Weird crop circle sighting...

by troubled mind 84 Replies latest jw friends

  • skeptic2
    skeptic2

    More from BLT Research, where they claim (in 2002) that they are soon to publish a paper showing 'remarkable results'.

    Levengood has reported finding tiny holes in the plant stems that he says are caused by microwave energy heating the plants from the inside out, turning the water they contains into steam. Levengood and Burke have patented a way to replicate this phenomena, claiming it could lead to new types of plants that grow faster than their conventional equivalents.

    Conventional scientists typically quickly dismiss the BLT claims, but not everyone is as sceptical.

    New York philanthropist Laurance S. Rockefeller recently funded the research team to embark on its biggest crop examination yet.

    Soil samples were taken from crop circles in the Netherlands and the US, along with hundreds of plant and soil samples from a seven-circle barley formation in Canada, and were examined using a process similar to that adopted by Conrad.

    Preliminary results showed crystal growth similar to those achieved in a laboratory when temperatures of more than 600C are used.

    Seeking confirmation of the findings from the scientific community, Talbott sent the results to emeritus professor of geology and mineralogy at Dartmouth College, Dr Robert Reynolds, who is considered a world expert in X-ray diffraction analysis of clay minerals.

    In a letter to the BLT team, Reynolds wrote that the heat required to have made the observed changes in crystallinity would have incinerated the plants.

    "In short, I believe that our present knowledge provides no explanation," Reynolds said.

    The BLT Research Team's website says that an academic paper presenting the "remarkable results" of this study is in progress and will be submitted for publication soon.

    Source

    This paper has been promised on the website since at least February 2003, as the Wayback Machine's archives show. It has been linked from their web site ('Clay-Mineral XRD Study') since at least March 2004.

    So in a minimum of 2 years they have failed to get it published. It seems a little disingenuous, or at best hugely optimistic, to still list it in the 'published materials' section of the site and to still describe it as 'in progress'.

    But failure to be published in a peer-reviewed journal has not prevented a review of this 'paper' by the National Institute of Discovery Science, a "privately funded science institute engaged in research of UFOs, animal mutilations, and other related anomalous phenomena". Even with their credulous bent, they feel compelled to list these shortcomings of this latest BLT study:

    The limitations or shortcomings of their study are given below, followed by explanations.

    1. Plant roots not collected to examine evidence for heat damage from adjacent clay minerals.
    2. Not enough samples were collected and analyzed to overcome uncertainty.
    3. Results from one crop formation are not enough to validate conclusions.
    4. Their report does not reference clay mineral studies that show clay mineral alteration due to heating.
    5. Their report does not reference clay mineral studies that show why statistics are needed for Kubler Index analysis.
    6. Their report was not published in a peer-reviewed journal.

    1. Only the aerial portion of the plants collected were studied. No roots were taken and examined for damage due to heating or other causes. Root tips are the fastest growing portions of plants, and the most sensitive to damage from heat. Soil samples were taken only as deep as 1/2 inch, which would have been above most roots and root tips. A second set of soil samples with roots should have been collected to show if the clay mineral effects are limited to the top of the soil, or penetrated down as far as the root tips. Damaged root tips would be a secondary method of verification that clay samples experienced extreme although temporary (flash) heating.

    2. More sampling is needed, since 83 soil samples are not enough to assure skeptics that another 50-100 samples wouldn't have changed the statistical results. Even if money to process only 83 samples could be obtained, additional samples should have been collected and stored as backup for later study, especially by another laboratory. Because nine samples were lost in the mail, a backup set of samples would have provided replacements.

    3. Because a significant number of crop formations have been hoaxed, it is important to show that the results obtained for the 1999 Edmonton crop formation can be reproduced in unhoaxed formations, and also show that similar results cannot be obtained from hoaxed formations. This report and study should be regarded as a pilot study that indicates scientifically valid and important information can be obtained in larger studies. With more comprehensive sampling, questions raised in this review could be answered.

    4. Information from other relevant studies needs to be added, along with references, when this study is published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. It is important to show that only through heating to high temperatures do clay minerals change crystallization characteristics.

    5. Information from other relevant studies needs to be added, along with references, when this study is published in a peer-review scientific journal. It is important to show that statistics are needed to detect clay mineral changes in laboratory experiments, and that these changes correspond with what is found in nature.

    6. To gain recognition, consideration through peer debate, and ultimate acceptance in the scientific community, this study must be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.

    Source

  • skeptic2
    skeptic2

    In 2001 JoAnne Scarpellini was 1 of 27 people who signed a petition for George W. Bush to do the following:

    -- Order that any currently classified UFO-related records
    undergo immediate review for declassification and public display;

    -- Prohibit the future classification/censorship/withholding of
    any UFO-related records unless the U. S. president personally can be
    assured that such action is in the nation's best interests;

    -- Release all former and current military-intelligence and
    operations personnel (including civilian/contract employees) from their
    oaths of secrecy as regards their hard-core UFO knowledge.

    I like the implicit assumption of the petition that there are government personnel that have 'hard-core' UFO knowledge!

  • tijkmo
    tijkmo
    I think the reason crop circles are such a popular hoax is that people are so desperate to believe a supernatural explanation that they won't believe it's a hoax even when the hoaxers admit it

    u mean like evolution

  • Big Dog
    Big Dog
    Big Dog, are you proposing that we throw away the scientific method? If so, what would you replace it with? How do you suggest we evaluate claims made by others?

    Not at all, the scientific method is invaluable for the advancement of our knowledge. What I chuckle about here is that there is no conclusive evidence either way as to the source of every crop circle, their origins haven't been subjected to the rigourous investigation and peer review you champion. Yet the hard science folks are convinced that every crop circle ever formed was made by a couple of fellows (or gals) with some rope and and board. That hasn't been proven either beyond a shadow of a doubt yet by God it must be so because it couldn't possibly be anything else we don't understand that could have done it. That is the analogy of the old saw in science of, well, we can't explain it now, but someday we will be able to. Fine, when someday comes and you have it nailed down, then explain in, until then your conjecture holds as much weight as the alien argument.

  • hillary_step
    hillary_step

    alt

    Spotted after a particularly stormy night outside of Basildon, Essex. Note how there seems to be a crater like depression at the centre of the crop circle, obviously signifying that something bright, heavy and made of matter not found anywhere on this earth, not even on the Isle Of Man, landed.

    HS

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