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Disney Making Fake Crop Circles? 332

Posted by timothy from the throwing-off-the-fake-crop-circle-curve dept.
GuNgA-DiN writes: "It seems that Disney has been busy trying to promote their upcoming movie 'Signs' (by M. Night Shyamalan). There is an interesting article from some guys who REALLY follow and study crop signs: Paul Anderson of the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network has reason to believe that they will be creating some man-made formations to promote the forthcoming movie. Anderson cites a competition or sweepstakes currently being promoted on the official 'Signs' website." Remember, patronize only genuine alien-swirled crop circles!
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Disney Making Fake Crop Circles? More

Disney Making Fake Crop Circles?

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  • fake crop circles? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 21, 2002 @05:46AM (#3925470)
    Oh, as opposed to the "real" ones ...

    I'm shocked, shocked!

    • Crop circle HOWTO (Score:5, Informative)

      by Captain Zion ( 33522 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @07:36AM (#3925596)
      > fake crop circles?

      Well... as long as they're circles, and are made in crops, they're real crop circles...

      Anyway, here's an interesting HOWTO [circlemakers.org] you can follow to create your own circles. Here's an excerpt: ;)

      The tools you will need are relatively unsophisticated; a 30 metre surveyors tape - this is preferable to string (...), a 1-2 metre board or plank with a rope attached to each end to form a loop - this is known as a stalk-stomper... dowsing rods - these should be made of copper, and purchased from an expensive new age shop.
      • To just make a circle thats not 100 percent perfect yeah.

        But to make some of the fancy crop designs? I dont think so unless you are a like a mathematician and you have really precise measurements.

        The "real" crop circles arent circles anymore, they are complicated geometric shapes, perfect shapes at that, not something a group of amateurs could make, maybe something a group of bored scientists or mathematicians could make. I dont know why they'd be wasting their abilities running around making circles in crops though, maybe its part of some secret societies ritual, maybe some college fraturnity ? Who knows.
        • They are not complicated, they are not "perfect". They are made by bored pranksters. Since when have randon collections of circles, lines, and rectangles qualified as "perfect".
        • I'm immensely amused, having wandered around some of the crop circle sites. I thought that the whole thing had been pretty well quashed by the demonstration that crop circles are easily made, but no! it's turned in to an _art form_. Gorgeous stuff, too, fractals and stars and circles within circles. People challenging [clara.net] themselves to make the most circles, to do it on the shortest night, to do it under the eyes of 'crop watchers'.

          I love the human race, truly I do.

    • ...is that Disney is advance-promoting its new movie by sending people (or robots?) back in time to make crop circles years ago, thus seeding a worldwide interest in crop circles that otherwise would not have existed.

      Those of you who were paying attention might remember that about a year ago, there was no such thing as crop circles. The only reason you think you've already heard of them now is because Disney has messed with the timeline.

      Now you know why Disney really needed to extend the copyright term... When you're creating works in the past, you need that extra time!

  • Sue Disney (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Osty ( 16825 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @05:49AM (#3925478)

    Remember, patronize only genuine alien-swirled crop circles!

    Better yet, don't patronize any crop circles at all, since it's destruction of property (how would you like it if a bunch of jokers spray painted your house or car, or broke into your computer and muddled around with the files? It's all the same -- destruction of property). If Disney's really doing this, then I expect to see a rash of lawsuits against them as well.

    Of course, if you believe that crop circles really are made by aliens, well ... I guess it's time to break out the ol' tin foil hat.

    • If Disney's really doing this, then I expect to see a rash of lawsuits against them as well

      I was wondering this, but expect we'll see a rash of suddenly rich farmers if push comes to shove.

      Dave

  • Sad. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Artifex ( 18308 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @05:50AM (#3925479) Journal
    The original "crop circles" were later admitted to be a hoax. However, when I tried to run a search for that information to show it here, I couldn't find it among the deluge of sites like this one [greatdreams.com] which claims that "most serious researchers" believe that they are from "supernatural intelligence" and give quasi-religious defense for that... Where is the Amazing Randi when I need him?

    • Re:Sad. (Score:5, Informative)

      by The_Shadows ( 255371 ) <thelureofshadows ... minus physicist> on Sunday July 21, 2002 @06:36AM (#3925533) Homepage
      Where is the Amazing Randi when I need him?

