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global tally. (In fact, New Zealand and then Italy jumped in with the first arrivals on | February and 30 March respectively, though the Kiwi entry was publicised as a known hoax.) This year, British cropwatchers had to wait until 5 May, when a complex mandala of the orthodox variety finally graced the fields at Old Sarum, near Salisbury, a little further out from the usual Wiltshire epicentre of Alton Barnes and Avebury. The trend for lesser-known regions of the core county to be visited by glyphs would continue for several weeks before the phenomenon gave in and finally offered activity in the more expected places, with only a formation of wide swirls opposite Stonehenge on 9 May and a six-fold flower design at Silbury Hill on 31 May constituting earlier but isolated nods to geographical tradition. Outside of Wiltshire, a number of other areas benefited from the season's slight redistribution, with patterns being reported in places less known for circles and in counties which have been quieter in recent Cley Hill, near Warminster, Wiltshire. Reported 9 July. years, such as Buckinghamshire, Image: John Montgomery © 2010 Dorset, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire, unusual crop for the mystery to work in. As June wore Nottinghamshire, Somerset, Warwickshire and Yorkshire, on and gave way to July, an array of clever masterpieces as well as on the island of Guernsey. too numerous and complex to describe individually (the a a en unusual crop for the mystery to work in. As June wore on and gave way to July, an array of clever masterpieces too numerous and complex to describe individually (the accompanying images here say more than words can attempt) kept the faithful entranced. Highlights of the Season The first crop formation of the year to raise mathematical eyebrows appeared on 22 May as a wheel of binary coding at Wilton in Wiltshire (near the famous windmill, which, curiously, the design also echoed), incorporating plays on pi and elements of "Euler's identity" (an equation which contains three basic arithmetic operations that occur once each—addition, multiplication and exponentiation—and also links five fundamental mathematical constants [source: Wikipedia]). The wheel also referenced ASCII coding, which can generate text on a computer, though hopes that it would translate directly, as with the uniquely worded warning in the famous 2002 “alien and disc" emblem, were dashed by its either deliberately obscure or inaccurate rendering, in itself a subject of much "croppie" debate. A striking eye-bender of radiating stripes and inlaid circles at Liddington Castle, Wiltshire, on 2 June was one of the earlier highlights of the season, while a multiple-bubbled, two-armed design on 7 June near the long barrow (ancient burial mound) of Stoney Littleton in Somerset distinguished itself by being in peas—an Roundway Hill, near Devizes, Wiltshire. Reported 25 July. Image: Olivier Morel © 2010 NEXUS ¢ 59 OCTOBER - NOVEMBER 2010 www.nexusmagazine.com