Video: Crop Circles of Google Earth
Damn Data spotted this interesting video tour through Google Earth of crop circles, those complex patterns in fields created by extraterrestrials, artists, pranksters, natural phenomena, or all of the above. Link
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I love crop circles because they are beautiful. They're a weird combination of 1970s earth art with 90s sci-fi pranksterism, with a big dose of ancient geometric art principles thrown in for good measure.
I'm always amazed at how many people believe humans could not possibly create such perfect art. It's a testament to the genius of the artists -- and their willingness to work in the shadows!
See:
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1434&category=Environment
Hmmm... I wonder why aliens almost only choose the UK for their messages. Do they believe that's the only place on Earth with intelligent life?
#3: Anti-evolutionists are always very good at remembering that randomness is part of evolution and always miserable failures at remembering selection. **Natural Selection!!!** Why must people insist on trying to debunk a science they don't understand?
I was told it's swamp gas.
If these are "pranksters", I am still waiting for an explanation on this one...""No one could have anticipated that on one of the wildest and wettest nights of the year, an absolutely stunning 6-armed galaxy of 409 circles would appear! Proclaimed by the world's media as the greatest crop circle event ever, it was discovered occupying the Milk Hill plateau on the 13th August. Covering an area of approximately half a million square feet, people were astounded by its perfectly aligned complexity. The sheer size and scale of the formation was beyond belief. Those who discovered this awe inspiring pattern were simply at a loss to explain why they had found the floors of the circles absolutely bone dry, even though it had been bucketing down all night long!
I personally was amazed to find a harvest mouse nest, very much intact and still attached to its stem, lying amongst the downed crop, in one of the circles. Incredibly, stalks had been swept gently around it, without causing any visible damage! ... Such a simple act clearly demonstrates that "The Circlemakers" show a respect for life.""
http://www.untoldmysteries.com/0-oct-2004-jpg-gif/MilkHill-CropCircles-640x360.jpg
nassim haramein on youtube.com provides evidence of our direct communication with extraterrestrial intelligence via crop circles.
if you watch his presentation; crossing the event horizon, you will know that our friends are more patient in their efforts to wake us up than i am with human ignorance of the obvious.
these phenomena are the melding of art and science and it is
beautiful and much more.
let us practice the art of living in peace with justice
let us sweep away the coverings and realize the truth
we are not alone and never have been
This is BoingBoing, someone must have seen a QR code in crop form by now. Or made one.
If circles are easier, then how about ShotCode?
Here's an explanation for that amazing crop circle, Elisianartist: It was made by some very talented and very determined pranksters who wanted to fool gullible individuals such as yourself. Looks like they pulled it off!
The problem with the human created theory is that crop circles aren't actually grass/wheat/plants etc pressed down instead it's really growing at an angle.
@#11:
No, it's not.
Look, I love these things. They are so beautiful. Well, I guess if I were a farmer I'd be furious, and honestly, if I caught anyone doing them, I'd be totally cool with them being charged for damaging property and trespass and all that other good stuff.
But it is so clearly a human pastime. Just look at the recent "pi" one. They have a decimal and an ellipsis, not to mention a base-10 counting system. That screams "human" to me.
It's cool, but you know what? Humans are cool. In fact, I'd go so far as to say humans are fucking bad-ass. We're the coolest thing the universe has ever seen, even with our faults. Why? Because we are the judges of coolness, and by our own metrics, come ON!
Rad.
(who wanted to fool gullible individuals such as yourself. Looks like they pulled it off!) hughelectronic
name calling? maybe i was mistaken in expecting more from boingboing readers then elementary school retorts such as that, or "duh, it's people! just because!" i'm not saying i don't believe it was people, but i've also never seen a plausible explanation for it either. how about positing a reasonable explanation rather then regressing to junior high.
the crop circle schtick is long used up. Time to recreate yourselves, croppers.
Ready?: Competitive Crop Circling!
Darned aliens. I've told them a million times "Use a coaster" but the minute I turn my back on them...
bernierhoades -- It's fairly easy to explain cropcircles because we have the testimony of the hoaxers themselves on how they did it. All you need is string and planks of wood. Press down easy so as not to break the stem and piss off the farmer. Size is just a function of time and manpower.
That people still believe in this BS simply shows the human capacity for self delusion is infinite.
