SECRETS OF THE INNER CIRCLE :

Crop Circle Confession : How to get the wheat down in the dead of night (Matt Ridley, July 15, 2002, Scientific American)

I made my first crop circle in 1991. My motive was to prove how easy they were to create, because I was convinced that all crop circles were man-made. It was the only explanation nobody seemed interested in testing. Late one August night, with one accomplice--my brother-in-law from Texas--I stepped into a field of nearly ripe wheat in northern England, anchored a rope into the ground with a spike and began walking in a circle with the rope held near the ground. It did not work very well: the rope rode up over the plants. But with a bit of help from our feet to hold down the rope, we soon had a respectable circle of flattened wheat.

Two days later there was an excited call to the authorities from the local farmer: I had fooled my first victim.

You know, if crop circles really are all part of some extraterrestrial plot to take over Earth, shouldn't we expect them to plant stories like this one, just the way they pretend that there are both an Eric and a Julia Roberts? Posted by Orrin Judd at July 18, 2002 9:24 AM