107 lines
5.8 KiB
Plaintext
107 lines
5.8 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: IT HAPPENS IN THE BEST CIRCLES FILE: UFO3133
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IT HAPPENS IN THE BEST CIRCLES.
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---
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09/23/91
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Time
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This is without doubt the most wonderful moment of my research,"
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marveled retired engineer Pat Delgado last week, as he stood in a
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wheat field near Sevenoaks, in the British county of Kent. "No human
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could have done this."
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Delgado was gazing at a large area where the crops had been
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mysteriously flattened in a remarkable pattern. A large, nearly
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perfect circle of plants had been bent down in a clockwise direction.
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Extending from the circle were other shapes: antennae, a ladder-like
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strip and a semicircle.
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The Sevenoaks phenomenon is the latest of hundreds of circular
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patterns that have appeared in the grainfields of southern England
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and, in lesser numbers, in the fields of 20 other countries during
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the past 13 years. And it seemed perfect fodder for Delgado, who
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now makes a career of investigating and writing about the circles.
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He has suggested that the circular patterns are created by a
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"superior intelligence" -- most likely extraterrestrial -- and has
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co-authored a book called Circular Evidence with another believer,
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Colin Andrews. It has sold more than 50,000 copies.
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Delgado's exultation was soon cut short. Graham Brough, a
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reporter from the London tabloid Today who had alerted Delgado to
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the latest apparition, introduced him to two landscape painters,
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David Chorley, 62, and Douglas Bower, 67. They had created the
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Sevenoaks circle while Brough looked on. Moreover, the duo revealed
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that for the past 13 years they have been sneaking around southern
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England at night, fashioning as many as 25 to 30 new circles each
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growing season. Their efforts apparently inspired copycats, who in
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the past decade have used a variety of techniques to shape hundreds
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of crop circles both in Britain and abroad. Said Bower to Delgado:
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"I'm afraid we've been having you on."
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Delgado was crestfallen. "We have all been conned," he admitted.
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"If everything you say is true, I'll look the fool." Indeed.
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The admission brought an end to one of the most popular mysteries
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Britain -- and the world -- has witnessed in years. Flying saucers,
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out of vogue for some time, were given new life by the whorls.
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Saucer enthusiasts argued that the cropland patterns marked the
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landing spots of UFOs bearing visitors from space. Believers in the
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paranormal claimed the circles radiated mysterious energy forces.
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The patterns spawned a kind of intellectual cottage industry: no
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fewer than 35 Britons claim to be experts on the phenomenon.
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A new scientific discipline, cereology, emerged. It is practiced
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by members of the Circles Effect Research Unit, a privately funded
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group headed by Wiltshire-based physicist Terence Meaden. The group
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argued that a still unverified weather phenomenon is often
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responsible for the weird damage. It occurs, Meaden says, when
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whirling columns of air pick up electrically charged matter, flatten
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the crops below and produce the bright lights observers say they
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have seen above the circles.
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Not to be outdone, a team of Japanese scientists, led by
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physicist Yoshi-Hiko Ohtsuki, had joined the hunt for an explanation.
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Ohtsuki believes a form of ball lightning generated by microwaves in
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the atmosphere flattened the crops; he created croplike circular
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patterns both in the laboratory and on a computer programmed to
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simulate ball lightning. Impressed by Ohtsuki's work, the
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authoritative British journal Nature published his report, leading
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the usually judicious Economist to suggest that the mystery might
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have been solved.
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The hoaxers' technique required no meteorological effects and
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only rudimentary physics. After making a scale drawing of the
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intended pattern, Chorley and Bower proceeded to the wheatfield with
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their equipment: a 4-ft.-long wooden plank, a ball of string and a
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baseball cap with wire threaded through the visor as a sighting
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device. At the center of the intended site, Bower held one end of
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the string. The other end was attached to the plank, held
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horizontally at knee level by Chorley as he circled around Bower,
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pushing the grain gently forward. "The heavy heads of the wheat tend
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to keep it down," he explained.
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Chorley and Bower say they conceived their hoax in 1978, while
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sitting in a pub near Cheesefoot Head "wondering what we could do
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for a bit of a laugh." Inspired by reports of flying-saucer
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sightings, and recalling crop circles created with tractors by
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Australian farmers several years earlier, they decided to flatten
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some corn to make it appear that a UFO had landed. To their chagrin,
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this and other forays during the next three years went unnoticed.
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But one of their circles was spotted in 1981, reported in the press
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and promptly attributed to extraterrestrials. "We laughed so much
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that time," recalls Chorley, "we had to stop the car because Doug
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was in stitches so much he couldn't drive." It was only after circle
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enthusiasts began seeking government funding that the two jovial con
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men decided to admit to the hoax.
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Recovering from their initial shock, Delgado and other circle
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specialists are hastily regrouping. "These two gents may have hoaxed
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some of the circles," Delgado now says, "but the phenomenon is still
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there, and we will carry on research." In his quest, Delgado will
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have the moral support of untold millions. UFOlogist Joan Creighton
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of Flying Saucer Review explains why: "We all have an inner sense
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that there is a mystery behind the universe. We like mysteries.
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It's great fun."
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*********************************************************************
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* -------->>> THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo <<<------- *
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