I can see in a few years, that the EU, Asia, and possibly Africa will be joining forces to keep the US under control - history repeats itself once again.

  52. Idiot pranks by ndogg · · Score: 2, Interesting

    These things should stop. I constantly wonder about the farmer whose crops have just been crushed. Those crops represent lots of money that the farmer uses to buy more things for their farm. It's a valuable asset. Sure, this time money for compensation was left, but many times the pranksters aren't so generous.

    (As a side note though, it's interesting that something like this is only devestating to cultures that rely on agriculture. Agriculture, while it's great for mass production of food, is a "place all your eggs in one basket" bet with nature. Horticulturists also have some of the same worries, but not as many. Pastoralists mostly gather their vegetables from nature. Hunter/gatherers have a very varied diet, and lots of mobility.)

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
    1. Re:Idiot pranks by natet · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's much worse than just taking money away from the farmer so he can "buy more things." Farmers go into debt at the beginning of each year, and basically hope to make enough money out of their crop to pay that debt off and pay their bills for the rest of the year.

      --
      IANAL... But I play one on /.
    2. Re:Idiot pranks by kdart · · Score: 1

      Somewhere on one of those crop circle sites (you can look for it) there was a paragraph stating that those farmers put up "honesty boxes" at the sites. That is, if you go look at it, they ask for a donation. It turns out they make substantially more money from those boxes than they would get from the damaged part of the crop. So, the farmers are not unhappy at all about this.

      --

      --
      The early bird catches the worm. The worm that sleeps late lives to see another day.
    3. Re:Idiot pranks by ndogg · · Score: 1

      Thanks for clearing that up. I don't actually know much about farming, but I did at least figure out that the crops represented some sort of asset to the farmer! It sounds like those crops are a lot more valuable than I had imagined before.

      --
      // file: mice.h
      #include "frickin_lasers.h"
    4. Re:Idiot pranks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Does anyone here know how much the crop damage for one of these things comes out to? That ET with CD-ROM thing looked like it destroyed a significant portion of the field it was in. How much revenue (in a normal year) would that field have made if it were undamaged? (And, does crop insurance cover "alien disasters?")

    5. Re:Idiot pranks by dachshund · · Score: 1
      It's much worse than just taking money away from the farmer so he can "buy more things." Farmers go into debt at the beginning of each year, and basically hope to make enough money out of their crop to pay that debt off and pay their bills for the rest of the year.

      Well, hopefully there are enough circle-watchers in the world that the farmer can sell tickets and T-shirts to recoup some of his losses.

  53. Crop circle HOW-TO by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Some of the more elaborate crop circles were obviously designed on a computer (e.g. the ET & CD). How they were imprinted in the field is still up for debate.

    Here's how I'd get my image onto a field:
    - Draw image on computer
    - Save as black & white
    - Hack into LEO satellite
    - Upload image
    - Aim laser at field
    - Burn image into crops

    In a matter of minutes (day or night) you'd have your crop circle completed. Even if people are camped out near the field with cameras, binoculars, etc, they won't see a thing.

    1. Re:Crop circle HOW-TO by cravian · · Score: 1

      "They won't see a thing" (ever again)

      -- particularly if they were looking upwards at the time

      --
      The obvious is blinding, that's why no-one sees it coming.
  54. Is this progress? by lunaman · · Score: 1

    I swear... back in MY day, it took my buddies and me hours of backbreaking work with ropes and planks to make these. Nowadays any punk with a pirated copy of Photoshop can do it...

    Just no appreciation for the craft anymore...

  55. Accomanying CD? by Guppy06 · · Score: 1

    "last year researchers found themselves dumbfounded by an ET-face with an accompanying encoded CD-disc"

    Let me guess: It was only readable on a Mac, right?

  56. The encoded message DECODED HERE by prell · · Score: 1

    From one of the sites (using the ASCII character set to interpret the "binary" data strip arranged as a circle): "For those not yet familiar with the decoding, the full message verbatim reads: ?Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge.? The author continues: "Backing up the 'request' idea is the fact that following the 0110 segment, the data strip itself continues for one complete revolution, which seems to be inviting us to use it ourselves for a reply. We would have been able to impress about eighteen letters into this unused strip, saying something like 'Wow. Message received.'"

  57. Always the tracks... by trasgu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you will notice, nearly all of these things are in fields that have tracks - parallel lines through the field. Is this a machinery (tractor, harvester, irrigatation) track? ANYHOW, if you look closely, the track always intersects the design in the center, or at a node that could be the "pivot point" of the design. Why does the design always align with the tracks? Could it be that this is the ingress and reference point for a clever ground crew? NAW, the aliens just like fields with tracks and the symmetry of aligned patterns!

    1. Re:Always the tracks... by thejk · · Score: 1

      You said: "NAW, the aliens just like fields with tracks and the symmetry of aligned patterns!"

      Well, the modern day farmers do too, you know. With irrigation and tractors, as you noted, there will always be such symmetrical tracks on any given field of crops. Try finding one without such tracks.

      But you are right. The pranksters might be using them as "the ingress and reference point". But the tracks' presence doesn't add much evidence to either the skeptic's case or the believer's.

      --
      The web is a dominatrix. Everywhere I turn, I see little buttons ordering me to Submit.
    2. Re:Always the tracks... by AndrewRUK · · Score: 1

      Nah, the reason the circles are (almost) always aligned to the tracks is that the people making the circle use them to get into the middle of the field. Perfectally simple.
      And remember, kids, crop circles are made by groups of people with planks and bits of rope, not aliens.

    3. Re:Always the tracks... by matrix29 · · Score: 1

      Nah, the reason the circles are (almost) always aligned to the tracks is that the people making the circle use them to get into the middle of the field. Perfectly simple.
      And remember, kids, crop circles are made by groups of people with planks and bits of rope, not aliens.


      And what exactly is wrong with using STILTS to get into the field leaving an unmolested entry path and using those same stilts in a sweeping manner with a string for a guideline to create the pattern seen and then exiting the field using the stilts once again? Debunkers should remember that low tech old-fashioned methods are often the most elusive for investigators to fathom when high tech tricks are easily available.

      --
      "Face it, a nation that maintains a 72% approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation with a very loose grip on reality.
    4. Re:Always the tracks... by AndrewRUK · · Score: 1

      Ummm...
      Why use stilts when there are tracks already available? Makes no sense, does it?

  58. Why aliens do it... by natet · · Score: 3, Funny

    This sounds to me like the Extra-Terrestrial version of "Cow Tipping."

    --
    IANAL... But I play one on /.
    1. Re:Why aliens do it... by hswerdfe · · Score: 1

      dude .... get out of the city...

      there is no such thing as cow tipping!

      cows _don't_ sleep standing up.

      trust me

      --
      --meh--
    2. Re:Why aliens do it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah. They do lie down if it looks like rain, though.

  59. CircleMakers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember reading somewhere that one of the CircleMakers (guys using 2x4s), in an interview, admitted that they had only created a small percentage of the known crop circles at the time. Not to mention some crops appear melted (and genetically altered), not broken, which kind of throws out the theory that people are making them using 2x4s anyways.

  60. Re:Absolutely nobody gives a shit so let's all die by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh my ... please tell me that site is a joke. Please.

  61. Alien invasion imminent... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good thing that the aliens can be killed by a simple glass of water ;)

  62. very VERY offtopic (again)... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...but just in case you guys missed my earlier post:
    WHAT THE BLOODY FUCK IS THIS???
    and their karma system still uses numbers! joy!

  63. Re:Amazing wonder? Uh, no. by Styx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well, it would be kind of hard to make a crop circle in a parking lot, since nothing much grows there, wouldn't it?

    --
    /Styx
  64. naysayers... try reading some of the articles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    so far all the comments have been jokes or hoax calls.

    I always assumed it was "pranks with planks" too, but that was before I read a little bit. there is peer-reviewed scientific research on these things. some are indeed man-made, but others cannot be scientifically explained.

    for example, some of the plant matter has crystalline patterns that normally only occur over long periods of time being compressed by hot rock. obviously surface crops don't experience this. some of the circles' crops have embedded droplets of iron (which suggests they were briefly heated to 1700+ degrees), and they show that internal moisture of these crops either expanded rapidly due to heat, or in some cases blasted out of the weak parts of the plants.

    so there does appear to be strong evidence that some crop circles were NOT created by humans with current known technology.

    too bad /. people rarely bother to read the articles before they post.

    1. Re:naysayers... try reading some of the articles by yuckf00 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Why you trying to turn my world upsidedown? I don't want to believe it so I won't wont and no shred of evidence will make me think otherwise.

      ps: this is sarcasm.

  65. A dangerous prank by ndogg · · Score: 2, Informative

    It seems some pranksters go to some pretty dangerous lengths to create crop circles. I'm not sure my health and limbs are worth a stupid prank like crop circles, but I guess I'm not those people.

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
  66. Amazing number of closed minds... by RedBear · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and assumptions out there. 99% of the posts I'm seeing here are people who have heard something once or twice on the radio about some hoaxters with a tow-by-four, and who have made up their minds and decided that every single instance of a crop circle all over the world, past and future, can be explained away by that one method. I had expected a little more from the Slashdot crowd.

    I am one of the biggest skeptics out there, but I always try to balance it with an open-minded analysis of all available facts. Looking at all the factors involved, it seems to me that calling every single crop circle instance a hoax with confidence is just impossible. Let's run down some factors here:

    Numbers: First off, there's the sheer number of these things occurring all over the world. They often show up in areas where the locals have never heard of the crop circle phenomenon and don't care when they do. They show up in areas where everyone is so poor that no one has time for stupid practical jokes. They show up all over the world.
    (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    Size: Some of these crop circles are huge. A pair of people may be able to flatten a circle 75 feet across in a few hours during the night, but even a team of people wouldn't be able to finish some of these things in one night.
    (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    Precision: There is an amazing level of geometrical precision to many crop circles. They aren't all just flattened circles, they're quite often fairly complex geometrical patterns. And they're huge, layed out on flat ground with nothing high nearby to get up on and observe the progress of the pattern. I have a distinctly hard time believing that anyone could create a pattern that precisely in the dark. Even in the daytime, without precise surveying instruments and some way to measure and mark off every single arc of the pattern, it would be really difficult. Certainly more than a few hours work if it was just a pair of people.
    (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    Evidence on the ground: In the types of crop circles that aren't immediately identifiable as hoaxes (yes, there are hoaxes, and they are almost always easy to identify, go check out some of the links), there are strange phenomena that happen inside the circles. The stalks of plants are bent without being broken. Have you ever tried to bend the stalk of any plant like grass, wheat or corn to a 90-degree angle without breaking it? Personally, I don't know of any way to do it.

    There's also evidence of odd things like stunted growth within the circle and things not growing there even months or years after the fact. I'd love to know how a two-by-four could do that.
    (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    History: Crop circles didn't just start in the last couple of decades with a couple of 40-year old guys and a board. There are instances of them a long ways into the past. I'd be willing to bet that the "original" hoaxters who claimed to have done some of the circles had gotten the idea from something they heard or read about that had already happened. I think the hoax is the fact that they believed they'd started it all.
    (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    Human nature: The nature of the human animal is pretty set, and always has been. There are a lot of things that just don't jive if you make a blanket statement that every circle is created by a single person or set of people. People crave attention and recognition. Do you know anyone who knows someone who actually made a crop circle? No? The larger the circle, the more people it would have taken to create it, and the more chance for some dumbass to get drunk and start bragging about he and his buddies getting together and making "that big crop circle on the south side of town".

    Saying that human hands created every crop circle ever made would also mean that there are a lot of copycats in the world. A lot of people who just love the idea of crop circles and think nothing would be more fun than going out and making their own, and then never telling anyone about it for the rest of their lives. Why? I don't buy it.

    I see several people posting about how "somebody should just catch those dumb kids in action and show it on video, and all this would go away". So you know a lot of groups of teens who are organized, motivated, knowledgeable in the correct use of things like surveying instruments and laser distance measuring devices, or even know how to run a tape measure with the necessary precision to create a beautiful mathematically complex geometrical pattern 200 feet across in the space of a few hours? The idea is just ludicrous. Ever think just for a minute that there might be another reason that no one has been able to "catch them at it"? I'll let you ponder that one.
    (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    Taking all of these factors into account, I, the skeptic that I am, find it scientifically implausible to believe that crop circles are a purely human-derived phenomenon.

    Ever think for a moment that there might just possibly be things out there that we don't understand yet? That science doesn't yet have the answer to everything? That everything can't just be explained away on a moment's notice without examining all the evidence? Extra-terrestrials don't even have to enter into it. There are things right here in our natural world that we just don't yet understand.

    I think that the treatment of the poster is deplorable. Everyone seems to be just immediately writing him off as a kook (like the first post) and not even bothering to examine the history and wealth of physical evidence about this phenomenon. Yes, there are plenty of kooks out there, but they can't all be kooks. That's like classifying everyone on Slashdot a troll because some trolls happen to post here.

    As I said in the beginning, I had expected a little more openmindedness and intelligent discussion on Slashdot (yeah, I know, silly me, but it does happen here). I hope that a few of you who thought you knew everything will just take a few minutes to read the articles, and think, and wonder about our endlessly amazing universe, like the poster of the article suggested.

    1. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Trying to debate with a skeptic is like talking to a 2x4.

    2. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by MoFoYa · · Score: 0

      The possibility for an interesting discussion was here until the comments started pouring in. There ARE an amazing number of closed minds.

      I don't think the problem is that so many people are skeptical, it's that they totally blew off the possibility of being convinced otherwise.

      Thats the point of /. right - discussion about current topics, interpretation of recent events, and discovery through comunication.

      none of that is going on here.

    3. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      People love their $4 Starbucks coffee (aka Bean water and sugar), gas-guzzling/environment-destroying SUVs (aka Status symbols), and cancer-inducing cell phones...and nothing...not even the possiblity of alien life is gonna change that. It's fear man..fear :)

    4. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Wow! You should post this as a story on www.Kuro5hin.org. I'm sure they'll appreciate it more over there.

      Great post, and I agree 110% ;-)

    5. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by jejones · · Score: 1

      So advanced civilizations have nothing better to do than to go to backwater planets and doodle in random fields? I suppose all those abductions get boring after a while.

    6. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by RedBear · · Score: 1

      If you read my post you'll notice the only time I even mentioned ETs was when I said, and I quote myself, "Extra-terrestrials don't even have to enter into it. There are things right here in our natural world that we just don't yet understand."

      Congratulations on automatically assuming that every discussion of crop circles == ETs and thus it can all be discounted as being general kookiness. Laugh it up.

    7. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's just speculation. If aliens existed and were making those we would see other signs of their existence. We do not. So the only thing this advanced space traveling race is interested in is making shapes in some random grass while remaining completely undetected otherwise? All that while there are tons of people claiming responsibility even for the most impressive or "unbelievable" circles?

      Get back to me when there is some real proof. You were right to label all your points as "not complete evidence", none of them are.

    8. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by jejones · · Score: 1

      So, would you say that natural forces, or animals, are responsible for drawing a cartoon of one of the popular conceptions of what aliens look like?

    9. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by RedBear · · Score: 1

      I wonder how many times I'll have to reply to someone to point out the fact that I said nothing about ETs or aliens or "advanced civilizations", except to say that they don't have to even be a part of this discussion. I haven't seen any evidence that crop circles are caused by aliens, and so I don't really believe they are. ETs would probably have better things to do. So don't lump me in with that portion of the people who study crop circles that lay out wild claims that they are created by ETs.

      I just deal with whatever factual evidence I can find, and that's what I tried to present. I didn't say that anything was "unbelievable" either. Anything is possible. Maybe humans have made every single circle. I just find it rather implausible, given all the facets of evidence I see before me. Get back to me when you have "proof" that every single crop circle was made by humans. So far, I haven't seen it.

    10. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If those weren't done by humans or aliens, then by who or what? What other possible explanations are there?

    11. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by RedBear · · Score: 1

      So, would you say that natural forces, or animals, or humans are the only possible facets of our reality/universe that could cause physical phenomena that we can recognize? I don't know anything. I'm just keeping an open mind.