      He's right here [randi.org].

      For those of you who don't know, James Randi is dedicated to exposing supernatural hoaxes of all kinds. He has an excellent method of exposing psychics. Anyone who claims to have powers can take simple psychic tests. If they pass they even get, IIRC, $1 million. He's never paid a dime.

      He also does work with every other kind of proported supernatural occurence. His site can be a fun read (if only to see what some idiots try and get a way with :).
      • So, I read your comment. Read your sig. At exactly that moment, that line popped up on the random itunes playlist I'd made (random 25 toad songs). I'm still dazed.

        Triv


    • Theres no way anyone in their right mind can believe one guy, or a handful of guys make them all.

      Maybe when they were just circles i could believe some of those dumb looking guys did it, but now they are getting more complicated in shape, some of them would be damn hard to draw on paper, you'd need precise measurements just to draw it on paper so whoever is doing them now is putting a great deal of effort into them.
      • That's right, there are lots of people involved. I used to live in Winchester, Hampshire, which is right in the middle of one main areas where the circles appear and I knew people who made them. In fact it seems that the only people in southern England who don't know any circle makers are the loonies who think they're made by little green men.

  • How are crop circles done? Here's some links. (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 21, 2002 @05:55AM (#3925485)
    short intro [amtsgym-sdbg.dk], and the homepage of Dansk Korncirkel Central [geocities.com].

  • Easy to Spot (Score:5, Funny)

    by philipsblows ( 180703 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @05:55AM (#3925486) Homepage

    Any Disney crop circles will have a little (C) mark somewhere nearby.

    And maybe some mouse ears.

  • Are they really made by aliens? (Score:5, Funny)

    by guttentag ( 313541 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @06:02AM (#3925499) Journal
    Why is the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network concerned about crop circles in America? If Disney makes crop circles in its own country, there's nothing alien about it. However, if the Canadians are searching for these American crop circles, the Canadians would be the aliens in our midst.

    On the other hand, if Disney goes to Canada to make crop circles, we can reasonably claim the crop circles were made by aliens. But if Disney hires Canadians to make the crop circles in Canada, are the circles still considered to be the work of aliens? This is actually a very important topic of discussion, because crop circles have historically been produced by illegal aliens who are not only underpaid and overworked, they're not paying income tax. I don't know about Canada, but the IRS has a whole division devoted to hunting these tax evaders.

    The only thing certain is that these circles will probably appear in threes -- two smaller circles sitting atop a larger circle -- and a pop musician will be performing in the center of each one.

  • Makes you wonder.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Kirby-meister ( 574952 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @06:05AM (#3925503)
    ...if the aliens just got tired of doing these designs and decided to have us humans do them ourselves in a mask of PR and prizes. :)

  • Crop circle nonsense/fun shenanigans. (Score:5, Informative)

    by deglr6328 ( 150198 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @06:13AM (#3925513)
    The latest issue of Scientific has an enligtening short article [sciam.com] on the fine mischief of crop circles. (no doubt released in a timely manner in an effort to counter some of the nonsense from the release of the movie Signs.)

  • False Alarm? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Saxerman ( 253676 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @06:19AM (#3925519) Homepage
    It seems fairly likely that Disney would want to create some hype for the film by commissioning man made crop signs. The only 'harm' to researchers would be if Disney never discloses doing so. Just as the Blair Witch cast was under contract to avoid all media attention until after the hype had died down I see little reason for Disney NOT to disclose not only which circles they commissioned, but how they did it as well. This final media thrust could even help researchers identify fake signs in the future.

  • yes, fake (Score:2, Funny)

    by zurmikopa ( 460568 )
    I know some people that were going to go to a field and make their own designs with crops. They were drawing them out on peices of paper and trying to come up with things that were vauge yet apeared to have meaning. They were going to use big-ol-flat boards to do it with. I have no idea if they ever got around to doing it.

    "Oh, I saw the sign.. and it opened up my mind; I saw the sign." *Whacks self several times*
  • Just look at the ears on this one [ufobc.ca].

