From Abracadabra to Zombies
crop circles
In a nutshell: Crop circles are circles and other shapes that have been carved out of fields of corn, wheat, and other crops. Some say that aliens are making them. Scientists don't think so.
Crop circles are patterns in fields that appear overnight and which many people say have been 
made by aliens. Up close a crop circle looks like somebody took boards and pulled them over the field to flatten the plants. From an airplane a crop circle can look like a work of art.
When the first crop circles were found in southern England in 1978, aliens weren't blamed. Some said the designs were due to vortexes (a kind of whirlwind), ball lightning, or plasma. Some said they were due to wind, heat, or animals. Some thought they were the work of the military trying out a new weapon.
It soon became clear that intelligent creatures were making these designs. Doug Bower and David Chorley said they made about 250 crop circles over many years. Now crop circles are found in many countries, the work of 
pranksters.
further reading
click on pictures to see a larger picture
Peter Sorensen's page of pictures of crop circles and folks who made them
Plea over jellyfish crop circle (A 250m-long crop circle
of a jellyfish has appeared on farmland in Oxfordshire.)
photo by Colin Baker
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