Crop Circles

The story of crop circles began in the mid 1970's in Great Britain. Since then, over 10,000 cases of crop circles have been found on farmland and reported throughout the entire world. These large patterns of flattened farmland are most noticeable when flying high above them. Originally crop circles were simple shapes, such as circles, but have over time evolved into strange, yet astonishing, formations. Although crop circles have become a worldwide phenomenon, about 90% of crop circles reported in the last 40 years have been found in southern England. When these formations began showing up on farms in England, they appeared to magically appear just over night. But what was the explanation for these unknown wonders?

Crop circles were originally thought to be products of alien visitations here on Earth. The location of many of these circles to ancient sites such as Stonehenge, another unexplained wonder of the world, suggested to many people of the time that alien life forms were trying to communicate with us in a strange way. Due to the complex nature of these crop circles and the time people though it would take to manufacture something of this scale, the idea that human being were behind these patterns was ridiculous.

However, in 1991 self-professed pranksters Doug Bower and Dave Chorley came to the public and admitted that they had started making crop circles in 1978 by making actual circles on crops with the use of simple tools. In order to prove that they had been behind this prank kept secret for almost 20 years, the two demonstrated how they made them in less than an hour. After their announcement, crop circles kept appearing, and now in rapid numbers. They were also now more complex and thoughtfully designed. Below I have posted two videos I have found on YouTube showing the progression of crop circles since their begining in the 1970's.






Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpGb6urlh5I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFjheM_YHO0&feature=related
Carl Sagan's The Demon Haunted World, p. 73-76