      Once upon a time, all people knew the world was perched on the back of a turtle. If less people had known something like that, maybe more of them would have spent time looking at the physical evidence, and figured some things out sooner.

    12. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by RedBear · · Score: 1

      I don't know. My own pet theory would probably be considered even kookier than "aliens did it". It involves heavy speculation about how something not quite inside our universe would interact geometrically in an observable way with our space. Quite interesting to me, but probably not to anyone else, and I certainly wouldn't want to put anything forth that wasn't backed up by scientifically observable phenomena. I just hope we'll find out eventually, one way or the other. To do that we'll all have to keep an open mind and keep investigating.

    13. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Yunzil · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Some of these crop circles are huge. A pair of people may be able to flatten a circle 75 feet across in a few hours during the night, but even a team of people wouldn't be able to finish some of these things in one night.

      Yes they can, actually. There was a show on TLC or Discovery channel that showed a time-lapse movie of a team of hoaxsters demonstrating how to make a large, complex circle. It only took them a few hours.

      There is an amazing level of geometrical precision to many crop circles.

      Nothing says the pranksters aren't allowed to make a plan beforehand. :) Get some compasses and graph paper and you're set.

      Have you ever tried to bend the stalk of any plant like grass, wheat or corn to a 90-degree angle without breaking it? Personally, I don't know of any way to do it.

      From May to August the grain is green and it's very easy to bend it without breaking it.

      No? The larger the circle, the more people it would have taken to create it, and the more chance for some dumbass to get drunk and start bragging about he and his buddies getting together and making "that big crop circle on the south side of town".

      Even the big ones only take a few people to make. And it doesn't matter if you brag about it. The True Believers will still believe no matter what. I think the fun is probably seeing how many people you can fool.

      Ever think just for a minute that there might be another reason that no one has been able to "catch them at it"? I'll let you ponder that one.

      Um, they have been "caught". Well, not really caught, since they voluntarily showed how it was done. Anyway, if it's really aliens making it, then why hasn't anyone been able to "catch them at it"? I'll let you ponder that one. :)

      Ever think for a moment that there might just possibly be things out there that we don't understand yet? That science doesn't yet have the answer to everything?

      Yes. But none of that applies to crop circles, which are easily explainable in terms of some wise guys with extra time, some ropes, and some boards; coupled with an infinite supply of human gullibility.

    14. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In 1995 or perhaps it was 1996, I was touring SW England and went a visigted a few of the crop circles. I also attended a couple of meetings in Galstonbury where circles were discussed. Many theories were put forth and for sure the circles were impressive. One single visit however convinced me there was more to it than a hoax. We went to see a new circle set on the side of a gentle hill. Accross the valley could be seen growing corn and in that corn was the faint mark of another circle. There was NO crushed or ebnt corn but just the faint shape. I asked the guide and he informed me this was the site of a formation of the previous year. Later I went to look and for sure the corn grew less high giving the appearance of last years crop cirle, fiant but clearly visible from a distance. This I saw with my own eyes, and I really fail to see how any idiots with 2x4's can do this
      If anyone has any comments or want to know more then write to me at tonyjonnes@yahoo.com
      TJ

    15. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hear hear!

    16. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thank the great Universe for someone like you to offer such an amazingly accurate, extensive, and thought-provoking post. There is hope! There is truth here.

    17. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by wossName · · Score: 1

      And would you mind answering his question ?

      I think it was a serious blunder to draw a Roswell-style alien. But the worst thing: the message was encoded in fricken ASCII.

      Until someone comes up with a good explanation why wood-fairies or earth-spirits need a form-feed character in their alphabet, my money will remain on incredibly determined teams of pranksters. There's money to be made off these things as well.

      --
      Someone is wrong on the Internet!
    18. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      They show up in areas where everyone is so poor that no one has time for stupid practical jokes.

      How do you know how much time they have?

      Don't let your assumptions about the poor get in the way of the facts. People are people; everyone loves a good joke. And "the poor" might have a lot more free time than you.

      Besides which, there are these things called automobiles, which could conceivably enable non-poor people to move from a non-poor area to a poorer area fairly quickly... If I were committed to an all-nighter to make crop circles, I don't think I would balk at a 60-mile drive.

      A pair of people may be able to flatten a circle 75 feet across in a few hours during the night, but even a team of people wouldn't be able to finish some of these things in one night.

      How do you know that? Have you tried it? Or are you talking out of your ass?

      Even in the daytime, without precise surveying instruments and some way to measure and mark off every single arc of the pattern, it would be really difficult.

      How do you know? Did you ever take geometry? Have you ever done a construction? All it takes is a compass and a straightedge to get very precise results. A length of rope and a partner serve as a large-scale substitute for both tools.

      Have you ever tried to bend the stalk of any plant like grass, wheat or corn to a 90-degree angle without breaking it?

      Have you? Are you a farmer? How would you know what is or is not possible? Have you tried bending the stalks in different seasons? Have you tried it at night, when the stalks are saturated with dew? Have you ever even been outside?

      There's also evidence of odd things like stunted growth within the circle and things not growing there even months or years after the fact. I'd love to know how a two-by-four could do that.

      Is this "evidence" collected double-blind, by unbiased researchers? Or are they going in knowing what they expect to find? Does it even qualify as evidence, or is it merely anecdotal?

      More to the point, have you done any research to show that these types of anomalies don't occur when the mundane two-by-four method is applied? It would be an easy enough experiment to perform.

      Crop circles didn't just start in the last couple of decades with a couple of 40-year old guys and a board. There are instances of them a long ways into the past.

      And these previous instances couldn't possibly have been created by humans?

      A lot of people who just love the idea of crop circles and think nothing would be more fun than going out and making their own, and then never telling anyone about it for the rest of their lives. Why?

      Because they don't want to spoil the joke, or be arrested or sued, or because they're making good enough money by charging admission to come and see the crop circle that they made on their own property.

      On the other hand, how do you know they don't tell anyone? Because you didn't get wind of it? If someone bragged to you that he had created a crop circle 3 years ago, would you alert the media? Would the media even care at that point?

      Ever think just for a minute that there might be another reason that no one has been able to "catch them at it"?

      Because they do it at night, in the country. Have you ever been to the country?

      You are making all kinds of unsupported assertions, some of them quite ludicrous, about what is and is not possible. You are no skeptic. You have closed your mind to the possibility that ordinary humans might just be clever enough to pull this off.

    19. Re:Amazing number of closed minds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Chew on this, skeptic-boy: http://www.circlemakers.org/nztrip.html I think you would be surprised by what human circlemakers are capable of.

  67. Old Kike by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When I think of dirty old men, I think of Kike Thomas and when I think about Kike I get a hard on that won't quit.

    Sixty years ago,I worked in what was once my Grandfather's Greenhouses. Gramps had died a year earlier and Grandma, now in her seventies had been forced to sell to the competition. I got a job with the new owners and mostly worked the range by myself. That summer, they hired a man to help me get the benches ready for the fall planting.

    Kike always looked like he was three days from a shave and his whiskers were dirty white under the brim of his battered felt fedora.

    He did nott chew tobacco but the corners of his mouth turned down in a way that, at any moment, I expected a trickle of thin, brown juice to creep down his chin. His bushy, brown eyebrows shaded pale, gray eyes.

    Old Kike, he extended his hand, lifted his leg like a dog about to mark a bush and let go the loudest fart I ever heard. The old man winked at me. ÒKike Thomas is the name and playing pecker's my game.

    I thought he said, "Checkers." I was nineteen, green as grass. I said, "I was never much good at that game."

    "Now me," said Kike, "I just love jumping men. . ."

    "I'll bet you do."

    ". . . and grabbing on to their peckers," said Kike.

    "I though we were talking about. . ."

    "You like jumping old men's peckers?"

    I shook my head.

    "I reckon we'll have to remedy that." Kike lifted his right leg and let go another tremendous fart. "He said, "We best be getting to work."

    That summer of1941 was a more innocent time. I learned most of the sex I knew from those little eight pager cartoon booklets of comic-page characters going at it. Young men read them in the privacy of an outside john, played with themselves, by themselves and didn't brag about it. Sometimes, we got off with a trusted friend and helped each other out.

    Under the greenhouse glass, the temperature some times climbed over the hundred degree mark. I had worked stripped to the waist since April and was as browwn as a berry. On only his second day on the job and in the middle of August, Kike wore old fashioned overalls. Those and socks in his hightop work shoes was every stitch he wore. When he bent forward, the bib front billowed out and I could see the white curly hairs on his chest and belly.

    "Me? I just love to eat pussy!" Kike licked his lips from corner to corner then stuck it out far enough that the tip could touch the tip of his nose. He said, A man's not a man till he knows first hand, the flavor of a lady's pussy."

    "People do that?"

    He winked. "Of course the taste of a hard cock ain't to be sneezed at neither. Now you answer me, yes or no. Does a man's cock taste salty or not?"

    "I never. . ."

    "Well, old Kike's willing to let you find out."

    "No way."

    "Just teasing," said Kike. "But don't give me no sass or I'll show you my ass." He winked. Might show it to you anyway, if you was to ask."

    "Why would I do that?"

    "Curiousity, maybe. I'm guessing you never had a good piece of man ass."

    "I'm no queer."

    "Now don't be getting judgemental. Enjoying what's at hand ain't beiing queer. It's taking pleasure where you find it with anybody willing." Kike slipped a handside the side slit of his overalls and I could tell he was fondling and straightening out his cock. Now I admit I got me a hole that satisfied a few guys."

    I swallowed, hard.

    Kike winked. "Care to be asshole buddies?"

    ***

    We worked steadily until noon. Kike drew a worn pocket watch from the bib pocket of his loose overalls and croaked, "Bean time. But first its time to reel out our limber hoses and make with the golden arches before lunch."

    I followed Kike to the end of the greenhouse where he stopped at the outside wall of the potting shed. He opened his fly, fished inside, and finger-hooked a soft white penis with a pouting foreskin puckered half an inch past the hidden head.

    "Yes sir," breathed Kike, "this old peter needs some draining." He exhaled a sigh as a strong, yellow stream splattered against the boards and ran down to soak into the earthen floor.

    He caught me looking down at him. He winked. "Like what you're viewing, Boy?"

    I looked away.

    "You taking a serious interest in old Kike's pecker?"

    I shook my head.

    "Well you just haul out yourn and let old Kike return the compliment."

    Feeling trapped and really having to go, I fumbled at my fly, turned away slightly, withdrew my penis and strained to start.

    "Take your time boy. Let it all hang out. Old Kike's the first to admit that he likes looking at another man's pecker." He flicked away the last drop of urine and shook his limp penis vigorously.

    I tried not to look interested.

    "Yer sir, this old peepee feels so good out, I just might leave it out." He turned to give me a better view.

    "What if somebody walks in?"

    Kike shrugged. He looked at my strong yellow stream beating against the boards and moved a step closer. "You got a nice one,boy."

    I glanccd over at him. His cock was definitely larger and beginning to stick straight out. I nodded toward his crotch. "Don't you think you should put that away?"

    "I got me strictly a parlor prick," said Kike. "Barely measures six inches." He grinned. "Of course it's big enough around to make a mouthful." He ran a thumb and forefinger along its length and drawing his foreskin back enough to expose the tip of the pink head. "Yersiree." He grinned, revealing nicotine stained teeth. "I t sure feels good, letting the old boy breathe."

    I knew I should button up and move away. I watched his fingers moving up and down the thickening column.

    "You like checking out this old man's cock?"

    I nodded. In spite of myself, my cock began to swell.

    "Maybe we should have ourselves a little pecker pulling party." Kike slid his fingers back and forth on his expandingshaft and winked. "I may be old but I'm not against doing some little pud pulling with a friend."

    I shook my head.

    "Maybe I Ôll give my balls some air. Would you like a viewing of old Kike's hairy balls?"

    I swallowed hard and moistened my dry lips.

    He opened another button on his fly and pulled out his scrotum. "Good God, It feels good to set Ôem free. Now let's see yours."

    "Why?"

    "Just to show you're neighborly," said Kike.

    "I don't think so." I buttoned up and moved into the potting shed.

    Kike followed, his cock and balls protruding from the front of his overalls. "Overlook my informality." Kike grinned. "As you can see I ain't bashful."

    I nodded and took my sandwich from the brown paper bag.

    "Yessir," said Kike. "I just might have to have myself an old fashioned peter pulling all by my lonesome. He unhooked a shoulder strap and let his overalls drop around his ankles.

    I took a bite of my sandwich but my eyes remained on Kike.

    "Yessiree," said Kike, "I got a good one if I do say so myself. Gets nearly as hard as when I was eighteen. You know why?"

    I shook my head.

    "Cause Kikeep excerising him. When I was younger I was pulling on it three time a day. Still like to do him every day I can."

    "Some sayyou'll go blind if you do that too much."

    "Bull-loney!" Don't you believe that shit. I been puling my pud for close to fifty years and I didn't start till I was fifteen."

    I laughed.

    "You laughing at my little peter, boy?"

    "Your hat." I pointed to the soiled, brown fedora cocked on his head. That and his overalls draped about his ankles were his only items of apparel. In between was a chest full of gray curly hair, two hairy legs. Smack between them stood an erect, pale white cock with a tip of foreskin still hiding the head.

    "I am one hairy S.O.B.," said Kike.

    "I laughed at you wearing nothing but a hat."

    "Covers up my bald spot," said Kike. "I got more hair on my ass than I got on my head. Want to see?"

    "Your head?"

    "No, Boy, my hairy ass and around my tight, brown asshole." He turned, reached back with both hands and parted his ass cheeks to reveal the small, puckered opening. "There it is, Boy, the entrance lots of good feelings. Tell me, Boy, how would you like to put it up old Kike's ass?"

    "I don't think so."

    "That'd be the best damned piece you ever got."

    "We shouldn't be talking like this."

    "C'mon now, confess, don't this make your cock perk up a little bit?"

    "I reckon," I confessed.

    "You ever seen an old man's hard cock before," asked Kike.

    "My grandpa's when I was twelve or thirteen."

    "How'd that come about?"

    He was out in the barn and didn't know I was around. He dropped his pants. It was real big he did things to it. He saw me and he turned around real fast but I saw it."

    "What did your grandpa do?"

    "He said I shouldn't be watching him doing that. He said something like grandma Ôwouldn't give him some,' that morning and that I should get out of there and leave a poor man in peace to do what he had to do."

    "Did you want to join him."

    "I might have if he'd asked. He didn't."

    "I like showing off my cock," said Kike. "A hard-on is somethng I always been proud of. A hard-on proves a man's a man. Makes me feel like a man that can do things." He looked up at me and winked. "You getting a hard-on fromall this talk, son?"

    I nodded and looked away.

    "Then maybe you should pull it out and show old Kike what you got."

    "We shouldn't."

    "Hey. A man's not a man till he jacked off with a buddy."

    I wanted to but I was as nervous as hell.

    Kike grinned and fingered his pecker. "C'mon, Boy, between friends, a little cock showing is perfectly fine. Lets see what you got in the cock and balls department."

    In spite of my reluctance, I felt the stirring in my crotch. I had curiositythat needed satisfying. It had been a long, long time since I had walked in on my grandfather .

    "C'mon let's see it all."

    I shook my head.

    "You can join the party anytime, said Kike. "Just drop your pants and pump away."

    I had the urge. There was a tingling in my crotch. My cock was definitely willing and I had a terrible need to ajust myself down there. But my timidity and the strangeness of it all held me back.

    Hope you don't mind if I play out this hand." Kike grinned. "It feels like I got a winner."

    I stared at his gnarled hand sliding up and down that pale, white column and I could not look away. I wet my lips and shook my head.

    Old Kike's about to spout a geyser." Kike breathed harder as he winked. "Now if I just had a long finger up my ass. You interested, boy?"

    I shook my head.

    The first, translucent, white glob crested the top of his cock and and arced to the dirt floor. Kike held his cock at the base with thumb and forefinger and tightened noticably with each throb of ejaculation until he was finished.

    I could not believe any man could do what he had done in front of another human being.

    Kike sighed with pleasure and licked his fingers. "A man ain't a man till he's tasted his own juices."

