IPB

Welcome Guest ( Log In | Register )

2 Pages V   1 2 >  
Reply to this topicStart new topic
Have You Ever Been Responsible For A Hoax?
paxdan
post Aug 16 2005, 08:56 AM
Post #1


Member
***

Group: Members
Posts: 562
Joined: 29-March 05
Member No.: 221



I've moved my response from the Deep Impact thread....

QUOTE (Richard Trigaux @ Aug 16 2005, 07:57 AM)
Personnally I am not closed to such matters as UFOs, crop circles and the like
*


I once flew a very large delta kite at night with a glow stick attached, that one made it into the local newspaper. I've also had a crop circle i made reported at the back of the Fortean times. I have a pan of that i took with my 35mm camera which was one of the first pans i ever assembled.

Thats two, has anyone else ever been responsible for lights in the sky or strange phenomenon?
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Bob Shaw
post Aug 16 2005, 02:54 PM
Post #2


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2488
Joined: 17-April 05
From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Member No.: 239



I will confess: I have been known to fly a nifty little r/c electric flying saucer of an evening, preferably where the innocent may see it. A friend of mine once flew a much more substantial Cox glo-plug i/c powered saucer, which he promptly lost (it was entirely uncontrolled!). He foolishly (he said) went to the local police station in the hope of registering it as lost property, but they wouldn't believe him.

And a number of years ago some friends of mine discovered the joys of a redundant can of balloon gas and some large bin-liners...

Hehe.


--------------------
Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Bob Shaw
post Aug 16 2005, 02:55 PM
Post #3


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2488
Joined: 17-April 05
From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Member No.: 239



QUOTE (paxdan @ Aug 16 2005, 09:56 AM)
I've also had a crop circle i made reported at the back of the Fortean times. I have a pan of that i took with my 35mm camera which was one of the first pans i ever assembled.
*


Paxdan:

More details, please!

Hehe.

Bob Shaw


--------------------
Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
paxdan
post Aug 16 2005, 05:41 PM
Post #4


Member
***

Group: Members
Posts: 562
Joined: 29-March 05
Member No.: 221



QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Aug 16 2005, 03:55 PM)
Paxdan:
More details, please!
Hehe.
Bob Shaw
*

the crop cicles are ridiculously easy:

Me and a friend did them during the summers of 96 and 97. We used to go scouting for good sites during the day, then sneak out on our bikes at night when there was no moon and make them under the cover of darkness.

Equiptment: black clothing, a plank a bit over a meter in length, an inch thick by 6 inches wide, some rope and a metal spike (we used a crowbar).

Method: Make three holes in the plank, two of which are used for a loop of rope that you hold the plank with, the other hole links the rope to the spike in the middle of the circle. Then you simply walk around in circles flattening the crop by pressing down with your foot on the plank each step, lengthening the rope by the witdth of the plank after each rotation. We always went round the edge of the circle tidying up the margin ensuring that it was sharp and that there are were no half flattened stems, finally remove the crow bar and regrade the hole in the middle et voila.

The amazing thing was the speed with which it was possible to do them. Get to field, walk along the tyre tracks till you get to nice location drop the board walk along it drive in crowbar and do first circle spinning board around the spike, attach rope then go round in circles till you reach the desired size. clean up and leave. We never spent more than 45 mins in a field. They never got very complicated either, the most we did in one field was 3 circles in a equilateral triangle and never anything other than simple circles.

It was apparent that the technique would have scaled up and with a bit of planning it would have been easy to make all the complicated patterns that appear. In fact when the guys who were doing the bulk of the UK ones fessed up, it turned out they used the exact same method. Attached is a very very crude sketch showing the mysterious crop-circle forming force in action.

The panorama I took is a glue and scissors job from (i think) 1996, i don't have it with me at the moment but should be able to lay my hands on it and scan it for sometime next week.
Attached thumbnail(s)
Attached Image
 
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Guest_Myran_*
post Aug 16 2005, 06:50 PM
Post #5





Guests






No I havnt started a hoax in the true word of the sense, but once it was a close call I ended up filing something that could have been seen as a UFO observation. Many years back, in the late 1960's perhaps early 1970's I followed one object with a very strange movement in the sky. In the last moment and after discussing my observations with a friend living nearby we came to the conclusion that it was a Soviet military communications satellite in molniya orbit that I had been tracking. rolleyes.gif
What started my head spinning was the fact that the object appeared to change direction, and so wasnt any ordinary satellite, but from the surface that is moving molinya satellites can appear to do the 'impossible'. cool.gif
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
paxdan
post Aug 24 2005, 04:09 PM
Post #6


Member
***

Group: Members
Posts: 562
Joined: 29-March 05
Member No.: 221



OK here is a photo of the crop circle my friend and i made back in 1996. I coudn't be fussed to scan it so here is a digital photo of the assembled 6x4 prints. The whole thing is mounted on a sheet of thick paper.

