Crop Circles A Beginner's Guide - Hugh Manistre-pages

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Page 39 of 66
Crop Circles A Beginner's Guide - Hugh Manistre-pages

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test to be carried out to test his assertion that the effect had been produced by a sprinkling of fine iron filings which had been spread over the formation by its constructors. Levengood did not respond directly, but with John Burke and Nancy Talbott wrote to the Journal of Scientific Exploration defending their findings. They asserted that 118 of the 130 formations they had tested showed unexpected findings, including increased germination rates and growth from the seeds. These results were not repeated, which logic dictated they should be, since the earth passes through the perseids shower annually. The radiation results obtained by Marshall Dudley later turned out to be an artefact of the testing system and the procedure used in the lab and the results were not repeated the following year. Thus the ‘litmus' test to determine a true circle has remained elusive. References Main reference for the Japanese scientists’ work is Schnabel Round In Circles, also Randles and Fuller's Crop Circles, A Mystery Solved, and Circles From The Sky, by Dr Meaden. The complications of various scientific testing programmes are referenced in Montague Keen's chapter in Devereux and Brooksmith's 50 Years of Ufology and in the small volume edited by him, 1991 Scientific Evidence for the Crop Circle Phenomenon. Irving and Price wrote up their work in the newsletter of the Beckhampton Group and in The Cerealogist. The circle-making competition is described from my notes of the 1992 'Cornference' at Salisbury. The critique of the research references Montague Keen's contribution to Devereux and Brooksmith's book. (See also Further Reading.) Practice the floor pattern and the lay. Your stride can be used to give reasonably accurate measurements if you do not require absolute accuracy or have a tape measure with you. (Try measuring your stride by marking, with chalk, on a path the position of your feet in a normal stride. Double this then, in the field count double paces, e. g. every time your right foot touches.) Note the crop type and stage of ripening and date of formation, if known. Photography is obviously useful to record events, so take a camera. Kingdom. The basic design and dimensions should be established; the diameters, lengths and orientation. Record Record the location; the Ordnance Survey grid system is a standard tool for this in the United