Have You Ever Been Responsible For A Hoax? Options

[paxdan]

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

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?

[Bob Shaw]

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

[paxdan]

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)

 

[Bob Shaw]

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

[helvick]

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.

Hey - the UMSF logo should be no problem - my ultra dilute viking heritage is tickled pink by this astounding "crop circle"
Vegvisir - probably made by some mad Bjork fans