Yup thats me, i took the pan with my friend standing where i was then asked him to snap the centre shot of me from the same spot.

shortly after this was taken i fell out of the big tree in the left-most frame whilst trying to take an overhead view, right on my back into a bramble filled ditch from the lowest horizontal branch on the left hand side.
laugh.gif

[attachment=1270:attachment]
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
ljk4-1
post Aug 24 2005, 04:30 PM
Post #7


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2454
Joined: 8-July 05
From: NGC 5907
Member No.: 430



Did you know that Sir Isaac Newton used to fly kites with lanterns at night in his younger days, then visit the local pubs to listen to the farmers and other peasants get all excited and scared about the ominous "comets" they saw in the sky the night before?

So hoaxing is obviously a long tradition with Newton as part of its heratige!

About ten years ago, my parents were witness to an object in the sky that looked like a glowing wagon wheel. Turned out to be a lit balloon hoax.

When I was in the Boy Scouts, one night we had just left our meeting at dusk and saw a large white ball with a smaller red light in its center sailing overhead without a sound. Turned out to be a weather balloon with a red light hanging below, the balloon itself being lit by the Sun which was still visible at its altitude. But I tell you, for a few moments there, it was not something easily explained, and anyone who said it did not look or sound like an airplane would have been correct.

Question is: Are hoaxes hurting the cause of science to find the real answers to these phenomenon? Most people in the general public are inclined to buy into the UFO as alien spaceships scenario. After all, it's a lot more exciting and fun to think that strange object in the sky is a visitor from another world rather than the possibility that some kid with too much time on his hands just fooled you.

People want mystery in their lives. Science keeps taking that away, in their view. I don't agree with that view, as I think science keeps finding things even more amazing than our limited imaginations can produce all the time. But I seem to be in a minority camp here. Thus I ask, do hoaxes hurt beyond just being a joke played on a gullible public?


--------------------
"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
ljk4-1
post Aug 24 2005, 06:03 PM
Post #8


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2454
Joined: 8-July 05
From: NGC 5907
Member No.: 430



Crop Circles in Kansas imaged from space!

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/...p3?img_id=17006


Speaking of hoaxes, I was visiting Roswell, NM once in the summer of 1947...


--------------------
"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Palomar
post Aug 26 2005, 02:20 PM
Post #9


Junior Member
**

Group: Members
Posts: 48
Joined: 11-August 05
Member No.: 463



QUOTE
Method: Make three holes in the plank, two of which are used for a loop of rope that you hold the plank with, the other hole links the rope to the spike in the middle of the circle. Then you simply walk around in circles flattening the crop by pressing down with your foot on the plank each step, lengthening the rope by the witdth of the plank after each rotation. We always went round the edge of the circle tidying up the margin ensuring that it was sharp and that there are were no half flattened stems, finally remove the crow bar and regrade the hole in the middle et voila.


*Are you referring to simply making a circle? I've seen some rather elaborate "crop circles" which seems it'd take quite a bit of preplanning and a good sense of direction to maintain rigid uniformity of the complex shape made.

And no, I don't believe in UFOs. smile.gif Just wondering how anyone manages to make intricate, symmetrical, elaborate designs ... at night and with a humble method, no less.

--C
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
ljk4-1
post Aug 26 2005, 02:37 PM
Post #10


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2454
Joined: 8-July 05
From: NGC 5907
Member No.: 430



QUOTE (Palomar @ Aug 26 2005, 09:20 AM)
And no, I don't believe in UFOs.  smile.gif  Just wondering how anyone manages to make intricate, symmetrical, elaborate designs ... at night and with a humble method, no less.

--C
*


UFOs and aliens are NOT a belief system. Whatever they may be, there ARE objects of unknown identity seen in the sky all the time - what you THINK they are is another matter.