  • hmm.. (Score:2, Interesting)

    by waspleg ( 316038 )
    i see a whole lot of "people who believe in aliens are crazy" jokes.. pretty disheartening for a website supposedly so technically inclined

    perhaps you should check out some of the more recent ones on www.artbell.com .. in case you don't know he's a nationally syndicated talk show host whose show airs late at night (he was recently ranked #1 talk show host in America, above Rush Limbaugh) he also has been following recent developments in crop circles which ave been popping up all over the world (mostly in europe) in tandem wtih various cattle mutilations (argentina)

    if you see the pics they are quite elaborate and definitely not natural, and for having been done in a single night Disney would have had to put down some serious money.. espeically considering the biggest one is right next to StoneHenge (correct me if i'm wrong but Disney still releases movies in teh US first)

    i dunno what they look like to you but they look like hints at the solar flares from 2012 that the mayans predicted.. my $.02

    disclaimer: this is neither a troll nor am i a lunatic (NATOL)

    • Re:hmm.. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GMontag451 ( 230904 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @07:17AM (#3925569) Homepage
      perhaps you should check out some of the more recent ones on www.artbell.com

      Art Bell is either an idiot or a charlatan, I'm not sure which though. He constantly airs completely unconfirmed anecdotal stories and tries to use that as evidence for all sorts of completely ridiculous things. I suggest you pick up an issue or two of Skeptical Inquirer. It is a very good magazine that has lots of good debunkings on such topics as dowsing, Kirlian photography, and even crop circles. I also suggest that next time you listen to Art Bell, you ask yourself how critical is he being of his "evidence", and whether or not there is a simpler, naturalistic explanation for the things that people claim to see.

      if you see the pics they are quite elaborate and definitely not natural, and for having been done in a single night Disney would have had to put down some serious money.. espeically considering the biggest one is right next to StoneHenge (correct me if i'm wrong but Disney still releases movies in teh US first)

      No one is saying that Disney is responsible for the crop cirlces that have already occured. If you had taken the time to read the story, you would see that they are concerned that Disney may in the near future sponsor some people making crop circles in order to promote their new movie.

      I dunno what they look like to you but they look like hints at the solar flares from 2012 that the mayans predicted.. my $.02

      First of all, the Mayans didn't predict any solar flares, they didn't even know what solar flares are. They predicted a huge (earthly) disaster because they believed that those occur during plantary convergences (like the one that will happen in 2012) and other unusual astronomic events.

      The only way that a solar flare could bend as much as a single wheat stalk woud be if a satellite malfunctioned because of a flare storm and crashed into a wheat field. The material part of a solar flare is limited to the sun's corona. The ejecta of a flare is just a bunch of charged particles, some of which are attracted to the Earth due to it's strong magnetic field. It is the immense charge that causes the damage, not the particles themselves.

      disclaimer: this is neither a troll nor am i a lunatic (NATOL)

      That may be true, but if so you are a sorely misguided person who doesn't know much about physics and doesn't know how to critically think.

    • I suppose if you're a crop circle novice it would be hard to start off making elaborate ones, but as can be seen from visiting here [circlemakers.org] that practice makes perfect.

      Presumably your skilled crop circle maker accompanied by several friends would be able to make pretty much any design using a plan, gps equipment, wooden boards rope, posts etc.

      It's quite funny and sad that there are people who believe that alien visitors do them when logic, common sense and websites(!) demonstrate it is actually humans.

    • Art Bell is an entertainer. He makes $$$$ by airing a show that some people find entertaining. Please try to rember that when listening to his show or any other shows like that. He's not intrested in an objective look at anything, he's intrested in the largest posible audiance so he can get the top $$$ for ads, and since you claim he's passed Lush Windbag, it seems he has hit on the right formula.

    • My 'technically inclined, scientific' mind says: The guy who went on TV, explained that he did crop circles, that it was blown way out of proportion, then went out with his buddies into a field one night and demonstrated, on film, how to make a crop circle in one night without being detected is probably indicative of all crop circles.

      I remember how 'experts' kept saying that they were too perfect, could not be done in a single night, etcetera.

      Of course, then the 'experts' had to scrutinize it and come up withe never-before-heard reasons why it is obviously fake. Of course, easy for them to say when they KNOW it's fake, instead of wanting to believe it's true. Perception is a powerful thing.

