interesting:
http://logosmythos.net/wilton_windmill_crop_circle_may_2010.html
nanny wall protests. :sad:
copy paste? or quote of introsummary?
another link then: http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2010/wilton/comments.html
and a picture:
(http://img535.imageshack.us/img535/8154/wiltonwindmilloh500conn.jpg)
basically this one crop circle is a bunch of concentric circles with spokes and protruding lines kind of like that old Ogham alphabet, except the lines signify binary code, with eight bits at each spoke, and when you convert them to ASCII it spells the message e^(hi)pi)1=0 which is remarkably much like Euler's formula, epi * i + 1 = 0.
Euler's formula is considered to be one of the most beautiful formulas in Mathematics, because it elegantly combines the most important basic constants of Real numbers: e, pi, i, 1 and 0. It is said that when Euler figured out this formula he said it was proof of God's existence (he probably meant this tongue-in-cheek, I think).
It's pretty obvious this must have been done on purpose (be it by pranksters or aliens), since the most significant bit of all these characters is zero, which can be seen as the inner circle of protruding lines all pointing the same (counterclockwise) direction. This is because ASCII is actually only unambiguously defined for the lower 7 bits, the characters with numbers 0-127. The top 128-255 characters are defined based on the so-called "code page", which depends on locale, and gives you a selection of accented characters or box-drawing characters and stuff like that, but they are not always the same cause in some languages you need different accents than others and you can't fit them all in the high ASCII chart (which is why they invented Unicode).
This gives the encoded message that typical "7 bit ASCII encoded in 8 bits" structure, which is IMO a big hint on how it's supposed to be decoded.
Why it doesn't exactly say e^(pi*i)+1=0 is a bit of a mystery, though. The final ) could be a bit-flip mistake, flipping the second lowest bit makes it a +. But the crud at the beginning of the formula is a bit less easy to explain.
My very limited knowledge of binary suggests some form of parity maybe? Could account for weird bits, I guess.
If the aliens have ascii, does that mean their space ships have standard English QWERTY keyboards, too? Fuck I'd be so disappointed to board an alien craft and see a bunch of cheap $10 keyboards from Fry's lying around :x
heh
This is massive awesomeness on such an intense geek level I can hardly stand it. It makes my nipples hard.
They could be timetravellers!
I mean, it makes sense, they probably don't have ASCII anymore in the future and tried their best to use a coding scheme that we can read, except because it was lost they kind of fucked it up.
Obviously they wanted to use a medium that would be familiar to us.
And since after the solar flares, climate changes and the great Oil-spills of the Dolphin Guerilla Wars, the only artifact left of our era in their future is a bunch of crackpot conspiracy magazines buried and encased in a lead container by some lunatic paranoid about two or three years from now.
So, they figure, if time travellers would try to contact us we would expect them to do it via crop circles and convoluted mathematical language and coding schemes.
It all makes sense if you think about it, really.
Got a fantastic insight on my question from a Computer Scientist™ friend and fellow UFO fanatic:
"They probably learned ASCII from intercepting electrical signals around earth. And they don't have devices that can translate the high and low signals to English characters so they just make them into pictures so we can still (hopefully) figure it out"
What does everyone think of the debunking crop circles stuff? That it's just some rope and a paddle and a couple dudes plowing around? The precision and everything is impressive, I don't think I could pull off a hoax nearly as effective.
It's a hoax. Though, if "aliens" were real, I'd assume them to be time-travellers, not intergalactic nomads.
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
That it's not aliens that made it.
Quote from: dimo on May 26, 2010, 06:37:07 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
That it's not aliens that made it.
Well, duh.
It's anthropologists from the future.
Quote from: dimo on May 26, 2010, 06:37:07 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
That it's not aliens that made it.
Don't you know that everything that can't be explained and has a hint of complexity is from aliens and just gets covered up by the government?
I know that this sort of thing is done by pranksters with boards to flatten the crops, but I've never seen it done with such...geekiness.
