260 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
260 lines
16 KiB
Plaintext
SUBJECT: A UPDATE ON CROP CIRCLES FILE: UFO1228
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MUFONET-BBS Network - Mutual UFO Network
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FIELD OF DREAMS? - AN UPDATE ON THE CIRCLE PHENOMENA
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[Contributed by Georgia MUFON]
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Not far from the mysterious ring of ancient megaliths at Stonehedge, a new
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phenomenon is sculpting circles in the cornfields of Southern England. More
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than 400 times last summer, an unseen agent blew across growing crops,
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creating circular patterns in the fields. The phenomenon almost always
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occurred at night, sometimes accompanied by a warbling sound and a moving
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orange light.
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Inside each perfectly drawn circumference, the corn lies bent but not broken,
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with its still-growing stalks swept into a matted and sometimes woven pinwheel
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--turning now clockwise, now counter-clockwise. When viewed form the air,
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many of the circles form complex patterns, arrayed as rings within rings,
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bull's-eye-style, for example, or of chains of giant beads connected by bars
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and embellished with exterior arcs. If a circle is laid down early in the
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season, when the crop is green, the rapidly growing stalks soon pick
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themselves up and grow straight again, so that the circle fades from sight
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until it appears only faintly etched into the vegetation. Once in a while, a
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circle forms with such force that plants are apparently blasted out of the
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center.
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Researchers from all over the world are struggling to understand what causes
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the phenomenon and have written at least half a dozen books about the circles-
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but no one has arrived at the definitive explanation. The conflicting
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theories, amassing almost as quickly as the circles themselves, cover
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everything from extraterrestrial visitors and the testing of star-wars weapons
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technology to tornado-like atmospheric conditions and plain old-fashioned
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hoaxing.
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The excitement over the fields is recent, but the phenomenon itself turns out
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to have a long history in the English croplands. Indeed, many legends from
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the Middle Ages refer to circles that formed in fields overnight. Back then,
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pundits talked of fairies dancing through the corn, or of mowing devils who
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came in the night and cut the crops in rings. Over the centuries, some
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scientists say, circles have been laid down continually. But they have been
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seen only occasionally and reported rarely. Today, with journalists,
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researchers and tourists literally combing the countryside for crop circles,
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more and more have been found.
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Although circles have since been spotted in parts of the United States,
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Canada, and Australia, most have cropped up in a area of England called the
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Wessex Corridor or Wessex Triangle--a triangular tract of land about 40 miles
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on each leg in the southern-central part of the country. Over the past ten
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summers, the phenomenon has become increasingly widespread, with the circles
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forming more and more frequently, in more numerous locations, and in even more
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intriguing patterns.
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Some of the patterns developed over time, as in the case of a large circle
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found last May with three concentric rings around it. Days later, airborne
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observers spotted a fourth ring a thousand feet wide and embracing the others
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in its circumference, leading some people to speculate that a peculiar fungus
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or virus was responsible. Others have attributed the patterns to hedge-hogs,
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perhaps, or even hippies.
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"It is a mystery," concedes Colin Andrews, an electrical engineer and local
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government official in Hampshire, who describes himself as one of the three
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foremost researchers on the circle phenomenon. Andrews brings a brisk,
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British enthusiasm to bear on the problem, but his style of study has earned
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him a lot of enemies in the global scientific establishment. Some claim that
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his book on the subject, "Circular Evidence", co-authored with Pat Delgado, is
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rife with circular reasoning. For the record, Andrews says, "There is no
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question at all that the phenomenon is beyond physics and science as we know
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it to be."
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"There is now an extraordinary amount of data leaning heavily in the direction
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of some form of intelligence," says Andrews. I'm not saying extraterrestrial
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intelligence. But I don't rule out extraterrestrial intelligence." The
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evidence for this equivocal comment is what Andrews calls the "precise
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placement" of the circles. They never haphazardly lap over the edge of a
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field, he points out, though some circles stretch hundreds of feet in
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diameter. Instead, they array themselves to within a fraction of an inch of
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roadways or hillsides as though they'd been placed there by an unseen hand.
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Andrews tried to get the drop on the circle makers last July and August with
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his Operation Blackbird--a surveillance effort he set up on the Salisbury
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Plain, in the heart of circle country. His scientific equipment consisted of
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thermal imaging cameras, infrared and low-light cameras, and tape recorders.