  • Crop circle originators -- Bower and Chorley (Score:5, Informative)

    by mrflip ( 11712 ) <<moc.pilfrm> <ta> <pilf>> on Sunday July 21, 2002 @06:46AM (#3925540) Homepage
    The crop circles were made by a couple of fellows from Winchester named Doug Bower and Dave Chorley. They made the circles for years at night, and Bower even kept the secret from his wife for seven years. When they finally told the public, few people believed them, and the UFO crowd still insists that the hoax was not the crop circles but the claim of authorship. (ObNeologism: ("cereology" -- those who study crop circles.) Never mind that Bower and Chorley have the original designs and dates, signed the drawings with "DD," and other supporting evidence. Of course, there is also Doug Bower's statement that he was programmed by UFOs to make the circles. Sigh.

    Some links:
    An interview with Doug Bower [manchester.com]
    An article by Carl Sagan on crop circles [2think.org]
    Circlemakers, an art group creating crop circles [circlemakers.org]

    flip

    • Re:Crop circle originators -- Bower and Chorley (Score:5, Funny)

      by frank249 ( 100528 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @08:34AM (#3925656)
      Were they ever charged? I hear it is a pretty serious offence to be convicted as a 'cereal killer'.
    • whats the point of stayingn up all night sneaking into crops around the world to make silly designs?

    • Re:Crop circle originators -- Bower and Chorley (Score:4, Informative)

      by Maeryk ( 87865 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @10:38AM (#3925868) Journal
      The crop circles were made by a couple of fellows from Winchester named Doug Bower and Dave Chorley. They made the circles for years at night, and Bower even kept the secret from his wife for seven years.

      THey were even infiltrated by a BBC reporter who filmed them making a few of them. However, this *STILL* doesnt explain the ones in Brazil, and other parts of the world that were turning up also. Im sure Bower and Chorley made a few or even a few dozen, but there have been hundreds upon hundreds of these things, all over the world, and they seem to co-appear, rather than being as random as CNBC would have you believe.

      Im not a nutcase, and I dont believe there are spaceships landing to play bocce in wheat fields, but two pranksters from England claiming they did them all is kind of ridiculous as well.

      Plus, there are other wierd phenomena involved in *some* circles that two guys with a 2x4 and large feet cannot make happen.

      Plus, I'd like to know how they get into some of these places that are guarded now.. (some of the farmers have put their fields under video surveillance, found no evidence of people wandering around and had a crop circle the next morning..).

      We may never know, but they are happening all over the place.

      Next those two will claim they built the bizarre desert mounds that are only visible from aircraft!

      Maeryk
      • However, this *STILL* doesnt explain the ones in Brazil, and other parts of the world that were turning up also.

        That's easy, copy cats. The tools neccesary to make crop circles are simple, and once it's reported on international news, any joker in any country with access to a field of wheat and an idea of how to do it can make them.


        Plus, I'd like to know how they get into some of these places that are guarded now.. (some of the farmers have put their fields under video surveillance, found no evidence of people wandering around and had a crop circle the next morning..).

        Compliance of the farmer? Have you seen these tapes? It would not be difficult to fake it. A little planning, maybe some cheap video editing equipment. Change dates and times on cameras.

        Next those two will claim they built the bizarre desert mounds that are only visible from aircraft!

        What are these? Hills?


        Im not a nutcase, and I dont believe there are spaceships landing to play bocce in wheat fields, but two pranksters from England claiming they did them all is kind of ridiculous as well.

        I don't believe they claimed they made all of them, just English ones, and probably not even all of those. See copycats above.

  • What about IP? (Score:5, Funny)

    by saphena ( 322272 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @07:35AM (#3925595) Homepage
    Will Disney be able to sue for IP infringement if "real" crop circles look similar to the Disney ones?

  • What's next? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ed Avis ( 5917 ) <ed@membled.com> on Sunday July 21, 2002 @07:40AM (#3925600) Homepage
    How long before IBM starts creating crop Tuxen?

  • The "Arecibo reply" crop "circle" (Score:5, Informative)

    by Captain Zion ( 33522 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @07:51AM (#3925613)
    The Arecibo reply [cropcircleresearch.com] crop formation in Chibolton was one of the most interesting "crop circles" out there. Basically it's a 23x73 grid with "pixels" similar to the Arecibo message but with "alien" information instead of human. Very creative! (I'd say it's a great example of geek humour.)

    The differences are: silicon added to the list of atomic numbers, different DNA and nucleotides, different "stick figure" and stats, other planets highlighted in the solar/star system and a completely different transmitter.

