Mysterious Suburban Chicago Crop Circles

NBC 5 Chicago ^ | 7/26/02 | NBC 5 Chicago

[Dengar01]

Timing Suspicious On Mysterious Suburban Crop Circles
Could Eerie Mystery Have To Do With Movie Release?

Is it a case of mysterious crop circles -- or an elaborate movie hoax?

A soybean farmer in Naperville said the broken, concentric rings that appeared in a field off Diehl Road left him scratching his head.

"Have you ever heard of something so crazy?" Steve Berning said. "Unbelievable."

Berning said the circles appeared last weekend and damaged more than 10 percent of his 8-acre field.

The circles do resemble similar ones seen in England, but in this case, the timing of their appearance in the western suburb is a bit suspicious.

Two weeks from now, "Signs" hits the big screen. The movie starring Mel Gibson involves -- you guessed it -- mysterious crop circles.

William Leone, an investigator with the Mutual UFO Network, said soil analysis could determine whether the circles have human or extraterrestrial origins.

But Illinois Farm Bureau spokesman Dennis Vercler scoffed at that idea.

"Since I don't believe in UFOs -- at least not soybean-destroying UFOs -- I have to assume whoever did this did it intentionally as a malicious prank," Vercler said.

Meanwhile, Berning doesn't seem overly upset about the circles.

"There's some damage, which upsets me," Berning said. "But I'm more curious than anything. I"ll always be asking questions."

[rwfromkansas]

I don't have a clue what the heck all the numbers crap on that post is about, but Tesla invented a machine that could shake buildings like an earthquake.

[rwfromkansas]

I didn't know they had wheat fields in the middle of NYC.

[rwfromkansas]

So......what about the instances where crop circles were seen forming in less than a minute?????

[InvisibleChurch]

NYC has everything.

[general_re]

I'd bet that any IR "anomaly" could be introduced just by the change in albedo. And as for EM variations...well, the flux density of the earth's magnetic field isn't uniform to begin with, capisce? ;)

[rwfromkansas]

There was a story on 48 Hours last week that showed the expedition one man went to searching for the "monster." In any case, he came up dry except for finding a carcass of something that looked like it on the bottom of the loch (this was all found with the news crew watching). However, when he went back to find it again, he didn't.

Anyway, he showed a photo from several years ago (he has an underwater camera in the Loch) where for one frame, something that looked like Nessie appeared and then disappeared. Is he a fraud? Nobody has claimed he is.

[William Terrell]

My honest opinion is it's a hoax.

You've seen some of these crop circles. How would you transfer it from your diagram to the actual ground? How long would it take you and how many people, and how much noise would you make? How would you and your crew get to the site without tramping down paths or leaving footprints? Some of the circles appear overnight.

In that one night you and your crew would have to lay out the huge template with precise accuracy, then cut it without noisy machinery. And then, the biggest question of all knowing the egos of human beings, why has has no one claimed responsibility for the most balanced, precise and beautiful of the circles?

Unless somebody can answer every one of these questions reasonably, I don't think anyone can honestly just shrug it off as a hoax.

[rwfromkansas]

I don't claim they were created by aliens.....they could be created by some force of nature we have not fully understood currently.

My analogy is not lame. You are basing your judgment of the entire crop circle phenomenon on that one hoaxer. You would be jumping like a madman if somebody did that on an evolution thread. But to you, hypocrisy is a middle name apparently when it comes to what is possible and what is not.

[RedWing9]

FYI - There is a show on TLC tomorrow night about Crop Circles...

[discostu]

Really all that numbers crap doesn't mean much. Mostly they're building a substitute religion off of a series of coincidences (many of which are pretty forced, like how the Fibonacci sting "relates" to Phi). Then they gave it a cool name and insist that "understanding" of it is a sign of an advanced society (even though human civiliation moved past it's fascination with "sacred geometry" before the birth of Christ) and would therefore be the "perfect" way for an alien civilization to communicate with us (as opposed to hacking into the Superbowl feed and just saying "hi" or something indisputable like that).

As you watch these things you'll notice certain very important assumption on the part of the UFOnauts:
1 - human society has apparently progressed backwards; all of the important clues for "communicating" with our "alien friends" is stuff from Ancient Egypt and similar societies. Apparently all these buildings and cars and CDs and books and the internet are all signs of a great leap backwards.
2 - humans are shmucks. You'll notice that a lot of the arguement for which circles are "hoaxes" and which ones are "authentic" revolve around complexity and symetry. Apparently humans are incapable of making complex geometric patterns that are symetrical, which mean of course that the aliens are painting the football fields of America. We won't even get into how in the world we managed to build skyscrapers, clearly it's all a lie.
3 - all those who doubt are fools. Anyone that thinks any of this is at all strange, silly, or downright unbelievable simply REFUSES TO UNDERSTAND. The aliens are trying to help us. Apparently we eat too much grain.

