From: rutkows@ccu.umanitoba.ca (Chris Rutkowski)
Subject: Re: Crop circles: natural or human-made?
Keywords: skeptic
Organization: University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 14:51:07 GMT

In <Bt758M.2J6@mtholyoke.edu> jbotz@mtholyoke.edu (Jurgen Botz) writes:
>my interest.  They made some pretty strong arguments that it was
>rather unlikely that the crop-circles were made by humans... for one
>they said that the recent frequency of appearance alone would make it
>difficult unless there were "a whole army of crop-circle makers out
>there" (loose quote).  Then there are the slight burns on the affected
>plants which would point to a source of energy that would be difficult
>to use in such a controlled fashion by human technology, and the
>alleged discovery of genetic alterations in the wheat germs.

>As this is my first post to this group, I'd like to add that I'm very
>much a skeptic, _especially_ when it comes to UFO stories which I've
>always dismissed, but I'm curious about this crop-circle phenomenon
>now.  The TV show mentioned above was your standard sensationalist
>TV-tabloid fare, but I'd be very interested in the opinions of some
>hardened skeptics in this newsgroup...

OK.  Unlike the vast majority of armchair debunkers on this group, Two
researchers and I went to investigate the most recent crop circles in
North America, near Strathclair, Manitoba.  They were found on
Saturday, August 15th, and immediately attracted crowds.  We heard
about them on August 17th, by which time hundreds of people had
trampled the sites, eradicating all fine evidence that might have been
present.  It was a four-hour drive one-way, but we wanted to see what
the fuss was about and gather some scientific data on their appearance.

Five formations were found, each in different fields.  Three were in
the shape of the symbol for Mars: a circle with an arrow.  Thre average
diameter of the circles was about 25 feet, and a few were elliptical
rather than circular.  (I want to write up the exact specs and details
later, but this is just a general overview.)

At one site, we tried to duplicate a circle by just walking around and
around.  After five minutes, we had a "sister" circle that looked
fairly good.  We figured that it would have been probably possible to
make a duplicate formation under a full Moon with basic tools in about
half an hour.  The wheat was in fairly straight, defined rows, and we
could walk in easily without leaving trails.

As for the "bending", not "breaking" aspect of the wheat's appearance
in "real" circles, we closely examined the wheat we had trampled, and
found that it was bend over only at the base, without any other
evidence of trampling.  Other effects such as "seed pore enlargement"
and "growth enhancement"?  I doubt that the cerealogists' tests were
accurate.  At the very least, we know they were not double-blind tests.

And someone wrote a letter to New Scientist detailing how a Mandelbrot
shape might be made with a rope and two friends.  I'll look for the
reference.


-- 
Chris Rutkowski - rutkows@ccu.umanitoba.ca
Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
University of Manitoba - Winnipeg, Canada
Newsgroups: sci.skeptic