91 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
91 lines
4.2 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: MYSTERY SURROUNDING UGMs FILE: UFO3225
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Confounding crop circles show up by the scores; Despite an
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embarrassing hoax perpetrated in England last year, a Winnipeg
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researcher insists there's still a lot of mystery surrounding UGMs -
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unidentified ground markings.
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03/14/92
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Montreal Gazette
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--- Confounding crop circles show up by the scores; Despite an
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embarrassing hoax perpetrated in England last year, a
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Winnipeg researcher insists there's still a lot of mystery
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surrounding UGMs -unidentified ground markings. ---
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WINNIPEG - From Arizona to Alberta to Nova Scotia, those
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confounding crop circles showed up by the scores again last year.
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A new report says 87 sets of circles, rings and other shapes were
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discovered, flattened or dug into fields across North America in
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1991.
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And despite an embarrassing hoax in England last year, the Winnipeg
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researcher who compiled the report insists there's still lots of
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mystery surrounding what he and his colleagues like to call "UGMs"
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- unidentified ground markings.
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Secret weapons
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"People have suggested everything from aliens to some sort of
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government secret weapons testing as theories," said Chris
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Rutkowski, who founded the group he calls the North American
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Institute for Crop Circle Research.
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"We're not ruling anything out."
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But he admitted that most of the crop circles are likely fakes.
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Rutkowski, a University of Manitoba employee who designs school
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science courses, set up the institute after requests for
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information from British researchers of the crop-circle
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phenomenon.
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He gathered data for his report from UGM enthusiasts throughout the
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U.S. and Canada.
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The incidents include a 10-metre-wide ring discovered in a grassy
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field at Fort Lawrence, N.S. A compass needle was said to spin
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rapidly outside the ring but was unaffected inside it.
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In Granum, Alta., witnesses reported a UFO landed in front of a
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firehall. After it left, an area of "bleached" soil was found.
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A perfectly circular ring of mashed grass was sighted in Dandridge,
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Tenn. Cattle appeared to shy away and those that ventured near
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were said to have become sick. A police officer says he filmed a
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UFO in the sky not far from the site two months earlier.
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Crop circles first gained notoriety in England, where numerous
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rings have materialized over the last few years.
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But a celebrated incident last year left many convinced they were
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all a hoax. Two painters who claimed they were responsible for
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making many of the circles crafted a new one and invited expert
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Pat Delgado to investigate.
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Delgado confidently declared that no human could have had a hand in
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its creation.
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Even Rutkowski, who also prepares an annual report on UFO sightings
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in Canada, estimates as many as 90 per cent of the crop designs
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are likely hoaxes.
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The fakes probably include complex sets of circles and corridors
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flattened into fields in Coalhurst, N.S., and Jonesboro, Ga., last
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year, he said.
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In 1990, an investigation discovered that a crudely made circle in
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a field near Glenlea, Man., was the work - not of extraterrestials
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- but of a rather earthly farm hand riding a garden tractor.
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But Rutkowski noted some respected scientists believe that unusual
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weather formations - called wind vortexes - could cause some of
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the circles.
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And if pranksters are responsible for most of the circles, there is
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still the question of motive. Some researchers have proposed a
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"conspiracy theory," Rutkowski said.
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Messing with minds
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"Somebody is trying to convince us that aliens are trying to
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communicate with us through these markings in the fields," he
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explained.
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"Some rich group of businessmen are trying to mess with our minds
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... It could be pure foolishness, it could be somebody is trying
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to shape our thinking."
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Just over half the incidents outlined in Rutkowski's 1991 report
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occurred in the U.S.
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Alberta led Canada with 34 markings, while Illinois, with 32, and
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Oklahoma, with 54, were the American crop-circle heartlands.
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