NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #3/NN_1993_3.iso/spool/alt/alien/visitors/10057

Text File | 1993-01-21 | 3.1 KB | 64 lines

Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors
Path: sparky!uunet!pipex!doc.ic.ac.uk!mrccrc!mrccrc!sgamble
From: [e-mail] (Steve Gamble x3293)
Subject: Re: Stonehenge Crop Circle
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Sender: [e-mail]
Nntp-Posting-Host: germanium
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Steve Gamble x3293)
Organization: MRC Human Genome Mapping Project Resource Centre, Harrow, UK
References: <[e-mail]> <[e-mail]>
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1993 13:32:39 GMT
Lines: 50

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (Kevin T Stiner) writes:
> Didn't we hear a while back about the guys who supposedly created all
> these things as a joke and then video taped how they did it?  Are crop
> circles still actually believed to be made by aliens (I thought the guys
> had enough proof otherwise)?
>

The two guys you are referring to are Dave Bower and Doug Chorley. Although
originally they seem to have claimed to make all the circles on cross examination
they seem to have actually made maybe not quite 200. There are 3000-4000
reports from the UK alone, without any in other countries.

It should be made clear that all of the circles researchers I have spoken to
have always accepted that at least some of the circles were hoaxes. They have
frequently disagreed about what proportion were hoaxes, and from what is
now coming out, would seem to have underestimated the problem. When I spoke
to researcher Paul Fuller last Saturday he told me that more groups of hoaxers
had come forward and some of them were being very helpful in identifying
which formations they had made. In some cases they identified circles which
researchers had suspected as being hoaxes. In others they identified formations
which researchers had not suspected as being hoaxes. The researchers are
going to have to rethink what they think are genuine or otherwise.

The circles researchers still think there is a small proportion which are a
genuine phenomenon, although as usual they disagree on what proportion and
what the phenomenon is.

The explanations seem to break down into three groups :

    1. All circles are hoaxes
    2. Many (most) circles are hoaxes, but a few are caused by natrural
           phenomena
    3. Many (most) circles are hoaxes, but a few are caused by mysterious
       forces or intelligences. I believe this is what you mean by caused
           by aliens. To give the researchers their due, I am not sure any
           of them have called this aliens, just mysterious intelligences.
           Other people have taken this to mean aliens.

(By researchers, I mean people that go and do field research, not people like
 me who read about it in books)

For what it is worth, in order of probability I think 2, then 1, then (maybe) 3.
Unless there is some other option we have not considered.
Steve

--
(Disclaimer: These are not my employer's opinions, they may not even be mine!)
Steve Gamble, Computing Services, Clinical Research Centre and Human Genome
Mapping Project Resource Centre, Watford Road, Harrow, Middlesex, HA1 3UJ, UK.
Phone: [phone]  JANET: [e-mail] INTERNET: [e-mail]