    He squatted, turned on the faucet and picked up the connected hose. He directed the water between his legs and on to his still dripping prick and milked the few remaing drops of white, sticky stuff into the puddle foming at his feet. "Cool water sure feels good on a cock that just shot its wad," said Kike.

    ***

    "Cock-tale telling time," said Old Kike. It was the next day and he rubbed the front of his dirty,worn overalls where his bulge made the fly expand as his fingers smoothed the denim around the outline of his expanding cock.

    I wasn't sure what he had in mind but I knew it wasn't something my straight-laced Grandma would approve of.

    "Don't you like taking your cock out and jacking it?" Kike licked his lips.

    I shook my head in denial.

    "Sure you do. A young man in his prime has got to be pulling his pud."

    I stared at his caloused hand moving over the growing bulge at his crotch.

    "Like I said," continued Kike, "I got me barely six inches when he's standing up." He winked at me. "How much you got, son?"

    "Almost seven inches. . ." I stuttered. "Last time I measured."

    "And I'm betting it feels real good with your fist wrapped around it."

    "I don't do. . ."

    "Everybody does it." He scratched his balls and said,"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Then, looking me in the eye, he lifted his leg like a dog at a tree and let out a long, noisy fart.

    Denying that I jacked off, I said, "I saw yours yesterday."

    "A man has got to take out his pecker every once in a while." He winked and his fingers played with a button on his fly. Care to join me today?"

    "I don't think so."

    "What's the matter, boy? You ashamed of what's hanging Ôtween your skinny legs?"

    "It's not for showing off."

    "That would be so with a crowd of strangers but with a friend, in a friendly showdown, where's the harm?

    "It shouldn't be shown to other people. My Grandma said that a long time ago when I went to the bathroom against a tree whan I was seven.

    "There's nothing like a joint pulling among friends to seal a friendship," said Kike.

    I don't think so." I felt very much, ill at ease.

    "Then what the fuck is it for," demanded the old man. "A good man shares his cock with his friends. How old are you boy?"

    "Nineteen almost twenty."

    You ever fucked a woman?"

    "No."

    "Ever fucked a man?"

    "Of course not.

    "Son, you ain't never lived till you've fired your load up a man's tight ass. "I didn't know men did that to each other."

    "Men shove it up men's asses men all the time. They just don't talk about it like they do pussy."

    "You've done that?"

    "I admit this old pecker's been up a few manholes. More than a fewhard cocks have shagged this old ass over the years." He shook his head, wistfully, "I still have a hankering for a hard one up the old dirt chute."

    "I think that would hurt."

    "First time, it usually does," agreed Kike. He took a bite from his sandwich.

    I looked at my watch. Ten minutes of our lunch hour had already passed.

    "We got time for a quickie," said Kike. "There's no one around to say, stop, if were enjoying ourselves."

    He unhooked the slide off the button of one shoulder-strap, pushed the bib of his overalls down to let them fall to his feet.

    "Showtime," said Kike. Between his legs, white and hairy, his semi-hard cock emerged from a tangled mass of brown and graypubic hair. The foreskin, still puckered beyond the head of the cock, extended downward forty-five degrees from the horizontal but was definitely on the rise.

    I could only stare at the man. Until the day before, I had never seen an older man with an erection besides my grandpa.

    Kike moved his fingers along the stalk of his manhood until the head partially emerged, purplish and broad. He removed his hand for a moment and it bobbled obscenely in the subdued light of the potting shed. Kike leaned back against a bin of clay pots like a model on display. "Like I said, boy, it gets the job done."

    I found it difficult not to watch. "You shouldn't. . ."

    "C'mon, boy. Show Kike your peckeer. I'm betting it's nice and hard."

    I grasped my belt and tugged on the open end. I slipped the waistband button and two more before pushing down my blue jeans and shorts down in one move. My cock bounced and slapped my belly as I straightened."

    "That's a beaut." Kike stroked his pale, white cock with the purplish-pink head shining. "I'm betting it'll grow some more if you stroke it."

    "We really shouldn't. . ."

    "Now don't tell me you never stroked your hard peter with a buddy."

    "I've done that," I finally admitted,. "But he was the same age as me and it was a long time ago." I though back to the last time Chuck and me jerked each other off in the loft of our old barn. Chuck wanted more as a going away present and we had sucked each other's dicks a little bit.

    "Jackin's always better when you do it with somebody," said Kike. "Then you can lend each other a helping hand."

    "I don't know about that," I said.

    Kike's hand continued moving on his old cock as he leaned over to inspect mine. "God Damn! Boy. That cock looks good enough to eat." Kike licked his lips. "You ever had that baby sucked?"

    I shook my head as I watched the old man stroke his hard, pale cock.

    "Well boy, I'd sayyou're packing a real mouthful for some lucky gal or guy." He grinned. "Well c'mon. Let's see you get down to some serious jacking. Old Kike's way ahead of you."

    I wrapped my fist around my stiff cock and moved the foreskin up and over the head on the up stroke. On the down stroke the expanded corona of the angry, purple head stared obscenely at the naked old man.

    Kike toyed with his modest six inches. "What do you think of this old man's cock?" His fist rode down to his balls and a cockhead smaller than the barrel stared back at mine.

    "I guess I'm thinking this is like doing it with my grandpa."

    "You ever wish you could a done this with your grandpa?"

    "I thought about it a lot."

    "Ever see him with a hard-on."

    "I told you about that!"

    "Ever think about him doing your grandma?"

    "I can't imagine her ever doing anything with a man.

    "Take my word for it, sonny, we know she did it or you wouldn't be here." Begrudgingly I nodded in agreement.

    "Everybody fucks," said old Kike. "They fuck or they jack off."

    "If you say so."

    "Say sonny, your cocks getting real juicy with slickum. Want old Kike to lick some of it away?"

    "You wouldn't."

    Kike licked his lips as he kept his hand pistoning up and down his hard cock. "You might be surprised what old Kike might do if he was in the mood for a taste of what comes out of a hard cock."

    And that is what he proceded to do. He sucked me dry.

    Then he erupted in half-a-dozen spurts shooting out and onto the dirt floor of the potting shed. He gave his cock a flip and shucked t back into his overalls. He unwrapped a sandwich from its wax paper and procede to eat without washing his hands. He took a bite and chewed. "Nothing like it boy, a good jacking clears the cobwebs from your crotch and gives a man an appetite."

    ***

    The following day, We skipped the peliminaries. We dropped our pants. Kike got down on his knees and sucked me until I was hard and good and wet before he stood and turned.

    "C'mon boy, Shove that pretty cock up old Kike's tight, brown hole and massage old Kike's prostate.

    Kike bent forward and gripped the edge of the potting bench. The lean, white cheeked buttocks parted slightly and exposed the dark brown, crinkly, puckered star of his asshole "Now you go slow and ease it along until you've got it all the way in," he cautioned. "This old ass craves your young cock but it don't want too much too soon. You've got to let this old hole stretch to accomodate you."

    "Are you sure you want to do this?"

    "Easy boy, easy," he cautioned. "You feel a lot bigger than you look. Put a little more spit in your cock."

    "It's awfully tight. I don't know if it's going to go or not."

    ""It'll go," said Kike. "There's been bigger boys than you up the old shit chute."

    I slipped in the the last few inches.. "It's all in."

    "I can tell," said Kike. "Your cock hairs are tickling my ass."

    "Are you ready," I asked.

    "How are you liking old Kike's hairy asshole so far?"

    "It's real tight."

    "Tighter than your fist?"

    "Might be."

    "Ready to throw a fuck into a man that reminds you of your grandpa."

    "I reckon."

    "I want you should do old Kike one more favor."

    "What?"

    While you're pumpin my ass, would you reach around and play with my dick like you would your own? Would you do that for an old man?"

    I reached around and took hold of his hard cock sticking out straight in front of him. I pilled the skin back amd then pulled it up and over the expaded glans. I felt my own cock expand inside him as I manipulated his staff in my fingers. I imagined that my cock extended through him and I was playing with what came out the other side of him.

    "C'mon, boy, ram that big cock up the old shitter and make me know it. God Damn! tickle that old prostate and make old Kike come!"

    I came. And I came. Kike's tightened up on my cock and I throbbed Roman Candle bursts into that brown hole as I pressed into him. His hairy, scrawny ass flattened against my crotch and we were joined as tightly as two humans can be.

    "A man's not a man till he's cum in another man." said old Kike. "You made it, boy. But still, a man's not a man till he's had a hard cock poked up his ass at least once."

    Every time I think of that scene, I get another hard-on. Then I remember the next day when old Kike returned the favor.

    I never have managed to come that hard again. If only Kike were here.

    8441

  68. Semi Off Topicish by nycbrujah · · Score: 1

    I used to provide support for that system. John Deere isn't the only company to provide GPS and Data recording for farmers though.
    Theoretically the satellite could drive your tractor for you. Once you did a pass of the field that information was stored in a type of flash card, the system would beep at you, or let you know when you were not driveling in a row. It would also record things like moisture, elevation, and yields.
    This type of system is pretty slick for farmers, but it's still in the really expensive mom & pop farmer can't afford it just yet stage.
    There's more but it's been a while since I've done this so I don't remember the specifics.

    --
    'Pleasure is the Disease, Pain is the Cure' - Lilith
  69. They may be a prank... by ndogg · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...but I have to admit that the pranksters have a lot of creativity and talent. Some crop circles out there look downright cool.

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
  70. THAT'S THINKING OUTSIDE THE MOTHERFUCKING BOX by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I like the way you work it. No diggity.

  71. How they knew... by KilerCris · · Score: 1

    Ok everyone, check your access logs. Find any requests for an ASCII chart from a strange UA and post it here. Obviously they must be using old mac's as we learned from independence day.

  72. Afraid not! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's keeping it oh-so-real for the Lord God almighty in heaven above!

  73. Re:War is stupid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The fall of America, just like Rome and Nazi Germany, has already begun.

  74. Re:nitrates-Political "growth". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    " * Reported increase in crop yield [paradigmshift.com] - Some farmers and researchers have independently reported greater yield in the years following the appearance of formations in their fields. ...

    Wow. Bullshit works as a fertilizer. Who'd a thunk it?"

    If that was true, then Washington DC would be covered in jungle.

  75. Greetings, people of Slashdot. by mraymer · · Score: 4, Funny
    I am a member of an advanced alien race. We have technology that would take humans thousands of years to develop. This is evident by the fact that we have ships capable of traveling at faster-than-light speeds, proving how little you humans know about the universe and the laws of physics.

    I am typing this post with a device that is installed in my brain. It's wireless, and can be transmitted on to your Web site with relative ease.

    We're also very good at making sure the only people that ever see any really substantial evidence (in the rare event that one of us screws up and leaves some) are judged as insane.

    Lastly, but not least, we are so very insanely advanced that we use... er, uhm... *cough* fields of wheat *cough* ...to erhm... communicate.

    --

    "To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking

    1. Re:Greetings, people of Slashdot. by yuckf00 · · Score: 1

      What do you suppose they would use assuming that they can even speak English or speak at all?

    2. Re:Greetings, people of Slashdot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One obvious possibility, and one I am sure would convert quite a few people to believers, would be to park one of their flying saucers on the lawn of the White House.

    3. Re:Greetings, people of Slashdot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure that after mastering faster than light travel and zapping(or whatever) to our planet because one of their listening drones reported back life signs... They could probably master a language used by what has to be, to them, moderately advanced apes.

    4. Re:Greetings, people of Slashdot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Be happy that these aliens specis has not evolved enough to involve lawyers, otherwise the whole crop field would be covered with sub paragraph 3.4.1.23 on all the terms and conditions.

    5. Re:Greetings, people of Slashdot. by Jouster · · Score: 1

      Because the ET with the CD-ROM linked in the story has data encoded in 8-bit ASCII. The data is standard English. See
      http://www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=512 .

      So they can speak English and in fact even understand ASCII--why can't they communicate another way? Thy parent's question is valid.

      Jouster

  76. We're all doomed. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Look at all the sheep....

    Life according to the Discovery Channel.

    Sad...very sad.

  77. Two Interesting Facts About Crop Circles by Lucas+Membrane · · Score: 2, Interesting
    1. About 80% of crop circles appear on weekend nights.

    2. Crop circles occur only in countries with agricultural surpluses.

    1. Re:Two Interesting Facts About Crop Circles by stud9920 · · Score: 1

      1. Aliens can be drunk too.

      2. Aliens are benevolent. You don't want them to spoil Starvin' Marvin's crops, do you ?

  78. Not a hoax by nebby · · Score: 1, Troll

    For every 100 cropcircles, there is 1 which is not obviously made with human boards pushing down on wheat/straw/whatever. These cropcircles have the wheat bent at 90 degrees and interleaved upon one another. This is something that, even with the most advanced equipment, is pretty much impossible to do, and is the reason crop circles are truly interesting phenomenon.

    Just like for every 100 guys who throw a plate into the air and take a picture, there is one who actually saw something unexplainable. Separating the signal from the noise, and realizing that there is in fact actual signal amongst the noise, is the first step towards understanding what it means to be a true skeptic and a rational, open-minded, thinker. Doubting for the sheer sake of doubt and assuming something to be false without any proof is ignorance and is a bastardization of what it means to be a skeptic and a scientist.

    --
    --
  79. crap-in-a-box by psych031337 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    To me this stuff is at least 99,999% bunk. There is the universal claim that these circls are too symmetrical or spiritual to be handmade. The believers claim that there is no way for human beings to make these symbols without leaving obvious trace to human presence.

    Last year a german TV magazin (stern tv) decided to evaluate that. After finding out that it was possible, they... well, they became alien and just did it. A large field was picked, the "impressions" were made with such other-worldly gadgets as tree logs, rope and a bunch of carbon-based glucose operated water bags.

    The result: crop circles indistinguishable from all the other ones that are worshipped all the time. All the german esoteric elite piled up at that field, people sold the t-shirts and posters, and everyone believed that the god-forsaken place of Schönwalde was location to extra-terrestrial visits.

    http://www.fosar-bludorf.com/kornkreis/
    Scroll down a bit to see a picture of the circle in question. Interestingly enough (and although the creation of the circle was filmed) the site which has the picture is part of the "believers" who are not going to abstain from their initial belief that it is the work of alien visitors. Notice any weird feelings when looking at it? Well, if it is hunger it might be for a reason, the pattern has been taken from a salami pizza, the weird thingy coming out of one of the outer circles is a deplaced pepperoni.

    Well, the wackos running the site are currently bashing the TV magazine people for obstructing the truth and stuff like that. A bunch of the wackos have found magnetic anomalies ("up to 1000%"), dehydrated soil but no burned plant matter, silicium chipping ("broken off a spaceship") or measured modulated signals on obscure frequencies. Some people just WANT to believe...

    --
    +++ath0
    1. Re:crap-in-a-box by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1

      Why are human beings so scared of crop circles? Why do human beings think that all crop circles are hoaxes? Rhetorical questions, I know. Idiots will respond.

      Human beings don't know their ass from a hole in their ass. But they always act like they do. Ignore the scientific proof found at many crop circles, and you act like a typical human being.

      I'M NOT SAYING ALL CROP CIRCLES ARE MADE BY ET! I'm not even saying that ANY crop circle HAS been made by ET. But hear what your mind feels comfortable with.

      If you don't know the difference between a 'genuine' crop circle and a physically-created hoax circle, then congratulations: you're stupid. Why are most of the posts on this topic so ignorant sounding? Again, rhetorical.

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    2. Re:crap-in-a-box by Zaak · · Score: 1

      I'm not even saying that ANY crop circle HAS been made by ET. ... If you don't know the difference between a 'genuine' crop circle and a physically-created hoax circle, then congratulations: you're stupid.

      You have fallen prey to the logical fallacy known as "begging the question". If you're not saying that any of the circles are made by aliens, then how can you say there is a difference between "genuine" and hoax circles?

      TTFN

    3. Re:crap-in-a-box by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
      Check this out, and if you still don't understand:

      Humans make HOAX circles with rope and sticks.
      Humans AND/OR ETs make GENUINE circles with ???.

      I hope that's simple enough.