[InvisibleChurch]

how come they never make squares?

[discostu]

Nobody has actually "seen" crop circles form in minutes. The best we've had is somebody fly over an area once and not notice anything, then fly over a bit later and notice. There are so many logical explanations for that I'd burn out my keyboard trying to list them. Suffice it to ask: have you ever been going down a familiar street (especially as a passenger on a street where you're normally the driver) seen some building you've never seen before asked "when did that go up" and received the answer (hopefully from somebody else in the car) "it's been there for years"? That "phenomenon" goes a long way to explaining how these "instant crop circles" can occur.

[rwfromkansas]

Why do you assume I think aliens had to make teh circles?

[FormerLurker]

Allow me to point out that you have yet to provide any evidence that *ANY* crop circles were made by other than human means.

1. Neither you or anyone else has demonstrated a crop circle formation made by "hoaxsters" that can duplicate the precision, symmetry, and geometric correctness of an authentic formation.
2. I HAVE provided indirect evidence by proving that any formation made by HUMANS is less than perfect.

Since you ask for evidence, why don't you take a peek at the link below..

Crop Circle Forming

Given the three groups advertising their efforts making them in just the UK, I see no reason to suppose little green men did any of them.

Given that NONE of the groups can make the REAL formations, I see no reason to suppose that they did ANY of those which are considered AUTHENTIC. I wouldn't necessarily say that "little green men" made them though either. They don't have to be green, little, or even men. Additionally, that which is responsible for the formations need not be from another place, but might instead be from another TIME.

Gosh, shall I take three whole seconds to speculate as to how I could accomplish that little trick while you still postulate that little green men did it?

Why don't you enlighten all of us as to how YOU would do it balrog? I'd really like to hear your "idea"...

See above. I can do it without little green men. So can any artist who wants to.

Again, explain exactly HOW YOU would do it...

I also haven't analyzed any fairy rings, pyramids, sightings of Atlantis, or lost unicorns.

And I bet you haven't personally examined the molecular structure of DNA, but you do know that it's a double helix molecule, right? Or do you think that scientists simply hoaxed that?

Well, get your head out of the gutter then.

I just wanted to make sure that you got it STRAIGHT, as you had been on an "anal probe" kick for awhile...

[balrog666]

There was a story on 48 Hours last week that showed the expedition one man went to searching for the "monster." In any case, he came up dry except for finding a carcass of something that looked like it on the bottom of the loch (this was all found with the news crew watching). However, when he went back to find it again, he didn't.

Um, you mean ... "he came up dry except for reporting finding a carcass". Which no one else saw? And am I to take it that he dove alone to the 200m+ depths of Loch Ness?? Oh, and where was his camera on this trip to the bottom?

Anyway, he showed a photo from several years ago (he has an underwater camera in the Loch) where for one frame, something that looked like Nessie appeared and then disappeared. Is he a fraud? Nobody has claimed he is.

You lost me. What exactly is he claiming that we can call him fraudulent about?

[FormerLurker]

An interesting video link that you might be interested in..

Crop Circle Forming

[discostu]

I'm not. I'm assuming PEOPLE made the circles. Most of the circle fanatics think aliens made them, hence the heavy love for "sacred geometry" as a "method of communication". I've seen a crew of 25 people change a baseball park into a football stadium (including getting rid of the old paint and the mound, and putting in the new paint and moving a bunch of seat, and a whole unch of other stuff) in 45 minutes. I saw the roadies at an Almann Brothers concert (about 15 people) take down the entire stage in 20 minutes. I have no doubt what-so-ever that if you got enough people and they knew what they were doing they could do any of the crop circles I've seen overnight.

[rwfromkansas]

Actually, the carcass was shown on tv. It may not be a carcass though....I am open to it being a faked body or something and that explains why he convienently couldn't find it again when he wanted to bring it up!

However, nobody has claimed he is somebody not to be trusted and that he has committed fraud in the past, so I have no reason to doubt him.

[FormerLurker]

But to you, hypocrisy is a middle name apparently when it comes to what is possible and what is not.

It's quite amusing to see the RELIGIOUS FERVOR that some people have displayed here in attacking this subject..

[rwfromkansas]

As for the picture, it appears to show a Nessie swimming in front of the camera underwater. Nobody has stepped up to say the picture is a blow-up dinosaur or something.