I have a credulous acquaintance that is anti-vax, believes in Reiki, has vague suspicions about 9/11, etc. Pretty much the entire woo canon. I was just talking to her and she mentioned that on her trip to England she was disappointed because the place with information on the latest crop circles was closed. We have people who admit they made the first crop circles and videos of people showing how to do it. Is this really still a “thing”? What won’t people believe?
“… the place with information on the latest crop circles” closed its doors.
Really.
I’m shocked.
Well, apparently the Loch Ness Monster Visitor Centre is still open.
Aliens got 'em.
Aren’t there still tours of crop circles for devotees over there?I heard it was a lucrative business.
It’s called “crank magnetism”. If your critical thinking faculties are atrophied or never developed, you’ll swallow pretty much anything.
I was re-reading some old issues of “Fortean Times” and one mentioned that most farmers used to be tolerant of crop circles because they could make a nice bundle charging people to see them. Then Inland Revenue started sticking their nose into the situation to collect taxes and the farmers became a lot less enamored of crop circles.
Heh. I’ve purchased a crop circle calendar a couple of times from some woo-peddler in Arizona. Not because I’m into woo (far from it - I know exactly how the circles are formed and it’s got zero to do with aliens), but because I think the designs are awesome and pretty. Oh, the emails and newsletters I get! It’d be funny if it weren’t so sad.
Ah, Merry Old England, and the nice thing is that there QI and Stephen Fry invited the current makers of the circles to his show. It is really sad that some people still believe they are not made by humans. As David Mitchell commented, have there been people that ever wondered if graffiti on the walls was made by aliens? Point being that Occam’s razor should tell you that humans are capable of creating intricate shapes with almost no one noticing.
(Some words NSFW)
Even after the crop circle makers were commissioned to do a QI symbol some people called the authorities and asked “Is it real or is it man made?” 
Oh Geez, is this still a thing?
Gawd, I remember when some Crop Circle makers came forward back in what, the 90’s? And some ‘official’ jackass in charge of such things said that he didn’t believe them, that they were lying about having done it.
Does that mean that it was closed on the day she went to see it or that it was permanently shuttered?
I like crop circles, I think they are pretty. If I ever got the chance to see one, I’d take pictures and show them off to everyone.
And BTW, crop circles aren’t made by humans or aliens. They are made by “crazed hedgehogs”. I saw it on BBC, so it must be true, right? 
I was afraid to ask.
I suppose there is more tourist-money in Nessie than in crop circles. (Crops grow a lot of places, but there’s only one Loch Ness.)
Actually, I’ve been to the loch Ness Monster Visitor Centre in Drumnadrochit, and quite enjoyed it. You kind of suspend your disbelief and wonder “what if?”
Was it on April first?
I got to see a crop circle once. It was local to where I was living at the time and a huge deal. I went out with my friend to check it out and wow. There were some weirdos there. I saw a bunch of people in a circle, holding hands and just eyes closed, rocking slowly in the middle of the crop circle. There were also numerous people wearing tinfoil hats and while I’m sure most were just goofing off, there was probably a few serious ones. Overall it was a pretty neat thing. I don’t believe that aliens made them, but it did have enough of a ‘wow this is so weird’ feeling that I can understand people going the alien route.
But the best part? The farmhands positioned throughout the circle stopping people and saying “Don’t take Gary’s (the farmer) wheat”. Apparently people were just taking bunches of it for souvenirs. Of course, I did too…but just a little bit…lol
I saw a special on them once, very interesting and well done. They interviewed some believers who claimed they couldn’t be made by human - only alien technology. So the show hired the guys who were doing them to make one in a night and filmed them. They showed the film to the alien believers. Their comment? “If it really was made by humans it was because they were channelling aliens”. :smack:
“What if” some kind of aquatic dinosaur species, or something, had survived in Scotland since the Cretaceous?
Well, then, since the existence of one animal implies the existence (currently or at least in the recent past) of an entire breeding population, not to mention an entire evolutionary history, then, there ought to be a lot of fossils and nonfossilized bones and even fleshy remains around, of that creature and its ancestors near and remote.
But, there aren’t – are there?
Of course, there have never been any fossils-or-bones found in North America of Sasquatch/Bigfoot or any non-human hominid or anthropoid ape. Nevertheless, as a Floridian I know the Skunk Ape exists, so there.
Even better: The leading woo-TV channel in Norway (FEM, a channel catering exclusively to early-to-mid middle aged women. I consider the channel an insult to Norwegian women, but I’m digressing) sent a crew to the UK to experience crop circles. The show’s host had a really strong experience, claiming her life would change forever.
She never recognized the QI logo on the aerial photo of the apparently mind-blowing “alien” crop circle 
And when confronted with the fact that the circle was demonstrably made by humans, she still claimed some mystical experience from the circle. :rolleyes: