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scanning lines, widening at different intervals to create the pattern. Ground observation was meaningless without an aerial visual reference. The debates will doubtless continue for a long time. As I write, there is a hope for perhaps one more "biggie" to come, aside from any glitzy but hollow distractions human circlemakers may create for PR purposes. However, the astonishing formation which appeared on 28 August at Crooked Soley, near Hungerford in Wiltshire, may well have been the grand finale: a wide ring with a DNA-type spiral of blocks running through it in a 3D mosaic fashion. Its geometric construction is remarkable and its implications are intriguing, if unsettling. Now the fields are rapidly falling to the harvesters, closing a curious season marked more by new attention to the phenomenon than any overtly new behaviour from it, with the obvious exceptions. Whether by next year, especially when the debunkers have finished their work, the crop circles will be seen as "last year's" faded fad remains to be seen, but many will celebrate the year in which attention—even if the Hollywood trigger for it was essentially superficial— was drawn in a big way once again to the ever- continuing mystery in the fields. oo Normanton Down Long Barrows, near Stonehenge, Wiltshire. Reported 4th July. Image Steve Alexander © 2002 Avebury Stone Circle, near Avebury, Wiltshire. Reported 28th July. Image Steve Alexander © 2002 About the Author: Andy Thomas is author of Vital Signs: A Complete Guide to the Crop Circle Mystery and Why it is NOT a Hoax (see review this issue), and editor of the Swirled News website, www.swirlednews.com. Special thanks to the folks at www.CropCircleConnector.com and to Steve Alexander at www.temporarytemples.co.uk/ The Gallops, nr Beckhampton, Wiltshire. Reported 28th July. Image Steve Alexander © 2002 North Farm, nr West Overton, Wiltshire. Reported 23rd June. Image Steve Alexander © 2002 NEXUS ¢ 63 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2002 www.nexusmagazine.com