  • Crop Circles, Aliens, UFOs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @07:52AM (#3925615) Journal
    I fail to understand people's logic.

    'Flying Saucers' were NEVER seen until one report back in the 60s got quite widespread. Then everyone reported seeing them everywhere.

    Even worse, Alien abductions follow the same line. It NEVER happens to ANYONE in thousands of years... One day someone reports it happening. Then it suddenly happens to EVERYONE.

    Crop circles are at least understood as fakes by most people because someone came out and admitted to doing them (despite expert opinions that people could not do such a thing :-D ) but why don't farmers just file lawsuits against those who destory their fields? That would certainly take it out of the realm of the supernatural. Not to mention stoping the recurrance of this 'phenomenon'.

    P.S. Next time you see Big Foot/Yeti and the Nesse/The Lockeness Monster, tell them Elvis said "Hi". I missed them at the last Christmas party.
    • Modern UFO sightings started in the 1940s, but at least since biblical times people have been reporting them. They thought they were angels or demons, etc. instead of little green men.

      Ezekiel 1-14:
      And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
      1:15 Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
      1:16 The appearance of the wheels and their work [was] like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work [was] as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
      1:17 When they went, they went upon their four sides: [and] they turned not when they went.
      1:18 As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings [were] full of eyes round about them four.
      1:19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went by them: and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up

    • (* 'Flying Saucers' were NEVER seen until one report back in the 60s got quite widespread. Then everyone reported seeing them everywhere. *)

      The issue of whether the media stories come first or the sightings is controversial. Flying disks and other odd things *were* reported before "they hit big" in the summer of 1947.

      For example, a meteorologist (weather person) quietly reported some flying disks about a month or two before the "big wave" hit.

      There is also controversy about whether Kenneth Arnold's report (the first "big" story) triggered similar reports on the same day, or if they were independent. The timing is too close to accuratetly tell.

      Simular things happened with abduction stories. There were a few reports before the "wave".

      Whether the "wave" causes reports or simply makes people feel more comfortable in reporting them is something that is debated over and over in pro and anti UFO newsgroups.

      As far as crop circles, I don't know of any history of them. I figured the field is too polluted by fakers to be worth anything. The "grays" of the abduction reports did not want publicity according to the material.

      Thus, if there are true alien crop circles and abductions, it is probably not the same group of aliens.

      Note that intentional faking is not even a common cause of (sky) UFO reports according to even the skeptics. They usually cite some sort of "media induced hallucination" as the most probable cause of the stickier cases, not fake ships.

      I think ufology is an interesting topic of study. The problem is that clowns and greedballs keep ruining the reputation of *any* research into odd phenom.
      • For example, a meteorologist (weather person) quietly reported some flying disks about a month or two before the "big wave" hit.

        There is also controversy about whether Kenneth Arnold's report (the first "big" story) triggered similar reports on the same day, or if they were independent. The timing is too close to accuratetly tell.

        Arnold never reported flying disks. He said they were sort of boomerang-shaped, kind of like the stealth bomber. What he said was that they seemed to skip through the air like a disk skipping across water, and everyone got confused.
        • (* Arnold never reported flying disks. He said they were sort of boomerang-shaped, kind of like the stealth bomber. What he said was that they seemed to skip through the air like a disk skipping across water, and everyone got confused. *)

          Confused over what they "envisioned", or confused over Arnold's description?

          One theory is that disks were being widely reported about the same time, and a reporter took the word "saucer" from Arnold's description to apply to *other* sightings.

      • I appreciate the technical correcion. Not sure what I was thinking of that happened in the 60s... Hmm.

        While I agree with you on the fact that UFOs were seen and reported before they were popular, you still must admit that the number of UFOs being seen has increased exponentially. It appears that anything that looks even slightly strange must be a spaceship.

        I can't count the number of times I've heard about reports of a spaceship landing, with red, blue, and white lights. Of course it turned out that they just saw lights through the trees, where there happened to be a street. So, even emergency vehicles must be aliens.
        • (* While I agree with you on the fact that UFOs were seen and reported before they were popular, you still must admit that the number of UFOs being seen has increased exponentially. *)

          Well, there was a sudden increase in the summer of '47, that is for sure. From the official Bluebook reports, the totals were high until about 1956 IIRC, when they dropped off a bit, then increased a bit in the mid 60's. Bluebook stopped tracking after 1969, so any stats after that are from private organizaions. But between 1947 and 1969 the reports were relatively constant, at least not "exponential".

