River Crop Circles
There was a big stink in the news today about a 'crop circle' that formed in the dry bed of the Rio Grande. Some dude spotted it as he walked or motocrossed by- not sure which, news stories have been conflicting.
At any rate, some other dude said he saw "a craft" leaving the area last night, so of course, all the UFO nuts were all over the thing.
Yeti and I went down there over his lunch break to check it out. It's nothing of the sort. It's three concentric circles, but each one is an incomplete circle, there's a little spot on each one left open so you can walk into the first area, then over the next ring into the next area, etc, until you reach the center. It's hard to describe, and I didn't have my camera on me.
However, the thing that really stands out about it is that there's obvious shovel marks in the spots were the circles are dug out, and the dirt that was removed is piled on the outside of each ring in a little mound (the circles themselves are about a foot wide and a foot deep). All this is done in a very deliberate fashion.
I do believe in the possibility of life, even intelligent, advanced life elsewhere in the galaxy or universe. I'm even open to the idea that they're visiting us. However, I have seen no proof, no concrete, scientifically verifiable evidence as to their existence or their visitation. Some scoff at the idea, but I think the idea of one little insignificant ball of rock being the only source of life in the whole, infinite universe is pretty retarded too.
And hey, if they visit us, maybe they think that making pictures in fields of corn and wheat is a neat way of communicating. Maybe they're messing with us, maybe they like to watch the humans puzzle over ever crop circle they've ever left us, like they broke into our house and didn't take anything, but still wrote hi in lipstick on the bathroom mirror to scare the piss out of us.
I don't know. I know that some ridiculously small number of crop circles are unexplainable, last time I checked, the percentage was smaller than the 10-20 percent of UFO's that defy explanation. This was not one of those things.
There was a lady down in the river, next to where the circle was, and she offered up the real reason behind the circle: some artsy dude was screwing around. Every year, when the river is low (it's dammed upstream to prevent flooding, so it runs very low 6-8 months out of the year), this guy finds a spot and measures out some sort of 'sculpture'. He digs it in the riverbed for fun, then when the river fills up a bit, it makes an interesting pattern in the water for a few days until the current washes it away. Sometimes, if the river fills a bit and then goes down, there will be little artificial pools of water in fun shapes and such.
Last year, he and his buddy dug out the shapes of their own bodies, and then when the river rose and fell, there were body shaped pools. Then, when the temperature dropped over night, they froze, and the artist was able to lift out two impromptu ice sculptures.
So it was interesting, but pointless. Have a nice day.
*edit* Here's a news story from the El Paso times, complete with a picture of Adrian and myself when we went to check it out at lunch today- I'm the fat one in the cowboy hat in the middle.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_5346844
At any rate, some other dude said he saw "a craft" leaving the area last night, so of course, all the UFO nuts were all over the thing.
Yeti and I went down there over his lunch break to check it out. It's nothing of the sort. It's three concentric circles, but each one is an incomplete circle, there's a little spot on each one left open so you can walk into the first area, then over the next ring into the next area, etc, until you reach the center. It's hard to describe, and I didn't have my camera on me.
However, the thing that really stands out about it is that there's obvious shovel marks in the spots were the circles are dug out, and the dirt that was removed is piled on the outside of each ring in a little mound (the circles themselves are about a foot wide and a foot deep). All this is done in a very deliberate fashion.
I do believe in the possibility of life, even intelligent, advanced life elsewhere in the galaxy or universe. I'm even open to the idea that they're visiting us. However, I have seen no proof, no concrete, scientifically verifiable evidence as to their existence or their visitation. Some scoff at the idea, but I think the idea of one little insignificant ball of rock being the only source of life in the whole, infinite universe is pretty retarded too.
And hey, if they visit us, maybe they think that making pictures in fields of corn and wheat is a neat way of communicating. Maybe they're messing with us, maybe they like to watch the humans puzzle over ever crop circle they've ever left us, like they broke into our house and didn't take anything, but still wrote hi in lipstick on the bathroom mirror to scare the piss out of us.
I don't know. I know that some ridiculously small number of crop circles are unexplainable, last time I checked, the percentage was smaller than the 10-20 percent of UFO's that defy explanation. This was not one of those things.
There was a lady down in the river, next to where the circle was, and she offered up the real reason behind the circle: some artsy dude was screwing around. Every year, when the river is low (it's dammed upstream to prevent flooding, so it runs very low 6-8 months out of the year), this guy finds a spot and measures out some sort of 'sculpture'. He digs it in the riverbed for fun, then when the river fills up a bit, it makes an interesting pattern in the water for a few days until the current washes it away. Sometimes, if the river fills a bit and then goes down, there will be little artificial pools of water in fun shapes and such.
Last year, he and his buddy dug out the shapes of their own bodies, and then when the river rose and fell, there were body shaped pools. Then, when the temperature dropped over night, they froze, and the artist was able to lift out two impromptu ice sculptures.
So it was interesting, but pointless. Have a nice day.
*edit* Here's a news story from the El Paso times, complete with a picture of Adrian and myself when we went to check it out at lunch today- I'm the fat one in the cowboy hat in the middle.
http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_5346844