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
  80. I'm stunned by _prime · · Score: 2, Troll

    At the response in this forum. It seems to me that any good scientist closely examines the evidence presented before concluding anything, and also considers any possible explaination without bias or emotional influence. I hear people spouting off about a lack of science on /. lately yet I see little evidence of so-called scientific approach in response to this phenominon. If you've closely examined the evidence and reports first-hand and feel qualified to give an analysis, by all means go ahead and share, otherwise consider the quality and usefullness of your comments before crying "hoax".

    While some of these circles are obviously faked, there is surely enough mystery here to generate legitimate discussion -- some of those circles are hundreds of feet across and contain patterns that seem to be not only beautiful but original. I can imagine some ./ readers are unable to comfortably walk 800 feet (the diameter of the last pattern I looked at) never mind produce a pattern of high complexity in the middle of night in a dark field with flawless geometry while leaving little trace of disturbance. I can imagine few organizations that would be able to pull this sort of stunt off -- certainly none that I have worked for! Whoever or whatever is doing this has my admiration.

    1. Re:I'm stunned by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      Nice to see some good arguments here. There are some people that WANT to believe, and there are others that DON'T want to believe. The real objective scientist is curious, but don't belong to either of these groups.

      It's good that you're stunned. It's a sign that you're waking up. Curiosity didn't kill the cat, it has made a quantuum-leap in technology for mankind in the last 150 years.

    2. Re:I'm stunned by A+Gremlin+In+Kremlin · · Score: 1

      I don't think I agree completely with you. I think it's better to try not to believe anything. To believe requires nothing, to know; something.

      --
      bius sig file. This is a moebius sig file. This is a moe
    3. Re:I'm stunned by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      I don't agree fully with that ;-)

      Belief requires alot of trust. The more you trust, the more you believe.

      If you don't believe in anything, you can't exist. Progress does require someone to believe in taking another step into the unknown.

    4. Re:I'm stunned by knownsense · · Score: 1

      I think i agree about the attitute around /. Its beginning to sound highschoolish around here these days. About the scientific evidence that seem to "crop up", most "genuine" circles seem to interfere with electrical equipment and also have unexplained iron deposits in them, along with the expulsions in the plant nodes. Quite something to think about, but obviously, all slashdot wants these days are repeat stories and a bunch of goons who like free beer...

    5. Re:I'm stunned by Bicoid · · Score: 1
      Curiosity didn't kill the cat, it has made a quantuum-leap in technology for mankind in the last 150 years.


      In other words, curiosity didn't kill the cat, but Schroedinger might have.

      But seriously, I don't see any SCIENTIFIC evidence for any of these phenomena to solely from a spacecraft. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof and the simple fact that people have been able to make these things with planks and rope makes me really doubt that the sole existence of crop circles is extraordinary proof. Plus, despite alien psychology would be alien to us, it would still seem more worthwhile to communicate with us using radio waves, hacked communications satellites, or whatever. If they can decode our language AND ASCII and write a message with correct syntax, you'd think that they'd also have the decryption technology to encode some instructions into a geosyncronous weather satellite or something...have the satellite send back a huge picture that reads "We are here to invade you. Resistance is futile. Bow down to your new overlords."

      IF we're really dealing with aliens in these crop circle phenomena, we have to face the fact that we might be dealing with hick aliens. And the last thing I want to see is a rusted-out hulk of a flying saucer propped up on concrete blocks (and I tip my hat to Bill Hicks here).
      --
      If not all sentients are human, couldn't it be possible that not all humans are sentient either?
    6. Re:I'm stunned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      800 feet. A mile is over 5000 feet, and I used to walk to my local library (about one mile) every sunday, taking a whopping... 15 minutes. Without any hurrying. I can easily see a coordinated group of people accomplishing an 800' crop circle in a matter of hours. Give it a try - you'll be surprised at how much you can accomplish in one night. (11pm - 4am = 5 hours of crop circling fun)

    7. Re:I'm stunned by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

      But seriously, I don't see any SCIENTIFIC evidence for any of these phenomena to solely from a spacecraft.

      I'm not saying it comes from a spacecraft. There have been written plenty of good books on the subject, and from what you can read on the net, the phenomena is quite intriguing without bringing in clunky spacecrafts from Andromeda. I say we should investigate more, rather than dismiss everything as a hoax.

  81. Booting the cd will cause your computer... by chip_s_ahoy · · Score: 1

    To say:

    Welcome! ...
    You've got mail!

  82. Re:Amazing number of closed minds...Open sesame. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Found this fortune at the bottom of Slashdot.
    "Am I ranting? I hope so. My ranting gets raves."

    Now here's one possability. Magnetic volcanoes as it were. Another electrostatic charges generated by geophysical forces. The same generated by weather phenomenon. Biological agents (virus, bacterial, or fungal).

  83. Okay then. . . Into the breach again. . . by Fantastic+Lad · · Score: 4, Funny
    First off, Kudos to the Slashdot editors for allowing this story through the newspage stupid-filters. Cool! --And on the tail of the SOHO story, no less. (Which I am still out with the jury on, BTW. Too little info, too much hype, and not enough distance from the subject yet. Better brains than mine must mull over SOHO before I can raise two cents to chip in with.)

    In any case. . . Crop circles. . .

    There are, to my knowledge, four entirely different parties making circles. I'll start from the lowest and work my way up.

    1. Pranksters. There's quite a scene actually, of circle makers with an internal social protocol similar in ways to graffiti artists who spray paint buildings and boxcars. --Often, artists will leave their 'tag' on a crop glyph, or even tag other glyphs to claim ownership. In any case, it has been conclusively demonstrated that with a slat of wood, a length of twin, a tape measure, (and a policebox full of eager engineering students), one can construct very convincing circles of the most remarkable geometric complexity. --Some circle makers even leave weird objects at the centers, up to and including radioactive residues, etc. Humans are smart, and they are good at playing tricks, and many crop circle researchers are entirely willing to be fooled. A happy and kind of infernal madness.

    2. Non-pranksters. Ooh, those pesky military dudes! (Or whoever. Blackops or somebody.) Always trying to obfuscate and mislead. The same types are responsible for replicating cattle mutilations in an effort to mislead and misdirect. (Getting more done before 6 A.M. and all. There's no life like it!) --Though probably not with $400 military slats of wood and $500 military tape measures; there has been a great deal of fast advancement recently in our realm by way of technology. Alien assisted, in some cases. --The crop glyph with the Alien head and the CD thingy was one of these. The garbled word, "BELIEvE" was just that; a garbled word. (Way to go, guys! Wishful thinking, the identity stamp of the greedy & the self-obsessed, will getcha every time. Bush drools for a reason kids, debauchery will do that to you. A rule of thumb: Bad-guys use coke.)

    The psychology behind the alien head & CD glyph: To the susceptible: "Trust the 'good and friendly' greys." To the regular folks: "Crop Circles are scary and weird. Don't trust them."

    3. The Scary Bad Aliens Themselves! Sometimes called 'fourth density' aliens, depending on what sources you look at. They inhabit the level of reality directly one step above ours, where time is a direction which can be navigated backwards and forth. They eat negative emotions when in their corner of reality, and absorb cow and (east-indian human child) plasma when in ours pulling the Men in Black thing. "The Vats are Real." They have set set us up to live in eternal misery, and when the big day comes, it's harvest feast time to the tune of 6 billion very unhappy humans clinging to bibles filled with wrong-headed messages which got garbled way back in the dark ages. Mmm. Yummy fear.

    Anyway, there are supposedly not too many circles directly made by this bunch, but you can identify the ones which have been; The plants in such circles are microwaved and sort of fried and grow funny after the event.

    And last but certainly not least. . .

    4. The good and all knowing entities. --From a another two levels up, called 'Sixth density' (Or 6th harmonic, or vibrational frequency, or whatever depending on your preferred source and level of service.) "We are you in the future. . !"

    Proper circles made by this Yoda-like bunch are supposedly messages documenting the nature of reality in these end-of-times. --Not that I've been able to make head or tail of them. Math isn't my strong suit. (Though, weirdly, precious few are even making the attempt.) "Your media resists. Why?"

    Oh yeah. How to tell a 'real' circle from a fake one, (aside from the perfectly bent stalks and no foot prints, versus the wake-of-carnage system preferred by the slat of wood and ball of string kids). . .

    "One thing to look for would be growth disruptions to the area. Real circles do not disrupt the creative principle."

    A quick side-note to all those who are on guard here: The creepy Scientologists and Moonies, etc., I figure, were set up in order to obfuscate and sound a eerie and somewhat similar, (although selfish and thoroughly dispicable), message. --And to be generally creepy and culty and all that. Ignore those ass-wipes. Travolta and Cruise are royal dinks and should be considered as such. The real story is far less stupid, though still startling. Essentially. . .

    The world is going bye-bye within the next decade or so; global war, economic depression, rich New World Order jerks scrambling over the duped hoards as the ship goes down under the weight of hungry aliens, comet impacts, ice-ages, famine, cats & dogs living together; mass hysteria. (I believe Bill Murry may even be hosting.) Anyway, it's already underway, led by George, "See the Bad Nurse Make Disease" Bush. --Deny it if you will, but everybody can feel it on a gut level. All the little subconsciouses are chattering away. --And it's going to get much, much worse. So buckle up!)

    Have no fear though. When time is circular, (as I am assured it is), all ends are also beginnings. If you don't get smeared by a comet or shot in the head by a Nazi reincarnated as an Israeli, beam-weaponed by an invading alien giant, or just ass-fucked by an American zombie, then you're going to witness some really neat stuff when the Big Shift comes. So get your closets cleaned out, and your heads and your hearts in order. It's all about awareness, baby!


    -Fantastic Lad --mod THAT!

  84. CD? by taj · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    How do you turn the CD over to see how many free hours it offers?

    Couldn't they make a floppy? That would work great for our effort to install linux on /dev/earth

    Sigh.. Aliens On Line went to crud after the merger.

    And what about the EULA... I can't understand what it means.

  85. Keyhole Sats by Bios_Hakr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The current spy birds do not stay active all the time. The spend most of their life in sleep mode. It would be too expensive to just let them roam over the earth seeing whatever happens to be in their FOV.

    If you want to learn more about them, look up the "Keyhole Satallites" in google. You can take what is public knowledge and apply a dash of Moores Law to come up with some pretty scarry stats on the newest models. Although, I'd guess that the true power in the Keyhole birds lies in their ability to view in the infra red or ultra violette ranges. Or maybe even use lasers to pick up audio from space.

    --
    I'd rather you do it wrong, than for me to have to do it at all.
    1. Re:Keyhole Sats by JohnFluxx · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I thought they used solar power? Why would it cost anything to make them active all the time?
      Except I suppose for the dishes that recieve the signals... but surely that isn't much compared to the cost of putting up the thing in the first place.

  86. Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Lucas+Membrane · · Score: 4, Informative
    No. All the mistakes you'd expect from human beings cavorting in the dead of night. Take a look at these, presented as evidence of the precise geometry:

    Milk Hill 2001 (scroll down, it's the 3rd one)

    Possibly made by the same people but with only 3 arms in the spiral

    Perfect geometry? The spiral arms don't even have the same number of circles in each arm. The Milk Hill formation has 13 circles on five of six arms of the spiral; the other arm has only 12. The 3-arm spiral has two arms with 11 circles and one with 12.

    Stand in awe if you like, but jeez, this is obvious BS that these things are anything like 'perfect'.

    1. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's a message! That's how they're communicating with us!

    2. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by The+Cornishman · · Score: 1

      The clue is in the url of the first [1] and on the page of the second. [2]

      [1] /shop/
      [2] PayPal account

      There isn't an ounce (28 g) of scientific method in the analyses I've just looked at; lots of buzzwords like plasma vortex and telluric fields, though. C'mon guys - form a testable hypothesis and then *test it*.

    3. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I don't really believe that ETs or natural phenomena cause the crop circles, the thing about the Milk Hill spiral (as you can read from circlemakers) is the fact that it is *HUGE* and very complicated. And to top things off, the approximate time window it appeared in is known to be somewhere around 4-5 hours.

      One of the links in the story goes to circlemakers.org, which basically means that the chaps running the site are crop circle makers, and they apparently know a lot about it. What they don't know is how you do something like the Milk Hill in such a small time.

    4. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Count them again: 13 in each arm.

    5. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Lucas+Membrane · · Score: 1

      On some of the arms, the last circle of the arm at the end away from the center is only a little smaller than the preceding. On others it's tiny, looking more like a dot. The arms were obvioulsy drawn starting at the center and working outward, and on some of the arms, they ran out of space before they could complete the last circle. This is not near-perfect geometry.

    6. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Planesdragon · · Score: 1

      No. All the mistakes you'd expect from human beings cavorting in the dead of night.

      AFAIK, there are hundreds of crop circles a year. People have come foward claiming that they have made crop circles, and I there is no reason at all to doubt that at least some of them are made by these public hoaxers.

      But there ARE near-perfect complex crop circles (which implies an intelligence--maybe mutant gophers, maybe civilian genius pranksters, maybe military folks having fun, maybe Something Else.)

      I'm hardly in awe of crop circles--I have God if I really want to be awed. But I have no reason to doubt the information that there are crop circles that have truly complex characteristics, which--at the least--require more than a 2x4 and some rope.

    7. Re:Nearly Perfect Geometrical Shapes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NO !
      The reason why there is a difference between number of circle in arms is that the sum of all circle is one of the fibbonacci number !!!!!!
      THIS make this crop almost perfect !!!!

      Yo

  87. Closed Minds on Both Sides by neiljt · · Score: 1

    Am I the only one who is as unconvinced by the arguments of the Believers as those of the Unbelievers?

    Having read (at least some of) the links, I'm fascinated, if irritated by conspiracy theories outnumbering the circles themselves.

    The doubters I have seen so far in this forum are yet to present convincing scientific evidence against -- and out-of-hand dismissal or ridicule doesn't count.

    One thing I am sure of is that there is an explanation, even if we haven't found it yet, and this (no, I don't believe it's done simply with planks and ropes) would be interesting in itself.

    At least there's some damn good art there :-)

    1. Re:Closed Minds on Both Sides by geniusj · · Score: 1

      exactly.. I can't dismiss the evidence that points to humans not making it, and I can't prove it either. What I can say, is that the people completely dismissing it on here as all pranks, never have an explanation for the ones that are considered by many to be the truly amazing ones. Namely elliptical crop circles with no broken stalks and the odd radioactivity surrounding the area. I also can't prove that the people who claim to have either seen or know that their crop circles were formed in time periods under 2 hours in length aren't crazy. I also can't prove that they are. My point in all of this is. . . Some of these circles have pretty amazing characteristics that separate them out from the others that are considered hoaxes. I haven't seen any posts yet that can explain the ones that are generally considered to be phenomena. Does all of this mean that creatures from another planet created them? No, but if they didn't, I'd love to see a good explanation for a lot of the more renowned occurances.

      Cheers,
      -JD-

  88. Amazing wonder? Like you would know! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    well established? by whom? where is the evidence? you didn't just watch tv and see "CROP CIRCLES A HOAX" on the other channel from "CROP CIRCLE MYSTERIES" did you? this applies to all you other /.ers who are eager to claim some FOX documentaries are bullshit (moon landing hoax for example) and then just as eager to claim this is the only evidence needed to explain crop circles.

    p.s. if it was aliens (which is just as unlikely as drunk teenagers or farmers) do you think they would be trying to communicate with you?

  89. Decoded? by JWSmythe · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Has anyone tried to figure out what the CD says? :)

    Well, seriously think about it. What are the possibilities.

    1) It was an alien.
    They'd be trying to convey a message.. So it should be easy to decrypt.

    2) It was a hoax.
    Someone wants bragging rights. They're not going to go through all the work of trashing that field (great work though), and not make the obviously intricate CD mean *something*.

    Looking at http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/Crabwood/c rabwood2002sac.jpg, it's fairly clear to see that the marks are evenly spaced. There's an obvious smallest unit, which the others are multiples of.. So, take the smallest displayed unit as 1, and the absense of a unit as 0, the whole thing could be broken out to binary...

    But, do aliens know ASCII to Binary translation? :)

    BTW, have another look at the pic. It's not rings, it's a spiral like a record.. The beginning and end are solid, and taper up and down from nothing. The bumps are too infrequent to even attempt to simulate an audio record.. That'd just make pops..