          (* Of course it turned out that they just saw lights through the trees, where there happened to be a street. *)

          Well shimmering lights don't make very good evidence of much IMO. Lights are hard to interpret correctly. The best evidence (or should I say oddest cases) are daylight sightings where the outline of the "thing" can be clearly seen.

          Even if the media-induced hallucination theories of the top skeptics are correct, the power of such hullicinations to fool cops and pilots is amazing in itself. Hallucinations by cops and pilots is not something to take lightly, for we depend too much on them.

          What if they start hallucinating Osama missle attacks based on media reports? That would not be far off if we put stock in the leading skeptic theories.



  • Well even if they arent all man made, soon we will find out how convincing man made crop circles are compared to whatever else is making them

    • Dust Devils (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Reziac ( 43301 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @01:09PM (#3926309) Homepage Journal
      I've seen dust devils (sortof miniature tornadoes, common in croplands) make interesting patterns in grainfields, by flattening the stalks as the dust devil passes over them. A dust devil will follow extremely small irregularities in the ground, whether natural or such as those left by circle irrigators, or dirt packed by vehicles, presumably because of temperature and airflow gradiants. On perfectly even ground, it'll tend to move in circles or spirals, presumably per the math of stuff affected by the earth's rotation. So a pattern of spirals or interlocking circles isn't too unusual as a result (albeit not as tidy as manmade examples).

      I've seen a very large dust devil (about 300 feet high, 100' wide at the top and 25' across at the base) follow the curves of a gravel road for over a mile (and it went *around* a car that happened to be in its way at a crossroads -- quite a sight!!) This road also acted as a thermal barrier when the airport behind it fogged up -- fog always ended at the road as cleanly as if it'd been cut with a giant knife.

      BTW you can demonstrate dust devils' tendency to go around objects and continue on in their original line of travel -- just try "catching" a small one by getting in its way. It'll go around you every time (or even "run the other way"), doubtless because of how your being there changes the airflow.

      I can easily imagine a pair of somewhat tipsy and mischievious fellows watching a dust devil moving in circles and smashing grain, and saying, "Hey, we can do that, only better!!"

      I have somewhat more trouble imagining why aliens would give a shit about making crop circles (if it's communication they want, surely they can be more direct about it!) unless it's really a biohazard marking to warn their fellows. ;)

  • http://www.lovely.clara.net/crop_circles_sacredgeo 2.html

    I suppose some people need an outlet for their artwork and crop circles are the answer

    of course it could be aliens, but i really doubt aliens would ever communicate with us, what would they have to gain by doing so?

  • Why would any alien intelligence capable of interstellar travel would choose to communicate using circles in corn but apparently not be able to figure out binary, or radio.

    • As someone posting at -1 points out, they are testing our intelligence:

      "Crop circles, bwaahaha! Those humans, they're SOOO dumb -- they'll believe anything! Hey, maybe we can sell them that useless planet we got stuck with in that last auction."

  • Disney only knows how to fake!

    For example:

    Fake Mouses

    Fake Ethics

    Fake concern about Fair Use Rgihts in Copyrights

    Fake concern about consumers

    Disney should just rename themselves Fakes'R'US
  • What would be really funny is if some alien craft landed, thus creating the very first crop circle, and then, humans started making their own crop circles everywhere, more and more elaborate.

    Imagine if it were humans, landing on another planet, only to find the natives imitating our "footprints" everywhere. Do you think we'd take that as a sign of intelligence?


  • Strategy 1: Make fake crop circles in an attempt to raise publicity for movie.

    Strategy 2: Make fake conspiracy about making fake crop circles in an attempt to get a good old-fashioned slashdotting.

  • whether you believe or not: (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Maeryk ( 87865 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @10:27AM (#3925846) Journal
    I have read of some interesting phenomenon in a few of the circles investigated. Molecular changes at the base of the stalks causing them to bend, rather than break. (do that with a 2x4!) and magnetic issues inside the circle formations.