The geekiness is what makes it AWESOME.
This sounds like a great date idea.
A board and a rope would be easy to find.
And i think my current love-interest would be interested in this.
Now if only i wasn't such a coward.
it might be fun to do a pattern such that the farmer gets excited/upset about a crop circle in his crop, and then when he gets an overhead shot from a news chopper, or what not, it turns out that it is some stupid image like the dickbutt tattoo or something...
I live right in the middle of crop circle land, on the edge of the Pewsey vale, and we get probably 25 really good ones every year. There's a Pub nearby that doubles it's Summer trade every year, with "Investigation Teams" from all over the world coming to spend six weeks, trying to figure out how it gets done. The year before last, some people I knew laid one down right under their noses while they were watching from the high ground, and all they saw, was one lad, indicretely light a cigarette, in the field. They took a picture of the light from his lighter, and by midday the next day, had convinced themselves that this was a "power signature" from an invisible flying saucer! :lulz:
I bet the farmer didn't appreciate asshole aliens/timetravelers squashing their crops.
Quote from: Kai on May 26, 2010, 10:54:29 PM
I bet the farmer didn't appreciate asshole aliens/timetravelers squashing their crops.
Whenever there is a good one, that particular Farmer stands by the gate of his field all day, charging herds of sightseers 3 quid each to go in and have a look. He does quite nicely out of it. Makes at least 4 or 5 grand a year, just from that one field. And it's usually only bound for the grain mountain, or it'll have a "plough back in and claim a subsidy" crop in it. So he doesn't mind at all.
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
it means that SOME of the theories about its origin aren't TRUE (enough) !!!! :)
Quote from: Sigmatic on May 26, 2010, 07:34:55 PM
I know that this sort of thing is done by pranksters with boards to flatten the crops, but I've never seen it done with such...geekiness.
and you know, EVEN if it's just that ... it's still pretty fucking awesome :)
Quote from: Regret on May 26, 2010, 10:25:53 PM
This sounds like a great date idea.
A board and a rope would be easy to find.
And i think my current love-interest would be interested in this.
Now if only i wasn't such a coward.
do it! it's fun, seriously.
your cowardice reminds me of the times I went wild-camping in Austria on the way to Sziget. Just putting up a tent in some random field owned by some random farmer. I was PSYCHED. Nervous, scared, PARANOID, etc. But it was soooooo worth it. (Setting up the tent at night in the lights of the car, waking up to a sun-lit valley stretching out from the front of your tent, yeah). Anyway, what is the WORST that could happen? Seriously. We live in NL. What are they gonna do. DO IT. Hell, if you don't mind me butting in on your romantic evening, give me a call or PM .. I bet I can find some crop fields in Drenthe :)
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 26, 2010, 11:40:44 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
it means that SOME of the theories about its origin aren't TRUE (enough) !!!! :)
Well people quite often ask whether I think they are fake, so I say, "Look, it's 300 yards across, how can it be fucking fake?" there is no-one claiming any responsibility for them, or saying that there is a definitive "message" in any of them, or making any claims at all, they just appear in Wiltshire fields, ervery year, at the same time, regular as the seasons. That is undisputable. And as there are no claims to know anything coroberative about their origin, message, construction, etc, then there can be no valid cries of "fake". Any theories are just pure conjecture,
so to all intents and purposes, they might as well be made by Aliens. I can't even say for sure that some of them are not, and I've helped to make a couple myself. And I do know one strange story that there is no explaination for, which I will post in the next day or two.
The fact that this thing may say "hi" in the middle of the equation makes me giggle. :lol:
Quote from: BLARFINGARF on May 27, 2010, 12:30:46 AM
The fact that this thing may say "hi" in the middle of the equation makes me giggle. :lol:
And thus, (I strongly suspect) has fulfilled it's primary objective.
Quote from: BadBeast on May 27, 2010, 12:15:44 AM
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 26, 2010, 11:40:44 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
it means that SOME of the theories about its origin aren't TRUE (enough) !!!! :)
Well people quite often ask whether I think they are fake, so I say, "Look, it's 300 yards across, how can it be fucking fake?" there is no-one claiming any responsibility for them, or saying that there is a definitive "message" in any of them, or making any claims at all, they just appear in Wiltshire fields, ervery year, at the same time, regular as the seasons. That is undisputable. And as there are no claims to know anything coroberative about their origin, message, construction, etc, then there can be no valid cries of "fake". Any theories are just pure conjecture,
so to all intents and purposes, they might as well be made by Aliens. I can't even say for sure that some of them are not, and I've helped to make a couple myself. And I do know one strange story that there is no explaination for, which I will post in the next day or two.
I read Wikipedia on crop circles yesterday, and there are definitely instances of crop circles of which responsibility has been claimed.
When posting your strange story, please also specify whether this is first-hand, second-hand, third-hand etc knowledge.
Quote from: BadBeast on May 27, 2010, 12:15:44 AM
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 26, 2010, 11:40:44 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
it means that SOME of the theories about its origin aren't TRUE (enough) !!!! :)
Well people quite often ask whether I think they are fake, so I say, "Look, it's 300 yards across, how can it be fucking fake?" there is no-one claiming any responsibility for them, or saying that there is a definitive "message" in any of them, or making any claims at all, they just appear in Wiltshire fields, ervery year, at the same time, regular as the seasons. That is undisputable. And as there are no claims to know anything coroberative about their origin, message, construction, etc, then there can be no valid cries of "fake". Any theories are just pure conjecture,
so to all intents and purposes, they might as well be made by Aliens. I can't even say for sure that some of them are not, and I've helped to make a couple myself. And I do know one strange story that there is no explaination for, which I will post in the next day or two.
That is the easy part. A stick and a string can keep you the correct distance, especially in a circle.
Quote from: Hawk on May 27, 2010, 04:42:21 PM
Quote from: BadBeast on May 27, 2010, 12:15:44 AM
Quote from: Triple Zero on May 26, 2010, 11:40:44 PM
Quote from: The Lord and Lady Omnibus Fuck on May 26, 2010, 06:20:47 PM
What's a hoax? Are you saying that the crop circle doesn't exist, or that it's not really a binary code?
it means that SOME of the theories about its origin aren't TRUE (enough) !!!! :)
Well people quite often ask whether I think they are fake, so I say, "Look, it's 300 yards across, how can it be fucking fake?" there is no-one claiming any responsibility for them, or saying that there is a definitive "message" in any of them, or making any claims at all, they just appear in Wiltshire fields, ervery year, at the same time, regular as the seasons. That is undisputable. And as there are no claims to know anything coroberative about their origin, message, construction, etc, then there can be no valid cries of "fake". Any theories are just pure conjecture,
so to all intents and purposes, they might as well be made by Aliens. I can't even say for sure that some of them are not, and I've helped to make a couple myself. And I do know one strange story that there is no explaination for, which I will post in the next day or two.
That is the easy part. A stick and a string can keep you the correct distance, especially in a circle.
And once you have the outer rim laid out, everything else is just a matter of simple ratios.
Stick and a string, a couple friends, some plywood boards. And some planning of the design before hand. Or not.
You know, this reminds me of land art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_art). Maybe crop circles are a wonderful art form we should all be appreciating. There's certainly enough creativity and aesthetics in the design.
Quote from: BLARFINGARF on May 27, 2010, 12:30:46 AM
The fact that this thing may say "hi" in the middle of the equation makes me giggle. :lol:
Seriously! Genius!
Firefox crop circle: http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&om=1&t=h&hq=&hnear=3606+NE+9th+Ave,+Portland,+Multnomah,+Oregon+97212&ll=45.123785,-123.113962&spn=0.010507,0.023153&z=16