    --
    Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    1. Re:Decoded? by JWSmythe · · Score: 4, Informative
      Oh goodie, I get to answer myself. :)

      I would have been more entertained to read that it had (c) 2002, Sony Music Corporation.. Then they'd have the RIAA trying to shut down the site. :)

      "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES.
      Much PAIN but still time.
      EELRIJUE.
      There is GOOD out there.
      We OPpose DECEPTION.
      COnduit CLOSING [bell sound]".

      This answer was found at:

      http://www.dcccs.org/the_alien_at_crabwood_farm_ho use.htm

      http://home.clara.net/lucypringle/articles/crabwoo d.html

      http://www.earthfiles.com/news/news.cfm?ID=381&cat egory=Environment
      (this one requires a registration. I haven't read it yet)

      http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8 &oe=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=EELRIJUE&btnG=Google+Sea rch
      DejaNews shows 57 threads

      http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe =UTF-8&scoring=d&q=EELRIJUE&sa=N&tab=g w
      Google finds 66 sites.

      Most of these sites scream hoax or conspiracy. One message said straight-up that there's no way anyone could decode it (yada, yada. They just didn't try hard enough. I do the impossible twice before lunch daily.{grin})

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    2. Re:Decoded? by Jouster · · Score: 1


      http://www.swirlednews.com/article.asp?artID=512 is a better option.

      "EELRIJUE" should be "BELIEvE".

      Jouster

    3. Re:Decoded? by JWSmythe · · Score: 1

      That's a very interesting one. I'm really tempted to decode it for myself, and see if I see errors..

      The end of the story you cited says that the final character wasn't [BEL], but [ACK], where they're expecting a response on the empty part of the track.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
  90. Which 1 out of 100? by Lucas+Membrane · · Score: 1
    Funny about this one out of 100. The percentage of crop circles said to be authentic by those who think this is a truly unexplained phenomenon is dropping like a rock. Used to be 75%, then 50%, then 20%, then 10%, now we see 1%. It's tracked very closely with the percentage who believe that dotcoms are a good investment.

    The first crop circles, a couple of decades back were very simple. Were these authentic? If so, how come we never see crop circles like those anymore? Did the aliens get into a race to outdo each other with Mandelbrot sets? OTOH, if those first crop circles were among the 99% bogus, we have now a case of an authentic phenomenon that is copying a hoax(?!?!?!?). Could happen, but very curious.

    1. Re:Which 1 out of 100? by nebby · · Score: 1

      First off, guessing about human based intent to a being which could very well be omnipotent and all-powerful (for all intents and purposes) is foolish and likely to get you laughed out of here faster than Godwin's Law.

      Second, the point of the argument is 1 in 100, 1 in 1,000, or 1 in 1,000,000, it matter not. For if there is one unexplained incident, it becomes a valid subject for intense research and investigation. The only argument you have to stand on is the fact that this decrease in unexplained phenomenon over the years implies that eventually all will be explained, but I beg to differ since a phenomenon such as crop circles and bringing extraterrestrial ability into the picture prevents such as an assumption from being valid. You can make no assumptions regarding aliens, even one such as "aliens would not make one crop circle every 1000 years."

      It could very well be the case there is only one crop circle ever made since the year 1000 which was actually made by alien life. You cannot discount this possibility, especially in the face of a large, countable number of unexplainable crop circles. You can speculate, but you cannot discount the possibility.

      --
      --
    2. Re:Which 1 out of 100? by nagora · · Score: 1
      For if there is one unexplained incident, it becomes a valid subject for intense research and investigation

      If students with a GPS system do 99 crop circles and there's one where you don't know how they did it, it just means that you're smarter than only 99% of students that make crop circles.

      TWW

      --
      "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
    3. Re:Which 1 out of 100? by Lucas+Membrane · · Score: 1

      What are the criteria by which a circle is judged 'authentic'

      Have these criteria been published and agreed upon for more than a few months?

      Which circles qualify according to these criteria? (Be specific)

      What have you seen that makes you think that any of these formations are authentic?

      How do you analyze all these far-out ideas? The basic crop circle is just an artifact we find that could be made by people. Why in the world would you associate ET's with crop circles? There is no evidence connecting crop circles and ET's. There is no need to hypothesize ET's to explain crop circles. More likely the plants have acquired distributed intelligence and are talking to us than these are made by ET's.

  91. Re:Always the tracks...not true at all by legLess · · Score: 3, Informative
    if you look closely, the track always intersects the design in the center, or at a node that could be the "pivot point" of the design.
    Demonstrably not true. This pattern isn't aligned at a right angle to the tracks, or intersected by tracks at any crucial points. Some are; some aren't apparently.
    --
    This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
  92. Re:EAT SHIT NIGGERS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's great, if you prefer dark meat LOLZ.
    The end.

  93. Read the fucking articles before posting by yuckf00 · · Score: 1

    Please

  94. Here are some thoughts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Without having ever performed a radiometric survey over the area prior to the crop circles, it is therefore impossible to establish that it actually *does* have an abnormally high isotope count. (Sure, it may be higher than the surrounding area, but this doesn't mean that it is abnormal.)

    As for microscopic amounts of iron - again this could be naturally occuring in the soil. (Without previous chemical studies it is impossible to establish that this is due to the circl.) But, suppose it is - could it be due to the material used to press the crops? (For instance, an old board made from an iron rich wood?=

  95. James Randi site: crop circles done by students by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://www.randi.org/jr/020102.html

    Just scroll a little ways down.

  96. They see aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... but I see damm good artists. Human. Why do these people insist on the idea that because it's beautiful (or good, or mathematically simple), it's got to be aliens? Are we that stupid in their eyes?

    If you follow the links and explore the websites, you'll notice that _most_ of the interesting designs are in the UK. That's gotta tell you something.

    --
    I refuse to create an account

  97. "MORE ON THE 'ET FACE & DISC' DECODING " by Markos · · Score: 2, Informative

    It was one of the links posted in the story here

    "For those not yet familiar with the decoding, the full message verbatim reads: "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge."

    1. Re:"MORE ON THE 'ET FACE & DISC' DECODING " by jejones · · Score: 4, Interesting

      According to the link, the aliens use ASCII, i.e. they can receive our data transmissions and figure out their encoding, but rather than reply using the same medium, they go stomp out ASCII in a corn field. Uh-huh...

      Besides, shouldn't they be submitting a proposal to extend Unicode so future crop circles can use their character set?

  98. Science. Try to prove it false, aka test it by just+someone · · Score: 1

    Science. It's not about proving it true, it's about trying to find evidence that a theory is false.

    Make up theory.
    Try to disprove the theory.
    If it's proved false, don't go trying to prove it true*. .First prove that:
    1) these crystaline forms in crops when you heat them to 1700 degrees.
    2) that these patterns do not appear in crops outside the circles.

    *well rephrasing the question is standard practice...

    1. Re:Science. Try to prove it false, aka test it by kmellis · · Score: 1
      Science. It's not about proving it true, it's about trying to find evidence that a theory is false.
      Well, since the set of all false theories is necessarily enormously greater than the set of all true theories, then by your reasoning science couldn't even be possible since we would have to spend all our time disproving this infinity of false theories.

      How science is actually done--how it must be done--is that all patently absurb yet still intuitively possible theories are discarded without further investigation. Then, 99.99% of the remainder are also culled from consideration as being "not likely". That leaves a managable number which are examined according to the scientific method.

      This works because even though every once in a great while some wild-ass theory that was completely ignored turns out to be correct, that is very rare. Only an idiot wastes time on being credulous about the improbable. Say, for example, the type of person who (along with 40% of the population) thinks that they are in the top 10% of the population (in something: pick your survey). Or the type of person who thinks they've a good chance to someday win big in the lottery. Or who believes that it's significant when a friend they've been thinking about suddenly calls them on the phone. You know, stupid people.

      Occam's Razor. Check into it.

      There's many more likely explanations for all the crop circle formations than the fantastical ones commonly provided. Maybe, just maybe, they really are the work of aliens. But their worthiness of my credulity is so low as to be equal to thousands of other similarly fantastical phenomena, and it would be an absurb waste of time and thought for me to accord all of them a "possibly true" status. Why? Because out of those several thousand phenomena with their fantastical explanations, only a tiny handful will turn out to be actually true.

      The inherent risk of skepticism is that one occasionally is wrong in one's disbelief. The inherent risk of credulity is that one is often wrong in one's belief--because more things are false than are true.

  99. Suck it up: by hswerdfe · · Score: 1

    I would ask you now to reference Option #2 in this slashdot poll.

    --
    --meh--
  100. Re:Okay then. . . Into the breach again. . . by Dirtside · · Score: 1
    -Fantastic Lad --mod THAT!
    Hey, editors: Where's the "-1: Complete waste of time" mod option?
    --
    "Destroy science and religion. Science would re-emerge exactly the same; but not religion." - Penn Jillette, paraphrased
  101. Hey..there is one of you out there... by SegFahlt · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Finally. Some sense. Thank you for explaining to these freekin idiots.

    Its simple folks. Lots of them are created by humans. No doubt. Lots of them cannot possibly be created by humans alone. They are too precise and carry too much meaning.

    I have been studying crop circles for a while and have read lots of information.

    Did you know that..

    1.) Even though very very precise, the shapes are not perfect. For instance, if there is a shape of a circle, it will not be perfectly round. It will have measurements similar to what a perfect circle would look like if it were projected DOWN on the surface of the earth from about 200 miles up in the air. Sorry, I couldn't find a link for this information, it came out of my books. Don't ask me how they do the math to arrive at this conclusion, its way beyond me.

    2.) The ground under the plants which have been flattened in the geometries contains traces of chemicals and compounds which indicate extreme heat. The ground right next to it, under stalks which have not been bent or flattened looks perfectly normal. Go Here and here.

    3.) There was one or more formations in which a porcupine was found in the very center, flattened and dead. Its Quills were arranged in the same spiral pattern as the circle. Go Here.

    4.) in 2001, a formation appeared near a radio telescope. In 1974, Carl Sagan and some other folks transitted a message out into space. The formation appears to be a reply. go Go Here and here.

    5.) The formations themselves contain information in the order in which they are created and their location. Much study has been done on their relevance to each other by their physical location. No links to this that I am aware of.

    There are tons and tons of little stories like that that individually don't mean much. However, taken together, paint a pretty different picture.

    Its very sad that so many of you /.'ers are so quick to spout drivel and trash without first exploring a little bit.

    Much of this information isn't on the Net. It is however, published in a number of books.

    A very good one is by a fellow named Freddy Silva, its called "Secrets In The Fields". Its clear that he has an axe to grind, but you cannot discount the information in it.

    Paul Vigay has a good site Here

    I believe that something is going on here which needs further research.

    Open up your minds folks. We ain't in the dark ages anymore.

    1. Re:Hey..there is one of you out there... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Open up your minds folks. We ain't in the dark ages anymore. I suspect that the dark ages were dominated by credulity such as this and the level of credulity exhibited by a large number of Americans leads me to wonder if a new Dark Ages is on its way. Jerry FallPoorly and Pat BurnBookCannon leading the way with waving banners and serious talent for exploiting the feeble of mind.

    2. Re:Hey..there is one of you out there... by scrytch · · Score: 1

      3.) There was one or more formations in which a porcupine was found in the very center, flattened and dead. Its Quills were arranged in the same spiral pattern as the circle. Go Here.

      At the very least, I expected a picture. I mean, the part of me that wants to believe there's anything to this beyond some a bunch sophisticated hoaxsters and credulous crystal-rubbers.

      The skeptical, scientific part of me, the part of me that has a mind open enough to prefer to stay ignorant about the world and admit to holding such ignorance and keeping an open mind about the options including the mundane explanations rather than accept as a working theory the first wild-ass idea that comes around, actually would prefer corroborated evidence with real investigatory forensic technique. Too much to ask.

      Maybe I'm being unfair, and picked on the first link I followed (mostly because it sounded so damn funny) and was so sorely disappointed. So educate me.

      --
      I've finally had it: until slashdot gets article moderation, I am not coming back.
  102. I'm still waiting for... by Tuxinatorium · · Score: 1

    I'm still waiting for an "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" crop circle. Why hasn't anybody done it yet?

  103. Re:Okay then. . . Into the breach again. . . by Steeltoe · · Score: 1

    MAN, are you seriously disturbed.. Maybe time to spend less time reading webpages, and doing some yoga and meditation on your own. You'll only get confused by reading from lots of different sources. It helped for me.

  104. Christian perspective? by Micah · · Score: 1
    ok, wow, this deserves some discussion, I think, and I haven't seen anyone attempt a post from a Christian perspective yet.

    I do very much believe in God, and also in evil spiritual beings (Satan and demons). I'm pretty sure all of them would have the capability to do this.

    First, I'll admit that I am not a scientist, haven't seen these, and am going by what I'm reading in the linked articles here. And I haven't read anywhere near everything linked.

    BUT ... let's assume for a minute that the evidence discussed in this article is real, and some of this stuff was done by something "not quite human."

    First, about the cool geometric designs. I'm kind of reminded from this passage from Romans:

    The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities--his eternal power and divine nature--have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)


    Now, about the encoded message on the disc, which some people missed from the explanation here.

    Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge.


    First, does anyone know about the evidence surrounding this thing? Does it have the microwaved plants & such, that make it pretty clearly not a prankster?

    If it were possible to write that one off as a prankster, I might be inclined to do so. After all, why would God use a retarded looking alien to get a message across? (Ok, so He'll probably slap me soon if it is indeed Him! :-) )

    But the message (if you ignore a couple questionable bits and the inconsistent capitalization) is interesting, to say the least. The Bible talks about a time when a great deceiver will make a treaty with Israel, after which will come a time of Tribulation on the earth. Many signs indicate that that time could happen relatively soon.

    I think that message could be talking about the false gift of peace from this great deceiver ... or the fake signs and wonders he will publicly display to the masses. The pain of course would refer to the plagues of the Tribulation period (see Revelation 8 and 9). I do believe that during that time, people will be able to respond to God's message of Jesus (hence "but still time" in the message). "Conduit closing" could refer to the finite amount of time people have to receive His gift.

    I think that any message like this that COULD be supernatural should be compared to the Bible to tell whether it is from God or Satan. And as far as I can tell, this lines up with what the Bible says. But I still can't get past that retarted looking alien. :-)

    I hope I don't come off as looking extremely gullible or stupid here. I don't know more about this than most of you. I'm just adding this to the list of possible responses, and also to see if any other Christians have opinions on the matter.

    1. Re:Christian perspective? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > I do very much believe in God,
      > and also in evil spiritual beings
      > (Satan and demons). I'm pretty
      > sure all of them would have the
      > capability to do this.

      and they'd bother, why exactly? To give you proof that they exist? Because they are bored? I'd thought perfect entities don't get bother, woudln't you? Oh, yes, the fallen angels... I'd thought they've got better things to do than spraying graffitti.

      Artists, man, artists! Why do you look for a supernatural explaination when there's a perfectly good and natural one at hand? Is your faith that weak that you need proof every single dammed day of your pitiful life?

    2. Re:Christian perspective? by Micah · · Score: 1

      Nice troll, but OK....

      > and they'd bother, why exactly?

      If it's from God, it could be simply to display His power over creation. If it's from Satan or demons, it could be to get people worked up about weird alien theories or whatever. I dunno.

      > Oh, yes, the fallen angels... I'd thought they've got better things to do than spraying graffitti.

      Like the other reply said, they will do whatever they need to do to draw you away from God.

      > Artists, man, artists! Why do you look for a supernatural explaination when there's a perfectly good and natural one at hand?

      Did you read the evidence in some of those articles? They seem to defy the possibility of them being created by humans.

      > Is your faith that weak that you need proof every single dammed day of your pitiful life?

      Nope. I'm just here pondering this with the rest of you. I never said I was sure I had any of the answers here. I don't know if they were done by pranksters (but again, based on the stated evidence, that seems unlikely), demons, or God.

      I just find it amusing that some people are theorizing about weird energy sources or aliens. ALIENS, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Is God and/or Satan a less credible explanation than aliens?