    I agree that most of them are man made, and probably the most intricate ones are man made as well.. but I also remember reading with a giggle as the SKeptic Observer reported definitively that they were being made by "mating hedgehogs".

    I feel safe in saying we dont KNOW they are all man made, but we do know a lot of them are.

    Check here: for more info. This guy seems to be a genuine researcher who accepts it when his hypothesis dont come out right. [cropcircleresearch.com]

    Maeryk
    • "Molecular changes" will happen in ANY live plant at the point where it's bent. Bending a stalk far enough to make it stay bent damages living cells, which then start producing a different bunch of chemicals as they heal and produce the plant equivalent of scar tissue.

      Observing "molecular changes" after the fact isn't very useful. You'd need to observe the same stalk before and after.

      As to spinning magnetic needles, all that's required is irrigation equipment in the neighbourhood (we're talking metal water lines that can be half a mile long). And measuring "changes in the magnetic field" isn't useful either, unless you could do so before and after (which would require an ability to predict where the "alien" crop circles are going to appear, and benchmark the site beforehand).

      In short, this guy's "evidence" of alien manufacture is just as anecdotal as everyone else's, albeit involving more measurements.

      And just because no one was *caught* making 20% of crop circles doesn't make them the work of aliens.

      No one caught me making this post either. Maybe an alien typed it instead. ;)

  • This Disney-AOL-Time-Warner Crop Circle was brought to you by a generous grant from Wheaties (a wholly owned subsidiary of General Mills). [crop circle of champions?]

  • CSICOP's Investigative Files (Score:4, Informative)

    by ancarett ( 221103 ) on Sunday July 21, 2002 @11:14AM (#3925956)
    CSICOP [csicop.org] (Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal) has several informative reports debunking crop circles including Joe Nickell [infidels.org]'s Investigative Brief into Levengood's Crop Circle Plant Research [csicop.org].

    If you're interested in more informed discussion, check out the CSICOP Mailing List [csicop.org], where this topic (Disney's Crop Circle promotion) is also current.
  • If you can patent .jpg's and hyperlinks, Lord only knows the fun you could have by patenting this little corner of the patent universe...

    Make the Source Forge ads stop, Mommy!
  • I just saw the trailer for the movie, and my impression (given the the little snippets that were played) was that it was a spoof of the whole "Crop Circle" fad. A lot like the parody episodes that X-Files would run once or twice a season. Was I wrong?

    Of course, I'm the kind who confuses Close Encounters of the Third Kind with Closet Encounters of the Nerd Kind (a wonderful spoof of the other) while watching them to the point that it doesn't matter which one I'm watching - I'm waiting for the singing pastries :-)

  • ...for the big guns in the sky.

    The accuracy with which these "images" are "drawn" seems to fall into two categories, foot-trodden, and laser-like. Many seem, to me, to be the latter.

    Some of these images are very complex [crystalinks.com], and yet so accurately drawn, that the very notion they were trod out with plank and rope by a couple of old codgers (or a team of college students even) is pretty unthinkable. They would need sight lines and all sorts of technique for making sure each one of their stompings went right where it's supposed to -otherwise they'd not look so perfect as they do, no?

    These highly accurate-looking images are, in my view, a combination test pattern and non-subtle message, imaged with microwave or other high-energy, non-visible laser, mounted on an orbital "Star Wars" missile defense test platform.

    The message being, "notice the accuracy with which we draw on your front lawn? we can focus that beam on anybody who pisses us off!" (except Saddam or Osama, inexplicably) There was a hilarious scene along these lines at the begining of the Val Kilmer movie "Real Genius".

    An article in New Scientist Magazine asked "How long before we see a manifestation of a Mandelbrot [set] in the fields?" One year to the day after the publication of that question, a mandelbrot set appeared [clara.net] in a field near Cambridge University -where Benoit Mandelbrot had taught.
  • in what I'd guess is a piece of miraculous timing, there's a documentary of crop circles coming around the same time. Directed by Emmy-award winning William Gazecki.

    http://www.cropcirclesthemovie.com/ [cropcirclesthemovie.com]

    (Disclaimer: I'm not associated with the movie and havent seen it, but I've worked on the website.)

    - j
  • some would take a lot of people and time,and some incredible organization.

    http://home.clara.net/lucypringle/photos/2001/uk 01 df.html

    http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/windmill hi ll/windmillhill2002a.html

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