And as for alien life in general, while we have not found it yet, there is a scientific basis for its existence.

It just drives me crazy when people say they do or do not "believe" in UFOs and aliens. It's not a religion or an article of faith, except for those who wear sweatsuits and Nikes.


--------------------
"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Palomar
post Aug 26 2005, 03:40 PM
Post #11


Junior Member
**

Group: Members
Posts: 48
Joined: 11-August 05
Member No.: 463



QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Aug 26 2005, 02:37 PM)
UFOs and aliens are NOT a belief system.  Whatever they may be, there ARE objects of unknown identity seen in the sky all the time - what you THINK they are is another matter.

And as for alien life in general, while we have not found it yet, there is a scientific basis for its existence. 

It just drives me crazy when people say they do or do not "believe" in UFOs and aliens.  It's not a religion or an article of faith, except for those who wear sweatsuits and Nikes.
*


*Let's back up, shall we?

1. I didn't say anything about aliens. Of course there is likely intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

2. If I say "I believe in UFOs," people will automatically associate me with loons who wear sweatsuits and Nikes.

Are you always this friendly and welcoming of newcomers? No one likes being talked down to. And please don't presume to know me.

--C
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
ljk4-1
post Aug 26 2005, 03:44 PM
Post #12


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2454
Joined: 8-July 05
From: NGC 5907
Member No.: 430



QUOTE (Palomar @ Aug 26 2005, 10:40 AM)
*Let's back up, shall we? 

1.  I didn't say anything about aliens.  Of course there is likely intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. 

2.  If I say "I believe in UFOs," people will automatically associate me with loons who wear sweatsuits and Nikes.

Are you always this friendly and welcoming of newcomers?  No one likes being talked down to.  And please don't presume to know me.

--C
*


I wasn't making a comment on you or trying to be rude. I was commenting on how folks use the word believe when they talk about UFOs and aliens. No offense was intended.


--------------------
"After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance.
I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard,
and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does
not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is
indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have
no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft."

- Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Palomar
post Aug 26 2005, 07:21 PM
Post #13


Junior Member
**

Group: Members
Posts: 48
Joined: 11-August 05
Member No.: 463



QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Aug 26 2005, 03:44 PM)
I wasn't making a comment on you or trying to be rude.  I was commenting on how folks use the word believe when they talk about UFOs and aliens.  No offense was intended.
*


*I'm sorry if I misunderstood.
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Bob Shaw
post Aug 26 2005, 11:13 PM
Post #14


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2488
Joined: 17-April 05
From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Member No.: 239



QUOTE (Palomar @ Aug 26 2005, 03:20 PM)
Just wondering how anyone manages to make intricate, symmetrical, elaborate designs ... at night and with a humble method, no less.

--C
*



Palomar:

Practice makes perfect!

Bob Shaw


--------------------
Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post
Bob Shaw
post Aug 26 2005, 11:17 PM
Post #15


Senior Member
****

Group: Members
Posts: 2488
Joined: 17-April 05
From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Member No.: 239



Paxdan:

Your mission, should you wish to accept it:

Go out into the wilds of Wiltshire (or anywhere else suitable) and replicate the logo of Unmanned Spaceflight.com. It's got curves, straight lines, and the rest, and is far from complex.

Perhaps Doug will assist...

(grin)

Bob Shaw


--------------------
Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
Go to the top of the page
 
+Quote Post

2 Pages V   1 2 >
Reply to this topicStart new topic

 



RSS Lo-Fi Version Time is now: 29th March 2024 - 08:07 AM
RULES AND GUIDELINES
Please read the Forum Rules and Guidelines before posting.

IMAGE COPYRIGHT
Images posted on UnmannedSpaceflight.com may be copyrighted. Do not reproduce without permission. Read here for further information on space images and copyright.

OPINIONS AND MODERATION
Opinions expressed on UnmannedSpaceflight.com are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of UnmannedSpaceflight.com or The Planetary Society. The all-volunteer UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderation team is wholly independent of The Planetary Society. The Planetary Society has no influence over decisions made by the UnmannedSpaceflight.com moderators.
SUPPORT THE FORUM
Unmannedspaceflight.com is funded by the Planetary Society. Please consider supporting our work and many other projects by donating to the Society or becoming a member.