  105. Re:Okay then. . . Into the breach again. . . by bushboy · · Score: 1

    Can I have some of what your smoking ?

    --
    A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
  106. Not true! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've seen the same show you're referring to, and they were trying to simulate an actual crop circle and were unable to in the same way as other ones.

    You can't completely write them off as the work of pranksters.

  107. Thank you Michael ... by Ninja+Programmer · · Score: 1

    ... for putting this story in the correct category. You might like to educate some of the other editors here about which category UFO/Paranormal stories are supposed to be posted to.

  108. Re:Always the tracks...not true at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    and what you do call the track at the edge? Artistic license? Duh!

  109. Don't know their ASCII characters by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 1

    Because if they did they'd now that an ACK character is used to acknowledge receipt of a transmission not to request acknowledgement.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  110. My explanation by Tyreth · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Well, the sites promoting crop circle's as something amazing go to great lengths to demonstrate that these are very abnormal. But seriously, what's their point? They say "This means that each stalk would have to be bent individually to give that effect." So then, each was bent individually? Their point is, I think, that given current human technology the only way to duplicate this effect is to bend each stalk individually.

    Here's what I think is likely. There's a group of secret, elite crop circl creators. They started off small and simple, but their techniques have improved tremendously and have extended their efforts across the world. Whatever mundane method it is that they use causes a lot of those wierd things mentioned in the article above. Perhaps they have some fascinating machinery to produce the effect, or some chemicals, or both. I can explain the nausea, etc, easily: people who encounter these things and cannot explain them will be mentally affected. They will feel confused, amazed, scared, whatever. This translates into physical chnages.
    Consider also the other wierd magnetic effects, noises, radiation, etc. Whatever method is being used to create the circles leaves this residue - whether it be alien or human technology. Just because the devices used to create the circles is unknown does not mean it must be used by aliens. After all, America and Britain can't even prove for certain that Iraq has WMD. What happened to their amazing technology and uber spies? We need you Mr. Bond.

    I consider this the most likely scenario. If aliens, then why do they never visit us? I know that many claim that they do through channeling or mediums, but this is easily dispelled - these methods have been used for the last 4-5000 years for communicating with spirits, the dead (supposedly) and much more. Whatever it is that they communicate with, it is a liar and uses the same method for different deceptions. The answer is not aliens. We are supposed to be amazed by the amazing technology of these supposed aliens, yet they must resort to crop circles? No, I don't think the answer is there.

    The answer seems to lie in the fact that the crop circles are changing and evolving. If it were aliens that knew so much, their methods would be rather stagnant if the crop circles are a common method for them to achieve whatever it is they are trying to. Changing crop circles over time seems to me only explainable by forces or labor that is learning it's art, changing its methods and improving. Sounds like a human influence to me.

    Of course, I don't pretend to know the answers. These are just my musings on the topic. These circles impress and make me curious as much as the next person. I don't deny the possible existence of aliens, but I think it is very very unlikely, and even if there are, none of what we've seen so far appears to originate from outside our planet. Lets consider the possibilities, keep an open mind and see what we can learn.

    1. Re:My explanation by Tyreth · · Score: 1

      Followup after some musing: If I had money I'd create some robots or machines that could bend the crops for me. I'd have a computer program to design the circles and the patterns for it. Then, I'd place a device in the center of the pattern which acts as a server for the machines that create the circle. They then follow predescribed paths from the origin point creating the circles quickly and perfectly.

  111. Curious... by ndogg · · Score: 1

    Did you ever do stuff like this? The equipment that the MIT students used were pretty dangerous, and very difficult to build. I have to wonder why a prankster would go to that length.

    --
    // file: mice.h
    #include "frickin_lasers.h"
    1. Re:Curious... by ceejayoz · · Score: 1

      Fact of the matter is, if MIT students can do it, using it as undeniable evidence for the fact that aliens made the circle is silly.

      If MIT can do it, you can't say humans can't do it.

      And you'd be surprised at how far pranksters go to fool people.

  112. Lucrative Business by Hezaurus · · Score: 1

    1. Create Crop Circles
    2. ???
    3. Profit!

    --

    --
    No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. (T. Pratchett)
    1. Re:Lucrative Business by sjwt · · Score: 1

      publish posters, calanders charge to enter..
      its allready being done..

      but it wasnt being done hundreds of years
      ago when theres things apeared first on records..

      --
      You have 5 Moderator Points!
      Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
    2. Re:Lucrative Business by Hezaurus · · Score: 1

      I'm sure the (g)nomes knew the business opportunities already back then!
      Maybe they even contacted them aliens (being small and everything) to do the hardest part!

      1. Contact aliens to create crop circles.
      2. ???
      3. (Split) Profit!!!

      --

      --
      No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it. (T. Pratchett)
  113. Brit tech students rule! by kobotronic · · Score: 5, Interesting


    My jaw dropped when I saw the alien face and disc. Remarkable! Very clever technology must have been employed in order to pull this off with such precision. The execution is flawless! I'm very impressed.

    Certainly this is no ordinary rope-and-plank job, One wonders if the thing was perhaps a clandestine practical execution of a tech student's exam project?

    The site of the artwork may be close enough for the DGPS beacon at the Bristol Channel to have helped the punters get the edges of the rectangle aligned so precisely, but presumably a laser sighting device similar to the ones used by land surveyors could have been sufficiently accurate.

    Once the rectangle corners had been defined and the circle perimeter traced, it may have been fairly trivial for two operators, or teams, to traverse the sides of the rectangle in parallel with the Device running a straight line from side to side and flattening the crop row with variable force (or width) according a predetermined bitmap courtesy of photoshop and some clever artistry. I'd love to see the original bitmap and compare with the finished formation.

    You can see a thin groove at the center of each scanline in the closeup ground photos, which seems to be a wheel track. The device design is unknown, so we don't know if it had 1,2 or even 4 wheels. A rope could have been its suspension from above, though you'd think that would have caused variations in pattern density with the rope at the edges being more taut.

    It would need to be somewhat heavy in order to flatten the crop and have enough mechanical force to gradually engage and disengage the crop flattening part of the mechanism during the course of each row. Perhaps the device was guided on twin taut ropes from either side of the formation, or perhaps guided optically by lasers.

    From the closeup pictures the pattern looks like it was applied in one direction alone, so perhaps returning the cart to the other side was a waste cycle instead of using bidirectional 'printing'. :)

    Interestingly, the wheel groove of the spiral is between the spiral pattern bands, as opposed to centered in the middle, so a different machine may have been used here, perhaps operating concurrently with the alien portrait scanline 'printer'.

    The question remains how the row alignment came to be so spot on both in terms of row spacing and 'horizontal hold' from row to row : The vertical details are quite precisely in sync from row to row, so the tech and methodology used is indisputably excellent.

    I hope eventually the artists and hoaxers come forth and reimburse the farmer for his losses, and reveal their clever technology. I think that would make for an interesting read.

    1. Re:Brit tech students rule! by g_attrill · · Score: 1

      It was made over several nights - the frame was spotted by a farm-hand one day and it appeared the following day.

      It is only a short drive from where I live and I visited it on the holiday weekend - the horizontal lines are indeed *extremely* straight - they were definately made with the help of a laser sighting device, however they are very cheaply available (a few hundred pounds) and don't need a lot of skill to operate. They found a small electronic "sighting device" at the scene, though I haven't seen any photos of what it was.

      Oh, on the "farmers loss" situation - the enthusiasts had a whip-round and paid him to cut around the formation, and he had a donation box (£2/person) at the gate, I reckon he made more on the crop circle than the entire field has made him in 10 years.

      this formation is by the best "public" crop circle makers, and it doesn't even come close to the skill in the Crabwood "3D" style formation.

      Gareth

  114. Aliens!!!! by chickensdelight · · Score: 1

    No big headed bog eyed Alien's better come to my field.... Off my laand you big headed slimy skined f**k.

  115. Script kiddies from beyond the stars! by JaredOfEuropa · · Score: 1

    I doubt that intelligent life, alien or human, would fall for the "false gift" of [b]altenating caps[/b].

    "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge"

    --
    If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
  116. Increasing complexity or GPS? by Xavier000 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From the article:
    A major transformation occured in 1990 when the circles became complex pictograms composed of straight lines, angles and spiral rings (see Barbury Castle formation below right).

    Or was it simply the widespread adoption of global positioning systems that allowed people to make much more complex designs? I know where I'd put my money.

  117. Photoshop by sdflkgfljdqshgjkqsfg · · Score: 3, Funny

    How long before a cropfeild filter comes out on photoshop?

    --
    how does one change his /. id?
  118. Because for all the things that are unexplained by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 1

    The "aliens did it" explanation is still a vastly wilder conclusion to jump to than "people did it".

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
    1. Re:Because for all the things that are unexplained by RedBear · · Score: 1

      That's your conclusion, not mine.

      What is it with you people? This is number three now. Did I say "aliens did it"? Did I? Can anyone here say that I said that? No, I only mentioned ETs to say that they don't even have to be part of the discussion. Does any unexplained phenomena automatically have to equal "aliens did it"? This is just getting ridiculous. I don't believe aliens did it and never said so. Stop misinterpreting me. All I tried to do was present some of the known evidence and point out that (to me) it seems to make it implausible that humans caused all of the observed phenomena. Leave the aliens out of it.

    2. Re:Because for all the things that are unexplained by sjwt · · Score: 1

      If you dont jump in and flame down points that
      where not made, you cant win a /. argument,
      simpel!

      --
      You have 5 Moderator Points!
      Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
  119. What else do they have to do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Devil is alive and well. Him and his followers have one goal, to draw us away from God. Anything that will help them accomplish this that they are capable of, they will do. He is called the Father of Lies, the Lying Spirit, the Cofuser, and the King of Babylon for a reason. If this helps draw people away from God and causes doubt and confusion, then it seems like something he would do.

    1. Re:What else do they have to do? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *EXACTLY*

      There are more efficient ways of drawing people away from whatever it is they have to draw your attention from. What might that be... what about file sharing networks? Pretty effective. You download all sorts of stuff for free and keep yourself busy for quite a while. Or /., there are endless useless discussions about Christianity which draw your attention away. Or soap operas! Or what do you think of people attributing human creations to acts of a god? Yups, sounds pretty effective to me. You just deny that these creatures of god are capable of anything beyond mere feeding and self multiplication and attribute anything that displays inteligence and creativity to superior forces. Yups. Your attention has been drawn away, IMNSHO.

  120. Re:Amazing wonder? Uh, no. by JohnFluxx · · Score: 1

    Now that would be cool.. rearrange all the cars into a nice pattern..

    Course you'd probably have to set fire to them to get a helicopter to fly over and look at it to notice...

  121. Hope the CDs contain.... by dackroyd · · Score: 1

    the behind the scenes documentary - 'The making of the crop circles'

    --
    "Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne
  122. Ellipses by Bugmaster · · Score: 2, Insightful
    The site says,
    Genuine crop circles are not perfectly round but slightly elliptical (a hoax, requiring a fixed central rope, cannot achieve this adequately)
    I say, bah ! Kids, try this at home:

    Take two thumbtacks, a piece of string, a pencil, and a pad of paper. Stick the thumbtacks into the paper. Tie the string into a loop, then drop the loop onto the tacks so that they are both inside the loop. Now, put the pencil inside the loop as well. Move the pencil outward so that the loop is stretched tightly into a triangle. Now, keeping the string tight, move the pencil around the thumbtacks, and draw with it... Voila, you got an ellipse. And you didn't even need GPS.

    If they can miss a basic thing like ellipses, which they should have learned in Algebra 2, I wonder how reliable the rest of their site is...

    --
    >|<*:=
  123. The funny feeling by grundie · · Score: 1

    It has long been said that standing in or near a crop circle gives you a funny feeling. Sensations such as a gentle buzzing in the ears, feeling warm on cool days and static discharge when touching other people are said to occur.

    I have had similar feelings. Once I visited a crop circle and felt a sensation that made me give the farmer £5.00 to have a closer look at the circle. When I left the field I felt a sensation that made me approach the travelling crop circle shop and pay £15.00 for a poster of a crop circle. The was an overwhelming feeling of being drained, not my energy or spirit, but my wallet. Strangely enough I didn't get any feelings of an alien presence....

  124. I'll give you a piece of my open mind. by edunbar93 · · Score: 1, Informative

    I'll be the first fool to cross where angels fear to tread - namely to argue with someone who wouldn't know a logical argument if it bit him in the ass. But hey, isn't that what slashdot is for?

    Hypothesis: All crop circles are made by human beings.

    Evidence: (as taken from this post, apparently a Difinitive Source) "99% of the posts I'm seeing here are people who have heard something once or twice on the radio about some hoaxters with a tow-by-four." From this statement we can confirm that a) there are hoaxsters out there who delight in the media attention they get from creating crop circles, and b) this knowledge is widespread and by no means a new thing. It's knowledge so common that every farmer out in the middle of nowhere with a short-wave radio or a TV posesses it. Keep in mind that I come from a rural area, and yes, every farmer in the world has some kind of contact with the outside world, even in the poorest parts of it.

    Knowing this, and knowing that there are almost as many scams as there are suckers (for reference: PT Barnum), one could easily come to the conclusion that a tiny minority of farmers could easily account for every crop circle there ever was, especially considering the amount of attention said circles get. More interesting is how any evidence about their appearance (sudden or otherwise) is purely subjective on the part of the owner of the field and his neighbours, who were likely involved if there was a conspiracy against yonder city folk. Even more interesting is how crop circles have been getting more and more complex over time, probably in direct relation to media coverage and its availability to rural people.

    The size and geometric precision and/or complexity can easily be explained by the fact that yes, farmers and other rural citizens are indeed clever, even intelligent. In fact, about the only thing that you can discern from the existence of these patterns is that they were made by someone with a little knowledge of geometry, indicating an intelligence of some kind. To assume that this sort of precision is beyond human beings is insane. We are obviously capable of much more than this. If you want an excellent example of what simple people can do with simple tools, the pyramids in Egypt were built by them. We don't know exactly what methods they used, and we aren't exactly sure why they did it that way because the process was largely undocumented (or the documents were lost), but they did. Sound familiar?

    Already, we have a means, a motive, and an opportunity. All it would really take to create one is for a single person to say "hey, I can do that," draw up a coherent plan for doing so, get support from as many as four surrounding landowners for corroborating statements and labour, and then do the deed on a Sunday. This is far from a complicated plan, and the engineering/landscaping/surveying work is admittedly easily in the grasp of human beings. It's in fact so simple that it could conceivably be done without the landowner's knowledge or consent.

    So now we've narrowed it down to two possible choices as to who implemented this plan. On the one hand, we have human beings. They're already there, they're intelligent enough, and they have a reason to do it (namely, because there's plenty of fools out there who would believe that it wasn't people). Alternatively, we have some other, non-human force at work here. Perhaps aliens, or perhaps gods. Assuming aliens, it would take them a great deal of effort to get here, and then the only way they attempt to communicate with us is by making mysterious patterns in wheat fields in the middle of the night, or when noone is looking otherwise. Moreover, these patterns can only be deciphered from the air and consist of very simple geometric shapes (well, until recently anyway). This is by far the most preposterous way to communicate. It is open to so much interpretation as to render itself completely meaningless, unless it is merely a code known only to the aliens themselves, not unlike the human activity of warchalking. In this case, it's merely interstellar graffiti and thus completely irrelevent to us.

    The entire argument boils down to the exercise of Occum's Razor: The simplest explanation is the usually the right one. The simple explanation is that people did it as a prank, it caught on and only they know how they do it, because it's an exercise left up to the prankster. The best alternative explanation is that something that noone can see, and with methods some of us can't comprehend, made these things for deliberately mysterious reasons. This latter explanation isn't even my own, but the same one presented by the sort of kooks you can expect to try to explain the phenomenon with aliens and UFO's and ghosts. It is for this reason alone I can definitively say that every last crop circle is made by humans, because the alternative means a leap of faith so large that only a sucker would make it.

    --
    "No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
    1. Re:I'll give you a piece of my open mind. by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
      Jesus Effing Christ. If one more ignorant genius invokes OCCAM'S RAZOR simply because they are TOO DAMN LAZY to do the research necessary to support a NON-SIMPLEST explanation, I am going to do absolutely nothing about it.