We could have national teams! Farmers would finally be compensated! Organized events would mean the process and the finished art would all be documented and shared!
noen-- peripherally i always thought that explanation was bullshit, but after reading this it sounds plausible enough. but i'm not sure that it can properly explain this video of old snakes discovery, even the general apparently saw it happen!!!
bernierhoades, this is why you get laughed at.
cash prizes to the best art!
get laughed at? is being a internet bully/jackass working out pretty well for you?
now now, uphold our community standards
bernierhoades, are you actually trying to convince me that a video game easter egg is proof aliens have made crop circles?
I'm trying really really hard here to believe that you're just pulling my leg. (That's Takuan's job anyway.)
I prefer to nip the leg off altogether and enjoy at my leisure - but could I request that everyone adopt a more conciliatory and respectful mutual tone? I am not sure everyone feels their dignity is being adequately respected. Please.
noen-- no, i'm not trying to convince you that the easter egg is anything. it was a f&%^ing joke. when i put it on here it was because i had a retort to your original statement regarding the rope/board thing. i was about to post that retort, then thought to myself "hmmm, maybe i should look around a bit and see if what he says has merit." the article i linked to agreed with you, if you read it, it was an interview with someone that makes crop circles. in that article the interviewer was a little skeptical a few guys could do that with a board, the mans explanation was plausible, just like i said. i said you were right. the easter egg i stumbled upon made me chuckle a little bit. i tossed that in, in an attempt to be self deprecating and make light of, when it comes down to it, something that doesn't really matter at all. i thought people may appreciate it. how much more obvious must i be with sarcasm then to use the general in a video game as an eye witness? maybe i should have thrown a little :) in the statement, but i figured the absurdity of it was obvious enough. i apologize for calling you a jerk, but seriously, this is so fucking stupid. jesus christ
It's a joke about cup rings on a tabletop, see. And really big aliens...
and a merrisome jest dispels ill-feeling!
I got it.
If it doesn't have any direct impact on my life, I just pick the most entertaining explanation. I know that reality-based thinking works for a lot of people, and God bless 'em, but I'd rather drink drain cleaner.
For those who thinks the crop circles are made by space aliens, I have one question. You can find pictures of hundreds of crop circles and thousands of aircraft in flight, all on Google Earth. But we have yet to find on Google Earth, a single picture of the spacecraft these aliens came on. I have a few hypothesis ...
1) very small aliens, possibly ant sized, in spaceships the size of a mouse. Naturally, this is too small to show up on Google Earth.
2) very fast aliens, so fast that in the time it takes for our satellites to snap a single frame, the craft moves by so quickly, it appears as a blur, if at all. The aliens themselves are fast, they walk amongst us right now, but we don't see them because they move so fast. In the time I take to type this sentence, entire generations have passed by. To them, we look like trees, hardly to be considered mobile at all.
3) telepresence, when they want to visit New York, they just go to their room, and strap on a control suit, which is link to their avatar right here on earth, already in New York, or nearby. These robot/avatars could be small and/or fast, entirely unrelated to the aliens' real size and speed, which brings us back to (1) and (2) above.
4) All the crop circles were made by human pranksters. There are people who have admitted making crop circles (eg Bower and Chorley, 1992 Ig Nobel Physics Prize winner), and demonstrated how they made them. But it's impossible to prove that none were made by aliens. Yet. But we're getting there. When every inch of England is completely covered by CCTVs, we will know for sure ... :-)
the bloody military has all the evidence you need. Night vision, millimeter radar, satellites, aircraft. They spend their evenings snickering in their bunkers over newspapers with crop circle reports while the CRT on their desk plays back the recordings of determined men with string, boards and bits of wire.
bernierhoades, Takuan, whomever. I don't know why you think I was upset. I wasn't. It was just a question bernierhoades. I asked because I have run into people who fervently believe in cropcircles, the Illuminati, Reptilians or what have you. I couldn't tell if you were being serious or not so I asked, sarcasm does not translate well online. All is fine over here.
then everyone is fine. Good.
Peachy keen. You?
all good, the internet isn't all that good for nuance.
http://www.maakies.com/frames/index.html
hmmph! meant #m414
A crop "circle" is a geometric pattern appearing in fields, usually wheat fields and usually in England. Crop circles are probably due to pranksters. Some believe that the crop designs are messages from alien spacecraft. Some maintain that the aliens are trying to communicate with us using ancient Sumerian symbols or symbolic representations of alien DNA.
Andy,
Your blog link goes on your profile page, please.
Whoops, Antinous, I just now removed his .sig and was about to send him a note.
It's all the aliens' fault.
AndyKKZ, what Antinous said.