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Andrews himself was home in bed when the excitement unfolded in the form of
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flashing lights on one of the monitors, but a telephone call quickly summoned
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him to the site at 4:00 am.
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At sunrise the observers could see circles alright, in the fields where the
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lights had been, but they turned out to be the handiwork of hoaxers. The
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thermal imaging cameras had picked up the body heat of the pranksters.
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"our location had been known," Andrews notes ruefully. (This is hardly
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surprising, because the British press grants ample coverage to Colin Andrew's
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ideas and activities.)
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Shortly after the grounding of Operation Blackbird, Andrews notes, British
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Army researchers got film footage of an orange light in the sky moving slowly
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to the east, dipping down to ground level, and then picking up speed before
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disappearing behind a dense forest. On the morrow, several circles appeared
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in the path of the orange light. The film may air in a BBC special.
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Other investigators disagree with Andrews and Delgado. Terence Meaden, an
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atmospheric physicist and founder of the Tornado and Storm Research
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Organization (TORRO) as well as the Circles Effect Research Group (CERES)
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says, "Their belief in a paranormal presence not only attracts hoaxers but
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makes it very hard for me to convince the scientists of the world that these
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circles merit serious study." Meaden first laid eyes on two corn circles some
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five miles from his Wiltshire home in August of 1980. He immediately fired
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off a short scientific paper explaining them in meteorological terms and has
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been refining his theory ever since: the circles are caused by whirlwinds,
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Meaden believes, that break down, hit the ground, and weave the crops into the
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tangled patterns of their spiraling winds.
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Electrical forces are also involved, Meaden adds. As the vortex sucks in air,
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it strips electrons off the molecules, turning them into ions that glow in the
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dark. Airborne particles of pollen, dust and sea salt hovering over the
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fields accelerate the buildup of electric charge inside the whirlwind, making
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it hum and shimmer with orange, yellow or red light. From a distance, the
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bulge in the whirlwind may look like ball lightning, and it's noise may sound
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similar to humming, buzzing, or even a siren's wail.
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Numerous other researchers embrace Meaden's theory, including Jenny Randles
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and Paul Fuller of the British UFO Research Association, who are the authors
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of "Controversy of the Circles" and, more recently, "Crop Circles: A Mystery
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Solved". Fuller is also the editor and publisher of a new scientific journal
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called "The Crop Watcher", which keep a weather eye on the circles phenomenon
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and takes a staunchly meteorological stand.
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As far as Fuller and Randles are concerned, Meaden's theory also accounts for
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a good number of UFOs sighted in Wiltshire. This is because the strong
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electrical effects that are thought to charge the circle-making whirlwinds can
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set compass needles spinning, stall cars, stop watches, cause power failures,
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and fill the air with cracking, buzzing noises.
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These kinds of events are also the stuff of UFO reports. Indeed, Randles
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points out, circles appear at sites of reported close encounters. But in
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reality, it is the circle phenomenon that produces the illusion of the alien
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spacecraft, Randles maintains, not some extraterrestrial beings whirling their
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messages over the ground.
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"We now have twenty-four eyewitnesses who all report an atmospheric vortex--
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similar to a tornado or whirlwind," Randles says. This is an astounding
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number of firsthand accounts, given that 90 to 95 percent of crop circles are
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thought to be formed between three and five o'clock in the morning. (Other
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more mystically oriented crop watchers holding vigils in the cornfields have
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observed no such vortex but instead reported hundreds of "black rod-like
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things, or thongs," according to one account, "that jumped up and down above
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the top of the crop."
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As for the fact that the circles seem to be increasing in quantity and
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complexity, Randles offers a number of down-to-earth possibilities that could
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affect circle-making conditions, from pesticide spraying to the removal of
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hedgerows, to chlorofluorocarbon buildup in the atmosphere, to the depletion
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of the ozone layer.
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"We've been called the greatest party poopers in history," says Randles, who
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finds the geometric regularity of the circles no more astounding then the
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complex formations to be seen among snowflakes. "People would rather come up
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with the daffiest solutions possible."
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Some of the sober solutions were aired publicly last June 23, when Meaden
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chaired the First International Conference of the Circles Effect, which drew
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scientists from as far away as Japan and the United States to a one-day parley
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at Oxford University. Animated exchanges between the presenters and the
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audience, which included Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado, were the order of the
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day. At the end, Meaden told the gathering that decades more research might
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be required to pin down all the details of the full answer.