      The attempts to debunk the excellent post which actually contained thought and effort - USELESS.

      Thanks for playing!

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
  125. Oh, I see. by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 1

    So you've got a whacking great picture of an alien and an encoded message which clearly indicates intelligence on the part of it's creators. But having apparently ruled out humans as the likely creators I'm not supposed to think there's an implied alien intelligence behind it? Perhaps it's ghosts? As I said, regardless of unexplained features, human beings remain the most plausible creators. Lack of a total explanation for how humans could have done it is not evidence that it was done by something else.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  126. Natural Circles by Bugmaster · · Score: 1
    Actually, I remember reading (a long time ago) about crop circles which may occur naturally. What happens is that an underground fungus starts growing in the middle of the field. It competes with the wheat on the field, leeching out the water and nutrients from the soil. Ergo, the wheat dies. On a nice, flat field, the fungus grows at equal speed in all directions, making... yes, a circle.

    "Fairy rings" of mushrooms may also occur this way (mushrooms are the reproductive organs of the underground fungus).

    Someone with a biology background, please correct me if I am wrong on the whole fungus thing.

    --
    >|<*:=
    1. Re:Natural Circles by sjwt · · Score: 1

      The wheat is not dead,
      its bent/twisted at the stork,
      or the roots below ground (not sure on that one)

      The pattens in Crop circles are not allways
      circles, but are allmost allways perfectly done,
      fairy rings lose there ring shape verry quickly.

      Also a small number of crop circles have comfimed
      overnight appreances.. thats a lot of fungus
      growing in a verry short preiode of time,
      mind you im no bioligist so maybe that sort of
      growth is poisible..

      --
      You have 5 Moderator Points!
      Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
    2. Re:Natural Circles by WoodSmoke · · Score: 1
      In every case that I have heard of the crops are still alive but the stalks are bent, not broken.

      The Discovery Channel had a show on this a while back and did an interview with a group of guys who were making circles. The amount of work that went into designing and figuring out how the implement them was impressive. They were also pretty fast at making them once they had it figured out.

      The question is: Did they invent them or reverse engineer them?

      WoodSmoke

  127. Is Slashdot the new home of pseudo-science? by grondu · · Score: 1

    Is Slashdot trying to become a tabloid? First the SOHO bullshit, then crop circles. What's next? Creationism? Phrenology? Reading tea leaves?

    Believing in this crap is no different than believing a spammer will give you a 12 inch penis. Oh, he'll give it to you all right, you just have to bend over first.

    --

    I'm the urban spaceman babe, but here comes the twist... I don't exist

  128. Oh, please... have a little imagination by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh, please. Don't you have the slightest amount of imagination or a willingness to believe that there is more out there than we currently know? You sound like a smug ignoramus sitting at his computer and stubbornly refusing to believe anything except what you were taught in history class. Here's a hint: cynicism is not a substitute for wisdom, despite what they say in Dilbert.

    Your argument that 'oh, I think the pyramids were built by simple people, so these must be too' is beyond contempt. Any civilization that can build such a thing is far advanced than anything we have on Earth today. Most people think that they were made by 'simple' slaves and 'simple' pharoahs who wanted a pretty place to rest when they died. If you did any kind of research, and opened your mind a little, you would find out some things like:

    -there are no cylindrical trees within several hundred miles of Egypt, the only trees were curved palms (couldn't use them for rollers).

    -each of the stone blocks weighed 20-50 tons, which is still too heavy for 1000 slaves to lift... also, have you ever tried putting 50 tons of stone onto wooden rollers? Think they would still be in one piece when you tried to move them?

    -the blocks were transported for many miles from quarries, using only slaves pulling on woven vine ropes (didn't have steel cable back then).

    -there is not one single rope burn or mark on any of the stones used to build the pyramids, and the stone used was very soft

    -each of the 50 ton stone blocks was fitted together with airtight precision, and CUT like that.

    I'm not going to waste my time presenting other point here, but I hope I can open some people's minds with what I've already said.

    A final point, though: here on Earth, we consider ourself advanced and civilised, but in no way is this true: our main activity is tribal warfare; those of us who live in peaceful countries worship money and false gods. If there was a God, do you really think that it would need a proxy on Earth? If there were more advanced aliens, don't you think they would try and avoid us and our resource-depleted planet as fast as they can?

    If they did want to contact us, let me assure you, they wouldn't do it over the TV set. They wouldn't send a special broadcast across the radio. That could easily be faked. No, they would do it in a way that would not only display their intelligence and advanced technology, but would be unmissable for people who want to find their communications. Why try and communicate with people who are unable to appreciate that you are trying to talk to them?

    Those are just my thoughts on the matter. Yes, some were made by humans. No, not all of them were. Yes, I think somewhere, some advanced beings are trying to get through to us. No, I don't think we are listening.

    -Kanibble-

    1. Re:Oh, please... have a little imagination by lyphorm · · Score: 0

      Why is it that the people that say "There's no way that humans could have done this" are the ones with the "open" minds, but those that say "Hmmm, humans are very intelligent, very resourceful and ingenious creatures, who are quite capable of such a task" are the ones with the "closed" minds?

      I think that all the people invoking the supernatural (or the unknown) are vastly underestimating the capability of human beings.

      --
      ______-___--_-__-_---_-----__-_-___-_-_---_-----_- __--_____
  129. It's not that simple by adilsonoliveira · · Score: 1

    As the UFO sightings, many of the crop circles can be explained beeing a clever hoax but there's some that can't be explained by just bending the crops with something mechanical as a wood board or a piece of rope. Take a look at a serious study on the subject and it will give you one thing or two to think about it.

    --
    Faith can move mountains. I prefer dynamite.
  130. Check the field before the circles apeared. by Gadzinka · · Score: 1

    I was wondering these days. There are lots of spying satellites in the sky. Most of them just shoot everything in the field of vision and sends it to the ground, don't they?

    Would it be possible that some bored analyst dealing with those pictures could backtrack such circle in time and find out what happened before the circle apeared?

    I remember that someone was trying to recreate this markings and it took them several hours of works, so the time window would be pretty wide.

    Robert

    --
    Bastard Operator From 193.219.28.162
  131. I think it's quite obvious... by shadowxtc · · Score: 1

    The US Government is clearly behind these, at least the more recent and highly complex ones. It is most likely just a calibration test of some new microwave weapons we're developing, being used from fully cloaked airships quietly hovering above fields. Simple. Furthermore, they're trying to make them as complex as possible to keep us busy wondering about aliens, knowing intellectuals like to cause trouble. Really, they're planning to take over the world. :) I'm dead serious. It makes perfect sense. And if you were American, wouldn't you be proud?

  132. Re:OT (your sig) by _GIS_Geek · · Score: 1

    What is your sig "carrying a torch only makes your right arm tired" from?

  133. Re:1oz = 31g, i know, buying SILVER OUNCES by cheekyboy · · Score: 0

    read idiot.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  134. Re:wow, tv shows explain everything... by cheekyboy · · Score: 1, Funny

    tv is the final knowledge centre...

    wow, +4 informative, you're a genius

    I also learn how to gamble on tv too and how the crappy loosing deadbeat USA stockmarket works too.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  135. Re:warning moderators are deadbeat morons. by cheekyboy · · Score: 0

    +4 troll???

    common, the guy asks a good question, and others ask shitty crap questions or comments and get +4 informative when its utter obvious shit.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  136. Re:that sample looks crap by cheekyboy · · Score: 0

    DUde, that 'hand made' german sample looks shit

    It looks so hand made, what a joke, it looks real pathetic and cheap and junkish.

    --
    Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
  137. Encoding error by dachshund · · Score: 2, Interesting
    "Beware the bearers of FALSE gifts & their BROKEN PROMISES. Much PAIN but still time. BELIEvE. There is GOOD out there. We OPpose DECEPTION. Conduit CLOSING. Acknowledge."

    My favorite bit:

    Richard Brain was unable initially to identify the word "BELIEvE" (initially seen as 'EELIJ?E'), saying he thought it was a corrupted word. The problem was that he read the first 'B' as an 'E'. The binary code for E is 01000101. The binary code for B is 01000010. In the field spiral (see marked photo) there is an encoding error (marked with a red X in the photo above right)! This letter has nine individual bits and appears to read 010000101.
  138. Sarah by Spunk · · Score: 4, Funny

    in the Sarah desert

    Sarah, a stark beauty, hotter than you might believe, has always left a dry taste in my mouth due to her hostility toward men. Once fertile, now barren, she drifts aimlessly in the wind, never looking quite the same the next time you see her.

    You, MonkeyBoyo, are a poet. But maybe I'm biased (see sig).

  139. No, that was misread by jcsehak · · Score: 3, Funny

    I read it as:

    crYOgenically freeze yoUR body bEfore mArch second. we will amalgaMate OR destroy all nOn-frozeN life then.

    --

    c-hack.com |
    1. Re:No, that was misread by Fr33z0r · · Score: 1

      Nice, with the message within an encrypted message, I like :)

  140. Not to rain on your party... by bleckywelcky · · Score: 1


    But I counted the circles in the Milk Hill formation, they all have 13 circles. I counted several times. From the angle the picture is taken, the circles at the very end of the arms on the farther side of the picture look a lot smaller than the ones that are closer, so you may have skipped them. But, they all have 13 circles. Besides I think if someone was going to go to all the effort to spend their entire night out there making this thing they would pay attention to the details, like fuked up symmetry, missing circles, etc.

  141. Steganography by jefu · · Score: 1
    So far everyone has missed the obvious and most sinister significance of these crop circles.


    They are a steganographic (sort of) signalling mechanism used by International Terrorists (TM) (and funded by the Axis of Evil (TM)) to communicate with each other.



    You see, they know that they only have to make one of these circles and the press (or the Swirlies (TM)) will report it. The intended recipients only need to look it up in their Magic Decoder Ring (circle, actually).

  142. /. a joke site? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm not talking about the news stories, but the replies. Practically every reply is an attempt to make a joke, regardless of the subject.

    While I don't claim to know what these crop circles are, I tire of people pretending like they know what they are. 2x4s eh? You believe everything you see on tv? Read up on the subject, you'll quickly find out how unlikely that is.

    Bottom line - you people don't want to believe that its anything other than a hoax. As a result, you can't make any logical judgement on the subject. Sure, it may not be aliens - but what evidence do you have that says otherwise? A tv special with old men and 2x4s? Oh, thats real scientific...

  143. Weapons of Maize Destruction by jefu · · Score: 1
    Damn. I posted that before I thought enough. Clearly I should have waited and applied for a patent.

    "Method for Secret Communication Utilizing Simple Materials Found Around the Farm."

    Do I have a grace period before I file?

  144. Anna the Allmaiziful ! by jefu · · Score: 1
    Recently there has been some discussion of a phenomenon called slashdotting - which occurs sporadically across the network and which consists of what looks like a DDOS attack on a web server.

    <silly-parody>

    There are an amaizing(sic) number of closed minds and assumptions out there. 99% of the posts I'm seeing here are people who have heard something once or twice on the radio about some "slashdotters" often with a computer running something called LLinnuchs (try to find that on Google!), and who have made up their minds and decided that every single instance of slashdotting all over the world, past and future, can be explained away by that one method. I had expected a little more from the crop circle circle.

    I am one of the biggest skeptics out there, but I always try to balance it with an open-minded analysis of all available facts. Looking at all the factors involved, it seems to me that calling every single slashdotting a hoax with confidence is just impossible. Let's run down some factors here:

    Numbers: First off, there's the sheer number of these things occurring all over the world. They often show up on websites where the locals have never heard of the slashdot phenomenon and don't care when they do. They show up on websites where the owner is so poor that there is no money for stupid practical jokes. They show up all over the world. (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    Size: Some of these slashdottings are huge. An adolescent script kiddie may be able to hit a single website a couple hundred times during the night, but even a team of people (less than a thousand or so) wouldn't be able to finish some of these things in one night. (This factor, in and of itself, I do not offer as complete evidence.)

    </silly-parody>

    And so on. The rest is left to the diligent reader's imagination.

    I'd laugh at this and urge modding up for "Funny" but I suspect the poster is serious.

    1. Re:Anna the Allmaiziful ! by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
      I'd laugh at this and urge modding up for "funny" but I suspect the poster is serious.

      It's so easy to tell WHO is afraid of the unknown. Humor is a great suppressor of other more negative emotions. Those who are actually discussing the topic seriously are not afraid.

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
  145. Astounding new form of logic found! by Parsec · · Score: 1

    I like this line from the third "2" link:

    By definition, hoaxes are forgeries, and forgeries require originals from which to copy. So what is this 'unknown force' that creates genuine crop circles?

    If you buy that, I've got a nice screen capture from C-Span of George W. Bush shaking hands with Osama Bin-Laden on the floor of the Senate last Monday, 2003. Contact me and we'll discuss the price, I'm quite good with Photoshop.

    My personal theory on what creates genuine crop circles has to do with the chemical action of certain fermented biomasses on carbon based bipedal life forms. More amazing than those odd creatures who create this art is those who find need to invent amazingly complex theories to prove the phenomenon "genuine".

  146. Stupid Human Tricks by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1

    Why are human beings so scared of crop circles? Why do human beings think that all crop circles are hoaxes? Rhetorical questions, I know. Idiots will respond.

    Human beings don't know their ass from a hole in their ass. But they always act like they do. Ignore the scientific proof found at many crop circles, and you act like a typical human being.

    I'M NOT SAYING ALL CROP CIRCLES ARE MADE BY ET! I'm not even saying that ANY crop circle HAS been made by ET. But hear what your mind feels comfortable with.

    If you don't know the difference between a 'genuine' crop circle and a physically-created hoax circle, then congratulations: you're stupid. Why are most of the posts on this topic so ignorant sounding? Again, rhetorical.

    --
    What's a second? An hour? A day?
    It has much more to do with
    the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    1. Re:Stupid Human Tricks by Yunzil · · Score: 1

      Why do human beings think that all crop circles are hoaxes?

      Because the simplest explanation is usually correct. The simplest explanation in the case of crop circles is that they are made by a bunch of people with ropes and bits of wood. If it can be demonstrated that human beings can make complicated crop circles (and it has been); then, lacking any solid evidence to the contrary, it is reasonable to deduce that it's likely they are ALL made by humans.

      Ignore the scientific proof found at many crop circles,

      Anything reproducible? Anything detected by someone who is qualfied to know what they're looking for? Anything that couldn't be faked?

    2. Re:Stupid Human Tricks by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
      Occam's Razor claims another ignorant victim. How terribly sad that human beings can't think beyond the most simple explanation. Your logic behind deducing ALL hoaxes from the ability to hoax ONE is astounding. Yet, highly consistent with your inability to suppose further than the obvious.

      Read this post before continuing discussion:
      Come on people, use your brains

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    3. Re:Stupid Human Tricks by ceejayoz · · Score: 1

      Yes, scientific proof like the stuff found at this mysterious crop circle!

      Oh, wait.

      Guess those 'genuine' crop circles can be human made, too. And considering humans, I'd say it's far more likely that the rest of the 'genuine' ones are just as 'real' as the MIT one.

  147. Stupid Human Tricks by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1

    (the more original version)

    Why are human beings so scared of crop circles? Why do human beings think that all crop circles are hoaxes? Rhetorical questions, I know. Idiots will respond.

    Human beings don't know their ass from a hole in their ass. But they always act like they do. Ignore the scientific proof found at many crop circles, and you act like a typical human being.

    I'M NOT SAYING ALL CROP CIRCLES ARE MADE BY ET! I'm not even saying that ANY crop circle HAS been made by ET. But hear what your mind feels comfortable with.

    If you don't know the difference between a 'genuine' crop circle and a physically-created hoax circle, then congratulations: you're stupid. Why are most of the posts on this topic so ignorant sounding? Again, rhetorical.

    --
    What's a second? An hour? A day?
    It has much more to do with
    the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
  148. Electromagnetism by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1

    Come on people! GENUINE crop circles are NOT made with ropes. There are plenty of physical changes in the structure of the crop itself that are NOT POSSIBLE using physical methods of creation.

