--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "authfriend" <authfriend@...> wrote: > > --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "salyavin808" <fintlewoodlewix@> wrote: > (snip) > > It has been more than adequately demonstrated that a bunch of > > guys with planks can make even the most complicated mathematically > > designed motiffs in the tiny amount of darkness you get midsummer > > in England. > > Documentation, pleez?
It was an hour long BBC documentary (I've been trying to find it) I think in the Horizon strand. Basically, they got in touch with a group of crop circle makers and asked to film them but doing a design as complex as they can get and in one summer night. Good enough controls really, if you want to test whether there is anything men with planks can't do. So the BBC got a mathematician to design a stupidly difficult pictogram and off they went with a rope, a few planks and a muted torch and in a few hours they were done. And it was good, very convincing. And, as I say, I was amazed that was all the tech they had! It seems to me that if they can do it then others can and any supernatural explanation becomes unnecessary. Unless there is any truth that circles have been seen appearing in a few minutes, which I doubt. Or any other radiation type weirdness, but paranormal events have a sad history of people not knowing what they are doing with measuring technology and gaining false results, so it's best left to the experts. Trouble is, the experts all think that as people can do tough designs with a plank in a few hours there is no need to drag expensive sensing gear out to the middle of nowhere to measure wheat stalks. Hey ho. > > I ask because I've seen a number of supposed debunkings > along these lines that turn out not to be as solid as > they seem for one reason or another. (And don't forget > about the microwave ovens.) > > In my observation (not saying this is always the case), > skeptics tend to be satisfied with debunkings of > paranormal-type claims that are less rigorous than they > would demand of purported proof of the claims. Skepticism > can play the same role belief does in seeing only what > one wants to see. > > > > > > > The BBC even did an episode of Horizon about it. I was > > surprised as I had always thought they must be using laser > > sights or GPS to get that sort of accuracy but nope, it's > > all done with a drawing, planks and real ale. > > > > > As a corollary, Occam's razor works only in an adequate > > > frame of reference. > > > > I'll be astonished if we need even that. The true art of magic > > is getting people to think you are doing something complex > > when you really aren't. >