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"Just listening to these people was such fun," commented American attendee
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John T. Snow, professor of atmospheric science at Purdue University. "There
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was lots of discussion, but very little real study reported." Most of the
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"crop circle studies," he said, entailed visiting the sites and speculating on
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the sights there. Snow's own conjecture is in line with meaden's--that most
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of the circles are the artifacts of whirlwinds. Snow thinks many of the more
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elaborate patterns in the cornfields are hoaxes, perpetrated to keep news
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media interest in the crop circles alive. Says Snow, "There's probably an
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interesting meteorological phenomenon behind them that should be studied, but
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it's tough to do serious science in such an atmosphere of sensationalism."
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Christopher Church, an expert in tornado-like flows at Miami University in
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Oxford, Ohio, also attended the circles conference and also goes along with
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the vortex idea--up to a point. "I think the very bizarre features, such as
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the rectangular patterns and arcs that look like photographs or sand
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paintings," Church says, "can't be explained by natural causes. You could
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call it hoaxing, or you could call it an artistic challenge."
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Church is sufficiently challenged by the problem to do some laboratory
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testing. He plans to construct a model of two to three square miles of the
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surface of the Hampshire countryside, where many circles appear. His tabletop
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model will miniaturize the area's horseshoe-shaped depression surrounded by
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hills. Then he'll put the model in a whirlwind tunnel, blow smoke at it from
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half a dozen directions, and see whether vortices appear. The key question,
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he says, is not whether vortices could create the circles in the corn, but
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whether they actually form as frequently as the vortex model suggests.
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The vortex theory, however, is not the only scientific explanation. Eying the
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circles from across the English Channel, optical engineer Jean-Jacques Velasco
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of the CNES (The French counterpart to NASA) declares that "no known
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meteorological phenomenon will produce rings on the ground, much less double
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rings, without touching the vegetation in the middle of the rings." Instead,
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he suggests, the circles may be the result of military tests of advanced star-
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wars weaponry.
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Indeed, when Velasco observed vegetation from crop circles under a microscope,
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he found that bent stalks plucked from crop circles looked as though they had
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been twisted and subjected to some form of heating.
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The heat source, he speculated, could be an infrared or microwave beam of high
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intensity. Such a beam could be produced by the powerful lasers used in
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experimental defensive weapons under development in the United States, the
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Soviet Union, and possibly the United Kingdom as well. The proliferating
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patterns in the cornfields, by this argument are the fallout from testing a
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new defense strategy. Although Valesco's ideas are roundly rejected by
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British and American researchers, Valesco will be testing the idea in his
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laboratory on a small scale, by conducting experimental test shooting of
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plants with microwave and infrared guns.
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Other theories range from the mischievous (tracks left by helicopters flying
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upside down) to the mysterious (warnings of ecological disaster chiseled in
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the corn in ancient Sumerian script). Some modern observers cling to the
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notion that the circles are the work of fairies or nature spirits.
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"I've been studying these circles for five years now," notes Archie Roy,
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honorary senior fellow in physics and astronomy at the University of Glasgow,
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a researcher well-known for his interest in the paranormal, "and I don't
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believe we have any real idea of what they are or what causes them."
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Roy is president of the newly formed Centre for Crop Circle Studies, which is
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charged with building up a national computer database of relevant facts about
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all the crop circles they inhabit, their size, and the meteorological
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conditions in the areas where they form. One of the center's first official
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acts was to meet with the National Farmers Union and draw up a "Code of
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Practice" for researchers wishing to inspect circles on private land.
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(Investigators are expected, for example, to ask farmer's permission before
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entering the fields, to keep the gates closed, and to refrain from littering.)
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The first issue of the Centre's fledgling journal of crop circle studies,
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called "The Cereologist", appeared late last summer and ran true to its
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editorial policy of standing "receptive to the news, views, and theories of
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any group or individual who is engaged in these studies, subject only to their
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courteous expression." Beyond the usual suspects (atmospheric effects,
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fairies, extraterrestrial, hoaxers), the journal gave reports from dowsers,
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channelers, and mystics.
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Novelist Patrick Harpur, a student of alchemy, offered this view of the crop
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circles; "They are like dreams," he said, "To interrogate them is to force
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them to lie, to interpret them is to diminish their richness; to explain them
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is to misunderstand them...Crop circles are like mouths that speak to us of
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the strangeness and depth of things--speak to the heart more than the head and
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to the soul more than the heart."
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=END=
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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