    This reply is not intended to belittle the parent post. But I felt it appropriate to remind people that GENUINE crop circles are NOT made with ROPE.

    Shall I say it one more time?

    --
    What's a second? An hour? A day?
    It has much more to do with
    the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    1. Re:Electromagnetism by kobotronic · · Score: 1

      There isn't any such thing as a 'genuine' crop circle, any more than there are 'power' crystals, magic pendants, dowsing, fairies, 'earth vibrations', Free Energy Devices, psychic 'healers', psychics, UFOs, active ingredients in homeopathic medicines, God, Jesus OR Santa Claus.

      Crop circle believers happily carry on with claims of strange or supernatural properties of the flattened corn, or false circular logic arriving at supernatural conclusions when they cannot conceive of the methods employed for the design and execution of any given formation.

      Rope and boards certainly aren't the only used methods, and the art of circlemaking has certainly advanced in recent years, aided by GPS and lasers and custom built devices to hitherto unseen levels of complexity. However, you'd be a fool if you think that any of these are the works of supernatural forces! Marvel instead at the creativity and craftmanship of the guys in the fields.

      Popular 'science' rags have regrettably lent some undeserved credibility to the supernatural crop circle theories. I remember a story in such a magazine wherein the author claimed that the flattened crop of a crop circle continued to grow, hence, according to his logic, it is a phenomena of the supernatural order.

      In reality, none of these claims have been tested and found to have any bearing. The precise same neat and tidy patterns and crop growth non-interruption can be achieved with sufficient skill by the rope-and-plankers, so please cease with this mindless drivel about "Genuine cropcircles".

      You 'shall' say whatever you like, any number of times you like, even in all CAPS it doesn't make what you're saying any more true.

    2. Re:Electromagnetism by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
      Typical reaction. I can tell you don't have an iota of data to support YOUR claims. Can you tell the same about me? Are you willing to take that chance?

      You can 'believe' whatever you like, any number of times you like, even in lowercase it doesn't make what you believe any more true.

      You ARE a fool for purporting that I claim supernatural causes for genuine crop circles. It's a sign that you have no scientific rebuttal, simply rhetoric.

      Thanks for falling into a simple trap.

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    3. Re:Electromagnetism by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 1

      There is quite a bit of evidence supporting the claim that these crop formations are made by humans. The very first circle makers confessed and showed the whole world how they did it.
      Crop circles illustrate to us one of the human tendencies that most people tend to ignore: The desire to FOOL people. It's fun. It gratifies you. It can even be financially rewarding. It's a hack, plain and simple. I too am fascinated with crop circles, but for a totally different reason than most. I love a good con. It's brilliance. My heroes are Joseph Smith, (great con), Yuri Gellar, Jon Edwards (not so fantastic), that Pet Psychic lady (pure crap but she gets away with it because she has an english accent) and Edison. Some cons are so flawless, so brilliant that they keep investigators puzzled for years. I love it. For those who would say I cross the line by making these people my heroes, I would say that my family was evangelical christian. I had two choices: black sheep or just plain SHEEP. Black sheep kicks ass over just plain sheep anyday.

    4. Re:Electromagnetism by kobotronic · · Score: 1

      Friend, I have a healthy mind, a good perception of how things work, and I know enough about the follies of human nature to understand quite well where you are coming from. I'm very sorry that you're deluded, but I hope that you get better eventually.

      You also really should relax a bit in any case. Shrill arguments worded like yours carry no weight even if they had merit, which yours do not! Are you very young? You sound not a day over 15. You'll grow out of this eventually, I know it's awkward.

      As for your challenge, I refuse to prove a negative, YOU prove a positive. I'm quite willing to "take that chance" !

      If the best you can do is pop links like the ones you've already provided, leading to such gems as, I quote out of context, "....Coupled with some of the RF anomalies I've been detecting over the years, I believe that whatever creates the crop circles is creating a temporary vortex in the localized space/time continuum in the vicinity of the crop circle."

      I mean, for real. Come on now. TEMPORARY VORTEX IN THE LOCALIZED SPACE/TIME CONTINUUM ... shit, I heard more credible psychobabble blackspeak from scamsters selling Perpetual Free Energy Devices and Purple Plates or Homeopathic Medicines or even Religion.

      So far all you've provided other than insults have been indigestible hogwash and claptrap. If you really want to state a convincing argument, try and use your own words, find a persuasive instead of scornful tone, and provide some hard data that will stand up to scientific validation and verification.

      If your data indicates other-worldly cropcircle origins, would they hold up to double-blind testing?

  149. Motives by Muttonhead · · Score: 1
    Media of the paranormal is a multi-million dollar industry. Compare the return on investment with the tiny cost of figuring out how to create and then produce crop circles. This is a good business to be in, what with so much dumbing down of the culture going on. People are more gullible than ever.

    A wilder theory is that this is leading to some sort of social control. In the past you had religion and the fear of eternal damnation to keep people in line. More recently it's been a fear of communism. Fear of "evil doers" is not very salient today. So how about fear of aliens? Gov't spacecraft masquerade as aliens, probe some butts to make it seem real, flash some lights across the sky, the motive being to keep people in line.

  150. Come on people, use your brains by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
    Simple only to simple minds...

    Do some research if you hear terms you don't understand. Like "strange energy disturbances" - you don't have to play dumb - you can figure out what it means.

    For example, this information might educate you.

    Or maybe this will. Don't blame me for the background image.

    Oh yeah, don't whine about the sources. If you don't like the information, either do some research yourself or continue being ignorant.

    Also, a Google search can do wonders to assist in the removal of ignorance.

    Whatever "ignorance" means.

    --
    What's a second? An hour? A day?
    It has much more to do with
    the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    1. Re:Come on people, use your brains by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      If you think those are scientific articles, I weep for the future of mankind.

      I weep.

      To quote from the first link:

      After all, hoaxers and sceptics fear things they can't understand and explain away!

      Crop circles can quite thoroughly be explained away as the work of hoaxers. As for the tertium quid who repeat the mantra, "do not mock what you do not understand," the problem is that I understand these perfectly: I do not need to make recourse to magical extraterrestrials or pseudo-scientific "energies" (I'm waiting for "Telluric currents" to crop up in this conversation) to explain crop circles. A lot of good planning with a computer and a few simple-to-make tools are all it takes.

    2. Re:Come on people, use your brains by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 1

      "Oh yeah, don't whine about the sources. If you don't like the information, either do some research yourself or continue being ignorant."

      Oh grow up. I just wanted other people's reactions on it, not to write a thesis on it.

    3. Re:Come on people, use your brains by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
      Choose to be a fool if you must. You are the exact type of skeptic that your quote mentions:

      Crop circles can quite thoroughly be explained away as the work of hoaxers."

      You have obviously NOT done research, NOR even attempted to. Here's the first two statements from the first link you quoted from:

      Probably the most controversial topic of crop circle research during the 2000 season was Colin Andrews statement that he believes 80% of crop circles are hoaxed.

      Of course, as usual the media took this out of context and reported on the numerical value of his comment, rather than focusing on the genuine mystery surrounding the 20% of 'unexplained' formations.

      Hello ignorant human beings - a leading "authority" on hoax circles ADMITS THAT 20% ARE NOT HOAXES. AND everyone ignores that!

      Peace of mind by any means necessary, right?

      If you think those are scientific articles, I weep for the future of mankind.

      Oh yeah, didn't I say "don't whine about the source"? Those aren't the only two articles on the internet, unless you pretend.

      If you really want to weep about the future of mankind, do a web search on Wormwood.

      --
      What's a second? An hour? A day?
      It has much more to do with
      the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
    4. Re:Come on people, use your brains by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      Like "strange energy disturbances" - you don't have to play dumb - you can figure out what it means.

      "Strange energy disturbance" is too vague a term to mean anything specific.

      "strange" is a subjective term, and can mean anything. The color blue is strange to some people.

      "Energy disturbances" happen all the time. I just slammed my hand on the table. Gosh, there's an energy disturbance. I'm reading your message on my strange energy disturbing monitor.

      You want credibility? Say something objective, with precision, like "The temperature rose by 5C 1 day before the crop circle appeared", or even something simple like "My compass spun around wildly".

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    5. Re:Come on people, use your brains by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      Or maybe this [diagnosis2012.co.uk] will. Don't blame me for the background image.

      Thanks for the laugh. I like this "fact":

      14. MAGNETIC ANOMALIES: Magnetic effects can be seen in some formations using a compass, which can deviate several degrees from true North. If a magnet is dragged round the formation, there will sometimes be iron particles found sticking to it.

      Hello? Magnetic compases point to Magnetic North, not True North, so they will "deviate several degrees" just about everywhere in the world.

      Iron particles, in the ground. Big whoop. Not very suprising, considering that iron is one of the most common elements in the world. I have a large magnet with 100-lb of lifting power through the dirt to see what's there. Guess what, I usually end up with little particles of magnetic material.

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    6. Re:Come on people, use your brains by kalidasa · · Score: 1

      Hello ignorant human beings - a leading "authority" on hoax circles ADMITS THAT 20% ARE NOT HOAXES.

      And what makes him an authority? And what makes his opinion valid? Nothing, frankly. There's no scientific evidence being discussed here, only the opinion of self-elevated expert who, by the way, considers himself an expert not on hoaxes, but on crop circles tout court. In other words, of COURSE he believes some of them are genuine; if he didn't, he wouldn't be an authority any more.

  151. Misunderstanding Statements by Ixohoxi · · Score: 1
    You have fallen prey to the illogical fallacy known as "begging the answer". Because you seem unable to put two statements together, I will explain twice.

    This post should alleviate your confusion: Come on people, use your brains.

    For additional understanding, I will keep it simple. HUMANS with rope and sticks are responsible for creating HOAX circles. EITHER ET OR HUMANS with advanced technology are responsible for creating GENUINE crop circles.

    Don't hate the player, hate the game.

    --
    What's a second? An hour? A day?
    It has much more to do with
    the Earth's rotation than with cesium.
  152. Re:Brit tech students rule! track precision idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Say the width of the "CD track" is 1 meter (It looks to me that way). Take a wooden log 1m/PI in diameter (=32cm) and wrap a rope around it. As you unwind the rope with some marker at the end you will get a perfect spiral. Attach a 1,2,4-wheel device at the end of that rope and viola. Non-strechable rope is better, obviously. And I don't think it's hard to find a wooden log a foot in diameter.
    Personally, I believe all of crop circles are hoaxes; probably I just want to believe that way.

  153. Re:Always the tracks...not true at all by Yunzil · · Score: 1

    Doesn't much matter. The reason circles are astride tractor tracks is that they provide an easy way for the pranksters to walk in and out without leaving evidence of their visit.

  154. Re:Always the tracks...not true at all by legLess · · Score: 1

    You're right, but that's a very different point from the original poster's: he said that the tracks were used as guidelines for the circles, which in many cases is obviously incorrect.

    --
    This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
  155. Re:OT (your sig) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good question.

    I don't know, I probably pulled it off IRC everything2 or something. Google doesn't show anything.

    It's possible (but not likely) that I thought it up myself (I'm not that witty though, so It's a small possibility)

  156. Re:Gollumnian perspective? by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 1

    Jeebus Hates them crop-circles. Hate dem BAD. They Of da DEBIL! OOOh, he hate circle-demons! Dem demons gots nothing to do but messs up the corn! Corn is God's and Jeebus' crops! Holy it is! Grows in Iowa! Demons try to take Jeebus' Corn! Roll it up and ssmoke it! Preciouss stop them, make them stand the cropsses back up again! Makess them pay. no more ssilly circlesses.

  157. I see dumb people...... by ChaoticLimbs · · Score: 1

    When I open my eyes, I see them. They're on Crossing Over with John Edwards.

  158. Re:Always the tracks...not true at all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You may be right, yet the one you linked to has a track that's at a perfect tangent to the edge of the formation. So you've strengthened his case, if anything, with that particular example.

  159. Re:Always the tracks...not true at all by Feztaa · · Score: 1

    Actually, it looks an awful lot like one edge of that pattern lines up with the track.

    Not to mention that they couldn't finish it in one night! What kind of sloppy aliens are they?

  160. 100's of millions can't be all wrong .... by almound · · Score: 1

    Apparently all the yahooing on /. is to mask the
    fact that, actually, those who make fun of this
    and other supernormal subjects are in the minority
    (a very tiny minority).

    That minority may like to think that it is the
    voice of reason in a world gone mad, but as others
    have noted well ... the scientific community is,
    if anything, more rabid than the Puritans of
    Salem. Burning witches is their stock and trade.

  161. Crop circles/communication? Be more scientific.. by almound · · Score: 1

    Everybody is entitled to their own pet theory (at least as long as the present powers-that-be refrain from setting new precedents ... a few more days, maybe).

    All this discussion brings to mind Thomas Kuhn and his book, "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions."

    Be forewarned, people, anyone who dares gainsay the scientific crowd (in evidence is one proudly on display at /.), such a heretic stands subject to persecution more rabid than that wreaked by the Puritans of Salem.

    Burning witches is a scientist's stock and trade. One should not be surprised at that. They tell you repeatedly that no theory is sacrocanct, no assertion is above scrutiny, only peer review based upon the least common denominator of the hypothetico-deductive/analytico-inferential method can purify.

    The problem is, hypothetico-deductive/analytico-inferential methods are shoddy logic and, besides, haven't been endorsed by mainstream academics for at least 70 years (I'm thinking of a quote from the Chair of MIT's Physics department while Richard Feynman was attending ... I'll hunt around for it). Peer review has degenerated into a cat and mouse game of fudge factors and political favoritism. Scrutiny is meaningless if there is an unwillingness to think differently.

    This forum is an illustration that one should not be surprised at any scientific community's astounding ignorance. One should rather be astounded when someone is given a proper hearing.

  162. Make your own crop circle... by TheCeltic · · Score: 1

    http://www.digitalcarversguild.com/tutorials/agroc ropcircle/agrocropcircle.htm

    --
    =-=-=-=-=-=-=-= - The Celtic - =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
  163. Uh, yeah right. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Just because you can't conceive of how we might have actually figured out how to build the pyramids on our own, you automatically jump to the conclusion that we couldn't possibly have done so, and immediately dive into speculation about gods or aliens or some other superhuman source.

    You have a very narrow mind indeed.

  164. Mod this silly shite down by Meowharishi · · Score: 0

    The above does NOT deserve >1 karma. It is a nonstatement and has nothing really important to say. FUCK OFF MICHALE YOUY CHOAD SMOKIR!1!!!

    --
    mje0w!!!1!
  165. BEOWFULF!!1! by Meowharishi · · Score: 0

    Imagine a BEOWULF CLUSTER OF THOSE!1!!! Wahoo! :-D

    Michael is a faggot

    --
    mje0w!!!1!
  166. Heed my warnings, fellow Aliens. by Kashif+Shaikh · · Score: 1

    Ph3ar m3!!!

  167. A book about it. by klmarty · · Score: 1

    http://store.reasons.org/cgi-bin/webc.exe/st_prod. html?p_prodid=594&sid=2IG5-0l4FCa2OR From a Christian perspective.

  168. religion & ignorance? by Skadet · · Score: 1

    Decent post, except for the off-topic last sentance.

    1. Re:religion & ignorance? by Natchswing · · Score: 1

      But you see, to the rest of us it wasn't off topic at all. Thus the problem.

  169. Do all of them really exist? by grungeman · · Score: 1

    I was looking at some photos and come to the conclusion that I would be able to paint these crop circles using Photoshop or PaintShopPro into some photographs of corn fields within a few hours. Also, of many crop circles there seems to be only one photo.

    --

    Signature deleted by lameness filter.
  170. Speaking of skepticism by Noren · · Score: 1
    I, too, am a skeptic, although probably not "one of the biggest skeptics out there.".

    In particular, I'm quite skeptical of your claim to be "one of the biggest skeptics out there." Available evidence in the above post indicates that you are quite credulous.

  171. Re:1oz = 31g, i know, buying SILVER OUNCES by ceejayoz · · Score: 1

    Check your facts prior to flaming, eh?

    Silver is measured in troy ounces, while most things are measured in avoirdupois (Imperial) ounces - 28.34 grams.