By Benjamin Radford via LiveScience
When a four-part crop circle pattern roughly resembling a Mickey Mouse head appeared last week in a wheat field outside of Seattle, Wash., farmers Greg and Cindy Geib were surprised — but not shocked.
After all, it was not the first crop circle in the area; several others had appeared in previous years, mostly chalked up to mischievous youth. The pattern was noticed by a neighbor driving on a nearby highway who soon called the Geibs on July 24 and told them they’d been punk’d. The mysterious circle had apparently been made overnight, with no obvious signs of hoaxing.
People are always surprised by crop circles (especially when it happens to them), but in fact they’re not as rare as often assumed: According to an article by Richard Taylor published in “Physics World” (August 2011), “these patterns appear around the world at a rate of one every evening,” making them literally an everyday event.
Many hundreds of crop circles have appeared over the years, usually in hotspots like Great Britain, and according to Taylor their designs are getting ever more complex as a result of the technology available to crop-circle artists.
Theories & explanations
Crop-circle enthusiasts have come up with many theories about what creates the patterns, ranging from the plausible to the patently absurd. One explanation in vogue in the early 1980s was that the circles were …
… continue reading: Washington Crop Circle Surprising, But Typical | LiveScience.
Related articles
- Crop circles appear in wheat field near Wilbur (nwcn.com)
- Crop Circles Appear in Wilbur, Washington Wheat Field (sott.net)
- “How Crop Circles Work” (illuminutti.com)
- Crop Circles Appear In Washington (personalliberty.com)
And yet… there a still lots of people who believe these things are made by aliens. In fact, from what I’ve seen, people who do believe crop circles are made by aliens can be very… volatile about it.
Clearly your ellipsis before ‘volatile’ denotes a certain level of understatement.
If you haven’t already done so, read some of the comments from BLT members on any crop-circle debunking article/issue. This lot cling to their crop-circle beliefs like barnacles, and are similarly rough and thorny.
https://thrivedebunked.wordpress.com/2011/11/19/crop-circles-debunked/#comments
I’ve read it and the comments in the comments section. The believers are brutal and insane… and that might be an understatement.